We’re good but we ought to be
RUGBY: TJ Perenara could be suited to the role of a pertinacious salesman if such a role was offered by his local playhouse theatre group.
Rather than quietly wander into the background, the Hurricanes halfback has perfected the art of repeatedly rattling the door that provides access to the All Blacks’ squad. And just in case noone has been listening, he has given it a couple of hefty kicks in recent times.
The 25-year-old just won’t go away. On Monday, when the All Blacks’ 32-man squad for the Rugby Championship is named, Perenara will know exactly where his All Blacks career is at.
To rewind this story a bit, Perenara was extremely close to being yesterday’s man when the All Blacks squad for the three-test series against Wales was announced on May 29. Aaron Smith and Tawera Kerr-Barlow were picked as the halfbacks, and the only reason Perenara was included was because Kerr-Barlow was recovering from injury.
To complicate matters even more the Chiefs’ Kerr Barlow, who he will mark in the Super Rugby semifinal in Wellington tonight, is fully fit. So, too, is Smith.
Three doesn’t go into two. Make that four if you want to add another Chiefs’ No 9, Brad Weber, to the list.
Maybe selectors Steve Hansen, Ian Foster and Grant Fox, who will retain the nucleus of the squad that completed the 3-0 series sweep over Wales in June, will wait to see which halfback handles the pressure best in the Cake Tin.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the rise of Perenara, who has made 19 test appearances since 2014, has coincided with the Hurricanes’ rushing into full stride; his ability to boss his forwards, communicate with playmaker Beauden Barrett and run accurate support lines have been difficult to miss.
We already know there will be at least one change from the Welsh series. Although he won’t be available to play the first Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies in Sydney on August 20, Sonny Bill Williams, who hasn’t played Super Rugby because of his commitment to the New Zealand sevens programme for Rio, is guaranteed passage.
Charlie Ngatai’s concussion issues are expected to rule him out, meaning Williams will be a straight swap. You wouldn’t select wing Julian Savea on current form, but, given the selectors desire to respect his past deeds he is likely to be placed in the Special Project category.
If Dane Coles cannot shake his rib injury, an extra hooker may named. You could do worse than Ash Dixon.
Let’s be honest, I’d be digging myself a hole if I said New Zealand was not the best rugby nation in the world. But it’s nothing worth bragging about. The fact of the matter is we should be the best and it would be greatly concerning if we weren’t at least in the conversation.
We are one of only seven countries in the world who have been a member of World Rugby (formerly the International Rugby Board) from before 1950, along with England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, South Africa and Wales.
This gave us a headstart in the sport of more than 30 years on most nations, who either joined the union around the time of the first World Cup in 1987 or when it became a professional sport in 1995.
Now, let’s look at player numbers in these seven nations. Just over three per cent of New Zealand’s population are registered rugby players, which is ours and Wales’ national sport.
This might not sound like a lot but, compared to Wales’ two per cent and Australia, England and South Africa all being below one per cent, our talent pool should be much richer.
Then there’s the funding. New Zealand Rugby announced it would be injecting $9 million into provincial rugby in their 2016 annual general meeting, while High Performance Sport New Zealand gave both the men’s and women’s sevens teams $1.2m for each of 2015 and 2016 ahead of the Rio Olympics.
A Dominion Post editorial from 2014 put it simply: ‘‘If the All Blacks, a lucrative, professional team, were competing at the games, it would seem strange to give them high-performance cash.
‘‘The rugby sevens teams, run by the cashed-up New Zealand Rugby Union, are getting support for their own Olympic bids. More’s the worry – the union should be taking care of them.’’
Seems logical, right? Too bad logic seems to have no place in this world.
Then you have outfits like the Black Sticks women’s team which received $1.3m from HPSNZ this year but, just months out from the Olympics, Sport NZ disclosed a $4 million cut to its lotteries grants in a big blow to the side. Because of this, players were asked to fund their own way to Rio by finding people to sponsor them.
This whole situation seemed bizarre because the Black Sticks women are a genuine medal chance.
Could you imagine this happening to a rugby team? I certainly can’t. I’d give you a hypothetical situation as to what would happen if the sevens sides lost their funding months out from Rio, but it would never happen so why bother?
With the amount of resources and attention given to rugby in this country, it would be mind-blowing if we weren’t any good at it.
We’re always going to be in the conversation for the best in the world when it comes to rugby because, quite frankly, we’re one of the only ones who seem to actually care about it.