Editorial: We'll go it alone, Aussies

Aus Zealand - the latest attempt of Australians claiming the success of our Kiwis.

Earlier this week, New Zealand was beating Australia on the Olympics medal table and it wasn't surprising that given our success, they wanted to be part of it. As of last night, Kiwis had won three gold medals - all in rowing. Aussie is beating us on the Olympics medal table but they're still wanting to take some credit for our triumphs.

We all know it's happened before. I only have to say the words Phar Lap, Russell Crowe, Crowded House, Keisha Castle-Hughes or pavlova for everyone to know what I'm talking about. Yes, they've tried to claim New Zealand's achievements as their own quite a few times by telling the world about their own links.

But doing this in a sporting sense seems a little too far.

Australia and New Zealand are sporting rivals - sometimes we're enemies. It's when patriotism kicks in.

We're constantly fighting them in sports whether it be the ANZ netball champs, the Bledisloe Cup or the NRL and we, the public, can (in a friendly-ish kind of way) turn against friends or family who support the team from across the ditch. We, as a people, have also been known to lose any loyalty to sports stars who play for the opposition - the name Quade Cooper comes to mind.

Our Olympics successes are our own. New Zealand is proud of our athletes and we're proud of their achievements.

But the thing is, Aus Zealand is what was being suggested this week, when we were ahead of them. Now that Australia has jumped ahead of us on the Olympics medal table, the mention of New Zealand or Aus Zealand probably won't last long.

Until flights between the two countries become domestic flights, in my view mentioning them as one is rejected. When that happens we may be able to re-consider this Aus Zealand thing.

What do you think?

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