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'Not fit for purpose': NZ Rugby blasted for schedule clash

Sam Whitelock. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

This weekend, the All Blacks will get their season back underway with a match against Japan in Tokyo.

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It’s been somewhat of a lengthy wait for the team’s fans, with the NZ national side last taking the field more than a month ago. Thankfully, however, there’s been plenty of rugby on the agenda in the meantime, with the women’s Rugby World Cup in full swing in Aotearoa and now entering the knockout stages of the competition.

So while the All Blacks are back on the menu this weekend, the Black Ferns will also be tackling Wales in their World Cup quarter-final and unfortunately for supporters of both the men’s and women’s games, the powers that be have seen fit to schedule the two matches to take place at roughly the same time.

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Saturday’s match-up between the All Blacks and the Brave Blossoms will kick off at 6:50pm NZT. The Black Ferns’ quarter-final in Whangarei, meanwhile, will get started 40 minutes later.

For the entirety of the second half of NZ’s clash with Japan, the vast majority of fans will have to choose between watching the men or the women.

This has unsurprisingly caused much consternation from the public with Spark Sport commentator Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson ripping into New Zealand Rugby on social media.

“On August 12 this year, this schedule was released by NZR,” Stevenson said on Instagram, referring to the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour.

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“Between then and now, NZR has decided that they are happy that the kick off between the All Blacks and Japan directly clashes with the Black Ferns RWC Quarterfinal. That organisation has known for more than a year that this was the quarterfinal slot for its team.

“How an organisation can do this intentionally, when it undermines its own team, when it disadvantages its own fans, and when it only serves to illustrate its own hollow rhetoric when it comes to its support of the women in the game no longer surprises. It only serves to reinforce the belief that those in decision making roles are just not fit for purpose.”

While scheduling is not entirely up to NZR, many have taken to social media to criticise the organisation – or whoever has made the call to run both games concurrently – and lament the fact that the burgeoning women’s game could potentially be overshadowed at a crucial stage in the World Cup.

This weekend won’t mark the only schedule clash between two high-profile New Zealand teams this year, with the All Blacks due to play Scotland on November 13 at 4pm BST – the same time that the new All Blacks XV are set to take on the Barbarians.

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1 Comment
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Charlie 874 days ago

It is obvious the Women's Rugby is equivalent to Men's 4th Grade standard so of course the Men's All Blacks take priority..

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MS 1 hour ago
Why Blair Kinghorn should be nailed on as the Lions starting 15

I can see arguments for both Kinghorn, and Keenan starting for the Lions. But I’m less convinced by some of the claims (clearly partisan) supporters are using to argue the merits of one over the other.


For example, a number of Ireland supporters have suggested Kinghorn is ‘defensively weak’. That’s patently false - or at least on the evidence of this 6N, he’s certainly no weaker there than Keenan is, who is presumably the comparative standard they’re using. Keenan was both shrugged off in contact, and beaten on the edge for pace, a number of times during this competition.


Equally, Scotland supporters arguing Kinghorn is the more capable ‘rugby player’ seem to have overlooked the (frankly sizeable) body of evidence demonstrating that Keenan is an excellent ball in hand distributor and decision maker. So that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny either.


I don’t think there’s all that much to choose between them, and either would be a strong choice. I think it would be really interesting from a pure rugby perspective to see Keenan playing a ‘Scotland-esque’ style of high tempo attacking rugby. Either coming into the line more routinely as first receiver, or being swung as a pendulum and getting the ball on the edge against a stretched defence.


That’s assuming Andy Farrell goes that route, of course. He may well just opt for his Ireland system instead, and populate it with the likes of Henshaw, Ringrose, Lowe and Keenan. I’m sure that would win the series. Quite what effect it might have on a Lions audience who were expecting something other than ‘Ireland on tour, but wearing red’ would remain to be seen.


As for the debate at FB, the only ‘eye test’ difference I feel exists is in the pace of rugby Kinghorn (Toulouse? Scotland?) tends to play. His passing/offload game feels crisper and higher tempo than Keenan’s - and as we saw in Paris, his pace and eye for a gap from deep are superior.


But again, that will only prove a decisive factor if Andy Farrell wants to play that way. If all he wants from his FB is to sit deep, field high balls, and mop up then there’s little between these two equally excellent players.

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