Media Scrum Replaces Actual Scrum

Jake White and John "Knuckles" Connelly have played the entire Tri-Nations so far in the press room firing salvos at the All Blacks (in what I believe is an attempt to have us on the backfoot come the World Cup).

Every day the sports news is just the latest Wallaby or Springbok press conference:

• Richie McCaw is a bad captain because he’s penalised too often
• Richie McCaw cheats too much and never gets penalised*
• The All Blacks worry too much about attacking and should concentrate on defence
• The All Blacks are too focussed on the winning the World Cup to win the World Cup
• The rotation policy is [insert adjective]

As you can see from my (grossly oversimplified and biased) list, the statements tend towards the ridiculous. The real problem seems to be that the press, both local and foreign, are running with these stories like they are fact. So much so that they have begun to predict the future.

Perhaps the worst thing is the local media running with these stories (like they are fact and not opinion) and putting unneeded and undeserved pressure on our team.

Before the Super 14 semi-finals the Crusaders were blasé about comments from the Bulls and were joking around confidently. The All Blacks have been the same before both the Wallaby and Springbok tests and have played very poorly.

Here is what I hope happens. We get angry.

We play the next few games (and all the World Cup games) like we did against England after the last Cup. We smash them. We play fast and angry. We hit them right up the middle and punch them in the lineout and ruck them and hurt them. But what we shouldn’t do is respond to them in the press room.

*Note: in the last test the penalty count was nine against NZ and nine against SA with McCaw being the cause of two of them.