All Blacks will be crushed by home expectations

All Blacks will be crushed by home expectations – magazine

The New Zealand public’s high hopes back home will be too much of a burden for the All Blacks at the Rugby World Cup (RWC) tournament , according to Australian magazine FHM.

In its unofficial RWC guide, FHM picks the All Blacks as one of five serious contenders – the others being Australia, England, South Africa and France.

But it says the New Zealand public’s hopes will prey on the All Blacks. ``The highly-fancied All Blacks will be crushed by the weight of expectation back home before succumbing to an extra-hot Aussie spring. Failing that they may be hit by plummeting space debris.’’

FHM slates the Wallabies saying they have an ageing squad who are still pulling out the same ‘’ineffective moves’’ from five years ago.

``(The Aussie) forward pack has all the mongrel of a pure-bred French poodle with a perm and a dye.’’

The magazine says South Africa won in 1995 only after ‘’slyly poisoning the All Black team’s pre-game meal.

England will lose because ``everyone will be out to ensure they don’t win’’.

Johnny Wilkinson, George Smith, Tana Umaga, Fabien Galthie and De Wet Barry are chosen as players to watch.

Former Wallaby David Campese says the All Blacks, and probably Australia, ware the most over-rated teams in the world at the moment.

Copyright Word of Mouth Media NZ 2003

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