Chris Rattue: Lively debate stirs interest in any sport

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett. Photo / Getty Images

What a good week for New Zealand rugby, if you can ignore three-fifths of the New Zealand Super 15 sides.

It started with the drama involving the sacking of Ma'a Nonu and Andrew Hore from the Hurricanes - on the news front, this was brilliant. And the week ended with a stirring top-of-the-table match from Timaru of all places.

The media coverage around the Hurricanes was strong, opinionated and insightful, and the public responded with a flood of comments via the social network. The Hurricanes' attempts to shake free of their past, and the NZRU influence, is encouraging. It was like real professional sport for once, with a passionate public weighing in.

When I started in this media game, you might have been lucky to get three or four letters a year where Joe or Jane Public could vent their spleen. Letters to the editor, published in the front section, were heavily culled and edited. Sporting topics struggled to get a look-in.

Talkback radio was king for sport. Now everybody can have a go via the internet, which is how it should be.

The comments and debate that run beneath stories on newspaper websites take on a life force of their own, not always directly related to the story above, and involve battles within battles between the contributors. If sportspeople think the media is harsh, they should check out the public views.

This was good stuff for rugby, which normally meanders along under the iron grip of the NZRU's policy of squashing anything they don't think looks good on their CV.

What is good for the game and what is good for their CV might be two very different matters.

Hurricanes fullback Cory Jane, of course, got in his 10 cents worth, which is terrific.

Not since Justin Marshall have we had a player so prepared to say what he thinks. Marshall would have been dynamite had Twitter been around in his day.

The Hore/Nonu saga could be a watershed, although the NZRU will be beavering away in the bunker, working out how to stop all this "bad publicity".

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett has been the star, ignoring the NZRU's player-ranking order to smash the Hurricanes' losing ways. A franchise is asserting itself, and Hammett and chief executive James Te Puni should be applauded for that, no matter the outcome.

New Zealand rugby's joie de vivre has been squashed by the NZRU's control-freak attitude and All Black obsession. The game, in every regard, will be healthier if the teams or clubs or franchises or whatever you want to call them are as independent, hellbent on success and selfish as possible. Tribalism, fervour, parochialism - that's what we want.

There shouldn't have been much of a fuss if Hore alone had been axed. Age isn't everything, but he is nearly 33, and clearly slowing up fast. Nonu, a crowd favourite, is a different matter, and Hammett is right on the money getting rid of the country's silliest footballer.

Nonu's indiscipline has been appalling. His disgraceful tackle on Highlander Jimmy Cowan in the season's opener, which drew a second yellow/red card, was a slap in the face to the new coach. Nonu may have sealed his fate right then.

That was the moment when Graham Henry also needed to reconsider whether Nonu was worth pursuing for the World Cup.

Nonu can tear opponents apart, but in a tournament of big one-off games, a rogue element can bring you down with no chance of redemption.

The Hurricanes, remember, have never won a thing.

The Crusaders and Blues fought out a cliffhanger in Timaru, a town which seems to be short of a lawnmower.

The grass was so long you could hardly see Andy Ellis' kneecaps.

I jest, and Ellis showed again that he is going to be hard to leave out of the World Cup squad. He's not physically dominant enough for an international halfback, yet has a guile missing elsewhere apart from when the brilliant Piri Weepu is on song.

The quality of this match wasn't top-notch, no doubt due in part to what was probably a boggy surface beneath the wheatfield.

Crusaders wing Zac Guildford was superb. He is one-dimensional but his speed is a serious weapon, including for kick chasing and cover defence.

Sonny Bill Williams departed early and is too soft to make it as a decent boxer, or maybe even as a decent rugby player. People perhaps forget that he was a casualty ward regular in league.

The Hurricanes have been horrible, but not horrible enough to lose to the Chiefs in a deserted Hamilton stadium. The Highlanders' bubble was always going to burst, but not this badly.

They were thumped by the Waratahs.

As for the departing Chiefs coach Ian Foster, his longevity has much to do with a favoured status in the halls of power down Wellington way.

That's how New Zealand rugby has worked for too long, but maybe Hammett and Co are about to change that. Fingers crossed.

WEEKEND WINNER:
The magnificant Crusaders.

WHAT TO WATCH:
State of Origin - often a thriller.