All Blacks uncertainty
Well, your guess is as good as mine.
Flaky-ish form, however, might point to another test that leaves more questions than answers for New Zealand’s No 1 sports team going through a weird sort of limbo period.
I guess all we know for certain is the All Blacks will fail to score a point in the last 20 minutes.
What is weirdly clear is that if Scott Robertson has some sort of revolutionary plan to develop a dominant and exciting All Blacks team over the next World Cup cycle, he is hiding it well.
TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett as the 9-10 combination? Really?
The end is nigh
New Zealand rugby’s greatest streak is on life support.
The Last Word was almost certainly the first place to highlight this amazing streak but it really deserves some national attention.
One — just one — of the 26 unions has appeared in the playoffs every single season since the year 2000.
North Otago’s record since then is: third division finalists, third division finalists, third division champions (2002), second division semifinalists, second division semifinalists, second division semifinalists, Meads Cup semifinalists, Meads Cup champions (2007), Meads Cup semifinalists, Lochore Cup champions (2009), Meads Cup champions (2010), Meads Cup semifinalists, Meads Cup semifinalists, Meads Cup finalists, Lochore Cup finalists, Lochore Cup finalists, Lochore Cup champions (2016), Lochore Cup semifinalists, Lochore Cup semifinalists, Meads Cup champions (2019), void Covid season, Lochore Cup finalists, Lochore Cup semifinalists, Lochore Cup semifinalists.
Staggering, really.
The Old Golds are on the brink as they have won just one of their six games this season, and must beat King Country today and Buller next week to have any hope of maintaining the streak.
Union v league
It is a New Zealand sports story as old as time itself.
Could rugby league really supplant the national game, rugby union, some day?
My answer to that question has always been to laugh so hard it brings tears to my eyes.
No disrespect to the great game of rugby league, but rugby is still miles ahead in terms of public interest, and has two significant weapons in its arsenal in the form of the All Blacks and the First XV nursery.
But it feels like the odd crack might be appearing.
The All Blacks are no longer a dominant force, Super Rugby appears trapped in a perpetual cycle of change and angst, the dear old NPC has been battered and bruised, school rugby might have got TOO big, and there is a reckoning coming with the issue of concussion.
While international rugby league is a bit of a joke, and the sport surely faces the same uncertain future with head knocks despite a more cavalier approach, the amazing NRL is blowing every other Australasian competition out of the water.
League has, it seems, every chance to keep chipping away at rugby’s stranglehold.
Freddie’s boy
Hah. Speaking of league v rugby, there was an interesting story out of Australia this week.
Zach Fittler, just finishing up year 12 and three years in the First XV at posh Sydney school Scots College, has signed a two-year rugby deal with the Waratahs.
Yes, he is the son of rugby league great Brad Fittler.
Apparently both rugby and NRL teams chased the hard-running centre or winger but he has decided he wants to go with rugby.
Highly ambitious
Interesting times for both hockey and basketball in New Zealand.
Basketball has made a couple of huge calls — very poor ones, in my book — in a bid to turn our national leagues into some sort of global sporting extravaganza.
Both the NBL and Tauihi are allowing Indian teams to enter next year (bonkers, as it’s a domestic competition, not a made-for-TV-or-gambling spectacle), and Tauihi has allowed teams to sign five imports, which is ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the new Premier Hockey League is coming soon with high hopes it will provide an important layer of competition beneath the Black Sticks.
Our interest in the four-franchise competition comes in the form of the Alpiners, who are Christchurch-based but will contain Otago-Southland players and will have one doubleheader in Dunedin.
Hockey remains hugely popular at the grassroots, so it will be interesting to see if the new league can boost its profile at the elite level.
Star of the week
Shohei Ohtani.
The Japanese superstar just became the first baseballer to post 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
Ohtani, who pitches and bats but has played only as a batter this season, has the Los Angeles Dodgers as the favourites to win the World Series.
Late news of the week
Liam Lawson, permanent Formula One driver.
Magnificent news. We are all Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team fans now!
Name of the week
Kruz Schoolcraft.
He is a 2.03m lad from Beaverton, Oregon, who is a left-handed baseball pitcher and tipped to be a future star in the Major Leagues.
