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It can be enjoyable watching a good game of rugby between two good teams who play the game well, and these days, many of us choose to sit in the lounge and watch in some semblance of comfort, rather than suffer the indignity of some of the antisocial unpleasantness that happens in a crowded stadium.
The commentary and comments before, during and after a match are often a real ordeal to sit through.
Sunday’s Bledisloe Test was a bit of an average game for the All Blacks and a gutsy performance from the Wallabies.
New All Black coach Ian Foster has soiled his copy book (assuming the Herald has quoted him accurately):
Bledisloe Cup rugby: All Blacks coach Ian Foster refuses to blame ‘sloppy’ Rieko Ioane for Wallabies draw
“All Blacks coach Ian Foster is bitterly disappointed with the drawn opening Bledisloe Cup test but he refused to blame the result on Rieko Ioane dropping the ball over the line or the decision not to take a dropped kick in the dramatic final stages.
Foster, in his first test match in charge, was philosophical about the blunder.
“It would have been useful – he’s feeling really frustrated, that’s one of those little lessons players have to go through,” Foster of the Blues centre [sic] who was promoted on form ahead of Anton Lienert-Brown. “He had a reasonably strong game apart from that. When you get sloppy in those moments it can come back and bite you.
“He’s okay. Part of international rugby is you make an error and you move on. He’s a confident young man and he’s got to learn from that one thing but he can also focus on a whole lot of good things he did too.
“We had a chance to win the game in the last 10 minutes and weren’t good enough. You don’t dwell on errors in test matches. There were errors before and after that. No doubt it would have been nice, but it’s not the reason we drew the game“.
Sorry Ian, how does that go? One of your star players crosses the line with the ball, he has no opposition players within reach, all he has to do is place the ball on the ground, and instead he drops it. The final score is 16 all, and had that player placed the ball on the ground instead of dropping it, the final score would have been 21 -16. Looks to me like a pretty good reason why you ended up with the same number of points as the other guys but who am I to judge?
So the captain is on final approach in a Boeing Triple 7 and in a thoughtless and careless moment, casually using his index finger instead of his entire hand because the job is all but done, he flicks the wrong control and smashes the aircraft onto the runway disintegrating it into several million pieces.
The airline refuses to blame the “sloppy” captain for the crash and says he did a great job with the takeoff and getting the plane as far as the end of the runway. They’re bitterly disappointed and acknowledge that it would have been useful if he hadn’t “dropped the ball” (as it were), but they refuse to blame the captain saying “it’s one of those little lessons pilots have to go through”.
OK – nobody died and it’s only a sport and I accept that Ioane will be feeling pretty bad about his “magic” moment – and so he should. It was a careless and stupid mistake that (despite the pathetic protestations of the coach) cost the team the win.
Foster comes out of this accepting and even justifying a well below average performance from one of his top players. If Rieko can’t take the well earned drubbing, he shouldn’t be in the team but I’m sure he takes it on the chin. It was a match losing mistake. End of story. He doesn’t have to be pilloried, but he does have to be held 100% responsible for the team having five less points on the board than they should have had. Foster does all of us, including Ioane, a disservice which is every bit as bad as the dropping of the ball in the first place, with such a puerile comment.
Here’s a thought about All Black culture. Some years ago broadcaster Murray Deaker was talking on NewstalkZB about All Black rugby and All Black hairstyles. A caller wondered what the guys were thinking coming onto the field with all manner of “odd” hairstyles, cuts and colourings. Deaker suggested that when they start worrying about their hairstyles their play deteriorates. They should remember who they really are and what they’re there for.
When you run onto the field wearing the black jersey, you should present as the best you can be and looking the best that you can. You’re not a show pony and you’re not on display for your looks or your hair. You’re there to play rugby and maybe management would do well to issue a reminder of that. If we want to see a fashion show or a bunch of clowns we’d watch the entertainment channels.
Is it a coincidence that several of the players on Sunday were wearing … Shall we say “unusual” coiffure when they came on the field?
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