A lost opportunity
Sporting weekend felt as soggy as my front lawn.
After all the dramas of the week that preceded it, there was an unmistakable feeling of lethargy enveloping the weekend’s sport.
That materialised in the Warriors’ abject second-half collapse against the Canberra Raiders, which Tohu Harris called out for what it was.
It was writ large all over the Black Caps tour to Ireland, which concluded with a subdued six-wicket win in the third T20I in Belfast. A half-strength New Zealand side will be pleased for the T20 matches ahead of this year’s world cup but really only Glenn Phillips, Lockie Ferguson and, at a pinch, Ish Sodhi enhanced their reputations.
Mostly, though, the feeling of sporting ennui crystallised for me in the coverage of the All Blacks coaching shake-up.
Ever since the Irish turned over the All Blacks in Dunedin and Wellington the fire has been lit under coach Ian Foster and yet when the sackings of Brad Mooar and John Plumtree were announced alongside the elevation of Jason Ryan, whose rise from club rugby and Buller to the All Blacks is charted by Stuff’s Tony Smith, the media met it with a collective shrug of the shoulders.
This surprised me because if nothing else, one of the reasons given for Foster’s original appointment was the strength of the coaching team he had assembled compared to Scott Robertson who was leaning on relative no-names like Ryan.
Yet here we are.
I would have loved for Jeff Wilson to drill into this on The Breakdown last night. The show secured an exclusive one-on-one with Foster (as they probably should as a broadcast partner) but it fell short of revelatory.
It wasn’t awful, as some have suggested on other platforms known for strident views and anonymous handles, but it could have been sharper. Sky’s coverage can become a bit of a punching bag for a public dissatisfied at the state of the national game but for the most part it is unfair.
Their production of big matches is world class and I’m often reminded of this when I watch Australians cover rugby.
Where they’re found wanting is a lack of a cutting edge in their magazine shows, of which The Breakdown is the big wheel. It has a significant part to play in bringing information and analysis to the country’s most fervent rugby heads (the Herald’s Joel Kulasingham called it “the most important TV show in New Zealand sport [$]”) but I’m not sure it fulfilled its brief last night.
Wilson is not a journalist and has never pretended to be. I imagine he sees his role as promoting the sport and of New Zealand Rugby’s interests.
That’s fine, but it does mean this has to be chalked up as a missed opportunity.
For a start, his last question had to be his first and it couldn’t be cuddled in soft terms like it was.
Wilson: “So, I’m going to ask the last question. This is a hard question to ask because as a head coach you know how important it is to have the changing room; the support of the players around you. What gives you that belief and sense that this group of players are still well and truly behind Ian Foster?”
That had to be the first question and it had to be framed simply as: “Ian, have you lost the dressing room?” It’s a simple question that sets the tone and lets the viewer - the rugby fan - know that The Breakdown is seeking answers on their behalf, not a fireside chat.
It also plays into Foster’s hands as it allows him to be firm and decisive from the get-go. By asking the question in such a woolly way at the tail-end of a soft interview, it almost encouraged Foster to meander without direction.
Foster: “Yeah, well I guess that’s part of a… one of the questions that I got them to talk about. I’m not in the room, it was just them, and with all the noise around… look it’s… there’s been a lot of people putting me under pressure for a long, long time so in many ways this is not new to the group, but I… part of my job is to always go back and get an honest appraisal out of them about how I’m going and the belief that… so I’ve had it loud and clear from them, but I also know that with that comes a massive responsibility. I mean, that’s only one variable isn’t it, so I believe I’ve got the group and now I’ve got to deliver the plan and so part of the changes we’ve made are about making sure… not taking for granted their belief in the direction I’m heading but I’m also listening to them and making the changes that we all feel we need for this team.”
That’s mostly a bunch of waffle in there, but there is a half-nugget right at the end that couldn’t be followed up on because, as already mentioned, it was the last question.
Does that last line from Foster suggest it was the players that drove the coaching changes? Some clarification would have been nice.
All told, it felt like a suitably wet end to the weekend.
One of the better performances came in Jakarta where an inexperienced Tall Blacks side defying injury and a lot of bugs in the camp to finish third at the Asia Cup. They did so by storming home to beat Jordan 83-75 in the bronze playoff, despite being off the pace until kicking into gear in the final minute of the third quarter.
Buoyed by Tohi Smith-Milner catching fire from long range, the Pero Cameron-coached side rolled over the top of favoured Jordan. The tournament saw standout performances from the likes of Smith-Milner, Cameron’s son Flynn and Sam Timmins.
Australia, who beat the Tall Blacks in the semifinal, pipped Lebanon in the final.
The Tall Blacks are scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia next month for World Cup qualifiers, though it’s understood government travel advice might prevent this. The future, however, is bright.
Lydia Ko also came roaring home to finish in a five-way tie for third in the Evian Championship in France. The major was won by Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who birdied the 18th to finish -17, two shots ahead of Ko, who shot a final round 66.
She’s quietly racking up an excellent season.
The Newcastle Knights and the sport of rugby league is letting down one of its brightest talents in a way that could have frankly dire circumstances that go way beyond Kalyn Ponga’s playing career. Ponga has been concussed three times in six weeks and has required five head injury assessments this season.
His concussion in Friday’s 12-42 loss to the Sydney Roosters followed seemingly innocuous contact, which is a surefire pointer to the cumulative damage being done. Yes, we mock the card-happy referees in rugby union who ignore the unintended consequences of contact sport in favour of hard-and-fast laws, but that is a far healthier attitude than that of NRL clubs who rush head-injured players back in unseemly haste.
Ponga needs to sit out the rest of this season. That much is obvious.
His travails are timely, with a class-action lawsuit involving more than 100 players (including Carl Hayman) against World Rugby and the national governing bodies of England and Wales looking set to go to trial.
The claimants… argue that the sport’s governing bodies were negligent in that they failed to take reasonable action to protect players from permanent injury caused by repetitive concussive and subconcussive blows. A pre-action letter of claim was issued to the same governing bodies on behalf of a group of nine players in December 2020 [but] the parties have been unable to agree on a settlement since then, so the matter now appears likely to end up in court.
It is understood that Rylands Law, which is preparing the action, also represents scores of league players and is planning a similar action against the England Rugby Football League.
Gary Stead named his team to tour the West Indies for six white-ball internationals - three T20s, three ODIS - next month, with the big news being the return of Kane Williamson and the selection of Finn Allen ahead of either Will Young or Henry Nicholls. It makes sense given that T20s take precedence this year, but it’s also a well-timed shot across the absent players’ bows, given their poor form in England and Ireland.
It was a podium-free world athletics championships for New Zealand, something we haven’t been used to in the Val Adms-Tom Walsh shot putting era. Walsh was closest, finishing fourth, while Maddie Wesche, Adams’ heir apparent, finished seventh.
In the Herald ($), Simon Kay ranked the top six New Zealand performers, with the sprinter Zoe Hobbs and Eddie Osei-Nketia taking the top two places after setting national records in the 100m at 11.13s and 10.08s respectively. Osei-Nketia should be in Birmingham. It’s crazy dumb that he’s not getting more major championship experience.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES (AND OLYMPIC ‘LEGACIES’)
I’m coming up with a coverage plan for Birmingham ’22 that will hopefully offer you all a bit of insight without reducing me to a physical wreck.
The Commonwealth Games are a curious event; in every respect they’re an anachronism, a relic of an empire long fallen, full of sports that are increasingly unappealing to the digital generations.
Allied to this sense of world weariness is the fact they’re being held in a city of which the United Kingdom’s entire road network seems set up to give people every chance of avoiding; a city which the world had forgotten existed until a fictional drama about a real-life Victorian-era street gang who carried razor blades in the peaks of their flat caps hit Netflix.
Here’s the thing though - the Comm Games are actually a bit of a hoot. They never require any previews or any serious post-Games analysis, but for the 12 days they’re on it’s all good, mostly harmless, fun.
So I’ll work out something, in the meantime, as you hear loose talk from a certain mayoral candidate about an attempt to bring the Commonwealth Games back to Auckland for the third time, it’s worth being wary about what you wish for.
It’s been 10 years since London hosted the Olympics. The Guardian has drilled down into the questionable legacy.
Look back at the charts and national obesity levels continued to rise even as the Games were staged. Childhood obesity has gone through the roof. As early as 2015 Sport England figures showed participation levels dipping below their pre-Games levels. A decade on from London 2012 British people are less not more likely to participate in sport, and more prone to health inequalities along social, wealth, race and geographical lines.
The basic fakery of expecting organised sport to help solve these problems is present in the way school sport was treated in those years. Blair may have spoken about the voice of London ordering young people to start playing more badminton, but in reality his first 10 years in power saw school playing fields and recreational land sold off at a depressing clip.
So many what ifs... What if Foster had got Joseph and Brown? What if Robertson had been able to "play the game" and convince the archiac NZRU that he was there man? What if NZ basketball could bury the hatchet with Steve Adams, would we have beaten the Aussies? What if Ko got credit for being in the mix so often even if she isn't winning?
What if everyone took your view on the comm games and just enjoyed it for the spectacle it is instead of worrying about medal tallys? What if the comm games (and Olympics) had a pool of cities (say 3-4) that they rotated around to reduce costs and legacy issues? Yeah right. What if you stayed up all night every night during the comm games to give us a daily report (jokes ;) )? So many what ifs and no answers...
Great summary of a tepid weekend alright, some days the keyboard must be abit frightening to consider when trying to summarise. FWIW Ian’s situation looks about as healthy as Boris’s did a few weeks ago. Big differences in character and issues for sure but the end will likely be the same. Personally have’nt heard a take from Shag yet, perhaps for former AB coaches it’s like for former US president’s - they don’t comment on the current one’s actions (with one Trumpian exception!).