This talk about Richie McCaw being the Achilles heel, Dan Carter being off his game, Quade Cooper loathes Richie and vice versa, and that the All Blacks allegedly being the only team that cheats; I really thought this would get me seething angry.
But it didn’t. It has done quite the opposite and made me actually start to feel sorry for the British writers of this tripe, Mark Reason and lately, Stu Barnes.
Whether it is the lack of anything for them to write about before the main event, or whether it is to get their names in lights before the September 9, I just don’t know.
What I do know is that they are so desperate to be read (and hopefully paid) for the rubbish that is being written that they have resorted to writing inflammatory material.
Reason brought a response of nearly 800 posts to his Stuff.co.nz article on calling the All Blacks ‘cheats’ and Barnes has now jumped on the speechifying bandwagon, hoping no doubt, for the same result.
We also have other writers on both sides of the Tasman endeavouring to ‘brown arm stir’ and hopefully, fan-glowing embers of the supposedly on-field white hot heat between Richie McCaw and Quade Cooper suggesting that there is bad blood between them.
This is also an utter myth.
Both, Richie and Quade are brilliant players in their own rights, who do the best for their teams.
Whilst they have enormous respect for each other, on and off the field, our media do their best to write and inflame situations that are taken out of context, by using some incident from nothing and writing fiction based on fact so as to get read and paid by the organisations they write for.
This is the Rugby World Cup year and the sledging that is taking place of teams by partisan media is starting to wear thin and place those who write the rubbish in poor light with readers.
There will always be those who react to writings that clearly prove and show up the inadequate writing skill of the journalist, who pursues this line of writing and caters to the mentally deficient who read it.
The discerning reader quickly discards these rubbish reports in favour of the journalist whose skills in crafting fact within well-written reports make them well worth reading.
At this starting point to the Rugby World Cup, players take little notice of what is being written anyway, as their concentration is now firmly focused on the winning of their games.
It is the officials who concern me, by having more time to read this tripe and maybe, get influenced by these backdoor whisperers irrespective of what Paddy O’Brien, IRB Referee Manager has said in denial.
I have never been a fan of slagging, insulting, or showing disrespect to any fine athlete nor calling them by derogatory names, word or deed.
Those writers who expect their opinions to be taken seriously, need to provide balance to their remarks.
To single out the All Blacks as being rugby’s sole cheating team, is just as hurtful and utterly disrespectful as suggesting that the Australian jumpers and the blokes who wear them are yellow.
The exciting point is that these two countries are likely to be the Rugby World Cup finalists, and that the likely reason for the current writer vitriol, is their belief that their countrymen are only there to make up numbers.
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