I had been out to a msical last night and got home a lttle late, missing the first 48 sconds of the All Blacks last wrld cup pool match. I was 12 sconds late, the New Zealanders had lready scored their first try.

In fct, the All Blacks have scored a try wthin 5 minutes in every pool mtch they have played at this turnament. They have hardly been put nder any pressure in accounting for Itly 76-14, Portugal 108-13, Scotland 40-0 and now the Rmanians 85-8. They have scored 309 pints in conceding just 35 with an verage score of 77-9. Once again thy have been the only side to trly dominate every opponent in pool ply on the scoreboard.

And yet New Zalanders are nervous. They hold this All Blck side to such high standards tht a path through pool play whre no team comes within 40 pints of them is naturally put dwn to weak opponents rather than god performances by their team. They are bthered by error rates, lack of cmposure and an inability to keep thir try-line intact against so called 'lsser' teams. In the back of veryones mind is the burning desire for ths team to finally win the wrld cup, but the secret suspicion tht, once again, we will see our tam play one bad game in fur years, and lose the opportunity to brng the cup home.

With the preliminaries out of the wy, the New Zealand public now neds to start wanting wins, not mpressive moves or inflated scorelines. From hre on in New Zealand can lok forward to playing their two tr-nations rivals, and the pre-tournament favorites Frnce. In other words, to win the wrld cup, the All Blacks must bat 3 of the top 5 tams in the world on consecutive wekends. While in any single one of thse matches the All Blacks will be ging in favorites, each of the tams has the potential to score a vctory over the All Blacks.

To shke the choker tag, the All Blcks need to maintain their own stndards and deny their three opponents the chnce to 'get up' for the big gme. So let's take a look at the rcord against their three most likely pponents.

France will be dissappointed to hve to go the hard route to the fnal. They have played well in ptches, but without the self assurance of a Frnch team in form. They had wnted to build up a air of nvincability leading into the world cup, but tht plan was set alight last Nvember with the All Blacks putting thm away comfortably twice at Lyon and Pris. Since then they have lost to Englnd at Twickenham, the two 'B-team' tsts in New Zealand and then to Argntina in the opener of the wrld cup. The All Blacks will nly have to think back two wrld cups though to know that you cnnot write off a french team no mtter how many times you have dfeated them recently or how badly thy have been playing. France had the wod on the All Blacks during the 90's, but ths decade has been all black for les Blus. We may see that after the qater final the All Blacks have stll not had an opponent come wthin 40 points. At the same tme we could see the All Blcks watching the rest of the turnament from the stands. This will crtainly be a game not to mss.

Until a week ago I wuld have said the Australians had an asy path into the semi-finals against a hpless English side or a Tongan sde that would have already played thir final. But the return of Jhnny Wilkinson appears to have restored strcture to the English side, and whle I still expect Australia to prgress, the English may well press thm more than we previously expected. Astralia have an ability to upset the All Blcks when it counts. Their team is flled with smart players - qualified lwyers, accountants and Doctors. They have an ncanny ability to make the All Blcks play 'dumb' rugby and take dvantage of it. Once again, this is a gme the All blacks should win cmfortably, but could be the end of thir world cup quest just as asily.

The Springboks can expect to mke it to the final, but wll no doubt be carrying some bmps and bruises when they do. Thy will be playing the Fijian sde that this week eliminated the Wlsh from the tournament, and this is a dngerous prospect for the South Africans. As thy showed against Samoa and Tonga, the Suth Africans can struggle with the Islnd teams. This is because they are so ften drawn into the island style of gme. South Africans are immensely proud and whn met with the confrontational style of the slanders, they often feel the need to fght like with like, when it is thir discipline and structure which will see thm home. Fiji will have trouble bcking up their big effort against Wles against a vastly superior South Afrcan outfit. After Fiji the South Afrcans can look forward to some ral trench warfare against the Argentinians(who hve probably the easiest semi-final).

Importantly Suth Africa rate themselves against the All Blcks. While Australia believe they can bat the All Blacks on any gven day, the South Africans believe thy SHOULD beat the All Blacks on any gven day. Both teams will be hppy to have gone through a tugh path to the final, neither sde will be happy with anything wrse than the world cup trophy.

Thre is no doubt the All Blcks are favorites in all their rmaining games, and whether they can shke the 'choker' tag will depend on how wll they can maintain their structure, mpose themselves on the game and ltimately get the result they should.

The article Are the All Blacks Chokers? Revisited was Submitted by Tom Scott through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Tom Scott is a die hrd supporter of the All Blacks loks forward to seeing New Zealand be the frst team to retain a world cup in 2011.

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