September 24th, 2007, by sportsthought — Rugby League
Rugby League player FuiFui MoiMoi (yes that is his real name) is in a bind - he doesn’t know which country to represent in Rugby League.
So how will he decide?
Easy, by not deciding - he’ll just go with the country that asks him first. Fox sports quotes him as saying.
“Whoever I get picked by. If I get picked for Australia first, I’ll play for them. But if New Zealand pick me first then I’ll play for them.”
It seems his flat mate, Taniela Tuiaki is in the same situation - able to play for New Zealand and Australia. So how will Tuiaki decide which country to play for. Well, that’s even easier - he’ll just follow MoiMoi! He is quoted as saying.
“If he would play for Australia, then I would probably do the same and follow him,”
As a Kiwi rugby league supporter, I hope we don’t select either of these players - we want players that are prepared to run through brick walls to represent New Zealand, not players that are unsure who to play for.
In fact, if they don’t have enough passion to know which country they want to play for, they should stick with club football and forget about playing international rugby league.
OK, so we lost the semi final against Pakistan, but my biggest regret about the twenty20 world cup was simply not being able to stay up and watch what seems to have been some great cricket.
Yuvraj hitting six sixes would have been awesome to watch. I guess there is always youtube to fix that problem.
I’ve been to one twenty20 match and had a great time. It was Chris Cairns’ last match for New Zealand as the Black Caps took on the West Indies.
The game started at 7.30 pm, and after the match I realised what a great night’s entertainment twenty20 could be, and wondered aloud whether I would bother attending another one day international.
This match was notable as the first in international history to be decided by a ‘bowl off’. This, after Shane Bond calmly smoked a boundary of the last ball of the New Zealand innings to tie the scores.
No one quite knew what to do, including the officials - many specators thought the game was a tie and started leaving, before it was finally announced that the match would be decided by a bowl off - as per the rules.
The players practiced aiming at one stump for a few minutes - many of them hitting it. However during the real thing it took an age, as the first 12 attempts all missed!
Up stepped Bondy who knocked the stumps over twice, allowing Scotty Styris to finsh the job a few minutes later - an awesome finish to an awesome night.
Anyways, the played the highlights of that match last night before the Black Caps lost to Pakistan, and I was sufficiently motiviated to write a bit about it. Read the full match review.
Swapping your rugby jersey with an international opponent at the end of a rugby test match is a time honored tradition - it’s a sign of mutual respect for each other and a display of sportsmanship. However, as with many aspects of sporting tradition, commercialism has taken over.
How?
Well the All Blacks sponsor and global sporting kit behemoth Adidas have stipulated that the All Blacks cannotswap their jerseys with opposition teams after a rugby game - which goes against the time honored tradition
The All Blacks jumper is the most sought after jersey in rugby. For a team like Portugal, getting their hands on one is akin to striking gold - it’s a permanent reminder of the day they took on the All Blacks.
Apparently Adidas do not want to be associated with teams not sponsored by them - a stupid and greedy move. The bloke in charge of their marketing should be sacked. Adidas, clearly do not understand the power of an All Blacks jumper - and the level of ‘brand juice’ would they get from the public seeing it cherished by other teams at the rugby world cup.
The Portuguese players had oodles of media coverage even though they conceded over 100 points to the All Blacks and were ready made Adidas advertisements - and we are talking true ambassadors here, not the kind dreamt up by the Adidas marketing team.
George Gregan is out of the Rugby World Cup after being arrested by the French Police. Details are sketchy, but it seems he was not wearing a cycle helmet, which is required by French law.
My team on the ground in Paris manged to take this photo at the time of arrest.
As the title of this post suggests, we should get rid of the weak teams, such as Portugal and Japan from the rugby world cup.
Lets start with Japan who have attended all of the world cups. Their record is poor - yet we keep inviting them back.
In 1987 England beat them 60-7
In 1991 Scotland beat them 47-9
In 1995 New Zealand beat them 145-17
In 1999 Wales beat them 64-15
In 2003 France beat them 51-29
In 2007 Australia beat them 91-3
Now, before you start bleating about the need for development, stop and think a minute - then tell me how has this team developed since 1987? Have they got better? No, they keep turning up and keep getting beaten.
Next, it’s the new kids on the block - Portugal. I wrote my All Blacks Portugal match review at half time, as the only aspect of interest was the number of points we could rack up. We ended up scoring 108 points - and no, this was not a twenty20 cricket match, it was a game of rugby.
That’s all well and good, but getting slaughtered by the All Blacks will not help them develop.
So why are they here?
Is it to spread the word about rugby?
Is it so we can show happy, cheering Portuguese in the crowd?
Portugal is a proud nation, and the folks there are proud of their team, as the comments in my last post shoed, but folks lets get real - Portugal should not be participating in this world cup. I noted in my post the only benefit it will give them is an All Blacks jumper and a the experience of a lifetime - taking on the All Blacks.
The All Blacks said they would ease off pushing in the scrum if the Portuguese were in any physical danger. This article quotes Graham Henry as saying
“We’re taking this game as important for our development,” Henry said. “But at scrum time, if we’ve got dominance, and hopefully we will have, we’ll look after the opposing props. We’ve got to be sensitive there — if we have that dominance.”
For pity’s sake, when did the rugby world cup become an international man love fest?
Clearly Graham Henry and the All Blacks don’t think much of the Portugal. Portugal does not need embarrassing talk like that.
Anyway it’s not just a Portugal player that may have been injured, there is also a huge risk in the top players playing the weak teams at this tournament, and getting injured. After the All Blacks beat Portugal, fullback Mils Muliaina sustained a minor injury. Worst case scenario this match could have resulted in an All Black being injured out of the tournament - and for what - a 100 point score line?
For the All Blacks themselves, the feeble competition is doing them no favours. I posted earlier about these teams being of the reasons the All Blacks will lose this tournament. Going into a semi final, we will hardly be match hardened by Portugal and Romania.
Japan and Portugal are not the only teams that should not be here. Namibia, who got thumped by France 87-10 is one team that should be on the hit list. And Romania? Well, lets just hope that an All Black does not get injured as we try and rack up a 2nd century ;)
The IRB have are now considering a reduction in the number of teams, and quite rightly so. A 16 team world cup would be shorter and more interesting.
There would not be so many one sided matches to bore people. Of course it would also make it harder to qualify, but this is a good thing.
It will mean teams like Portugal, Japan, Romania, Namibia etc will have to fight each other harder to make it - and that my friends is how they will begin to get better.
I’m writing my match review at half time between the All Blacks and Portugal - and with the 45 points on the board so far, I may as well have written it last week.
Honestly what a waste of time it was for the All Blacks to play Portugal. I expect us to get around 90-100 points by the end of the game, but it doesn’t really matter.
This game can only harm the All Blacks and Portugal.
It will harm the All Blacks, because (just like the All Blacks v Italy game) it’s provided us pathetic, weak competition leading into the bigger games. We want to be match hardened not match softened! Hopefully we don’t sustain any injuries in this outing.
As for Portugal, this will not aid in the development as a rugby nation at all. They are better of out of this tournament and playing against teams that will won’t hammer them like the All Blacks. The only good thing they will get out of this is an All Blacks jumper at the end of the game.
Ok, we all hate it when our team loses, but check out this over the top Brisbane Broncos fan who licks then tackles a reporter doing a live report follwing the Broncos loss against the Melbourne Storm, which ended the Bronco’s season.
Thanks to Aaron Heath for sorting out another great sporting spreadsheet. This time it’s the twenty 20 cricket world cup spreadsheet.
The first 20/20 cricket world cup is being held in South Africa, and starts on September 11. Get the schedule in an Excel spreadsheet and track your teams progress.
