Can we begin by noting how extraordinary it is that Samoa, an island of just 200,000 people – with a diaspora of surely not much more – can produce a side good enough to make the Rugby League World Cup Final?
And be a force in rugby union? And provide more than 70 players to the NFL, where they are the “most disproportionately overrepresented ethnic group in the NFL”? Just imagine the Samoans devoted themselves to one kind of football. They would be the powerhouse to beat them all.
Now, of course, one’s instinct is to go for our own Kangaroos as they take on Samoa in their World Cup Final in the early hours of tomorrow morning. But truly? If you are a genuine rugby league supporter, surely your loyalties must be divided. Since its inception, the very concept of a Rugby League World Cup has been little more than a joke – four or so genuine teams, with a bunch of mostly made-up teams making up the numbers.
Oh, settle down. When you have a “World Cup” filled with teams coming from countries where there is no serious rugby league comp being played . . . of course it’s not a world event.
But this tournament has been a little better, with all of Australia, New Zealand and England actually getting some genuine competition from the likes of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. It has meant there has been actual interest in more than just a few matches, as the results have hung in the balance.
But what if tiny Samoa actually beat the Kangaroos tomorrow morning? Of course, it would be a bitter blow for Mal Meninga’s men, but could anyone doubt how good it would be for the whole concept of international rugby league?
Samoa are through to the World Cup final.Credit:Getty
And it would be the ultimate sporting fairytale for a team that lost their first match to England 60-6, to come back to beat the Kangaroos in the final.
Win, lose, or draw Samoa’s very presence in the World Cup Final is great for the game. But a Samoan victory would be the best thing to happen to the international game since forever.
Wallabies aren’t as crook as you may think
Which means of course, I must be thrilled that Italy beat the Wallabies last week for the first time in forty years of trying?
I’m trying. It really is great for international rugby in general, and the Italians in particular. It is not quite the equivalent of Japan beating the Springboks in 2015, but it is up there for extraordinary results. Is it, however, as Stirling Mortlock says, a “train-crash,” for the Wallabies?
No. It was a terrible error of judgement from the coach Dave Rennie to put in something that was close to the B team. The A team of the Wallabies, in recent months has come extremely close to beating both the All Blacks, and France, two of the main contenders for the World Cup.
This weekend, that same A team will play Ireland in Ireland. That will be much more of a test of how we are travelling, than a B team loss to Italy, as gutting as it was.
Can Socceroos end an unwanted streak?
And so to the World Cup in Qatar, which begins on Monday.
This column has been a long-time critic of Qatar being awarded the World Cup in the first place, and those rants have already been vindicated. Listen, when former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter himself – who presided over the absurdity – acknowledges it was a dreadful error, I think you can put it in the bank, yes?
It is a country with an appalling record in human rights; antediluvian views on gays; well removed from where most of the soccer fans who want to go the World Cup actually live, and the only way they have been able to build the infrastructure needed to host the matches themselves has been to treat foreign workers appallingly. The guts of all this has already been expressed by our Socceroos in the video they released before attending, and of that we can be proud.
How will our blokes go in the actual tournament, however?
If past form is a guide, likely not that well. We have won just one of our past nine World Cup matches and – dot three, carry one, subtract nine – none our past six. We are in a pool with France, Denmark and Tunisia. Four years ago, we also started with France and were actually in with a good show, looking good for at least a point, until we conceded a soft goal.
This time, we are playing them at 6am Sydney time, on Wednesday. Given France beat us in the rugby by one lucky point just a fortnight ago, it is surely only fair that we beat them by a goal this time.
Meantime, for your interest – and as if you didn’t know – this is the last time the World Cup will use the eight pools of four format. Next time, in USA, Mexico, and Canada, there will be sixteen groups of three.
King Kenny still has that sparkle
The most beloved figure in sports media in the last few decades?
Kenny Sutcliffe, of Channel Nine fame, would surely have to make the top 10, yes? A sports host who would show up everywhere from the rugby league to the Olympics to Wimbledon, he was one of the most liked figures in the business by both the public and colleagues – only to retire six years ago. Anyhoo, you know that thing where you don’t see someone for a good chunk of time and you are sometimes shocked at how much they’ve aged?
I ran into Kenny and his fine wife on Thursday morning. And he wasn’t like that at all! Happy as a trout, and bouncing around between his home in the country and bolthole in the city, he was in fine fettle and looked precisely as he always did, with the sparkle, less a little makeup.
What They Said
Stephen Crichton on kicking the field goal that put Samoa in the World Cup final, beating by a point the same England team that had put 60 points on them a month earlier: “I was zero from four, the Penrith boys will never let me do it again, but hopefully the boys are watching and I get my license back.”
Italy coach Kieran Crowley on defeating the Wallabies by a point: “We’re planning to have a party tonight. It was outstanding. We asked them to die for Italy and I think they did today.”
2007 World Cup Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock on the loss to Italy: “There is no way that we are going to win the World Cup next year. We are no chance of doing that. The reality is I don’t see this result against Italy in isolation. It’s not a blip. It was a train wreck.”
Headline on an SMH piece this week, looking at the political ramifications for the previous Federal Liberal government of running in Warringah a candidate whose sole platform was stopping transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport: “The Deves factor was meant to be a campaign masterstroke. It was a disaster.”
Ian Thorpe on the decision by FINA to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s events: “This is a very complicated issue, I can’t deny that, and I am personally opposed to the position FINA has taken on this. I am for fairness in sport, but I’m also for equality in sport. And in this instance, they’ve actually got it wrong.”
Socceroo Garang Kuol, who once trialled for Richmond’s Next Generation academy, could have easily been another member of the growing clan of South Sudanese heritage in the AFL if he didn’t love soccer so much: “I played a bit of [Aussie Rules], I was good at that too. My friends always said to me, ‘I actually, genuinely think you could get drafted.’ I’m just like, ‘I’m not playing footy, bro.’ There’s no Champions League, there’s no FA Cup – like, come on man.”
Rory McIlroy on a possible peace deal between the execrable LIV golf and the PGA, on the need for Greg Norman to stand down: “I think Greg needs to go. I think he just needs to exit stage left . . . No-one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.”
PGA Tour of Australia Gavin Kirkman: “We’ll manage what happens and what gets announced [with LIV], but our focus will stay on our tour, our players and our partners to stay within the global golf ecosystem. We’ve got 220 members and four of the best are playing LIV Golf, but there’s another 216 I’ve got a responsibility to provide playing opportunities and pathways for. LIV is not going to change what we do.”
Pioneer American sportswriter Jane Gross who died last week aged 75, on the upside of having forced her way into the previously exclusively male bastion of the dressing room, back in 1975: “I began to realise what a fellow sportswriter at Newsday had told me, that you really can’t get the flavour of the players without seeing them in the locker room and the camaraderie they share. It’s a beautiful thing, the closeness and lack of inhibition after great physical exertion. Most women rarely experience it.”
Journeyman quarterback Geno Smith, on having the season to end reason with the Seattle Seahawks: “They wrote me off, I ain’t write back though.”
Famed New Zealand rugby coach Wayne Smith on his Kiwi side winning the Rugby Union World Cup: “We just wanted to go out and play and be true to our DNA. I am not going to stay involved but I will be following these women for the rest of their careers.”
England rugby union prop Shaunagh Brown, after losing to the New Zealand women in the Women’s World Cup Final at a sold-out Eden Park: “I am really looking forward to a roast dinner. I haven’t had one in seven weeks so that is going to be my first meal when I get home. My mum will want to cook it but I want to go to the carvery. I just want to pile my plate up with so many things that it all falls off – that will make me so happy.”
Richmond AFLW player Jess Hosking was fined for having the following reminder to herself on display on some of her arm wrappings: “Kill bitches.” Charmed, we’re sure.
Team of the Week
Italy. Recorded their first victory over the Wallabies in a history that goes back to 1983. The one-point victory is the third successive one-point margin for the Wallabies on this tour, and our blokes have lost two of them. We play Ireland tonight.
Ben Stokes. The England batsman extraordinaire just about single-handedly steered England to victory in the T20 World Cup Final.
Socceroos. Begin their World Cup against France early Wednesday morning our time.
Kangaroos. Take on Samoa at Old Trafford in the Rugby League World Cup Final.
New Zealand. Won the Womens Rugby Union World Cup in an incredible final against England.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
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