Posts by Russell Brown
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to BenWilson,
Case in point: 40% of PAS is written around the RWC right now.
Yes, but it is the Rugby World Cup and it’s happening in NZ right now, for the first time in 24 years. It’s the biggest tournament of it’s type that has ever happened here. It doesn’t really reflect a love of rugby so much as an acknowledgement of a big event in a small country.
And it’s interesting in so many ways. This has been a very significant time for Auckland; lots of projects have have come in to meet the deadline posed by the tournament itself. I'm fascinated by it all.
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to izogi,
Sorry, Russell. It seems I threw in a bad and hasty example and didn't intend to mis-lead. I really just meant to allude to how invested New Zealand is in this one sport.
No probs -- I didn't mean you! But there is a tendency to declare that men beat their wives when the All Blacks lose, even when it's not clear that actually happens -- although the risk of family violence clearly rises at times when alcohol is consumed: see Christmas.
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to andin,
but because their success embodies a combination of virtues that speak to national character.
Hey I dont mind if people want to indulge in a bit of reflected glory, or as an excuse to party.
But anything else is a real (as is said) “bit of a stretch”.I think I explained my point well enough, but feel free to disagree.
I've written about the practical-creative thing before, at some length. It's a common characteristic of New Zealand achievement.
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to izogi,
Domestic violence does not increase as a result of a team having a bad game or season. A bad game can be used as an excuse for domestic violence, but the abuse is always a choice made by the perpetrator.
No argument whatsoever.
It does annoy me sometimes when people just declare it to be true that family violence spikes on the night a team loses, when the evidence is unclear.
That said, the It's Not OK TV campaign began a two week re-run on Sunday evening.
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Nick Shand,
Most people I know streamed the rugger from the internet … does the internet get TV people metered?
Because they didn't have conventional TV sets? Or just didn't have aerials for their TV sets?
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to jb,
Just don't call me a fucking grousing liberal just because I don't agree that physicality in itself is something to aspire to.
Not at all. I kinda thought the whole point of my post was that it's about more than physicality, actually.
-
Hard News: Winning the RWC: it's complicated, in reply to Emma Hart,
And last night, I swear I didn’t breathe for about seventy minutes. I’m not just happy we won, I’m happy we won by playing really good rugby that was a pleasure to watch.
I’m thinking that there was something about last night’s match that anyone could get, aficionado or not. Not everyone at our place was exactly a fan, but it seemed very clear what was going down.
-
Field Theory: All Blacks v Wallabies Tensionfest, in reply to Sacha,
unforgiveable
Shuddup and gizza retweet.
-
I feel such a bastard for link-whoring like this, but Twitter's down (for me, anyway) and I've written a blog post about the rugby and everything.
-
Quite liking Damn It To Hell With Saddam – All Blacks Execute Wallabies Like Texan Governor by Aussie sports blogger/journalist Matt Cleary.
I also like Cleary's biographical page. Must get that man on Media7 some time.