Don't look back in anger
Disappointment's fine though, PLUS: A bunch of other stuff happened while the ABs' post-mortems continue.
A Monday trawl through news websites and other dark places was predictably dominated by continued fallout from the All Blacks’ loss to Argentina.
There was some bleak stuff out there, some of which is moving beyond criticism of professional performance into something a bit more vitriolic.
While this might sound a bit hokey, a decent rule of thumb is that if you take a loss personally despite having no personal involvement in it, you’re emotionally over-invested. Admittedly, this is a bit of a high-wire act. Passion is great. It sells tickets, subscriptions, merchandise. It sells the idea that you belong to a privileged club.
We have the right to feel gutted when “our” team performs poorly - particularly the All Blacks, who dominate the discourse in a way that suffocates other sports - but when gutted turns to human combustion-like anger, it’s time to get some perspective.
As I might have mentioned recently, this is not a good All Blacks team. It’s an awkward piece of machinery with average players in their prime welded onto rapidly declining greats, driven by coaches in an unimaginative way.
We can debate this ad nauseam1, and I suspect we will, but at this point I’m more fascinated by how the focus is shifting away from the coaching staff and on to the New Zealand Rugby board and what many regard as a dereliction of duty.
Dana Johannsen’s weekend piece on the NZR board ploughed some well-turned ground, but also unearthed a couple of intriguing details.
“Stuff understands the board was initially split down the middle on the decision of whether to retain Foster, with Mitchell getting the deciding vote. Once the call had been made, the board later agreed to throw its weight behind Foster.”
While chairman Stewart Mitchell says claims of a split board are “categorically incorrect”, there’s a chance we’re moving into the territory of semantics. One high-profile rugby insider I’ve spoken to is adamant the unanimity was dated from the time a final decision was made and not during the decision-making process, which would be a lot more believable and, frankly, relatable. Asking the country to accept that an eight-person board 100 percent agreed that Foster was the right man to continue in his job, when polls suggest 86 percent of the country reckoned he wasn’t, would be an uncomfortable reflection of how out of touch the suits are with their constituency - the rugby public.
Stuff also noted:
The treatment of Crusaders coach Scott Robertson – the man widely tipped to replace Foster – during the process has caused angst. Robertson is understood to have been told to assemble his coaching team following the All Blacks’ 26-10 loss to South Africa... Robertson’s roster was said to include Blues coach Leon MacDonald and Hurricanes mentor Jason Holland, forcing those clubs to begin working on contingency plans for its own coaching rosters.
In another piece on the same website, Marc Hinton sheets the on-field performance of the All Blacks directly back to the board. It’s a rollicking read, though this sentence feels a bit spittle-flecked.
You froze, at a key moment in time, so is it any wonder that your flagship team does something similar over and over again on the field?
As much as I believe the board has been found wanting, I’m not sure Codie Taylor had Mitchell, Mackey and Dame Patsy et al on his mind when he ballsed up the lineouts late in the game.
Over at TVNZ, Patrick McKendry writes that although he was on holiday in Australia, Robertson’s presence was felt all around Orangetheory Stadium.
Compounding it all was the sense that most of those among the 20,000 who paid to attend the Test were not used to seeing such failures and certainly not from those players in black who represent the Crusaders.
Scott Robertson, [an] ever-present in the court of public and media opinion, had perhaps wisely chosen to go to Australia for a week’s holiday but his presence loomed large before the game and after it.
Justin Marshall told Newshub that he believes this All Black side is destroying the legacy created by previous teams, a fairly damning, hurtful indictment.
He was also baffled by a kick-heavy strategy, and by the introduction of Stephen Perofeta when the game was lost. The latter point has sent Twitter into dodgy areas.
While the All Blacks have benefited from Pasifika talent in the past there are a couple of points to be made here. The player was born, raised and schooled in New Zealand. He wants to play for New Zealand and has come exclusively through the New Zealand talent pathways. Yes, while it looks like a pointless substitution to 99.9 percent of us, don’t discount the fact it felt a lot different for him.
The Black Ferns won!
I caught some of it but not enough to make any judgments beyond the fact it looked like a real struggle in the Adelaide afternoon sun and they played like a team that had made a bunch of changes.
Stuff’s Joseph Pearson saw it more ominously - as a team that won’t win the World Cup playing like that.
The 32-strong squad is set to be named on September 13 before a final tune-up test against Japan at Eden Park on September 24.
The NZ Sevens won!
Didn’t see anything of the tournament bar the clip of the winning try - Moses Leo was about 3cm from complete ignominy.
Things apart from rugby happened!
Lydia Ko came a long way back to finish fourth at the Canadian Pacific Open in Ottawa, carding a final round eight under.
Rory McIlroy came from a long way back to win obscene amounts of money in the PGA Tour Championship.
Max Verstappen came from a long way back on the grid to win the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps to cement his status as world champion elect.
Verstappen to the max. Photo / Getty Images This story on a blackmail plot involving France midfielder Paul Pogba is wild.
Paul Pogba has reportedly told French authorities about an alleged plot to blackmail him by a gang that dragged him to a Paris apartment in March and demanded £11m as they threatened him with assault rifles.
The 29-year-old, who has won the World Cup with France, said the men wanted the money for 'protection services' stretching back 13 years and also followed him to Manchester…
On Sunday night, a source close to the case told the Franceinfo news outlet that 'childhood friends' are named as suspects.
As Ian Anderson reports, Colin de Grandhomme has some explaining to do after being selected by the Adelaide Strikers in the BBL draft despite being centrally contracted to New Zealand Cricket.
“As it stands, Colin is a centrally-contracted player and has not requested a release,” a spokesperson for NZC said today. “We’re now in discussions with Colin to find the best possible way forward.”
I’m not sure why because CdG has been a very silly boy, but it just feels so on point I LOL’ed when I read it.
Cricket Australia wasn’t laughing so hard as their vaunted draft turned out to be a little less than advertised, though Trent Boult went at No 3.
To the surprise of many cricket pundits, former South African captain Faf du Plessis, along with West Indies greats Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, were not selected by any club due to availability.
World Cup champion Jason Roy was also let through to the keeper, leaving about $1.7 million worth of platinum players unpicked…
With a fresh broadcast deal looming, the loss of du Plessis, Russell, Bravo, Pollard and Roy comes as a huge blow to CA after free-to-air broadcaster Channel 7 launched Federal Court action against the organisation in a bid to terminate its TV rights deal.
Seven was adamant the cricketers that featured in last summer’s BBL were not of a high enough quality for the competition to meet the standard provisions stipulated in CA’s TV rights contract. The newly-introduced BBL Draft was supposed to bring household names into the competition, but the clubs have chosen availability over bums on seats.
Very interesting times for cricket.
Look out for…
Serena Williams' final appearance in a grand slam at the US Open starts tomorrow. She plays Danka Kovinic at 11am NZT.
The Tall Blacks play Jordan tonight at 6.40pm. Both can be found on Spark Sport.
Reader Dave Byrne made a good point in the comments section that we’ve reached a point where he’d like to see a few “f*** it selections”, as in “f*** it, let’s try RTS at fullback or, f*** it, we should have played Brad Weber from the start.” As a plan, it’s as good as most.
Childhood friends! With ‘friends’ like those...who needs enemies.
Nice Oasis reference! Cigarettes and Alcohol from Definitely Maybe
are more in line with my current mood though LOL