Loving the Cup, but give me a long game
here is nothing in rugby quite so good as a tour. And nothing better than the beginning of a tour when the team arrives full of faces we are going to get to know, resplendent in their blazers, startled by the reception, suddenly realising what it means to be a good rugby player in New Zealand.
A Lion’s tour is all that remains of the grand odysseys of yesteryear. At 10 matches this one barely compares with those of old that went to practically every province and saw winter turn to spring. But it feels like a real tour as the annual June and November jaunts never do. This itinerary will let us see all the tourists. By the time it comes to the first test we will be debating the merits of various players as avidly as our own and comparing armchair selections of both sides.
A tour is so much more interesting than any other contest outside of the Rugby World Cup that you wonder why the professional era cannot accommodate more of them.
The explanation, I suppose, is the same as that for Twenty20 cricket, four- game sets of tennis and, the spectacle of the moment, this crazy America’s Cup. Sport thinks the modern fan has less time and a more limited attention span. I wonder if that’s true.
I’m enjoying the new America’s Cup. It has some of the same tactical elements of the longer format. It is like seeing the previous sailing on fast forward, which we used to see quite a lot. Russell Coutts must have been watching those tracking animations and thinking that is what the punters want.
It is convenient to see a race completed in 20 minutes, and have all the day’s racing done before breakfast. And, as always with the America’s Cup, the sheer skulduggery is part of the appeal. Oracle is going to use its presence in the challengers’ series to try to manipulate the outcome somehow. You just know it.
Sport is a fair contest or it is nothing, but this is business. Coutts is pulling all the strings, making sailing’s most prestigious event a sustainable industry in which New Zealand excels. He and fellow sailors have suckered some of the world’s richest hobbyists to finance a regatta watched by few, if any, countries besides this one.
I love it that Jimmy Spithill wants me to hate him. This is such a deliciously bad business. It breaks all the rules of public relations.
I love it that Peter Burling is complete unfazed by anything that is said or happens. His dry Kiwi response to commentators’ questions must be frustrating for them. “Have you ever been in a race like that?” they asked him right after one of his duels this week. “Oh yeah, all the time,” he said. “That’s what we do.”
I love it all the more because we no longer have public money in it. John Key and Steven Joyce decided Bermuda didn’t hold enough value for New Zealand. Maybe if we win we should leave it there. It’s more convenient for the rest, and a great time zone for television here.
I love it all but I’d love it just as much, I think, if the races lasted as long as they used to. Those slow tactical duels were far more sensitive to winds and sea.
Sport designed for a shorter attention span loses more than one dimension. Cricket in 20 overs is just a batting game. Tennis has been toying with an Australian idea to reduce sets to four games, tie break at 3- 3, games decided by a single point at deuce. No long duals, little chance to fight back after dropping serve.
Fortunately, the grand slams can still produce five- set marathons. The French Open will probably keep me up most of at least one night in the coming week. Sport at its best is a battle of mental and physical endurance where even the best players flag for some periods. Five sets of tennis, like a five- day cricket test, can look like a foregone conclusion for a long period, then turn in a moment.
The fall of a crucial wicket, or a single sizzling passing shot, can give new heart to a struggling team or a trailing player. Fortunes can change several times in the course of long match and you can sense it if you are concentrating, but only if you are concentrating. It makes these endurance contests much more interesting than sprints.
So here’s to the Lions’ tour. Their itinerary is too tough, I doubt even the All Blacks could beat our five Super Rugby sides in as many weeks. But it is a real tour with time for a team to be forged in our hard rugby environment. Savour it.