Let’s Get Physical

I’ve read a fair few summaries of Saturday’s test between the All Blacks and the Boks. Most are extremely complimentary towards the AB’s, and rightly so. In fact some writers are seemingly suggesting that the team in black is unbeatable. Any time a team walks onto the pitch and thinks they’ve already won simply by turning up, that’s dangerous ground. My take on Saturday’s test is as follows.

No matter how well the All Blacks played, and play well they did, the sending off of Springbok Bismarck Du Plessis ruined the game and really did make it impossible to gauge how the teams compared, especially at scrum-time. By the time Du Plessis asked Liam Messam to take a close-up look at his sore elbow right in front of the ref, the second yellow card and therefore resultant red card was inevitable. But the first yellow card dished out to Du Plessis in the first half was a disgraceful decision. The on-field referee should have had a clear enough view of Bismarck’s tackle on Dan Carter to have waved play on. But he asked the video ref for clarification. The super slow-mo replay showed a fantastic tackle; contact made on Carter’s shoulder and upper arm, arms then wrapped around Carter, who then was injured as he hit the ground. What happened next is not completely clear – either the video ref George Ayoub advised the referee that it was an illegal hit or there was a communication breakdown between the two. Either way the result was that a rightly perplexed Du Plessis put his feet up on the sideline for 10 minutes. Ludicrous.

In the first few minutes of the test I feared the worst. The Springbok pack consists of scarily huge and intimidating beasts. In one scrum in particular the All Black pack was decimated and embarrassed. In addition the Boks were blowing us away in most of the rucks. I actually made a note for this column that simply said ‘out-muscled’, and that was going to be the title of this blog. But what happened as the game progressed was fascinating to me. Quite simply the AB’s muscled up. The tackles transformed into moments of audible impact. Every ruck became a battle of attrition whereby on each occasion players were battered into submission and the team that won the ball was the one that had the most players still standing.  It turned into a brutal affair and was awesome to watch.

Sam Cane was very brave. His tackling was outstanding, his ball carrying was courageous. The amount of claret evident on his head and jersey at the end of the game was testament to his endeavour and courage as well as the sharpness of Owen Franks’ teeth. But I still don’t think he should have started the test. Some of you will be thinking ‘SG – the highest level of rugby you played was age grade and social – what do you know?’ Fair enough. But I have support in my view from rugby royalty. Richie’s predecessor in the black jersey, Josh Kronfeld, said on Thursday he felt Cane’s strength is as a link man and he isn‘t the type of openside we should be giving the number 7 jersey to when playing the enormous Boks. He felt Messam should have played openside, therefore clearing the way for the impressive ballrunner and devastating offensive tackler Steven Luatua to start in the number 6 shirt. I agree. Actually, I would’ve started Tanerau Latimer but it seems I’m on a lone crusade with that one so Messam would have been a good option in my book. I’d also love to have Ardie Savea on the bench as an impact player but that’s a blog for another day. But Cane did very, very well – I’ll give him his dues.

The other All Black standouts for me were Kieran Read (as usual), Brodie Retallick, who was superb in the loose and Beauden Barrett. Barrett looks remarkably comfortable at this level for such a young bloke. His running with ball in hand is mesmerising, his tackling was clearly developed in the backyard against much larger siblings and his tactical kicking is long and accurate. I also thought Charles Piutau was excellent when he came on. He provides much more physicality that Israel Dagg. Dagg will have to stay on top of his game to see off the challenge of the young Aucklander.

The New Zealanders’ speed of everything (passing, recycling, running, mind etc) that I referred to last week was again evident and at times it seemed the Africans were struggling to keep up. But keep up they did – they never give up. It will be very interesting to see how the All Blacks cope with the fanatical and occasionally insane crowd in the return fixture in South Africa. All I know is that if both teams finish the game with 15 players, it’s going to be close and one hell of a battle.

Ahh, So That’s Why Nobody Wants Him

When he’s on, he’s on. When he’s not, he’s a menace. We saw both sides of Ma’a Nonu on Saturday night. He was a constant threat on attack – he really has developed his distribution and kicking skills over the past couple of years. Then, as we have seen on countless occasions before, he lost his sense of judgement and decided a late, high shoulder charge on his opposite Jean de Villiers was a great idea. One avid fan even called Radio Sport on Sunday and praised Nonu saying how wonderful it was to ‘see a bit of mongrel out there’. Well it wasn’t ‘mongrel’. ‘Mongrel’ is putting a big, legal hit on your opposite so he thinks twice about running at you next time. What Nonu did was stupid, that’s all. It’s not 1975 - you can’t get away with rubbish like that anymore. Imagine if that had happened in the last 10 minutes of the next world cup final. It’s such a shame that no coach has ever really managed to convince Nonu to cease the silly on-field acts and instead concentrate on maximising his undoubted skill and talent. And what a shame for his legacy in the NZ game that he will be remembered by many as the international player who was unwanted by all NZ super rugby franchises. If rumours are to be believed, he’s off to France shortly. Au revoir Ma’a.

Manu to the Second Row Please

I’d like to continue my ‘convert Manu Vatuvei into a forward’ campaign. Warriors: put him in the number 13 jersey, get rid of Todd Lowrie. Use him running wide of the ruck, running at halfbacks and any other little guys he can find. It’s time. Just give it a go.

Everyone’s a Winner

Recently the ‘Wellington Primary School Inter-Zone Swimming Champs’ were held. To me they summed up everything that’s wrong with New Zealand sport. It was badly run in almost every way; for example there were no timers, there were two (2) ‘officials’ supposedly monitoring eight (8) lanes, in the absence of timers placings were assigned by three people standing by the end of the pool. And let’s just say those placings were not always correct, or even close to correct. This event was held at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre, which has electronic timing available, so why wasn’t this utilised? There was a general perception, to me anyway, that it was a classic case of ‘everyone has a go and it doesn’t really matter who wins’. Well, even though I encourage all kids to ‘have a go’, it does matter who wins. An event like this one, had it been held in Australia or the United States, would have been run a hell of a lot more professionally. Ok, that’s the end of my rant!

5 + 1 = 7

Officiating is, by its very nature, subjective. Referees are human. They are fallible and they make mistakes. But when that mistake results in one team not only losing the game, but being knocked out of the finals altogether, it’s not a good look for the game.

On Saturday night the Cronulla Sharks faced the North Queensland Cowboys in a sudden death NRL rugby league playoff game. The Cowboys turned the ball over near the Sharks line. The Sharks then made their way 98 metres upfield and on the last play scored in the corner. It was a fantastic effort. The only slight problem was that they had already used up their allotted six tackles well before the try was scored. Therefore the try should have been disallowed. But it wasn’t. The Cowboys ended up losing a tightly fought contest by two points and their season is now over. The NRL seemingly allows the Television Match Official (TMO) to adjudicate on everything from high tackles to high fives. So why the TMO couldn’t have simply grabbed the attention of the official and advised him of his mathematical error is beyond me. Certainly the Cowboys, and in particular skipper Jonathan Thurston, who looked suitably unimpressed at the post match interview, will hope this anomaly is reviewed in 2014.

America’s Cup is New Zealand’s Cup (Almost)

If you’ve read this column before, you’ll know I’m not the biggest fan of yachting or of the America’s Cup concept. But I must admit the viewing has been very exciting lately. Those boats are big, fast and so manoeuvrable in the hands of a good skipper and crew. I can’t say I’m converted as such, but I do confess I’ve been having a few sneaky watches of some of the races. Here’s hoping we can defeat billionaire Larry Ellison and his band of merry mercenaries.

Here We Ko (Again)

She was so close to becoming the youngest ever winner of a women’s golfing ‘major’. In the end Lydia Ko finished second in the Evian Championship in France this morning by two shots. Having also just missed out on another $350,000 or more in prize money due to her amateur status, it must only be a matter of time before she turns pro.  She’s so level-headed and mature that it’s easy to see her continuing her development and dominating the world of women’s golf one day.

Till next time,

SG