The Orange

From the ridiculous to the sublime … or is it the other way around??

One day, the northern hemisphere is “hacked off with the haka … the next, they are turning it into ballet!

Where will it end?  Who’s scoring the most pointes??

By jingo, he’s hacked off with the haka!

The interesting thing for me wasn’t so much the comments about the haka – we’ve heard them all before – but the response that the post got.

At the time of writing, there were well over 750 comments.

I’d be happy with one

And some of these blokes and blokesses aren’t happy either.  (You wouldn’t be too if you didn’t have a haka.)

I get a little bit confused when the Poms and those from lands nearby complain about the haka but then claim the AB’s are being a precocious when they do it in private.

The irony of course is that until Buck Shelford ramped it up, the haka was only ever performed overseas.  It does make you wonder who’s being precocious.

Here I was, a reformed blogster, with intentions to post daily.

And I had reached my KPI’s for at least 2 days!!!

Then along came a spider … and f*$ked it all up!!

My hosting company claimed their upgrade would significantly improve the loading time.  The speed was significantly improved because thanks to their upgrade (and their lack of backups) the site as it was was goooooone!

Back in business.

I’m sure you’ll both be delighted.

Actually, I’ll be delighted if there’s as many as two readers.

How’s this for scoring off the field … the Phoneix are praised by Australians.

And fair enough too – the Phoenix have done more in a handful of games than the Knights managed in a couple of seasons.

Add in the debacle around Eden Park and you wonder why Auckland deserves any sports team. The support for the Warriors is patchy at best.

Let’s hope the Phoenix can continue their impressive early season form – on and off the park.

I suppose I should be writing about more topical and important matters – RWC, 20/20 WC, etc etc

But this is my blog and seeing no body reads it anyway, I can write what I like.

After all the fun and games with Grannygate and the ridicule heaped on NZ for picking Nathan Fien the Aussies now want to select Fui Fui Moi Moi.

Yes, Australia wants to select Fui Fui to join the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi mob.

Yes, the same player who played for NZ A in 2002.

Yes, the same player who played for Tonga in world cup qualifiers in 2006.

Given the way in which the NZRL was ridiculed for Grannygate, you’ve got to think the Aussies deserve at least some poking in the borax for this.
You’d think with the number of players they already have, plus their control of the international league, not to mention their control of the judiciary (why would you suspend Jonathon Thursten with a test match coming up??) they’d have enough things in their favour without trying to take talent away from other countries.

OK, so it’s not the most original title for a blog story but it’s a good one.

The naysayers who doubted the Phoenix must be choking on their words right now.

The Phoenix are, at worst, nothing less than competitive and on the basis of the games played so far, a chance for a top 4 finish and a play off place. Compare that with the Knights … so far last that they were effectively in a second division of one.

Compare the crowds. 14,000 and 12,000 to the first couple of games with hopefully more to come.

Compare the management. Smart move to spend it on Beckham. This ain’t football, it’s business and what better way to stamp the Phoenix brand all over the media.

Compare the council(s). In a nutshell, one city council compared to how many in Auckland? And did any of the Jaffa city council really care about the Knights.

A couple of wins over the next two games is all that is needed to really set the Phoenix on fire.

It’s not unusual for Stephen Jones to accuse the All Blacks of pillaging South Pacific Islands to make the All Blacks browner and better.

His latest attack was in the Sunday Time – Jones ongoing and ill-informed diatribe. (I’ve taken some liberties with the title.)

Perhaps the worm has turned. Before the RWC, a NZ journalist did what the AB’s used to do and got his retaliation in first.

Time British scribes got their facts right

And if you do read Jones’ column, make sure you read the many comments which make similar points.

Perhaps the one exception to the rule is Sitiveni. He came to NZ on a rugby scholarship and you’ve got to accept that he could easily have played for Fiji. Having said that, the only way for him to make a living from the game would be to play in NZ or in the northern hemisphere.

Nonetheless, Sitiveni is Fijian and not a Samoan. It will be interesting to see if Jones attempts to reply with logic as opposed to emotion bordering on racisim.

Sorry, not sure what happened there.  Just lost another month.

Perhaps it was the Rugby World  Cup?  Kept me up in the middle of the night more than once over the last couple of weeks.

Then there’s the Phoenix … another couple of hours spent away from blogging altho I am sure there will be plenty of blogging material to come out of that particular well.

The Warriors are always a good source of blog-tein (kind of like protein but different).  It was a great run up to the finals but the wheels started to come off towards the end of the run.  Having said all of that, half way through the season we would all have willingly taken a top 8 finish.

And that’s just for starters.  Not to mention, more rugby, lots of racing, and no beer.

Hopefully, I can blog a bit more often than the Poms score tries.