Hewitt has his day with tilt at the system

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

Almost 30 years ago, I wrote a book about rugby from a player's perspective, having decided that it was time the closed, humourless, hierarchical nature of the game needed a little public airing.

The response was mixed. Many readers appeared to enjoy the novelty of it, but the rugby establishment of the 70s did not.

The NZ Rugby Football Union was appalled.

Administrators did not appreciate being lampooned.

Some of the players were nervous at having one or two of the trade secrets of touring life, innocuous as they were, revealed to the wider world.

The South African Government banned it, which helped sales considerably.

The fuss soon died, but the tradition of airing one's thoughts as a player hasn't.

It has become almost de rigueur for retiring rugby players to tell all, or almost all, in a sweetly timed autobiography.

The book is prepared in advance of the moment of retirement, usually by a ghost writer or, as these literary mercenaries are now more charitably described, a collaborator.

The collaborator generally decides what should go in and what should be left out, and the objective is always to sail as close to the wind of controversy as possible.

The book is then launched, invariably with the claim that it is the sports book of the year, at the same time that the player announces his retirement.

Timing is everything.

Former Australian captain John Eales, after months of saying he had no intention of retiring, suddenly announced that he was, which was another way of saying that the book was ready to go.

Countless others over the years have done much the same thing. They know that there is a ready market for such books, even if there is not much more on offer than a chronicle of events and characters along the way.

A few delve more deeply into the merits of the system within which they have risen to stardom, and there is an even readier market for those who have a tilt at that system.

There was little doubt that when Norm Hewitt chose Michael Laws as his collaborator (or was it the other way round?) there was bound to be controversy.

No issue worth a good raking over is left untouched and the reaction has been interesting.

Hewitt's tale is one of triumph and disaster.

His triumph has been in beating the lure of the underworld and in finding his feet and a respectable place in society through sport, and that has been a monumental achievement.

Along the way there have been a series of disasters, most of them minor, but with enough of an edge to them to render Hewitt an extremely compelling and perplexing character.

But there has been a fair amount of blood, both real and metaphorical, spilled along the way.

Hewitt, via Laws, has gone out of his way to spill a bit more in this aggressive, and at times bitter, expose of the complexities of life in the professional bear pit.

It is the antithesis of the Eales' biography which is full of the satisfactions of a great career conducted throughout with dignity and intelligence.

Normy was never like that and his decision to let loose will have much the same impact as my indiscretions of a generation ago - possibly more. There is not much by way of humour to provide some levity and balance to the Hewitt/Laws lashings in Gladiator.

Every dog must have his day, just as every famous player is expected to have his say.

Hewitt has had his and nobody will be the slightest bit surprised when he is not selected as a professional for next season.

But then, he knew that was coming.