strong_latte said:
Gunna Matter said:
The Herald tries hard to ignore league but they can't afford to. Poor old Peter Fitzsimmons does his best to push the union barrow with his constant anti league stories. He was at it again with a story in Saturdays NZ Herald knocking the league tri nations.
Yeah? Do you have the link? f**k that bloke is the biggest tool! He needs to shut up, seriously.
Here it is. He really gets going about halfway.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/sp...n=rugbyleague&thesecondsubsection=general
Peter Fitzsimons: League's saviour out surfing Bondi
16.10.2004
COMMENT
In May of 1992, I was on the team bus heading for the third test between the All Blacks and the World XV in the Centenary Series. Named as a reserve for the World side, I remember wanting to quietly concentrate so I could send out secret but very powerful INJURY RAYS to Troy Coker's dodgy ankle, so I could get a game. Next to me, the World XV's lock Gary Whetton was in the mood to chat.
So, he said, "How do you think Manly is going to go in this year's comp?"
You mean, the Manly rugby club in the Sydney comp?
No, he meant the Manly Sea-Eagles, in the Winfield Cup.
That was the first time I had a clue just what level of following league had in New Zealand, strong enough that it stayed with me even through the shock of my injury rays missing Coker's ankle completely, and during the game tragically wiping out Willie Ofahengaue's knee. (Sorry about that, Willie.)
The point was that when a distinguished former All Black captain can give a bugger how an Australian league team was going to fare, then the 13-man game was clearly making a huge amount of headway in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
And, of course, I have noted the same phenomenon since. I remember not long afterwards, when your former Prime Minister David Lange came out in the press saying league was a much better game and much more honest because it was openly professional, when union was only "shamateur". A week later I remember doing a television debate on that subject with Lange on Boots N All - and him wiping the floor with me by the strength of his intellect, rather than the correctness of his case. I recall well when the Warriors made their debut, with the team emerging on the field through a flurry of fireworks and Pacific Islands drumming. I even remember that brief flicker when they weren't merely a hole in Eric Watson's back pocket, but a serious force in the NRL.
And of course, I will remember what happens tonight in the test between Australia and New Zealand for at least two days, maybe even three.
For whatever headway the NRL has made, the reality is that league internationally simply makes no impact, and it is a long time since it ever has done.
Oh sure, I know what you league fans are thinking, that arrogant Aussie blowhard FitzSimons is just saying that because he's a toffee-nosed rah-rah, who wouldn't know the first thing about league. Well you are dead wrong. As a matter of fact I have played two games of league (occasioning two trips to the hospital, but that's another story). And the former coach of the St George Dragons, Roy Masters, even came on a scouting expedition to judge my form when I was playing for Sydney University (although I should note that he left before halftime).
Look, it ain't rugby union hubris to note that international league is never going to be much chop when the game is restricted to being played essentially on the east coast of Australia, the north of England, various spots in New Zealand, scattered parts of New Guinea and France - and one nation is clearly dominant. (Australia, seeing as you ask.)
Sadly the only way out of this is for New Zealand and Great Britain, as well as other countries, to lift their standards to make such tests a genuine contest, and that is precisely what Australian coach Wayne Bennett was referring to, when he said this week: "To make the [test against New Zealand] a raging success I suppose everyone would like to see us get beaten because that's obviously the common cry you get." The problem is that we continually win.
The way around that problem?
One way would be for league to acknowledge the bleeding obvious and ensure that when players such as Tonie Carroll and Richard Villasanti come along, blokes who could play for either New Zealand or Australia, they should turn out for the country that needs them most, which is New Zealand. Of course the desires of the players have to be taken into account, but when Carroll has already played for New Zealand, it is amazing that the authorities from both countries wouldn't be on bended knee begging him to stay with you. He should be with you, and if that still doesn't make it an even contest, next time we'll get all our blokes to wear an eye-patch on at least one eye, and even say that if you live anywhere near Bondi, you're considered an honorary New Zealander.
* Rugby writer Peter FitzSimons is a former Wallaby
*
Brilliant tough guy response 
