Former Wallaby taunts ‘old and humiliated’ ABs
Former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons has launched a scathing attack on the All Blacks before the Bledisloe Cup showdown at Eden Park tonight, declaring the side has too many older players and was ‘‘in decline’’.
‘‘Sonny Bill Williams is 34, how’s Sonny Bill going to go up against James O’Connor?’’ FitzSimons said on Newstalk ZB. ‘‘The All Blacks just looked a bit old and slow.
‘‘The Wallabies simply the All Blacks.
‘‘They humiliated those poor All Blacks and it was good for rugby.
‘‘I thought it was going to be an absolute slaughter, the sad decline of New Zealand rugby I said to myself, when will they come good?’’
The Wallabies’ 47-26 win against the All Blacks in Perth last Saturday was the most points the All Blacks have ever conceded, with the Wallabies piling on the misery in the second half after lock Scott Barrett was sent off for a shoulder charge to the head of Wallabies captain Michael Hooper.
That loss prompted All Blacks coach Steve Hansen to wield the axe of the All Blacks’ team naming on Thursday, dropping veterans Owen Franks and Ben Smith and also excluding out-of-form wing Rieko Ioane.
The Crusaders pair of Sevu Reece and George Bridge have been called up in place of Smith and Ioane but FitzSimons said this showed the All Blacks were in fullscale crisis mode with the Rugby World Cup just around the corner.
‘‘Throwing them into the furnace outclassed five weeks out from the World Cup seems an extraordinary move to me,’’ he said.
‘‘It looked to me like the coach had lost confidence in his team . . . I suppose he knows what he’s doing but it seems very odd to me.’’
The Australian media has had a field day since the All Blacks’ loss last weekend, depicting captain Kieran Read and Williams as old men and insisting that Hansen’s sweeping changes amounted to panic.
By contrast, the Wallabies have made only one change to their starting XV, and that was forced by lock Rory Arnold’s injury.
Earlier this week, FitzSimons also put the boot into Barrett following his red card.
‘‘If you put your shoulder into another man’s head and neck, I don’t want to hear your excuses, I don’t care what level he is off the ground; he tripped, he stumbled, whatever,’’ FitzSimons told Nine’s Sports Sunday programme.
‘‘The game has changed, they had to send him off.’’