Don't say it...
Instant classic at Shark Park; Moana Pasifika's difficult task; a reader poll and more...
There was a point during Synthony at the Auckland Domain where I was almost pleased it had been changed from Saturday to Sunday on account of a few showers. Specifically, when I checked my phone and the Warriors were in a 0-20 hole versus the Sharks.
“Ah well,” I thought, “Cronulla-Sutherland away was a bridge too far at this point in the Auckland club’s refurb project, but at least Andrew Webster will find out a bit about the players want to stay in the fight and those who will fold.”
Even at 12-26 at halftime my principal thoughts were around damage limitation.
Unsurprisingly, my thinking was irrelevant. It was what the players were thinking that was important, and that was along the lines of: “I wonder if we can do something ridiculous today; something we can tell our grandkids about one day.”
As a result of the Warriors refusal to concede, I came to be watching my phone as a sea of people all around me were cutting shapes to club classics, willing one kick over and another short.
The 32-30 win was an instant classic. Maybe that doesn’t give it as much gravity as Stuff, who called it “incredible, miraculous, phenomenal, astounding” and a “comeback for ages” all in the space of a short intro, but it was impressive nonetheless. When I had more time to watch the match this morning, it wasn’t the performance that impressed me as much as it was the idea that it was another valuable building block.
That might be a very dry way of looking at it but it means more than a quick fix.
The Warriors have won three games this season and lost one they perhaps should have won by engaging in the grind; by keeping teams within arm’s reach. They held Newcastle to 12 points, Easts to 20, North Queensland to 12 and Canterbury-Bankstown to 14. You’re going to win a lot of games on the back of strong defence and keeping teams to fewer than 20 points.
Yesterday, they needed to do something a bit different; not radically different, but they did need to show a sharper edge on attack. To score 32 points in those conditions, to maintain a high completion rate under huge pressure, speaks to a team that is being built to win in a variety of ways. They’re not Penrith yet, not by a long shot (the Panthers dismantling of Canberra on Friday night was mean), but they’re not the Warriors of 2019-22 either.
I’m not going to say it, I promise, but hell, there is something a bit different about this year, even Shaun Johnson says so.
“Everyone watching at home, everyone watching here can see a difference in us. We are no longer the unknown, people can see it now. It’s about us not getting comfortable and complacent. We go home, we work hard and we come back next week.”
Now, if we can just spend a bit of time working on those starts, please.
Three into one won’t go
This is not an economics newsletter, nor is it even good at basic mathematics, but with interest rates rising and daily headlines screaming about “the cost of living crisis”, 2023 will be the year of belt-tightening. This would seem to be particularly true in Auckland, where mortgages and rents tend towards the higher side.
If your discretionary dollar is tight and you have a choice of spending it on a) the Warriors, b) the Blues, or c) Moana Pasifika, is there really any contest at the minute?
That was a desolate scene at Mt Smart on Friday night where the hosts collapsed in the second half to lose 45-17 to the Highlanders. It was difficult to find a crowd figure but judging by the pictures, if you account for the free tickets players would have to give away to family, there cannot have been more than a thousand paying spectators.
The remit for Moana Pasifika is broad and in most respects logical. It is designed not just to potentially expand Super Rugby’s audience, but to provide a professional rugby alternative for young Pacific islanders beyond France, Japan or the NRL. It is also a development school to funnel players into the Manu Samoa and Tonga teams, and a vehicle for advancing Pasifika coaches.
It is not stated as such but South Auckland is a clear demographic target.
Already, however, they feel squeezed out of the Auckland market. Their media cut-through compared to the Blues is almost non-existent (they possibly don’t help themselves either, with the homepage of the club website still ‘previewing’ the upcoming match against the Highlanders as late as Monday morning).
As the Roar stated in its Super Rugby wrap:
Essentially, Moana Pasifika are Auckland’s ‘third wheel’. This in a city that houses a large Pasifika community, but one not flush with disposable income, in times where cost of living pressure is biting hard.
Support for Moana Pasifika is thus largely spiritual; which is not the same thing as money-spending, bums-on-seats support.
It might even be grimmer than that. Does that “spiritual” support actually exist? The Blues have organically cultivated Pasifika support, both spiritual and bums on seats, over the course of 27 years, from Lomu and Vidiri to Tuipolotu and Tu’ungafasi. Moana Pasifika have not shifted that spiritual support en masse, or barely even au singulier if the crowds are anything to go by.
The ‘homecoming’ match against the Reds in Apia on April 14 already feels like a pivotal moment in Moana Pasifika’s short existence.
As for the Blues, they played their part in what was an ordinary final 40 minutes of rugby on Saturday night.
The Chiefs held on for a 20-13 win in a match that will be remembered mostly for Beauden Barrett treading on the dead-ball line while trying to crib closer to the posts.
It hasn’t been a vintage start to 2023 for the 112-test veteran, but this take in Stuff was curious.
Outgoing All Blacks coach Ian Foster has a free pass to swing for the fences, and that might just spell bad news for Beauden Barrett.
While [Barrett] is a certainty to make this year’s Rugby World Cup squad, his continued underwhelming Super Rugby Pacific form only looks like making for an intriguing selection situation come test-match time.
With Foster to be replaced by Scott Robertson next year, and especially with New Zealand going into the global showpiece without the favourites tag for the first time, there could conceivably be an unshackling of any form of conservatism in selection.
There just happens to be a bloke called Richie Mo’unga who has played 27 of his 44 tests under Foster, starting on 20 of those occasions. Barrett has also started in 20 of the 29 tests he has played under Foster, but seven of them have been at fullback.
It is hardly a stretch to think Foster could “unshackle his conservatism” and pick Mo’unga ahead of Barrett.
The Bounce 100 percent concurs with Stuff, however, in that it would love to see Barrett run more.
There was a time when winning the Hong Kong Sevens would have been an agenda-setting occasion. Now it has never seemed less important, despite the event being a bona fide Olympic sport. Genuine question: do you even care?
It sounds like a classic injury race against time for Kane Williamson and the Cricket World Cup after he injured his knee in the Gujarat Titans IPL opener.
New Zealand are not well endowed with top-order options, as was evidenced in their Super Over loss to Sri Lanka at Eden Park on Sunday, which was a cracking game of cricket, even if it very much felt like a New Zealand A team - which is also curious given that NZ A is playing, pretty averagely, in a red-ball game against Australia A at the same time.
Get ready for a totally “spontaneous” outpouring of emotion if one of the LIV golfers wins the Masters, as Greg Norman sets about torching whatever is left of his reputation.
There are few jobs in this world with less security than that of a football manager.
Graham Potter gone at Chelsea after less than six months and about £600 million spending.
Brendan Rodgers gone at Leicester, after being beaten by Crystal Palace, the team that recently sacked their manager, Patrick Vieira.
The Chelsea situation is the most volatile. Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana, Joao Felix and Noni Madueke were bought in during the January transfer window and there are already rumblings that several are not up to the required standard despite the massive outlay.
THIS WEEK
Just a quick reminder that The Bounce has shifted to a two-a-week schedule until mid-April. Thanks for your patience.
In boxing parallel’s If AJ, or any other professional boxer ( or MMA fighter for that manner) came back after a long reign and did what Israel has just done, dealing with the mental, the physical pressure on the global stage, doing what he said he was going to do, come forward and pressure (at the elite level) and stop his opponent in such fashion to get his title back he would be seen as the second coming. The man has lapped the top 5 in the division, this suggests he has no peers. Adesanya has proven time and time again that he is the best in the world, and his recent victory over Alex Pereira only solidifies that fact.
I appreciate that the nuances of the MMA game are not for everyone or the untrained eye, his 8 million followers certainly make up for it.
I was at primary school in South Auckland in late 70s and 80s with the children of the first Polynesian immigration wave. You have them and their kids locked into Warriors/Blues support. Another factor for rugby is Manurewa/Papakura is 150k people. If you grew up there in rugby you are likely strong Counties therefore Chiefs. Not a lot of space for a new team.