Loose Pass
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with leave, colours, heavily disguised blessings and stirrings in the ether…
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with leave, colours, heavily disguised blessings and stirrings in the ether…
There's a time to give up and a way to do it. Luke McAlister's versions of both are neither. Not turning up for provincial training two months away from the global showpiece rather indicates McAlister has decided NZ 2011 will not be graced with his onfield presence. It also indicates McAlister feels the ITM Cup is beneath him, which the action of the opening weekend quite palpably suggested is not true.
There is of course the possibility that a private chat with Graham Henry has revealed to McAlister that the AB coach would rather have a three-legged rocking horse as centre back-up in the case of injuries during the Tri-Nations, but if this chat has not happened, McAlister giving up on a RWC spot now is somewhat lame, especially the manner in which he has done so.
North Harbour have every right to be petty about holding McAlister to his contract and asking for a release fee after McAlister failed to turn up for pre-ITM Cup training, citing the ill health of his son, then asked to be released so he could emigrate to France. As NZRU Manager Neil Sorenson put it: “If you had a sick kid you would ring your employer. To be frank, using the family type excuse, tugging on the heartstrings, wears a bit thin when this guy is hoping in the next couple of days he can disappear to France.”
The NZRU also have every right to hold McAlister to the small print: the efforts they have made to keep a flagging provincial competition sprightly would be negated were they to simply agree to let a player go and chase more glamour elsewhere without a fight.
The ball lies squarely in McAlister's court now. He either does the decent thing and pays up to buy himself out of his NZRU contract or he stays, plays – maybe even proves himself – and leaves when he said he would in November. No one player is bigger than any team.
England in black?
As motivators go to neutrals for supporting the opposition, no action England could have performed pre-tournament will get more Kiwis behind Argentina when the two teams take to the field for their tournament opener on September 10 bar singing the words of the haka while dancing around morris poles upon arrival in Auckland.
Many people were over this business of changing the kit every year anyway and England's designers have not been baking the hottest of cakes when it comes to sales, with the previous mauve eyesore rarely seen outside of Nike shop windows. But this one takes it to a new level.
Normally of course, England would only have the need to use a change kit when playing Fiji, but in the days when selling two replica kits is preferable to ripping the fans off with one only, the marketeers have decreed England must wear the kit for the opening game. So it shall be the terraces and stands will be overflowing with white shirts cheering on the men in black below.
Not just black however. So as to avoid any doubt for neutrals as to who might be playing, the designers have seen fit to festoon the new kit with all sorts of English cultural references, such as Maori symbols and patterns (given the current English direct style of play, a design of two juggernauts smashing into each other would be the most appropriate).
It is a joke. An expensive joke for those who fall for it and buy one. It is also a dilution of identity for England's players and supporters, who will on some small level be less inclined to shout and die for black than white. Whoever signed this deal off has done English rugby a big disservice.
Australia's rugby press is up in arms on Monday morning after the defeat to Samoa, which is only to be expected. But this defeat was an important filter for Robbie Deans, who now probably has a better idea of who to cut and who not to cut for the World Cup (he has ten heads to lose from the 40 picked a week ago) as this was almost the weakest side he could have fielded.
That puts Deans ahead of the game in terms of RWC squad selection – don't be surprised if several players get cut from that 40 sooner rather than later. He'll be enjoying a luxury there that South Africa – among others – do not have. For this team to have played that badly will have soothed Deans' headaches.
And while we are about it, have a closer look at that Samoan side. It was one with significant experience in many more departments than the Wallaby side it faced, on top of being one that is in its fourth Test of the past five weeks and thus very much further forward in terms of putting structures in place and getting to know its collective self.
Most Australian commentators have chosen to sink the claws into the Australian team, with some also mentioning that for Australia to field such a weak team was an insult to the Samoans in almost the same breath as they term the result 'the most embarrassing in Australian history'.
That last part is – if any of it is – more of an insult: not acknowledging that Samoa have cobbled together an experienced team with talent all over, capable of inflicting similar results to first-choice big-name teams, never mind experimental selection groups. Given the team rosters in advance, we almost expected Samoa to pull something off.
A boon to Samoa it is, and well done to them. Wales and South Africa will be busy on the VCR buttons as we speak. But Australia should not be so self-damning: the game has weeded out the weak. It's if the same thing happens to the Bok B team next week that Australia have problems.
While on that subject of Bok B teams, a chance viewing of the film Bruce Almighty on Sunday gave rise to the following thought: Which of the travelling teams asked him upstairs for a sign of things to come shortly before the Qantas plane's engine overheated on Friday? Have the Boks subsequently travelled to a danger zone in spite of divine warning and intervention?
Or, drawing a parallel with the film, is one of them about to be divinely empowered and able to answer the prayers of every Bok fan? Is John Smit really…
Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson