WALES No.1? KIWI PUNDIT MOCKS IDEA
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Anyone watching New Zealand and South Africa contest a draw in the Rugby Championship a week last Saturday might have been a shade perplexed about what was going on.
The All Blacks, officially the world’s best rugby team for the past 10 years and unofficially the best since time began, were surprisingly ordinary for much of the game.
They made more unforced errors in a single match than you would expect to see them make in an entire season.
Showing zero fear of facing the
Kiwis, and looking as if they were 100 percent convinced they were as good as them, South Africa were the better side for much of the game and deserved a draw. Possibly they deserved to win.
But here’s the thing: nine members of the Springboks side that shared the spoils against New Zealand started in the 20-11 defeat against Wales last November.
Also, when Wales defeated Ireland in Cardiff in the Six Nations four months ago, the visitors began with 12 of the team that had seen off the All Blacks the previous autumn. That is good form by any standard. Possibly, if the All Blacks had faced Wales last November, the result would have gone the way of Warren Gatland’s team as well.
For New Zealand haven’t been at their most convincing for a while now. They were fortunate to edge past England 16-15 at Twickenham, while South Africa defeated them in Wellington two months earlier.
Once out of sight of the rest, Steve Hansen’s team have seen the pack close the gap.
This weekend, they may even lose their place at the top of the World Rugby rankings if Australia beat them in Perth, with Wales replacing them.
A round of applause for Grand Slam winners Wales from all quarters if that happens, then? Think again.
Beneath the headline “Wales the world rugby number one? What a joke”, the New Zealand Herald’s online operation printed a column in which the writer, while professing “massive respect” for Warren Gatland’s side, opined: “Read all about it. Wales could be the world’s top ranked rugby side by the end of the weekend.
“Seriously? Are you having a laugh?”
Look out when the chap in question is not being massively respectful.
He went on to argue that Wales didn’t deserve such elevated status on the grounds that all their major victories over the past year have been in Cardiff. Oh, and they had lost 30 consecutive matches to the All Blacks.
Well, the long losing run is not entirely relevant.
Rankings are supposed to be a
snapshot in time, a picture of how things stand now, not what happened in bygone years. “There’s no point dwelling on the past,” Hansen used to say during his time as Wales coach. “You can’t change it.
“You try to learn from it and move on.”
It’s fair to note that most of Wales’ big successes in their 14-game unbeaten run have been achieved at home, but there was a series triumph over Argentina and the triumphs over France in Paris and Scotland at Murrayfield showed a lot of character. South Africa were also beaten in Chicago in a contest of two depleted sides, but, still, it was South Africa.
Wales have kept winning over the past 16 months, beating everyone in the top eight in the world bar New Zealand, who they haven’t played.
It’s been a formidable effort that isn’t just down to a quirk of the fixture list.
Gatland has built a team in his own image: humble, hard-working and honest, and respectful of others.
He probably feels they will head for the World Cup with growth in them. They can improve their attacking game, for starters. But when it comes to heart, commitment and defensive excellence few in the world can match them.
Will he bother much about the world rankings? No, he will not.
He will understand the vagaries of them – heck, in football there was a time when FIFA’s statistical gymnastics managed to put Greece above Brazil.
But Gatland is big on respect and he will use the latest words from his homeland to remind his players they still don’t have that commodity from all. They deserve better than to be mocked.
Maybe views won’t change until they end the long losing run against New Zealand or win the World Cup or both. They know what they have to do. Can they do it?
On the evidence of the past year it’s a wide open World Cup and Wales have a decent shot of winning it. Everyone is beatable. Including New Zealand.
No longer are they are million miles ahead.
South Africa showed last week the All Blacks may not even be the best in the world any more.
But let’s see what the coming months bring.
Talk is cheap.
It’s deeds that count.