ABs present a family dilemma for Mitchell
Black Caps allrounder Daryl Mitchell isn’t afraid to admit he took some satisfaction from the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup semifinal defeat to England last weekend.
It’s not that he was all in on England, but the 28-year-old was rooting for his father, John, the former All Blacks head coach who has been employed as England’s defence coach since last year.
‘‘It’s a strange watch, to be fair. Your whole life you grow up supporting the All Blacks, but at the same time you want your old man to do well,’’ Mitchell told Stuff before the Black Caps trained at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval yesterday afternoon.
‘‘So I was sort of sitting on the fence and just hoping the defence did a good job.’’
Mitchell wasn’t disappointed. England took his father’s blueprint and put a blanket over the All Blacks on their way to a comprehensive 19-7 win.
He spoke to a ‘‘pretty excited’’ John, whose two years as All Blacks coach ended with a semifinal defeat to Australia at the 2003 World Cup, on the phone after the match.
Now, Mitchell can somewhat relax, knowing he can go all in on England when they play South Africa in the World Cup final in Yokohama on Saturday night (NZ time).
‘‘At the end of the day, I wanted the old man to do well. To get a chance to win a World Cup final is pretty cool. The whole family is supporting him,’’ Mitchell said.
‘‘Obviously, a few years ago he missed out on that World Cup final. A chance to go around and do it again is pretty special.’’
But before Mitchell can sit down and cheer on England’s rugby team on Saturday, Mitchell has a Twenty20 international against England in Christchurch tomorrow to worry about.
Should he crack coach Gary Stead’s playing XI for the first fixture in the fivematch T20 series, Mitchell will earn his seventh international cap.
The right-hander, who debuted against India in Wellington in February, and struck an unbeaten 170 for Northern Districts against Canterbury in a Plunket Shield match last week, appears to be in a scrap with spinning allrounder Mitchell Santner for a spot in the side.
Whether or not he plays, the opening match of the summer is the first look at the Black Caps on home soil since their agonising World Cup loss to England in July, when a cruel tiebreaker denied them of glory in London.
The ‘‘revenge’’ word has popped up on numerous occasions ahead of England’s fiveweek tour, which also includes two test matches, as some Kiwis continue to be haunted by the scarcely believable finish at Lord’s.
Forget it, Mitchell and Black Caps batsman Ross Taylor said, and not just because it’s a different form of the game and there are new faces in the mix.
But that didn’t stop one English reporter from having a second dig, asking Taylor if he felt hard done by.
‘‘It’s strange feeling when you come home and you talk to people and apologise for not winning the World Cup. They quickly tell you it was a tie, especially here in New Zealand,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘It was a very emotional couple of hours, but a lot of the guys that are in the side weren’t even in that team, [that’s the same] with the English side as well.’’