Dylan Cleaver: The Clubrooms – Ash Dixon stands tall as New Zealand rugby struggles in a ‘sea of ​​hostility’

Winners

ASH DIXON

The 32-year-old has an uncanny sense of occasion, marking his 100th game for Hawke’s Bay by leading them to a convincing Ranfurly Shield win over Otago. Seven years ago, Dixon was part from a Hawke’s Bay team that sneaked home against Otago on his 25th birthday to win the Shield.

The prostitute is one of those guys who doesn’t get the recognition they deserve. She’s plugged into the upper echelons of New Zealand rugby without actually breaking the Big Team. You can never have enough Ash Dixons staying and playing football here if you want the code to remain solid below the test level.

(It was, as a side note, a shame that only 4,500 Dunedinites had any respect for the Shield.)

TRENT BOULT

That’s bragging rights ordered for the next year or so: Williamson c de Kock b Boult 3.

Given that they play for the same top-class and international teams, it is unlikely that Trent Boult often played Williamson in competitive adult cricket. He will remember this one, outsmarting his employer with a slower goalie.

Boult has been excellent for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL and this man-of-the-match performance largely justifies his $ 650,000 price tag.

It’s been a slow start for the New Zealanders in the IPL, but not for Boult.

Losers

NZ RUGBY

Hammered from pillar to pillar, another pillar and finally the post.

The semi-crazy antics of this board and administration have left the august organization friendless, desperately floating in a sea of ​​hostility.

Here’s a list of people, countries, and organizations that hate New Zealand rugby right now: Australia, South Africa, Bill Beaumont, Bryan Williams, the Players Association, Pacific Nations, Sanzaar, Home Nations, and Derek.

They still have a good friend on Sky, but even they must wonder if this game of alienating everyone is a solid long-term content strategy.

THE NRL

The first week of the NRL finals and a lot of people are not talking about football, but about a cover-up culture that allowed the supposedly horrible behavior of one of their superstar players to go unchecked. The allegations against Sam Burgess are multiple, but include spousal abuse and frequent drug use. This was obviously no big secret at South Sydney Rabbitohs, however he was recently rewarded with a position on staff.

Acolytes of the NRL often claim that the competition is unfairly designated by scandal and, to be fair, there is bad behavior in most walks of life, but the kind of toxic masculinity that marks this sport has to change. .

GIANTS OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL

Manchester United scored six goals at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool leaked seven – seven! – to Aston Villa. It’s been a crazy start to the Premier League season and compulsive viewing.

Even the sterility of stadiums without crowds cannot mask what a crazy start to the season is. If you said a team from Merseyside would top the chart in October, no one would have been fazed. But Everton?

mailbox

Following The last Dance Which athlete or sports team would be first on your list for a similar series of flying on the wall (pretending the footage actually exists)? – Darrin Bride, Melbourne, Australia

Some come to mind immediately, but none as persuasive as the 1972-73 All Blacks tour of Great Britain, Ireland, France and North America. The reasons are obvious and more subtle.

It was an epic tour in scale, it was close to being an epic tour in terms of results, and it contained possibly the most notorious incident in All Black history: the ousting of wayward prop Keith Murdoch.

As is, We beat the All Blacks it remains the most powerful document of this tour. He does an effective job of romanticizing the tough men of Llanelli and does little to hide the nasty bits of All Black culture, but he unashamedly focuses on the 15 men from a small Welsh town.

A mini-industry developed around the “mystery” of Murdoch, until his death in remote Carnarvon, Western Australia, in 2018. I was always intrigued and somewhat baffled by his depiction as the unwitting victim of the rugby politics of the United Nations.

According to more reliable reports, he was one of several Mafiosi All Blacks who behaved like a complete jerk on that tour. Imagine if you could retroactively place cameras to record it all.

What is the most annoying sports cliche? It’s a mistake when commenters say “it doesn’t get better than this”, although it’s always better than that. – Brent, Tauranga

Good question Brent, but for your point, surely from time to time the commentator is right. He and she would have been justified in saying that, for example, when Usain Bolt ran 9.58s for the 100 meters in 2009. But I digress.

I have a couple of pets that I don’t like.

“That’s just a great cricket shot” would be up there. I am well aware of the sport I am watching, thank you and it adds nothing to my understanding of what happened, other than the fact that it was probably played with a cricket bat and not, say, a squash racket.

I also hate the lazy cliche, “defense wins championships,” without any rigorous statistical analysis or evidence to back it up. It is often applied at Rugby World Cups, for example. Defense is important, yes, but few teams that cannot score points relatively efficiently win championships.

If you have any questions or correspondence, or cliches that you hate and need to point out, write to [email protected] .

Media snack

It’s hard to do justice to a long run in under two minutes, but for younger fans who aren’t sure what the fuss was about Dean Jones, this is an enjoyable entry.

The sweeper

Bob Gibson (1935-2020)

St Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson was so bad he was the only player who hated the All-Star Game. He had no interest in socializing or playing well with the hitters who would spend the rest of the season trying to knock down the plate.

It was so bad that he saw a hitter who once had a confrontation on the field get into his elevator, so he went for it… it was three years later.

Gibson was good too, so good that Major League Baseball changed the rules after he conceded a 1.12 ERA during the 1968 season (that’s an average of 1.12 runs scored for every nine innings he pitched). They did this by reducing the strike zone and lowering the pitcher’s mound by 13 cm.

He died after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

Look at me

During the week they cannot be missed

Wednesday, 1:10 p.m.

Rose Bowl, Game 3, Australia v New Zealand.

The White Ferns lamented during Saturday’s bland seven-field loss. They will play today and Wednesday to try to stop this Australian giant.

Wednesday, 2pm: NBA Finals, Game 4, Lakers v Heat.

Can LeBron James add another title to his burgeoning legacy? After Miami’s win today, he and the Lakers have a chance to go 3-1 up.