Sunday 27 May 2007

nz blah blah blah media

Already a week out from the first test against France, and the numerous boring articles and speculation about various All Blacks and their injuries (Conrad Smith, Mils Muliaina and Ali Williams), the conditioning programme and a number of these 22 boys not getting game time in the final matches of the Super 14 (Joe Rokocoko and Williams – again) have been pumped out in such great quantities to histrionic proportions in the NZ media that is has all become a bit blah blah blah.

This proves that journos in NZ don’t really have a lot to write about if the most original idea for a story line is moaning about who has suffered the latest rugby injury in the ‘conditioned 22’. I don’t really care if someone has had corrective loophole surgery on their inside leg measurement or whether someone got a bruise (Williams again) in his club game for Ponsonby. There are plenty of players ready to step up to the plate so why don’t we speculate and write about this instead of bemoaning something that is guaranteed to happen every week to whatever (un)lucky player gets in the way of a big front rower falling at an awkward angle on your well conditioned but soon to be twisted hamstring.

Journos should accept that besides the captain making the obligatory ‘full credit’ speech, there is only one other guarantee at the end of every rugby game and that there will probably be at least two people per team injured at the end of the 80 minutes. This is rugby after all – not tiddlywinks. So continuous reporting and harping on about these many and varied rugby injuries is no more news worthy to the general public than the national newspaper running with the opening story ‘It is true. The earth is round’. Come on guys – up your game and find something original to comment on.

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