The recession chugs on, or is finished, depending who you talk to, people are still out of jobs, home loan rates are going up, but the world hasn’t ended. A bunch of kids, staff and parents are happy after another successful holiday programme. But sadly for my dearest readers, you haven’t been able to enjoy my insightful comments and witticisms for three weeks.
But I’m back. And chuckling about an article that dares to poke the borax at New Zealand’s best loved institution – the All Blacks! How dare they? Well, they do dare, and good on them.
Since Graham Henry and co. took over the All Blacks in 2004, it seems to me they have drawn towards the soccer model of ‘prima donna’, ‘touch me and I fall down in agony’, rather than the traditional rugby union model of ‘gritty bloke in a black singlet, tough as old boots, plays in a stinging southerly (cold in NZ) with two dislocated shoulders and then heads out to the back blocks of the farm with a roll of no. 8 wire ready to get up to his elbows in birthing lambs’. Argh, those days be gone (OK, not sure where the ‘talk like a pirate’ vernacular crept in from).
Nowadays, the All Blacks LOSE! And they don’t seem to CARE! That never happened before. When they lost in the past, it was after epic battles against monumental sides whose forwards had tree trunks for legs and whose backs could give Usain Bolt a run for his money. The country went into mourning, players hung their heads in shame, and the media flayed the management alive.
Today, the ‘teflon trio’, as described in the charming article in today’s paper, smile and talk weasel words about team bonding and the like, while faffing about trying to figure out how to coach, impart knowledge, and somehow enable the team to play well and win. The latest move is that they will all swop out of their ‘expert’ roles and do each other’s jobs.
Hmm, not sure how that will improve things.
Tags: All Blacks, rugby union