Twenty-three reckons from an armchair weekend
It's all fun and Games till a cyclist lands in your lap.
A bunch a lightly connected thoughts from a weekend where a lot of sport was watched but not an awful lot was taken in. Do not try to make sense of the order.
1. Because the New Zealand rugby public have taken a rather dim view of proceedings lately, chief executive Mark Robinson did not just give an interview on Saturday but came out of hiding. My favourite line in this Stuff wrap of Robinson’s radio interview was: Many also noted that NZ Rugby chief executive Robinson had been ‘’invisible’’ through the shakeup following the Irish defeat and subsequent fallout…
If you click on the link contained in that paragraph, it takes you through to an opinion piece written by the same author, so perhaps it would have been fairer to replace “many also noted” in the above with “I have noted”.
2. The key takeaway from Robinson’s NewstalkZB conflab was his failure to endorse Ian Foster beyond these two tests in South Africa, saying: “He’s certainly the person to lead the team to South Africa, and we’re making sure they’ve got everything possible in the way of resourcing and support to make sure that’s successful.” This seems sensible. It’s clear not all is right in the camp - John Plumtree and Brad Mooar can attest to that - and it’s not obvious that Foster can turn it around. Robinson getting caught in an endorsement trap at this point would be counter-productive.
3. Scott Robertson’s comments about wanting to coach the All Blacks AND another team to World Cup glory have certainly upped the ante. I can’t work out whether it’s just another example of Razor’s plain-speaking honesty, or if it reveals a Machiavellian side of his nature. Gregor Paul makes the point loud and clear here ( $) that letting Robertson take a role with England would trump any own goal NZR has scored recently - and there’s been a few.
Nothing will shame New Zealand more than to see Scott Robertson, a man who has won six from six titles with the Crusaders and who pretty much shouted from the rooftops this week that he wants to coach the All Blacks, be left like an unwanted child on the steps of the orphanage.
4. Robinson’s mood would not have improved after the results of the sevens in Birmingham - twin semifinal defeats and two bronzes that will take pride of place alongside the Most Improved Player trophies. The men’s semifinal loss to Fiji was a cracking match. New Zealand did incredibly well to take the game to extra time, defending on their own line with five players at one stage, but they’ll always second guess punting the ball out after they won a penalty with time up and Fiji surely demoralised from not having sealed the deal. They compounded that by kicking off long to gift Fiji possession in golden-point extra time - 10 seconds later it was all over. Robinson, who is in Birmingham, must have been thinking, “It never rains…”
5. Cycling New Zealand, however, has found a measure of redemption on the boards. That might come across as a little glib given the horrific events of last year, but all the athletes can do is perform. It’s been a meeting of contrasts but the highs have been very high. The men’s endurance team led by Aaron Gate have been superb, as have the women’s sprint team, spearheaded by the brilliant Ellesse Andrews. Endurance rider Bryony Botha has been a shining light, also, but the men’s sprint programme has fallen away. That might be the result of a reset after the Heron Report PtI was highly critical of the preferential treatment received by that programme.
6. Sport New Zealand ran a photo very similar to the above on their Facebook page. Not many of the comments were limited to cycling. Let’s just say they were focused more on the whole package, with one commenter saying the uniform designers missed the opportunity to use the silver fern like a fig leaf.
7. Track cycling is one of my favourite spectator sports and although I feel guilt in admitting this, part of the reason is the ever-present danger. The crash involving New Zealand’s George Jackson in the scratch race qualifiers last night (main image) was next level scary. There is footage circulating on video-sharing platforms taken from phones that I’m not going to post here in case you’re squeamish but when you see it you’ll understand how three riders were hospitalised and how lucky it was that everybody was cleared of serious injury.
8. Lewis Clareburt is an intriguing athlete. Winning the 400 individual medley was excellent but perhaps expected; beating Chad le Clos to win the 200m fly - that’s a bit special. The question is: Was his dance after the 400IM inspired by Miles Teller in Top Gun?
9. Australian runner Liam Adams finished fourth in the marathon wearing what looked to be a pair of gardening shoes.
The maratons were a tough watch, with the English commentator insisting on reading the most banal tweets from around the world as if they were insightful observations. He also seemed surprised that people living in Africa had access to social media.
10. Absolutely here for Hayden Wilde’s elite pettiness in staring down the official who penalised him in the men’s triathlon when he transitioned from the bike to the run in today’s teams event.
11. Portia Woodman blamed herself for the hair-pulling incident that potentially cost NZ a match-winning try in the semifinal against Australia.
“It’s my fault for wearing my hair out, I’ve got to expect that,” she told Stuff after also wearing her hair out for the bronze medal match.
12. More than 87,000 people watched England beat Germany to win the women’s Euros at Wembley Stadium. The Guardian had a whole section dedicated to the tournament and it felt… normal.
13. It took me too long a time to realise this, but it’s amazing how much more enjoyable women’s sport is when you stop comparing it to men’s. That’s not to say improvements can’t be made to the product - but they’ll be improvements on their own terms, not to make it “more like the men”.
14. The Community Shield was a low-key instalment in the high-octane rivalry that is Manchester City v Liverpool. What makes it so compelling apart from in Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp the best two managers in football, is they both want what the other has. Citeh covet Liverpool’s history and European success, while the Pool desperately want the blue half of Manchester’s bottomless pockets and domestic dominance. Liverpool won this 3-1, with their £85m striker Darwin Nunez outplaying City’s £85.5m (£51m up front) Erling Haaland.
15. The Warriors week 25 clash with the Gold Coast Titans could determine the wooden spoon. Yikes.
16. This was gross. Yes, rugby union might have gone card crazy, but c’mon league, get your s*** together.
17. Bill Russell was not only one of the greatest basketballers who ever lived and arguably the greatest teammate, he was also the subject of one of the best sports profiles ever written - a singular, rule-breaking piece of writing by the late Frank Deford that sealed my love of the craft.
18. The Black Caps party tour leaves Edinburgh for The Netherlands. Mark Chapman could be forgiven for wanting to set up shop in the Scottish capital, following his 83 in the second T20I with an unbeaten 101 in the only ODI. He hit 14 sixes across two spectacular innings. New Zealand play back-to-back T20s against the Dutch on Friday and Saturday morning before heading to the West Indies.
19. The batters have had a bunch of fun, the seamers less so. None of the frontline pacemen used in Scotland went for less than six an over, with Blair Tickner the least expensive at 6.20 RPO, while Lockie Ferguson went for an eye-popping 8 across the two white-ball matches he played.
20. Lydia Ko is proving wonderfully consistent but can’t seem to get her nose across the line first. She led into the final round of the Scottish Open only to fade to fifth. This week’s Open Championship at Muirfield would be a good place to regain the winning feeling.
21. I don’t know why anybody would care enough to write a story about the coroner’s findings over the death of an AFL player’s father, but here you go…
22. Is there a better driver in the world at getting a fast car across the line in first place than Shane van Gisbergen? He’s won 14 races of 23 in this year’s Supercars series, despite securing just four pole positions. He’s as good a reason as any to get out to see the last laps driven at the famously fast Pukekohe Raceway next month.
23. Is there any team worse at getting a really fast car around the track in first place than Ferrari? They have completely botched this season despite having a rocket for a car and a brilliant driver in Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen this morning won from 10th on the grid in Hungary; Leclerc finished sixth from the second row because his team put the wrong tyres on. Embarrassing.
Good wrap. Lots of sports on!! Just want to say well done on the recent Heath Davis article on Spinoff. Such an interesting subject and story. He is a real character of NZ cricket. BTW is that THE Marc Ellis in the Wellington U-18s with Heath, as well as Simon Mannix?
Thanks Dylan, great summary. Personally I have no problem with the NZR CE going to support the teams at the Commonwealth Games.Presumably that and the 7s World Cup in SA are the big overseas targets for 2022 with RWC22 the big ticket for these shores - for me, good to see him doing that and trusting his staff here at home to look after what was ultimately more smoke than fire- the AB’s are not the only thing in NZ rugby..... AB’s should have their own CE - size of that aspect of business warrants it - part of the governance review outcome? NZR CE is a huge job - perhaps a GM for the AB’s who reports to the NZR CE? As for Scott R, had a listen to the interview with Big Jim, it’s like a manifesto/job interview - made his case and I bet he ain’t popular with some of rugby cognoscenti given some of those views! I hope if foster is let go, they invite applications rather than just give it to him, if they going out to buy him, buyer beware (and/or buyers remorse) are a couple of phrases that spring to mind!