Some sizzle in the drizzle
Plus: More concussion idiocy and (Caps Lock) YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT CHRIS WOOD!
There have been a couple of cracking matches to start the Cricket World Cup, which is just as well as both myself and fellow BYCer Paul Stuart Ford have been bitten by the Covid bug and are in the market for some cricket sustenance.
We joined forces to bring you the first BYC Women’s CWC podcast special, which we’ll continue to run twice-weekly through to the end of the tournament.
There was plenty to chew over, including the bizarre end to the White Ferns’ opener against the West Indies, New Zealand’s new-ball bowling woes and homecoming queen Suzie Bates.
We also ask whether the umpires in Dunedin yesterday set an unrealistic precedent in playing in such wet and miserable conditions - or is everybody else just too soft? Personally, I think Bangladesh have a point in this story where they “grizzle about the drizzle”.
Here’s a bit more on Bates’ 14-year wait to play an ODI on her home ground.
You’ve read a bit from me banging on about the Paul McCrory fall from grace and why it matters.
It matters because of the sort of stuff happening in Wales right now, where team management are cynically hiding behind “protocols” to put a player’s health at risk.
They can do this in large part because of the soft-soaping of the long-term risks of head trauma by McCrory’s Concussion in Sport Group.
Tomas Francis was concussed against England nine days ago. We know that because he displayed clear and obvious ataxia - a lack of muscle control and coordination - and left the field. He came back on as he passed a head injury assessment, which tells you all you need to know about the effectiveness of that process.
Francis has been picked to play France this weekend. Wayne Pivac has picked him because he is the best prop in Wales. Francis will play because he is a player and unless they’re told otherwise, that’s what players do.
What they really need is an adult in the room.
Someone like former Wales team doctor Professor John Fairclough.
“I have carefully reviewed the footage numerous times, and in my expert view, it is beyond any doubt that Tomas had suffered a brain injury. As someone who has taken an oath to protect life, I can’t, in all good conscience, fail to highlight that I think him playing the next game puts him at unnecessary risk of serious harm, whether that be now or in the future.”
I don’t blame you if you get sick of reading this sort of thing but honestly I get sick of writing it too.
Excuse the dreadful pun, but it’s spreading, with netball’s ANZ Championship also affected.
Tough times.
Here’s a couple of interesting pieces from the Premier League to savour.
Chris Wood has been copping a bit of grief for his goalless start to life at Newcastle, but there’s a case to be made that he’s had a Steven Adams effect - he won’t wow you with his stat line, but true-faith.co.uk say he’s helping the Toon win the sort of games that they were not before he arrived.
There’s a bigger picture here. In the six games in which Wood has played (every minute), we have been a team transformed. Four wins and two draws, 14 points from a possible 18 for a team that had only managed 11 out of the previous 57 available. Of course, correlation should never be mistaken for causation… but if Wood hasn’t also been playing a role, then he’s one hell of a lucky mascot to have around.
I think this is what the cool kids call meta (the concept, not Facebook’s new name): here the Guardian’s football columnist writes a long piece about how Manchester United being bad has become “its own self-sustaining media industry”.
The only really interesting thing about Manchester United right now is how unhappy people are about Manchester United. The most powerful element, the only real energy at the club, is that apparently bottomless well of dismay.
United pundits might be miserable. Most others are delighted. It is a weird hold that schadenfreude has over football fans and pundits. I have a friend of Belfast persuasion who has told me many startling things, not least that he once scored a hat-trick of own goals, much like New Zealand’s own Meikayla Moore, but the one that stuck out was when he said he got more pleasure watching Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard slip and concede the Premier League title to Manchester City in 2014 than he has from watching his beloved United win any trophies.
Now I enjoy watching a Steve Smith duck as much as the next man, but it’s not my raison d’être. I’d much rather watch a Kane Williamson century than a Smith failure, so I thought this trenchant position was a little bit weird; a small character flaw in an otherwise champion bloke. However, I’ve been reading a lot of almost gleeful Fall of the House of United-type stories on the interweb and understand him more thoroughly now. Pleasure in others’ pain is deeply ingrained into football fandom.
I promised I’d offer some thoughts about Super Rugby today. I pretty much lied, though I will leave on this cautionary note. Moana Pasifika were excellent for long periods and much more competitive against the Crusaders than I expected.
I remember an anecdote however, from when Brisbane Broncos started life in the NRL (actually the ARL back then) with a thumping win over defending champions Manly. As the players were celebrating loudly in the Lang Park sheds, Wayne Bennett, the coach, turned to Wally Lewis, the captain, and apparently said: “You know it’s never going to get any easier than this.”
What he meant was that the players were always going to be fizzing for the first game. Motivation was never going to be a problem. Reality would strike when the week-to-week grind set in. The star-studded Broncos missed the playoffs.
Moana Pasifika showed huge ticker and promise in week one. It’s going to get harder from here on in.
