Field Theory: Hospital Pass
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BenWilson, in reply to
For some reason I always pay attention to the Japan RWC matches
For me it's just the awesomeness that our favourite game penetrated somewhere so culturally different to NZ. That the Commonwealth play rugby is pretty much a given, but when you see Japs loving it, it blows more meaning into the concept of sport crossing cultural boundaries.
And there is no reason for them not to love it. Rugby is an expression of a heritage as a warrior culture, and the All Blacks hook into that with a war dance at the start of every game. It's still a game as much about mettle as skill, and Japanese culture still values both. It's also one of the few sports that doesn't have quite such a narrow and specific body type amongst the elite players, so the physical differences of the Japanese just mean they excel in other dimensions of the game.
Perhaps the scrum suggests Sumo wrestling to them? Finally a foreign sport in which massive strong fat guys can show their worth?
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Look I'm a South Islander but it's a simple logistical exercise. Not enough accomodation in Dunedin or anywhere else + NZRU/government have a chance to make less of a loss with increased ticket sales.
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And that is possibly true. Possibly. But both of them?
Huh? If that is true (and it seems entirely plausible to me) then it equally holds for both games rather than just one.Are we really so parochial that which Island a game is held in matters? I presume you accept that the only other alternative is Dunedin and their stadium has about 20% less capacity and I doubt the accomodation and other infrastructure to host 40,000 people. If Wellington seemingly doesn't have the capacity then neither does Dunedin.
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Geoff Willmott, in reply to
Ben: Y. Yoshida for the World XV at Athletic Park 1992
@Jean Hughes - your 'last moments of a game' scenario is probably just as likely (more?) to happen in any given match in Wellington in October.
I have been wondering whether the local committee and the IRB agreed to move the Chch games. A reasonably likely scenario is that NZ thought it could be done, but the IRB vetoed it on the basis of their (as we know, stringent) standards for match venues.
I don't buy the argument that we should be moving matches because some English fans are put out - in fact if these games had been able to ahead, the experience for those present would have been something special.
I do buy the argument that time and money are better spent on e.g. sewers in the first instance. -
I reckon the current Japanese team vs. the 1995 All Blacks. I loved watching the cricket the other day, because of the good nature of the game and it showed that while we may not like Shane Warne you have to respect his sportsmanship and his ability to work a crowd.
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Vbase could not guarantee that the stadium could be repaired in time... any fast-tracked repair plan would have involved changes in consent processes which could place insurance at risk. Also the uninsured pitch is damaged (but the govt is paying 4.1mill to fix that) and there may be as yet unidentified damage to the drainage system under the pitch, which would delay the repair programme beyond the scheduled match dates.
It's the best thing IMHO - there is no way the city would cope with the influx of visitors given the state of our infrastructure. Personally I'm disappointed that we've lost the games but really, that happened on Feb 22 not yesterday. Moving the games was the only decision that could be made given the state of repairs needed at the stadium and the wider city environs.
Don't really care where the games are played now as nothing will replace the lost opportunity of watching all the Chch RWC games from the stands where I was to be working. :(
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Ummm, some of you seem unaware that Dunedin IS ALREADY hosting three games in this tournament. They will be soldout, their WILL BE 30,000 people at the games.
If you think they can't cope you should quickly write a letter to the WC organisers to let them know so they can move the games out of Dunedin before they get a nasty surprise. ;)
People will travel into towns and cities for games and when they are over they will move out again.
I don't get all the weird, they can't do it, it's impossible stuff, especially when they have hosted 25,000 dozens of times before for tests and will be doing it this time around and will continue to do it again in the future.
Dunedin matches:
Scotland v Georgia
England v Romania
Ireland v Italy -
Richard Wain, in reply to
Um, Scotland v Georgia? England v Romania? etc... not exactly quarter-final material... 30,000 should be plenty for those games...
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May I add, as someone who has never gone to a public game of any kind, that there are younger generations being TOTALLY turned off the whole idea of public games in the South?
As in, they say, ?Cares?-
This was possibly the last chance to get them interested.
Until the Hunger Games get going- -
Scott A, in reply to
The stadium capacity argument is kind of weak eh?
Refund those fans who are among the 5000 or so overbooked(on a 1st come/1st served basis) and offer those who take up the Dunedin venue travel/stay vouchers (similar to the DN Passport.)Ok, so you're from Europe and you've spent a truck load of money to tickets to a RWC quarter final. Or you're an English travel bureau who has already sold your allocated packet of tours. Or you're in Wellington, and you're one of the very lucky few to win a ticket in the ballot. Of course you're going to give up your ticket for the benefit of the South Island, right?
No, of course not; that's why the quarter-finals had to go to Auckland.
Anything else would have to involve taking tickets off people who have already paid for them. And regardless of any "card is subject to change / act of god" provisos, that would end up embroiling the RWC Limited in expensive legal action, not to mention costly PR issues. Because while the earthquake was an act of god, it was a human and organisational choice to take tickets off people who had legitimately purchased them when a viable alternative (Eden Park) was available.
It's not an great outcome, but there really seemed to be no other alternative for those quarter final matches.
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Islander, in reply to
Yup- but also, see above-
I am quite astounded by the response from young southern people in my family-
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Yamis, in reply to
Um, Scotland v Georgia? England v Romania? etc... not exactly quarter-final material... 30,000 should be plenty for those games...
I don't get your point and you seem to have missed mine as well. There are people saying that Dunedin couldn't cope with all the people coming in to watch a game down there which doesn't make any sense since they are already scheduled to do just that.
It doesn't matter if they host a pool game, quarter, semi, final, or intergalactic supersonic supreme finale, they still only have a capacity of 30,000 so that's all that they would need to host.
The argument that they couldn't host 40,000, 50,000 or whatever for a quarter final is redundant. They wouldn't need to as only 30,000 tickets would be sold.
The argument that Auckland is a better alternative for the quarters because they can fit more in which will generate 10 million more dollars (4.1 million going to repairing the uninsured turf at AMI) is a good one.
But saying that Dunedin can't cope with 30,000 when they are already penned in to do that isn't.
If the line of thought is that they need to make sure that all existing ticket holders can go see the moved matches then it falls over when you look at the fact that various other smaller venues are being lined up to take the pool games between Argentina v England, England v Georgia, Argentina v Scotland and Australia v Italy. Grounds mentioned so far are Nelson, Invercargill, Napier and North Harbour (amongst others I'm sure). And they are all much smaller than AMI Stadium.
Just quietly, I think they've made the right call moving to Auckland for the quarters.
Just a bit sucky for those down south that's all. :)
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Yamis, in reply to
Anything else would have to involve taking tickets off people who have already paid for them. And regardless of any "card is subject to change / act of god" provisos, that would end up embroiling the RWC Limited in expensive legal action, not to mention costly PR issues. Because while the earthquake was an act of god, it was a human and organisational choice to take tickets off people who had legitimately purchased them when a viable alternative (Eden Park) was available.
I'm sure the fine print on the back of the tickets say they can do about whatever the hell they like including full body cavity searches at the entrance to the ground. When a concert gets cancelled because the bassist had a sore toe there's no legal concerns that force the musicians into returning and honouring those tickets that were sold. They just have to refund them.
On the point of taking tickets off people who already bought them, they will be doing that for the 4 pool games that get moved to smaller grounds than AMI and Eden Park anyway. The capacity for AMI is about 40,000 while most of the grounds being proposed for the moved pool games are 10-20,000 less.
I heard on the TV news last night that people in the UK were already cancelling their trip out here for it.
I love a good argument on a Thursday night.
Right, off to watch My Skyed Time Team. Enjoy your evenings....
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Sacha, in reply to
4.1 million going to repairing the uninsured turf at AMI
Is that money coming from the RWC company, not general taxpayer funds?
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Sacha, in reply to
But saying that Dunedin can't cope with 30,000 when they are already penned in to do that isn't.
Do we know that capacity crowds are planned for all the pool games? I assume they are, just haven't been interested enough to delve and confirm. Wonder what the accommodation plans are, if so.
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Kris V, in reply to
the 4.1mill for the AMI turf is coming from the government (well, taxpayers...)
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And dont be surprised, re-iterating what I wrote earlier, if an entire younger generation thinks you oldies are shit and goes off and does something else. Forever after.
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I still consider one of the best individual tries I ever saw to have been scored by a Japanese player (can’t remember his name it was so long ago) playing as a Barbarian. A massive bomb sent up, he dashed nearly half the length of the field, leapt and caught it mid-air, and skidded between the posts, about 6 metres ahead of the closest All Black. I had my fist in the air until I realized “hey, that’s the other team”.
That was the All Black centennary matches in 1992. One of the few series of games that weren't between two national teams recognised as test matches for statistic purposes.
Lynagh put the ball up (closer to the 22 I think), and the Japanese left winger dived right under the posts and caught it and scored untouched. Can't find his name anywhere on the web, there don't seem to be any good stats or team lists for the World XV.
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http://stats.allblacks.com/asp/headtohead.asp?team1=NZ&_oppot2=18
the World XV in the second test was Yoshida, don't know anything else about him. Interesting squad for the World team.
All three tests played in a week, I didn't remember that.
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