Time to set up a local national side

 

The idea being to build up team cohesion and improve player attributes through regular games and frequent training camps.

 

Come world cup time, add the few european and US based players who would really make a difference and bed them in on an already solid and cohesive platform.

 

And don't call the team New Zealand A.  Make the games full internationals and reward those for the availability/selection.

 

Maybe once every couple of years we could play a couple of high profile internationals.

 

Here's a squad scenario of players currently based in NZ and Oz...

 

moss, paston, bannatyne

pritchett, cowan, watson, sigmund, hay, old, wilson, wylie, lochhead

bertos, barron, christie, webster, brown, robinson, fleming, sandbrook, campbell, pearce

fisher, brockie, banks

 

add the very best of  the rest to the cream of this lot come world cup time and there we have a good competitive, match hardened side.

 

just a thought

 

 

 

 

 

And on the subject, who else wishes they stopped including AW appearances against club sides as international caps? No other country in the world does this as far as I'm aware.

 

I know Jeremy Ruane was working on putting together a list of FULL international appearances and goals a couple of years back. We should ditch the likes of Jock Newall's newly beaten "record" and get into line with the rest of the world. About half of Newall's goals came in internal games against local selections like Northern/Southern  Districts or against Island clubs like Suva. Coveny's are probably the same.

 

Doesn't have to be a total domestic team. You can obviously invite the other overseas players back to play. Based on history they wouldn't come back anyway. The odd one might. There is nothing wrong with playing the island teams. We give them a lot of sh1t, but at the end of the day we seem to struggle to beat them soundly on a regular basis. It will help to improve their game too. Why dont we at least have a quadrangular annual tournement with the better island teams. Of course NZF would have to fund the bulk of the money with some help from fifa.

 

We keep playing them until we can convincly beat them at least 3-0 every time, then we widen our horizon a bit.

 

I am actually happy with the withdrawel of the Ukraine game. It is ok to lose the odd game 4 or 5 nil in a year, but if we had got a hammering from Ukraine, it would have been one to many this year. The postives of playing against them were heavily out weighed by the negatives. I think the players who pulled out probably knew there was some doubt in this game.

 

I am feeling more comfortable about the Wales game now. We will be more focused. They won't have the concerns of the Ukraine game to come. The only need to perform for one game now not two.

 

Giggs is likely to play half a game against NZ. Bellamy is coming back from injury and is in doubt for the Champions league tomorrow night. If he does make it for the Champions league he is going to need some rest before their Euro clash with Czech.

Wales also have had a few players pull out through injury and a few re: Englsih League playoffs.

 

 

If we can get lucky and contain Giggs for half the game we might be with a chance to gain some respect out of this game.