When it feels like déjà vu all over again
Warriors bomb, Chiefs soar and Ferns go missing in Wellington.
A leaguie I enjoy corresponding with admitted he was as “anxious as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs” ahead of the Warriors season opener on the Sunshine Coast.
The anxiety was well placed. It took just 80 minutes to turn from long tailed to manx.
It wasn’t just that the Warriors lost - that happens quite a bit - but it was the way they lost. Having clawed their way out of an early hole, they grabbed an 18-16 lead with half an hour to go and a strong wind at their backs.
There really should have been only one winner from there and that wasn’t the team with one of the worst jerseys ever spotted on a rectangular field1.
Instead the final half an hour was a patchwork quilt of all the Warriors' worst features since Ivan Cleary left.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak had one of those days and it was later revealed he played most of the match with a broken thumb. Being tough is great… but he really shouldn’t have.
On the other wing, Marcelo Montoya was badly overmatched by Mikaele Ravalawa.
Shaun Johnson looked the part until his decision-making deserted him and that anxiety familiar to followers of the club started to transfer collectively to the 13 on the field.
On the plus side, Josh Curran was excellent and a couple of blemishes aside, Addin Fonua-Blake will be a force.
It would be premature to write off a season after one poor chapter, even if the story feels familiar, but it’s fair to say nothing is going to come easy again, not with another extended spell away from home and question marks over key players.
Reece Walsh will return, as will Tohu Harris and Matt Lodge. It’s reasonable to expect the Warriors to improve, but it’s also reasonable to be disappointed that the improvement will come from such a low base.
Admittedly, some of the disappointment came from sacrificing live viewing of the Chiefs’ dramatic after-the-hooter win over the Crusaders.
I’m a big admirer of Scott Robertson and happen to think he’s stuck in the wrong job, but there’s still something deeply satisfying about watching the defending champions being tipped up at home, especially when they’re leading by 11 with five minutes to go.
It was nice to see Warren Gatland’s smirk re-emerge at the back of the Chiefs’ coaching box, too.
This piece, by AP’s New Zealand-based reporter Steve McMorran, found its way on to rugby.com.au and was particularly pointed.
There were nine All Black in the Crusaders’ starting 15 against the Chiefs, including midfielders David Havili and Braydon Ennor, flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, lock Sam Whitelock and front-rowers Codie Taylor and Joe Moody.
More would have been expected of a team of that strength than it produced.
Several try-scoring chances were bungled by handling errors and there were many more failings, tactical and technical, which have become almost symptomatic of the New Zealand section of the competition.
New Zealand Rugby recent wrote to the New Zealand government appealing for dispensation from Covid-19 regulations which limit crowds to a fraction of a stadium’s capacity. It may be debatable whether crowds would be larger if there were no limitations.
While matches between the New Zealand teams mostly have been close this season, the standard has been poor. Lack of ball retention and control, poor tactical and kicking options have made most matches low on spectator appeal.
I’d be interested to know whether this is a viewpoint shared by subscribers. Has the start been slow and if so, does it speak to a wider malaise in New Zealand rugby?
Under the rules, England lock Charlie Ewels had to be sent off in England’s Six Nations loss to Ireland.
These are exactly the sort of tackles/ collisions we want to see eliminated from rugby. Not only is the safety element paramount, but there’s also the hope that bringing the tackle area down lower there’ll be more offloads and better rugby.
But… being reduced to 14 men for 78 minutes is a massive price to pay for what is a technical error rather than a malicious one.
There’s no perfect system, but the best suggestion I’ve seen is making the red card a 20-minute sinbin and while the offender cannot return to the field, he or she can be replaced after that sanction.
Too many games are being ruined by numerical mismatches, which in its own way creates unsafe situations.
Retirement is tough, even if you’re widely acknowledged as the greatest to have ever done something and your legacy is assured.
Tom Brady turns 45 in a few months. He officially reversed his decision after watching Cristiano Ronaldo score a hat-trick against Spurs. Coincidence.
Bad week for your average Saudi. Newcastle leaked a late, late goal to lose to Chelsea, and 81 men were executed in a single day for a range of offences including pledging allegiance to extremist ideologies.
I enjoyed this episode of The Fold, which features Mike Lane, the ‘brains’ behind the ACC.
I’m duty bound to include a disclosure in that The BYC, which I co-host, is part of the ACC stable and speaking of which, here’s the latest BYC CWC special, coming hard on the heels of a fairly ignominious performance from the White Ferns. Maddy Green drew the short straw and got to talk Paul Ford and I through it.
We talk about the White Ferns bottling it with the bat, not just with the top order collapse, but the failure to at least try to negate some of the net run rate damage. This is a point picked up on by Cameron McMillan from the Herald, who also had this take on the coach and captain not fronting after the match.
At some point during the collapse maybe the White Ferns should have considered the bigger picture of their semifinal hopes and protected their net run rate which has taken a massive hit. Equally disappointing was that neither a player nor the head coach fronted the media after the 141-run thrashing. Instead, assistant coach Jacob Oram stepped in. Oram is a fine talker, but come on, where were Sophie Devine and Bob Carter?
It’s been a while since I’ve cared about the anodyne quotes you usually get in the immediate aftermath of matches, but at the same time one of the signs of leadership is fronting up when a team’s at their lowest - this was one of those times.
MANA PRIZE
Congratulations to Tanya Wintringham who was drawn out of the hat to win a copy of Mana, a photo essay of the 2010 All Blacks.
THIS WEEK
Look in your inboxes for a midweek newsletter, which will feature a review of the latest season of Drive to Survive, and The Week that Was and the Weekend That Will Be on Friday.
The classic St George ‘Red V’ is one of the great sporting strips. This version is a travesty.
I'm in the UK so don't really start paying attention to matches before the pointy end of the season. The highlights I've watched though do show some average skill levels and some poor strategic thinking. The under 16s team I coach sometimes show better ball retention and ability to resist 50/50 passes.
Hard to blame Foster for the ABs malaise when Super Rugby teams (including the Crusaders, with nearly as many ABs as the actual ABs and a Coach many think should have the big job) are so poor. Maybe we're promoting too many too early before their skills and rugby brains are polished at club level?
Yes super rugby has declined for some time with the skill levels .. it’s average viewing .. not many games of must see like in the past .. the standard is a major worry .. so is the competition..when the great good is the All Blacks .. you got major issues