Southern Hemisphere Tour of the North Hots Up This Weekend

Both the All Blacks and the Wallabies have their real tour opening games this weekend. The All Blacks are taking on England and the Wallabies have their first proper hit out against a full Strength Welsh side. Each of the Southern Hemisphere teams seems to be in a different position in terms of the tour and the weekend will be an interesting one, very interesting.

The All Blacks have had training, and Carter was running in the team in place of the injured, and unfortunate Nick Evans. It is a shame that he isn't likely to get a start, however it is said that he has tomorrow to pass a fitness test before a final decision will be made, but even if he does start it seems that he will be unlikely to perform at his best. Captain Richie has called on his team to convert more of their scoring opportunities, and this is definitely something that the team must do. There have been plenty of squandered opportunities this year, however it is difficult to say if those opporutnities are real, or if we are expecting too much from the athletes to convert them all into points. Nevertheless, some tries have gone begging, and against a desperate English side at home, points must be taken when on offer. The All Blacks wont want to start poorly like the Wallabies did...

Imagine, losing to a depleted Osprey's side...how embarrassing. Sure, you can say that it is the dirt trackers that were playing, there were lots of guys out of positon, the true captain isn't there...but the fact of the matter is that the Wallabies were just awful in that game. There isn't that much depth to the Aussie side and they are going to find that this is a problem for them in a competition like RWC 2007 with so many games. If Larkham succumbs to injury, as he has become prone to in recent years, the Wallabies will be a very average team. Add to this the insults that are being poured on great players like George Smith - captaining his country for the first time, only to be replaced by one of the ugliest players in Rugby History, Phil Waugh this weekend. He must be spewing! Not only losing his preferred spot to Waugh, clearly the second best player, but also losing the captaincy...all those who want the Wallabies to lose will be hoping that Knuckles keeps this up.

Now, I am not suggesting for a moment that the Wallabies are a write off for the rest of the tour, however this was not a good start having se themselves the goal of not dropping a game. The backline for this weekend's game is very different - Giteau, Larkham, Rogers, Tuqiri all return and undoubtedly they will add some sting to the Wallabies. However, they are up against a strong Welsh side who would love nothing more than to wipe the ground with the Aussies this weekend. A weak scrum, a forward pack in general will also play into Welsh hands. Make no mistake, this game could be a cracker.

Back to the ABs, they will be wanting to improve on the lineout and captain McCaw had some key things to say about this area. If he means it, then he should be ensuring that those players in the team actually do what he is talking about. He is cpatain, and he should command respect and improve the performance of his charges. Chris Jack has to step up to the mark and become the lineout legend we need, as does his partner in crime. It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, England can do to the All Black lineout and there will be four million kiwis watching on Monday morning NZ time all expecting to see an improvement by their team in this area. It is no exaggeration to say that the RWC 2007 campaign depends on seeing improvement from the team in this area.

Bring on the weekend - of course none of the great international rugby games will be screened in Australia. Take that anyone that suggests free to air tv should be protected from competition from the pay tv arena in terms of screening sports. I'd like to know where the nine network gets off telling us all that sports ought to be protected for the good of everyone and shown on free to air tv...I mean they don't even show most games live...it is always delayed on so sprinkled with advertising that you left half the time wondering what happened as you miss out on so many replays. Get with it, free to air is dead, long live pay tv and free up the market Aussie, at the moment we are being put to the sword for the sake of protecting second rate broadcasters right to not show sport live on tv, and stop everyone else from doing so. An outrage.