New Zealand Lost

I am in mourning. I just watched New Zealand (deservedly) lose to France. I am increasingly less enamoured of my national rugby team. Its not because they seem to lose more often than I remember them doing, its because they seem to care less. I discussed this with Mark, our wonderful scottish host who agreed that the New Zealand team seemed much more commited and just flat out better when rugby was amateur. I think that the elan and honor of playing for the All Blacks just seems to not be as important to current players as it used to be. They commit less and don't seem as motivated as they used to be. I used to be able to say, even when they lost, that the All Blacks were the best team in the world. When they lost before it wasn't because they gave less than 100% or played poorly, its just that the other team was simply better than them on the day. Todays game was lost because the motivation and urgency just wasn't there and the kicker was simply sub-par. They don't do the fundamentals well and are too obsessed with providing razzle-dazzle, they don't realize that you can do the razzle-dazzle only when you have excelled at the fundamentals. A key thing to me is passing out of the tackle. The All Blacks used to do amazing passes out of the tackle and its something I never see any more. RIP New Zealand rugby? I hope not.

Heres tui the parrot with his reaction Frances defeat of England in the rugby world cup, but I'm sure Tui reacted the same way today;