Chris Rattue’s winners and losers: Glenn Phillips, Lewis Clareburt, Erling Haaland and the NFL

OPINION

Chris Rattue rates the best and worst from the sporting weekend.

Winner: Glenn Phillips

He is shaping as the best fielder we’ve ever had in the New Zealand cricket side.

Phillips’ grabs in the gully against South Africa were sensational.

He’s not only a superb catcher. Daring batters take on his speed and arm at their peril.

New Zealand has had a pretty good fielding reputation, probably since the early 1970s when the team that toured the West Indies included terrific outfielders like Mark Burgess and Graham Vivian. Our catching reputation behind the wicket has grown over the years.

Australian coach Steve Rixon helped restore New Zealand’s cricket reputation a few decades ago by emphasising the fielding art.

It’s hard to remember anyone quite like Phillips though.

He combines all the fielding facets at a sensational level.

I didn’t see much of the South African series, but I did see enough to be wowed by Phillips.

I’ll be happy to turn on the telly (we don’t get test cricket in little ol’ Auckland) just to watch the man field against Australia. His fielding is a legitimate weapon.

Winner: Swimming

What a week for a sport that usually sinks out of sight in this country.

Erika Fairweather claimed New Zealand’s first world championship gold medal in Doha, and Lewis Clareburt quickly became the second Kiwi world champ.

There is a proviso of course. Very unusually, these championships are being held in the Olympic year which has seen them severely weakened. There is also a Russian boycott.

But a gold medal is a gold medal. And New Zealand would not have got close to this sort of incredible success - by our standards - in the past no matter who was missing.

Swimmers in this country face so many hurdles. Clareburt had to quit his longtime coach in Wellington last year, after moving to Auckland in search of acceptable training facilities.

Loser: The Halberg Awards

A stupid sports concept.

Can’t we just celebrate things for what they are, instead of going through this charade every year of ranking things that have virtually no meaningful relationship with each other?

Back in the day, when we only played a few sports, and there were only a few major competitions, it might have made sense. Maybe.

But now we’re comparing world canoeing results (does anyone else in the world take world canoeing championships this seriously?) against a major European golf title, a Supercars champion, track cycling stars, Para swimming medals etc. etc., with a token All Black thrown in the mix.

Who cares? I’d love a top sportsperson to say “count me out of this nonsense”. Because it is.

Loser: The sports world

Athletics lost one of its finest rising stars because of the car-crash death of Kenyan marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum, the world record holder.

Reading the tributes amplified how extraordinary his sadly brief marathon career had been.

In about 10 months, he recorded three superb victories with the one in Chicago late last year smashing the world record set by his legendary countryman Eliud Kipchoge.

This left Kiptum just 36 seconds short of the Holy Grail, a marathon time under two hours.

The 24-year-old was an obsessive trainer who made breaking the two-hour mark seem achievable.

Winner: Inspiring stories like this

Ivory Coast striker Sébastien Haller scored the winning goal in the Africa Cup of Nations, just over a year after returning to the game following his recovery from testicular cancer.

The 29-year-old, who plays for a German club, had two operations and four rounds of chemotherapy.

The underdog hosts beat Nigeria 2-1 in the final, in a tournament with a growing status.

Winner/loser: The New Zealand test cricketers

Nice to think New Zealand’s first series victory over South Africa might have come against a full-strength Proteas team.

It wasn’t the most convincing of second test victories either, until Kane Williamson took control, as we look ahead to the prospect of a thrilling contest against the mighty Australians.

But a win is a win, you can only beat who is on the field, and the emergence of understated Will O’Rourke raises further hope that the pace bowling stocks are healthy.

On the other side of the coin, Devon Conway’s opening form is a big worry — he is the type of batsman who should have plundered the runs against the underwhelming South Africans.

Winner/loser: This ‘sold out’ sign/our situation

Arsenal’s football match against Manchester United at Emirates Stadium was a sell-out, the key fact being that this was a Women’s Super League game.

The 61,160 attendance figure is a British club record.

Women’s football is booming in parts of the world, but not in this country where the World Cup hosting fever was never going to be anything more than a sugar rush.

Loser: America

Another mass-shooting tragedy, this time at the Kansas Super Bowl rally.

Nothing will change of course.

The gun lobby, which is probably the weapon manufacturing lobby, will make sure of that.

Winner: The NFL

Gun tragedy aside, the Super Bowl was a stunning success for the NFL, the game in Las Vegas being described as the most-watched American TV event since the 1969 moon landing.

The influence of a certain pop star is said to have played some part in the ratings success.

With Nasa and others gearing up for renewed moon landings, the question is: will the rocket scientists get Taylor Swift involved? Stay tuned.

Winners: The Phoenix … unstoppable

The Wellington club overcame a major injury list to retain its A-league lead via a win over Macarthur FC in Australia. They were simply hanging on by the end of the match, but hang on they did. Coach Giancarlo Italiano has found something very special in that squad.

Loser: Bazball

England’s brave new world took an absolute hammering in the latest cricket test against India.

Part of “Bazball’s” charm is a”‘we don’t care if we lose so long as we are adventurous” message. In a way, you never lose under that mantra so long as the crowd plays along with the gag.

Yet the beauty of test cricket, the true test of greatness, is how players and teams can adapt to evolving situations in this arduous test of skill, stamina and strategy.

There are hints that the fawning press may be starting to turn, after the embarrassing 434-run defeat.

Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and co. may have to start adapting before the English media does a u-turn.

Loser: Erling Haaland … seriously.

Manchester City’s Norwegian wonder striker might have come up with the miss of the year in the English Super League, a free header in front of Chelsea’s goal that ended up a long way behind it.

It made the champions’ pursuit of victory more difficult, as they battled to a draw with the London club.

Winner/Loser: James ‘Missile’ Magnussen

The former Australian Olympic swimmer has signed up for the Enhanced Games.

The Enhanced Games bills itself as the “Olympics of the future” because it allows competitors to use performance-enhancing drugs.

The establishment will look down on Magnussen and the concept but there will be an audience for this, as athletes like the Aussie swimmer set out to set new records.

Bottom line: The world loves a freak show – I suspect it plays a big part in fraudster Donald Trump’s outlandish success at the polls.

Winner: The chorus of protests ...

... after top American golfer Jordan Spieth was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard at a PGA event.

Someone called it the dumbest rule in sport. It is certainly a contender.

Professional sports people shouldn’t have to keep their scores.

Loser: Facing the Australian test cricketers …

… without the great pace bowler Trent Boult. There may be good reasons for leaving him out of the Kiwi test squad – he’s underdone for five-day cricket. But whatever the reasons, it is still disappointing.

Loser: Pre-season league and rugby matches

Yawn.

Chris Rattue has been a journalist since 1980 and is one of the most respected opinion writers in New Zealand sports journalism.