Sevu Reece lies on the ground after being flipped over by Blues hooker Kurt Eklund. Photo / Sky Sport
Sevu Reece lies on the ground after being flipped over by Blues hooker Kurt Eklund. Photo / Sky Sport
Opinion
As we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome in 2022, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views ouraudience loved the most. Today it's the top five from Phil Gifford.
Sickening rugby moment deserves punishment - March 22
The biggest game of the season to date also featured the most appalling-looking piece of foul play, which referee Paul Williams and his officials decided didn't even deserve a yellow card.
In the 67th minute, after Sevu Reece had foolishly grabbed Patrick Tuipulotu in the air, Blues hooker Kurt Eklund grabbed Reece and flipped him over the horizontal before slamming him to the ground.
Replayed at the request of television match official Brendon Pickerill, watching Reece flying, and then hitting the deck on his back, the potential for damage was so clear it made for sickening viewing.
Sevu Reece was flipped over in a tackle by Blues hooker Kurt Eklund. Photo / Sky Sport
Red flag in NZR deal - March 29
One name alone, David Kirk, should raise a massive red flag in the battle over the $465 million American firm Silver Lake wants to pay to buy a 15 per cent slice of New Zealand Rugby's commercial rights.
The former All Blacks captain is opposed to the deal in its current form, and he's someone whose views should carry enormous weight.
Why? Start with a Rhodes Scholarship and an Oxford University degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. So put a tick in the box marked "super bright".
Carry on with a glittering business career as, among other things, the head of Australia's biggest media firm Fairfax and then Hoyts Cinemas in Australia and here. So put a tick, too, in the box marked "hugely successful in the real world".
Sam Cane of the All Blacks and teammates perform the haka before a test last season. Photo / Getty Images
Scott Robertson the best coach in history - May 9
The Crusaders and coach Scott Robertson didn't really have more points to prove on Saturday night, but five successive wins in the toughest club competition in the world makes Robertson the best coach, and his squads the best club teams, in the history of professional rugby.
It's fascinating now to look back on some of the reaction when he was first appointed to the Crusaders in 2017. One gnarled Canterbury veteran, asked about Robertson's chances of success in Super Rugby, muttered, "Well, he'll be able to teach them how to dance anyway."
What many didn't realise was that behind the wide-eyed enthusiasm that flies off him like a roman candle is a man who worked for decades at becoming a good coach. As a 22-year-old player he was already coaching an under-13 side at Christ's College. He's extremely proud he took his Sumner club team into first grade before he retired from playing in 2007.
He's told me how, as a Crusaders player, "I had my own playbook with my moves and my structures. I'd go to the different coaches and show them, and say, 'Can I do this better? What about this?'" Years later Wayne Smith would remember Robertson and his playbook with affection and some humour. "He could drive you mad with his questions, but how could you not warm to the guy?"
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson celebrates his fifth successive title with his trademark breakdancing. Photo / Photosport
Rating the best All Black halfbacks - March 6
As the rugby season kicks into gear in New Zealand, Phil Gifford ranks the best halfbacks who have pulled on the All Blacks jersey in the past 50 years.
Dave Loveridge playing for the All Blacks during the 1983 British Isles tour of New Zealand. Photo / Photosport
The ref I still despise - July 3
Nobody in rugby has ever angered me as much as French referee Romain Poite.
Four years ago at Eden Park, he made the most patently absurd decision I've ever seen in a test match when he changed his mind about a penalty that would have almost certainly seen the All Blacks win the game, and therefore the series, against the Lions.
The law book was clear. From a mid-air collision between Sam Warburton and Kieran Read the ball had bounced forward, and for a split second reserve Lions' hooker, Ken Owens, in an offside position, grabbed it.
In horror, he dropped the ball as if it was radioactive. Owens, a hugely experienced player, knew he'd blown the test. Poite blew for the blindingly obvious penalty.
Then a discussion started between Poite and his assistant on-field referee, Jerome Garces, or, as I've come to think of them, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. Poite changed his decision, to an All Black scrum.
