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Mike Hosking: All Blacks can't win everything

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 29 Oct 2019, 3:50PM
Mike Hosking argues that the loss is good for the game. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Mike Hosking: All Blacks can't win everything

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 29 Oct 2019, 3:50PM

So are we still talking about it? Yes we are.

As we said many times going into this thing, nothing unites New Zealand like rugby, war, and elections. In a disparate world, where the water-cooler is gone and we all lead such individual and separate experiences and lives, there isn't a lot left by way of commonality.

So we'll talk about it most of the week. The talk and misery of defeat will dissolve into concern and some disdain for having to hang about the place to play for third, or god forbid, fourth. And then the realisation that it is what it is, so we may as well get excited about it.

Trouble for the All Blacks this weekend, of course, is winning is really winning. But losing is even more misery heaped on a disaster that despite all the warnings about this being the most open contest yet, not many in their heart of hearts either did or wanted to believe it.

For what it's worth, I loved Saturday's game because most of all, it was everything you might have hoped for, bar the result. It was the world's two best teams meeting in the game's most important event - and it all lived up to expectation. Yes we lost, but we lost to a side you'd be foolish not to admire.

We didn’t play badly, we were made to play badly. This wasn’t the first half against Namibia or Perth against Australia. This was an All Blacks side that got out-thought, out-played and out-psyched. And as much as we hate it, you must never ignore or talk down a better opponent.

And apart from anything, it's good for the game. The All Blacks can’t win everything. And besides, great teams learn from dark days. The greatest ingredient in any sport is the unknown. The moment you know the result before the thing has even started, is the moment sport has lost its magic.

And this result doesn’t detract from what we think of Hansen or Read or any of the others who are wandering off into new chapters. The All Blacks remain the greatest team in world rugby. Yes, this particular  trophy is now missing for a couple of years, but their status has been earned over decades not individual events.

Sad thing for the organisers: that match Saturday was your final really, wasn’t it? Such are the vagaries of the tournament, and draw that anything less than England going on with it now would not be a right and just result.

The All Blacks were the team to beat, they're the team everyone wants to beat. You beat us, you're the best. England, how they play, how they plan and how they are coached. That was a study, on the night, in absolute perfection.

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