Thoughts of the Emack during his recent illness etc.

Since I was laid up for long periods,my Pc crashed and no access to Sky coverage etc. I am really out of the loop BUT.
I did see the All Blacks matches v France,some 7`s and someof the Junior RWC and read some comments here today.
First Ali Williams 2005-8 was A great Lock ask Matfield?Botha during that period two Achilles tendon ruptures no wonder
he wasn't the player he was.Dan Carter with a broken hand was still better than the other contenders,Perenara was again conspicuous
by his absence.
The back row without Kaino/Thomson ,McCaw and a half fit Read was lightweight,the 3 senior hookers are all around 35 but still good.
People like fitzy pratting on about how surprised they are about players out of form suddenly performing in a Black shirt is talking rubbish.
Players like Mealamu,Nonu cruise in Super/Provincial rugby it shouldn't happen but given the length of the season something has to give.
Difficult to judge Nz /Sa given strength of the opposition,Australia hiding there stars in camp means the other matches had little significance
Lions went in under cooked.Realistically both tests to date could have gone either way some big names have under performed BOD etc.
but considering his age he`s past his best.
I was very impressed with Brian Smith,Isreal Dagg and Bauden Barretts cameo`s,congrats SirGorden Tietjens for the Nz sevens sides both of them.
Congratulations to England and the Junior RWC NH sides,all the SH sides seemed to have forgotten the set piece before running the ball.
The different comps all overlapping degraded coverage of them all which was poorly or ganised.

How you doing emack?

I havent been on here for ages but when I saw a post on Carisbrook being pulled down finally I expected a post from you. I was fully expecting a Vic Cavanagh story. Vic senior or junior!

Yes if those walls could talk the House of Pain home to Kevin Skinner,Dave Trevathan,long rangy forwards hard as nails.Tubby Wood house clapping his hand s and the ball rucked back to him like a chicken laying an egg.

emack2 wrote:Yes if those walls could talk the House of Pain home to Kevin Skinner,Dave Trevathan,long rangy forwards hard as nails.Tubby Wood house clapping his hand s and the ball rucked back to him like a chicken laying an egg.

Correct. Carisbrook was a grand old ground but its time was up. Much like Athletic Park. Has just been big dinner for 1963 Otago side that beat England. That team included ...

All Blacks Tuppy Diack, Ian Smith, Earle Kirton, Chris Laidlaw, Keith Nelson and Don Clark and...

future All Black coach Eric Watson.

Great to see you back Alan. Hope you're well rested and recovered.  

Good to hear you got some rugby viewing in and hope you saw today's Crusader's dismantling of the Chiefs.

That PC has been giving you a lot of problems. Time to blow away the cobwebs on that wallet of yours and trade up to a reliable laptop. With streaming, there's no excuse for missing matches.  

Look after yourself, mate.

Good to see you back Emack, hope all is well. Are you still on the south coast? We are now based in the new forrest.

Yeah, good to have you back.

Definately agree with your last line.

Glad you're back Alan.

We spoke of you the other day when saying your comments on days gone by were a good yardstick and without them it was difficult to establish relative strengths.

Those of us who remember test rugby from the 80s are rare enough on these boards... let alone prior periods.

Bout ye emack! keep the pecker up old bean