Reece Hodge misses match-winning penalty once again as Wallabies and Argentina draw. Video / Sky Sport / Tri Nations
Phil Gifford writes about the biggest fall from grace in rugby history - and the hope that the match the Māori All Blacks won 28-21 in Hamilton against Moana Pasifika is the opening chapter for the Pacific Island side.
OPINION:
There's never been a fall from grace in rugby asdramatic as that suffered by Argentina's Pablo Matera.
In three weeks he went from being the warrior king who led his team to a historic victory over the All Blacks, to a desolate spectator, sitting in the stand in Sydney as his team slithered to a 16-all draw with Australia.
Suspended Argentine captain Pablo Matera with his teammates at the end of the draw with Australia. Photo /Getty
Matera's Shakespearean demise was caused by the emergence of racist online comments he made seven or eight years ago, and there can be no debate over how vile his remarks were. Matera said he apologised for "the barbarisms" he wrote. In one of his messages he had joked about it being a good day to run over black people in a car.
He's had his defenders, largely on the grounds that what a 19-year-old once said shouldn't be held against him almost a decade later. I'd agree if he'd been 13 when he tweeted, but by the time a boy reaches 19 he's responsible legally for his actions in every country in the world. The fact his creepy tweets were only dragged out from under a cyber rock years later doesn't make them less offensive.
If there's to be any upside to the sorry affair it would be if everyone, not just international rugby players, determined that racism is an evil that all of us should never embrace or condone.
Meanwhile, on the pitch, in the drenched test in Sydney there was little to see that we hadn't already learned.
The Pumas are terrific tacklers? Check. The Argentinian scrum isn't what it used to be? Check. The Wallabies are still a work that needs a lot of progress? Check. Poor Reece Hodge is a fantastic kicker, but you wouldn't want your life depending on him kicking for a crucial goal? Check. Spectators and players will probably all be glad that the longest rugby season in southern hemisphere history has finally come to an end? Check.
Suspended Argentine captain Pablo Matera with his teammates at the end of the draw with Australia. Photo /Getty
Talking of history, let's hope that the match the Māori All Blacks won 28-21 in Hamilton against Moana Pasifika is the opening chapter for the Pacific Island side, not a tantalising glimpse of a team that could light a real spark in Super Rugby in 2022.
At 7412 people the crowd was disappointingly small, but the quality of rugby from both sides, on the back of just a few days to prepare, was surprisingly good. Better still, as promised by Tony Brown, part of the Māori coaching group, it was played like a test match, not an end of season festival romp, which made some of the attacking moves even more impressive.
The Māori All Blacks have proved their worth again and again, so their place in our rugby is surely secured. It hasn't always been so.
When the Māori team played the Lions at Eden Park in 1971, there was a story in the programme for the game by a former New Zealand Māori player Dr Manahi Paewai, saying "the time has come for the phasing out of Māori rugby, at least on the national scene. Māori football, as we know it, is a thing of the past."
Thankfully a great All Black, Waka Nathan, had taken over the coaching in '71. He was only 30 years old, and had stopped playing test rugby just four years earlier. He was well aware of the fact opposition to having a Māori team wasn't confined to Pakeha with an anti-Māori axe to grind.
But to Nathan, Māori rugby should continue, if for no other reason, than as an inspiration to young Māori, "to avoid young guys falling by the wayside." His Māori team gave the '71 Lions a massive battle, before losing 23-12, and in 1973 they even rocked the All Blacks, who were then on an internal tour. A win in Rotorua was so important to the All Blacks, their coach JJ Stewart swore he'd "bare my buttocks outside the chief Post Office if we lose."
His backside would have been feeling vulnerable after 53 minutes, when the Māori side and the All Blacks were tied up at 8-all, but the All Blacks found another gear to win 18-8. By the time Nathan stepped down as Māori coach in 1977, the future of the team was secure.
There should be a chance now for a Pasifika team to inspire Pasifika players and fans, and in the process keep stoking interest in rugby in South Auckland, which has become a fantastic hotbed of rugby talent.
The win-win will be if New Zealand Rugby also makes sure there's co-operation on a test level with our Tongan, Samoan and Fijian neighbours. Best of all would be if European nations showed some decency too, so British and French clubs stopped making it almost impossible for their Pasifika stars to play for their home countries, and World Rugby officials changed the rule that means a Kiwi born player of Pasifika ancestry only needs one game for the All Blacks to be forever banned from representing a Pacific country.
That may all be too much to hope for, but in the meantime the thought of a well-prepared Moana Pasifika side running out at Eden Park to play the Chiefs or the Crusaders is a dream to cling to.
