Why they're called All Blacks - in action

You, of course, already know that All Blacks is a typo don't you? The original quote, about the first New Zealand Rugby tour of England in 1906 contained the comment that with their level of skill they're All Backs. The fact they were already playing in black led to the extra L and the All Blacks were born.

But today, in the ANZ semi-final we had a lovely illustration of that original soubriquet in a match that was tense and frequently frustrating because of the tension causing odd silly mistakes although, in fairness, there was a really high level, committed defence which stifled a lot of the attacking moves, including Danny Lee knocking himself out whilst nudging Corey Flynn just enough that he dotted the ball on the touch-in-goal instead of down for a try (Lee tackled Flynn's shoulder with his head... scrum half's head v international hooker's shoulder... ouch) and in reply Colin Slade wrapping around the ball as Hawke's Bay tried to score, preventing a try being scored by lying underneath the rampaging lock with his head under the ball. Not quite as painful as Lee's effort, but still...

Anyway, the "All Backs" comment. Canterbury won the ball at turn over and passed the ball across the "back" line in normal red-and-black fashion. The person playing third receiver/centre ran flat-out on a line out towards touch, the person outside him (who I guess was really playing in the attacking full-back slot) ran across behind in a beautifully executed scissors move, burst through the hole that the scissors had created in the drift defence and ran over for a try. It really was a text book execution of the skill at top speed, and deserves to be in the coaching manual. What makes it really special though: the "centre" was wearing 3, the "full back" was wearing 4 - the tight-head prop and a lock were the players executing the perfect scissors at top speed and unlocking the defence with it.

One of the other things that contributed to the relatively poor game - and this is no reflection on the quality of the replacements who in most cases did a good job, and in at least one case did a better job - was the number of injuries. You really could call this attritional rugby. Canterbury lost a wing in the first few minutes, a scrum half in the first half and their centre in the second half to injury - in the first case at least a fairly severe looking one. Hawke's Bay lost their scrum half as described above, and a couple of other players too.

And sadly for Andy Ellis's international aspirations, he was the player who went off and his replacement did a lot better. Whilst Jimmy Cowan has gone from strength to strength this year, on the pitch at least, Andy Ellis has gone backwards - he tackled very poorly, his distribution was not the best, although his running game and support led to a try for him but that is an icing on the cake and his basic scrum half skills aren't solid and the All Blacks tend to go for that first.

I'm not sure who will get the places behind Cowan, particularly with Weepu playing at 10 for Wellington, but Ellis will be at home in November I'm pretty sure.