Rise up, Tohu - the right man for the moment
PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
In a week when a lot of the sports news felt negative - the Black Caps getting mauled in a record defeat, the Instagram post by Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate - I want to dance my way into the weekend with an upbeat tune.
Tohu Harris has always seemed like a thoroughly decent bloke; one who has dedicated himself to wringing every ounce of talent he has out of himself.
He’s come through the Melbourne Storm school of excellence and he has overcome injuries and setbacks, most famously being turfed from the Kiwis World cup squad when Sonny Bill Williams flip-flopped on his unavailability.
Harris is the perfect Warriors skipper.
Admittedly it’s not the hardest decision the club will have to make and they need a hell of a lot more than a committed captain to move from pretender to contender, but I suspect he’s going to be the sort of on-field leader nobody will want to let down.
“While we have some strong leaders in our squad, Tohu brings so much to our team and to our club as the man to lead us. Everyone can see the standards he sets for himself and consistently achieves on the field but equally impressive is the way he handles himself away from the game,” coach Nathan Brown said.
In this paywalled piece by Michael Burgess at the Herald, he outlined the serendipitous start to Harris’ professional career, growing up playing the 15-man code in rugby-mad Hawke’s Bay. Harris had no idea the Melbourne Storm were conducting trials in Wellington until he got a call from David Lomax. He jumped on a bus to join scores of other hopefuls and ended up picking one of two scholarships offered by master coach Craig Bellamy (the other was offered to TJ Perenara, whose career went in a different direction).
The only negative is that Harris is still recovering from ACL surgery and will likely be out until May.
It’s not enough to sway me from thinking that this is a very good call.
Have a happy weekend!
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Staying with league, the sport is coming after rugby hearts and minds according to veteran journalist Trevor McKewen. He explains to D’Arcy Waldegrave why an 18th NRL club based in Christchurch could be a true gamechanger.
Tiger’s back
Jockey banned
This has been a nasty story from start to finish and although British jockey Bryony Frost has been officially vindicated after she accused another jockey, Robbie Dunne, of bullying, her professional life might not get immediately easier with reports that valets have refused to work with her after she aired her grievances.
Magnus Force
When it comes to playing chess, I have little clue other than an understanding of how each piece moves. I like the storylines around it, however, from Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik to the epic Soviet-loyalist Anatoly Karpov versus anti-establishment Garry Kasparov championship matches. Then the Queen’s Gambit came along on Netflix and chess was de rigueur. So I’ve been watching a bit of the highly anticipated world championship duel between Danish genius Magnus Carlsen and the latest Russian star Ian Nepomniachtchi on the chess.com YouTube channel. It’s a different world out there.
Warne-ing shots fired
There is always a bit of trepidation when sports rights move to a new broadcaster, particularly in sports like cricket where the commentary is integral to the experience. In England, the cricket has moved from Sky to BT Sports and because of the Covid restrictions, they have sent nobody to Australia for the Ashes and instead are totally reliant on the local Fox commentary feed. I feel Ian Herbert’s pain all over this excoriating piece for Daily Mail. Even as a neutral, the idle chat between the likes of Shane ‘Warnie’ Warne, Mark ‘Junior’ Waugh, Adam ‘Gilly’ Gilchrist, Brett ‘Binger’ Lee, Allan ‘AB’ Border and Kerry ‘Skull’ O’Keefe is so painstaking it often becomes a mute point.
Warnie is by some distance the worst offender. He is a brilliant analyst because he has a razor-sharp cricket intellect, but that’s as far as it goes. He needs to be micromanaged to talk about cricket in the present and nothing else. His attempts at humour and banter are so cringe-inducing it’s painful. Oh, and while the English are leery about his attempts at humour, his compatriots are getting a bit tired of the nastiness.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Arguably the most dramatic season in Formula One history reaches its conclusion this weekend at the Abu Dhabi GP. The big British outlets have sent their chief sport writers to Yas Marina to set the scene for what is expected to be an incendiary clash between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who go into the weekend locked on 369.5 points. The Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel says behind the scenes, many are expecting a crash, which would hand Verstappen the title, while the Guardian's Giles Richards says the protagonists just simply don’t like each other.
“What had begun as a friendly season of mutual respect between the two has slowly, inexorably fallen apart. When asked if his opinion of Hamilton and Mercedes had changed over the course of their battle, Verstappen was blunt. ‘Yes, very much so,’ he said. ‘And not in a positive way’.”
Bring it on.
Abu Dhabi GP, Yas Marina, Monday 2am, Spark Sport
Of course Pat Cummins, the first fast bowler to captain Australia in a test since Ray Lindwall performed the role as a one-off in 1956, took a five-wicket bag on the first day of the much-anticipated Ashes. “He has the demeanour and cricket brain to possibly be a pioneer, maybe change the wider view that fast bowlers can’t be captains,” said his former fast bowling teammate Stuart Clark. Cummins’ elevation to the second-most important job in Australia will be one of the more intriguing elements to the series, the first test of which is scheduled to run through to Sunday but which might and fact be nearing a close as you read this.
Australia v England, 1st test Brisbane, Friday-Sunday, 12.30pm, Sky Sport 1
Less hyped, but no less entertaining, the Super Smash is rolling along nicely, with CD leading the men and Wellington the women. There’s a juicy Otago v ND doubleheader on Sunday at University Oval, which is usually a guarantee of lots of runs.
Otago v ND, Dunedin, Sunday (women start at 10.10am, men at 1.40pm), Spark Sport
It’s a fairly bland slate of matches on the Premier League calendar, except for the fact that Steven Gerrard, a Champions league winner and one of the greatest players in Liverpool history, is returning to the only English club he played for as manager of Aston Villa. He’s enjoyed a great start to his new job, winning three of four and dragging the Birmingham club to mid-table safety. As a local boy done good, he’s revered on the Kop and will be given a great reception and despite the fact he’s said multiple times that he doesn’t want this game to be all about him, it will be.
Liverpool v Aston Villa, Anfield, Sunday 4am, Spark Sport
This is the time of the year when every game in the NFL is meaningful, whether it’s vying for division titles, aiming for the best record in the conference, saving your coach’s job or, ahem, tanking for the No 1 pick in the draft, every team has something on the line. The best game of the week is the Monday Night Football clash between the NFC West’s Arizona Cardinals (10-2) and Los Angeles Rams (8-4) but because that falls on a Tuesday here I can’t claim it’s part of an extended weekend. Instead we’ll head to Tampa, where Tom Brady’s Bucs (9-3) will be hoping to hold off Josh Allen and the brilliant but under-performing Bills (7-5).
Tampa Bay v Buffalo, Tampa, Monday 10.25am, ESPN (TBC)
The Breakers were awful in their first-up match against the Phoenix, but they get an opportunity to make amends against the same side tonight, this time at something closer to full strength, as Marc Hinton reports in Stuff. The Breakers, and indeed the ANBL as a whole, feels so under-the-radar this season. This is a team that desperately needs to be able to play at home.
SEM Phoenix v NZ Breakers, Melbourne, tonight 9.30pm, Sky Sport 1
