A tricky starter for 10
Let the rugby drama begin, PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
The most fascinating All Black season in living memory begins this weekend.
After triple-checking that opening line for egregious signs of hyperbole, I’m going to let it stand, although my “living memory” is notoriously fickle and unreliable.
The World Cup now dominates rugby discourse and this is the first one that I can remember such pessimism about New Zealand’s chances. Even at our own TAB the All Blacks are not favourites, and even the second-favourite status the team enjoys with most major bookmakers seems overly generous.
Not since the Bring Back Buck days has there been such a fraught lead-in to a World Cup and we should know by now that a test against Argentina cannot be considered an easing into the international season. Quite the opposite. As a friend mentioned today, that Argentine forward pack would have met this week over a thick-sliced cow and a vat of malbec, licking their licks at the prospect of more fresh meat coming into Mendoza.
To that end, it’s slightly surprising that Damian McKenzie has been handed the coveted No10 jersey ahead of Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett, though the latter has found a spot in the starting XV at fullback.
“He’s just playing really well,” Foster said of McKenzie. “He’s been out of the All Blacks for a year, and I am so impressed by the way he’s come back. The best way… to show how he can play for us, was to give him that opportunity when he was feeling confident and things were going well for him.”
What does it say to Mo’unga?
There has long been a sense that Foster lacks full faith in the pivot who week in, week out plays brilliantly for the Crusaders but whose work for the All Blacks has only fleetingly reached those heights. There’s an unwinnable chicken-and-egg debate to be had here but it’s conceivable that one of the reasons Mo’unga has not dominated in the black jersey is because he’s never been given the keys to the team like he has at Super Rugby level.
There’s not a whole lot of time or matches with which to experiment before the World Cup so this looks like a snub, even if Mo’unga is handed the starting role against South Africa. The first-five has just guided his team to a seventh Super Rugby championship. Say what you like about the standard not equating to test level but that is a compelling body of work..
It also leaves the curious situation where you have a specialist No10 on the bench and two players with utility value in the starting lineup.
It also creates a bunch of contradictory logic. If McKenzie is the starting 10 because of Super Rugby form, why is Shaun Stevenson, left right out, not been given 15?
Not a ball has been box kicked in anger yet and there’s already an overflow of intrigue.
Like I said… fascinating.
Argentina v NZ, Mendoza, Sunday 7.10am, Sky Sport 1
South Africa v Australia, Pretoria, Sunday 3.05am, Sky Sport 1
ABs Sunday Special, The Bounce, Sunday TBC
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On the subject of the World Cup, eight of which have been won by southern hemisphere teams, I was interested in this piece by Ben Wyllie on Plot the Ball. I’m not going to steal it, but he argues that southern World Cup success has clouded the true picture of international rugby. Here’s a taste.
The picture really has shifted radically over the professional era. The Tri Nations trio of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were hugely dominant at the time rugby turned professional in the mid-1990s — but their historical advantage over their English-speaking competitors in the northern hemisphere has now been completely eroded.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Another week, another damning indictment on the country’s high-performance sporting environment.
Yes, you can write it off as another ‘rogue’ operator, but how many rogue operators (another one emerged in the same sport recently) and how many damaged athletes do we accept before we finally land on the idea that it is our vaunted high-performance system that creates these environments.
From Stuff, who broke the story:
Olympic pole vault coach Jeremy McColl has been banned from athletics for 10 years after an independent investigation found he committed serious misconduct, including findings of harassment and inappropriate sexual remarks to athletes who were minors...
McColl was last month stood down by Athletics NZ while an independent employment investigation was carried out after the national body fielded multiple complaints about his conduct.
The high profile coach had [also] been the subject of a police complaint related to an incident 15 years ago.
McColl was a darling of the athletics scene because he essentially created a world-class pole vault programme out of nothing - a programme that returned a medal through Eliza McCartney in 2016.
When your funding and subsequent sense of worth as an organisation revolves entirely around winning medals, it enables environments where bad behaviour is excused and overlooked. For a recent example, look no further than the toxic cycling environment that was subject of not one but two damning independent reviews.
It strains credibility to suggest that McColl’s behaviour has not been talked about in athletic circles until now.
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Meanwhile, in happier pole vaulting news, Eliza McCartney has qualified for Paris 2024 after clearing 4.73m in Barcelona. This follows hard on the winged-heels of Zoe Hobbs also qualifying.
This, chronicled by the Herald’s Simon Wilson, sounded like the worst night out in recorded history.
It’s unlikely Graham Henry had his tongue in his cheek when he said this.
“The All Blacks are the best team of any sport in the world but the media treat them like sh**.”
He said the media drove Wayne Smith out of the ABs coaching job by “influencing the board”, but “I got him back”. The media, he added, “tried to make sure Smith, Henry and [Steve] Hansen weren’t reappointed” after the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal loss. “Thank Christ those drongos didn’t get their way.”
He finished up with a plea. “What we want is for the media to be positive, to support this country instead of knocking it, to help with making it great again.”
Ignoring the echoes of a prominent orange-hued American in his closing line, is it any wonder that rugby has struggled mightily to connect with a younger demographic when influential figures in the game still expect the media to act in service to the team, not their audience?
Thanks so much for all the kind feedback regarding the Carl Hayman essay that ran first in The Spinoff and then The Bounce this week. If I haven’t replied personally to your emails or messages it’s not because they’re not appreciated - it’s just been a busy week!
On the vexed subject of CTE, it felt like a landmark moment this week, just not the sort of landmark anybody wants, when Heather Anderson, an Australian Rules player who died suddenly last year, became the first woman to be diagnosed with the disease.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
More late nights… and an early morning (above).
Where in the name of the Demon Spofforth has Mark Wood been hiding all series?! It surely doesn’t get any more Bazball than a guy literally hurling himself into the turf time and again while delivering 150kp/h thunderbolts at wincing Australian batters. His instructions from Ben Stokes: “Bowl rockets, don’t worry about runs.” Fans of the baggy green might be saying the same about Mitchell Marsh, who looked like he was batting with house money last night as he carved a century in the absence of the injured Cam Green. It’s early doors, but this already looks like it could be a cracking test. For the sake of the series, let’s hope a close one goes the way of the home side this time.
England v Australia, 3rd test, Leeds, day 2 starts tonight 10pm, TVNZ+ and Duke
The cricket was incredible last night, but so was the cycling, with the mighty Jumbo-Visma team looking to destroy their greatest challenger, UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar, but in the end possibly taking more out of themselves and their team leader, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Stage nine has a summit finish on Puy de Dome in the Massif Central, which shapes as the key bridging stage as they move across the country from the Pyrenees to the Alps.
Tour de France, stage 9, Saint-Léonard, Sunday 11.30pm, Sky Sport Select
When logging on this morning to find Lydia Ko +3 after three holes at the US Open, I went seeking answers. I did not have far to look. This was penned before the completion of her first round at Pebble Beach, but she’s still +3, with fellow New Zealander Amelia Garvey finishing her round at +6.
US Open, round 2, Pebble Beach, tomorrow 8am, Sky Sport 6
No better time to jump on the SVG bandwagon. I mean, Max Verstappen has so why wouldn’t you? Supercars moves to Townsville and while the switch this year to Gen3 models hasn’t been universally popular - especially with Ford drivers - it has created a much closer series after the newly minted Nascar star ran away with the past two championships.
Supercars, races 16 & 17, Townsville, tomorrow and Sunday 4.40pm, Sky Sport 5
It did feel like someone popped all the party balloons last weekend, but what better way to celebrate Shaun Johnson becoming the fifth Warrior to play 200 games for the club than by beating the Eels in their own tank in primetime. Can you name the other four without looking at the footnote1? I got three.
Parramatta v NZ Warriors, Parramatta, tomorrow 7.30pm, Sky Sport 4
Stacey Jones, Manu Vatuvei, Simon Mannering and Ben Matulino.
Quick comment on the cricket. To me the theme of last night was “where have they been?”
Wood, obviously. I thought he was injured...? Those were thunderbolts and added the dimension England have completely missed.
Marsh. When I first saw his name on the scorecard I figured it was because Australia had finally given in to the fact Green has looked like a deer in the headlights (great grabs in the gully excluded). In fact a niggle had ruled him out, a blessing in disguise.
Woakes. Again I thought he was injured. He offers a very similar product to Robinson with the ball, only he’s a bit older and cannier and can bat better as well.
Roll on 10pm!!
Watching Wood bowl was joyous. It’s so good he’s back. Marsh was the perfect match up - the pulled six he walloped off him when he was in the 40s was something else.
PS am v much here for the Spofforth references. If you drop a Grimmett reference, consider me a lifetime subscriber.