Australia has had a long, storied rivalry with the All Blacks. But even we missed the fact that the two nations had recently merged, and their rugby teams had become one.
That is, if you believe the Chicago Sun-Times, who printed a shocking gaffe after the All Blacks’ thumping win over the USA over the weekend.
The byline of the story read, and unfortunately we quote:
“Sell-out crowd watches legendary Aussie team dominate Americans.”
Despite the fact the Australians had played the Barbarians a couple of hours earlier, somehow they were confused with the All Blacks, who had just put a 74-6 belting on the USA Eagles.
Safe to say, they looked rather silly after the paper went to print.
We at The Roar are not immune to editing blunders, but this one ranks up there with the worst we’ve seen. To give them the benefit of the doubt, we’re racking it up to a miscommunication between the writer, subeditors and editor.
The Wallabies, no doubt, would have been stoked at the positive press coverage after weeks of disaster following disaster.
This Australian team is “legendary”, according the Sun-Times. We’ll take that.
What do you think Roarers from both sides of the ditch? Is this an affront to your nation? Or is it a sign that the rest of the world really sees us as sister nations, with slight differences in accent being the only way to tell us apart?
Emric
Guest
Lets put all these numbers back into perspective for those that are interested. In the US they use a tv rating system based upon the Neilson rating collective devices there is approximately 115.9 million tv sets in the USA. The system works in 2 sections number of viewers and number % of tv sets and are not counted as the same thing (aka NZ and Aus). So for example .7 = 0.007% of all available tv sets were tuned into the rugby game on Saturday that's 811,300 TV sets to put this in perspective the breeders cup had a rating of 0.004% tv sets but around 2.49 million viewers - using this as a basis we get the 4 million viewer figure. the figure is an estimated guess for the moment but a more accurate figure will come out soon enough :).
Emric
Guest
I have to correct this statement .7 is closer to 4 million still not a bad effort
Emric
Guest
The nbc TV rating was .7 Usa tv ratings work in % on the average so .7 = 7% of all viewers if that's right around 7 million viewers in the us watched the game I will post face this with I might be wildly out
4MoreYears
Roar Rookie
MMA is the fastest growing sport in the States (in fact globally). The American commentating was class!
4MoreYears
Roar Rookie
allblackfan
Guest
dk, the emoticon indicates i was being light-hearted. Pity you chose not see that comment that way.
Jibba Jabba
Guest
Doesn't seem to work for Ozzie :)
Jibba Jabba
Guest
'Dropkick' - a good name for you !!.
Jibba Jabba
Guest
Was speaking to a Yank recently and they thought Australia was in Canada !! Apparently a common belief. Education in Geography not a strong point in the ole US of A !
Hamish
Guest
Theres always 1 tosser per comments section. Congratulations.
Crazy Horse
Guest
If you can't beat them join them.
NickF
Guest
While the Australian and New Zealand flags remain the same, there will be confusion.
Wardad
Guest
Mate I have been watching or playing Rugby for over 50 years and even with the US commentators help I still find some of the laws a mystery !
Nobrain
Guest
What it tell me is a reminder that you cannot rely on everything you read in the newspaper. How many readers of that paper now believe that ABs are from Australia? I do not really care about what the editorials are telling, but it really piss me of when they get facts wrong.
Carlos the Argie in the USA
Guest
Not a jaguar but a jaguarete in the Pumas shirt.
allblackfan
Guest
bitter much?
Kenjac
Guest
A bad mistake surely but believe me it goes both ways. I assure you if got a dollar for every time I read something inaccurate about the US in one of your newspapers or even this website I could retire. It's not the end of the world a certainly says nothing about the prospects of the US in rugby.
winston
Roar Rookie
You lay a finger on rugby stu, look out!!
winston
Roar Rookie
Fastest growing sport in the USA. Give it time.
Kasey
Guest
Americans make mistake about world Geography? This one is slightly amusing, but hardly breaking new ground.... In news just to hand...water is wet, we won WW2 and politicians tell people what they want to hear.