Watched the Football World Cup in the comfort of a well heated lounge in New Plymouth Monday morning accompanied by wife, daughter, s-i-l, grandson, and a very large German Shepherd named Druss.
Spain deserved to win; for two reasons.
First they were the better team, primarily because their level of ball control both in the semi-final and final was superior to the opponents.
Second, they were less prone to the more insidious tendencies in the game. Whether this was because of their skills or not is moot (but not here).
All Blacks beat the Springboks on Saturday night. Not only unexpected, but a hearty thumping to boot; 32-12. Ahhh, the deja vu of history. NZ will not win the Rugby World Cup next year.
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
I am going to blow a vuvuzela...
...just very briefly now that the World Cup is close to reaching its very expensive conclusion.
First, New Zealand deserved to be there. Not because we drew 1-1 with Italy, or ended with three draws in the elimination series. NZ deserved to be there simply to show the true spirit of the game, and the dedication of (comparative) amateurism. Our top players earn less than 20% of most of the players in the last 16. Our coach earns about 1/3 of his potential worth as assistant coach to a top league club.
There was a notable - a "players representative" I think - interviewed on tv who opined that the All Whites showed most of the senior teams the level of dedication and purpose expected of teams that qualify for the World Cup. There were many - England, France and Italy come to mind - who looked as though they were following strategies of complacency and "God-given rights". There were "easy-beats" in each Group. NZ dealt to Italy in their Group and only a penalty given as an Oscar award saved Italy from an ignominious defeat which would have seen NZ through to the round of 16.
Second, the later rounds of 16 and 8 showed the true nature of the sportsmanship that goes hand in hand with a competition of this nature. Leading the scoreboard for blatant and outrageously cynical sportsmanship must be Uruguay. God now has a new name; it is no longer Maradona, it has changed to Suarez. I hope that Suarez meets an appropriate "justice" in the next life for taking that name in vanity.
Third, the champs this time will be Germany. They have to be. And I hope I have not dealt them the kiss of death by backing their chances.
First, New Zealand deserved to be there. Not because we drew 1-1 with Italy, or ended with three draws in the elimination series. NZ deserved to be there simply to show the true spirit of the game, and the dedication of (comparative) amateurism. Our top players earn less than 20% of most of the players in the last 16. Our coach earns about 1/3 of his potential worth as assistant coach to a top league club.
There was a notable - a "players representative" I think - interviewed on tv who opined that the All Whites showed most of the senior teams the level of dedication and purpose expected of teams that qualify for the World Cup. There were many - England, France and Italy come to mind - who looked as though they were following strategies of complacency and "God-given rights". There were "easy-beats" in each Group. NZ dealt to Italy in their Group and only a penalty given as an Oscar award saved Italy from an ignominious defeat which would have seen NZ through to the round of 16.
Second, the later rounds of 16 and 8 showed the true nature of the sportsmanship that goes hand in hand with a competition of this nature. Leading the scoreboard for blatant and outrageously cynical sportsmanship must be Uruguay. God now has a new name; it is no longer Maradona, it has changed to Suarez. I hope that Suarez meets an appropriate "justice" in the next life for taking that name in vanity.
Third, the champs this time will be Germany. They have to be. And I hope I have not dealt them the kiss of death by backing their chances.
Monday, November 17, 2008
North Korea 2 - United States of America 1
OK, so it was "only" the final of the World Soccer Cup.
OK OK so it was only U17 Women.
...or should that be "girls".
But North Korea did win.
OK OK so it was only U17 Women.
...or should that be "girls".
But North Korea did win.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Piha Rescue
The very short 2007 season of one of my most favourite television programmes has finished tonight.
The programme linked through the heading might last for a couple more weeks before TVNZ wipe it off. It will give you an idea of the quality of the programme.
Tonight's closer was a full hour long programme, instead of the usual 30 minutes. It follows a team of juniors (as young as 15) who are in their first patrol season, and some of whom have been qualified for beach duty less than a week. After a fairly stormy close to the afternoon (quite a neat NZ version of a thunderstorm)a family reports that their father went swimming about 30 minutes beforehand and has not returned. The programme follows the resulting search; I will not tell you the outcome.
See if you can get hold of it on the TV One site - use "Piha Rescue" in google if you must, but it makes a better keyword than search key.
See what the best of NZ youth are capable of, and how they react in extremely stressful conditions.
The programme linked through the heading might last for a couple more weeks before TVNZ wipe it off. It will give you an idea of the quality of the programme.
Tonight's closer was a full hour long programme, instead of the usual 30 minutes. It follows a team of juniors (as young as 15) who are in their first patrol season, and some of whom have been qualified for beach duty less than a week. After a fairly stormy close to the afternoon (quite a neat NZ version of a thunderstorm)a family reports that their father went swimming about 30 minutes beforehand and has not returned. The programme follows the resulting search; I will not tell you the outcome.
See if you can get hold of it on the TV One site - use "Piha Rescue" in google if you must, but it makes a better keyword than search key.
See what the best of NZ youth are capable of, and how they react in extremely stressful conditions.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Thoughts on Blogging...
I was reading around this morning whilst munching on a well buttered and marmaladed piece of toast and I ended up at Donklephant. Justin Gardner is "fairly centrist" and usually has a reasonably friendly melange from which to choose. What caught my eye this morning was a photo taken during a rugby game between Scotland and Portugal. He comments -
Now I could spend some pages on the so-called "brutality" of rugby. I could get quite upset at his choice of a photo taken at one of the minor matches of the Rugby World Cup. Actually I have a soft spot for Portugal (the team in red), and they were fairly well beaten by the Scots which is a shame.
I played rugby myself. Not very well. I was usually played at lock (as one of the tallest in the team and not very fast), or "blindside flanker".
Now that latter might require a bit of explanation. Rugby features a "scrum", its own form of the "huddle" (I think it is called that - where play in American Football is restarted) in which the eight forwards of each team are "packed" in a 3-4-1 formation against each other. The blindside flanker occupies the outside of the row of four on the side closest to the sideline. It is a very simple job. You flatten anything and everything that happens to be carrying the ball. As fastest over 10 metres and one of the slower over 20m I was well suited to it.
If it helps at all, the locks are the middle two of that row of four.
But that is not what I wanted to write about.
In my peregrinations through the blogiverse I have come across many blogs which are obviously written by journalists. Some (The Sciolist was one) have had to give the game up after their employer gave them the word that it was "not appropriate". Other journalists are openly encouraged to blog on behalf of their employer. There are also those journo's who are covert writers.
I don't know at all whether Martin is a journo. I suspect that he is, but it matters little in the case to hand. I want to make it very clear that he is not alone in what is to come...
In his "1000 words" story this week, Martin links here - where there is nary a hint of a photo let alone rugby. The first thing to catch my eye was this -
That may or may not be a good idea. It is not something that I would take up.
That leaves the "real" blogger - such as TF, Al, Dave and the other "private" bloggers who might start with a news story but usually put it into a personal perspective. It is this group who, irrespective of their politics, are generally the most interesting reads.
Oh, and Martin, I hope you don't mind me saying it but I have yet to find the rest of the "page" that you keep your 1000 words on. Some script editing might be required?
So to satisfy those curiosity urges go here and suck off the "Free Sample". I have no idea of the content other than it should contain some rugby. Look for a player with the number 6 on his back - he is the blindside flanker.
And there are photos from NZ vs Italy here
UPDATE -
I had a moment of clarity yesterday - found out what was wrong with Justin's "1000 Words".
I use dial-up, and have turned OFF any system reference to Flash. Hence the (for me rather long) video files at the bottom of the page tend to stall. My bad. Luddite again. Heigh-ho!
New photos at the bottom of the page this week. None as brutal as this one, but all interesting in their own right.
Now I could spend some pages on the so-called "brutality" of rugby. I could get quite upset at his choice of a photo taken at one of the minor matches of the Rugby World Cup. Actually I have a soft spot for Portugal (the team in red), and they were fairly well beaten by the Scots which is a shame.
I played rugby myself. Not very well. I was usually played at lock (as one of the tallest in the team and not very fast), or "blindside flanker".
Now that latter might require a bit of explanation. Rugby features a "scrum", its own form of the "huddle" (I think it is called that - where play in American Football is restarted) in which the eight forwards of each team are "packed" in a 3-4-1 formation against each other. The blindside flanker occupies the outside of the row of four on the side closest to the sideline. It is a very simple job. You flatten anything and everything that happens to be carrying the ball. As fastest over 10 metres and one of the slower over 20m I was well suited to it.
If it helps at all, the locks are the middle two of that row of four.
But that is not what I wanted to write about.
In my peregrinations through the blogiverse I have come across many blogs which are obviously written by journalists. Some (The Sciolist was one) have had to give the game up after their employer gave them the word that it was "not appropriate". Other journalists are openly encouraged to blog on behalf of their employer. There are also those journo's who are covert writers.
I don't know at all whether Martin is a journo. I suspect that he is, but it matters little in the case to hand. I want to make it very clear that he is not alone in what is to come...
In his "1000 words" story this week, Martin links here - where there is nary a hint of a photo let alone rugby. The first thing to catch my eye was this -
Use the mash button to embed a news story or a news feed (with advertising) onto your website or blog.and
Register to earn a share of the advertising revenue each time mashed news is viewed on your site.
That may or may not be a good idea. It is not something that I would take up.
That leaves the "real" blogger - such as TF, Al, Dave and the other "private" bloggers who might start with a news story but usually put it into a personal perspective. It is this group who, irrespective of their politics, are generally the most interesting reads.
Oh, and Martin, I hope you don't mind me saying it but I have yet to find the rest of the "page" that you keep your 1000 words on. Some script editing might be required?
So to satisfy those curiosity urges go here and suck off the "Free Sample". I have no idea of the content other than it should contain some rugby. Look for a player with the number 6 on his back - he is the blindside flanker.
And there are photos from NZ vs Italy here
UPDATE -
I had a moment of clarity yesterday - found out what was wrong with Justin's "1000 Words".
I use dial-up, and have turned OFF any system reference to Flash. Hence the (for me rather long) video files at the bottom of the page tend to stall. My bad. Luddite again. Heigh-ho!
Friday, February 16, 2007
The Best of NZ Sport -
... the very best in fact.
I was hoping to link through to TV1 archive so that you (my casual readers) could enjoy the presentation of the Halberg Sports Awards which took place last night. Obviously, copyright and piracy being what they are TV1 has decided not to put this programme out on the 'Net.
So, you are missing out on seeing and hearing Valerie Vili win the Sportswoman of the Year, Mahe Drysdale's acceptance speech for Sportsman of the Year, Tana Umaga receiving a very overdue award for leadership and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Ken Elliot who at the age of 91 is still active in golf.
A shame the video is not available. It gives a very real picture of what NZ is, what our people are, and the combination of pride and humility displayed by our top sports men and women.
I was hoping to link through to TV1 archive so that you (my casual readers) could enjoy the presentation of the Halberg Sports Awards which took place last night. Obviously, copyright and piracy being what they are TV1 has decided not to put this programme out on the 'Net.
So, you are missing out on seeing and hearing Valerie Vili win the Sportswoman of the Year, Mahe Drysdale's acceptance speech for Sportsman of the Year, Tana Umaga receiving a very overdue award for leadership and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Ken Elliot who at the age of 91 is still active in golf.
A shame the video is not available. It gives a very real picture of what NZ is, what our people are, and the combination of pride and humility displayed by our top sports men and women.
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