Doping scandal rocks Olympics and the problem facing the Warriors: Chris Rattue’s Winners and Losers

OPINION

Chris Rattue runs through the best and the worst from the sporting weekend.

LOSER: The Roger Tuivasa-Sheck experiment (so far)

The faces said it all.

Shaun Johnson was well pissed off. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck looked confused, then apologetic.

I can’t recall such public division in the href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby-league/warriors/" target="_blank">Warriors’ playing ranks, even in the bad old days.

One superstar was giving another a public ticking-off.

RTS had grabbed the ball when it still had a chance of bouncing past the 10-metre mark from Johnson’s short goal-line drop kick at Wollongong. Johnson should pull his head in. After all, it was his failed kick that caused the problem in the first place.

The bigger picture is what the Warriors’ growing army of fans will be concerned about. Maybe Johnson’s little meltdown revealed deeper unrest. You had to wonder.

The Warriors were awful against an average Dragons outfit, going down heavily and without much of a fight.

Last year, the season of the Wahs’ uprising, virtually every player was at full potential. The choreography and commitment under new coach Andrew Webster was stunning.

This year, a clutch of players are below that 2023 form. The choreography is coming unstuck. The commitment is erratic. Injuries are hurting, but too much.

The last two games, against the Sea Eagles and Dragons, were poor.

We may have to consider this. The return of RTS has disrupted the unity. The salary cap money could have been better spent.

Forced to play out of position, the All Blacks wannabe and former league fullback star tends to look lost at centre to my eyes because his major weapon is blunted. In other words, his sharp sidestepping game doesn’t work nearly as well because centres tend to run on angles.

Added to that, he doesn’t have a great pass, like Joey Manu and co. He is struggling with the roving commission which aims to unleash his strengths. The RTS stats might look okay, there have been promising glimpses, but he is not connecting.

There’s another problem for the Warriors.

They have too many error-prone players - particularly forward Jackson Ford, wing Marcelo Montoya and now Tuivasa-Sheck.

Coach Webster is probably contemplating shifting RTS to the wing, in place of Montoya.

Montoya is essentially a hit-up wing without the gift for flying into the corner for tries, like Dallin Watene-Zelezniak did so brilliantly yet again against the Dragons.

Montoya contemplates a take-off at times, but if he does get off the ground is more likely to land at the wrong airport.

The 2023 centre Adam Pompey deserves his shot. Montoya may not get a boarding pass when the Warriors play the Titans at Mt Smart on Thursday.

In turn, Tuivasa-Sheck may feel more at home back on the wing, without the decision-making incumbent on centres.

Whatever, the Warriors need an answer to the RTS conundrum.

LOSER: The Olympics

The latest performance-enhancing drugs scandal is a disgrace.

It has taken media efforts (ARD from Germany and the New York Times) to reveal that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive to a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics, with nine of them going on to win medals.

The World Anti-Doping Authority (Wada) accepted China’s contamination excuse, which involved the claim that traces of the heart medication were found in a hotel kitchen.

Hey, hold the MSG on my noodles.

Now Wada is acting all tough, threatening legal action against its American counterpart for suggesting it succumbed to Chinese “threats and scare tactics”.

Wrong time to get brave, Wada.

LOSER: That Kiwis coaching decision

The old master has still got it.

The second-season Dolphins, under the ancient Wayne Bennett, crushed the Eels and now sit near the top of the NRL ladder.

The Kiwis came up with one of the most ridiculous decisions in our sporting history, appointing Stacey Jones as coach ahead of the old maestro Bennett.

Jones has virtually no head coaching experience and had a terrible time when handed a temporary poisoned chalice at the Warriors a few years ago.

The New Zealand Rugby League missed a trick by not naming Wayne Bennett the new Kiwis coach. Photo / Photosport

WINNER: The Warriors

The James Fisher-Harris signing is a huge moment in the history of the NRL club. All the momentum gained last year was under threat if they could not replace the magnificent prop Addin Fonua-Blake, who leaves prematurely at the end of this season.

Fonua-Blake was one of the few players who could hold his head high after a Warriors shocker against the Dragons.

WINNER: Vern Cotter, Hoskins Sotutu et al

The new Blues rugby coach Cotter has worked wonders... including on the Blues No 8 Sotutu.

Their demolition job on the Brumbies at Eden Park was a humiliating occasion for Australia.

A season that is providing sparks of hope for the Wallabies must have produced that sinking feeling again as their best side was ripped apart by a very good but hardly star-studded Blues line-up.

Sotutu has the sort of skills the All Blacks need to have an edge, but does he have the necessary grunt to foot it with South Africa, Ireland and co? That point is far from proven.

LOSER: Rob Penney

If rugby was a truly professional sport, as in the way it is run, the Crusaders would be looking at sacking Penney and getting a caretaker coach in for the rest of the season. The Super Rugby Pacific champions are that bad.

WINNER: Jordie Barrett’s theory

We’re being treated like a rugby backwater.

League superstar Joey Manu has taken the money in Japan, rather than develop his union chops in a Super Rugby Pacific team. And All Blacks regular Jordie Barrett is heading to Leinster.

But in terms of improving his game, and maybe even improving the All Blacks’ game, I reckon Barrett is correct when he says joining the Irish powerhouse has pluses.

WINNER: Macey Fraser

The young Football Ferns midfielder made headlines for apparently “smashing” a transfer fee, going from the Wellington Phoenix to American club Utah Royals.

We’re not talking a lot of money here, considering what normally goes on in professional sports.

But it was a nice line.

The Royals celebrated by getting smashed 5-1 in their latest game. They currently sit at the foot of the 14-team table.

Macey Fraser is headed overseas after a transfer from the Phoenix. Photo / Photosport

LOSER: Nottingham Forest and Chris Wood

The Kiwi striker’s club remains under relegation threat, with four games to play in the English Premier League season.

Their 2-0 defeat to Everton contained three controversial non-penalty decisions against Forest, who lie fourth from the bottom (the bottom three clubs are relegated).

Their remaining games are a crazy mix - against Manchester City and Chelsea, and two teams below them.

At 1-0 down, Wood fluffed a goal opportunity when the erratic England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made an incredible point-blank save from the Kiwi striker.

LOSER: Jontay Porter

The Toronto Raptors basketballer received a lifetime ban from the NBA for breaching gambling rules.

Porter was starting to live up to his promise, after a lot of problems with knee injuries, but is now planted in a hall of infamy.

His offences included giving inside information to an associate who placed a ridiculously suspicious bet that might have returned about $1.9m. Porter’s part in the ruse was to quit the game after three minutes, claiming he felt ill.

Why would someone who could earn decent - although in his case not staggering - money as a player risk it all?

Greed? Addiction? Getting lost in cyberspace and all of its enchanting possibilities? The 24-year-old’s other interests include giving stock and crypto advice on his social media account.

The bigger concern is, of course, that a player gambling problem is widespread in professional sports.

“I’m afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg,” an American sports/philosophy professor was reported as saying about Porter. “The corrupting forces are powerful ones.”

WINNER: Sir Colin Giltrap

Was there a car yard that he didn’t own?

Giltrap - who passed away last week aged 84 - was a terrific backer of Kiwi motorsport and helped launch the careers of Scott Dixon, Liam Lawson and many more.

A one-off investment brought him little joy apparently.

One story on his passing revisited a Giltrap quote in which he expressed disappointment at the way golfing mega star Tiger Woods performed at the New Zealand Open in 2002.

Rich men and their money - they like a quantifiable return.

It reminded me of the time I interviewed another philanthropist, David Levene, of the paint and homeware store chain, whose projects included helping get Lydia Ko’s career off the ground.

Levene was effusive in his praise for Ko, on the record.

But as we wound down, he expressed mild disappointment in the lack of response he had received from the rising golf superstar.

WINNER: Golf, thanks to...

Scottie “Shuffler” Scheffler and sweet-swinging Nelly Korda. They are dominating in unlikely ways, given the depth of quality professionals out there.

Korda won her fifth tournament in succession to claim a second major title, the Chevron Championship. The lanky American has made an amazing comeback from a serious health concern.

Scheffler contends in almost every tournament and followed his “draining” Masters triumph with another fantastic PGA performance.

Sports thrive on superstars.

Scottie Scheffler celebrates his win at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Photo / AP

WINNER: Hockey stickers

Former NHL scoring ace Jaromír Jágr, from Czechoslovakia, specialises in setting age-related records.

At 52, the ice hockey great became the oldest regular professional, playing for the Czech club team he owns. He also scored a goal in the record-making game.

The previous record holder, another NHL great, Gordie Howe, made a one-off appearance at the age of 69 though.

WINNER: Another 52-year-old...

Time to pay tribute to the greatest of surfers, American Kelly Slater, who has retired yet again. His first retirement came in the late 1990s.

WINNER (I think): Cricket mayhem

Cricket ain’t what it used to be.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad scored a record total of 287, for the loss of three wickets, in the Indian Premier League game against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Aussie Travis Head whacked a century off 39 balls, his victims including Kiwi bowler Lockie Ferguson.

Yet they only just won, as the two teams totalled 549 from the 40 overs.

No wonder Sunrisers captain and Aussie fast bowler Pat Cummins reckoned: “I feel like I wish I was a batter.”

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