Aisle be Back: The Super Rugby Final and the NZ U20s

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• By Kevin McCarthy

A message of consolation to the Chiefs – you need to lose one to win one.

The Hurricanes of course have been there in 2015 which may be before some of you were born. When the visiting Highlanders scored a controversial victory against the Canes in Wellington.

Of course, Hurricanes fans took it on the chin and praised the plucky Otago visitors over the result.

No no no no no that’s not what happened.

Instead as a birthright for Hurricanes fans we’ve carried the grievance ever since or at least until  2016 came along and wiped all the pain away.

So, for the Chiefs and the fans hopefully the pain is easing a bit already.

There’s every indication this is a very, very good side that will once again be challenging for the title in the final game of the 2024 season. Probably against the Crusaders

You see, this is what happens in rugby matches. Everything doesn’t always go your way – decisions may appear cruel at  the time and they may in fact be wrong. It’s OK to vent a bit – get it off your chest complain about the cheating opposition. Such trash talk is what it is – trash talk and probably best left for taunting mates.

What becomes unacceptable of course is when personal threats start getting made against referees who some people would wish were dead.  There’s nothing like anonymity or near anonymity to inspire some of the more intelligent members of the community to fire up their keyboards.

It’s kind of tragic for them even as you see the damage they can do because when it comes down to it, I’m going to use the dreaded words, it’s only a game. Only a game

Honestly, if you had your average day filmed, then reduced into a three minute highlights package,  which EVERYONE could comment on, how long would you keep the comments section open? About a nanosecond

Some of the fans will know what they’re talking about in comments – others won’t have a clue. Humility might be a great attribute to assist you before you start making comments on social media.

I don’t for one moment think that there are a huge majority of fans of the ilk of the Muppets making near-death threats. Unfortunately, we all get tarred with that brush. It’s the sort of nasty nasty end of the spectrum that begins with booing the opposition and particularly booing the opposition kickers.

That’s been a particular curse of New Zealand grounds football for decades now, but it didn’t used to be that way. I’d love to see – or maybe I wouldn’t –  a decent psychological profile of what drives people to get really nasty and vitriolic in the commentary.

So, talking about the game, which is in fact what we should be doing it really was a great contest. Tons of skill and some real standard-out performances. And of course, plenty of controversy. It’s not that we want the controversy to go away it’s just that we should be able to enjoy it – and then, in the immortal, abbreviation – STFU

+++++

Well, there’s always somebody something else coming along to talk about

What about those under 20s? Not too reassuring that they’re getting thumped by France and struggling to beat Wales.

Since some great All Black sides have been built around under-20s success, it’s a worry to see.

Just to add some perspective though, about a year ago the Black Ferns women side were going into a World Cup at home with realists accepting that we were going to end up third. We know how that ended don’t we?

Fast forward a year – and we saw them dismantle the Wallaroos by 50 to nil on Thursday night As new coach Allan Bunting said earlier in the week attack is in the sides DNA. ‘

As a mission statement you don’t get much simpler than that and it would be nice to hear something equally pithy from Foster and co heading to France.

U20s Championship Results ⬇️

☘️ Ireland 30 – 10 Australia 🇦🇺
🇫🇷 France 35 – 14 New Zealand 🇳🇿
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales 41 – 19 Japan 🇯🇵
🇿🇦 South Africa 26 – 34 Italy 🇮🇹
🇦🇷 Argentina 0 – 20 Georgia 🇬🇪
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 53 – 7 Fiji 🇫🇯

Italy & Georgia the stories of the day! #WorldRugbyU20s

— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) June 29, 2023