ITM Cup

I love the ITM Cup, formerly the New Zealand NPC. Fox Soccer Plus seems to be broadcasting all of the games, which is stinkin' awesome. I think this is better than Super Rugby or the English domestic season. The rugby isn't better, necessarily, but the drama is.

The mixture of guys who are at the top of their game (Rene Ranger) and young guys on the rise (Dean Budd) and older guys who are trying to restake their claim (Chris Jack, Luke McCallister) and other characters add lots of stories to be thinking about. The whole competition also seems simple and sincere. I know it is easy to romanticize things from far away, but these guys on the bench giggle when the camera is on them, for Pete's sake. One of the ways to know whether a player with which you are unfamiliar has played at a higher level is to just look at his hair cut. One look at Jack McPhee tells you that no stardom has changed who he is. Corey Jane used to be similarly goofy looking, but now he is an All Black regular and he looks pretty like a back should. McPhee, by the way, says that if he were not a rugby player he'd be "lazy." And his advice to younger players is to "work hard." Nice.

The idea that a guy can go about his club rugby business and then work up to the ITM and then Super Rugby just seems like a system that rewards guys who love the sport and keep grinding away. Some of the prejudices of the announcers add to the sense that there is still a part of the competition that is rooted in old local grievances.

Since I have mentioned the announcers, I will add another point. I don't know who is who with announcers. There are voices I recognize and like more or less correspondingly, but no one is that good or that bad. Except for Melodie Robinson. I had never heard of her until three weeks ago. She was a sideline reporter for a couple of games in week 1. She needs to cover games every week. Her comments were often funny, insightful, and charming. One commentator about a player: "He has two cats, names Razor and Blade. I don't know what that says about a bloke." Robinson: "It says he must be single." She might have meant that no woman would allow a man to name cats like that. I think, however, with a cutting chuckle, she meant that a man who named his kitties in such a manner is repellent. I laughed out loud. At something a sports commentator said. And I wasn't laughing at her.

For anyone who doesn't know, the sideline reporters for NZ rugby get no camera time; they are seen but not heard. Can any American imagine Erin Andrews having a job if her voice and wit were all we were exposed to? I looked Ms. Robinson up and she played at the highest levels of women's rugby and is apparently a tv presenter. Both facts come through in her commentary--knowledge and the ease during broadcast.

More Melodie Robinson!

And, of course, sometimes the rugby is good. I will be watching and rooting for Tana Umaga, whenever he plays, and for all the guys with goofy hair.

Tri-Nations Week 2

The All Blacks thumped the Spring Boks for the second time in two weeks on Saturday. New Zealand is playing well, which does a lot to explain the poor showing by several Boks. The early yellow card to Danie Rossouw for tousling Richie McCaw’s hair didn’t help either. Condescension isn’t a cardable offense. Still, there seems to be no case to make for Ricky Januarie holding onto the #9 shirt. The Boks got better in attack when Ruan Pienaar came onto the field if only because then there was actually likely to be a scrum half at the breakdown. From the tv broadcast, it isn’t clear what was holding Januarie up, but it is clear he was absent far too many times. It is also clear the Jean deVilliers is being poorly used. Playing center for Munster is a different thing from wing in the Tri Nations. He isn’t wearing 14 based on any great form, so why is he wearing it at all? If he had been going head-to-head with other centers in the Super 14, it is hard to believe he would be passed over in the center position now. South African rugby is smart, I think, to let guys go make money in Europe and remain eligible for the Spring Boks. However, it does complicate things.

For American fans, looking at Brad Thorn is a lot like looking at Mark McGwire. Mark McGwire was a guy known for his strength and pock-marked face. Brad Thorn has been a beast well beyond normal beast years, playing both league and union. That sounds an awful lot like an accusation, since we now know McGwire was on steroids. I do wonder every time there is a close-up on Thorn…

The other notable development in this game was Justin Marshall not being a total ass as a commentator. My sense is that he is probably bummed that he gets so much less camera time in the commentary booth as compared to when he is on the field. Still, he wasn’t bad.

The Eagles in Jersey

This past Saturday I took my five year old son to watch the Eagles play at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. For anyone who doesn't know, Harrison is really just across the river from Newark. I have never been to Newark before--the closest I have been is cruising by on the NJ Turnpike. Having spent a few moments driving through some part of Newark, I now get jokes about Newark.

The stadium is pretty new, which I hadn't realized. It looks like they are still developing the land around the stadium itself. We parked in an old warehouse. It isn't a warehouse that has been changed in any meaningful way. It looks like it was simply abandoned--nothing developed here--and when they built the stadium, the painted some parking spaces on the floor and tossed aside a few bricks. Driving into the warehouse I exchanged high fives from the car with some people already parked and grilling. My son was perplexed by this. How did they know to offer a high five? Why did I stick my hand out of the window to return it? We have had quite a few conversations about culture sparked by rugby, and my answer was an extension of this, though pretty simple.

The Eagles played France A and lost. Of course they lost. They had a chance to win, but they lost.

I bought two tickets and decided I would spend most of a day centered around an event whose outcome was known before it started. Still, I was surprised by the ardor of my own cheers. For whatever reason, I could not deny that I gave a damn even in the midst of the futility.

What I don't get is how they--I don't even know or care who specifically the they is--charged $60 for tickets. If anyone is on the fence about going to a USA rugby game, that kind of cost is going to push them off the fence pretty fast, I imagine.

However, seeing a rugby game legitamized by the things that surrounded our trip to Red Bull Arena sparked something in the five year old. We spend a lot of time on Sunday in the yard pretending to be different rugby guys we watched in person or on tv. For at least a few days, rugby was equal to baseball. Z Ngwenya was in the same league as Chase Utley. As a father who is trying hard not to push things too firmly on his sons, it was nice that it was the kid picking up the ball and asking to go be like Dan Carter.