Louisa Wall: Fighters against apartheid vindicated

The latest Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology says the media are much more likely to confirm and reinforce pre-existing attitudes and beliefs than to change them.

That is oh so true for Sunday Times newspaper rugby writer Stephen Jones. His assessment that we cheated our way to victory over a gallant England is to be expected from a man who had thrown his support behind the Japanese World Cup bid at the behest of the English Rugby Union.

He also wrote that, "Sadly, too, this occasion may well have marked the last haka at Twickenham" and he lamented that we had become so impossibly pompous and precious about our haka that it is time to end it here.

Dream on, Jones. We also believe in and have a culture that we are proud of and we will not be intimidated by neo-colonialists like you.

Jones so wanted the English to be the architect of our Grand Slam demise and sadly for him, his much-loved England failed at home.

He and his cohorts can probe, criticise and deconstruct our victory but at the end of the day it was our victory.

So tomorrow when we battle our friends the Scots for Grand Slam glory, last week's match will already be history. Only now can it be called the Grand Slam and only after will Graham Henry and his team claim it as such.

And our Rugby World Cup hosting victory has revealed some ironies. The old boys network actually lost. England, Australia and IRB chairman Syd Millar's grasp on the rugby kingdom was revoked by the home nations of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

It was a significant revolt against the motherland, and South Africa's gesture was a wonderful gift to all New Zealanders who endured the wrath of the rugby-mad during the 1981 Springbok tour protests.

South African Sport Minister Mankhenkhesi Stofile, who has fought most of his life against racism and discrimination, was adamant that after his country was eliminated and supported New Zealand's bid, it did so not for the NZ Government or the NZRFU and in spite of Jock Hobbs' association with the Cavaliers, but for the New Zealanders who battled apartheid.

And so I thought Grand Slam and Graham Mourie, a man whose actions helped to secure the South African vote when he made himself unavailable for selection against South Africa in 1981 because he opposed the tour, and who became a member of the NZRFU board in 2003.

Maybe those families who were divided and those who philosophically believe that sport and politics don't mix will be reconciled and that we can all celebrate that our individual and collective actions can make a difference.

Such historical reconciliation can occur anytime and should begin with our whanaunga across the Tasman. Any professional developments the Aussies are leading in the region we must be part of.

The professionalism of rugby in New Zealand is based around the Super 14. If the South Africans leave to forge a new future with France, we have to be wherever the Aussies see themselves.

Asia/Pacific is where we belong and a competition with teams from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Pacific Islands is the only way to guarantee that the All Blacks will endure to successfully compete against the likes of Wales in another 100 years.

So, let's give the Aussies a quarter-final and a semi, forge a rugby future together and support a Japanese bid for 2019.

The stuff-them attitude is rather immature and not very strategic. Securing the professional game in NZ must be a priority otherwise the legacy of our love for the game won't be handed down to the generations to come.

* Louisa Wall is a former New Zealand rugby and netball representative.