Sports After Dark

The rugby world’s attention has already been on France for the past few weeks as the teams have all arrived and been training in local conditions. There have been meetings, press events and sponsor’s functions for players and coaches to attend but now that is almost over - and the time for rugby has come.

Perhaps it is the cynic in me, but I find the final stage of the build up to these tournaments to be quite tedious and a little self serving. The New Zealand media contingent left for France at the same time as the All Blacks and has been providing the public back home with such blockbusting stories as, “Players relaxing in Corsica” and “All Blacks hold first training session”.

The blame does not lie entirely with the reporters though, there has been very little real news to report on until recently. The obvious real stories would be the injuries to All Blacks lock Keith Robinson and English fly half Johnny Wilkinson, but now that coaches have named their teams for the opening round of games, the media finally have something to sink their teeth into.

Adding to the build up tedium are the sponsor’s events, where players go to perform and smile while their corporate pay masters attempt to bathe in some of the reflected glory. While I understand that such events are a commercial reality in the professional era and that the All Blacks appeared to genuinely enjoy meeting Zinadine Zidane, something about these staged events leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

But thankfully the boring build up is all but over and soon the focus will switch from which coaches asked what of IRB Referee’s Manager Paddy O’Brien, or the predictions of past greats, to the game on the field. Fans can look forward to an entertaining opening ceremony followed by an event more entertaining game between France and Argentina.

Once the opening game is out of the way, we can also look forward to some real news  coming out of France as reporters are able to do what they do best - news, previews, reviews and analysis, not some vague and woolly filler piece. But most of all, the start of the tournament puts the focus of every fan worldwide exactly where it should be, on the players as we will see who will shine and who will fail, who disappoints and who dares to be great. Time to stop talking and start playing, I for one cannot wait to see it.

Similar Posts:

• Welcome to Sports After Dark
• My All Blacks team to play France
• Sports and booze: One cocktail that doesn’t mix well
• All Blacks ready for revenge against France in Cardiff
• Reflections on my World Cup experience

The The time for talking is over - let’s settle it on the field by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.