Weekend Wrap

With a week between cricket tests I fell into the trap of watching a bit of sport for fun over the weekend, but this time I'm glad I did after an enthralling 90 minutes of rugby league involving the Warriors and Roosters.

Now I'll admit league is not my favourite sport and I tend to keep my emotions in check when it comes to the Warriors, as like the Wellington rugby union team and women who refuse to sw... (ok, we won't go there), they usually build your excitement up to significant levels before crushing them in ultimate disappointment.

But no matter how the Warriors finish the season, they have given us some serious entertainment and much of it of high quality. So I don't care if they lose all their remaining games this season, they can have a pass mark from me already.

Now I was going to spend the next part of this post bagging the ref, as his dubious sinbinning of Mannering with 12 min to go and missing the ball being punched from Price in extra time probably had a bearing on the final result. But for once in my life, I've stopped to think. To be fair, one of the Warrior's tries was off a forward pass. And, while we can point to 2 or 3 decisions from the ref as having an influence on the end result, what about the influence some players also have? For example, the Roosters were in possession with less than a minute to go, but a dropped ball allowed the Warriors to get their hands on the pill and get down the other end for the field goal to tie the game. If we bag the ref for changing the course of the game, then to be fair that poor mug who dropped the ball should also be lynched (at least by Roosters fans).

The only stats I've seen on the accuracy of officials' decisions in sport come from cricket and gridiron. In both cases, they get it right about 90% of the time. Isn't that good enough from "humans"? While most would agree the Roosters and Warriors played not only an entertaining game, but one of quality, there were still 12 errors from each side, about 30 missed tackles from each side, and they didn't complete all their sets when in possession (although they got pretty damn close).

Maybe I'm mellowing in my old age, but I'm taking a break from criticising those who defend the rules in sport. Hell, why spoil the memory of a great game of footy with a few negative barbs at the plonker who gave the Roosters an 8-2 penalty count? It's not like they have eyes in the back of their head ...

... which is what Wellington prop Neemia Tialata needed. Anyone who saw THAT punch hopefully feels like me - absolutely disgusted. If that was thrown on the street instead of the field he'd be locked up, so I hope Clint Newland gets banned for life. But of course he won't, apparently violence in sport has different rules to violence in the community and I await the inevitable slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket.

Now people, take note. Be prepared to hear about John Isner. Who? A 6 foot-10 inch 22 y.o. American tennis player who has the most dangerous serve in the game and who has just completed an amazing couple of weeks in tennis, winning a Challenger event (as a wildcard) and reaching the final of an ATP event (as a wildcard, losing to Roddick 4-6, 6-7). Y'know what's funny? Our own Dan King-Turner is ranked ahead of him - well, shortly to be was. To our sporting media who think NZ tennis players have potential, do an exercise and look up the change in Isner's ATP ranking over the past couple of weeks to understand what "potential" really means.

Oh, and Tiger Woods won a golf tournament by 8 shots. A week before the US PGA. Anyone prepared to bet against him?

Back tomorrow or Wednesday when I am going to town on Mr Davydenko.