After another sad, but winning, performance this weekend against Italy got me thinking about what NZ rugby needs to do. Before putting fingers to keyboard I stumbled onto this piece from Gregor Paul. It’s pretty much right-on.

Sadly, it will take a couple of years for NZ to fix its problems. Maybe in time for the RWC – but I doubt it. The key tenets:

1. Put serious work into developing at least five players with deep, traditional first five skills. That means getting Colin Slade out from underneath Carter’s shadow now.
2. Restore the core skills of the lock within the S14 franchises. They should be cooked by the time they reach the All Blacks.
3. Lose the fixation with versatility. Why is Toeava playing? “Take Isaia Toeava – he can do everything, Henry even called him "gold" a few weeks ago. But what has Toeava achieved with the All Blacks? What has been his contribution? He’s never been able to hold a jersey and the crux of test football is that each position comes with highly specific demands.”
4. Elevate kicking as a priority skill for backs. The big games are decided by the boot, not the ball carrier. That means embracing the drop goal.
5. Sort the damn line-out out. That the All Blacks give up so many line outs is unacceptable. Get back to the fundamentals.
6. Differentiate the loose forwards. We need more punch at blindside. Forget all the No 6s who become No 8s.
7. Back to the damn fundamentals. Why are players are dropping balls all over the field? Unable to catch an up and under? Mis-timing kicks at the line? Come on. These are so called professional players.

Finally, set offensive play now matters more than ever. With all teams deploying a flat defensive line focused only on playing the ball in front of them having a very clear playbook is critical. Sth Africa’s ability to launch plays is incredible and stands them in good stead to for a clean sweep of the tri-nations.

One of the things I love about blogging is where it intersects with media. As a rugby fanatic you can’t get much better than The Roar. On the one hand you have Spiro Zavos writing magically on the magic game. Then on the other you have terrific blog posts – like this.

OK, the All Blacks lost and deserve the scorn of fans and commentators alike. But at least the reading is good.

Why more old media hasn’t followed this model is beyond me…

Good insights from Gartner and Forbes into what’s happening out there.

• Half of CIOs had a change in their budget from what was originally approved at the beginning of 2009. Of those, 90% reported that the change was negative. So we’ve revised the survey results that we reported at the beginning of the year, which showed spending would be flat. CIOs now say their budgets will be down 4.7% for the remainder of the year.

Interesting read in the WSJ and what looks to be a pretty cool device for understanding what happens during the other half of the week.

I remember going through a sleep test a couple of years ago (I suffer from sleep apnea) and being fascinated by the fact that we pay attention to getting to productive when we are awake, but almost no attention to how productive we are when we are asleep. The measure of lack of productivity in one area is typically felt exponentially in the other. The impact is clear:

But all that lost sleep is taking an insidious toll. Chronic, inadequate sleep raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes and obesity. It impairs cognitive function, memory and the immune system and causes more than 100,000 motor-vehicle accidents a year. Sleep deprivation also changes the body’s metabolism, making people eat more and feel less satisfied.

Where’s my Zeo?

And the same rule applies to bloggers… before letting the effusive praise flow, tell us whether you got the product as a freebie, loaner or early test drive system with some kind of exclusivity attached. Transparent is transparent and Michael was right to call it.

BTW… two big stories on blogging from today’s NYT… one with a monster photo of Brian from Gizmodo. The more interesting piece on blogging was buried over in the Style section and looked at blogs staying alive and blogs dying.

Not all fallow blogs die from lack of reader interest. Some bloggers find themselves too busy — what with, say, homework and swim practice, or perhaps even housework and parenting. Others graduate to more immediate formats, like Twitter and Facebook. And a few — gasp — actually decide to reclaim some smidgen of personal privacy…

… Richard Jalichandra, chief executive of Technorati, said that at any given time there are 7 million to 10 million active blogs on the Internet, but “it’s probably between 50,000 and 100,000 blogs that are generating most of the page views.” He added, “There’s a joke within the blogging community that most blogs have an audience of one.”