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A disturbance in the Force! | Sep 14, 2007 11:57

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

With the All Blacks able to set themselves no more of a target than to just keep their structure throughout Saturday night's opposed training against Portugal, the two tastiest games of the weekend look to be the Wallabies vs Wales, and the clash between the Boks and England tomorrow morning.

In all probability, the northern sides will both go down, valiantly or otherwise, but Jonah's tipping Wales and some South African media are speculating that Australia could throw the game in order to avoid meeting the All Blacks in the semi-finals. Frankly, given our history, we should be more scared of them than they are of us.

The Wallabies, who enjoyed home advantage for the duration of the last tournament have, quite rightly, been accused of whingeing after coach Conolly complained about having to play the pool match against Wales at Millennium Stadium.

Meanwhile, England, with Jonny Wilkinson and that other guy both crocked, are reduced to playing a former rugby league prop at first five. Hell, it might be what they need …

Over at Haka, Tracey Nelson is struggling to find bars that show the rugby and internet cafes that are ever open in Marseilles and Paul Waite considers the RWC clampdown on foul play and concludes:

If it isn't some bloody silly new ball that a sponsor has bent the IRB's arms behind their backs with loads of cash to foist on all the teams who have been playing with decent ones for the past four years, it's "new" definitions of foul play, and appropriate levels of punishment thereof.

It's absolutely ludicrous.

If there is a perceived problem with foul play in the game, then clean it up in the four years in-between World Cups, NOT AT THE WORLD CUP ITSELF!

Morgan Nicol has detected a disturbance in the force at the Rugby World Cup. This is huge!

And the first Whisky Galore comment prize goes to … simon g. Get in touch with your details, Simon.

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No coke, no ice | Sep 13, 2007 10:47

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

I was accosted by Campbell Smith at the Music Awards finalists announcement last night. No, not what you think. He'd read the cover story on alternative rugby media, featuring Jedi of the highly accomplished Alternative Rugby Commentary, in the Star Times' Sunday magazine and discovered that it had left out a crucial chapter in the evolution of alt.rugby culture.

On reflection, it is true, as the story says, that the first 95bFM rugby commentary was provided by Graeme Hill and (as Dad) Paul Casserley in 1991, but it did rather hit another level when Campbell and I weighed in with the assistance of Paula Davy in 1995. We even came came the following year with Lee Stensness in the studio as the comments guy. And then Jeremy Wells and I came back to the mic in 2003, for all the good that did the team.

My main memory of the 2003 commentaries is bFM's small but perfectly formed tech genius Rick Huntington correctly perceiving that our crowd noise effects weren't really cutting it and swiftly running an audio lead out of his Sky decoder, EQing out the commentary and beaming it into the studio from Grey Lynn with his outside broadcast transmitter. I'm calling it fair dealing.

Certain elements of the 1995 and 1996 projects must go untold even now, but I do recall that Stensness, good chap that he was, had an unfortunate practice of adding Coca-Cola to the whisky we had obtained from Deschler's by way of sponsorship.

Speaking of which … you have until tomorrow morning to post a comment in this blog to be in to win the first of our prizes from our sponsor, Whisky Galore. I'm giving the Adelphi Private Stock Blend for the first two or three weeks at least: it's from Adelphi, so it's good; you probably can't get it anywhere else; and it's remarkably good value.

Should you be moved to obtain your own stocks from our sponsors, you may find yourself confused by the depth and breadth of the fare on offer. A couple of tips, then:

Under $50 you really can't go past the above-mentioned Adelphi Blend. You're just not going to get a more interesting whisky for the price. At $55, it's hard to imagine the new Glenfarclas 8 year-old not being good value.

Under $100, I think the BenRiach 16 year-old is a nice, very approachable whisky at $89, which makes me think of honey and nougat, although you'd probably do nearly as well with the 12 year-old for $20 less. The prestigious Campbelltown whiskies start with the Springbank 10 year old at $95.80, and the rich, dark Glenfarclas 15 also creeps in under the $100 mark.

If you can go a little higher for the World Cup, it gets really good. I've already ordered myself a bottle of the relatively rare Glenfarclas 17 year old at $116. The Adelphi Breath of the Isles ($154) is a wonderful dram: astringent, peppery and peaty, it excites the palate and is one of my favourite whiskies. (Just quietly, it's a Talisker, although you'd hardly know it from the colour.)

I can't really comment on anything that costs more than $200 (although you have no shortage of options if that's where you're headed), but the other bottle I have obtained for myself (I'm not going to all this trouble for nothing, clearly) is the Tactical 1988 'Old Malt Cask' 18 yr old, another Talisker private bottling. I tried this at Dramfest and thought it was absolutely sensational. I'm telling myself I'm keeping it to crack when the final whistle blows and the All Blacks have won the World Cup.

By the way, if you'd like to keep it patriotic, there are New Zealand whiskies from the Milford company. The 12 year old is good value at $68.50 and the 15 year-old comes in under $100.

Feel free to offer your personal tips too. Just promise me you won't put Coca-Cola with any of it.

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Mixing it up, with stats like | Sep 12, 2007 07:07

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

When it comes right down to brass tacks, there's nothing more annoying than a plethora of speculation and bull-pucky getting in the way of a sports fan and a sport. This is why the love-lives of sports stars are never writ large in the study of games. What's important is:

• Is your favourite athlete going to be able to come up with the goods?
• Who is trying to get in the way of your team winning the shield, cup, statue, silverware, girls next to the podium, big sports car, giant novelty cheque, or the undying adoration and admiration of you and other fans?
• Where is this game being played?
• When will all the crap masquerading as entertainment end, and the game begin?
• What can you shout at the TV at times of great stress to make your team win?
• Why was I never a contender?
• I need to pee, will I be able to hold on till half time?
  

These are the kinds of things that define sport. It's not "Who is doofing who?" or "Who is smoking P?" or "Who has the snazziest dress sense?" Granted, they are always considerations. But the Dropkicks think that there are more important issues, and it is to one of these that we now turn our collective consciousness. Demographics.

So did you know that the heaviest player at the World Cup is Namibian Marius Visser? He's a svelte 140kg, or, the total weight of any two of the three Georgian players, Irakli Abuserdize, Bidzina Samkharadze and Giorgi Shkinin, each a colossal 70kg. This suggests that if the big fulla was to be KO'ed and accidentally collapsed on any single one of them, it could take the combined strength of both the other two to rescue their comrade. That's something to watch out for on 26 September.

More important though is something that popped up in conversation over on PA System. Chris Stockton, of Wales (long time reader, first time commenter?) asked the question,

Watching the Italian game (yes! they have just scored!), I was wondering how many of your lot are from New Zealand? , and yes I have heard of Maoris"

Unfortunately, he copped a bit of flak for asking. Not biffo-type flak, but flak none the less.

And the Dropkicks thought, "Chris, we're here for ya man. We see you only commented once, so we're here to bring you back into the fold".

The All Blacks are 73% NZ-born. Of the eight born outside New Zealand, five were born in Samoa (Jerry Collins, Chris Masoe, Mils Muliaina, Rodney So'oialo and Isaia Toeava), two in Fiji (Josevata Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu) and one in Tonga (Sione Lauaki). It's important to note that all of these players are naturalised New Zealanders. Most came to New Zealand with their families when they were very young and have been through the public school system. It's probable they didn't really like the schoolroom, for, as we all know, they choose the professional sporting life. But, there are bound to be Pacific Islander imports who followed the same path as Jerry or Mils or Sione and who did end up as accountants, or policemen, or or doctors, or engineers. The closest we have to a "poached" player would be Sivivatu, who came to New Zealand in his later teens.

It is also interesting to note that of the 30 in the Samoan squad, 12 were born in New Zealand. We receiveth, and we giveth away.

So compare that to the Home Nations, who for all their bleating about player poaching (nothing personal), are as follows:

• Scotland: 67% homogeneous. The foreign-born players are Dan Parks (Australia), Nathan Hines (Australia), John Barclay (Hong Kong) and seven English: Craig Smith, Gavin Kerr, Andrew Henderson, Rob Dewey, Simon Webster, Hugo Southwell, and Jim Hamilton.
• Wales: 77% homogeneous. Their foreign-born players are Tom Shanklin (England), Will James (England), Colin Charvis (England), Chris Horsman (England), Sonny Parker (New Zealand), Ian Evans (South Africa) and Dafydd James (Zambia).
• Ireland: 83% homogeneous. Their foreign-born players are Frankie Sheahan (Canada), Malcolm O'Kelly (England), Simon Easterby (England), Isaac Boss (New Zealand) and Ronan O'Gara (USA).
• England: 87% homogeneous. The foreign-born players are Mike Catt (South Africa), Matt Stevens (South Africa), Perry Freshwater (New Zealand) and Simon Shaw (Kenya).

At the other end of the spectrum, both Romania and Georgia have benefited the least from foreign influence: they have exactly zero foreign-born players in their squad (a number of them play for and benefit French club sides though).

And of the big nations, South Africa is the most homogeneous: 93% (or 28 out of 30) of their players are South Africa born. Of the other two, one was born in Namibia (Percy Montgomery), and one was born in Zimbabwe (Bobby Skinstad).

So, I think what we can take from all this is that the All Blacks do benefit from Pacific Island immigration. But their are no New Zealand sporting scouts in the Islands spotting youngsters running around with a rugby ball and saying: "Oooh, gotta grab that one - he's the next All Black's second five eighth".

It's all to do with economics, gravitating to the centres with greater opportunities for jobs and education. It's a consequence of the modern world. And what is New Zealand to do with these people? They come here young, live most of their life here, speak with the Kiwi twang, get jobs here and see themselves as Kiwis. Sure, they don't forget their roots, and nor should they, but they benefit from New Zealand, and in return New Zealand benefits from them.

And it's not just the All Blacks, New Zealand as a whole benefits, to be honest. Here endeth, the lesson.

The Dropkicks

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Fifteen minutes of Fame | Sep 10, 2007 09:16

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

Two of spring's great mysteries were solved over the weekend. Firstly, the ever present flag waver Sonny Shaw has prioritised the rugby world cup over the 20:20 world cup, though this bizarre website indicates he will make it to the Republic in time for the Black Caps tests and one dayers. I am sure they are thrilled.

Secondly the question as to whether the All Blacks reconditioning programme had any benefits. In just over quarter of an hour they scared the bejesus out of the rest of the rugby world. Sure, we can carp about how weak the Italians looked at times, the loss of structure as the game went on, some Carlosesque brain explosions from Luke McAlister, but that quarter hour, five try blitzkrieg was a class above anything else in this opening weekend.

The support play was superb. I wonder in awe sometimes just how remarkable Ali Williams, Chris Jack and Carl Hayman are in terms of their contribution in all phases of the game. Richie McCaw looked a bit embarrassed to be named man of the match. It could have been any one of them. If I were choosing I actually would not go past Leon McDonald. His positional play was faultless and his energy and invention led to numerous attacks and directly to one try. It begs the question as to whether we just accept that Muliana at centre is the way to go.

We now interrupt the programme for a message from Rupert Murdoch. There is of course no difference between the kind of rugby you can play with the sun on your back, on a dry ground in the middle of the day and night rugby with variable temperature, dew and cold hands. Sadly for Rupert a couple of the All Blacks, including Doug Howlett, went way off script in the interviews after the game noting how great it was to play in daytime conditions. Hear, hear.

Obviously we can not get carried away. The Aussies were clinical in dispatching Japan. They built steadily and wore down the Japanese until they could score at will. There was no blitzkrieg- it was a slow and painful experience. George Gregan had a tremendous game as referee.

Argentina looked every inch a quarter finalist. It does not bear thinking about the French not being in the final eight in terms of the health of the tournament, but it has to be contemplated.

Apparently England eked out a ponderous win over the US. England are irrelevant at this World Cup. They will lose to Samoa and not make the quarter finals. You heard it here first. (Actually you heard it here, from Zinzan)

The Poms are seriously worried -- mostly about the All Blacks and what might happen against Portugal and Romania, but also about the cup as a whole. The Daily Telegraph warns against disrespecting the haka. Not certain we will get further tikanga lessons from them as the cup goes on

Meanwhile in the commentary box Hamish McKay threatened to go all Mike Moore on us uttering random words like 'atmosphere', 'occasion' and 'athlete', interspersed with French or Italian names that may or may not bear any relation to the player who has the ball, but he was ok, especially at the Cambridge pub in Wellington on Saturday night where we couldn't hear a word.

Andrew Mehrtens and Grant Fox actually look like they could add something to watching the games -- both are reading the game well and make us grateful that Murray is relegated to the NPC for the rest of the year. It was also strangely comforting to find James Ryan perched on a rooftop in Paris with Mike McRoberts. Just hope he has his boots. Ryan that is, not McRoberts.

To pre-empt the naysaers -- yes there are going to be some shocking mismatches in this round. Put simply that is because rugby is not a global game. There are not the teams around to make the competition even all the way through. But the World Cup is actually about creating a global game- exposing our favourite game to the world. And it is getting better. The USA, Namibia and to some extent Portugal were competitive against their professional opposition. It will take many years to create a global game, but you have to start somewhere.

So we are on our way, and it feels good. My favourite moment of the weekend, however, happened a long way from Marseille or Paris. It happened near Westport when Keith Robinson's mother landed a 280kg tuna, the biggest ever caught by a woman anywhere in the world. Superb- now does she jump at number two or number four in the lineout?

Grant Robertson

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Round One | Sep 10, 2007 07:33

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

Over at Haka, Tracey Nelson has a report from the game in Marseilles and catching the tournament opener on telly ("We watched the game with the French commentary and it was noticeable in the second half that the term 'stupide' was starting to crop up quite often.")

The Public Address readers Fi and Lu at the on-the-ground blog Allez Le Noirs report from the crowd in Marseilles and are "not missing London at all. It is awesomely sunny here, and the food is incredible. And the wine is very, very cheap."

Hadyn at the Dropkicks does his glog (that's "game log") thing for the Italy match, but isn't totally impressed.

Want YouTube? This guy is doing an extraordinary job of uploading: both France-Argentina and AllBlacks-Italy, there in 12 parts. Here's the end of the former and the beginning of the latter.

The Daily Telegraph's World Cup blogger guy "enjoyed a cigarette" with Grant Fox during the week. What sort of example is that setting to the kids? And staying with first fives, did it strike anyone else that when Andrew Mehrtens interviewed Dan Carter, Mehrts appeared taller than Carter?

Meanwhile, the Herald's Janetta Mackay gives a pass-mark to the TV3 coverage, but Half-Geek says it's all crap.

I did have a chuckle at James Gemmell in the pre-game package, interviewing Daniel Carter at his old home ground in rural Canterbury:

"We're back at Southbridge Rugby Club," Gemmell said to the All Black first-five. "Does it feel a long way away from, say, Stade de France?"

Why yes. Yes, it does. Obviously.

Russell Brown

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It's On | Sep 07, 2007 09:21

SOME FOREIGN FIELD The Rugby World Cup blog

Welcome to our Rugby World Cup 2007 feature, Some Foreign Field, which will run for the duration of the tournament. We'll work alongside Haka and The Dropkicks, and you can expect to see the Dropkicks geezers blog here, if only to mercilessly plug their podcasts. There will also be some surprise contributors as we go along.

I'm pleased to confirm that Some Foreign Field will be sponsored throughout by our friends at Whisky Galore, enabling me to offer a good bottle of whisky each week for the best reader comment. You may feel free to click through and order up your own dram, of course.

We'll keep you up with news and blog comment from elsewhere too. Like, for instance, Justin Marshall's venting in The Times. We just don't appreciate him, apparently:

Today, he wants to exhume his frustrations with the treatment that former All Blacks receive back home. If Henry's side do win the Webb Ellis Cup they should not, it seems, expect their fans to cherish the achievement for long.

"New Zealand has a problem," says the 34-year-old, who played with Leeds Tykes for a season before moving to Swansea last summer. "They're very, very negative towards former All Blacks. I was the second most capped All Black ever and I received a plaque saying 'thank you very much' and that's it. We never recognise the achievements of the great All Blacks.

"I've really noticed the difference since being in the UK. They're very receptive of their players, particularly in Wales. They're always having functions, they have a Hall of Fame and players are inducted every year. They're very good with past international stars.

"Yet I know my comments will make their way back to New Zealand and people will be 'why can't he just shut up?' Giving your opinion, you're deemed out of your depth, which is weird."

Uh, right. Whatever. Marshall also sounded a doomy note on selection policy:

"I didn't agree with the rotational policy, neither do a lot of my compatriots and neither do a lot of the players. I know that because I still speak to them," says the All Blacks' most capped scrum-half, who now plays for Ospreys.

"They don't know where they stand. One week they could be man of the match, the next they might not be in the squad. That's the reason that they're stuttering. Players are getting anxious about whether they're going to be selected for the World Cup or not."

Actually, as others have pointed out, in most positions there is little doubt about who the core of the present All Black side is, and that has been the case for the past two years.

Meanwhile, over at Dropkicks HQ, they've already been busy, with a meditation on the All Black campaign, a look at the Australians and a plea to see less of Byron Kelleher on the telly.

Inevitably, there are also lolblacks and a drinking game.

Haka, meanwhile, has a crew on the ground in France, led by the highly capable Tracey Nelson, who before she flew out offered some thoughts on what is really our best XV and the likely quality of the refereeing.

I haven't bothered to sign up for any virtual or fantasy rugby comps -- they just seem so trivial at a time like this -- but readers who are in are warmly welcomed to keep the rest of us up to date. Choice excerpts from the shouting matches on Usenet are also welcome.

But, for now, I'm just waiting for 11.45 tomorrow night. Finally, this thing starts. There is nothing to keep in reserve now. I'm not nervous yet, but this is going to be a long six weeks.

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