Steve Tew was handed a New Year's Honour, and an Outstanding Contribution to New Zealand Rugby prize. Photo / Getty
Steve Tew was handed a New Year's Honour, and an Outstanding Contribution to New Zealand Rugby prize. Photo / Getty
COMMENT:
The New Year's Honours hoo-ha is a doozy, isn't it?
It's a perfect storm, where a news lull meets our hope for a picture-perfect world painted in the 1950s, with no questions asked.
New Year euphoria is a time to wish each other all the best, remember how luckywe are, and make up a bit of stuff about why this country is so great.
In other words, you could probably give a knighthood to an All Blacks bus driver and get away with it. Indeed, there are so many rugby knights floating about these days that they'll need a big round table to accommodate them all soon.
And our sporting knights and dames are free to walk in this land, without having to trip over rogue honorees like a Sir Stephen Kearney (kids, he's an un-knighted Kiwis league coach who won a World Cup).
Sir Steve Hansen is the latest to help grow the rugby group. If everything goes to plan, there may – one day – be a Sir Ian Foster walking amongst us. And then a Sir John Plumtree. And then a Sir Brad Mooar. Oops, I may have missed Sir Scott McLeod. Or if this plan doesn't work, what about Sir Warren Gatland?
But not everyone gets the highest of honours, or could even dream of getting one, even from rugby's upper echelons.
And on this very subject, I'd like to suggest that handing out an Order of Merit to characters like Steve Tew offers hope to anyone who aspires to be honoured thus.
The just-departed New Zealand Rugby chief executive is, in many ways, just an average Kiwi.
Tew works very hard, like many New Zealanders.
Like most of us, he was probably not much chop at actually playing rugby. But there's no shame in that. Rugby is a very difficult game to play well. Look at Australia. There are about 24 million people over there and at this current point in time there are just four Australians who can play rugby very well.
No, like most of us, Tewie had to earn a crust off the field.
And like many other Kiwis, Steve Tew has had his good days and his bad ones. His long career in charge of New Zealand Rugby has been one of those crazy rollercoaster rides, of wonderful success and other stuff. Just like life itself.
