At Red Alert we are committed to making sure that political issues are debated through the period of the Rugby World Cup. It falls to us as the mainstream media abandon the day to day of politics for anything related to rugby. The writing was on the wall the other night when both major TV networks led with the naming of the All Black team to play Tonga.
Having said that, we here in the ship of social democracy are capable of thinking about more than one thing at a time, and for me, and some other colleagues we might just have a wee tad of interest in the Cup. So we will do some brief posts along the way.
So to start, what should folks be looking for in terms of rugby in the first few weeks of the tournament?
- massive score blowouts as the big teams (think us, England, Aussie, South Africa etc) play the minnows of the rugby world, Georgia, Russia, USA etc (yep the power balance in rugby is pretty much the inverse of geo-politics).
- wailing and gnashing of teeth that the All Blacks still don’t look quite right. (This will happen whether they do or not).
- the possible rise of the Pacific nations. I think Samoa, Tonga and to a lesser extent Fiji will be the big movers of the early rounds. The Pacific teams are now stacked with players who ply their trade in the Northern Hemisphere competitions. Combined with a bit of local and NZ based talent, they will be tough opponents for anyone. Fiji and Samoa sprang surprises four years ago in France, and they now have an even bigger base of professional players.
My suggestion for getting through the first few weeks of the tournament is pick yourself an underdog team and live your life through them. The All Blacks will be fine in pool play, give someone else a go too. Then rejoice as the Georgians actually score a try, or the Romanians hold Scotland to half a cricket score. And then when they play each other- there is the chance of a win!
Ah, it is exciting isn’t it? Now, move along, nothing to see here, back to the politics….
Interesting exchange on Breakfast TV this morning, when Corin asked veteran SMH sports reporter Spiro Zavos who he is supporting. ‘I’m a journalist, I report on games’ was the response. Corin gulped having been put in his place, and moved on to the next question.
Why should Corrin be upset at that, He would not fall into the category of a Journalist!
Nice try Grant, but even political tragics like us won’t be focusing much on politics for the next six weeks.
As far as the rugby goes, the propect of USA playing Russia next week in New Plymouth is an interesting one, and I’m glad I got my tickets for the New Zealand vs Canada match in Wellington, because it’s sold out now.
Good luck with the politics, but you might struggle to get any traction with those outside the beltway.
Aye I will be supporting Samoa. It is a shame that Samoa is not able to draw on the many players who play rugby or league overseas. If they could then they would have a formidable team.
You can guarantee that our Fair(are you kidding me?)fax media will be making sure that the world cup will be shown as one big party brought to us courtesy of those jolly fellows in the government offices of the Beehive. They won’t want to show all the violence, drunkeness, vandalism and littering which will accompany the whole spectacle because these are not good photo ops for National. National will be totally gutted if the All Blacks don’t win because that will deny John Key the ultimate photo op, beaming benevolently whilst holding the cup with Richie McCaw.
Don’t be such a miserable sourpuss Marty. Live it up for once.
Agreed, RtF.
More importantly, as my parents used to say “We’ve bloody well paid for it, so you’ll bloody well enjoy it.”
Loving the spirit that RWC is adding to life. Awesome creative efforts like this:
http://zmonline.com/player/ondemand/where-the-webb-ellis
to keep me laughing while waiting for EQC.
RWC – Yee haa!
!!!!!!!!!!!
Go The ALL BLACKS!
And while the fun is going on, Go Labour!
!
I suppose you guys will struggle for traction for th enext six weeks. Even worse when you are bleeding votes to the Greenies, and the Nats are polling at twice what Labour is. The election will of course be sealed for the Nats when John Key is photographed with Ritchis McCaw holding Webb Ellis aloft in about 6 weeks time.
Politics will carry on – the VSM will pass into law, the PREFU updates will be published some point soon. But what has Labour got that will turn the tide. There really is nothing . Your supporters are disillusioned, your policy announcements have not got any traction. How will Labour turn this around? You have fired all the bullets -now all that is left is to throw the gun.
Montybear,
, Yer concern is touching 
Labour will be just fine!
They will get traction and the weather will get warmer! 
!!!!!!!
Remember who played a major role in procuring the RWC for New Zealand?
Answer: Former PM, Helen Clark.
Don’t expect the current PM to give credit where credit is due, so I’ll do it for him.
Not working as one at the moment, Jeff, but Corin Dann is a journalist – and a good one too.
Poor Anne, but Clark has moved on and away. labour supporters may fondly remember her, but the man and PM of the moment os John Key. Time to move on.
Sorry if a passing comment on who played a major role in NZ getting the RWC upsets you so Monty. It is the appropriate time to remember. By your logic we must never remember anything that happens in the past like… two World Wars? And we must never mention the political leaders involved. I’ll write to the British PM and demand Winston Churchill be erased from the history books. Promise!
Boy Monty, gotta turn everything into a Labour bashing fest.
Cant wait to hear the talkback rednecks moan about the All Blacks being so useless because they didnt beat the Japanese by 200 points or something…
There are massive solar flares happening at the moment. They may have contributed to the enormous power black out in California, where it is an unprecedented 40 degrees plus. and a nuclear power plant is threatened. There are state wide floods and fires and Obama has announced an impressive employment creation programme way beyond the imagination of our government. The Bank of America is sacking 40,000 people. That’s just the US. In Europe the economy is sliding and in Egypt the democracy movement is protesting in the square to ensure the momentum continues.
In NZ the lowest numbers of building permits since the 1940s have been issued while the housing crisis escalates and stories are pouring into of people unable to find housing and the agencies can no longer help them as their resources have been cut. People with intellectual disability have life expectancy of less than 50 years says a new report and 560 science PhDs have protested to the government that they are being pushed overseas as post doc funding has been cut. And there was something about a scandalous cover up by the military in Other people’s wars that we have got involved with.
None of this will make the news as there no longer is any news. Even NZPA has been killed. Thank goodness for twitter where you can get feeds from alJazeera, BBC, CNN, the New York Times, Scoop and many other agencies who still feel there is need to report at least some of what is happening in the world, and sometimes even politely ask for governments to be accountable.
Add The Standard to that list Hilary where a number of regular contributors there keep the rest of us informed about what is happening elsewhere in the world. It’s a sad reflection not only on the NZ government, but a sizeable portion of NZ society too.
@Anne – Yeah, HELEN GOT US THE RUGBY WORLD CUP!
@Millsy – dude you’re back!
!
@Hilary – That sucks!
WOO HOO! The All Blacks Won the first match!
!!!!!!!!!
Well, Richard the First, you can call me a miserable sourpuss if you like, but it seems that no-one wanted to report the assaults, equipment failures and general mayhem that accompanied “party central”. No, the (fairfax) media only wanted the good parts to become public knowledge at the time and it took a few more days for the other stuff to come out. I rest my case