Disgrace

The Black Caps loss to England this morning is the worst performance I have ever seen from a NZ team. They got themselves through a brilliant Ross Taylor innings with help from Mills and How into a great position. Vettori bowled beautifully to knock England over. A team with a lead of 170 or so should never be lose on a turning track. To capitulate as they did in the second innings was a disgrace. It was a stunning performance. The performances of Taylor, Oram and McCullum is not appropriate for that level. Taylor can be forgiven. The others needed to bat with some test sense. They only needed to bat sensibly as they did in the first innings and they would have batted England out of the game.

Having said that, they should have been able to bowl England out on that track. I am a great fan of Vettori but he failed. Mills, Oram, O'Brien and Martin should have locked up one end and Dan should have bowled England out on a turning pitch with variable bounce. It is a long time since he bowled a team out to win a test and this was his chance.

So all in all, they failed and they failed badly. Looking back, the recent test series in NZ was lost in a similar way as we turned around excellent positions and capitulated. It is a total disgrace!

All in all, it was the greatest embarressment in recent years. England are not a great side, but we are worse. There needs to be a serious culture change in this team!

South African Rugby Common Sense

I hear today that the South Africans have decided that they will pick players from the European rugby competition. I think this is a huge decision. I think it is bold and common sense in a professional world. I think we need to join them in this, but not quite yet. What we need to do down here in NZ is get the Super competition and test program sorted and then we will be in a position to open the door. We need to have a Super program that runs from Feb until June, double round. This is the professional program. We need to open it up to private backing to increase the wealth in the program. We need to set in place very good regulations so that the AB's can have the players they want for their program. We need to let players play anywhere in the world and be available for the World Cup. It will weaken NZ rugby to an extent but who cares. The tests between world cups mean nothing, the last world cup proves it. We need to go the way of soccer. Our best players will get better playing in Europe, and when they come together they will be brilliant. We are at the turning point where the best All Blacks put together in Europe will soon be better than the best here. At that point we HAVE to allow it. Let the game go professional. Get our own program sorted so there is good money here and good opportunities. Not all our players will go anyway, they have a limit on money over there and will block them when their rugby starts to have too many overseas players. So... get things sorted here, then let it go.

Kimberley Smith?

Wow, a 45 second PB for Kimberley Smith in the States over 10k. This can be read in one of two ways. One way is to party because she has come of age and is now a true medal contender. Another possibility is that she has enhanced performance in some way. I hate to think this, but when someone wacks out a 45 second pb, you can't help wondering??? 45 seconds is astonishing!

So which way will I go? I will go for the first response in the hope that there is no enhancement happening! So, way to go Kimberley! You rock! Astonishing. Bring it to them in Beijing and win a medal. Woo hoo!

Esther Keown World Champ

Fantastic news about Esther Keown winning the World Secondary School Cross Country Champs in Algeria. She won by 6 seconds from two Belgian girls with NZ also winning the team's gold. This is an amazing effort for a Kiwi girl.

Esther said that she felt good on the day. She took the lead early after being held back by an Algerian girl. She was concerned that she went out too quick leading through the first lap. However, by the end of the second lap she had a good lead and extended to win comfortably. She also said that she could have gone quicker if the pressure had come on. She held back because she was concerned that there may be someone who would sit on her and come through quickly at the end.

We really do have some promising athletes at present, particularly among the girls. So, go KIWI! Awesome stuff. Another great day in Kiwi sport. Here's hoping Esther and the other girls can come through into senior athletics and perform at the top winning medals for NZ at World Champs and Olympic level.