With pride on the line, Kiwi teams will fall
Alan Jones had a good bleat about the demise of Australian rugby, didn’t he? Yep, the former Wallabies coach who now does his thing as a radio jock in Sydney, lapped up the chance to throw verbal punches left, right and centre.
Powerful stuff, indeed. Of course Al didn’t provide any innovative solutions, but boy, he came across as a real heavy-hitter.
Jones hasn’t lacked allies when stomping all over Aussie rugby, because a decent line-up of ex-players, media personalities and supporters have already had a decent lick at it.
You cannot argue that Australian rugby isn’t a mess. It’s not a car crash, but until someone yanks the steering wheel and demands they try a different direction they are surely headed for more trouble. Chopping at least one team from Super Rugby will help.
It’s the same for South African rugby. They are lining up to unload shots over in the Republic. Former 1995 World Cup star Joel Stransky has suggested getting rid of the Cheetahs and Kings, stating that financially they are not sustainable and cannot attract enough fans.
So if you have, say, 60 players without a club in South Africa, and 30 looking for work in Aussie, the old supply-and-demand situation kicks in.
That doesn’t just put pressure on the players from the soon-to-be-defunct organisations, it also means the players in the other teams will be competing in a market that will soon be flooded with extra, and potentially cheaper, talent. It’s a fair incentive to work a little harder for a contract.
Pride is also a powerful thing. Marsellus Wallace told Butch in the cult classic movie Pulp Fiction that ‘‘pride only hurts, it never helps’’, as he demanded the boxer take a dive in the fifth. Butch was a bit naughty, wasn’t he? He ignored the advice, beat his opponent to a bloody pulp and did a runner.
Because pride means a great deal in contact sport, it is what drives competitors on. They thrive on it, and we shouldn’t under-estimate what it means to the battling rugger teams from Oz and South Africa.
It’s also time to be a little kind, and note the Reds, Waratahs, Force and Brumbies have already gone close to claiming a Kiwi scalp. We haven’t seen much of the men from Africa yet, but it’s stating the obvious that the decent sides are never a pushover on their home tracks.
Sometimes you hear professional sports coaches and players state they don’t take any notice of what is going in the media.
Well, here’s a secret. Once they are tucked inside their bunkers, with the curtains pulled and with the landlines disconnected, they get busy.
They want to know what is going on out there – which sycophants are stroking their egos, what cynical ass is taking them down a peg or two.
The Aussies will want to prove a point or to Jones and his mates. The South Africans will want to send a message to blokes like Stransky. Securing a contract for 2018 and beyond will also have something to do with it.
It’s something for the Kiwi teams to bear in mind isn’t it?