lI must admit that though I admire the Haka I can't help thinking that it gives New Zealand a psychological advantage for at least for the first 5 minutes of the game at must be worth at least a early penalty.and should such a advantage be given in a non-friendly game especially in the World Cup? Similarly should the "War Dances" of the South seas Islanders should be allowed?
Wales in 2008 showed how to respond to the Haka in the 2008 match which you can view here (Watch it it's perhaps Ryan Jones' finest moment) where on their Home ground they refused to back down even to the ref and insisted the All Blacks should move first.
The Haka great entertainment but this is serious business and should such an advantage be given to a side ? I don't think so.
Mind you England's decision to wear n all Black aternative strip is a deliberate provocation and prehaps could be seen in the context of Glasgow Rangers playing in green hoops.
I give some credit to the organisers for the timing of the opening ceremony as the 12 hour time difference means that we will have to rise earlier to watch the matches but it the same for New Zealanders and the other southern hemisphere nations when the World cup is in Europe.
And I wonder what the reaction in Wales would be to a 9:30 Pm kick off as fans and players will be asked to do for Wales South Africa match tomorrow?
No praise for ITV's coverage though EyeONWales a blog which is well worth a visit covers most of my critcsism. But here some of my own anyway.
The coverage of the opening ceremony was appalling far to many Add- breaks and studio contributions . My niece switched to S4C and I suspect most Welsh speakers or even those with a smattering will do so when the coverage is available
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Especially after the Match commentaries I've heard so. It comes to something that BBC Wales' coverage of the Leinster-Dragons match last night surpassed that of ITV coverage of the opening New Zealand -Tonga match.and shows the difference betweem the true professional and the merely gifted amateur . Though I'm not sure about the gifted.
It looks like we will have to put up with references to England at every opportunity and although on the BBC Brian Moore has a "slight" bias towards England at least he will criticize them and point out their weaknesss and he is entertaining.
Likewise the ITV pundits are boring and there's nothing like the insight of Gusgott,Woods and our own Jonathan Davies all of whom may have a bias towards their own Nations but it is acceptable because they at least know what they are talking about.
The BBC can be annoying in its refernces to England .Who can forget the reference to the "England -France match some years ago as "The Main event" but ITV as they have been in every World Cup they covered have given the impression that England is the only Home nation in the competition.
The France-Japan game has just finished and after a few minutes "analysis" they have moved on too The England Game. Even if England are knocked out at the qualifying stage (unlikely as it is) we will probably more coverage of what went wrong rather than the success of othe Home sides.
Why have the BBC failed yet again to cover the Rugby World cup and left us with piss- poor amateur coverage from ITV?
5 comments:
Of course we could just come up with our own pre match war dance when playing against New Zealand. After all we've done it before.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Nude-rugby-a-hard-match-in-Dunedin-contains-nudity/tabid/309/articleID/161713/Default.aspx
(contains nudity!)
The All Blacks haka would definitely be a Room 101 pick for me! In the amaateur age when we didn't play so many test matches it had its place but its time is over.
ITV of course has the contract until the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Just be thankful it isnt 2015 and hosted in England, where the anglo nationalism will be even worse.
Or indeed your watching football with constant references to 1966.
It's time is over what rubbish
ITV's coverage of the England v Wales football match was appalling. Very Anglocentric, England Banners, Adverts promoting England, all commentators and pundits bar John Hartson were English, even he was made to talk about England's 'poor performance'. It was like England were playing a bunch of 'Jonny Foreigners' and not a derby between two UK national teams. Its attitudes like this which is why so many Welsh and Scots support anyone against England.
At least in the RWC, ITV Wales provides its own coverage for Welsh games
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