Winners & Losers : Football’s stars shine brightly above Fifa’s stains
Winner The Fifa World Cup . . . finally
There will always be an ugly stain on this tournament in Qatar, for humanitarian and corruption reasons.
But that’s not the fault of the players or millions of fans for who football means so much.
And they are still allowed to love the actual football, no matter the sins of football’s masters.
The tournament is hitting some high points . . . helped by the old legends Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo joining the party.
Messi’s goal against Mexico felt like a game-changer for Argentina. He was still struggling up to that point, but delivered a classic Messi precision finish.
This also feels like a watershed tournament: the football world won’t stand for Fifa’s corruption any more, and there is a growing new world order on the field where the old powers face a true threat from Morocco and Co.
Winners Spain
They are playing magical football at the World Cup and brought the best out of Germany — the 1-1 draw between the European heavyweights is the game of the tournament so far.
Winners The Springboks at the 2023 Rugby World Cup
The champions — who made mincemeat of England at Twickenham — must be the slight favourites in what will be an even field at next year’s tournament.
South Africa’s forwards are incredibly imposing and they have worked out when to attack, and when to bludgeon.
The ‘Boks have backline players with nice touches, but they don’t overplay that hand. They seem so certain about their methods — epitomized by the Bomb Squad tactic, whereby the best front row starts on the bench.
There’s a ruthless core to these ‘Boks, highlighted against England at Twickenham over the weekend by a continued belief in the power of the drop goal.
They’ve even unveiled a new star in pocket-rocket wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, who produced a classic inand-out move to leave the nimble Marcus Smith for dead on the way to a try a Twickenham.
There’s another terrific if less obvious find in the pack — brutal No 8 Evan Roos. He always makes ground, and epitomizes these no-fuss ‘Boks.
Teams will be keeping some of their World Cup tactics under wraps, so it is early to make solid predictions.
But Rassie Erasmus, oops, Jacques Nienaber has a deepening squad made for World Cup success, built around incredible size and power.
Winners The All Blacks or England . . .
. . . if they appoint Scott Robertson as coach now, a year out from the World Cup. He would vastly improve either team — guaranteed.
Wales is apparently getting ready to move against Wayne Pivac, realising a side under the Kiwi would go nowhere at the World Cup.
Desperate times, desperate measures.
At least Wales can recognise their own malaise — although admittedly they’ve had a lot of practice at the art.
New Zealand has enjoyed so much success that it thinks a hopeless year by their standards is merely a blip, rather than a serious downturn.
It is a stick-in-the-mud sport run by old-school committee types who can’t think on their feet or act decisively and are always hoping their original decisions come good.
And rugby coaches have invented added job security by pretending to their bosses that a World Cup campaign takes four years of intricate planning.
If things are going badly, there’s the old excuse: “You ain’t seen what I’m really all about yet’.
Yes, careful planning can produce results, a la Japan under Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown at the last World Cup. The Brave Blossoms were superbly choreographed.
But the long-term planning line is also self-serving nonsense, highlighted by the drivel from out of England coach Eddie Jones’ mouth.
South Africa’s dismantling of England puts the All Blacks’ draw at Twickenham a week earlier into proper perspective.
I would argue that coaches like Ian Foster, Eddie Jones and Dave Rennie have actually lost their way, and that a sudden injection of new coaching expertise and enthusiasm is a risk well worth taking for New Zealand, England and Australia.
Cases in point . . . the current World Cup champions. Both Wayne Smith and Rassie Erasmus were late appointments.
Loser Rugby
There were flashes of great rugby from South Africa at Twickenham. But there were also long periods in the game when nothing meaningful was going on.
All those gaps gave me plenty of time to read this message from a former All Black.
It read: “Scrums are destroying rugby. The last scrum of the first half Wales v Australia took four minutes 20 seconds as the ref penalised Australia and reset the scrum. Most of the scrum penalties were awarded before the bloody ball went in. Madness.”
Winner The Fifa World Cup offside system
It’s precise and instant, with graphics the public gets to see. Yes, some of the decisions can feel very harsh, when goals are ruled out by a hair’s width.
But the call was for accuracy, integrity and consistency, and that’s what the system gives.
And there are still enough contentious areas left in the game — we all love a good sports argument, including over refereeing decisions.
Winner Immigration . . . the Kiwi melting pot
A friend who attended the ODI at Eden Park said the atmosphere relied almost solely on the Indian fans, including some from the younger generation who were supporting the Black Caps.
On a similar note, Brazilian acquaintances who were at the ground for the All Whites match against Australia this year said they were shocked to see the lack of passion in the stands.
“Why do people just sit there?” one asked me.
New Zealand’s changing demographics will bring more life to our sports grounds.
Winners Tom Latham . . . and Ian Smith
Who knew? Latham even surprised himself with a match-winning 145 off 104 balls (yes, that is the right way around) in the ODI against India at Eden Park.
It still doesn’t beat the most incredible innings by a New Zealand wicketkeeper against India at Eden Park (fairly specific category that).
This honour lies with Ian Smith, who smashed a stunning 173 from 136 balls in a high scoring 1990 test match, during an era when such a scoring rate was even more spectacular.
I well remember the occasion: having watched this incredible blast on television, I went to the ground the next day hoping to see the show continue, even though New Zealand were almost out of wickets. Smith was dismissed, the first ball I saw.
Smith — who has gone on to become one of the great Kiwi sports commentators — must sometimes think to himself that he had a batting style made for these modern, quickhit, highly lucrative T20 times.
Loser / Winner Hayden Wilde
Wilde was well placed to claim New Zealand’s first world triathlon title since 2004 but finished sixth in the final event at Abu Dhabi, surrendering his championship lead and finishing third overall.
It has been a fine year for Wilde yet he will also feel ‘so near but yet so far’, having also lost his appeal attempt to be awarded the Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Hayden Wilde won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe more of the latter, for now.
Loser Softball . . . and us
I covered a lot of softball back in the day when it still had a significant if slipping foothold in the national sporting landscape.
Softball felt strong enough to try running a full-scale national league, although it didn’t last long.
Men such as Kevin Herlihy, Mark Sorenson, Michael White, Eddie Kohlhase and Jarrad Martin were once household names, and not just in sporting households.
New Zealand was famous for the pitchers it supplied to the North American clubs.
The Kiwi softball prowess extended to the women’s game, where the national team relied on superstars like Marilyn Marshall, Cheryl Kemp, Gina Weber and Rhonda Hira. The women were also helped by having Olympic status.
They were days of strong domestic leagues and tournaments in a range of sports.
Times have changed, and no more so than in softball.
There is a fresh look to international softball through the rise of teams such as Argentina, Venezuela and Australia.
But softball’s profile — as in many smaller sports — has sagged badly. The current World Cup in Auckland is being played in obscurity compared to days past.