Franks: Players wary as refs deal out cards | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

CRUSADERS' All Black prop Ben
Franks admits Tri-Nations players
are having to tread a little
cautiously after the rash of cards
in the series.

Preparing for Saturday's
Bledisloe Cup decider against the
Wallabies at AMI Stadium, Franks
said the cards had been ''pretty
harsh''.

''But at least they've been
consistent with us, so I suppose
we've just got to look at what
they're penalising each time and
try not to (offend),'' he said.

''I suppose the red cards have
been the big one. You know, you
lose a player, and it's a tough ask
to win a test.''

Franks said he got an extra
10min warming up in Melbourne
after his brother Owen Franks
was sin-binned _ but no scrums
were set while Owen was off.

He doesn't think there is any
risk of complacency after the All
Blacks' magnificent unbeaten start
to the Tri-Nations which could see
them effectively clinch the title on
Saturday.

The All Blacks were playing
well but they all knew they could
still play a lot better, he said.

''When you're playing in any
side and you're winning,
everything's great. You've just got
to keep looking in the mirror and
ticking off all the small boxes you
did when we first got together.''

Rugby was ''one of those
things,'' said Franks.

''You can go from the best
weekend of your life to the worst
weekend of your life all within
seven days.

''So those teams we'll be
playing, they lose, they'll want to
be getting back to a winning
feeling, and we want to keep that
winning feeling, so we've got to

 

keep working hard.''

And knowing Robbie Deans, on
his return to Christchurch he
would do everything he could for
the Wallabies to get back to the
winning feeling, he said.

''They beat the Springboks and
were on top of the world, they had
a loss this week, and they can fix
that all again this weekend,'' he
warned.