Posts by Rob Hosking
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I could have added that they prevented us from picking our Maori players to tour until the 1960s and that's why they kept winning. (and that the NZRU acceded to their demands)
Not to mention - cough - the reffing.
First tour I ever really followed was the '76 one to SA and there were three or four crucial decisons which were blatantly biased. T
The series should have been drawn, at least....
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Coupla points:
Not really equipped to talk about illegal drugs, but on the legal drugs front, a hell of a lot of them have warnings about driving a vehilce, etc. Asked my GP about this recently about something I was on after a health hiccup earlier this year and he (and he's pretty conservative) said it would impair very few people and if I'd had no problems I shouldn't worry about it.
Can't imagine ever using cocaine myself but I do know coca leaves are used to enhance alertness in South America, especially at altitude in places like Peru and Bolivia.
Re: the EFB - agree completely with the points about the asymetrical nature of it. I'd be quite happy with it if the govt would swear off any ad campaigns itself for working for families, Kiwisaver, business tax cuts, how well ACC is doing (yep, there's another one of those campaigns planned as well) from Jan 1.
But when that happens, Satan will be iceskating to work.
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Love the idea.
One of the things we've been robbed of over recent years is the huge sense of occasion big games used to have.
This idea would restore some of that.
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(FYI: They have been funding infrastructure out of cash. It is unusual, but whether it's dodgy is a question of public accounting.)
Not just a matter of accounting.
There is also the issue of inter-generational equity. The main reason for funding such projects at least partly out of borrowing is not just a cashflow issue but rather that if future generations are going to get a benefit out of, say a hospital or a school, they should contribute something to it.
Borrowing becomes an issue if it is being used to fund operating spending, a la Rowling and Muldoon.
The other big issue is around inflation. This is something neither party deal with honestly, for their own reasons. Tax cuts are not as inflationary as increased govt spending, which is something Labour ignores. But the reason they ignore it is soemthing National can't point out: they are not as inflationary because they go disproportionatley to the more well off, who will save at least some of it, simply because they can.
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But maybe it's because NZ rugby is not strong enough. Afterall Fiji stayed in the comp longer than we did :)
And personally I am happy for Fiji. I really really am.
But.
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Namibia sort of counts because the Germans ran it before the Brits kicked them out in WWI.
I went to the gym afterwards.
The Freyberg was unusually busy for that time on a Sunday afternoon. Possibly a lot of guys thinking "after that, this might be my big chance" but I really don't think so. (and certainly not in my case: I would struggle to be picked for the Hataitai Over 40s C Team.) There was a weird vibe though.
There's a load of nonsense talked about rugby and election results: it was a trope first mischeivously started by Michael Laws and those without a sense of humour or the ability to distinguish between correlation and causation still trot it out.
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Danyl wrote:
tI think I can see where Craig is coming from (for once) - for those of us not interested in the game the world cup was mostly just an irritating, alienating experience: the saturation level marketing dressed up as nationalism, the irritating conversations with random [snip]
so there's always going to be a certain level of glee from us when the whole thing collapses so spectacularly.Yes, but don't forget there's a lot of us - more than you might think, and quite a lot posting here - who still love the game while having grave reservations (to put it mildly) about the elements you list.
At the same time, though, "glee" at other people's disappointment is not an admirable thing.
One of the things I've admired about the ABs over the past few hours is how they haven't complained about the ref. Richie McCaw looked emotionally and physically exhausted at the press conference. But they've taken the loss maturely. Perhaps its a good example to the rest of the country.
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There's a bit more of a detached summary here:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/10/06/unbreakable_french_recall_shad.htmlI like his conclusion, although at the moment' I'd quibble about the word 'glorious':
This was not the kind of result that bears rational explanation, at least not at this moment in time. New Zealand made 36 tackles out of 47; France made 178 out of 197; New Zealand had 72 per cent of possession.
In short it was a glorious nonsense of a result. It confounded everybody's expectations, as well as the bookies' odds, and it has left me absolutely flabbergasted.
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Jeremy wrote:
Still looking for ad copy?
At least the whisky has a smooth finish, and mellow aftertaste...You're still on form, then.
Few other random thoughts:
Yeah, the war metaphors really got my back up. It's also there in the sub-Churchillian Rod & Gunn sponsor copy too "let us go forward to the fray" or something similar. There's a big poster down en route to Wn airport...to make matters worse it went up just after Battle of Britain Day.
Oh, and I thought the French played well. Setting the
A lot of the commetn on some other threads - the Herald in particular - was about how the NZers were too arrogant - possibly true, but I don't think that's the reason the ABs lost.
I'd put it down to an inexperienced ref making two bad calls (if he'd only made one of them, we'd have won) and - perhaps - injuries to a couple of key players - Carter and Collins in particular - at the crucial time.
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This is totally beside the point (really, who cares), but the accountants at TV3 must be huddled in a corner sobbing just about now - I mean even more than the nation at large. Did anybody notice that after that ridicolous scam of theirs about the fact that really they were broadcasting the game mostly for the sake of PNG and the Pacific rather than NZ, McKay proceeded to welcome the viewers from the Pacific well into the second half?
Yeah.
It was about the only time I laughed in the second half. It was so bloody transparent: someone had shoved a bit of paper under his nose.
Saw the last bit of the Aussie-English game although I hadn't planned to: got woken by the toddler in the middle of a dream that England was winning - once I'd got her settled of course I HAD to watch it.
Not as good a game, but they had a better ref.
And Felix: YOU'RE A DEAD MAN....