Field Theory: Four Years Ago
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Hands up who is glad the weather on Friday wasn’t like this?
Totally. This front has been forecast to hit Auckland on Sunday morning for days now, so everyone involved with Friday's events has been able to stare at the bullet they dodged,
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Those black jerseys were pathetic, and in the end bothered me greatly.
I had severe problems with those! I have this Pavlovian 'wanting the team in black to keep moving forward' response, which I had to keep pulling myself up for and mentally revising. And I was annoyed with myself because it was so clear that the whole point of this uniform thing was to, like, get into our heads, and they had done it! They WERE in my head! Waaarggghh!
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bmk, in reply to
My fingers were crossed. I detest boring rugby
While it wasn't running rugby, I actually found it by far the most enjoyable match of the cup so far. The intensity made up for all other shortcomings. Just a pity Argentina couldn't have won.
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Sacha, in reply to
it wasn't running rugby
I admit I'm biased towards that. Fiji much more my cup o tea.
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George Darroch, in reply to
This front has been forecast to hit Auckland on Sunday morning for days now, so everyone involved with Friday’s events has been able to stare at the bullet they dodged
I think it's the other way around, actually. Friday was extraordinary. Had it been a normal afternoon; cool, overcast, and slightly wet, many fewer people would have been inclined to head in and join festivities. Today, we show the visitors what Auckland is really like.
And also disliking the choice of black. It would be like our soccer team wearing orange, or the cricket team wearing yellow and green. It just doesn't make sense.
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Sacha, in reply to
Comment on AKT provides another view about the relationship between train operator Veolia and funder Auckland Transport, though it ignores the huge influence of govt policy settings.
My feelings are that Veolia is being blamed for the incompetence of Auckland Transport (Previously ARTA).
For a very long time it has been common knowledge that all the scheduling decisions are made by AT and Veolia are then asked to comment and ultimately implement them.
Veolia, being a contractor who wants to keep the contract, goes along with what AT say and everything goes downhill from there.
...Veolia has really been sold a pup since they started here. It seems strange to me though that they have stayed for more but I suppose that they can’t afford to pull out. They have no control over schedules, they have no real control over LEs hired from outside to drive trains. They have little or no control over maintenance because that contract is negotiated by AT and KR.
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Overall the govt is being quite successful in blaming Auckland's Council and agencies for Friday's failures - Key smoothly laid the responsiblity there in a soundbite on Radio NZ news. Completely unchallenged.
Meanwhile, Labour's Grant Robertson focuses on Key's speech during the opening ceremony.
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Veolia aren't here for Aucklands Transport, and the less resposibility they have for that the happier they are.
They want your Water!
In a truely perverse twist, it will be the Greens that give it to them.
The Greens are putting a price on water, with a view to Dairy.
Once this is accepted you'll pay for the delivery and product plus 8-20%.
http://www.flowthefilm.com/sites/default/files/press/flowpresskit.pdf
Beware of those waterboys.
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Sacha, in reply to
Blaming the Greens is a bit of a stretch. Water supply contracting already happened in the Auckland region in the 1990s under National govts, rolled back the following decade.
Rodney Hide's recent local govt act amendments extended the maximim term to 35 years so it's even more lucrative for foreign water operators. Some of the fuss about Maori seats on Auckland Council was not unrelated. Similarly, the govt overthrow of ECan.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
If AKL public transit is indeed being set up to fail, then it's by proxy an attempt to set up Mayor Brown himself to fail. If my suspicions are correct, it would effectively be GLC-isation by stealth. A fitting strategy for the C/T's of this world.
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Sacha, in reply to
If AKL public transit is indeed being set up to fail
Any details or links?
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It's not that Veolia haven't got great references overseas for f..g up public transport - see Connex South Eastern.
I'm not blaming the local staff, it's probably impossible to run a commuter metro for short term corporate profit in the way they've been tasked to and offer reasonable service.
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Just thinking, in reply to
Sacha, that's a specific payment from rates (priviously included) for the delivery of the product, water.
The big issue is the charge for the product itself, something the Greens are promoting, admitedly to another market. This then becomes proof of concept and is launched on the Domestic consumer of that same product. -
Russell Brown, in reply to
I think it’s the other way around, actually. Friday was extraordinary. Had it been a normal afternoon; cool, overcast, and slightly wet, many fewer people would have been inclined to head in and join festivities. Today, we show the visitors what Auckland is really like.
I beg to differ. It was actually typical of the bouts of early-Spring weather that every year make Aucklanders speculate that it's going to be a brilliant summer. So it's not actually atypical weather, just a bloody lottery.
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Meanwhile, aren't Wales making some dragon magic right now? Go the youth!
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I’m not blaming the local staff, it’s probably impossible to run a commuter metro for short term corporate profit in the way they’ve been tasked to and offer reasonable service.
Hey, Rich, you try dealing with twice as many people as your best reality-based estimate. Perhaps one potentially useful thing to come out Len’s inquiry will be some clear statements of simple physical and resource limitations in play. Veolia and Auckland Transport are just going to have to HTFU and accept they're going to wear a lot of unfair criticism (and various political axes being ground) along with all the shit that can totally fairly be laid at their feet. But I'm cautiously optimistic that it won't just be an exercise in arse-covering and buck-passing.
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Sacha, in reply to
Any investigation that looks at transport in isolation of the factors that drove the waterfront crowd size is not to be trusted.
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Just come out from Wellington. Left Karori just after the finish of the Wales SA game. A cracker by the way!!!!
Bugger all cars. Even though lots of empty seats by the time of the final whistle. But i did take not of the car parks at the stations. Almost a weekday's worth.
Great public transport system down here for games. I feel sorry for you guys up there. You really are missing something well worth while.
We really gotta do something about it.
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There sure has been some magnificent rugby this opening weekend--capped by the near-victory of Wales over SA.
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Apart from the Welsh and a little bit the French, the northern hemisphere teams are simply awful. The only reason the first weekend of rugby was any good was because the minnows played with some enthusiasm and spirit, and the general ineptness of their big name northern hemisphere opponents meant they stayed in the games for much longer than they should have.
I will be surprised if Scotland make it out of pool play, and Ireland will only do so because they are in a weak pool. The British like to talk it up, but they are way off the pace this first weekend. England were abysmal. Arrogant, bad tempered and full of excuses – that much never changes. Apparently the English RFU has spent a fortune on this team’s preparation – all I can say is never on the field of human conflict has been so much been spent by so many in return for so little. They have to improve from here, they surely can’t get any worse. I loved the way the fine folk of Dunedin (and Buenos Aires) razzed the Poms in, as one British journo described it, “the house of Spain”. Serves England right for wearing that stupid (and budget) jersey. I have no idea what other sort of reception they thought such a calculated attempt to get up peoples noses would get! The northern teams are just so limited. It is easy to have a big pack. Lord knows, Italy, Argentina and Romania all have managed that. The French were just adequate – again, they struggled against a team that they should have beaten in their sleep. One British commentator took this of evidence the gap is closing in quality between the IRB board nations and the rest – but I am not so sure it is closing in the direction he had in mind.
Of the minnows, I liked Japan’s Légion étrangère best. None of the others will amount to much except perhaps Argentina, who are the best of an awfully limited bunch.
New Zealand is probably the best of the big three from the first weekend. The Aussies were OK, but you just know that if you put them under pressure they are very, very brittle. Quade Cooper may slowly being realising exactly what being public enemy number one means in New Zealand. That dirty little prick should just be grateful he doesn’t live in the era of tours against provincial teams – one doubts he would survive long if he was exposed to the hard men of the ’Naki or Northland on a wet afternoon with no TV cameras around. And the Boks – they are playing on reputation and memory. The Welsh played well, but they should never have got as close as they did. Matfield, Habana, a whole pile of the South African players look well past it.
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Oh yes and a Wayne Barnes blunder costing a team victory during the rugby world cup? Who would have thought it?
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I dunno, Tom, I think you're underrating that every single team has improved. The first thing that struck me this time around is that you can't see anyone who doesn't look very athletic. Where they have mass, it seems to be muscle. And we're not seeing much by way of deliberate attempts to take a breather, kicks to touch outside of a penalty have been rare. I'm presuming rising professionalism has been the cause of this.
This contributes a great deal to evening up the odds - there's only so much to be gained from more strength and fitness training. Also, the tactical understanding of every team seemed to be good (with exception of some bizarre moves by the Italian kickers, I wonder if they were trying to show flair when they kicked a penalty ball straight into the hands of the Australians massed on the other corner of the field). Great balls skills can be seen everywhere, this always tends to rise with fitness.
So I agree with the English commentary that the gap is becoming smaller. Or perhaps this first weekend was just a matter of very spirited "minnow" performances, and nervous conservative play by the top teams. It's easy to forget that playing the World Cup in NZ is something that is going to mean a lot to rugby players - there's nowhere else on earth that nearly everyone they meet is going to be aware of rugby. Everyone is aware this is the stomping ground of the famous All Blacks, and the place where this tournament began.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Pom de tear...
Serves England right for wearing that stupid (and budget) jersey.
The peeling numbers reminded me of the Ark's packing crate in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark - it's almost as if the numbers were embarassed to be seen on them!
I wonder what the kicking problem was in that game?
Is it an aerodynamics issue with the new ball?
Or some air pressure problem in the closed environment of the new Dunedin Stadium?
- What would happen if everyone held their breath on one side of the stadium, while everyone on the other side blew out at the same time... -
Tom Semmens, in reply to
Ben - For all the marketing hype that surrounded it, it was clear at the last soccer world cup that that competition is more and more taking second place to the demands of European megaclubs and their billionaire owners. Teams like Italy, France and England put in sluggish performances with teams badly hit by 'injury" and full of players who either burnt out or who saw the tournament as a bit of a vacation from the demands of a 50 week season. It is only round one of the RWC, but looking at the performance of the teams from the Heineken cup countries, I couldn't help wondering to myself if the same baleful influence of to much money and greedy clubs isn't impacting team performances in the rugby world cup also.
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I think the new tackle rules since the last WC have contributed significantly to the minnows being able to foot it without the games blowing out with cricket scores.
But it does impede progress of the whole team down the park. But i'm buggered if I know (still) when and where a teram can push stright over a ruck and pinch the ball without picking it up. And if I am confused, just think about how the players feel......
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