In a troubled world to a degree unprecedented since the end of the 2nd World War, which as individuals we’re all helpless to do anything about, thank God for the salvation of sport.
Yesterday, we watched Afghanistan hand a hiding to Australia, something which would make New Zealand cricketers and their fans feel a lot better after their humiliating exit from the World Cup, including a beating from Afghanistan.
The Afghani team are all expats fleeing from their Taliban wrecked homeland. Their World Cup performances however, raises the possibility that they could become the 9th Test playing nation.
Who would have believed that even a year ago?
Then on Saturday three of us sat down to watch the Warriors thrash the bottom team Gold Coast, as the commentators had assured us they would easily do.
Instead, we sat delighted as the no-hoper side, seemingly scored a try every time they got the ball. Fortunately this wasn’t often, such is the nature of league, thus they were confined to running up only a mere 30 points in the first half and 36 in the second.
Why anyone supports the Warriors given their persistent abject performances, is on face value, a huge mystery.
But possibly therein lies the answer, namely the aforementioned “face value” as crowd shots at Warrior home games reveal highly improbable newspaper readers, so possibly they’re oblivious of their team’s woeful, mainly away record.
This delight was followed by the much hyped Rugby final. This time the commentators got it right, picking an Auckland victory, albeit it not so decisively.
Nevertheless, it was vigorously contested and thus a world-wide spectacle, thanks primarily to the clear man of the match winner, namely the referee, who scarcely blew his whistle from beginning to end.
This I gather is the long overdue awakening by rugby administrators, that the excessive referee involvement, thanks to the petty rules, was killing its support, notably with school boys who were turning to soccer in droves.
A final thought re rugby and league is my impression that league is now dominated by maori players and rugby by islanders, the latter being culturally more tolerant of rules.
6 Comments
“my impression that league is now dominated by maori players, and rugby by islanders”
Sadly in my view, rugby has become more like league, with the rule changes taking it more towards the “bash and crash” style of game. Players rarely have the chance to get up to a decent speed before a 200Kg “hit”, meaning the flow of a “running” game never happens.
Also I suspect anyone wanting to preserve their brain takes up soccer, or lacrosse, or anything but rugby.
And as a result I watch it less and less now.
Rugby needs to go back to its roots…a regional focus, and regional support with afternoon games….and scrap super rugby…
Extended tours of the Pacific, South Africa, the UK, Ireland and France, including any other nation who wants to be in the mix…these tours will keep the players…
Just as professional soccer have extended contracts and transfer fees, let the provinces dictate this space, and have a draft ballet system for the young guns…
Their administration has been less than poor and have saturating the public with too much of the same stuff…They have cut the cake into too many pieces, and theres not enough money to go round…
As for the islanders, they were always going to dominate this physical game, just as the african americans dominate basketball and grid iron…they are physically larger, but as they say you cant have it all…
Winter is always the most challenging of times, and the TV is a much better option than sitting in the rain. Ive personally been watching the tennis, which has been quite refreshing with a new crop of players replacing the old….
Sadly, rugby has turned a corner. It is heading the way of american football in the states or athletics in NZ, in that only the elite athletes carry on playing after finishing high school. When I left school, some 40 odd years ago, there were over 30 under 19/under 21 teams in Manawatu. Massey University alone had about 10 teams in these grades. Now, there is only a colts division for school leavers and there are only three teams in Manawatu. Two of those teams are from Feilding and Rongotea. The whole of Palmerston North only has one team – a team from Massey.
For a comparison, watch the football European Cup currently being played in Germany and note how many times the referee stops play vs rugby and conclude the main issue with rugby is the stupid rules and the interference of game flow by referees.
My first love was soccer, which I learnt with a plastic ball on the hard netball court at Cashmere Primary School in the early 70’s.
I was good at it, but my father wanted me to box and play rugby, so he bought me some gloves and hung a big sand filled bag from a tree in our backyard. It felt like I was punching a swinging boulder, and I soon lost interest in that.
Next came Rugby, which suited my nimble nature and I was selected to play as a back for the Sydenham Rugby club, when they travelled up to Masterton to play some North Island team.
I learnt two valuable lessons from that trip. The first was a degree of humility, as we were beaten mercilessly by something like 50-0. The second lesson was provided by the farmer that I had been billeted with. From him, I learnt about slaughtering chickens, sheep, pigs and a steer. It was the distressed squealing pigs that mostly opened my eyes to the intelligence that these animals possess, and the crowded conditions under which some farm animals endure.
I continued to play Rugby at Christ’s College, but in 1975, after broken teeth and black eyes , I decided it was a mugs game and persuaded a teacher to let me start a soccer team. It wasn’t even an option back then, but the sympathetic teacher let me put together a team, and as a result, I was able to spend the remainder of my school days playing soccer and not Thugby.
Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, I hardly played sports at all, but after moving to America I rediscovered my passion for soccer, and for me, nothing else compares.
Some of my team mates have played professionally for clubs like Celtic Rangers in Scotland and River Plate in Argentina.
Soccer is truly international, and I’ve played alongside men from every corner of the world.
It is the beautiful game, and I am thrilled to hear you say that New Zealand school boys are turning to soccer in droves.
Just to clarify, my teammate played for Celtic, and not Rangers, when he lived in Scotland.