The Bledisloe Cup is one of those things that you always hear about but never actually know what it means. What is a Bledisloe? You have probably never asked. Not some extinct Australian mammal like you may have been led to believe, but Charles Bathurst, first Viscount Bledisloe, was actually New Zealand’s Governor-General in the early 1930s and he donated the trophy that was first played for in 1932 at his behest. Another interesting fact for your next pub quiz: the Bledisloe Cup is the largest rugby trophy in the world, making the World Cup winner’s William Webb Ellis trophy look rather small and pathetic in comparison as they stand side by side in our overflowing trophy cabinet at NZRU headquarters.
Now, there is nothing better than beating the Aussies and I have ranted and raved about the format of the Rugby Championship and Super Rugby many times on these hallowed pages, but this latest rout has brought up the same old questions again: why do we play our two games against Australia first and then alternate between playing Argentina and South Africa?
I doesn’t make much sense to me. I am sure Argentina will eventually improve and in the coming years surely the Springboks or the Wallabies will knock us off our perch but so far I have been unimpressed with the new format of the Rugby Championship which still pales in comparison to the exciting and unpredictable Six Nations. It sure is lonely at the top ...
Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the Aussies’ slim chances of regaining the Bledisloe Cup alive until the end of the Rugby Championship to build the anticipation so we can hear more of Justin Marshall’s nonsensical, sycophantic ranting and raving in the pre-match build-up shows?
Now we only have the dead-rubber Bledisloe game in Brisbane to look forward to before taking on the United States in Chicago on 2 November and then on to rule Britannia with matches against England, Scotland and Wales.
NZRU rolls out the red carpet for SBW
The other big news recently was that even though Sonny Bill Williams is still playing rugby league for the Roosters in the NRL, he has been given the all clear to join the All Blacks on their Northern tour in November. The NZRU has told SBW that he won’t have to turn out for Counties-Manukau in the ITM Cup despite their own rules stating that you have to have played in the preceding competition to make the All Blacks squad. I guess rules and bones are meant to be broken.I bet the likes of Ryan Crotty and our man from the Highlanders, Malakai Fekitoa, won’t be thrilled about the news. Both of them have just broken in to the All Blacks this year after putting in the hard yards over the last few Super Rugby and ITM Cup seasons. With the World Cup in England next September they both would have been looking to the end of year tour to cement their place in the squad. However, there may be hope for Crotty and Fekitoa. Maybe Conrad Smith will decide to stay home with his new baby and Dan Carter is more than capable of covering in the centres. With Beauden Barrett and Aaron Cruden both providing plenty of options at number 10 maybe the selectors will realise there is an easy solution to their selection headaches in the centres and ditch Ma’a Nonu. If only I was one of those selectors.
This latest SBW drama is all too similar to his eleventh-hour decision to join the Kiwis for last year’s Rugby League World Cup in the UK where he changed his mind at the last minute at the expense of Tohu Harris who was probably packed and sitting on the plane when he got the awkward phone call.
There are also rumours that SBW’s grand plan has him eyeing a spot in the Sevens side that will head to Rio in 2016 for the Olympics. Again this could result in one of the young guys who has devoted his development to the less glorious Sevens game losing his place to Sonny Bill Williams, the code-swapping glory-hog. However, after failing to retain their gold medal at the Commonwealth Games you can’t blame the NZRU for trying to put forward the best possible team for the game’s Olympic debut. This may well be one of those “don’t hate the player, hate the game” scenarios.
SBW has also expressed interest in becoming the new All Whites goalkeeper, claiming the starting centre for the Tall Blacks and following Jeff Wilson’s footsteps of being both an All Black and a Black Cap at the same time. Ok, I may be joking with these examples but what I am not joking about is New Zealand’s obsession with naming things after the All Blacks; riding on the coattails of their success, performing some weak and laughable renditions of the haka. Skinny, white hockey players on an empty Malaysian astroturf don’t command the same respect as the All Blacks in front of a sold-out Eden Park. Despite my weekly slagging off of Ma’a Nonu in this column, I will relent slightly and give him props for putting in consistently good performances of “Kapa o Pango” and “Ka Mate.” Much better than my drunken performance in a Welsh pub after an All Blacks test win in Cardiff in 2010.