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The Crowd Goes Wild: Speith takes Tiger

NZ Herald

16 Apr, 2015 05:00 PM6 mins to read

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Jordan Spieth won the Masters at Augusta. Picture / AP

Mark: I'd like to open this week with a, "ha, ha, told ya so". That's right, I picked Jordan Spieth and you picked Sergio Garcia. I came first and you came 17th and, what's more, I came first by quite some margin. While I was rooting for Spieth to break

Andrew: You're up two this year with your overt barracking for the Aussies to be the killjoys of the Cricket World Cup. Don't mind me though, picking Sergio was just trolling and while a top 30 finish for him is admirable, what isn't admirable is Spieth forgoing the rest of his college career to chase the money; that's the only questionably negative thing about Spieth. If only your tipping can be as accurate with the Highlanders, who you've turned your back on.

Mark: Why the heck would Spieth want to remain in school? It's not like he needs to get a job. He's set up for life in 72 holes of golf. I have not turned my back on the Highlanders at all. All I did was in a moment of weakness get seduced by another team and, let's face it, the Crusaders were so hot they were irresistible. However, like every straying lover, I quickly realised that such flings are never satisfying. I want the Highlanders back and realise that what they have and what we had was something very worthy and something of substance. You and your Hurricanes are nothing more than the flavour of the month, a fleeting gimmick, rugby trash whose showy look will soon be passe.

Andrew: So, firstly, seven rounds are played over two months and this is a new experience for me since the giddy heights of winning seven straight in 2003, which is being now under attack for them winning. I now have a glimpse at what life is like for Crusaders fans, but oddly not Chiefs fans that seem to be the most antagonistic towards Hurricanes fans for feeling good about their team. For the Waikato-based outfit play the "no one really gives us a chance, week in week out" card which is fine really because it suits them down to the ground. Chiefs just don't like seeing a new fan base feel happy. Which is where most darts players are: happy and grounded and the demand for tickets to them crashed a website earlier in the week. Is this the new spectator sport?

Mark: And while you self-professed Super Rugby super teams argue among yourselves, us Highlander fans just work the underground, achieving in silent and liking it that way. Yeah darts, eh! Amazing. However this is what I call the Richardson phenomenon -- if you tell the masses something for long enough, and with enough fanfare, the masses start to believe it. I have been telling anyone who will listen for some time now that I am New Zealand's leading sports broadcaster and television personality, and now that is exactly how I am regarded. It's the same with darts. ESPN says darts is awesome, and makes a song and dance, bangs in production and rent-a-crowds and, hey presto, darts is awesome! It's a simple concept but you have to be a leader. You could say the Hurricanes are awesome till you're yellow and black in the face but there'll still be resistance; ESPN on the other hand are a leader on sports broadcasting.

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Andrew: Give the Brits some credit, as it was Sky in the UK who made this a compelling and entertaining watch. It's only a matter of time before it is big on ESPN in the summer months of NBA- and NFL-free agency. If bass fishing, poker and the spelling bee can command decent viewership numbers, it's only a matter of time before darts does. Thankfully, we don't need it to be validated by them to make it popular; it already is. How hard is it to throw a dart? Not at all. How hard is it to do it accurately? A lot.

PROS & CONS

Should All Blacks be allowed to play overseas and still play tests?

Mark -- pros: I was once Chicken Little, I once thought the sky was falling, and I once ran about telling everyone so. But not now, I just accept that it's inevitable. I accept the polar caps are melting, the summer goes later, the winter longer, and I'll never be able to afford my own house in Auckland and you know what? I'm going to embrace it. I'm going to embrace it because there is nothing I can do about it. It's inevitable. We can't stop our talent leaving, we are a country of four million, and we are a market place far too small to generate enough to keep our rugby talent. Unless we open our borders to five million Indonesian boat people all rugby mad and all with enough cash to buy Sky TV then the market ain't growing any bigger in a hurry. However, if we open our borders to free All Black selection then, yes, perhaps our domestic game weakens but only a little. We have access to the best rugby players who are New Zealanders, not just New Zealand rugby players. It's a no-brainer.

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Andrew -- cons: I was once like you, Mark. Free and open thinking. "It's a global market and rugby wants to be a global game. Let them play wherever," I would yell. And then I looked at Neymar and the Brazilian fan who barely sees him in Brazil as he's in a "free" and open market that has bonkers money as the rich get richer and the rest die (sports financial death) trying. We'd never see Malakai Fekitoa, Beauden Barrett or SBW. We'd hear of the growing legend of Charlie Faumuina or the massive engine that this Brodie Retallick kid has in Europe and see them playing for our team, the All Blacks, overseas predominantly. The global market is too big for us as a rugby market to compete with and the one saving grace is the hard and fast rule (okay so it has been bent a bit in the past) that you must be a New Zealand Rugby contracted player to be eligible. We're in a World Cup cycle and it's awkward to see mid-career players leaving. You win some, you lose some but the central contract system and the All Blacks jersey is the winner, just.