'We now have a meaningless comp'
A correspondent vents, PLUS: The Week that Was and the Weekend That Will Be.
A piece of correspondence dropped on my desk this week that grabbed my attention.
It was written in response to my Wednesday newsletter that questioned the decision to remove the New Zealand arm of Super Rugby Pacific from a South Island bubble just as Omicron was really starting to make its presence felt in the North Island - a move that has led us to a situation where two of the three games to be played here this weekend have been postponed.
Because this person is closely connected with a Super Rugby side and is a prominent face in his rugby community he has asked to remain anonymous but he has agreed to let me share it.
Parts of his letter are abridged or edited for clarity, but I think it’s worth a read.
“Really glad you mentioned the diabolical Super Rugby situation.
“Given the facts we knew about Omicron it made no business or practical sense to leave the Queenstown bubble environment but the arrogance of New Zealand Rugby and the Players’ Association came first.
“We saw in the NRL the way Peter V'landys was able to lead. He was able to keep teams in Brisbane for extended periods despite the push back and he fronted the public explaining what was going on. The competition was held with integrity and everyone made sacrifices. I know scalability means we aren’t comparing apples with apples when it comes to the NRL and Super Rugby, but you just have to watch shows like NRL 360 or look at the NRL website content to see how they hold the organisation to account for the decisions it makes.
“Here, the NZR knows it doesn’t need to front the media or be held to account because they are such a monopoly.
“Rugby is losing touch with grassroots and this was highlighted by Ardie Savea complaining about a four-hour bus ride. Yes it is professional rugby but bus rides are just a part of playing rugby in New Zealand.
“Rugby had the perfect opportunity to provide an exciting product, playing three games a weekend in a controlled environment and produce content that engaged a waning rugby community. Instead we now have a comp that means nothing, a product where the quality is poor and an organisation that is out of step with its stakeholders.
“It’s incredibly frustrating.” - Anon
As I was in the process of putting this newsletter together, a former colleague wrote to ask how it was possible to stage a Cricket World Cup with all its different teams, venues, cultures and various moving parts without any Covid disruption (touch wood), and yet rugby couldn’t do the same.
It’s a bloody good question and one without an easy answer if you want to avoid vexed topics about the attitudes of those involved with the sport.
Put it another way, you don’t hear about any of the World Cup cricketers refusing to wear masks on a plane like the way some Highlanders did.
However, it’s also an unfair comparison. The World Cup is an international tournament and while they’re not in a super-strict bubble, they all have separate rooms and are so used to travelling the world in pandemic conditions now that they slot into health-and-safety routines as second nature.
The Super Rugby players share rooms, play contact sport and many are relatively inexperienced when it comes to bubble life. If one player gets sick, it’s more likely to go like wildfire through the team.
That still doesn’t answer the question as to why they wanted to leave Queenstown so prematurely. Did the Super Rugby franchises decide to come home in the expectation they would be able to welcome crowds back to their stadia and make money?
If you look at the tone of that letter from the Super Rugby CEOs to the Government it’s clear they’re not on the same page and I’m told the antipathy is a two-way street (probably more so from health department officials who don’t like being told what to do than actual politicians, but still).
“This different treatment for different events has a significant financial and relationship cost on each of our clubs. We have already had fans and supporters, including stadium and club members, asking how they are being permitted to attend CWC fixtures in the same venue - and, in some cases, in the same week - at a time when they are not able to attend Super Rugby Pacific matches,” the letter stated (via NZ Herald).
It’s largely a moot point this weekend, anyway, and you can’t escape the fact that the whole situation is baffling. Rugby had a sound plan to avoid the sort of situation they find themselves in this weekend, and at the very worst time they lost the collective will to continue with it.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Sometimes sport just melts you.
Like here, when former Carlton captain Carlton star Sam Docherty kicked a goal from in front and was mobbed by his teammates in front of a wall of MCG noise.
The reason: seven months ago he was diagnosed with testicular cancer for the second time.
Docherty was first diagnosed back in November 2020 and played 14 games for Carlton last season before a scan revealed another tumour.
The 28-year-old understated it somewhat when he described the diagnosis as a “curveball”, but he’s back now and fans, teammates and commentators alike are loving it.
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The Docherty triumph wasn’t the biggest news of the opening week of the AFL season, unfortunately.
One thing about Australian sport is the media treat it as an endless “angles” machine. This has its ups - most notably that there is a constant promotion for the sport and the administrators, coaches and players are held to account - and downs in that the manufactured controversy just gets tiresome, the criticism of players is often unfair and ultimately that can detract from the product.
There was a perfect amalgam of those conflicting forces following the season-opening win by Melbourne over the Western Bulldogs, a replay of last year’s grand final.
The Bulldogs combustible coach Luke Beveridge combusted at a journalist: his crime, correctly reporting that a player was going to be dropped from their first round team.
The condemnation for Beveridge was swift from all corners of the game, but you wouldn’t know it reading the comments under this clip. Who’d be a journalist 😏.
Speaking of manufacturing controversy, on Wednesday I reviewed the first five episodes of what has been a largely disappointing season four of the Netflix phenomenon Drive to Survive.
The driver you don’t see much of in series four is world champion Max Verstappen, who made his feeling clear about why in this piece on the BBC.
“I watched two episodes, but I was not very impressed. It's just not my thing, faking rivalries.”
He is especially referring to the episode that charts the in-house rivalry at McLaren between drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.
“Lando and Daniel are two great people I know - they have really great characters and immediately in the second episode it looks like they are not very friendly to each other, and for me that’s not correct and that’s why I’m also not a part of it."
While Formula One and the producers of the show would love Verstappen to be involved, it is far from the end of the world if stays on the sidelines. According to Morning Consult, the Drive to Survive effect has been nothing short of revolutionary in the US.
Running the Morning Consult numbers:
Some 28 percent of US adults identified as fans of Formula 1, up from 21 percent in 2020.
F1 has pulled even with IndyCar (29% of US adults said they were fans) in terms of popularity among the American public, an impressive feat given that F1 has held only one race per season in the United States (prior to this season’s addition of the Miami Grand Prix) and lacks any American-born drivers.
Drive to Survive played a major role in the recent growth of the sport’s American fan base. More than half of F1 fans (53%) said the series, which debuted in 2019, played a role in their becoming a fan, including 30 percent who said it was a “major reason”. Some 74% attributed their fandom at least in part to the show.
That’s mind-boggling and, dare I say it, an on-a-plate lesson for those sports who still like to hide the mystery behind a curtain.
A bit of the vexed Russia in sport pieces of content to ponder.
This first clip highlights the competing thought threads around Roman Abramovich’s investment in English football.
Chelsea fans: “Yeah, but look at the money he’s invested in the club. He loves us.”
Most other people: “Nah, he needed a high-profile front to protect himself and ‘wash’ his ill-gotten gains.”
The man articulating Abramovich’s nefarious motivations is Matthew Syed, a former Olympic table tennis player and author of Bounce (not to be confused with The Bounce!) and Black Box Thinking.
In this piece from the Daily Telegraph’s Oliver Brown via the NZ Herald, he argues that Russian tennis players, including world No 1 Daniil Medvedev should be kicked off the tour.
[Medvedev] is, after all, the most highly visible sporting representative of a country committing heinous atrocities against its neighbour...
If the calls for him to denounce his nation's president seem gratuitous, then that is because his comments on the conflict to date have been vanilla, limited to "no war" rhetoric that offends Ukrainian players for whom war is a hideous, unprovoked reality.
Take the view of 19-year-old Marta Kostyuk, born in Kyiv, part of a generation whose prime of life is being stolen by the megalomaniac in the Kremlin… She claimed she had not received even the mildest expression of locker-room support from her Russian peers.
“None have told me they're sorry for what their country is doing to mine," she said. "I didn't hear any apologies. To me, that's shocking. You don't have to be involved in politics to behave like a human being. It hurts me every time I arrive at the stadium and see all these Russian players.”
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Haven’t caught up with the midtable Wellington Phoenix in a long time but tonight seems as good a time as any to check in.
Newcastle Jets v Wellington Phoenix, Newcastle, tonight 9.45pm, Sky Sport 2
The White Ferns lost another heartbreaker in Hamilton last night, which we at The BYC discuss in the latest CWC special (feat. Kate Wells).
What it means is that New Zealand’s match with England at Eden Park on Sunday is essentially a quarterfinal. What that also means is that I’ll be glued to it, for better or worse. The prospect of new Zealand not being involved in the semifinals of their own World Cup is too sad to contemplate.
NZ v England, Auckland, Sunday 10.30am, Sky Sport 3
Drive to Survive has done the trick in my household (see above). Qualifying might be a bridge too far for me but the teenager will no doubt rouse himself for the opening weekend of the season at Sakhir.
Testing times have been inconclusive and there is genuine hope Ferrari might be able to nudge their way into the conversation alongside Red Bull and Mercedes this year. At least hope lies eternal.
Bahrain GP, qualifying, Sunday 3am, Spark Sport
Bahrain GP, race, Monday 4am, Spark Sport
Yeah, we might tease the Warriors from time to time but come on, we’re not giving up on 2022 after one measly week. The good: Reece Walsh is back (I suppose Matt Lodge returning is good news too). The bad: Shaun Johnson, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Viliame Vailea are all out. As for the Gold Coast, they lost last week too but thumped the Warriors 44-0 when they met at the end of last season in a spiteful, embarrassing encounter.
Gold Coast v Warriors, Gold Coast, tomorrow 5pm, Sky Sport 2
Super Rugby Aupiki reaches its conclusion this weekend and thankfully has a virtual final between the Blues and Chiefs Manawa. I expected the Chiefs to cruise through this inaugural season but it hasn’t gone like that and the Blues looked more impressive in their one outing than their opponents have so far.
Chiefs Manawa v Blues, Hamilton, Sunday 7.35pm, Sky Sport 1
The Six Nations ends with a blockbuster between two teams whose matches always have a certain frisson. England can’t win the Six Nations but they can stop Le Bleus from doing so.
France v England, Paris, Sunday 9am, Sky Sport 1
