New Zealand rugby writers are ramping up the distortions and outright lies (Oct. 13, 2015)

13 October 2015 at 7:22 am

New Zealand rugby writers are ramping up the distortions and outright lies;
Don’t believe a word by the likes of Liam Napier, Andrew Saville or Phil Gifford.

According to this absurd and insulting piece by one Liam Napier, the All Blacks are seeking “closure” and to “exterminate the ghosts of 2007”. To give him his due, Napier does acknowledge something that is strenuously avoided by most of his colleagues, i.e., that the superior Tricolors were beaten in the farcical 2011 final not by the All Blacks, but by the fact there was a non-referee in “charge”….

Lessons of 1999, 2007 and the 2011 World Cup final at Eden Park, where the French still claim they were duded by referee Craig Joubert in the tense closing stages, will ensure the All Blacks don’t take them lightly.”

Otherwise, it’s the same old same old from Napier, as it is from all the rest of his grim, marginally literate and joyless brotherhood. You can expect far more of this dismal, dishonest crap over the next week….

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/72910063/all-blacks-vs-france-rugby-world-cup-quarterfinal-at-cardiff-chance-for-closure

Liam Napier is either too lazy or too dishonest to acknowledge it by anything other than his dismissive sneer in the piece I quoted, but some commentators were prepared to tell the unpalatable truth…..

ropata2.1

13 October 2015 at 7:58 pm

nitpicky. not huge infringements, the ref will always miss a few things.

remember Wayne Barnes’ performance in 2007?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10469541

• Morrissey2.1.1

  14 October 2015 at 8:06 pm

  nitpicky. not huge infringements, the ref will always miss a few things.

  The comments by Matt Williams and Neil Francis are thoughtful and fair; they are not “nitpicky”. They are only talking about the most flagrant violations, all of which were committed right in front of Craig Joubert, who was supposed to be the referee.

  remember Wayne Barnes’ performance in 2007?

  The link you provided is a lot more balanced and fair than almost anything else that appeared in the Herald about that match. However, it neglects to mention something vital: In all of the sound and fury following that match—nearly all of it coming from the rabid sports media, not from fans—the forward pass by Michalak leading to the Jauzion try was hammered ad nauseam, but the All Blacks’ forward pass that led to McAlister’s try was resolutely ignored.

  Barnes made two mistakes, which balanced out. Joubert, on the other hand, failed or refused to do his job. There is no credible comparison to be made between the two.
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