Off the bench: Fair suck of the cup, mate - we deserve respect

By CHRIS RATTUE

Ross Turnbull was stunned when he first met All Blacks prop Richard Loe.

It was just after the 1995 World Cup final in South Africa, when the mysterious World Rugby Corporation was trying to sign top players for its version of a sporting circus.

Turnbull was a key player in the WRC, and Loe was ready to play as well. To show his enthusiasm, he stood up at their meeting and jogged on the spot.

"Mate, I don't want to miss out on this for anything. I've already started my training," Australian player-turned-journalist Peter Fitzsimons reported Loe as saying in his book, The Rugby War.

The meeting between Turnbull and senior All Blacks was typical of what forced the rugby establishment to lurch into professionalism.

Turnbull, a Wallaby prop turned leading Australian rugby official, knew that such ventures had to disregard political boundaries. All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks - you want them all.

In the same way, the Establishment forged an alliance between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa - backed by pots of television money - to ward off the invader.

Yet less than a decade on, this alliance of common sense is on the rocks thanks to the World Cup debacle. And ironically, the madcap Turnbull is now cast as an 11th-hour saviour for New Zealand rugby as he tries to inject some reason into the Australian position.

Despite the ravings of John "Kneel Before Me" O'Neill, there have been some sensible comments out of Australia on the topics in hand. John Connolly, the hard-nosed former coach of Queensland, tried to explain why New Zealand might want to limit the Super 12 to preserve the NPC, a competition he described as unique in world sport.

Turnbull, once the "enemy" of New Zealand rugby as he sought clowns for his circus, talked about the transtasman rugby history and - O'Neill take note - why each should tolerate the other's stuff-up now and then.

And New Zealand has stuffed up big-time over its World Cup preparations.

Those sensible Australian opinions unfortunately will find little airplay in Sydney. The media there are tied to O'Neill because he is often the source of their information and they cannot criticise his actions - or offer mildly contrary opinions - for fear of losing that source.

While New Zealanders are prepared to beat themselves with a big stick over the failure of our own rugby administrators, Sydney - the seat of power in Australian rugby - will charge on regardless using the thinnest veneer of understanding as the foundation for their arguments.

Not that most people in Australia's largest city would really care anyway. Rugby might be the main topic of conversation in O'Neill's world, but it ranks alongside the aims of the Thursday Island Liberation Movement when it comes to everyday conversation in that wonderful city.

The people who have really been shafted if the World Cup is taken from our shores are those New Zealanders who actually invest a large part of their lives in the national sport.

And they have been dumped on by the Australians, make no mistake about that.

O'Neill has allowed IRB head Vernon Pugh to do his dirty work, citing all sorts of nonsense as reasons why New Zealand should lose its co-hosting status.

Sydney, the host of the Olympics not too long ago, should surely understand that every major sporting event goes through a few growing pains.

Has Pugh or O'Neill or anyone else from their little world bothered to come to New Zealand to find out the problems, or offer assistance? They couldn't even be reached by phone.

During recent days, when it is clear that New Zealand's rearguard action has gone some way to solving the alleged problems, did O'Neill even consider a u-turn?

The only U he considered was saying, "U can still bugger off."

New Zealand rugby, a backbone to the game through thick and thin, did not want charity. Just a bit of respect would have done the trick.

Maybe the present Australian administration took too much notice of Loe all those years ago. The only time they have lifted a finger in the name of New Zealand during this mess is to poke us in the eye.