Savea makes a big noise after being left speechless
... and other weekend talking points.
There was a LOT of sport to watch across the weekend.
Super Rugby: Some very good, some bad.
NRL: Ditto.
US Masters: It’s fun while Tiger lasted.
Australian GP: Less interesting than Supercars.
Top-of-the-table EPL clash: Lived up to the hype.
A lot happened in Super Rugby this weekend, but the biggest talking points came out of the capital, where Jordie Barrett made another claim to already being the best No12 in the country and Ardie Savea was rendered “speechless” just long enough to work out how to give referee Brendon Pickerill a spray in the most diplomatic way possible.
The youngest of the three All Black Barretts is a wonderfully gifted fullback and a more than serviceable wing, but it is at second five-eighth where he might have the most profound influence.
No12 has been a problem position, with Anton Lienert-Brown frequently injured and David Havili failing to make the jersey his own last year.
Barrett would appear to have both the size and skillset to play battering ram, twin pivot or distributor, which could give the All Blacks rich attacking options alongside either brother Beauden or Richie Mo’unga.
He was on the losing side, however, as he has been most times this season as the Hurricanes comeback against the Crusaders fell agonisingly short.
Savea did not take it well.
It was hard not to feel for him after he had made the call to kick for the corner to attempt a boring (in both senses of the word) lineout drive rather than take the three points and send the game to golden point, then called the lineout to himself only to see Scott Barrett disrupt it in a way that usually earns the ire of the referee.
Savea’s decision, rather than referee Brendon Pickerills, should have been the biggest talking point. I don’t think he got it right. Get the game to golden point and you’ve got momentum and a guy who can kick goals from 60m on your side. Kick for the corner and you’re throwing into a lineout against the team with the best set-piece defence in the country.
That’s a high-risk mission.
Savea lashed out at Pickerill and it could be a case of familiarity breeding contempt, with all four of their losses coming with him on the whistle.
It’s a bizarre situation because of the absence of transtasman travel there is a very small pool of refs to pick from.
Savea is expecting an apology this week, which he rightly points out is too late, but it might just be that he’s asked to say sorry, too.
Further north, the Blues were ruthless and clinical in casting aside a Chiefs team lacking any thrust. On the TVNZ website, Patrick McKendry described them as “relentless”, which is as good a word as any.
Their clash with the Crusaders on Friday should be epic.
Epic is one word to describe Marcelo Montoya’s sledge that has smeared a dramatic Warriors victory in the worst kind of way.
Epically stupid.
Epically weak.
Epically crass.
Montoya yelled at his North Queensland opposite Kyle Feldt to get up, using the word “faggot” as a pejorative in the process.
Nearly two days following the event, Warriors CEO Cam George identified him as the culprit, saying: “Both Marcelo and the club are extremely apologetic for the offence this has caused. It was unacceptable. Marcelo accepts responsibility and knows there's no place for such behaviour both in the game and in society generally.”
No doubt a donation will be made to a LGBTQ cause, Montoya will pledge contrition and we’ll all try to move from 1976 back to 2022.
It’s a massive shame because the Warriors were all over the shop against the Cowboys and Shaun Johnson blew a couple of chances to win it before flubbing a wounded-duck field goal over the posts for a golden point win.
In other words, they were their typical mix of great fun and life-shortening all in less than a couple of hours - again.
They’re fifth-equal on the ladder. Start booking those flights to the Grand Final.
It’s been a common refrain this year that the NRL is such a better product than Super Rugby.
While I tend to agree, it’s mostly because of the structure of the competitions. The on-field quality, however, is wildly variable in both codes.
So if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool rugby fan and are sick of hearing how much better the NRL is, point them in the direction of Souths 24 St George 12 from Saturday, April 9. A truly awful spectacle to sit alongside any stinker thrown up by Super Rugby.
The Albert Park circuit was modified this year to create more exciting racing in the Australian GP. It worked in the Supercars, with four terrific and at times spiteful sprint races with tyre blowouts and last corner shenanigans the order of the weekend.
The F1 race was dominated by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. This is a good thing in that Mercedes long-time monopoly that became a duopoly last year with Red Bull’s rapid improvement now has morphed quickly to a triopoly.
This will make for tremendous viewing later in the season when all the teams sort out their race trim, but yesterday wasn’t one of those races, with Leclerc miles down the road on his own.
The Beeb has a nice wrap up of the race.
Manchester City and Liverpool is a very modern rivalry but it is quickly becoming appointment viewing, even if that appointment is inconveniently set for 3.30am on a Monday morning.
Led by the two most charismatic managers of their generation - Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp - City’s frictionless pass style and geometric passing game sits in contrast to Liverpool’s heavy-metal football.
The match finished 2-2, a better result for City who remain a point clear in the race for the title and have a soft remaining schedule.
The two sides meet again this weekend in an FA Cup semifinal. Extraordinarily, City could win the treble - league, FA Cup and Champions League - this season, while Liverpool are also chasing a quadruple, the three aforementioned trophies and the League Cup, which they’ve already won.
Both teams traditionally have a bigger rival, a red team from Manchester, but this is the fixture to watch at present.
The Masters was won by a guy called Scottie Scheffler this morning. If you follow golf you’d know he’s been on a tear in 2022, winning his first tournament on the PGA Tour in February then quickly followed up with two more to claim the No 1 world ranking.
If you’re the type of sports fan who just tunes in for the majors and the Ryder Cup - ie, most of us - then it’s Scottie who?
That is the big puzzle that golf has to try to find a way to solve. The sport has for two decades been dominated by the overwhelming presence of Tiger Woods, even when he’s not even present, and was here again this week before he faded from view in the third round.
Woods commands attention in a way that only Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy of the modern players have ever approached..
Woods is 46 and is busted up; Mickelson is 51 and recently strapped a stick of gelignite to what remained of his career and lit the fuse; McIlroy is 32 but hasn’t won a major since 2014.
It’s probably a little unfair to say that outside of them the game is devoid of engaging personalities, but it’s not a lot unfair.
There are a number of country club-raised American golfers who have sensible haircuts and manicured swings - like your Schefflers, Justin Thomases and Jordan Spieths - but they have little chance of broadening the sport’s appeal beyond its corporate comfort zone.
Take Tiger out of the week and Rory’s final round charge and the 2022 US Masters was… actually pretty ho-hum.
If you came to this small segment already cynical about “judged” sports at the Olympics - and you can definitely count me in that number - then you’re not going to gain any more comfort in the process after reading this Stuff story about behind-the-scenes bullying in diving.
It positions New Zealanders as the good guys and China as the villains but it really doesn’t matter who’s blowing the whistle - it’s the fact that bullying and manipulation of judges take place at all and that Fina is just the latest in a long line of sport’s spineless governing bodies that refuses to stand up to the “powerful” nations.
Another powerful piece about a hard-as-nails former league player now dealing with dementia. From the Sunday Times.
These quotes from Francis Maloney, 48, who played in the halves in the UK Super League for Leeds, Featherstone Rovers, Castleford, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington and Salford, are chilling.
“We didn’t sign up for dementia in our forties. In my era, if you got knocked out then you got back up and if you didn’t then you were soft as shit. Playing for Leeds’ A team as a 16-year-old kid I got knocked out, had six stitches in my head and then showered and changed.
“The coach said, ‘What the f*** do you think you’re doing? You soft bastard.’ People took the piss out of me for months.
“Since my diagnosis came to light, people I thought were my friends have stopped talking to me. I always thought rugby league was the biggest, best family but it’s not.”
THIS WEEK
There are be a few bits and pieces to tidy up tomorrow, particularly as New Zealand Rugby is releasing its review into the culture of the Black Ferns this afternoon, plus the NBA playoffs are set after some farcical final-week matches. There will be a Wednesday newsletter for paying subscribers only and the usual TWTW & TWTWB on Friday.
Not sure I agree with your assessment of the Masters. It was cranking up to be a cracker after Cam Smith's birdie at 11, but his meltdown on 12 made the last 6 holes a boring procession.
Had a mulleted, moustache wearing, V8 and rugby league loving Queenslander won, would that have been less ho-hum?
I agree its hard for NZers to warm to god loving Americans, but I thought for 66 holes it was a really good tournament.