April 25, 2016
All Blacks on top again
All Blacks on top again
WILLIE JACKSON
The All Blacks took another step in advancing rugby as a global game when they won the best team award at the Laureus awards last week. These awards are the Academy awards of world sport and our team beat some of the greatest sports outfits in the world.
Who would have believed that our All Blacks could beat the best Basketball, Tennis and Soccer sides for the overall top team title? Too many people underrate how major this achievement is, the award is a tribute to one of our greatest All Black sides. Ironically though maybe not our best ever team with the 1924 invincibles, 1967 and 1987 world cup Winners all contenders for that title.
My favourite side though was the 1995, 96 and 97 team they only lost the World Cup final to South Africa after a big bout of food poisoning hit the team a couple of days before the final. When they got out on the field for the big game they just were not the same side who had been so devastating against England in the semis. Still they only lost by a drop goal and in 96 and 97 they hammered the Boks and all other countries, who will ever forget the exploits of the great Jonah Lomu during this era they remain for me anyway the greatest All Black team of all.
Rugby although played by well over 100 nations is only a big sport in about a dozen countries and can be described as huge in New Zealand, South Africa, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and in England where they have the biggest player base. The sport is nowhere near as popular as soccer which is without doubt the world game, so for our team to beat the incredible Barcelona football team who are the premier world club side was a tremendous feat.
Sports enthusiasts all around the world love great teams and they will be fascinated by the story of the All Blacks. There are few teams in the history of sport who can boast about the type of dominance that the Blacks have had over the last century plus. They have near a 90 percent winning record over the last 5 years and so while rugby might not have the mass of support that soccer has, the pure excellence and supremacy of the team is something that would have appealed to the judges.
Also appealing is the humility shown by captain Ritchie McCaw and coach Steve Hansen to watch them accept the award in the company of the likes of Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, football genius Lionel Messi and other world sports greats reminded us what a big deal this really was.
However nothing changed with these two they accepted their award with all the grace and humility that we would expect. They have ensured that the All Black brand will become more famous but perhaps more importantly they have guaranteed that the interest in rugby will increase worldwide which is imperative with the Olympics starting soon and if rugby is going to continue to grow as a global game.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com