Winston Aldworth: Southland colours height of fashion

Counties Manukau players celebrate yesterday's 40-24 victory over Northland. Photo / Getty Images

As sports fans emerge from another Fashion Week, it's informative to note that deep maroon tones with gold trim and highlights are the "in" look this season in domestic rugby.

Blue and white stripes - so popular during the big-city boom in the shoulder-padded 80s and early 90s - had their chance to return to the top of the Ranfurly Shield catwalk.

But they were cut off by the timeless elegance of a face full of Invercargill mud in a howling southerly. And neutral rugby fans loved it.

Some fashions never change, and Southland's Ranfurly Shield season has been proof positive of the merit of Ye Olde Style. This is rugby with a short back and sides.

The Stags have become a popular "second team", the mob non-Southlanderrrs support when their own side aren't playing or when they have the misfortune to live within the Tasman area.

Modern fashions simply don't suit these Stags - it felt wrong to see them dancing in for all those tries against North Harbour three weeks ago. They're at their best when Jamie Mackintosh is grimacing over the ball at the bottom of a four-minute ruck nearing the final hooter.

(Still on fashion, it was interesting to note that the leading figures in the world of haute couture gathered for designer Alexander McQueen's memorial service in London - and it's the roof of Stadium Southland that collapses, eh! Where's the justice?)

There's an old-fashioned vigour about Counties Manukau's revival, too. The angle and timing of Tana Umaga's cutback and offload for Fritz Lee to score Counties' first try yesterday was cut from ageless cloth.

Counties teams of old built their reputation on a willingness to run the ball - to play with wit and vigour. Back then, it seemed bold; but in today's age of beep-tested super-athletes, perpetual motion is de rigueur. Still, the stylish revival of Counties' fortunes has been - as they say in the big Milan fashion houses - bloody good value.

Coach Milton Haig has overseen an improvement in the set pieces from recent campaigns and they've developed real cohesion in a settled squad built around the likes of captain Jamie Chipman, fullback Tim Nanai Williams and New Zealand's Next Prop Model, Simon Lemalu.

DJ Forbes took to the field with a stylish flourish all of his own. The flanker sported the kind of beard that should help him blend in with the locals once he joins the sevens team in New Delhi.

*One who won't be in Delhi, inconspicuous or otherwise, is Prime Minister John Key.

In the past 48 hours we've seen his interest in and support for the Delhi Commonwealth Games clarified.

The Prime Minister said last week that, were he an athlete, he would definitely attend the games. How nice for him to be able to show support for the event without personal risk of arriving at his accommodation to find a freshly laid labourer's turd sitting on the floor of his room, like a chocolate drop on a polished muffin.

It's rather like me saying that, were I a billionaire, I'd donate it all to charity. Honest I would!

In actual fact, Key has gone on holiday. And the sports event he chose to attend and show support for on his hols isn't a celebration of the Empire upon which the sun has set and the Kiwi stars performing in it, it's the Singapore Grand Prix.

(Confession: In actual fact, were I a billionaire I'd spend the lot of it on good food, exotic booze and sneakers.)

WEEKEND WINNER:

Counties Manukau. They might not make it into the top seven at the end of the season, but you've got to love their style.

WHAT TO WATCH:

The biggest race of the Delhi Commonwealth Games: The last-minute sprint to clean the joint up for competition.