Ups and downs of life

Opinion

THUMBS UP

TO: Beauden Barrett. Started off as the best in Taranaki, then it became New Zealand and now it’s the world. What is even better is that he has two brothers playing for Canterbury. It may be that sometime soon the three of them will be wearing black.

TO: Taranaki leading the way when it comes to defibrillators. We’ve got heart.

TO: Our Olympic team, a record haul of medals. It may have escaped the notice of many sports fans but most of the medals came from the women.

TO: Russian chemists. They got some of their Olympic athletes through without detection.

THUMBS DOWN

TO: Aussie buggers. That’s no way to beat the mighty All Blacks.

TO: Slow reactions from the rugby fish heads. If that bug was supposed to help match fixers then rugby should be straight on to it. Although backing against the All Blacks would be an exercise in futility.

TO: Sky TV. I’ve never been so bored by so much choice. The fact is that most of us are only interested in the sports in which our people are competing. Once they are out - who cares?