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NZ Rugby World column, July 2004
I spent the last three weeks shuttling around Europe via Copenhagen, Budapest, Paris, Geneva, Barcelona and London where Euro 2004 Soccer is in full swing. I'm writing this during the first week of the tournament following the amazing England v France game where Zidane demonstrated the small but vital difference between the great and the very good when he made the whole of England miserable by scoring a free kick in penalty in the last three minutes of the opening game. David Beckham, who is very good but perhaps falls short of greatness, missed what would have been a match-winning penalty for the Poms. This ended a pretty devastating weekend for the English. (Shame we couldn't field 11 fit Black Caps!) I was in London for that weekend and had dinner on Friday night with Sean and Bronnie Fitzpatrick, Will and Lisa Carling, my son Ben and his Kiwi girlfriend, Sally, some mates from school - Dave Bennetts and Paul Fitton, and Joe McCollum, who lived down here for 8 years in our Lion Nathan days. Benny's wife Gill also joined us in demolishing a good deal of L'Escargot's finest Bordeaux. The relationship between Fitzy and Will is surprisingly good. At first glance they might appear to share very little. There is, however, the common bond of leadership, achievement, and being in the public eye, and the two of them together produce amazing chemistry. They are both involved in transitioning from rugby into the corporate
world and have the potential to put something together that could be
explosive. |
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Both are backed by supportive, smart wives who can make major contributions going forward. The corporate hospitality game is a growth industry but one facet that has been overlooked is what to do to motivate the partners of these corporate hotshots. Bronnie and Lisa could bring a whole new dimension to that game. (And might be able to help Sir Clive too!) And, on that note, how on earth are we going to handle 20,000-30,000 corporate and private visitors from Britain when the Lions tour next year? I dread to think how our infrastructure will cope. It will be important for the NZRFU to put on a fantastic show for the British media and the public particularly given the recent World Cup hosting rights debacle. The one exception to this could be Stephen Jones who hasn't earned much in the way of New Zealand hospitality. He makes the worst one-eyed Cantabrian look impartial. His rantings in the Sunday Times following the 36-3 thrashing of England were the rantings of a loser. I wonder how long it will take before the English media stop prefacing the word England with the words 'World Champions' all the time? They have lost now to Ireland, France and New Zealand (twice); maybe Italy and Wales will be next! O2, their shirt sponsor, is highly appropriate given the series result in
New Zealand. I am telling my friends in the UK they can no longer be
considered World Champions. They are the World Cup holders and that's it. Back to L'Escargot. Dinner came to an end around 3:00am with a few too many bottles of Taylor's 20-year old Tawny Port. That didn't stop all of us from getting up to watch the Dunedin demolition. Unfortunately, we had to listen to the UK commentators but the morning was enlightened by watching Fitzy in the studio with Michael Lynagh and Dewi Morris. Fitzy had left L'Escargo early at 1:30am! yet somehow scrubbed up to become an articulate, insightful, balanced commentator and critic in Sky Studios. A very impressive performance and, as Fitzy would have said in days gone by, full credit to him. He was coherent, understated and resisted the enormous temptation to
gloat. He's got a superb relaxed presence and his one line about our
re-found forward pack - "They looked as if they'd eaten barbed wire for
breakfast" - was vintage Fitzy. Frankly, I was impressed that he was
capable of speech in any form. I was certainly struggling. Will Carling too is an incisive thinker on the game. He had a disappointing Lions tour to New Zealand and has copped his share of criticism in the media. However, as is often the case, perception is not reality. Will is a sensitive, smart guy with a lot of good ideas around the future of rugby. He has innate leadership abilities and we tend to forget how young he was when he captained England for the first time. It will be good to see him back in New Zealand next year watching what I hope will be the continued ways of Graham Henry's All Blacks. Another source of inspiration in June was Team New Zealand's announcement of Emirates as a major sponsor for the next America's Cup Challenge. Emirates are a forward thinking global airline and will add a lot to Team New Zealand. Grant Dalton's leadership of this has been inspirational. He has provided focus, impetus and a result. At Saatchi & Saatchi we
believe Nothing is Impossible. With Grant Dalton heading up the Team New
Zealand challenge what a story that would make. Bringing the Cup back home! |
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