#2: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
Is rugby boring... or just the Boks? Will a biennial RWC save the sport... or kill it? Can I pick the right NRL match to watch? All this and more in TWTWATWTWB.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Biennial World Cup PtII
If it seemed like just last week that we were talking about the possibility of a Fifa World Cup every two years it’s because we were. Here we are seven days later digesting the news that World Rugby is considering the same.
The story comes from a comment from World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin in the Telegraph. It was the sort of comment designed to come across as spit-balling but is really used to test the waters.
“Biennial World Cups have been considered before and they’re definitely something that we will continue to consider,” says Gilpin. “It’s an interesting concept, especially when you think about the global development of the women’s game, too. But the men’s calendar is very congested and complex, with a lot of different stakeholders, and we have to make sure we engage with them all before we consider a World Cup every two years.”
The reaction in New Zealand has been swift. The Herald’s newly minted chief sports writer Liam Napier appeared on NewstalkZB with D’Arcy Waldegrave and called it a money grab. Gregor Paul in the Herald said a biennial World Cup would be a spectacularly bad idea ($).
I’m inclined to agree but there’s also something nagging in the back of my head that says we should pump the brakes on the condemnation and consider all angles.
Here’s one (it might not be the strongest one, but it’s lodged in my brain anyway): If the RWC was every two years, we would have seen peak Christian Cullen at fullback in 1997, not Cullen at centre in 1999.
Yep, I’m sold.
Rugby is boring. No it isn’t. Yes it is…
There was delight when Quade Cooper knocked over his after-the-hooter penalty to earn the Wallabies a famous win on the Gold Coast. It didn’t just cap an improbable comeback story but that it helped defeat the anti-rugby Springboks, or at least that’s a popular theme.
It’s not without merit either - I would label the SA-Lions series as close to unwatchable - but there is understandable kickback in the Republic to this narrative, as articulated last month by Brendan Nel in Supersport.
If you go to YouTube and plug in “Springboks boring”, you will find a couple of really long videos on the subject.
Perhaps the question is not so much whether the Boks are boring, but whether the sport itself is too easy to manipulate into kickfests.
Take this incredible line from Sir Clive Woodward in the Daily Mail, for example: “I looked on in horror last weekend at the sheer poverty and boredom from the South Africa team against Australia. Rugby was not - and is not - meant to be played like that and I’m just pleased Australia won. The Boks’ series against the Lions was little better and it should worry everyone involved in the sport that rugby is going down that route. It will be dead in five years if it does.”
In the same publication, England flanker Sam Underhill launched a passionate defence of the sport, saying it was up to pundits to educate the watching public, not excoriate the style of play because it doesn’t fit into the beauty category.
“I think there’s a lot more to rugby that crowds appreciate than just the flash stuff,” Underhill said, and while that is probably true, I’m not sure any amount of technical proficiency in the contestable kick or lineout-drive area is going to win friends.
Perhaps the greatest condemnation of the direction the sport is headed comes from former NZ Rugby and Wales RU chief David Moffett. The headline on the story in Dai Sport probably gives a decent pointer to his thoughts: “Rugby? It’s As Boring As Bat Shit These Days And Needs To Be Taken Out Of World Rugby’s Hands”.
Tell us what you really think, David.
Tomorrow evening, we will see if the evidence favours the prosecution or defence.
Boxing farce
The Sweet Science has lost a lot of ground to upstart mixed martial arts promotions in recent years but I’m not sure the whole retro thing is the right way to respond. The Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr exhibition fight was extremely popular but Tyson is such a fascinating one-off character there was always going to be a market for it.
Less appealing is the sight of Manny Pacquiao, 42, last month getting beaten up by Yordenis Ugas, a guy who couldn’t hold a torch to the Filipino at his peak. Pacquiao has fought more than 70 times now. Enough.
Even worse, however, was the sight of 58-year-old Evander Holyfield returning to the ring last week to “fight” Vitor Belfort. The former champ was utterly embarrassed by Belfort, but not as embarrassed as the commissioners who sanctioned the match should be. These are the sort of bouts that are a stain on the sport. The fight also bombed on PPV, which hopefully demonstrates that there is less appetite for this sort of schlock than predicted.
Peter Urlich writes!
In response to my column questioning if the Warriors had a culture and whether they needed to establish one by looking more local, the composer of the team’s victory song has this to say:
“I read your Warriors piece with interest because as you may know, I’m a Warriors tragic and have certainly suffered since ’95.
“Your piece touched on a couple of salient points, mainly the identifiable culture of a team. The Warriors culture stemmed from the fact that they were based in Penrose, as working class and blue collar as you can get and their roster from the early days was Auckland based. League finally had an exciting flag-bearer in a legendary Australian comp! The home crowds were heavily Maori/Polynesian and the drums were a feature, so the Pacific flavour of the team was very evident. Over the years this has slowly waned and the logic seems to be that the Warriors will never be successful without a core of hardened Aussie professionals, both on the field and in the office. What if Bluey McClennan had stayed on for longer with a [Wayne] Scurrah-type CEO at his side? We’ll never know but the merry-go-round of coach and management was certainly not helping.
“The once glorious plan of bringing through the ample Kiwi talent from the Otahuhu Leopards and the Richmond Bulldogs etc has now all but faded and it appears the Warriors will take anyone who can play (Lodge) with little regard to the team’s values and standards. Which begs the question: What are those?
“It also reflects the trend of sporting comps that are based on privately owned clubs who are hugely profitable and thus powerful and rely heavily on winning to stay in that position.
“How many Man U players are from Manchester? If a Japanese striker scores, the crowd is delirious! My point is that teams are clubs that have names and have home grounds/arenas/stadiums and as long as they’re winning, then their fans are happy. I myself would be ecstatic when [Wade] McKinnon, [Brent] Webb, [Kevin] Campion or Tooks [Mark Tookey] crossed the white line. They were wearing a Warriors jersey and we were cheering them as if they had been born in Tokoroa.
“What is the Panthers culture or the Roosters? I fear it has nothing to do with coming from Kingswood, or being a latte-sipping Bondi resident.
“To be brutally honest, we fans would take a top eight result next year from a team wearing our jerseys and with at least a sprinkling of Kiwis. Finally, look at the Storm. Their culture is the culture of doing whatever Craig Bellamy tells them.”
Sky’s limit?
Yesterday I wrote a piece on the Silver Lake saga and the media’s role in it. In the midst of the 3000-odd words there were a couple of paragraphs that noted that NZ Rugby had not only a broadcast deal with Sky but an actual stake in the company. I questioned whether they could ever be impartial observers of rugby’s myriad issues. Sky’s The Breakdown producer Jim Kayes would like to make it very clear he has never been told what they can and cannot say on the show.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Because of the above-mentioned, the All Blacks v Argentina at 10.05pm tomorrow will most likely be a more attractive spectacle but, like last week, I suspect most of the fascination will come from the other match in the Rugby Championship double-header. Jacques Nienaber is not interested in winning friends but it will be intriguing to see if he let’s Handre Pollard out of the pocket a little more this time around. Speaking of coaches, full marks to Ian Foster for coming up with an abstract painting of an All Blacks XV - good luck working out what it all means.
Australia v South Africa, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, tomorrow 7.05pm, Sky Sport
Boy did I put you wrong last weekend when I pointed you in the direction of Souths v Penrith, a match that was far more interesting in the pre- and post-match press conference room than it was on the field. There are two classic intra-class clashes this weekend, with Silvertails v Silvertails tonight and Fibros v Fibros tomorrow. While Penrith v Parramatta could be a Westie ripper, I’m going in the other direction.
Manly v Roosters, BB Print Stadium, Mackay, tonight 9.50pm, Sky Sport
Yeah, so, about that fifth test between England and India that I was so looking forward to… anyway, enough on that. The Black Caps start a three-match bilateral series against Pakistan in Rawalpindi tonight. It’s the tail end of the monsoon season so those inexperienced Black Caps’ batsmen hoping for far friendlier conditions than they got in Bangladesh might be out of luck. The White Ferns dropped the first game of their five-match ODI series against England this morning, but get a chance to make amends in Worcester starting Sunday night.
Pakistan v NZ, Pindi Cricket Ground, Rawalpindi, tonight 9.30pm, Sky Sport
EPL eyes tend to go straight to the Big Six London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea but at 3.30am on Monday, that’s just not going to happen for me. Instead, I’m picking a game between a side that is desperately trying to get its mojo back under new management, and a team that as recently as 2009 were playing in the lowest tier of the football league.
Wolves v Brentford, Molineux Stadium, tomorrow 11.30pm, Spark Sport
It’s not quite the weekend but hey, international netball is back. The Silver Ferns take on a strong England squad in a three-match series starting Monday night in Christchurch. The series has already hit the headlines after the squad’s four Auckland-based players were granted an exemption to travel. A lot of interest will revolve around one of those four, Grace Nweke, and the role she will play in the shooting circle.
Silver Ferns v England, Christchurch Arena, Monday 7.30pm, Sky Sport
Who wouldn’t want to watch Tom Brady, 44, terrorise the Atlanta Falcons again?
Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Atlanta Falcons, Monday 8.20pm, Spark Sport