Give All Whites a team they can beat

OPINION: Depending on what time you get out of the scratcher on a Saturday morning, football's World Cup draw may have already happened, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

Scheduled for 7am, we will find out who the All Whites will face in South Africa next year. It's another reminder that we have an invitation to world sport's big party for the first time in more than quarter of a century.

I'm too young to remember the uproar that surrounded the All Whites the last time they qualified for the World Cup. A senior staff member at this paper fondly recalls getting married the same night as a qualification match and the bridal party huddling around a television in a back room to watch the game.

It's that sort of passion Rugby World Cup organisers will be hoping to feed and encourage ahead of the 2011 event in New Zealand.

Ticket prices were announced this week and, to me, they look pretty fair.

I'd be happy to pay $30 to stand on the terrace at Rugby Park to watch a game of international rugby, particularly if there are going to be a few Scottish fans about to ramp up the atmosphere.

I'd be less inclined to play close to $100 to watch from the grandstand, but that's what commerce is about: you pick your price point and decide where it sits in your priorities.

Would I pay $1250 to watch the final? Probably not, but many will and that's the point.

One thing we won't be doing in this newspaper – if I'm still in this chair then, that is – will be nagging people to support the games. Fair enough if Martin Snedden or Roger Clark says it, then we'll report it, but it's up to the public to decide whether they support the World Cup or not.

Back to the All Whites. There's been a bit of debate over who we would like to play at the World Cup.

Everyone, of course, wants to have a crack at us because New Zealand are seen as probably the easiest pool points on offer at the tournament.

I say give us a team we can beat. Forget about "dream" games against Brazil or England – although it would be all-time fabulous to knock over the Poms.

Tiger Woods.
He's admitted to "transgressions", and a host of less-than-shiny-looking headline grabbers have been cast into the sharp glare of the paparazzi as potential transgressees.

Shock horror, the guy is not perfect.

Even the very slow to learn must now understand that even the world's No1 sportsman is not a role model for life.

Woods hits a great ball. Possibly he's the best golfer the world will ever see. And that's where it ends. If you want to give your kids the best example of how to win golf tournaments, give them Tiger. If you want to give them the best example of how to get through life being the best person you can be, take a look at yourself first.

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First