All Blacks Humiliating Loss

New Zealand 28 - 43 South Africa

New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks have now lost three games in a row, all of them at the hands of their old foe, South Africa. In the last 20 years, this has only happened once before, in 2022. Back then, they had two losses to Ireland, followed by a loss to South Africa.

The new All Blacks coach is Dave Rennie. He's lost three of his first seven games, a 57% win record. His predecessor also lost three games out of his first seven games, and these losses were against Argentina and twice in a row against South Africa. They have an identical win rate, but Rennie has the worse record as he's lost three in a row.

I said no good would come from allowing the New Zealand players to rule the roost. The player revolt that led to the sacking of coach, Scott Robertson, was a recipe for disaster. The team is getting worse and now look more akin to lower level sides, teams like Italy and Georgia. OK, that's a bit of a stretch but you may see my point. The All Blacks, these days, regularly cough the ball up when hard on attack, cannot complete tackles, play with a lack of skill and precision, and are generally aimless. The players often lack intelligence and choose the wrong option. 

The latest game in Baltimore in the US was officiated by Englishmen. That is, the match referee, both linesmen or assistant referees, and the video referee. Does anyone see a conflict of interest here? I certainly do; it is in the Englishmen's interest, consciously or unconsciously, to be against New Zealand. The Kiwis regularly hammer England, so their players and officials grow up biased. Referees should not share nationalities. They should mix up the nationalities to ensure objectivity. In a match like the one just played, for NZ to win, they needed to be better by a lot. That did not happen, so they lost by a lot.

The game needs new rules and that's why I support a new NFL-style global league. Players who intentionally slow the game down should be penalised. In the Baltimore game, a South African player was injured and being seen to under his own goal posts, but before the game could be restarted after a NZ score, he walked to halfway and went down, stopping the game. He was buying time and slowing the game down. C'mon, this type of behaviour is ridiculous and makes rugby look foolish.