KEY POINTS:
Opening day proved to be wonderful for a bunch of rugby underdogs around the world. Our journey begins at Eden Park, and underdog number one is ...
Paul Honiss
Not since Fred Goodall got knocked about by a West Indian cricket team has a sports
official endured such a public bashing. And whereas Fred only got stabbed in the back once, every week is a potential Colin Croft moment for Honiss, even though all he ever does is apply the rugby rule book to the letter. The public gets the pip with his pip to such a degree that it is surprising a Mothers Against Paul group hasn't been formed.
Anyway, it can be reported in this column that during an extraordinary opening Super 14 stanza at Eden Park, when the Blues and Crusaders kept playing on and on and on, members of the crowd were actually calling for Honiss to blow his whistle. Honisstly.
One spectator screamed, "Blow your whistle, Honiss, we need a rest." I'll repeat that. "Blow your whistle, Honiss, we need a rest." It has to be said that Honiss would be perfectly entitled to feel that he just can't win sometimes. Having followed the oft-heard advice to shove his whistle, he was promptly being told to un-shove it. A moral victory, if ever you saw one, for the much-maligned ref.
Normal transmission did resume later when he binned Troy Flavell for stomping-slash-rucking someone's leg, after which everyone has clamoured to blame Honiss.
One more time though: "Blow your whistle, Honiss ..."
Australian Rugby
Made a flying start to the Super 14. Scary, scary. Watch out World Cup. Here those Aussies come. The Brumbies put an early pin in the Chiefs' balloon. The Chiefs are great contenders according to some, but great pretenders again more likely.
The Queensland Reds
They were as boring as ever, except this time they won, beating the underpowered Hurricanes and mocking the bookmakers' odds. New coach Eddie Jones says he is designing a different way of playing the game, and that it might not be too pretty at times. He drives his mates to distraction by turning coffee tables into flat white boards, so to speak, on which he designs rugby strategies. He could actually have designed the Queensland game plan on those little plastic sticks you get to stir the sugar with. Still, read the scoreboard ...
Samoa
The good news story of the weekend. Great news, actually. Caused the upsets of upsets to beat Fiji in the Wellington sevens final. What were they doing in the final anyway - has Gordon Tietjens lost his touch with the New Zealand team? Is it time for Eric Rush to take over? Enough of the inquiry and on with the plaudits.
Samoa shocked Fiji from the outset then harried the sevens specialists into errors. Samoa had such a grip on the game that someone at Westpac Stadium started turning out the lights while Fiji were scoring their final try.
Things have largely been downhill for Samoa since the glory days of the 1991 World Cup - they have great players but their country is one of rugby's have nots. It was terrific to see them celebrating again.
England
Not underdogs in the pure sense, considering they've got money coming out of their ears. But in terms of performance, the world champs have done their level best to turn into underdogs. Brave Jonny Wilkinson will be the talk of London town after leading the rampage over Scotland. It was only Scotland, of course, but no doubt the great England chariots are now primed for a glorious defence of the World Cup.
France
Not strictly underdogs either, considering they were playing hapless Italy. But France - like England - have been playing like plonkers. And no less a character than the dumped England coach Andy Robinson picked Italy to beat the World Cup hosts and second favourites. Scoreline: France 39, Italy 3. Ooops.
What a tournament opener for Andy, who proved during his time as England coach that it's possible to break a pile of eggs and not even get close to making an omelette. Robinson has risen from the ashes to pen a column in the Independent in which he is showing early signs of the form that characterised his test coaching stint. "Here's an interesting prediction for you: Italy will beat the French in Rome this weekend. No, seriously," Robinson wrote. Very interesting, and you've got to admire his forth-rightness.
The new scrum law
Scored a major victory - against many predictions, the scrums weren't any messier than usual, although they weren't any better either. Safety first, we're told. Trouble is, listening to refs going crouch, touch, pause, engage all season, every season, is going to drive everyone potty.
It was really fun seeing whether the props actually touched each other's shoulders though. Some did it really well, but others were half-hearted, others looked like they were touching a hot stove, and you'd swear a few didn't touch at all.
