48 hours: Super 12 teams’ futures all up in the air

This might just qualify for the 48 Hours column. Some of it, I believe, happened during the New Zealand weekend although the head is still in the clouds thanks to jet lag.

Having just scooted over to Perth and back, the body - which has a clock that doesn't tick all that well anyway - is operating like the big hand and the little hand have just been out partying together for, well, 48 hours.

Adding to the confusion is the weather. The highlight of the trip was an afternoon spent at the WACA, where just before racing to the airport I witnessed a couple of Pakistani batsmen so frustrated by Shane Warne that they played the sort of shots you would find kids performing in beach cricket.

The game was quickly taking on the shape of a big bloke kicking sand in a wee chap's face.

Which was apt. Because even more than Warne's mastery of leg spin, the strongest memory of the WACA was the sort of heat that sends hordes of people to the beach.

A $26 ticket means you should get there early and stake out some territory under a shade cloth. Otherwise, you either run the gauntlet with security guards in shady no-standing areas or tough it out under a sun that feels like it's burning holes in your shirt.

Yet hours later in hometown Auckland I looked out the window to see the cat curled up in a frightened ball - like something from a horror movie - as hail stones ricocheted off her back.

Hail may be unusual, even for Auckland's mad weather, but whether our rugby players are hearty will definitely be an issue when Perth joins the mainstream rugby circuit in 2006.

Not only has the expanded Super 14 added new teams, but it has also added another time zone, another climate.

Perth's rugby administrators, the ones I talked to about it, were all quite chipper about the travel factor facing Super 14 teams coming to their city from 2006 onwards.

They were, in fairness, willing to concede that Melbourne might have been a preferable option for New Zealand's teams.

But jauntily they revealed that a local university had done studies which showed that a stopover in Perth will actually help New Zealand teams acclimatise for the following games in South Africa, should their schedule send them that way.

And the West Australian rugby bosses also pointed to the experience of the champion 2000 Wallaby Tri-Nations team, which hailed a Perth preparation as a key factor in their victory in Durban. Incremental travel is better than substantial travel, is the Perth motto on dealing with time zones. Perth is actually doing us a favour. Thanks chaps.

Yes, but had that bloke sitting in his air-conditioned office at the university been slammed in a Sam Tuitupou tackle, had his back twisted in a scrum, then hopped on a plane for Perth, charged around for a few days in a furnace where he got belted a bit more, then hopped on a plane for some joint like Bloemfontein, where he was expected to do it all again the next week, and the week after that, before jetting home for more of the same?

Not to knock such university endeavours, but my particular clinical test involved a four-hour delay at Auckland Airport, turbulence, Post Landing Adrenaline Syndrome, and a body that decided that two hours' sleep was just fine after being awake for 22 hours straight (although the next night was a vast improvement when the internal timepiece decided that four hours' kip would do the trick). The thought of heading off to another time zone after that, let alone for a footy game, had the head spinning.

And you have to doubt that the university bloke factored in other issues, like "managing" injuries on long flights. You can see some tricky problems emerging for teams dealing with this extra long-distance game in Perth, which is a seven-hour flight from Auckland and a good 12 hours from South Africa.

As for comparisons with the 2000 Wallabies, the situations are hardly similar. The Wallabies had two clear weeks to prepare, didn't actually have to play a game in Perth, and since it was the final Tri-Nations game didn't jet off on another assignment immediately afterwards.

So what can we expect from increasingly travel-wary players over the years? Probably an increasingly madcap style of game for one as the emphasis moves away from physical confrontation, and it's hardly going to extend the careers of our top performers.

The biggest risk comes through the need to transport injured players long distances. Medical staff are often unsure about the extent of injuries until some days after they occur, yet teams depart on long hauls within hours of playing matches.

There are also inevitable pressures to take leading players in the hope that injuries will "come right".

The 2006 season and a likely further expansion of the competition may seem a way off now, but these are issues that are not going to fly away ... now where's that pillow?

Highpoint

The Aussie cricket team. You can only marvel at their skill and confidence. As for Adam Gilchrist, he's a wonder of the sporting world.

As in all teams, some players struggle at times, but inevitably others fire on all of their considerable cylinders.

It will take an extraordinary team to knock them over, and this Pakistani team is not extraordinary, despite their lethal opening bowlers.

Then again, as commentators have pointed out, you can never quite tell which Pakistani team will turn up. The Pakistanis broke out in laughter when their coach Bob Woolmer said as much at an official function last week. They'll have little else to laugh about in Australia though.

Lowpoint

Another defeat for the basketball Breakers. I attended their opening game and thrilling victory, also against Adelaide, last year when there was such optimism following the national side's remarkable achievements.

The Breakers' woes continue a theme seen in rugby league's Warriors and soccer's Kings. The inconsistency bug that began with the Blues in rugby seems to have taken an even greater hold in these budding Auckland-based teams.

If this country ever gets the chance to start up another professional sporting outfit, we should base it elsewhere. At the very least, it might be a good luck charm.