"I've washed my face in the morning dew
And bathed it in the sun
Dum-dum, dum, dum, diddle-dee dum dum,
my journey's just begun".

Yes, my/our 2004 journey has just begun. In NZ, we've washed away our tears - our eyes have at last changed from misty red to clear, but that dreadful hurt is still extremely close. This year, 2004, we will do our very best to settle down, stow away our heady aspirations of 2003, and start with a clean slate, again. We did something similar after 1999, but we did not do a thorough enough job.

At this time the whole face of the rugby world has changed - the top class has moved from the SH to the NH. The NH will do their best to hold the baton, and we in the south, have a lot of catching up to do. Perhaps the only regret we still harbor, is the comment from our dear old friend, Stephen Jones of the London Times, who is delirious with joy, laughing away in his Cornflakes every morning, with his old catch cry, "I told you so". It must be just about the happiest time of this old geezer's life - after years and years of trying, his remonstrations have finally been vindicated.

Yes, our tight five are pretty much useless - we WILL have to change from being "pansies", to at the very least, "Tiger Lilies" - this is going to take some doing !

That POM RWC Team -

During the holidays, I came across an article written by Joseph Romanos (a very well credentialed rugby writer in NZ) which included some quotes by the Marx Brothers that went something like this -

Chico - What horse are you backing ?

Groucho - Sun Up

Chico - He's the worst horse in the race.

Groucho - I notice he wins all the time.

Chico - That's only because he comes first.

Groucho - Well, I don't really want anything better than that.

Joseph Romanos then goes on to liken the England Rugby World Cup team to those remarks by saying, that just about sums up the England team. He goes on to say that before the RWC tournament, they were described as "aging'" "cheating", "boring", whereas in fact, they were/are a magnificent team. Joseph then stated that in the lead up to the RWC2003, England had beaten all the top SH teams, and some of them they had beaten twice, a number of them in their OWN backyards as well.

I remember writing after our short NH EOYT of late 2002, that I was incredibly impressed by the England forwards. I wrote that they played just like a very polished entity, and whilst they weren't particularly mobile, they did in fact play as a very well-oiled machine, whereby they just seemed to fit like a well worn sock - everything they did in the game, smacked of players who knew instinctively what to do, when to do it, and to do it whenever it was necessary for it to be done. Without question, I thought they were the best pack of forwards I had seen since our AB packs of the 95/96/97 era, when we, the AB's, pretty much ruled the rugby world with our majestic sets of forwards.

In all probability, we wont see that same England pack again in Internationals, but perhaps, they just might turn out once again when we play them in June. The great worry now, is of course, will their next pack be just as good, or heaven forbid, will it be even better. They play this type of forward game every week during their domestic season, whereas we, in the SH, only have to counter it occasionally when we play them in an International. England, and the rest of the home countries now know they currently have the measure of the SH packs, and this will give them great heart.

Every team in the SH will need to pay considerable attention to how they are going to re-act to this Pom-power ! In NZ, I feel that the combination of Graham Henry and Steve Hansen will be an excellent chance of controlling this, but we have a long way to go before we reach parity with their quality forward game. I don't see any problem with the England backs, as I'm sure our BEST backs can handle anything they can dish up - but those forwards ! Well, they're another thing again.

Mitchell Wrap Up -

Now that the new AB coach, Graham Henry, is settled in, we are still getting some of the Mitchell devotees telling us how good Mitchell WAS, and how he should have been retained. The following comments of mine, give me no reasons whatever to think that Mitchell deserved a further term in office.

The first thing I would have to say is that I can't detect even one small improved set-up that Mitchell can lay claim to. I think our pack went backwards in Mitchell's reign, and certainly the Lineouts went from poor to absolutely dreadful. In the Mitchell era, we saw more forwards than backs out in the backline at break-down time. I can't recall even one forward that Mitchell brought on, not ONE ! !

Mitchell has laid claim to the wonderful backline he had - he should be reminded that these superb outside backs, were all developed by the Auckland coaches, such as Williams, Pivac, Fox, and Henry. The only back that Mitchell could lay some claim to was Daniel Carter, but really, Carter was developed by Robbie Deans in the Canty Super 12 side. So where are the players that Mitchell is alleged to have brought on. A good summation of Mitchell may appear to be that he was a Boy, who was given a Man's job to do - I think he failed miserably.

Other severe shortcoming which I think Mitchell had, were : -

1...He seemed to have enormous problems with making suitable replacements, especially at crunch time during the periods at the end of each game. He appears to have a block, with both analysing the need, and getting the correct player on/off the field, to rectify the problem.

2...He seemed most uneasy about his ability to coach defects out of players. For example, Ma'a Nonu failed to take some outside tackles in his first run-on game, and that was the last we saw of him. It's not necessary to remind you, that his Canty substitute, Leon McDonald, missed more tackles in that one OZ game, than Nonu would have missed in a whole year. Why did he not take immediate steps to show Nonu how to handle these outside breaks - perhaps because Mitchell doesn't have the answer, so didn't know what to do/say.

3...I can't recall any of the Islanders coming on skills-wise under Mitchell's tutelage - I may be wrong, but I simply can't remember anyone at all, who was coached upwards, and/or outwards.

4...I didn't hear any comments from Mitchell/Deans as to why our Lineouts were continually going backwards, performance-wise. I did hear SOME comment that he thought the forwards were satisfactory, but in any case "he" was going to win the RWC2003 by scoring tries.

5...If a bona-fide International RWC team was selected, could we correctly and honestly say we would get more than one player in the team, eg., Richie McCaw. Perhaps Joe Rokocoko, and maybe Doug Howlett. Certainly one, but I'm not that sure about anyone else.

So summing up, there doesn't look as though there were many, or even any, good reasons, why Mitchell should be given another contract to do his thing. Who is to say that he wouldn't have gone downhill even more, if he had been given additional time to do a job, which he looked most uncomfortable at doing.

"And remember this was in a year when everyone

who knows anything about rugby, was conscious

that NZ had the greatest array of available talent

ever, since the heady days of the 95/96/97 era".

To be fair, I thought Mitchell was correct in getting rid of some of the old baggage. However, he went about it on a very poor way. Taine Randell was past his use-by date. and was a 'choker'. Andrew Mehrtens had lost his way completely, and was a defensive liability - he had also lost his way with his goal-kicking of yesteryear. Mitchell should not have sacked Anton Oliver, although Anton had become a serious problem, with his reluctance to play under the instructions of a coach. Christian Cullen did have a further season of excellent value left in him, and his sacking proved to be a something of a disaster.

Another point I would like to give some attention to is Mitchell's claim that he lost his job because of one bad game. I think many of his fans have gone along with this, but I emphasize, there was not just one bad game - there were three of them. The first was the second Tri - Nations game against OZ, when we had great difficulty putting them away by only four points, after running up 50 points on them in the earlier game. Mitchell was not able to get his team motivated for this tougher game. The second bad game was against Wales, when again, Mitchell was not able to motivate his team. Had Justin Marshall not taken over the leadership from Captain Invisible, and driven the forwards on, we would have gone down the gurglar in this one as well. The third game where he was not able to motivate his team, was the semi-final against OZ. So we had three bad games, not just one - and each was largely because he was not able to motivate players.

Mitchell has decided to stay in NZ, even though it is indicated he had one or two offers to coach in the European area. His home club, Waikato, has given him a three season NPC coaching stint, which will give him a firm base to work from. In addition, the NZRU has created a two year "resource coaching" position for him, even though they have just disbanded all current resource coaches in an economy drive. It appears there has been a bit of a trade off between possible litigation on Mitchell's part, and a desire by the NZRU to clear away all the sundry dross, which may have proven troublesome for the oncoming fresh start.

In any case, I think the NZRU move has been a wise one. Mitchell now has a further chance to stake his claim for a big-time coaching position, and I hope he realises this has been a genuine resolve on the part on the NZRU to heal any breaches. Personally, I think Mitchell has extremely little to offer in the coaching field, BUT, if he has the coaching skills he claims to have, he now has a solid platform to launch from. I get the feeling that Mitchell is trying to portray a position where he is so valuable, that the NZRU must retain him. He does not portray a picture which shows the NZRU have loosened up on him, and given him a second chance - they have never done this for any other failed RWC coach in the past. I do hope Mitchell finds his feet in the coaching arena, and is able to repay this most worthy gesture from the NZRU.

One point which has gone almost unnoticed, is the part that Robbie Deans played in this saga. I thought he originally took the appointment from a position of weakness, when he said he wouldn't agree to be the 'Coaching Co-ordinator' under Mitchell, unless he could keep his Super 12 Coaching position. Surely this was a solid indicator that he was not very certain the whole thing was going to gel successfully.

We will probably never know what went on between Mitchell and Deans - who persuaded who, made the final decisions, and so on. Seeing that Mitchell carried the can at the end, and suffered for it, I think Deans can consider himself extremely fortunate - I seriously doubt that this new NZRU Board will ever give Deans any further opportunities at the highest level.

Rest In Peace

I liked this one : -

Five Hell's Angels walked into a Pub, ordered their drinks and suggested that the lone drinker at the end of the bar paid for them.

When he refused, they took him outside, punched him up, and threw him out of the Pub forecourt. They then slowly returned to the Bar.

"He wasn't much of a fighter" said one of the Bikies to the barman, "He isn't much of a driver either", said the barman, "he's just had an accident, and driven his truck over 5 motor-cycles".

Sign of the Times -

Those of you who are old enough, will remember the "Bring back Buck" campaign of yesteryear when Buck Shelford got the axe, even though he had NEVER captained the AB's to a defeat.

The new slogan, which appeared just a little time ago in the NZ Herald reads -

Forget...."Bring back Buck"

Try........."Who stitched Mitch"

Martin Johnston -

A great time to leave the International game - Martin Johnston has signed off from the big league, and he couldn't have had a better script if he'd spend 10 years studying the ending. I think he's been an outstanding captain and was easily the best during the RWC2003.

I think he played 98 games for England and captained them in 39 of those games. His team won 34/39 (87%) games under his stewardship, and that's a very good record. When he took the team over the record started to improve, and they held on with a squad of 'oldies' to knock off the best in the world in November. He thoroughly deserves our fullest respect.

The Super 12 -

In just one week's time, we will commence battle again. I'm a great fan of Super, 12 and it has not lost its lustre for me. But this year, we in NZ have to start thinking about a new forward platform - what we have been doing is simply not good enough, and we have to seriously upskill in the forwards. I well remember the day when the forwards slugged it out all afternoon, and we finished up mostly with the top team score of the day being around 10 points.

I don't suggest for one moment that we go back to that, but we do have to change from the game we are currently playing. Much of it is candy-floss, and this is where the Poms have left us behind.

The Graham Henry edict of, "we first have to do it in the forwards, before we can do it with the backs" must keep ringing loud and clear, right from the first game of 2004. We must get those tight forwards out of the backline, and get them back at the coal-face, doing the hard yacka that they were selected to do - I'm sorry, but they will have to get their shorts dirty !

As I'm writing this, the long Flavell saga is meandering along, and it looks as though both sides are reluctant to front up, and sign on the line. I'm sure Henry would love to have Flavell in his side, but he is naturally very wary of the repercussions. I'm sure Henry knows Flavell is a serious risk, but as I've said so often before, I believe all Flavell needs a strong Captain over him, to keep him in line throughout the game - the NZ Refs have also got to get the chip off their shoulders about him. They should concentrate on reffing the game, and not going specifically to a player. In my view Flavell would probably add about 25% to the effort our pack has been putting out. He is extremely secure in the lineouts, he is a very punishing tackler, and he firmly believes that the tryline is there to carry the ball over it, and dot it down.

They Must be Kidding -

The biggest surprise we have so far before hostilities commencing is the appointment of TWO new Auckland NPC Coaches. I think most dyed in the wool Fans are still standing around with their mouths wide open - W H O ! !

The biggest surprise announcement so far this year is that Pat Lam and Shane Howarth have been appointed as Coach and Asst. Coach of the Auckland NPC team - JEEZ ! Things are pretty crook.

Pat Lam was quite a prominent player for Auckland some years ago, and I think he took the view that he was in the side for life, irrespective of his form. Well his form slipped, and he came across from Auckland to my Club, North Harbour. He looked OK at the time, but unfortunately his form couldn't command a regular place in our team either. Things turned a bit sour, and off he went to Europe and the matter quietly resolved itself. However, it didn't stop there because one morning (2002 I think) came the announcement that Pat Lam was the new Player of they year in the GB Rugby competition - there were a lot of surprised faces in NZ on the day.

However, he moved from his Club side to go as a late replacement Assistant Something to Coach McGeechan of the Scotland side. I'm not too sure how long he did this job, before the recent sudden announcement, that he has been appointed the new Auckland NPC Team.

One has to wonder how the devil this appointment was made. I think it truthful to say that Auckland is the best and largest provincial Rugby Union in NZ - it is impeccably run by CEO David White. Pat Lam has virtually no coaching experience to talk of - let's face it, if Scotland were given a game against the Kelston Girls High Team, you would have to put your money on the girls. I'm very sure the Auckland Media will be watching Coach Lam very closely. We should also remember that Auckland are the current NPC Champions, have about 12 AB/s in their side. They are also the holders of the Ranfurly Shield - PAT LAM...........jeeeeeeez !

My All Black Team -

Hey, it's a bit early for this, but we've got the Poms sometime in June. Let's have a look at this lot : -

15...Spencer...We've got to bite the bullet and get him away from the flyhalf position - he's too easily shut down. He has excellent experience at fullback, as he can work the wings superbly. He has the pace, the nous, and the vision, to know when to go on his own.

14..Joe Rokocoko....Really classy for a youngster. May be the best in the world at present.

13..Nonu...Yes I do know he missed a couple of tackles in an important game, but no-where near as many as Leon McDonald did in an even more important game. This fella has to be 'coached' up !

12..Umaga...Captain...This is the place for him. We can't make him the de-facto centre just because others have temporarily failed at that position. Umaga will defend to the end of the earth, and he has tons of sheer power to break the line inside. He is also very close to Flavell to ensure he doesn't get too wound up. Umaga will have the authority to replace Flavell if he thinks fit.

11..Dougie...Just needs to be guided a little bit more.

10..Carter...Young Daniel is clearly our best flyhalf. He will kick the goal-kicking from the right hand side of the field. Sorry Daniel, but you're in for something like 50 to a 100 practice kicks every day except Sunday - on Sunday you can learn how to pray earnestly, so old JC stays in your corner.

9..Lee...We do have a problem at scrum-half. If we want to get the backs going flat-tack, we need the Lee pass, because it's the best in the country. However, on the other hand, if the forwards are going to be the powerhouse of the team, there is a case for Marshall - he's probably got two good years left on him for his style of game. But if we play him, we will have to sacrifice about 7-10 points per game from the backs.

8..So-oialo...This man also needs heaps of one-on-one coaching. He's got everything that's needed in a rugby player.

7..McCaw/Holah...This is a hard choice. McCaw gets to the ball quicker than Holah, but he does far less with it than Holah does.

McCaw also gives away far too many penalties. Holah is much better at constructive/running play than McCaw. We also have to look at young Daniel Braid from the Blues. He is nowhere near as constructive as McCaw and Holah on attack, or defense, nor does he have their high work-rate, but he does contribute to the scoreboard on a regular basis. I'm a great believer in players who can contribute to the scoreboard.

6..Collins...Yes, let's put Collins back in his correct position. He can perform at the back of the Lineouts. He is an extremely punishing tackler, and No.6 is definitely designed for his body.

5..I haven't got a clue ! ! Certainly, Ali Williams hasn't shaped up !

4..Jack...This year he'll have to be given the message to get his workrate up considerably - he's a lazy devil unless you keep right on his tail. This will be Oliver's responsibility.

3..Somerville...He's the best we've got, but he isn't that flash. He'll have to get that spare tire off his waistline and work at the coal-face, not in the backline. We need him to play week after week exactly how he played against the Boks in the RWC2003.

2..Oliver...Vice Captain.. Yes Anton does have a problem with Coaches, but he has one more chance. He has to remember to play the game the way the Coach wants it played. He has the continuing problem of keeping Flavell in check, and also has the authority to sub him off if necessary. I believe Oliver will really do the job this year after some severe knock-backs in 2002/3.

1...Meeuws...This position is another real worry. Meeuws is great in the loose, but my 76 year old tea-lady could out-scrum him in the tight. He'll hold his job so long as he continues to contribute to the scoreboard.

Flavell.....Troy would be my first forward pick in any AB team right now. He does have a problem - so do a number of the NZ Refs ! Oliver and Umaga both have the mana (deep high respect) to keep Flavell in check, but they will have to work hard at this particular thingo !

I know the front row like having Flavell as a lock, as he has great authority and power behind them in the scrums, but we really need him to be in a position, where he can take control in the tight/loose play. So where do we put him.

I'm very reluctant to play him at his best position, No.6, because Jerry Collins is just made for this position. If we played Flavell at No.6, then we would have to play Collins at No.8. There is the thought that Flavell could be coached up as a No.8, but I do worry a bit about this. Fortunately, he's easily the best forward we have, but he can't play everywhere. For the first couple of games I'd give him a shot at No.8.

Reserves - The only reserves I've picked so far are : -

Muliaina..

Mealamu..

Flynn

Gibbes

Mils Muliaina poses a bit of a problem, inasmuch as he's a poor points producer. We're used to our fullbacks contributing quite consistently to the scoreboard - Muliaina doesn't do this enough. However he would be my super-sub for the outside backs. I would institute a policy where the subs get the last 20 minutes of each game, unless there is a special reason for them not to.

Kevin Mealamu has plenty of time to develop further, and specialise in several ways. He could be our top man for the next RWC2007.

Corey Flynn has all the qualities that a top hooker needs. He's young, fast, scores tries, and takes the ball up exceptionally well. He has had a bad start because he can't keep himself healthy - he will need to go right through Super 12 without injuries before the AB Coach will put him in the side.

Gibbes of the Chiefs is an excellent No.6 and has also been injury prone. If he's had a good lay-off, and all the bits and pieces are well oiled, he stands an excellent chance of being one of the back-up loosies.

Definitely Out - Ah yes ! Both Captain Invisible and Caleb Ralph will be free to concentrate in Europe. Also, I've cut Aaron Mauger as he simply hasn't produced anything consistently to be an AB. Much of the time he is injured, and in my view he only played one goodish game last season - well, he scored a terrific try, but that was all. It was almost the same situation the year before. I know he keeps getting rave notices, but for the life of me, it can't be about his rugby.

The Forward Coach - Steve Hansen has a huge job to get this pack up to top International level. Our front row is pathetic, and the tight five needs heaps of really hard yacka ! It may be necessary to work these fellas almost to their death - they've got to step up about 30% overall as a unit. We have the Poms in June so we wont have very much time at all - I don't have to tell anyone that if Henry can't get his team up to beat the Poms for this game, then he'll find it very hard going. I know this is tough, but we've been let down so badly in these past few years, that there is very little left in the cookie jar for any Coach to back up with, if his charges have a dud game.

Roll on FRIDAY night !

By Patrick Innes