First offenders keep getting off scot free
When All Blacks hooker Dane Coles retaliated with a light slap after being clocked against Argentina, he was vilified nationwide for his indiscipline.
Referee Angus Gardner penalised Coles and gave no mind to the Puma who had got in the first cuddle, all before Pumas captain Pablo Matera went on to manhandle Coles.
Last Saturday, Kiwi referee Paul Williams was even more illogical. Wallabies tank Taniela Tupou clocked Pumas first-five Nicolas Sanchez, who bopped him back. Williams said he would have penalised Tupou, but because Sanchez had retaliated he was penalising him instead. Gardner had likewise reversed the penalty in the Coles incident.
Where is the logic in this? Retaliation in so many sports has become the more serious crime.
Back at the 1998 football
World Cup, Argentine Diego Simeone flattened England’s
David Beckham with a crude tackle. Check out the video and you see Beckham then lightly touched Simeone with his foot and was sent off while Simeone stayed on the field under yellow. Then all of England crucified Beckham.
Mario Ledesma will have his burly Pumas goading the All Blacks this Saturday knowing the retaliator will probably gift Sanchez three points. If an All Black is kneed in the groin, he must smile back.
Referee Williams found an infringement in almost every phase last Saturday and his constant chatter made it like netball. He also had unnecessarily long chats with skipper Michael Hooper.
Whatever the upcoming result, underfire coach Ian Foster on his return will be safely imprisoned for two weeks of isolation. Lose to the weepy Argentinians again and the coaching drama will flame out over Christmas with the potential to tear the game apart.
Foster and his cohorts, John Plumtree and Brad Mooar, must devise plansaand B to breach the Pumas’ strangulation. It may have to be boring mauling and mauling because at ruck after ruck the Pumas either don’t commit or jackal the ball. They also contest every lineout, so go to the front.
Or the All Blacks could do what Tasman did to blitz Bay of Plenty on
Saturday with box kicks and chasers. Allow a Puma to catch the ball and then pancake him.
It is being said that in the State of Origin, New South Wales have always opted for star talent whereas the underdog Queenslanders have picked tough roosters who despise cockroaches and have kept winning.
Whether the All Blacks have them now will be revealed at Newcastle. England set the template in blanking the All Blacks at the World Cup and we haven’t learnt from it. Thank goodness they didn’t have a northern tour this year because they aren’t ready.
The game starts up front and yet most of our Kiwi teams play the same way – go for a few carries and then hurl the ball to the backs, even if they’re sitting ducks.
It’s no use Sam Cane suggesting the rest of us are dunderheads, or that we don’t see their hard work at training. What happens at tedious training sessions can stay there. It’s the shop window that counts.
Leaving the wind astern
When the America’s Cup racing starts with those titanium tubes aloft, they’ll be the fastest boats the event has seen, belting across the Waitemata¯ atupto 100kmh.
At the two previous cups, our
Manawatu¯ Standard sports department would be crowded with most of the staff watching the action and that signalled widespread appeal for these flying weapons.
I have been getting my head around these new AC75S, as in 75-feet-long (22.8 metres) America’s Cup monohulls with crews of 11. They are bigger and faster than in the previous three cups, which had catamarans. In 2017 they sailed smaller AC50S, with a crew of six reaching up to 87kmh, and in 2013 they had AC72S, with a crew of 11 where New Zealand’s boat reached 88kmh.
It’s hardly yachting though, as in barnacled hulls displacing brine. At best these are 6.5 tonne flying boats lifted by hydrofoils, one of which is raised when tacking. It’s all about aerodynamics in the air rather than fluid dynamics and they thunder along at four times the wind speed.
If they capsize they even right themselves, while gone are the pedalling cyclors of 2017 and back are the Popeye grinders.
The boats are designed to fly, so designers went outside yachting. Emblazoned on American Magic’s flying machine is Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, while INEOS Team UK employed Formula One designer Adrian Newey. Team New Zealand has a designated ‘‘flight controller’’ on board.
Television New Zealand ran awow piece on the NZ boats on Sunday, calling it ‘‘exclusive’’, which was hardly surprising given TVNZ has the broadcasting rights. At least that means the wider population can have eyes on it for free.