Off the ball: Sent to Coventry, in Manchester

By CHRIS RATTUE

If you find your world crumbling due to the lack of quotes from the New Zealand sevens team in your Herald over the next few days, here's the reason why.

After a little spat between your correspondent and team manager Tony Ward, we've apparently been banned.

Yes, struck off. We might be in Manchester, but Wardie's sent us to Coventry.

It all started with a phone call as the Herald tried to confirm the New Zealand squad of 12 (who had been trimmed down from 20 just before the Games).

But no, the manager wasn't having any of that nonsense.

The Herald obviously wasn't doing its homework, he said.

There had been media releases on the subject, and - with a radio blaring in the background - Wardie firmly stated that was as far as the help was going to go.

At that point, your correspondent replied: "Don't worry about it, mate" and disengaged.

One of the really frustrating things about a cellphone is that they are hard to make a point with through the time-honoured method of slamming the receiver down.

With a Bat-phone, all you can do is push the "off" button really hard, which just doesn't have the same effect.

Anyway, our helpful sevens manager got the point and seconds later the Herald cellphone was ringing with - and maybe this was imagined - a bit of extra vibrancy.

It was our man Wardie.

The Herald was not to treat him in this manner. He did not believe the original question about the squad makeup was a civil one or justified.

We were obviously treading a very dangerous line indeed, tangling with the might of a rugby official of his standing.

For some reason, he felt it necessary to point out that he had been most accommodating in arranging access to players the previous week.

Your correspondent fully accepted this, tugged at a forelock, and thought how lucky one was to be able to talk to rugby union players.

It was a privilege indeed, and one that perhaps I had been taking far too much for granted.

"Do you want me to write your stories for you," Wardie said, unimpressed with my team knowledge.

The bottom line was this: all interviews with players had to go through Wardie, and he was greatly inclined to cancel this privilege right here and now.

At this point, he let his finger do the talking and, presumably, stabbed it violently at the "off" button - a very unsatisfying experience, as we all know.

The Herald's status was a little unclear, but we had to assume that we had been axed.

We were left without the chance to explain why the original question about the makeup of the squad had been necessary, or apologise profusely for not doing the old homework.

It's own-up time - yes, maybe the homework was amiss.

Then again, the sevens side are just one part of a 200-strong team, and it's been a pretty hectic week or so.

And we do all make mistakes. After all, Wardie works for a rugby union that managed to lose a World Cup without playing a game; put out a wrong test team that omitted a bloke who was playing in his home town; and announced a Barbarians team that included a joker who happened to be in South Africa playing for the New Zealand Colts at the time.

I know New Zealand Rugby Union media releases are treasured pieces in the jigsaw of life, but it does pay to check these things.

This isn't the first hiccup we've had with the sevens.

They were unable to get a player into town for a Games opening photograph outside Manchester's gothic Town Hall - a lucky break considering the gymnastics division were an absolute pleasure to deal with instead.

Just couldn't fit it into the busy schedule, the rugby mob.

Apparently they can only do horribly mundane things such as visit Manchester United soccer stars at short notice.

And the truth is, the rugby team are not exactly the most popular group on the block in the Games village.

Scooting off to Old Trafford in a clandestine move - and on the coat-tails of the All Blacks' name at that - to hobnob with your fellow "stars" doesn't win you Team-mate of the Week.

One New Zealand athlete told me with a bit of a sneer that they never saw the rugby players and that they had gone off to a "flash place in Preston for a while."

They are noticeable by their absence when the New Zealand athletes talk about the enjoyable experience of meeting people from other sports.

So there you go. The Herald, by attempting to get it right, has got it all wrong.

It's Wardie's team, and that's the end of that.

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

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