The face of Argentine football great Lionel Messi is depicted in a corn field on the outskirts of Cordoba in Argentina. PHOTO: REUTERS
Bold change ...
They call it "the bounce", and it is a very real phenomenon in the sporting world.
It refers to teams sacking their coach then having an immediate upswing in fortunes.
You see it in English football — where managers have brutally short shelf lives — all the time. Boss gets booted, new gaffer comes in, team immediately wins three of the next four to avoid relegation.
Obviously, in that situation, it is far too soon for the new coach to have had much of an impact, so the theory is there are intangibles around mood and atmosphere and confidence and a fresh start that combine to rescue a sinking ship.
Looks like the folks who run English, Australian and Welsh rugby are subscribers to the theory of the bounce.
... or dangerous disruption?
England punted Eddie Jones and brought in former captain Steve Borthwick. Wales sacked one Kiwi (Wayne Pivac) and welcomed back another (Warren Gatland). And, in potentially the most interesting/brutal change, the Wallabies booted Dave Rennie and, after what emerged was a long courtship, welcomed back former coach Jones.
Phew. Coaching musical chairs. And what does it all mean?
Wales should improve under the well-respected Gatland. England was starting to misfire badly and Borthwick seems a nice fit.
The fascination in this part of the world will be how the vastly experienced and mischievous Jones can impact the Wallabies, and whether he has enough time to turn them into potential champions just nine months out from the World Cup.
Rennie was on a bit of a hiding to nothing, to be honest. Australian rugby is in a rut, and a Wallabies coach can only do so much when he does not have a deep cast of world-class players.
Nevertheless, losing to Italy probably sealed Rennie’s fate, and Jones becoming available was obviously too hard for the top brass to resist.
All three nations dispensed with the familiar line about not meddling with coaching set-ups so close to a World Cup because that would be so horribly disruptive.
Contrast the All Blacks, who stuck with Ian Foster even though he did everything he possibly could last year to get the heave-ho.
Let’s see which approach was smarter.
Behind the scenes
You don’t really need to script sport. It is already loaded with drama, excitement, scandal and pathos.
But you can still make a heck of a good documentary about sporting contenders.
Off the top of my head, I would list Senna (about the F1 ace), Fire In Babylon (the dominant West Indian cricket team), Hoop Dreams (high school basketball) and When We Were Kings (the Rumble in the Jungle) as contenders for the pantheon.
More recently, The Last Dance reminded us all of the greatness of Michael Jordan, and Drive To Survive turned millions of us (including this famously motorsport-ignorant sports editor) into Formula 1 fans.
The success of the latter series appears to have prompted a flood of sport-related content on the various streaming services.
Netflix has just launched tennis series Break Point — a bit boring so far, though the stuff with the intriguing/frustrating Nick Kyrgios was interesting — and the PGA Tour is soon to get the treatment.
I’m quite enjoying The Test, the second season of which has just dropped on Amazon Prime.
You might not have a particular fondness for the Australian cricket team but it is a decent look behind the curtain, and I guarantee if you watch it you will will be left thinking Marnus Labuschagne is endearingly funny, Pat Cummins is a very impressive man, and Usman Khawaja is the greatest.
Name of the week
Hat tip to my colleague Mike Houlahan for alerting me to this magnificent name in Australian racing.
There is a 5yr-old bay gelding, see, that goes by "Memumsmedad".
Ah, say what? Sounds like either a city in Pakistan or how a certain marble-mouthed former rugby commentator used to pronounce Mils Muliaina’s last name.
Turns out the horse gets the name because its sire is Redwood and its dam . . . is also called Redwood.
Tweet of the week
Loved this from a woman using the handle @neharedy:
"I will never understand why boys and grown men alike just go about with their day and suddenly break into a bowling action."
Brilliant! Even this creaky old hack still does this. My go-to was Richard Hadlee back in the day but then I spent years trying to replicate Shane Warne’s beautiful action.
Word of the week
Homologation.
Eh?
The F1 calendar was released this week with an asterisk next to the Las Vegas round saying "subject to circuit homologation".
Forgive my aforementioned ignorance of motorsport, but I had to google it. From the Greek "homologeo" (to agree), it basically means getting approval from an official authority.
In this case, it is the inaugural Grand Prix in Vegas, so an FIA inspection team needs to be satisfied the circuit is safe.
Cricket is drunk
In case you missed it, India beat Sri Lanka by 317 runs recently.
In a one-day international.
Eh?
That is nuts. Remember the time when just scoring 240-250 was considered a blessed relief? Winning by a 317-run margin boggles the mind.
Football is drunk
Italian club Salernitana has re-hired manager Davide Nicola — just 48 hours after he was sacked.
Nicola was axed on Tuesday, a day after his team lost 8-2 at Atalanta to plunge to 16th in Serie A.
But the 49-year-old coach said he convinced club president Danilo Iervolino to re-hire him during a phone call.
