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The 2003 Rugby World Cup?

The Aussie View:

All this bleating by the Kiwis about potentially losing the Rugby World Cup again typifies the simplicity of this archaic nation. To co-host the World Cup with Australia (God know why we initially agreed to that), all that was required of New Zealand was to ensure that their local-primal-who really cares-competition did not clash with the World Cup semi-final dates and that the stadiums (very loosely labelled cow paddocks) were free of corporate signage and sponsorship.

Somehow, New Zealand, being the corporate powerhouse it, couldn’t and wouldn’t conform, yet Australia with a GDP of approximately 20 times that of New Zealand had no problems ensuring its stadiums would be clean of sponsorship and signage. Fittingly, NZ will now probably not co-host the only thing that their simian-like citizens care about and instead will watch drooling as Australia again proves it’s ability to host world class sporting events and rakes in the millions of dollars through tourism and ticket sales.

On the flip side NZ will again be viewed as that quaint island place that without any sets could easily host the filming of The Land that Time Forgot.

This nonsense by the Kiwis is all too familiar. Whenever I have the dubious fortune of meeting a real life Kiwi (used to be around Bondi but now nearer to Mt Druitt), they still want to carry on about the ‘underarm’ incident. Rather than apologise or make awkward sounds as the Kiwi anticipates, I simply ask them if it was within the rules (which it was) and who won the match (which we did).

The antipodean neighbour will then predictably whine that it wasn’t within the spirit of the game etc, to which I simply reply “Hadlee’s a wanker” and begin clapping my hands.

The KIWI view:

Don’t the Aussies just love their sporting and cultural heroes like Phar Lap, Russel Crowe and Crowded House. “Makes our county proud”, I remember my Australian friend saying when Russ won his Oscar. “One problem mate” I retorted, “he’s a bloody NEW ZEALANDER”!

As much as this pains me, I’ll admit Australia and it’s people have been pretty successful over the past 20 odd years. Not just in sport, where they’ve had an incredible run, but also in cinema and other areas of the arts. What really irks us Kiwis, isn’t the success but the blind arrogance that accompanies it. We sit back home and watch seemingly Kiwi after Kiwi head across the Tasman and before we know it the Aussies have claimed them as their own.

Unfortunately, due to the diminutive size of the NZ population many of our talented people need to head off-shore to be noticed and as Australia is the closest port of call, that is where many of them end up. Once that happens it takes only about 2 weeks for Australia to stamp their passports ‘Aussie”, unless of course they are on the dole when in which case they are still referred to as Kiwis.

Not only has Australia been stealing our talented people, they are now trying to steal our right to host the Rugby World Cup. Sure, we were dumb when we said we couldn’t conform to the ‘clean’ grounds requirement, but now that we have why haven’t Australia agreed to the original combined hosts arrangement? Quite simply, Australia will make more money if they host the tournament solo, that’s the long and short of it.

As per most things in Australia these days, money’s the ultimate driver and if that means shafting the New Zealanders, Kiwis, Sheep Shaggers or whatever else they call us, then that’s exactly what they’ll do. What the Aussies quickly forget is the fact that when Australian Rugby was struggling financially, which was about always except for the last 10 years, it was the NZ Rugby who agreed to help them out by staging regular matches in Australia to help increase revenue.

It was also NZ who sent their coaches over to Australia to help lift the skill and awareness level and through this assistance Australian rugby has prospered. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

C’mon Aussie C’mon, give us back the cup, you will still be hosting the premier matches in any case and will still realize a massive profit and maybe even ‘help’ someone but yourself.

Ignore this concerted plea and the increasing antipathy towards your country will continue.

Us Kiwis want to like you Aussies, but gees you make it hard.

What's your view?
Tue 07/05/2002 Dean Budha woodbury 60 views

3 Comments about this article

  • Great article Dean. I think Australia should go it alone - it's not often that you get to host the World Cup, NZ should've thought about it before they stuffed around with the advertising problem.

    Posted by Helen Roberts Wed Apr 24, 2002 10:32am AEST
  • Australia all the way as far as I'm concerned.

    Posted by Andy Swain Mon Sep 09, 2002 11:58pm AEST
  • You sum up the issue quite well. However, it seems to me, the problem illustrates the biggest overall problem with Union play. Noone wants to share resources to make this a truly global game. A few powerhouse teams control most everything, and refuse t

    Posted by Wed Oct 22, 2003 02:00pm AEST

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