All Blacks continue to do the business
It was a mighty performance by Richie and Co. in Wellington recently. The Springboks always serve up our biggest challenge of the season and this match was no exception. My highlight of this season so far has been Richie popping up out on the right wing and linking up with his Crusaders teammate Kieran Read for our only try. Even after 131 games and 24 tries, the passion, commitment and enthusiasm that our captain has is very impressive and we all are hoping that he can lead this team to another World Cup next year in England.While we won the game and banked the points, it wasn’t all good news, as the All Blacks injury list got a little bit longer with Ma’a Nonu being forced out for the rest of the season after breaking his arm, which required surgery. While I do make fun of Nonu quite a bit, I would prefer it if he were dropped from the team due to poor form rather than being forced out through injury. However it happens, he is out, which means that Malakai Fekitoa should get an extended run in the team, which he will be happy about. He should be involved in the decider in Johannesburg next weekend, which will be as tough a test as they come.
However, Otago does not do the business
I wish that Otago could emulate the success of the All Blacks just a little bit more. Our last ITM/ NPC series win was all the way back at the end of the last millennium, in 1998, and success in the Ranfurly Shield being pretty much non-existent.
Our local team has had an up and down couple of years since the ORFU’s financial problems nearly caused the team to fold a few years back, which was a definite low point. Luckily the DCC came to the party at the eleventh hour with a rescue package. Of course, they needed people playing at the stadium in order to pay for it. A high point came last year when Otago beat Waikato to win the Ranfurly Shield after a 56-year spell without the ol’ log o’ wood. Another low point immediately followed when they narrowly lost the shield to Hawkes Bay in our first attempt at defending it.
Otago had the chance recently to avenge that defeat, taking on Hawkes Bay for the shield in Napier. Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the boys in blue, with the game ending in a rather embarrassing 41 – 0 defeat. This leaves Otago third from bottom in the second tier of the ITM Cup Championship division while Canterbury are riding high at the top of the Premiership, still yet to lose a game as they march on towards a seventh straight title.
Domestic violence in sports
Big news recently was South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius being cleared of premeditated murder charges over the death of Reeva Steenkamp, instead being found guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide, despite the athlete shooting his then girlfriend four times with a shotgun while she was locked in the bathroom. However, he says, he did not mean to pull the trigger. Despite the gruesome facts of the case, there is no minimum sentence for culpable homicide under South African law, meaning that Pistorius could receive a suspended sentence and no jail time and continue to represent South Africa on the track as there are no rules that say convicted felons cannot compete. ''As he stands right now, he's free to compete'' South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee chief executive Tubby Reddy said. What a great role model to have on the track at the next Olympics.A recent case involving American NFL star Ray Rice has sparked a debate over the handling of domestic violence cases involving high profile sports stars. Rice was caught on tape in March punching his fiancée in the face, knocking her unconscious. After celebrity tabloid site TMZ released the video, this led to Rice being indefinitely suspended by his team, the Baltimore Ravens. Criminal charges of third-degree aggravated assault were later dropped after Rice agreed to undergo court-supervised counselling and his victim is now his wife. Probably owing to the publicity generated by TMZ, this case was at least dealt with harshly by the team. You can argue that he got off rather lightly in court. However, there is a worrying trend when you look at the statistics of all the recent cases of domestic abuse in American Football and how the teams deal with them.
In the last eight years there have been 56 cases of NFL athletes being arrested under charges of domestic violence. Now, while not all them were found guilty of these charges (sometimes charges were dropped or settlements reached) there was a total of only 13 weeks of suspensions dished out to those 56 players. That doesn’t seem like a lot and is totally ridiculous when compared to the punishment dished out to one single player, Josh Gordon of the Cleveland Browns, who was suspended for 16 weeks after testing positive for marijuana. 56 guys arrested for domestic violence get a total of 13 weeks suspension. One guy smokes a joint and gets banned for 16 weeks.