Phoenix opening a new vista for sports fans

I never thought I'd take more than a casual interest in the progress of a New Zealand club football team.

But the enthusiasm of the Wellington Phoenix players and their fans is infectious and, like many thousands of others, I was riveted to the television during the team's dramatic extra-time win over Newcastle on Sunday.

Who would have thought a few years ago that 33,000 would have crammed into the Cake Tin to watch the round-ball code? Who would have thought the Phoenix would have attracted more than 19,000 to a round-robin game in Christchurch a few weeks ago?The Phoenix is one of the hottest items in town, its players and fans without inhibitions and together responsible for introducing a new, more vibrant sporting culture into New Zealand.

There's no doubt the Phoenix and the Australian and New Zealand cricketers are the big-ticket numbers in New Zealand sport at present and that Super 14 is a distant third.

That's not to say that rugby has lost its pulling power, but fans are now much more catholic and discerning in their tastes.

The eye-opener for me has been the way the footballers embrace their fans and vice-versa.

The players have made it clear that those who cheer from the stands really do matter.

It is like a throwback to the halcyon days of provincial amateur rugby when players walked tall down the streets of their home towns during the week and were the heroes of their communities on Saturday afternoons.

So much of professional rugby these days is carefully choreographed - press conferences, media training for players, team announcements and so on.

There's very little that is spontaneous, and that is what has made rugby less enjoyable to cover.

It is about brand, image.

The days of sidling up to a player for a yarn after practice have long gone.

Most of my colleagues from rugby-writing days have drifted into other endeavours.

Wynne Gray, of The New Zealand Herald, has survived because of a healthy cynicism, and Evan Pegden has given yeoman service to the Waikato Times.

I recall Pegden being invited into the Waikato half-time team talk during the national championship final against Otago at Carisbrook in 1998.

That's a lead other rugby organisations should follow, and may have to follow to combat the burgeoning popularity of football and cricket.

For many years I thought I had the best job in the world - being paid to talk to and write about rugby players and other sportsmen.

You could predict how players would perform, how they would respond to pressure situations, because you knew them as people, what made them tick.

It is so different now.

I admire the skills and excellence of Dan Carter but he is playing in an era when everything he says and does is carefully controlled.

We don't get to know the real Dan Carter.

It's not his fault.

It's just the way it is.

What can rugby learn from the Phoenix? To be more open, more honest, to take the fans along for the ride even when the road is bumpy.

The Phoenix is part of the evolution of New Zealand sport, just as the Warriors were when they joined the NRL in 1995, and it is a welcome addition to the national sporting psyche.

Forceful new leaders

Excellent news that Wayne Graham and Laurie Mains are the new leaders of the Otago Rugby Football Union.

They've both done just about everything for the game in the province, they're innovative and forceful thinkers, they have their finger on the pulse of the health of the game, and they don't tolerate mediocrity.

It won't be plain sailing, and they have been elected at a time when Otago rugby is in a parlous state.

But if they can't steer the game in the province in the right direction, then I don't know who can.