Hey it's a world cup in rugby code - I'll take it!

The Kiwi league team pulled off what is unquestionably the upset of the century for Rugby League last night by toppling the Kangaroo's in the league world cup final. It was only 12 or so months ago when I attended the centenary test in Wellington where we got pummeled 50 odd nil (i did steal a souvenir ball though that day so it wasnt all bad). All throughout this 'World Cup' I had been bitching about what a joke it was and that only one team could win and that the whole thing was really a play off between England and New Zealand to see who would have the honour of losing the final to Australia. But I was sooo wrong and as the Sun Herald in Sydney have said - the Joke (of a tournament) became the Choke! Finally I have something to throw back at the Aussies when they bring up choking at world cups!

The All Blacks also went well against Wales and are only one win away from another Grand Slam. The most impressive thing so far is that in the three Grand Slam tests (Scotland, Ireland and Wales) and the Hong Kong test against the Wallabies, is that the All Blacks haven't conceded a single try - would be great to see them hold that against England this week. But anyway, aren't we just loving all the Haka hijinks - first we had Tipoki, Howlett etc doing a haka to the All Blacks before the Munster game and then we had the Wales stare down contest - loving it!

The Phoenix also did their darnedest to butcher a win against Newcastle tonight - with two red cards against Newcastle before half time you would assume victory was inevitable - especially since the star Phoenix recruit, Fred from DC United and formerly of the Victory (MVP of the 2006 A-League), was playing. But oh no - we had to fuck up as many opportunities as possible before spluttering to victory late in the game. I shouldn't be quite so harsh I know - but I'm losing enough hair as it is!

Speaking of harsh I could take the easy option and bag the NZ Cricket team for not taking their opportunity to beat Australia when they had the chance. But I'll be honest - I had incredibly low expectations and I actually thought the performance was an improvement - I'll explain what I mean in a second. But basically we don't have the batsmen to beat Australia - we have the bowlers - but not the batting so our chances were always fairly remote. How and Redmond are clinging on to their slots for dear life. Of the two (and I know Im kinda biased) How does look the most likely to get a score - but like Daniel Flynn - he needs to deliver on that at some point. Redmond is hopeless and out of his depth - but really we've tried all the other options (Bell/Papps/Cumming) so he may as well hang around. Ryder and Taylor look good but need to protect their wickets more, McCullum isn't a number 5 and doesn't look comfortable there - he should drop back to 7 with Flynn stepping up to 5 and being pushed for runs. I know Grant Elliot is only there to make up the numbers but he is just painful to watch and should not be there - he can't bat and he can only barely bowl - so why bother? Why not just throw Kyle Mills back in at 8 - at least he can bowl and his 15 or 20 runs late in the innings would be more use than another 6-ball duck.

But anyway as I said, I thought it was an improvement and I say that because we actually dominated a whole days play (day 1), which I can't remember us doing for a long time against Australia. We put Australia in, bundled them out for a low score and then didnt lose a wicket - all you could ask for out of day 1 of a test. Honours were split on day 2, we won the last session having lost the first and second sessions badly. Day 3 was Australia's and was enough to take the test. But despite a poor day 3 it was still better than the last time we faced Australia in a test. During that series we might do ok during the odd session - but we could never maintain that pressure throughout a whole day. We would either start well by picking up wickets only to butcher the game with a poor second session - with Symonds, Ponting or Gilchrist piling on runs or we would have another middle order collapse if we were batting. Either way we would be unable to maintain the pressure we had built up into the next session. But in Brisbane for a whole day we had the foot on the throat of Australia and we were competitive. So yeah its still disappointing to lose again, but it showed progress and hopefully during the next series against them we can start winning consecutive whole days... and who knows if we can start scoring runs - maybe even a test.

Fire up bitch!

What a weekend that was for NZ sport! Everything seemed to fall into place nicely.

Now if you're one of those who think sports events help political fortunes, you have to ask -are we heading towards a perfect storm? Its probably still too early to tell, but think about it - we've got interest rates dropping, petrol prices dropping, tax cuts roughly two weeks away, the All Blacks winning the Bledisloe and Tri Nations, the Warriors creating history by beating the minor-premiers, the Winston thing ricocheting off for the loss of 1 or 2 points at best and probably most importantly, dialogue reopening between Labour and the minor parties of the left.

I would also mention the Phoenix - they didnt lose tonight at least - but they gave it a decent shunt with their consistently shakey defence trying really hard to snatch another defeat.

But anyway, the grit and tenacity shown by Henry and his All Blacks last night was incredible. Henry is so similar to Clark its uncanny - dominant and successful for so long, yet widely panned for their arrogant demeanor and questionable methods. They also both face flash-harry opponents who originally hailed from Canterbury - so surely the All Blacks winning at one of the hardest venues (Suncorp) is a good omen?!?

Finally, just like Mark Gasnier's infamous phone message that the headline refers to, the Warriors sent an unwelcome but emphatic message to the other NRL finalists and Rugby League establishment - doing something no other side has done in the history of the competition - defeating the favourites and top ranked side in the first round of the finals.

So maybe the stars are moving into alignment - and it might just be on. So as Gasnier might say - Fire up bitch!

Satisfaction

I've just got in from a bit of a boys night down at my old work place. It was fair to say I was tempting fate to spend the evening watching the Bledisloe Cup with a bunch of Australians on their territory.

But god damn - you can't match the satisfaction of a 39-10 victory. Naturally I was very sporting... ok I did start chanting - "Are you England? Are you England? Are You England in disguise?" But other than that... well ok there was the attempted flag raising.. but other than that I was a good sport.

Anyway it was a great fight back from the All Blacks tonight - one of the best performances I can remember - right up there with Wellington in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Paris in 2004, Wellington in 2005 and Lyon in 2006. Hopefully this will ease some of the pathetic-media's attention on Henry and put some heat on their golden boy. The only thing more satisfying than an amazing victory against all odds is being able to savour it with the enemy!

Does Cricket have the answer?

I never thought I'd say or think this, but I think that Cricket may just have the answer for Rugby.

Rugby has this huge talent drain going on with All Blacks being snapped up like New Zealand's dairy and vino exports meaning we are in danger of being left with the proverbial dregs. But the new IPL 20/20 competition may have provided a template for the way forward.

We shouldn't fight players being able to go and make stupid amounts of money - so why not create an annual window where players can go and let their hair down and play footy in competition which, lets face it, doesn't matter but provides entertainment.

This would provide the entertainment element that the TV companies want, bring in the dosh as people will want to watch it while also allowing the players to cash in (like Brendan McCullum etc) and take the shackles and pressure off of the Super 14/Test rugby.

Essentially I would split the year into three windows - November-January run the private 20/20 competition up in Europe (or any other cash-cow location!) then mid March to late June run the Super 14 in the South and Heineken Cup in the North and then the final window - July-October will provide time for Test rugby - with proper tours each year as well as the Bledisloe. The Tri-Nations should be moved to be a biannual tournament running around the World Cup.

The World Cup would fit into September/October of the Test window every four years - and it should be cut down in terms of time - there is no reason why teams can't play mid week games, its ridiculous and just drags the whole thing out to the point that it just gets boring.

So basically what I'm saying is - bollocks to the tradition of provincial rugby - its time to think outside the square and actually try to breath life into a sport that looks like its on its last legs.

At least it was eventful

I've had an odd couple of days. Firstly i started a new job, which is all very exciting - and my plan is to bus to work, but I thought for my first day I would drive so I get there all relaxed etc...

I knew my car was low on gas, but since the light had only just come on - I would be alright. However, I hadn't taken the angle of the road into account - and basically what petrol there was, was all down one end and in short the car wouldn't start. So I abandoned that plan and decided to take the bus... which I promptly missed. So anyway I decided it was best to head down to Willis St as there would be more options rather than waiting 25 minutes for the next one. The next two buses that passed the Willis St stop didn't stop as they were full... as you can imagine panic was beginning to creep in with irrational visions of not getting there on my first day till 10am. But no it worked out ok in the end. Although this morning I did have to embarrassingly call the State Roadside Rescue guys (for the first time) to come and give me 5 litres of petrol.

Last night though I went to the sevens first day. On my last day at my old job, after giving the boss stick about the Australian cricket team, I was given a Wallaby jersey. So since I was going with an Aussie (and three loud poms) I decided to wear the jersey, late in the evening I also kicked off a rendition of Waltzing Matilda - it was very odd, but we did manage to rark up some of the crowd.

One of the funniest moments was when one of the loud and predictably drunk (and married) brits tried to cop a feel of a woman in front - so lame and embarrassing - we were all almost in tears with laughter. The other high point was when we made one of the welsh players, who was doing an after match interview just in front of us (we were in the third row), smirk and turn around, when we started chanting "You're just a small town in England, small town in England". In conversation it also came up that one of the brits supported Derby County (who are currently bottom or second to bottom in the English Football premier league) so when the struggling English side were warming up in front of us, we started chanting "Are you Derby in disguise? Are you Derby in disguise?" which suitably wound him up - "We're going to avoid relegation..." lol yeah right.

So all in all, its been an eventful 24 hours.

What happened? Why? How?

This morning I don't know what to say. I feel exactly like one does when someone they know dies. There is nothing to be done, you really just have to get on. There's not a lot of point discussing the whys, the hows, the who can we blame theories, none of it will change anything and its not like you will suddenly discover some magical switch that could help.

Now I'm sure some of you are thinking - get over it, its only rugby, (or worse) its only a game. If you are thinking that, then you will never understand.

My favourite book is Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, while many think it is about football, to me it isnt. Its about being a fan. Hornby describes what it means to devote your entire being to the performance of 'your' team. The euphoria of the highs and yes the utter despair of the lows.

Needless to say - yesterday was the latter. It was like a car crash. One minute you're on a high, everything is going along fine, then all of a sudden - bam. When you set off, you know it would be disastrous if you cross the centre line - the risk levels are high. No matter how well you prepare, one lapse in concentration and whack youre gone. You can't undo it, you can't go back. There is no point thinking, if only I did this... or if I did that. That's what the latest world cup loss feels like. We knew - all to well - that it could happen, but its gutting all the same and thats it... the end. You're left shocked, dazed and not sure what to do next.

The worst bit though, is knowing full well, that in four years, you will again give everything to that team again. You will again think - this year is different, this is our year... even though the shadow of previous failures remain.

So that's it. I'm not interested in the media telling me what was wrong with the campaign, why Henry should be sacked etc, why 'they knew all along' that we would lose and so on. There's no point its done. See you in four years.

A Question

Im a fan of the redevelopment of our major sporting facilities ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the 2015 Cricket World Cup, but I have a question.

Auckland's Eden Park is getting a big flash new Buck-Rogers-Stand and will be the main stadium during the Rugby, and the newly named AMI Stadium (Previously Jade/Lancaster Park) is also getting an Athfield designed new eastern stand (pictured).

The budget for Eden Park is approx NZD190 million. The budget for AMI Stadium is NZD60 million. Now granted the Eden Park stand is about 7000 seats bigger (24000 compared to 17000), but surely there can't be that much difference??

Why is there a NZD130 m difference between a Christchurch project and an Auckland one? This of course begs the question - why not get more bang for your buck and spend your NZD190m between Wellington and Christchurch? - you would get a hell of a lot more.

Virtual Super 14

The annual Virtual Super 14 is underway again, and while my track record of late hasnt been quite what it could have been, this series does begin on the back of the domestic cricket comp, which at one point saw me at number1 in the whole comp of 11,000 people, well 1st equal at least.

So run along and sign up - my tag on there is viewaskew37 (the name refers to Kevin Smith's production company, and the 37 is from Clerks...)

Brilliant!

Got to love those North Korean's!

Apparently they are locking up handycaps and midgets, a human rights report has said "Midgets are not allowed to reproduce and they are rounded up and relocated."

As funny as it sounds (dont lie you know it is) these are real human rights abuses - one question though - under his own rules, how is Kim Jong Il not locked up in one his own camps!

Herald Article

In other news its a long weekend - Labour Weekend, celebrating the fourty hour working week and other such great workers achievements. Im doing sweet FA to celebrate (I am in Rotorua next weekend though to make up for it).

Wellington play Waikato in the final of the Air New Zealand Cup - part of my role now is to do the Boss' messages of encouragement to NZ representatives (eg Ive faxed off messages to the Kiwi League Team and the Black Caps today) I was thinking should I create trouble by encouraging the Wellington team over Waikato? Well not that they'll need it! Tana and Jerry have been dominant during the playoffs - smashing both Auckland and Canterbury.