(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Quinn feels possibly only three or four nations have the sufficient strength in depth to challenge for the Webb Ellis Cup next year.
Dubai: Keith Quinn believes the All Blacks now have a clean slate upon which to prepare for their Rugby World Cup defence after seeing their unbeaten run fall by the wayside at the weekend.
Having already wrapped up the Rugby Championship crown with a game to spare New Zealand faced South Africa at Ellis Park on Saturday looking to make it 23 matches since their last defeat.
However Patrick Lambie’s successful – if somewhat controversial – penalty in the 78th minute snatched a 27-25 victory for the Springboks to leave Quinn’s native New Zealand back at zero.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing either with the timely reverse invariably managing expectations in a rugby-mad country and ensuring complacency doesn’t creep in among Steve Hansen’s once all-conquering squad.
“There has been an interesting reaction to that result back home as nobody has been quite as disappointed as we usually are and that’s because we’d won the tournament previously” the veteran Kiwi commentator 68 said.
“It’s strange because we desperately wanted to win beforehand and then weren’t so disappointed when we didn’t afterwards.
“There has been a bit of controversy with the awarding of the last penalty but South Africa deserved to win on the day.
“If you go a long way with a winning sequence it adds to the pressure each time. Now they’re starting again with a new sequence and let’s see if they can keep it going from this point on.
“It’s a good thing that they’ve suffered a loss this far out from the Rugby World Cup. From here they play Australia again and they should win that game. They then go on the trip to Great Britain where the big match is obviously the first one against England. That should be a cracking encounter but – even if they don’t win it – they’ve still got an opportunity to start a bit of a roll again to lead into 2015. It’s exciting.”
Quinn feels possibly only three or four nations have the sufficient strength in depth to challenge for the Webb Ellis Cup next year – England France New Zealand and South Africa.
Like the Kiwis three years ago England have the added advantage of playing on home soil at Twickenham and that potentially makes this eight edition “the toughest to win away from home” for the visiting nations.
New Zealand are still likely to start off as firm favourites nonetheless with their prior form and pedigree still keeping them ahead of the chasing pack.
“Teams lift themselves when they play the All Blacks because they have to” added Quinn who has been on 36 overseas tours with the All Blacks and covered countless Commonwealth and Olympic Games over a career in broadcasting spanning almost 50 years.
“It’s our national game and we’ve got a great tradition in it. Tom Johnson and Andy Martin have just co-written a book (Legends in Black – New Zealand Rugby Greats on Why We Win) and it’s about winning and understanding that this is the culture that we have in New Zealand.
“It hardly mentions the L word at all in the whole thing because it does not come into the thinking of anyone involved with the All Blacks.
“You could obviously say that about the other teams but – in New Zealand – it seems to be instilled very deeply into our DNA.”
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