Offshore thing
The old argument about whether offshore players should be picked for the All Blacks has been resurrected again by Gregor Paul following the performances of Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett (NZ Herald, July 8).
Both of them are exceptional players and, as Paul hints, may not be able to be used as legitimate case studies to debunk the theory that players don’t need to commit themselves to a domestic season in New Zealand to qualify for the All Blacks.
However, in order to assess form, surely coaches nowadays have ready access to video footage of many New Zealanders playing overseas in competitions that are just as challenging as Super Rugby, such as English Premier Rugby and the Top 14 competition in France.
People might say letting our players play in these competitions might dilute our own Super Rugby competition – it’s a spurious argument given that Northern Hemisphere rugby is played at a different time of the year.
In any case, the opposite could be the case where other players might be given the chance to shine in our domestic scene, strengthening our player stocks and giving our selectors greater choice in the selection of our national team.
Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.
Sorry, rugby is boring
I don’t know why the All Blacks selectors bother picking “backs” in their 15. The game is now dominated by defence, tackling, the “gain line” and kicking the resultant penalty.
The Springboks won their quarter, semi and final in the last World Cup, each by one point, based around a cast-iron defence and the boot of Handre Pollard. Just pick huge defenders and a goalkicker, choke the life out of the game, then the rest of us can get on with watching the Warriors or football.
It’s inevitable that New Zealand will lose its rugby status. New Zealanders are leaving the country in droves, fed up with the impossible struggle to get ahead on miserly wages, and the void is being filled by immigrants from football-popular countries, so rugby is in a death roll. It has become pretty boring to watch.
Even the Auckland sides, which used to score the majority of their tries through enterprising backs, now have succumbed to the mind-numbing spectacle of big forwards repeatedly crashing it up for a couple of metres until they get over the goal line.
Don’t get me started on the abomination called the rolling maul. Let’s face it, the game has become boring. Rule changes anyone?
Paul Cheshire, Maraetai.
Rating a mention
Why is everyone complaining about so-called high interest rates (NZ Herald, July 8)?
My first home mortgage started in 1971 at 7.5%. It never came below this in the approximately 30 years I was paying it off. During this time it soon rose to 9%, 10.5%. 12%. Then a massive hike to 21% after Roger Douglas took over from Muldoon in 1984.
It came down slowly over succeeding years, but never came below 10%. The only saving grace was that inflation had made my mortgage look small in comparison with home value. Savers also need a return on investment and the massive reduction to not much over 2% during the Covid crisis is one of the main causes of the massive rise in home prices.
These savers transferred from under-inflation bank interest to using equity in their now-freehold home to purchase extra homes to rent out, thus taking advantage of borrowing virtually free money, which then produced a tax-free capital gain profit on increasing house values.
Thus leaving renters struggling to pay ever-higher rents just to pay off the owners’ tax-deductible mortgage.
David F. Little, Whangārei.
Speed cameras
Fixed speed cameras seem to be sprouting up in all the wrong places. Almost all the ones I see are on 80km/h country roads, with relatively few cars driving on them.
On the other hand, when I drive Auckland’s motorways, the amount of awful driving, both from speeding and aggressive lane-switching, has to be seen to be believed. These are accidents waiting to happen.
Judging by the number of post-crash motorway blockages, they are accidents that do happen, way too often. Why are speed cameras, and cameras that can observe and prosecute dangerous driving, not focused on the motorway network? Not only will it save thousands of law-abiding drivers being stuck in traffic for hours, it will save lives.
Jeremy Hall, Hauraki.
