Wallaby great Elton Flatley has been at it again. “The All Blacks are too old,” he says. Yeah, right!
How proud I am to be a Kiwi and how flattered I am to know the trouble teams and individuals will go to in the hope they will upset the All Blacks and New Zealanders.
Hell, they don’t know the Kiwi psyche very well, do they! We have comedians and wannabes jumping out of the woodwork worldwide.
How did an All Black team get so far under the pasty white skin of the English that they now need to attire themselves in a black jersey to help them believe that they are up to the All Black playing standard?
When are overseas teams ever going to learn that to be an All Black you have to be playing for the team, and no amount of wearable art is ever going to make you be one?
The Scots have tried it, the French have tried it and now the Poms are trying it, even to the extent that they want to place Maori motifs onto the shirts in the hope that the team will suddenly arise into an unbeatable Webb Ellis trophy recipient because they wore black.
The laugh goes on.
Australia has its comedians also. Flatley has been sending great clouds of fantasy smoke into the air and having the interlocking rings drift across the Tasman in the hope that his comments will be taken seriously.
Next they will be telling us that Robbie “Dingo” Deans is only filling in as Wallaby coach because he lost his way trying to find the North Island when he left the Crusaders and needed a job. (Come back Robbie, all is forgiven!)
Springboks coach Peter de Villiers continues to make known that only his B side will tour Australia and New Zealand ahead of the World Cup. Does he actually have a better side? Maybe he has been inhaling the same stuff as Elton.
The latest revelation by NZRU chief executive Steve Tew is that the proposal to have Argentina join the existing three countries in an enlarged Four-Nations southern hemisphere competition is also a lot closer than most people realise.
The Crusaders proved that you can still be a finalist in any competition even after you travel, and travel, and travel, and ……. To get a true perspective of the herculean effort required you need to rise above and overcome partisan refs in partisan stadiums full of partisans.
Travelling 10,000 km before a final and making out it’s not a problem is utter rubbish.
How a quad-nations event will help improve a flagging tri-nations event is even more mystifying.
Maybe the meeting of chief executives of all the major rugby-playing nations in Los Angeles later this month will solve this dilemma for me. (Or better still ask Elton and Peter for their input; and why Los Angeles anyway?)
The All Blacks have put away the rose tinted glasses they used to view the roses on the English shirts and have donned the Black Dog shades to view their own.
The screaming Nor ‘west wind blowing across the Tasman has dissipated Elton’s smoke-rings and Peter’s invalid army is resting up. All is well in the All Black tent and only the All Blacks are sleeping (so I’m told) with eyes wide open.
Derby County FC
Guest
Kiwidi We've had white long before you were born yet you chose it as your alternate jersey. How dare you damnable colonials!!!! Grrrrrrrrr.
Sebastien Gruntfuttock
Guest
Brad Thorne is 36 and he still gets around the paddock fairly well, probably better than one or two of the Wallaby squad that I can think of.
kiwidi
Guest
well you know you can all leave NZ if you don't like it and we have already beaten south Africa and will do again,after all most coaches are kiwis and plenty of kiwi players in Aussie sides,without them your teams are nothing,look at quade cooper,the list goes on.
kiwidi
Guest
we dont own black but kiwis have had black since before you were born its been worn since 1909
Stephen Smith
Guest
They're just following your NZ football teams lead, who play in white.
Brupey
Guest
World Cups: Australia 2, New Zealand 1
Uncle Bob
Guest
Good idea England, wish Australia thought of this ploy to get under the skin of all New Zealanders. United, ie South Africa, England and Australia we can bring NZ down on their home patch and inflict their biggest defeat!
Drew Musch
Roar Pro
What a kerfuffle over nothing. England need an alternate strip, and will be using the dark one against opponents other than the All Blacks. Sorry guys, but you don't own the colour black.
Ovalball
Guest
Wow! I've heard that kiwis like to wallow in self pity but this is extraordinary! The author of the article really is a victim. It's an alternative shirt colour not recolonisation. Dry your tears and grow a spine...
Tim Schuster
Roar Rookie
now that you mention him.... I emailed Richard Loe a few days ago after coming across an article he wrote. I asked him if he ever apologised to Paul Carozza for smashing the defenceless wingers nose to pieces in that test. Haven't had a reply yet.
Jerry
Guest
I think they did switch to the black jersey for the second half.
kiwi di
Roar Rookie
thats right flatley never good heaps of olden age wallabys
Dave
Guest
And the scots jersey had grey panels added to it at the time as well for some reason. I actually think the black jersey would have clashed less.
Jerry
Guest
The Soup Rugby alternative strips are all stupid, especially as they roll them out for all away games (which is an Americanism) rather than in the case of an actual conflict.
Jerry
Guest
It was a marketing thing, I guess. The real cock up was that it still had too much Black on it, so in the Scottish fixture it was two near identical strips. I've noticed that team's alternative strips are pretty much mono-chromatic this time around. The AB's have gone back to white jerseys for theirs.
Wawnout
Guest
We nicked their flag and their Queen.
Dave
Guest
Anything would have been better, and then the canes and crusaders thought it would be a great idea to follow suit.
Dave
Guest
I say who gives a stuff? They can wear black if they want, the All Blacks wore white for years. Richie McCaw quoted in the NZ herald as saying if the way you play comes down to your jersey colour then you have some problems.
Dave
Guest
Frank Bunce was 30 when debuted for the ABs and he did pretty well
Jiggles
Roar Guru
What were they thinking with that silver/grey? I know they were obliged to wear an alternate strip but surely a plain white jumper would have been better.