| You are in: BBC Pundits |
| On the up
Although the final scoreline was unflattering, my 50th cap was an enjoyable experience and I think the team can take some promise from it.
There's just so much strength in depth in Kiwi rugby thanks to the Super 12 and NPC tournaments. But at the end of the game the New Zealand players knew they'd been in a tough Test match. They were happy to come out with a win. We showed the ability to live with the Tri Nations champions, but unfortunately we fell away in the last five minutes and gave away a couple of tries.
We have a benchmark now for when we play them on their ground next June - and in Australia in the World Cup. As a group of 33 players we have grown through the four-Test autumn series. There was a great performance against Fiji and we played well against Canada. That's the sort of game we would have lost 12 months ago. We know we have to improve before we face the All Blacks again - improve a hell of a lot. But we are heading in the right direction. |
See also: 21 Nov 02 | BBC Pundits Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top BBC Pundits stories now: Links to more BBC Pundits stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Links to more BBC Pundits stories |
![]() | ||
------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |