Smith channelling 2015 Dan Carter
PLUS: Paris discord better than the usual shoulder-shrugging silence
You’ve caught The Bounce in the middle of a hazy, somewhat crazy week in Dunedin as the eldest contemplates whether the University of Otago will be the landing spot for next year’s nest-leaving expedition.
The trip has included a night under the roof at the footy on Friday. The Chiefs were good. Way too good for a Highlanders team that lacks game-breaking ability. The home team can go toe-to-toe for long periods of time, but when you need somebody to bust the game open, there are few obvious candidates.
While I’ve chafed at the notion that Super Rugby should be viewed as a type of extended All Black trial, every four years it becomes impossible to ignore the “World Cup Implications”.
In Emerson’s-fuelled conversations with a few intense Highlanders observers, they were uniform in their belief that Aaron Smith, he of 114 mostly excellent All Black caps, is part of the problem. Uttering such thoughts in Dunedin would have once been viewed as sacrilege, but they pointed to his inability to commit defenders with the threat of a running game as the main reason their team looks impotent compared to the other NZ clubs.
While he scored from a close-to-the-line snipe in the 28-52 Friday night loss, Smith was outplayed by his opposite, Brad Weber, who is a long way from a certainty for the World Cup squad.
There’s always a danger in making these sorts of sweeping judgements, especially based on such a small, anecdotal, sample size of opinion. The most popular reference point for the foolishness of writing off champions is Daniel Carter, 2015. His form that season for the Crusaders did not give off a strong “World Cup-winning first-five” vibe but he duly became the pivotal figure in New Zealand’s run to a third Webb Ellis.
Smith has plenty of miles on the clock. It might not make Highlanders’ fans feel any better about their place in the world, but like Carter in his late-Crusader years, he knows how to pace himself through a busy season and Super Rugby is not the time or place to be red-lining it.
The alternative theory is more problematic: that the 34 year old is running on empty and this World Cup has come a season too late.
His form will be worth watching in the truncated Rugby Championship.
***
On matters of more national importance, while it was by no means a big crowd, there were a number of pitch invasions from the section of Forsyth Barr Stadium affectionately known as The Zoo.
All of them were fully clothed.
So what exactly was the point?
I’m not a proponent of the pitch invasion under any circumstances but there is at least a certain brazenness and pre-planned quality to a streak that makes it possible to have a smidgen of admiration for the choreography.
If you’re running onto the field just for the sake of running onto the field, to be an exhibitionist without exhibiting, you’re not even brave, you’re just drunk.
***
Friday night wasn’t the best rugby experience of the weekend.
That came on Saturday afternoon as Dunedin hosted Kaikorai in a top-of-the-table premier clash at Kettle Park, a ground that literally has a sand dune as one of the spectator banks.
Kaikorai were too good, winning 26-15.
Every time I attend club rugby, I always leave feeling more optimistic about the sport on one hand, and more pessimistic on the other.
The atmosphere was great, with crowds of all ages and genders lining the field, some drinking straight from Speight’s big-bots, which always adds a certain je ne sais quoi to proceedings. There remains a connective tissue between club and community, but on the other hand…
…man club rugby is young. The match looked like a school-leavers’ competition and one long-time clubman said it was only the influx of students into the city (who no longer exclusively play for the famous University club) that made the competition viable - and that’s in one of New Zealand’s largest population centres.
The pessimism is best reflected just a few hundred metres from Kettle Park at Hancock Park, where the grand old Pirates RFC, established in the 1880s and part of the Otago club rugby furniture for the best part of 150 years, no longer field senior teams.
***
I saw enough of the Drua’s win over the Hurricanes to realise that it was a party in Suva nobody wanted to miss. I saw enough of the Blues nailbiter against Moana Pasifika to realise that someone forgot to send the invites out.
I never expected a full house to go up at cavernous Eden Park. Sometimes we make too much of the small crowds because unlike in the UK and France, all the New Zealand clubs (outside of the Crusaders temporary ground), play in stadia designed for test crowds, but there is no getting around the fact that was a desperately dismal crowd for what was, in some respects, an intra-city derby. It was also a woeful advertisement for any Eden Park expansion.
Jason Paris’ rage tweet against the NRL officials might just be the smartest piece of politicking anybody involved with the Warriors has done for years.
It’s the intimate connection with the club that makes it impossible for the NRL to ignore, yet what can they actually do about a sponsor going off his nut about the refs?
The NRL will be well aware that the connection between One NZ, formerly Vodafone, and the Warriors is one of the strongest and most enduring partnerships in the sport.
On this occasion money was talking, or tweeting. That tends to make people in high places listen, especially when they double down, albeit in more diplomatic tones, as Paris did in a radio interview.
“I would use this as an opportunity to have not a belief-based discussion but a data-driven discussion," Paris told AM. “Look at the video footage over the last three weeks, over the last three years. Compare the exact same instances that are happening in Warriors games compared to other teams that are competing against them, or in other matches, and you will see inconsistencies.
“Take all this conversation and belief out of it and look at the facts. If the facts are showing the Warriors are getting a fair go - then I’ll shut up.”
It’s not a bad idea, but referees’ boss Graham Annesley has already demonstrated the shortcomings of such an approach when he essentially said he can make a case for any decision to be right.
Professional Rugby League Match Officials’ boss Matt Cecchin demonstrated he had spent no quality time in New Zealand when he said “the comments made by this person don’t reflect 99 percent of people that know anything about, or follow rugby league”. Despite the fact that as New Zealanders we tend to exist in a Warriors echo chamber, there seems to be a persuasive argument that NRL refs are unconsciously biased not so much against the Warriors but towards big, successful, high-profile teams.
Whatever the case, by virtue of his position, Paris has struck a chord few others have managed. For once, the Warriors’ complaints have not been met with a shoulder shrug and silence.
Instead, the NRL’s response has been to rage right back - “there is no comment that could be worse than the type of comment we've seen over the last 24 hours in relation to the integrity of the game,” Annesley said - but when calmer heads prevail, the organisation might see that a review is not a bad idea because at the moment there are more headlines about the men in the middle than there is about the game’s stars.
Three wins and a no result from 10 matches feels about right for the Black Caps in Pakistan. It’s always good to leave on a high, too, but this squad will look very different from the ODI team that will play in England in September for four T20s and four pre-World Cup ODIs.
As crass as it sounds, Glenn Phillips’ seven-ball intervention for the Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday probably had more global impact than the 4000-odd balls of New Zealand’s month in Pakistan.
I didn’t see any of the SailGP in San Francisco but I did follow some of the coverage on Newshub, which featured a giant cut-out head of Tom Slingsby and was quite a trip in itself.
THIS WEEK
The midweek newsletter for $ subscribers will appear on Thursday, before the Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be on Friday.
Interesting observations re: Aaron Smith, and piqued my interest as an ex-halfback. I’ve always been of the view that halfbacks of Smith’s type are not the best defensive halfbacks or behind forward packs struggling to maintain parity - that’s the place for a Connor Murray or Justin Marshall type. The hallmarks for Smith have been a lightning pass and good box kick, but mostly the lightning pass to set away talented outsides behind a dominant forward pack. In the absence of those things you need real variety from your half - kick, run or pass - to keep the opposition guessing and their back line defence on their heals. I haven’t seen much of him lately, but at 34 he’s probably lost a yard of pace and being small is always vulnerable to getting scratched when he runs and putting his team on the back foot. I’m going back a while now, but actually the better parallel is possibly George Gregan, who later in his career became a serial passer and made the Aussie backline easier to defend for a time. Defences used to drift off Grant Fox for the same reason - he never ran. I’m a big fan of Smith and I thought he was fading pre covid but seemed to really benefit from the break it gave him, but Father Time always catches up.
Re club rugby and ages; sadly the same here in the Manawatu, we would struggle if it was imposed at the club I follow but kids straight out of school having at least a year in colts rugby might keep them playing abit longer; looking back at team lists over last few years, players in senior A rugby seem to disappear out of the game - ‘retired’ by 25 by injuries or apathy - if your playing senior A at 18 that might be 6-7 seasons which, as an aside will ensure you’ve earned your blazer and always be welcomed back at your club for Old Timers Day!