Anton Oliver Quotes

New Zealand, Rugby Union Player
September 9, 1975

Anton David Oliver is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Previously, he played as a hooker for Marlborough (one of the predecessors to today's Tasman side) and Otago in the National Provincial Championship and Air New Zealand Cup, and spent twelve seasons with the Highlanders in Super Rugby. He earned 59 caps for his country and for a period was All Blacks captain.

I thought we had parity in a lot of areas of the game but it's the Crusaders' ability to absorb pressure and react - three of their four tries were from turnovers - that's really disheartening when you are in control of the ball.

Anton Oliver
- Game
- Control
- Ball
Sort of desolate, decayed, the smell of - I don't want to dramatise it - but death, you know. That is what it feels like, no-man's-land, and it is not a nice place to be.

Anton Oliver
- Place
- Land
- Smell

We did out best to lose that one. The game was there for the taking and we blew it.

Anton Oliver
- Game
- Taking
- Blew
I think if they were any better, if they had held onto the ball a couple of times, we could have been in strife. Our defense was brilliant.

Anton Oliver
- Defense
- Ball
- Brilliant
I don't expect my team to win all the games, but we did our best to lose this one.

Anton Oliver
- Team
- Win
- Lose
We just kept making mistakes, we were a shade off our game and put ourselves under pressure with dropped passes. We looked a bit anxious and the quality of the Crusaders players absorbed that.

Anton Oliver
- Mistakes
- Pressure
- Passes