Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith. Photo / Michael Cunningham.
Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith. Photo / Michael Cunningham.
Phil Gifford lists five talking points from the world of rugby.
Won't get fooled again
Wayne Smith has given all his Black Ferns a fair shot in the World Cup pool games.
But for a number of good reasons, don't expect there to be anything like a rotation policy oncethe knockout stages start next week.
Smith, along with another member of the Ferns coaching staff, Sir Graham Henry, was in the coaching box on the grim October night in Cardiff in 2007 when the All Blacks were tumbled out of the World Cup by France, 20-18.
It's true that referee Wayne Barnes has since admitted he had a shocking night with the whistle. But the All Blacks team for the quarter-final did not even have top try scorer, wing Doug Howlett, or the most astute midfielder, Aaron Mauger, on the bench, let alone on the field.
In the NZRU post-Cup review, authors Mike Heron and Don Tricker said, "There remained a sense to us that the All Blacks, coaches and management were looking past the quarter-final. Playoff rugby at the World Cup is different to all other internationals. If the team does not win there is no game next week."
It was a cruel lesson, rectified in 2011 when the All Blacks won that year's Cup final against France. Bet the farm that Smith, as astute a man as you'll find in New Zealand rugby, will not make the same mistake with the Ferns.
Yep, they love them
On Wednesday in Christchurch I spoke at a function for a mature group of men and women. Okay, they were all Gold Card holders.
Given the Black Ferns aren't playing in the South Island at the World Cup, and that the audience, like me, was from a generation where women's rugby was basically a non-event, it's a pleasure to report that 90 per cent of the questions I was asked after the speech were about the Ferns. The goodwill was palpable.
The key to the support? One woman, who said she'd been a rugby fan all her life, summed it up. "They look like they're playing because they love it."
Wayne Smith during a training session at Linwood Rugby Club, Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Glory days again?
The NPC struggles to win big live crowds, but if there's a game this year that deserves a good turnout, it's surely the final in Christchurch, where Canterbury will face a rampant Wellington side.
There's limitless promise in Wellington players like 19-year-old No 8 Peter Lakai, or 20-year-old second-five Riley Higgins, who have the benefit of playing alongside big-match veterans in halfback TJ Perenara and wing Julian Savea. What makes the game a genuinely exciting prospect is that to beat a team with the street smarts and unity of Canterbury it'll be essential for Wellington to move the ball, and not get locked into a grinding game of attrition.
When the sides last played, in Christchurch in August, Canterbury won 43-10. I'd tip Canterbury to win the final, but it'd be astonishing if it was anything like a 30-point margin.
Was Liz Truss advising?
The news that two English rugby clubs, Worcester and Wasps, have gone bankrupt is a grim reminder that private business people running a sports organisation is not a guarantee that it'll succeed.
There will always be criticism of how New Zealand Rugby run the sport, but in 1995 the New Zealand Rugby Union, as it was then, got one key area right, when it was decided that the professional game would be controlled by the national body, not by private Super Rugby franchise owners. As a prime example, when the All Blacks are needed for a training camp, the national coaches don't have to check, as they do in England, with club owners to see if players are free to attend.
Welcome back
On the field Australian Michael Hooper is a fearless, relentless presence, a tireless pest who can wreck best-laid plans with his ability to turn the ball over. Off it he radiates decency, so the honesty and courage it took to say he wasn't mentally ready for rugby earlier this year was entirely in character. It's great to see his return to the Wallabies.
