The Afghan situation is troubling isn't it? The silence of stars such as Rashid with 10m followers is deafening. As Afghanistan make their way in the cricketing world, this will become more of an issue I'd imagine.
There is now steam building for Afghanistan to be banned from the Olympics too, as travel for women is not allowed without a male guardian under the Taliban regime.
Still, I guess what we are and are not willing to ignore will become more of a cherry picking exercise as the Middle East takes over the sporting world, including international rugby. Qatar has multiple issues around slavery, women's rights, religious expression etc. But that Silverlake money is running awfully low...
Fully agree Dave. I want to be happy for the Afghanistan men’s team but can’t. I think about their women’s team in exile (mostly Australia), as well as girls and women not allowed to play sport (go outside, go to school) in their home country and wonder how they feel about the men’s success and their silence in the last year.
"Yes, on this subject I’m a grumpy old man. Guilty as charged." As am I when I read of the intrusion of the Americanisation/Australianism of the word "Grand" into our lexicon when describing a final. Why can't we simply call a final for what it is - a final. But no, we now have to increase its apparent importance by adding something inane like "Grand" thus making it so much more important than otherwise it would have been. Yeah right. Imagine Wimbledon using such a term? Or the Aussie Tennis Open? Or the Rugby World Cup final? What about the Olympics when down to the final of any number of events? Imagine the 1500 metres Grand Final? So now we have the Super Rugby Pacific Grand Final. Yuk, yuk, and yuk!!!
I’m with you on sweet Caroline. You hear it on overdrive here in England at every bloody T20 match. And free from desire tainted by warner and co. The big question is have we moved forwards or backwards since the old days following a finals win when we are the champions and simply the best were being pumped out?
Dylan, did you happen to see the Herald's player ratings for the final? They were pretty funny, as the author seriously took the piss and even made an oblique reference to you as well. It's just a shame it was behind the paywall.
Well spotted Rich, I have now read them following your comment - there is some amusing stuff in there and clearly a reference to Dylan... notably no half points as well...
"Rameka Poihipi - 4
Haven’t we as a society moved past assigning human beings a numerical value? So cold, so impersonal. Hope no one is rating these ratings."
Dare I say very disappointed to hear Barrett as captain, so so boring. Would have been great to have seen Ardie up there but maybe he toes the line better. My Irish wife asked me how long it was since we had a long term person of colour as ABs captain and that would be almost 20 years since Tana. Real shame
I hope they don’t try to keep Razor on written script, it’s clear as a dyslexic he’s way happier off the cuff and frankly they should keep him to that rather than standard PR lines.
What Clayton MacMillan was of course saying in his post match comments was that the Blues style this year was boring. Sure it won them a title so all power to them. But I found their crash-bang, work-it-up -the-guts rugby hard to watch at times, especially when there's talent out back like Perofeta, Telea, Caleb Clarke etc. Sure Caleb got 3 tries in the final, but none of them were from clever/inventive/dashing back line moves. He went and joined the crash-bangers for two of them!
The Afghan situation is troubling isn't it? The silence of stars such as Rashid with 10m followers is deafening. As Afghanistan make their way in the cricketing world, this will become more of an issue I'd imagine.
There is now steam building for Afghanistan to be banned from the Olympics too, as travel for women is not allowed without a male guardian under the Taliban regime.
Still, I guess what we are and are not willing to ignore will become more of a cherry picking exercise as the Middle East takes over the sporting world, including international rugby. Qatar has multiple issues around slavery, women's rights, religious expression etc. But that Silverlake money is running awfully low...
Fully agree Dave. I want to be happy for the Afghanistan men’s team but can’t. I think about their women’s team in exile (mostly Australia), as well as girls and women not allowed to play sport (go outside, go to school) in their home country and wonder how they feel about the men’s success and their silence in the last year.
As bad as the result was for the Warriors, there is a silver lining in that there is now nowhere to hide for selections.
Indeed, a result like this would on many occasions cause alarm - "where to from here?"
Warriors have the luxury of many other options (those of which won three games in a row).
Now is the time to turn back to youth, the 8 is still in reach...
"Yes, on this subject I’m a grumpy old man. Guilty as charged." As am I when I read of the intrusion of the Americanisation/Australianism of the word "Grand" into our lexicon when describing a final. Why can't we simply call a final for what it is - a final. But no, we now have to increase its apparent importance by adding something inane like "Grand" thus making it so much more important than otherwise it would have been. Yeah right. Imagine Wimbledon using such a term? Or the Aussie Tennis Open? Or the Rugby World Cup final? What about the Olympics when down to the final of any number of events? Imagine the 1500 metres Grand Final? So now we have the Super Rugby Pacific Grand Final. Yuk, yuk, and yuk!!!
I'm with you Dylan, stadium music is nauseating
And yet I still laugh out loud when I think of Adam Parore walking in to "You're so Vain" at the Basin.
I’m with you on sweet Caroline. You hear it on overdrive here in England at every bloody T20 match. And free from desire tainted by warner and co. The big question is have we moved forwards or backwards since the old days following a finals win when we are the champions and simply the best were being pumped out?
More often than not they suck the life out of the crowd rather than adding to the atmosphere
Dylan, did you happen to see the Herald's player ratings for the final? They were pretty funny, as the author seriously took the piss and even made an oblique reference to you as well. It's just a shame it was behind the paywall.
Haha! I came in to say almost exactly this. These ratings took more piss than the Eden Park urinals at halftime.
Well spotted Rich, I have now read them following your comment - there is some amusing stuff in there and clearly a reference to Dylan... notably no half points as well...
"Rameka Poihipi - 4
Haven’t we as a society moved past assigning human beings a numerical value? So cold, so impersonal. Hope no one is rating these ratings."
Dare I say very disappointed to hear Barrett as captain, so so boring. Would have been great to have seen Ardie up there but maybe he toes the line better. My Irish wife asked me how long it was since we had a long term person of colour as ABs captain and that would be almost 20 years since Tana. Real shame
I hope they don’t try to keep Razor on written script, it’s clear as a dyslexic he’s way happier off the cuff and frankly they should keep him to that rather than standard PR lines.
What Clayton MacMillan was of course saying in his post match comments was that the Blues style this year was boring. Sure it won them a title so all power to them. But I found their crash-bang, work-it-up -the-guts rugby hard to watch at times, especially when there's talent out back like Perofeta, Telea, Caleb Clarke etc. Sure Caleb got 3 tries in the final, but none of them were from clever/inventive/dashing back line moves. He went and joined the crash-bangers for two of them!