Rugby: All Black hype, all too much

By Wynne Gray

Jerseys, patriotism, rugby soul - they were all issues which filtered down from the All Blacks opening Tri-Nations test.

The players wore their new black strip, many in the 41,500 crowd donned a similar colour scheme and there was plenty of fervour at Carisbrook.

Now I see Auckland's mayor and various other bods urging the Eden Park masses to follow suit next week and wear their black clobber for the test with the Wallabies.

Enough I cry, where is the spontaneity. People will wear what they want to, they should not need to be coerced.

We saw plenty of that round the launch of the redesigned All Black jersey. For some time people thought adidas meant "all day I dream about sport" but after watching their representatives, rugby officials, marketing and public relations entourage in the last weeks, you can be assured it stands for "all day I deliberate about sponsorship."

They dished out the dough and freebies bigtime and there was an extraordinary amount of media coverage for minimal jersey changes.

Yes, I have a sweatshirt courtesy of the new All Blacks sponsor, but it was more the flotilla of overseas journos which caught my attention.

As far as I could ascertain, adidas did not offer to fly any rugby writers to the jersey launch from the South Island, but they brought an international group of about 20 from Japan, France, England and South Africa to Queenstown then Dunedin to see the close relationship between their product and the All Blacks.

Spectators were also being urged to share in the family, to wear All Black replica gear. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I feel uncomfortable wearing a jersey with All Blacks emblazoned on the left breast. However, times are obviously changing because many in the Carisbrook crowd did.

The apparel changeover has been relatively smooth too, but there are still some legacies of the old Canterbury clothing guard out there.

Only a few jerseys were signed by all the Living Legends after the Athletic Park farewell and one is going to auction next Friday night at Takapuna Grammar on the eve of the Tri-Nations test with the Wallabies.

Everything is becoming so sanitised now in the world of rugby - it is a byproduct of professional sport. Many of the old magnetic values of comradeship, tradition, mateship and even passion are disappearing as the players and sport are being treated more like commodities.

Sports dealers, collectors and plain old-fashioned enthusiasts value items like the Living Legends jersey or autographed programmes far more than articles they can buy off the rack.

But they are all supporters whether they wear black or not, go to the park or not, watch the game on TV or not, because all day they DO dream about sport.