Hello mates. Good times are ahead. At least for Test rugby junkies. All the power houses from the south will be in action this weekend and we will get answers and clues how the year of rugby 2016 could be summarized.

The Wallabies are up against their favourite opposition Wales. The team that never fails a chance to loose in style against the Wallabies. Eleven on the trot with an average losing margin of four points.

This weekend things might be different. From what I can see Wales have much stronger squad now than in the World Cup last year. Of course they have a few key players absent, but overall I like what I see in the Wales match-day 23. But will it really help?

To me Wales are the innocent little child of the rugby world. The child we have all been waiting for to one day grow up. The child that never grows up.

I know the sagas about Wales once being really good at rugby. That they supposedly beat the All Blacks the same year as Stalin died, but there are claims that the moon landing is fake, surely there is a possibility this is also fake?

Every year the Welsh talk big. Coaches, players, fans and the lambs. Every year is a potential year of the dragon in the valleys. In some ways the positivism of the Welsh is admirable. Sometimes it feels like fresh air – especially after reading too much of the crisis in Australian rugby despite being ranked No.2 or 3 in the world – to dream together with the Welsh.

I have spent many hours of my life talking rugby with people from Wales. Those conversations always start on a good note. We embrace each other in our love for rugby (usually that is enough to have an all-nighter with a new friend experiencing live-changing events together). But after the initial introductions – buying each other drinks and chatting about non-rugby events – these meetings quickly turn sour.

As soon as we start talking about the business side of rugby (results) and the state of current affairs (form), it seems like they all live in some kind of parallel rugby universe. A universe where Sam Warburton has been the best player in the world the last eight years. A universe where a Kiwi’s biggest dream is to lure Warren Gatland back home to islands so the All Blacks finally can have some success (they have been waiting for soooo long).

A universe where eleven straight defeats against the Wallabies in fact mean Wales have the upper hand on the men from the land down under. A universe where a Triple Crown is the holy grail of rugby. A universe where you get bonus points for singing the national anthem with soul. A universe where Wales should/could/would be No.1 in rugby because that is the law of God. Amen!

Maybe I am prick. Maybe I should shut up and mind my own businesses. Maybe I should pretend to be a born again Welsh Christian who believes in Santa Claus. But I can’t. When the Welsh rugby folklore start sailing in full swing I just have to give them a verbal volley about how things really look like in the real rugby world.

Like losing in spectacular style against Samoa twice and Fiji once in the World Cup. Or when they finally reached a World Cup semi-final again 2011 – after 24 dry years – their superstar world beating captain took a mad red card after 20 minutes. Remind them about the amazing fact that even The Honey Badger looked lethal against Wales. Discuss the losses against Italy, Canada, Japan and Romania.

So what looked like a nice chance meeting ends up being bulletproof evidence that the world is filled with mean persons (that’s me) and naive dreamers (that’s the Welsh).

In this naive dreamers – or mean person – context, what is Warren Gatland up to lately? Firing hard against his homeland with verbal slurs. Is not the Lions tour hard enough as it already is Warren? Creating a siege mentality is all fine as long as you create it within The Lions camp, not among five million Kiwis.

Sure – he has a point – there are rotten eggs among Kiwi rugby fans. Just as there are rotten eggs everywhere else. But to take them on through media – and give all the trolls of New Zealand and legit platform for payback – is plain stupidity. Nothing good can come out of that.

Some of these ill-smelling eggs can be found in Auckland at the New Zealand Herald‘s news desk. Right after Gatland’s slurs, they used their collective brain reserve to come up with the groundbreaking idea to portray Gatland as… very long drum roll here… a clown. It makes you wonder if this is the new foreign policy of New Zealand – if you bad mouth us we will paint you as a clown. Very 2016.

The portraying of Cheika as a clown might have have been a little bit over the top, but it was a funny also. And the New Zealand Herald came out victorious due to Cheika pressing the self-destruct button hard at the post game presser.
This time however, they only look like bullys. And they can not count on Gatland to bail them out via self-destructing buttons.

Let us move on and talk about something even more sad and weird.

I have tried to really understand the racial quota South African rugby have to live with. I can see – in the light of history – how it has been created. I can understand some arguments from the pro-quota camp. But at the end of the day, if you want more colored players in the Springboks and want them to be successful, this is the wrong battle in an unwinnable war (if South Africa’s long-term goal in rugby is to be to be No.1). Surely there must be better ways than this?

Quotas are not all bad. I can see them being useful. I am convinced that we would live in a better and happier world if all boards of power – private and public – were a 50/50 split men and females. I know that many guys don’t agree with me on this, but I am cool with that. Once they figure it out it is a no-brainer. I give them a clue: “happy wife, happy life”. Keep them included and make them important.
There are other examples too. But no need to write or discuss them here. Quotas on race on the other hand, there is every need to discuss here and anywhere else.

Since the beginning of time South African rugby always had a plan on how to self-implode. Ready – on the go – to write another chapter in Dante’s Inferno. They have managed to not be even close to maximize their full potential as a rugby nation – and I say that well knowing they are double world champions – for over a hundred years.

Let’s roll back the time and look upon things from a strict rugby perspective. For long periods the Springboks considered being top dog in the rugby world. Epic battles with the All Blacks were rarely lost. From that outset things looked rather good at the Old Boys Club at SARU. But what if?

Imagine if South Africa had started to integrate colored people in rugby in 1940s? If they had decided to make rugby the sport for everyone. The National Sport. Of course it is impossible to know, but we can all agree that things could have looked really different. My two cents would be that the Springboks – not the All Blacks – would be regarded as the world’s leading rugby nation, on merit and on current form.

Fast forward to early 1990s. The rainbow nation is born. Opportunity. Nelson Mandela. The highs of World Cup 1995. The future looked rather bright for the country and for South African rugby. They probably had the best infrastructure of all major sports in South Africa at the time. The table was set.

If they played their hand right they could have doubled their talent pool many times over. Only good things can come out of that. It was perfect possibility to show the All Blacks that the Springboks only gave away the No.1 spot temporarily while in isolation.

So what happened?

Almost nothing. Reform on grass rots levels moved slow. Very slow. And the reforms upstairs moved either too slow or too fast. Everyone knew if nothings changes, it is going to be a mess eventually. Still, there was no plan, no visions, no money, no nothing. Frankly, South Africa rugby blew a chance of a lifetime. Instead of embracing a certain win-win scenario, things went on – more or less – the same way as before.

Move on further and we are here today. If we look back at the last 20-plus years, we have been able – if ever so slowly – to see people of colour establish themselves in the Springboks. With the right incentives and backup from the government and the unions, the faults of the past could be erased and echoes of the old silenced for good. A new golden dawn for the Springboks still looked very hard, but within reach, within a dream not fueled by LSD.

But oh no. Let’s ruin it and start all over again and introduce a racial quota. Let us roll back the years and pretend nothing has been learned from the apartheid days. Let’s go structural racism again!

This time no mind expanding drugs are going to convince anyone that the Bokkies – or South African rugby overall – have a bright future just around the corner.

How come this can go on unnoticed by the world’s media and politicians? Why is not John Key and Malcolm Turnbull asked about this? Over and over again? Is this in alignment with the spirit of sport? What ideas are rugby’s associations and unions built upon? And what about rules and laws? What does the New Zealand and Australian constitution say about racial discrimination? What does the same constitutions say about sporting exchange with countries that apply racial quotas in their teams?

What about the Olympics? Rugby is a member of the Olympic family now and I am pretty sure that the Olympic ethos is not to support racism is any way. How can it be so silent?

Once New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world – bar The New Zealand Cavaliers – stopped sporting exchange with South Africa. Why? Because apartheid was unfair. Because it was racism. Because it is against laws of human rights stated by UN.

And to connect racial quotas to apartheid is not hard at all. Yes there are many differences, but it is not a far stretch at all. The foundation in both cases is race. There is no way around that. And that is key.

What infuriated so many around the world about apartheid was the “racial quota”. The loud protest towards South Africa – in 1970s and 80s – so many around the world signed up for, was for justice among races. To forever disband racial quotas.

Selection through race is always unfair; in sport, in politics, in life. And it is always racism.

I have a lot of respect for the English newspapers The Guardian and The Times. They are not flawless, but they are among the best in the business. Both have solid coverage of rugby – especially The Times. And they both have solid social conscience – especially The Guardian. But so far they have written close to nothing about this. And we can be sure that close to nothing will be written next week when England host the Springboks.

News and feature reporters will not take notice at all and rugby reporters will not take a stance. They will write a little something about it in their pre and post-match reports – it will be marginal – and move on to more pressing issues as scrum tactics, referees’ sex live and accusing their opponents for poaching too many players (while turning the blind eye to their own countries rooster).

Professional sport today is probably the working and social environment in the world that disregards race the most. Talent and performance is everything. Race is nothing.

Let’s keep it that way and fight anyone anywhere anytime who tries to turn back the clock.

As a little extra twist, the team with a racial quota plays already this weekend in London as starter to next week’s main course. Not at Fort Twickenham – where The Mighty English have not defeated the Springboks for ten years – but at Wembley against The Barbarians.

The Baa-Baas are in many ways the anti-thesis of racism (at core value). A team picked from around the world with focus on camaraderie, to include not exclude, have a really good time and to give the sport good PR. And we can – sadly – be sure there will be more written about the that than racial quotas in both The Times and The Guardian.

It might be a stretch to call the Baa-Baas solid and good PR. At least it depends who you ask. Last week I listened to a great podcast with the name The Rugby Pod (Episode 7). Guests were Andy Goode and Big Jim Hamilton. They shamelessly shared great stories from within Baa-Baas tours and match week preparations.

It was all good fun about ringing the bell at the bars in Hong Kong, ringing the bell again, about training drunk, about playing rugby drunk, about dating on tour, about using Tinder on tour, The Filthy XV and lots of other great stories. Have a listen you won’t regret it. And a little spoiler; According to Big Jim Kiwi’s rule supreme when it comes to playing drunk.

And about touring, no rugby players in the world – right now – know more about touring and doing hard miles in the sky than Los Pumas. After a Super Rugby draw and a Rugby Championship draw that did them no favours travel wise, Los Pumas are up in air again playing a Test in Tokyo this weekend as warm up for the European tour.

I love the initiative to play a Test in Tokyo but soon AUR must learn a thing or two about how to plan a season with some efficiency? Otherwise will that dream about challenging the big boys for real 2019 just be a dream.

Speaking about dreams and efficiency, I have another media tip I wanna share. The Irish YouTube channel 42.ie have produced over a dozen new in-depth mini-documentaries about New Zealand rugby. Really good stuff and I can’t recall that I have seen something better on the subject lately. Not so much focus on the All Blacks, but more of a focus on how they work at kids, junior and amateur level.

After seeing all the episodes – or just being a human creature with a functioning brain – it is hard to to see how the Irish could cause an upset this weekend (or any weekend against the All Blacks). It is rarely discussed in international media how much of an advantage New Zealand have – compared to the rest of the world – in their rugby infrastructure. They have it all going for them.

Everything is fixed so that not one single talent will slip through the nets of New Zealand Rugby Union. If you can run, or kick, or jump, or tackle, or have some mana, there is a place for you in New Zealand rugby. If you are ready to train hard, pay attention and show dedication, they will teach you – better than anyone else – everything you need to know to be a Test rugby player. And if you are good enough, that big dream about the All Blacks can be true.

There are some temporary silver linings for the Irish though. The All Blacks lineout has been rock solid for some time now. The biggest reason for that spells Brodie and Sam. Now both of them are gone (and replacement lock Romano also) and the Irish must fancy their chances to really attack the lineout for the full 80 minutes. Beating the All Blacks at the lineout wins you no Test, but it provides you with a great foundation to do so.

Another opportunity for the Irish is the All Blacks themselves. I have watched most of the media coverage from Chicago this week (congrats to the Cubs after a 108-year long wait) and have this hunch that Steve Hansen and his assistants are setting them up for a possible defeat (they look too chill). I know that sounds completely outrageous in many ways. This winning machine who have spent decades to fine tune their methods towards winning setting themselves up to lose?

But if one listens really carefully to what Steve Hansen – and some other All Blacks coaches before him – says and writes about the subject, they seem to have a pretty advanced view on losses. Sometimes they even seem to embrace them. As long as they are planned?

First Bledisloe last year – the latest loss of Steve Hansen’s men – was a Test the All Blacks did not look 100 per cent set-up to win me think. Some of their selections looked very questionable (they had far from their strongest XV on the field and far from their strongest eight on the bench), their tactics seemed to apply for another Test (in the future against some other team) and they pretended to be totally surprised by the impact of “Popper” (and did nothing during the Test to counter it).

They could have still won that Test, but it would have been a hard ask even by their standards. And post game, they did not seem to care at all about the loss. Instead they preached about the benefits of losing – nothing wakes up the squad like it and nothing convinces more that now everyone needs to be on same page so we can move on forward, work harder than ever before and improve (always improve). In so many words, that loss seemed to be exactly what the doctor have ordered a month before the World Cup.

And now, far away from the regular rugby world – having the VIP-treat in Chicago on the courtesy of Adidas and AIS – feeling big in USA as the biggest and best team in sport history ever, a couple of heads might be in the wrong place when it is time for kick-off at Soldier Field, especially with many new faces on board who most certainly will have big eyes and be in awe on the red carpet.

I know this Test is arranged to spread the rugby around the world (and make money and pay something back to their global sponsors). I also know that Steve Hansen is not a man who leaves anything to chance. He knows about all the distractions that have been around the team all week. He also knows complacency is their biggest enemy right now. So the possibility that maybe he is – secretly – embracing that enemy now, adds even more distractions and prepares the team for a potential loss.

And maybe they get a loss, take some light criticism for not showing up on the day, salute the Irish for a first victory long overdue, look serious all next week and play the reserves against Italy (and hammer them).

Boom, in Dublin in two weeks’ time everyone in the squad will be 100 per cent up for it.

More importantly, they can continue to work towards the future on more valued stuff than building a tier one win record (and maybe beat Cyprus overall record next year). Like giving The Lions the beating of a lifetime and keep on improving (always, always improve).

I actually think that the All Blacks management regards this continual record hunt as a distraction because – until they lose again – it is going to be the only thing talked about before every single Test.

Hmmm.. The All Blacks looing on purpose? Maybe I also live in a parallel universe?

Have a nice weekend.