M.M.A.B.s defeated

The M.M.A.Bs were guilty of several early infringements at the breakdown and were very lucky indeed not to be down to 14 men in the first 15 minutes.  We were also lucky that if Ruan Pienaar had been aiming for nothing with his goal kicks he probably still would have missed.

Despite the 14 – 3 halftime scoreline the M.M.A.Bs had shown a few moments of promise – most notably from Conrad Smith who was a spot tackling machine and Richie McCaw who was – well – Richie McCaw.  Unfortunately these were off set by Ma’a Nonu clearly taking the field straight from the local pub and a lineout that I suspect may have also been at said pub keeping Nonu company.  We couldn’t secure our lineout ball and continued to prove my long held belief that you lose 100% of the lineouts you don’t contest.

The second half proved to be better for the M.M.A.Bs who appeared to have decided on a game plan and looked the goods on attack.  The usual bench clearance early in the second spell helped the look of the team with the exception of Jason Eaton who – like Michael Jackson’s body – was clearly missing a part of his brain.  The drop in form was no surprise to yours truly as clearly he cannot expect to reach the same sort of form post-mullet as he had prior to the haircut.  The exact same thing happened when Carl Hayman cut off his beard and I’m surprised that Lord Sir Graham Henry has not picked up on this.  I’ll certainly be bringing it up when he calls for our match debrief this afternoon.

Whilst the M.M.A.Bs lost to a better team I still reckon we’re just a few errors and a decent number ten short of beating them.  Don’t be writing us off just yet – but don’t put the house on an M.M.A.Bs win next week…

…Save that money for Mighty Mighty Auckland who kick off their Air New Zealand Cup campaign at Napier when they take on the Magpies.  Auckland are already topping the table by virtue of alphabetical order and are not looking likely to relinquish their place this season.  In other matches Wellington will defeat the hapless Otago by 50 to retain The Shield and D.F.C. Canterbury will no doubt get smashed by North Harbour up there in NOWETO.  Having worked over The Shore for several years I have always felt as though Harbour were my second team and look forward to them embarrasing their opposition from The Republic.

Other Sporting News…

The Warriors suck.