Look.
I don’t care about Rugby.
For me, catching, kicking and running with a ball is the kind of skill set we all collectively had when we were still primitive Homo sapiens sitting around a cave fire.
By the way, I don’t give a shit about Womens sport either, I barely tolerate the fixation on male sport, I care even less about Womens bloody sport!
Again, I appreciate the physical skills required, the focus, the determination, the collective joy of cheering your team on – blah blah blah, but let’s remember, there are far greater aspects of the human experience than competitively running, jumping, kicking, throwing and catching.
My héros are not bloody sport people, they are artists, philosophers, scientists, but after living amongst you NZers for so long, I appreciate you are all a bit Rugby mad, and I will watch a game when it’s the Rugby World Cup and I try not to be too damning about your weird fixation on fucking rugby.
B-U-T our collective deal with you Rugby freaks is that it doesn’t interfere with real news and real issues that require our focus, which brings me to the current wall to wall coverage of the All Blacks losing a series against the Irish and the universal scream to sack Ian Foster.
Now.
I’d kindly like to remind all you Rugby heads that IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER! YOUR SHITTY FUCKING GAME SHOULD NEVER, NEVER, NEVER TAKE UP ONE FUCKING SECOND OF THE FUCKING NEWS!
If All Black supporters are this emotional over a rugby match, wait until they hear about climate change & the inflationary Armageddon we face in an ongoing pandemic that is about to sink the global economy as War, Famine, Plague & Death stalk the horizon.
But sure, let’s endlessly bitch about sacking Ian Foster.
Look, sack everyone, I don’t give a shit, the fact this is still a story is bewildering to me!
Rugby stopped being a game a long time ago, it’s a business and fans can scream as much as they like about their disappointment because they are consumers of this business and like any business it needs to deliver to its clients.
Rugby wants to regain its cultural importance to Kiwis? Make all big test matches free on TVNZ, provide more money directly via the state into club level infrastructure and do more on concussions and head injuries so parents don’t push their kids into soccer.
Sigh – I offered advice on Rugby on a. political, see how much I genuinely care about you and your Rugby fetish?
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Nah, just woke yuppies doing routine 1980’s baby stuff.
The All Blacks invented the pod system and Foster put a whole bunch of ball carries in (not pod system). Now everyone has an attitude problem.
It’s the worst of all possible All Blacks teams because our best players (White Lock and Brody) are pod system guys and are getting injured cause no one really knows how to get the best from them.
If this is the worst All Blacks era I’ll take it. Fourth in the world is still really good! Sigh!!
“but let’s remember, there are far greater aspects of the human experience than competitively running, jumping, kicking, throwing and catching”
I think for some people your statement is fundamentally not true. There will be some that, whatever their sport, some of their best memories, feelings of achievement, and well being have come through their sporting experience. Also local sports clubs do a lot for a sense of community and bringing all walks together. I get what you mean about professional sport and business but for the vast majority sport still brings a lot of value in the amateur sense.
Most professional “entertainment” sports stars is just the art of finding the person with best suited genetics as soon in their life as possible and then putting them through best possible training and sticking as much helper chemicals into them as you can get away with.
That’s all they boil down to. “Rugby Deplomacy” was always about openly thumbing our noses at the economically supiorly gifted and wonderful China and America through genetic engineering, making the pointlessness of the rules based order obvious.
Eventually genetic engineering and transhuman stuff will cause major sports to shift to rules similar to Formula One Racing, where it’s partially technology put into the car that decides the results, and it’s a feature, not a bug.
God I love New Zealand.
A little reality there, thank you Sam, we are already seeing gender-confusion in sport, a result of the transhumanists’ agenda in part, and the need to compete being reduced to the lowest common denominator of a visible, physical spectacle where the spectators can live vicariously through team identification, courtesy of Sky tv et al.
Ok, I was talking about those who play whatever sport for fun, not money.
You shouldn’t have omitted the songsters and the poets – that’s where we can stumble upon truths, insofar as there are any – weavers of dreams are as necessary as the weavers of cloaks and skirts.
Whadarrryaaa? ya bloody poofter of an Editor–“Eat more–Root more–Drink more piss!!” its the kiwi way mayte…except–it is not anymore.
Barely 25% of NZers still actively support (as in watch) rugby, stands are part full, pay per view dropping off, grass roots dying as Sliver Lake sleazes in for a slice of the professional ticket clipping action.
Rugby heads are stuck in a past New Zealand that no longer exists. As an ’81 Springbok tour protest veteran I quite enjoy it when the All Blacks get a good slapping on the field as Ireland recently delivered to them.
Yeah like any of the players over last how many years had anything to do with that tour( that should not have happened)? Who is living in the past now?
I was the same but just this week I realised it was truly a blessing in diguise!
It has taken the endless stories of covid and climate misery off the media’s high rotate list and that is just so fucking awesome to me!
Long Live poor performing rugby!
I don’t follow the All Blacks, though I’m interested in if they’re considered woke? I’m guessing a bit of ‘woke culture’ is creeping in?
If so, is the woke-creep at the degree where the axiom, “Get Woke, Go Broke” can be invoked? I’m guessing not yet.
Lol good rant Martyn. I hate rugby too. Glad I missed all the fuss as I don’t watch telly anymore, skip sports articles n switch off when anyone starts talking sport. Odd that I read this article, but assumed you’d written something enjoyable to read and I wanted to say GO THE IRISH! haha
How good is Zoe Hobbs?
Sport is like sex, it’s something you do, not something you watch other people doing.
Sports rivalry is the civilised substitute for tribal aggression.
Get one thing straight everybody: All Black rugby is not a sport.
It’s a Big Business.
How many other big entertainment corporations manage to hoodwink thousands into such fanatical and tribal brand loyalty? it’s more akin political tribalism in USA – and it’s embarrassing.
I love rugby and sport in general but when the whistle blows its over. No post mortems or stupid analysis or feelings. It’s just a fricken game ffs.
Sport is a continuous and privileged narrative of human exceptionalism. It also has another important function, as Noam Chomsky famously pointed out in his book and documentary film, Manufacturing Consent: it is a massive distraction from the realities of capitalist exploitation and manipulation. In short, it has an ideological function to distract us from the workings of ideology.
It does have a positive side though, it channels testosterone energy into acceptable forms of violence. But this would only save us if it went hand in hand with disarmament on a global scale. Can’t see pooh-faced Putin being happy with beating the Ukrainians at rugby or whatever the fuck they play in that part of the world.
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