MEMO Jerome Kaino: It’s the referee that was unpredictable in that RWC final (Jul. 16, 2015)

16 July 2015 at 8:22 pm

MEMO Jerome Kaino:
It’s the referee that was unpredictable in the RWC final
Seven Sharp, Television One, Thursday 16 July 2015

Tonight’s programme started with a special media conference: three All Blacks (Dan Carter, Jerome Kaino and Nepo Laulala) being asked questions not by hard-bitten rugby reporters but by a bunch of kids.

Now that sounds like a good idea, and for most of the session the interaction between the players and the kids was indeed lighthearted and positive. The kids asked questions like “Is it true that all the best All Blacks come from Canterbury?” and the players answered humorously and adeptly.

However, there was one troubling moment: Jerome Kaino’s cliché-larded and misleading answer to one question…..

YOUNG FAN: What has been your toughest game and why?
JEROME KAINO: [suddenly grim] Ah, I’d have to say the 2011 Rugby World Cup final. The French were quite unpredictable.

Of course, in that match the Tricolors were not able to be “unpredictable” because the home side (New Zealand) cynically destroyed any chance that France might have had to play football by systematic, flagrant offside play, continually killing the ball and playing the ball illegally on the ground. Jerome Kaino was one of the worst offenders.

The unpredictability in that game was that of the so-called “referee”, Craig Joubert, who throughout the game refused to penalize the home side. When it became clear that Joubert would not do anything to stop them, the All Blacks naturally took advantage of the situation, and fouled throughout the game.

The cuteness of the young interviewers doesn’t seem to have had any impact on the All Blacks’ established practice of casually mouthing obfuscatory bullshit. No matter what the audience, even when talking to kids, the players, just like “Sir” Graham Henry and the management team, are still resolutely on message.

• Reddelusion30.1

  16 July 2015 at 9:50 pm

  Your one sad miserable puppy Morrissey if that clip got you going, man how pathetic, let it go it was 4 years ago, the show was about the kids not the abs you ding bat
  • Morrissey30.1.1

    17 July 2015 at 9:40 am

    Your [sic] one sad miserable puppy Morrissey if that clip got you going,

    No, what got me, and many others—especially in France—“going” was not that clip, but the sight of the travesty unfolding, live. Something tells me that YOU do not understand French, but people interested in fair play should watch the following analysis of that farcical night in October 2011….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p1YkXbWZg0

    man how pathetic, let it go it was 4 years ago,

    That game was a disgrace as it happened, and it doesn’t get any better with the passage of time.

    the show was about the kids not the abs you ding bat

    The show was a highly organized PR exercise, given massive free publicity by Television One and other media.
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