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Conrad Smith Says 2007 All Blacks a Better Team Than 2011, Is He Right?
Published: September 25, 2014
In reality, such comparisons are near impossible. They do, however, make for an interesting debate.
Perhaps Smith is not too far off the truth; the 2007 All Blacks may very well have been a more talented bunch than the team that won the World Cup four years later. It was a World Cup that was lost after trying to be too clever off the field and some bad luck against France in Cardiff.
No two words are more synonymous with that 2007 campaign than reconditioning and rotation. The selectors developed a master plan in the lead up to the Cup, which saw their players play limited roles in the Super 14 that year. Instead, they preferred to allow them to obtain peak physical condition in training.
Likewise, they decided rather than playing a top line-up every week, they would rotate their players and develop if it were needed.
In theory, they were good ideas; in practice, not so much.
The reconditioning programme left the players physically fit, but not match fit. They went into the World Cup underdone and played like it. This was not helped by the rotation policy, which had prevented solid combinations being built prior to the event. Even during the tournament, they were intent on rotating their players, making for some questionable selections at crucial times.
They were a team that looked disjointed, and they did not fire in the way they had the two years previously.
It was this, as much as anything, that caused them to come unstuck. Four years later, they stayed away from the two "r" words and got the job done.
The 2007 All Blacks were raging hot favourites heading into the World Cup. Even during it, it was ha...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union
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