The Greatest Show In Rugby Union
All Blacks notes , a new Football Ferns manager & the imminent SheNix
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 31
Bit Of Bare Foot (Welly Nix/Flying Kiwis Football + More)
Reading Menu
Roster Tweaking & Other Offseason Occurrences with the NZ Breakers (Basketball)
Fair To Say That Flying Kiwis Transfer Season Lived Up To The Hype (Football)
White Ferns In England: Tied T20I Series (Cricket)
Tom Walsh and the Elite Four of Men’s Shot Put (Athletics)
Scotty’s Word
Bit’a All Blacks…
To come correct with All Blacks yarns, there won’t be any red card chat. That Sunday evening was all about enjoying a lockdown beauty, mellow vibe matched by peak All Blacks. Lockdown days blend into one long experience and yet a 6pm Sunday kick off was the perfect recipe.
Let’s not beat around the bush - Aotearoa is much better at rugby than Australia.
Every trans-Tasman Test comes with the same old Australia hype. Aotearoa rugby has been best in the world for most of my life and so every opponent hypes themselves up with a sniff of upsetting Aotearoa in the air. Everyone’s coming to knock the best off and it happens every so often. Australia’s hype is a bit extreme though, based on everything that goes down annually.
Take that red card and reframe this into an All Blacks celebration. Rugby union pops up in these emails every so often like an All Blacks loss and I’m eager to see how this All Blacks vibe tracks this year and beyond. I see the most entertaining show in rugby union. Melbourne Storm links are heavy here as both teams play the best style of footy, without compromising on team/organisational culture.
Two games. All Blacks scored 95 points, conceded 43.
Ardie Savea got a yellow card in game tahi. Jordie Barrett got a 20-min red card in game rua. Australia did not receive a card in in either game.
Australia had 57% possession in game tahi, 58% in game two.
Aotearoa scored 14 tries, Australia scored 6.
Aotearoa is always bowling a doosra. Do what the opponent doesn’t expect and do it bloody well. Early in the game, Beauden Barrett puts a grubber in behind the Aussie line. Beaudy does it with standard footy (both codes) shape outside him - that’s a lead runner and an option out the back. Everyone is ready with outside men engaged, then the sneaky buggers Will Jordan, Brad Webber and Jordie creeping up on the inside ready for the grubber…
Jordan gets the footy, passes to Webber who passes to Jordie. Pushing up in support is fundamental to footy success - best NRL teams always have support runners.
That’s having a crack early in the game. Any other teams trying a grubber from their own half any time in a game, let alone first 20 minutes? The All Blacks don’t just do that, they have tricks to increase their chances of scoring a try on that play.
David Havili is pure footy. That’s not unique in the All Blacks - kiwi kids grow up with a ball etc etc. Havili is having a nice moment though and the try he scored via a maul, while being down to 14 blokes was beautiful. I don’t know what the significance of this is, maybe just a coincidence; the two blokes pointing to keep Aussies onside, join the ruck.
Ethan Blackadder and Havili. Blackadder enters first and enters perfectly as if he was prepared to immediately join the maul when allowed. Low body position, latches on to the ball. Then Havili sneaks in behind Blackadder, taking advantage of the Aussie #7 being told to get out.
Havili also pounced on an intercept. Although this isn’t a Havili thing, it’s an All Black thing to shake things up when facing an overlap. Havili is out-numbered for his intercept (Aussie forward passing to Aussie forward is a lot different to All Blacks forwards passing too), while the two intercepts in the 57-22 win came from overlap scenarios as well.
Sunday evening footy vs Argentina coming up this weekend as well. No matter who is selected, the greatest show in rugby is likely to roll on. Kia kaha.
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Footy Ferns Have A New Manager
Say g’day to Jitka Klimková, who late last week was announced as the new head coach of the national women’s football team. 47 year old Czech native who previously took charge of the NZ U17s for a couple years from 2013-2014, as well as being an assistant to the U20s at the same time. Prior to that she’d won a W-League title coaching Canberra United and since then she’s been working in the USA system. Someone with prior experience in the NZ system as well as very useful connections to the European and American systems – always nice to be able to play politics with FIFA.
I have a vague recollection of hearing that Klimková had applied unsuccessfully for the job when Tom Sermanni was appointed but can’t find evidence so that may be a figment of my imagination. She hasn’t taken charge of a senior national team like this before but does have that W-League stint in her CV. Incredibly she’s the first full-time female manager of the team, although there have been a couple caretakers before.
It seems like a solid appointment. Exactly the kind of steady presence that we need in charge heading into a crucial time for the team – a co-hosted World Cup with the best chance they’ll ever have to win a game or two at one of those things and it’s also quite possible that there’ll be a few retirements in the wake of it too. There’s a crew of players who’ve been regulars for the Ferns for a decade now: Ali Riley, Abby Erceg, Ria Percival, Erin Nayler, Hannah Wilkinson, Katie Bowen, Betsy Hassett, etc. They won’t be around forever which puts Klimková’s history of working with young players in focus again as she may well be trying to bring a few more through to replace some of the veterans within a few years.
This is a pivotal time for a team that’s been stuck in limbo for a couple years. Too good for Oceania, not good enough to compete with the world’s best, hardly ever get to play teams of their own level and actually test and improve themselves with competitive football. Pressure is on to get results and that won’t be easy given how tricky it is to get all the Ferns in one place at one time, let alone with quality friendlies and training camps and the rest of it.
The funky thing here is that NZF have given Klimková a six year contract out of the gates. The word from the CEO being that they didn’t want to deal with another period of upheaval after three managers in quick succession recently… except hold on a second... why did that happen again?
Tony Readings leaving was one of those things. He’d been there for a while and it was time for someone else. Then the only reason the next bloke got replaced so quick was that Andreas Heraf was a walking talking nightmare. NZF botched the appointment (a previous incarnation of NZF but still), so deciding that the solution to that is to commit even harder to the next hire is rather odd.
Klimková may well be great and earn those six years. She may well have been extended anyway, probably would’ve been. At the very least there’s no way she can be as bad as Heraf. I just don’t see the point in a six year contract for someone who hasn’t taken charge of a single game for a team that’s in such a crucial phase... but hey that’s just me.
Overall I dig the appointment. Here’s hoping they can get some quality, evenly-matched friendlies in place before the end of the year. Even if it’s like the All Whites and they can only pick Euro players and American-based folks. That’s not something that’s ever been possible in the past, not at a competitive international level, but these days ain’t like those days.
Leat, Percival, Moore, Rood, Chance, Radosavljevic, Hassett, Bott, Esson, and Rolston are all based in Europe. There’s your baseline. Maybe someone like Laura Merrin, playing lower leagues in England could be on the fringes. Then in America there’s Erceg, Riley, Bowen... White if she’s healthy but wouldn’t bet on that since she’s not back for OL Reign yet. That gives you 13-14 players and you’d need to fill the squad out with college players but that’s do-able too. Assume you need around six to account for injuries/unavailabilities... Daisy Cleverley, Gabi Rennie, Maggie Jenkins, Jacqui Hand, Tahlia Herman-Watt, Sammi Tawharu, Hannah Blake, Amelia Abbott, Hope Gilchrist... take your pick. There’s heaps. Lessgo.
Welly Nix Women
Female footy focus today, gotta love it. The other bit of news late last week was this update from the Aussie authorities that the plan is officially to expand the W-League to 12 teams before the 2023 World Cup and that the teams being targeted are the Wellington Phoenix, Central Coast Mariners, and Western United. Seems like the Nix may even sneak into the competition this upcoming season which begins in two months’ time. Fire up, make it happen.
This may have happened last season had the rug not been pulled out from under the club late in the process by the refusal to allow them to register kiwis as local players. An absolute stitch-up... but my theory is that it was more of a means to an end. An excuse to push the conversation back a year rather than rushing it through with the season edging closer and closer and enough problems already existing with the pandemic. With that in mind it would’ve been nice to get this sorted way sooner than it has been but okay, whatever, never mind.
Interesting to see this line in an ESPN piece about the developments though...
“According to ESPN sources, Wellington Phoenix retain a strong chance of entering the league whenever the 2021-22 campaign commences, with their entry ultimately dependent on approval from the league's regulatory bodies. The team would be strongly supported by New Zealand Football, which sees the project as a major boost for its local game ahead of a home World Cup -- although steps would likely be put in place to ensure it didn't simply become a facsimile Aotearoa national team.”
A facsimile Aotearoa national team... bruh. You reckon the Welly Nix are gonna sign up the 15 or so national team regulars currently on pro contracts overseas where there are more opportunities, probably more money in many cases, and definitely more games? What about the five players already signed up for rival W-League clubs next season? Please. It’s gonna be national team reserves at best and that’s exactly what it should be.
The SheNix are there to bridge the gap between the domestic scene and overseas professionals, expanding the player pool of pros available to the Football Ferns and keeping more women in the game full-time. Same deal with the men’s team, we don’t really need them to be bringing back established national team regulars – we want them to be boosting up players from below that level who aren’t already getting opportunities like that.
But that spins around in a happy way where if the SheNix need to sign a few sturdy Aussies and some star imports at the expense of a fully kiwi squad... there needn’t be a worry, mate. They’d still be boosting the stocks. They’d still be bridging that gap. But it’s also pretty important that they win games and build up a profile across the nation which will inspire the next generation of footballing girls to see that there’s an accessible career there for them in this sport, that they have permission to take it seriously. That’s why this team needs to exist and that’s also how this team can be successful enough to continue to exist. Right on.
Now Here’s A Betsy Hassett Goal...
