Ranking . . .
There is nothing like a good old-fashioned snubbing to really get the dissection of an All Blacks squad cranked into overdrive.
In the case of the first squad of the Scott Robertson era, it was more about who got left out than who got selected.
Oh, the notable exception was loose forward-turned-prop Pasilio Tosi, the 140kg bolter. What a great story and what a delightful young man.
1 - Hoskins Sotutu. Simply stunning. The best player in Super Rugby not in the top six loose forwards? You must be joking. There are some rumblings about Sotutu’s workrate off the ball, but not sure I see it. Had to be there.
2 - Ruben Love. Every single predicted squad had the young Hurricanes fullback in the mix. His form maybe faded a touch, but he was mostly excellent this season and offers a real spark. You realise there are ZERO specialist fullbacks in the squad. Beauden Barrett, Stephen Perofeta, Damian McKenzie — all first fives who can cover 15. Kind of strange.
3 - Peter Lakai. The most exciting young player in the country not named Wallace Sititi. His time will come.
. . . the All Black snubs
4 - Ricky Riccitelli. Not seen as a future All Black for most of his career, but the barrel-chested Blues man had such a good season. Misses out to Crusaders reserve and development prospect George Bell.
5 - Sam Darry. Seemingly set for his first call-up, but the All Blacks decided to go with just three locks. Will eventually wear the black jersey.
6 - Brayden Iose. Under-rated star with the Hurricanes. Might be in the mix later in the year.
7 - Folau Fakatava. Highlanders fans will not be delighted to get just a single player, Ethan de Groot, in the national squad. Fakatava had a good year, but clearly others are rated higher.
8 - Billy Harmon. So sad that the Highlanders captain will leave without getting a test cap.
9 - Shaun Stevenson. Turns out he was injured?
10 - Joe Moody. Never likely to add to his 57 test caps.
Clark fever
Still doubting the Caitlin Clark effect on basketball?
Her Indiana Fever’s game against the Chicago Sky this week drew the biggest WNBA television audience in 23 years, and some seats were going for up to $9000.
She is changing the game.
Inventing sports
The Last Word is getting older and grumpier, admittedly.
Seriously, though, why do they keep adding sports to the Olympic Games?
Bad enough they have brought in breakdancing — weirdly called simply ‘‘breaking’’ — and 3x3 basketball (when the real sport is already there) and surfing.
Now they have added cricket (does NOT belong at the Olympics), lacrosse (eh?) and something called beach sprint rowing to the programme for Los Angeles 2028.
Beach sprint rowing involves a quick run on the beach before a frenzied 250m there-and-back row and another quick beach run.
No doubt the athletes will be impressive but you will struggle to convince me it needs to be at the Olympics.
It’s coming home?
Few teams have really stamped their mark on the Euro 2024 football tournament.
Germany started with a hiss and a roar but then seemed to fade, Spain have impressed in patches, France have been oddly dull and the Dutch have been flaky.
Perhaps the best story has been Georgia qualifying for the knockout rounds despite being the lowest-ranked team.
And England, oh, England.
How dull, how uninspiring, how static, how grim.
As many have pointed out, how an England team with the La Liga player of the season (Jude Bellingham), the English Premier League player of the season (Phil Foden) and the top scorer in the Bundesliga (Harry Kane) can be so average is quite remarkable.
They could still win the tournament, I guess. But their limp efforts were summed up by this brilliant line on the platform formerly known as Twitter:
‘‘We need to have a very serious conversation about who really invented football, because no way England did.’’
Only in baseball
Cricket is great for statistics — the main one now being just how many T20 teams international players can represent in one year.
Basketball is obviously loaded with goodies for stats lovers. Rugby is getting there. Other codes are catching up.
Nothing will ever match baseball, though, for numbers and trivia.
Just the other night, the Philadelphia Phillies thumped the Detroit Tigers 8-1.
So far, so ordinary. But what made it brilliant was that the game included a play not seen in Major League Baseball since 1929.
Yes, 1929.
It had been 95 darn years since a team pulled off the extremely rare 1-3-5 triple play.
That is when the pitcher takes a catch off a batter, and fires the ball to first base to complete the double play as the runner fails to get back in time. The first baseman then zoots the ball to third base, and the bloke who had taken off for home as soon as he heard the crack of the bat does not get back to base.
Birthday of the week
Years ago, when The Last Word was full of hope and youthful vigour, this was a regular feature of the column.
It was a weekly opportunity to (ideally) dig up some interesting sporting name from the past or make some pithy comment about a modern star.
Jude Bellingham turns 21 today - perhaps he can get some help as he tries to lead England to Euros glory.
But the real reason to celebrate today is that Harmon Killebrew would have been 88.
What a glorious name. ‘‘The Killer’’ or ‘‘Hammerin’ Harmon’’ spent most of his 22 years in Major League Baseball with the Minnesota Twins. He died of esophagal cancer in 2011.
