Zinzan Brooke has stated on the BBC website that he hopes that the All Blacks “…beat the hell out of Scotland…“. Fair enough, he’s a patriotic Kiwi and you’d want him to back his team. His reason for this rather over the top, and schoolboy-esque, outburst: because those dastardly Scots didn’t play a full strength side at last year’s World Cup pool game and that hurt NZ form. Now 2 things spring to my mind:
1) As a child Zinzan had a dog, Tuffy, who he loved dearly. They did everything together, long walks through the stunning New Zealand countryside, warm, cosy nights in front of the log fire and off to watch the local sheep-shearing competition at the weekends. Alas, Tuffy’s wonderful time with his dear master Zinzan was to end all too early! One day, whilst running down the road to meet young Master Brooke a milk float came round the corner and not hearing the oncoming vehicle (electric engine…damn them!) poor Tuffy was mortally wounded. As Zinzan help his dear Tuffy in his arms the driver of the milk float jumped out to see if the dog was ok… and to Zinzan’s horror the driver was wearing a kilt!!! From that day on he vowed to hate Scottish rugby and all it stands for!
OR/
2) Zinzan Brooke is a bitter man, yet another sign that some (and only a minority) in the New Zealand rugby fraternity will blame anybody else rather than their own team for underperforming at World Cup after World Cup after World Cup. Maybe if the likes of Zinzan Brooke spent more time analysing the frailty in the All Black mentality when it comes to Webb Ellis then maybe he’d have less time, and cause, to start pointing the finger of blame at other rugby playing nations!
In summary, and to bastardise an old Stephen Fry comment:
Question – “Please provide a definition of Countryside”
Answer – “Killing Zinzan Brooke”
Off on holiday from tomorrow so going to miss the game but I hope Scotland can put up a good show on Saturday and those of you who attend enjoy the game!
Maybe Frank Hadden should put Zinzan’s words up on the dressing room wall! :-)
Over and out.
Al
2 Responses
Some of this post made sense in your head I am sure. Enjoy your trip!
If it’s genuinely possible that the All Blacks’ World Cup campaign was fatally undermined by them not getting a game from the diddy teams then they were doomed from the start in my opinion. It’s not Italy’s, Portugal’s, Romania’s or Scotland’s fault they’re so much better than the rest of us that they can breeze through these games without breaking sweat.
I can understand Kiwi frustration at the selection – heck, not everyone in Scotland agreed with it – but I genuinely don’t think it would have made any difference to the game or the result if we’d put out our first-choice line-up. So for him to suggest that we scuppered their chances is well wide of the mark. The All Blacks got knocked out for the same reason as everyone else – because they weren’t good enough.
Let’s look at it another way: suppose we had put out our strongest line-up and still lost by 40 points, and then, with our confidence duly shattered, gone on to lose to Italy and suffer our first-ever pool stage exit. Would Mr Brooke have had any sympathy for us if we’d tried to blame our early exit on the All Blacks?
It’s a rhetorical question.
Derek