All Blacks coach Ian Foster on eve of USA departure. Video / allblakcs.com
OPINION:
Chris Rattue breaks down the winners and losers from the wider world of sport.
Loser - All Blacks v USA
Just a hunch, but the Washington DC test will be a one-sided bore this weekend.
A few rugby-heads have grandiosely claimed for years that America is about to beconquered. It hasn't happened, it hasn't got close to happening, and it never will. The American Eagles, meanwhile, remain also-rans.
The die has been cast for sport around the world. Team sport virtually never finds new and really fertile ground.
The one sport to make amazing inroads around the globe is mixed martial arts. The personality-driven UFC is a winner although it still lacks the status of boxing. But MMA is not a team sport.
As for rugby, the game lacks personality and is far too complex - to put it nicely - to make headway anywhere other than where it thrives already.
The All Blacks during the national anthem. Photo / Photosport
The odd rugby feature in the mainstream American media sums up rugby's impact Stateside.
A good crowd might turn up for All Black matches in America. But good crowds turn up for the Moscow Circus - it doesn't mean we're hooked on acrobats.
Winner - Football Ferns
Czech Jitka Klimková takes charge for the first time when the Ferns play Olympic champs Canada this weekend.
Finally, our women's football side will play under a full-time female coach.
It should have happened a while ago, and indicates just how badly the women's game was left to drift by the national bosses.
Women's football's exciting 1970s launchpad was wasted by a short-sighted, male dominated national body. The women's game has never really recovered, leaving it well short of potential.
Klimková and an underperforming squad have an awful lot of work to do with a World Cup on home territory not far away.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp says the livewire Egyptian maestro is the best footballer in the world, and it's hard to disagree.
"We don't have to talk about what Messi and Ronaldo have done for world football and their dominance but, right now, he is the best," Klopp said of his striker.
Mohammed Salah of Liverpool. Photo / Photosport
After scoring what many believed will be the EPL goal of the season against Manchester City, Salah produced another cracker in the demolition of Watford. His outside-of-the-foot curve pass, hit on the run, to create a Sadio Mané goal was just as good.
Salah does lose possession a bit too often, but he is so quick, inventive and deadly that eventually something magical results. He must be an absolute nightmare to mark.
Winners and Losers
There has been some excellent stuff out of English football of late around sports stars and gambling.
The legendary England goalkeeper Peter Shilton's book Saved: Overcoming a 45-year Gambling Addiction outlines what he has gone through, how the love and efforts of a new woman in his life helped him break the addiction shackles.
An excellent BBC TV documentary on former England whiz Paul Merson attacks the same gambling issue.
The pair lost millions between them, although gambling being what it is they don't really know the true figures.
Shilton seems to feel he has overcome the problem, while Merson is not so sure even though he hasn't had a bet for nearly a year.
Witnessing the pain it has brought Merson is so telling. He even admits to downgrading his career at one point, from mighty Arsenal to bog-standard Middlesbrough, because the wages increase would better fund his gambling.
Merson did recount one funny story, involving his old Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp.
Redknapp ended up babysitting £30,000 of Merson's winnings during a match, hurriedly stuffing it into his pocket. During the match, Merson noticed £50 notes floating around the touchline, Redknapp having lost control of the stash after jumping up in excitement.
Loser - Warriors/David Fusitu'a saga
David Fusitu'a. Photo / Photosport
The booming Warriors career of David Fusitu'a turned into a spectacular collapse.
Fusitu'a is reportedly off to Leeds, his curtailed career with the Auckland NRL club largely unfulfilled.
His departure completes a pattern for the small group of players who quit the Warriors camp when they were forced to reside in Australia for the 2021 season.
Ken Maumalo, Agnatius Paasi and King Vuniyayawa preceded Fusitu'a out the door.
What was the issue with Fusitu'a?
For starters, he was on a reported $650,000 a year which is far too much for an NRL wing.
Fusitu'a also made his name, and won that massive contract, at a time when the Warriors favoured big wings who could make a lot of hard yards. Times have changed.
But he is yet another example of someone whose career has unravelled at a misdirected club with a history of far too many owners, CEOs, coaches, talent scouts, players and captains.
Loser - Matty Johns idea
Look, I am a huge fan of the usually insightful Aussie, an impish broadcast genius of sorts. But the former league star's idea of planting an NRL "Pacific nations side" in Wellington is bonkers.
Creating a team of nations in the NRL, anywhere, would be fraught with problems.
Wellington rugby league barely has a pulse, and its Pacific Island community is small.
The NRL is full of Pacific Island players - why do they need their own team?
For what it's worth, I believe the NRL has stretched the talent too far by creating a 17th team in Brisbane. The NRL needs fewer teams, not more.
Winners - baseball centre fielders
Some of the best sports action in the world right now is being provided by the American baseball playoffs. A stand out has been the diving catches by centre fielders.
MLB has a split personality. The regular season becomes a grind with so many games. But the post-season is often a thriller.
