NZ Rugby World column, November 2005

I've spent most of the last month in Europe … from sunny Las Palmas, through Paris, London, Lisbon, Madrid and majestic Moscow. Am hopping on a plane from Paris to New York tonight and then off to Seoul tomorrow. So I missed the glorious Auckland performance on Eden Park and had to make do with the video … a testimony to flair, pace and spontaneity, and a great tribute to Shane Howarth and Pat Lam's inspirational - and innovative - coaching beliefs, style and methods. I was sorry to see Jerome Kaino missing out on the tour - he's such a dynamic runner - but the competition for back row places was so fierce even Marty Holah and Josh Blackie couldn't get in. What does that say about our depth and strength?

The tour party to the UK is sublime. Full of pace, excitement and belief. The backs are full of class and gas. Brent Ward's time will come and Nick Evans must have been hard to leave out. Isaiah Toeava has the right stuff and will learn a lot in the UK - as will Luke McAlister who will run amok among the static, predictable, over-coached British defenses. The forwards look tough, but we can't afford any injuries at Lock. James Ryan to step in as top class cover for our big two.

I've been lucky enough to have business planned in Cardiff, Dublin and London in November (funny that!) and I'm looking forward to seeing some classic All Black running rugby as we prepare for our showdown with France in the 2007 World Cup. By then we should have the Tri-Nations, the Bledisloe and a Grand Slam under our belt.

The rugby though is being overshadowed in the tabloids by new Rugby books. November sees the expiry of the Lions 'gagging order' … expect Tom, Dick and Harry to come out of the woodwork and have a go at Sir Clive Woe-ward. Without putting their Tour bonus at risk. Gavin Henson couldn't wait. Notorious for his relationship with hard-drinking, fast-living, party-loving pop diva Charlotte Church, he's just published "My Grand Slam Year" - and climbed all over the erstwhile coaching Guru.

He has a go at Sir Clive, Alastair Campbell, Sir Clive, Brian O'Driscoll for eye-gouging him in a test match, Sir Clive, team-mate Martyn Williams, Sir Clive, Welsh "imports" and team-mates Sonny Parker and Brett Cockbain, oh and did I mention Sir Clive cops a fair bit too. Moffo hauled him into the Millennium Stadium for some mentoring and uncle-like counsel. Jonathan Davies advised him to apologise over lunch. Coach Mike Ruddock has told him to concentrate on playing and start impressing - not depressing - the coaches. And God knows what the angry O'Driscoll is planning for him in Dublin. (Although he may have to climb over Messrs Williams, Parker and Cockbain to get his size 13's onto The Pretty One!) Mr Henson's response? "Eat humble pie? No. I have no regrets. I'll carry on dishing the dirt. I'm just an honest person, maybe a little bit feisty, but I say what's on my mind."

And good on him. I loved the book. Loved the stir. Loved the controversy. Loved the honesty. I'm tired of the bland, mishy mash reports, politically correct tomes foisted on us sports lovers by the typical athlete. Give me the full-blooded Justin Marshall / Anton Oliver exposés every time. You don't have to agree with them but they make brilliant reads!! I flatted with Campo in Sydney for two years in the earlier 90's and he was at the leading edge of the 'athlete with a point of view' movement. Even if sometimes he did move mouth without first engaging brain, he made the world of rugby a much more fun place for us fans and tragics.

The other book causing a stir is O'Driscoll's "A year in the Centre" … and doesn't he go on and on about that tackle! "Done in cold blood on my biggest day." Pages and pages about never having been upended like that before in a rugby match (obviously never played School 1st XV in New Zealand), was I speared, I think so, I felt like a drowning man, and then even more about Tana not calling him, Graham Henry lying, Kiwis playing mind games and Kevin Mealamu laughing and grinning throughout. And a paragraph on that insensitive Kiwi specimen; the emergency room nurse who allegedly asked the Great Man for his shirt for her kids or as he puts it "Picking over the bones of the Lions corpse". He then muses about New Zealand in general … "What is wrong with this bloody country? Just start treating me like a human being will you?".

He then suggests we do away with the Haka as "The truth is that we understood and respected the haka a bit better than some of the All Blacks".

I held O'Driscoll in the highest regard until the tour and the publication of his book. He has gone on too long, too loudly and too often. Time to move on. Recover. Stop talking. Start playing.

  
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