I watched the White Ferns play England yesterday. I am in despair. I know England are full of talent but from 79 for 6 in the 17th over, we should have won by at least 50 runs instead of losing by four wickets. I don’t know if a deep dive on the state of New Zealand women’s cricket is on your agenda Dylan, but someone needs to figure out the myriad problems, causes and possible solutions because NZC don’t seem to be. To make it more poignant, there was a 40th reunion of players from a tour of England and Netherlands, where they played county teams and tests. Tests! OK, three dayers, but even so, one four day one would be a miracle at this point.
In positive AFL news, and giving New Zealanders more reasons to watch, a Kiwi had an excellent debut for Richmond on Sunday. Mykelti Lefau played well, helping the Tigers to their first win of the season (to be clear, he wasn’t the only reason, far from it, but he did good).
Hope you had a nice Easter break! Some random thoughts:
- Something's wrong in that White Ferns set up- I'm not sure what, but just doesn't seem happy. Weird.
- It's a broad generalisation but many ex players are painful as sports 'journalists'. Calling their old mates by their nicknames and not asking any probing questions is hideously boring. Just as painful are the manufactured disagreements on panel shows that can neatly be clipped onto social media.
- Few of the kids I teach follow Super Rugby either. They love a TikTok highlights package. Make of that what you will- sad aye...
- Speaking of kids, schoolboy rugby teams playing 20 games per season before rep stuff and before 7s tournaments is a lot in my opinion. Factor in all the contact training in between and sheesh that's a big shift. Some great people and great kids involved in many cases but boy oh boy- a lot.
I've probably ranted here before on Super Rugby scheduling before Dylan. As you called out this weekend was at it's worst. Half the season they play 4 games on a Saturday and none on a Sunday. In those weeks you have 28hrs from 5pm East Coast Australia Friday night to 9pm Saturday night with 6 games jammed in. The NRL is running 8 games over 72 hrs from Thursday night. It's worse here as you also have AFL as an active competitor. Sunday afternoon is often the only free slot busy families have.
About two weeks ago, I read a report covering the Bulls vs Stormers match in Pretoria - I think. The crowd was given as near sell-out, which would mean something like 50,000 plus. I watched the highlights which certainly showed packed grandstands. The comparisons between rugby crowds in the UK, France or SA vs NZ is marked. The game, from a spectator view point, is dying in NZ. Sad but true. We have been poorly served by the game's administrators for some years. Can it recover, to the levels of where it was during Super 12? Not a chance.
"The Warriors 20-12 win over the Knights in a re-run of last year’s home playoff by contrast wasn’t an amazing game"
And yet - it was a better watch still than a Super Rugby game. The atmosphere of the crowd is part of that, it comes across on the telly (especially with the drumming back), as well as the 'keep your eyes on the screen as something could happen' nature of the gameplay
Hmmm rugby....interesting your point about Super 12 Dave, when I look back it was almost an era where after having been rationed rugby teaspoon full by teaspoon full we were able to binge on rugby for the first time. I vividly remember following NPC in the 80s and 90s where your team played 8 games a season and only half those at home. Scarcity drove appreciation and then it went professional and it was like a giant sugar hit. There’s a lot more to the current malaise than that of course but it’s part of it. You just knew that with every team added to the Super comp over the years that it became less “super” but every time the NZRU administrators argued it would “grow the game” etc. Palpable BS but they convinced themselves that the answer to diminishing value was to water the product down even more.
I honestly believe rugby is poked in this country. Like it or not the success of rugby historically was its single minded, hard nosed attitude at the elite level and catering to its loyal constituency at grass roots. Nowadays the NZRU and players association is totally distracted by serving every last fashion / woke cause (e.g. the Poua and TJ Perenara show) and in doing so is pleasing no one and thumbing it’s nose at those who made it what it was. They’re turning away in droves. Most recent the only just established Pasifika Advisory board is splintering and making allegations with strong racial undertones which Patsy Reddy & co will have to take seriously because it happened on their watch.
There’s no doubt rugby had to change at some level but the governance review saw every flaw in the system and none of the strengths. The clamour to reject provincial reps on the board has been full of anecdotes about the “bad old days” and the supposed ineptness of previous provincial reps, but what of a fully independent board? No one seems interesting in asking the question who they represent or who the real stakeholders of NZ rugby are....
Meanwhile the game itself continues to die a long, slow painful death.
I watched the White Ferns play England yesterday. I am in despair. I know England are full of talent but from 79 for 6 in the 17th over, we should have won by at least 50 runs instead of losing by four wickets. I don’t know if a deep dive on the state of New Zealand women’s cricket is on your agenda Dylan, but someone needs to figure out the myriad problems, causes and possible solutions because NZC don’t seem to be. To make it more poignant, there was a 40th reunion of players from a tour of England and Netherlands, where they played county teams and tests. Tests! OK, three dayers, but even so, one four day one would be a miracle at this point.
In positive AFL news, and giving New Zealanders more reasons to watch, a Kiwi had an excellent debut for Richmond on Sunday. Mykelti Lefau played well, helping the Tigers to their first win of the season (to be clear, he wasn’t the only reason, far from it, but he did good).
Hope you had a nice Easter break! Some random thoughts:
- Something's wrong in that White Ferns set up- I'm not sure what, but just doesn't seem happy. Weird.
- It's a broad generalisation but many ex players are painful as sports 'journalists'. Calling their old mates by their nicknames and not asking any probing questions is hideously boring. Just as painful are the manufactured disagreements on panel shows that can neatly be clipped onto social media.
- Few of the kids I teach follow Super Rugby either. They love a TikTok highlights package. Make of that what you will- sad aye...
- Speaking of kids, schoolboy rugby teams playing 20 games per season before rep stuff and before 7s tournaments is a lot in my opinion. Factor in all the contact training in between and sheesh that's a big shift. Some great people and great kids involved in many cases but boy oh boy- a lot.
I've probably ranted here before on Super Rugby scheduling before Dylan. As you called out this weekend was at it's worst. Half the season they play 4 games on a Saturday and none on a Sunday. In those weeks you have 28hrs from 5pm East Coast Australia Friday night to 9pm Saturday night with 6 games jammed in. The NRL is running 8 games over 72 hrs from Thursday night. It's worse here as you also have AFL as an active competitor. Sunday afternoon is often the only free slot busy families have.
Those first two photos - no or little spectators.
About two weeks ago, I read a report covering the Bulls vs Stormers match in Pretoria - I think. The crowd was given as near sell-out, which would mean something like 50,000 plus. I watched the highlights which certainly showed packed grandstands. The comparisons between rugby crowds in the UK, France or SA vs NZ is marked. The game, from a spectator view point, is dying in NZ. Sad but true. We have been poorly served by the game's administrators for some years. Can it recover, to the levels of where it was during Super 12? Not a chance.
"The Warriors 20-12 win over the Knights in a re-run of last year’s home playoff by contrast wasn’t an amazing game"
And yet - it was a better watch still than a Super Rugby game. The atmosphere of the crowd is part of that, it comes across on the telly (especially with the drumming back), as well as the 'keep your eyes on the screen as something could happen' nature of the gameplay
Hmmm rugby....interesting your point about Super 12 Dave, when I look back it was almost an era where after having been rationed rugby teaspoon full by teaspoon full we were able to binge on rugby for the first time. I vividly remember following NPC in the 80s and 90s where your team played 8 games a season and only half those at home. Scarcity drove appreciation and then it went professional and it was like a giant sugar hit. There’s a lot more to the current malaise than that of course but it’s part of it. You just knew that with every team added to the Super comp over the years that it became less “super” but every time the NZRU administrators argued it would “grow the game” etc. Palpable BS but they convinced themselves that the answer to diminishing value was to water the product down even more.
I honestly believe rugby is poked in this country. Like it or not the success of rugby historically was its single minded, hard nosed attitude at the elite level and catering to its loyal constituency at grass roots. Nowadays the NZRU and players association is totally distracted by serving every last fashion / woke cause (e.g. the Poua and TJ Perenara show) and in doing so is pleasing no one and thumbing it’s nose at those who made it what it was. They’re turning away in droves. Most recent the only just established Pasifika Advisory board is splintering and making allegations with strong racial undertones which Patsy Reddy & co will have to take seriously because it happened on their watch.
There’s no doubt rugby had to change at some level but the governance review saw every flaw in the system and none of the strengths. The clamour to reject provincial reps on the board has been full of anecdotes about the “bad old days” and the supposed ineptness of previous provincial reps, but what of a fully independent board? No one seems interesting in asking the question who they represent or who the real stakeholders of NZ rugby are....
Meanwhile the game itself continues to die a long, slow painful death.