Although I offended the easily offendable snowsports community by failing to include anyone in hoodies and baggy jeans, I made one sweeping statement that might have seemed a stretch then but now appears to have been on the money.
If Richie McCaw can captain his team to World Cup glory next year, there will be a fair case for him to be considered the greatest All Black of all time, I said.
Well? What do you think now?You can try to find a hole in that argument, but none exists.
McCaw has been the most consistently excellent player in his position in any country for a decade.
He has played 88 tests - he will retire as the most capped All Black - and been the captain in 51 tests, losing just six of them.
He leads and stars in one of the great All Black teams, a team that will surely set a new mark for consecutive test wins and will, not because of any ingrained belief that the trophy rightfully belongs in this country but because of form, be the favourite to win the World Cup on home soil.
If I had to name my 10 greatest All Blacks right now, I would put down McCaw, Colin Meads, Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Jones and Jonah Lomu without thinking.
I would probably add Brian Lochore, John Kirwan and Jeff Wilson.
Then it would be a toss-up between Ian Kirkpatrick, Kel Tremain, Zinzan Brooke, George Nepia, Don Clarke, Bryan Williams, Sid Going, Christian Cullen, Grant Fox and Dan Carter for the final two spots.
Meads has been an automatic pick as our greatest All Black for 40 years.
But he might soon have to be satisfied with top-two status.
Crazy wheels
It is a mystery why Otago has been performing so poorly this season.
Surely one look at this famous face, that imposing forehead, those piercing eyes, would be enough to make any rugby player want to throw on a blue jersey and give 5000%.
The great David Latta's massive visage features on two of these Balclutha Nissan vehicles.
He drives one and the other holds the fort in the big river town.
Of Bert and Israel
My thanks to Patearoa reader Rodger Andrews for writing to clear up another reader's recollection of visiting the "Bert Sutcliffe-owned Otago Sports Depot".
Andrews points out Sutcliffe did not own the Depot but in fact ran a competing business, Sutcliffe and Cederwell.
Andrews "had the pleasure" of playing alongside Sutcliffe when the great man made a guest appearance for Patearoa at an Easter tournament in the early 1950s.
As an aside, Andrews informs me that All Black fullback Israel Dagg's great-great-grandfather owned the Patearoa Hotel nearly a century ago.
A sticky wicket
Another reader, James Dignan, suggested the caption "only in England" on last week's photo of cricket being played on the Brambles sandbank was not strictly accurate.
He says Dunedin used to regularly have similar games on the mudflats in the middle of the Harbour during the 1980s and 1990s.
The proof is at the NZ On Screen website (www.nzonscreen.com/title/wildtrack-episode-20-1990).
Keeping it in the family
Mafia clans have been using a popular football show on television to send coded messages to incarcerated colleagues, the Guardian reports.
Imprisoned crime bosses were "kept up to date on mob business through mobile phone texts sent to the show, Quelli Che il Calcio, which unwittingly scrolled them across the bottom of the screen, among innocent messages from supporters of Italian football teams."
90 not out
Speaking of family, it is a special day for the Meikle clan in Oamaru.
Our patriarch, retired farmer and former tank driver Lex Meikle, turns 90 and will be honoured at an afternoon tea.
My grandfather was born in 1920, the sporting highlights of which included:- The NFL was formed.
- West Brom was the English football champion.
- The Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
- Jack Dempsey was the world heavyweight boxing champion.
- The Olympic Games were held in Antwerp.
New Zealand competed on its own for the first time, with rower Darcy Hadfield winning a bronze medal.
- The great Man o' War won two legs of the Triple Crown.
- There were no All Black tests, and the New Zealand cricket team was still a decade away from playing its first test.
Hoop dreams
The world basketball championships seem to have gone under the radar again, and that might be a good thing for the Tall Blacks.
Just as 1987 has been a millstone around the neck of the All Blacks, the miracle of Indianapolis in 2002 threatens to have a similarly lengthy effect on our national hoops squad.
The coach (Tab Baldwin) and most of the players from that remarkable fourth placing are gone, the Tall Blacks are in a tough group in Turkey, and expectations have been scaled back accordingly.
But there is exciting young talent coming through, Kirk Penney is in his prime and Nenad Vucinic is no coaching novice.
Fingers crossed.
Size does matter
This is from the "I thought golfers were supposed to have manners" file.
An unfortunate incident unfolded at the Safeway Classic, a professional women's event, recently, The Oregonian's John Canzano reported.
Experienced player Dina Ammaccapane was assigned a caddy, a 19-year-old man called Cameron Kiyokawa.
But she decided he was not quite right.
"Cameron walked up, and introduced himself. 'She looked at me,' he said, 'gave me a weird look and didn't say anything.'
"There was an awkward silence. Then Ammaccapane said it. And I wish she hadn't. So does Cameron.
"So does his father, Perry, who heard the words and felt his insides hollow out.
"Ammaccapane said this: 'Do you have anyone bigger?'
"There was some initial confusion. Some thought she was joking.
"This was followed by some discussion between the master caddie and Ammaccapane, who explained that she wanted someone more capable of carrying her 75-pound bag.
"Ultimately, it's her bag and her golf career, and so the discussion ended with the player announcing, 'I would be more comfortable with someone bigger'."
