All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Getty Images.
THIS IS NOT AN OPINION
Way, way back in May I undertook a gratuitous exercise, watching one weekend of every minute of every Super Rugby match.
It wasn't an overwhelming slate of matches but the weekend opener pitting the woeful Blues against the muscular Bulls held a bit of intrigue. As it was, the Bulls lost a game they should have won because they were utterly obsessed with creating opportunities for lineout drives and forgot they were actually just a better team than the home side.
At 8pm I wrote: "The Bulls have another lineout drive stymied. They're starting to look extremely predictable."
At about 9.50pm, after a cracking try to the Rebels in their game against the Reds, this: "When it is played like this, rugby soars to heights you cannot imagine having sat through 80 minutes of the Bulls trying to set up lineout drives."
The point of this is that if you can ignore the fact that he was exactly the wrong man to deliver the message, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is dead right about the lineout drive, rolling maul, whatever the heck you want to call it. It is "bloody boring".
That's not to say a good rolling maul is not a technically impressive beast and perhaps it is too ingrained in the fabric of the code to eliminate, but there needs to be rules around its use because rugby will win no new friends if, as is widely predicted, the lineout drive is the premium attacking option at the upcoming World Cup.
That is why Hansen was the wrong man to deliver the right message. He's got a dog in the fight and it's a dog that doesn't much care for shoving the ball up the jumper. So instead of getting a reasoned response to a valid concern, we get the first flak in the World Cup phoney war.
Writes Martin Samuel in the mass-market Daily Mail.
"Last week, New Zealand beat Argentina 39-18 in the first Rugby Championship match in Christchurch. Comfortable enough but they were not happy about the points conceded - two tries coming from lineout drives.
"The answer? Change the rules to harness an opponents' strength. 'It's an illegal obstruction,' said coach Steve Hansen, which it isn't. He added that he expected South Africa to use the same tactic in Johannesburg next week.
"'The easiest way is to say you can collapse it,' Hansen added, which actually would be illegal.
"Hansen already has the best team in the world, but wants to make up the rules as well. What is he so nervous about?"
For more of the same, except not as well articulated, check out the comments section of the story on this Irish website.
I'm starting to lose my faith in Hansen. Not because of his record, which is out-and-out phenomenal, but because a gut feeling tells me he has put the All Blacks in an unnecessarily awkward position for their Cup defence by being too touchy-feely and not Alex Ferguson-like enough with his selections over the past three-point-five years.
But on this issue, I've got his broad back and hopefully the IRB will look at the message and not the messenger when analysing it.
GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI...
As the All Blacks prepare for their most pivotal pre-World Cup test of the year against South Africa at Ellis Park, it is well worth having a look at the way it was. This wonderful footage of the vital fourth test at Johannesburg - South Africa were leading the series 2-1 - is a timely reminder of how elusive victory used to be in the Republic in the odious apartheid years. A couple of points of interest are the two beautifully struck drop goals, one from each team, and the astonishing fact with a good chunk of the second half remaining, there had been 27 lineouts. Do not let anybody tell you rugby used to be a more attractive game.
SPORTS STOCKMARKET
I'm buying...
... Pro surfing
When Sky TV started popping up with a surfing channel, they might have sold a few more set-top boxes in Raglan, Whangamata and Stent Rd, but not a lot else.
But a big fish with teeth and a couple of bronzed Aussie surfers has changed all that.
Mick Fanning's contretemps with Gregnorman (sorry, bad golf joke) at Jeffreys Bay has been the best thing to have happened to televised surfing. Sure, there might be a few parents out there unsure as to whether to let their little grommets in the water, but it's added a whole new level to the viewing experience.
Julian Wilson, who selflessly paddled towards the fight intending to use his boards as "a weapon", is an instant internet sensation and both he and Fanning are surely poised to be the front-men for any number of advertising campaigns.
And surfing in general... I'm buying.
I'm selling...
... The PGA Championship
Poor old PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Golf's most unloved major was set for a rare moment of primacy until wunderkind Jordan Spieth's approach to the 18th at St Andrews pitched inches short of perfection and instead rolled back into the Valley of Sin.
Instead of a tap-in for birdie and a playoff he surely would have won, Spieth left his long putt slightly left and the prospect of golf's Holy Grail, a Grand Slam, was gone. In this case a miss really was as a good as a mile as one of golf's least charismatic winners, American Zach Johnson, claimed The Open and his second major championship.
Can you imagine the hype that would have enveloped Whistling Straits in the lead-up to next month's PGA Championship? Rather than the bastard-child of the majors, the USPGA would have been presiding over the most talked about major championship in decades.
The PGA shouldn't be the fourth major at any rate (and neither should the silly Players' Championship, fatuously referred to by some as the fifth major). To reflect golf's status as a global game, it is time for a roving fourth major that is played in rotation on the world's six playable continents. You could still keep the Wanaker Trophy as a prize and every sixth year it could be played on one of the USPGA's favoured courses, but it is long past time to spread the love.
I'M READING...
For the second time in recent weeks, I'm pulling something out of The Cricket Monthly for you. This piece is a dream come true for New Zealand Cricket and freelance journalist Tim Wigmore, who has enjoyed an eclectic career covering British politics and cricket in associate countries among other things, covers most of the bases. There are a few points that maybe over-egged, like New Zealand's egalitarian ideal (of the XI that played in the World Cup final, just two players, Martin Guptill and Trent Boult, went to state co-ed schools), although he does redress that by devoting a chunk of the article to New Zealand's inability to attract a large Pacific island and Maori population to the sport.
I also suspect NZ's position as a cricketing force is more precarious than even its own administrators realise, but nevertheless it is well worth a read.
http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/889069/new-zeal--timeless-recipe
MY LAST $10
Every week I will make one $10 bet. The goal is to get to December 31 with more money than I would have had if I had put it in the bank.
This week: $10 on either NZ or South Africa to win by 6 & under/ or draw at $2.45. This is a bolder bet than I'd normally like to make with my last tenner, but this has all the making of a close test.
Last week: Collected $16.20 on Queensland to win Origin III head-to-head. I'm no odds-making expert, but this seemed like overly generous odds for a game at Suncorp Stadium against an average NSW team.
Spent: $50 Collected: $50.20
OVER TO YOU
This is your chance to relive some memories, highlight a terrific grassroots sports performance, promote an upcoming sports reunion, or just send me crazy ideas. It's also not a bad spot for giveaways, if you're that way inclined. Email me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz.
Forty-three South Island co-ed principals have asked the national body to intervene.