Chris Rattue runs through the best and the worst from the sporting weekend.
Winner: Wayde Egan and the Warriors
Wayde Egan put on a masterclass from dummy half as the injury-hit Warriors pulled woeful Souths apart in Sydney, recording their third consecutive win of the target="_blank">NRL season.
There’s only one problem with Egan - he gets injured a lot.
But on his latest performance alone, he could lay claim to being the best dummy half in the competition.
Egan’s poise, timing and guile is Cameron Smith-like and he is perfecting when to unleash his sharp running.
The 27-year-old must be well in the frame for a State of Origin call-up from first-year New South Wales coach Michael Maguire and Warriors boss Andrew Webster has been vocal in promoting Egan for that call-up.
Wayde Egan against the Rabbitohs. Photo / Photosport
This leaves Egan’s brilliant form as a doubled-edge sword - he is propelling the Warriors towards their title dream, but there’s a big chance he will become a representative regular, thus missing mid-season club games.
He will be suspended for the ridiculous elbow to Shaun Johnson’s head, but should also have been charged for a lifting tackle on Tohu Harris.
Neither act was done in the heat of the battle - both were deliberate and highly avoidable.
Loser: Super Rugby Pacific
A dire weekend of games - and the worst is yet to come. This competition is so bad that New Zealand could do worse than quit the whole thing and go back to playing provincial rugby. Seriously.
Winner: League over rugby
On one hand, Moana Pasifika coach and All Blacks legend Tana Umaga is right in expressing his fears for the future of rugby, responding to poor crowd numbers that reflect a general disinterest in Super Rugby.
On the other hand, people like Umaga should have been speaking out, really strongly, many years ago.
Some of the problems are unavoidable - New Zealand’s small economy and isolation are just about insurmountable for a sport that produces so many great players in demand elsewhere.
And what goes around comes around, as New Zealand rugby is treated similarly to the way we have dealt with the Pacific Islands.
Other issues are entirely of rugby’s making - they range from the continual tampering with the overly complex rules to its arrogant and aloof behaviour.
The core issue is this: all successful professional sports are based on clubs that operate independently and are hellbent on beating each other.
In contrast, New Zealand rugby has turned itself into branch offices and All Blacks reserve grade.
It deserves to fail - and it is doing so. And when the Warriors take off to their full potential, as they are in the throes of doing, rugby will be obliterated by the NRL. Nothing is more certain.
The problems will compound.
I suspect the All Blacks’ test and World Cup success will become so important yet difficult to achieve that star players will assume all-powerful positions. This will enable them to - as Ardie Savea has called for - play for overseas clubs and remain test-eligible.
(A key factor might be the arrival of more aggressive player managers to argue the case.)
The big question for the domestic scene is this: will the NRL decide to put another league club in New Zealand, or leave the Warriors to sweep through the nation?
It’s a tough call.
Winner: The English Premier League melting pot
The country that came up with something as stupid as Brexit is also an example of inspiring unity thanks to its wondrous football leagues.
The Liverpool team that started against Manchester United contained players from 11 different countries... Argentina, Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay, Netherlands, England, Northern Ireland, Hungary and Colombia.
Winner/Loser: The Caitlin Clark effect/our women’s sport
Caitlin Clark’s Iowa team lost the American college basketball final to South Carolina, but her X-factor has given the sport, and women’s sport, a remarkable boost.
There’s a message for New Zealand women’s team sport though. Right now, it is being pushed as a crusade. In the long run, the crowd responds to stars and personalities. And we don’t have any.
Winner: The goalscoring Football Ferns (true story)... and this
The Ferns not only won, but also scored four goals. I repeat, a New Zealand football team has just scored four goals (okay, it was against Thailand, but beggars can’t be choosers).
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the USA versus Japan drew a crowd of just over 50,000. It is an American women’s record for a friendly match.
Winner: This thought
The A-League’s Phoenix and NRL’s Warriors might make grand finals this year. Both New Zealand clubs have been a bit of a joke for long periods, but no more.
Loser: This quote... huh?
Rugby never ceases to mystify me.
When so-called Kiwi scrum guru Mike Cron joined the Wallabies camp under Joe Schmidt, he was reported as saying: “We’ve got 13 tests this year, 11 of them are going to be easy to get into and the two against the All Blacks are going to be hard.
“In a perfect world you wouldn’t play them...”
What on earth does that mean? Why wouldn’t you want to play the All Blacks? I don’t get it.
It also sounds like a defeatist attitude for a new coach to take, as if he has no faith in the team he has joined.
Winner: Tawny Wagstaff
The Methven stone mason/bricklayer and only competitive Kiwi speed skier finished third overall in the just-completed World Cup season. It is quite a feat in a sport dominated by Europeans. The 45-year-old Wagstaff’s big goal is to crack the 250km/h mark.
Winner: It’s Masters golf week...
... one of the most eagerly anticipated spells in world sport. Hopefully, Ryan Fox will find form at Augusta. His build-up hasn’t been promising, but you never know with Foxy.
Loser: This dodgy Shohei Ohtani deal
The baseball superstar hit his first home run for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but not without controversy continuing to dog his career.
The fans who picked up the ball, said to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, say they were cornered and intimidated by security staff into handing it back.
In exchange, they got signed hats, bat and ball - apparently unauthenticated - that might be worth $10,000.
“It’s not that we’re money hungry - it’s a special moment, a special ball. A team I hold so dear pulled a quote-unquote quick one on us,” said one of the fans.
