Michelle Lesco (left), the 2021 champion, and Miki Sudo, the 10-time champion and 2024 title holder, stuff hot dogs into each other’s mouths at the official weigh-in ceremony, ahead of the Coney Island’s Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City. PHOTOS: REUTERS
The big game
People assume two things about sports reporters.
They assume we were talented athletes in our youth — and, unless you count four years in the Waitaki Boys’ High School table tennis team, playing for North Otago at under-14 level in tennis, and being really good at Fifa, that is not strictly accurate for The Last Word.
I am not going to be a total killjoy here.
It is genuinely great that Dunedin, falling so far behind New Zealand’s main centres in so many other areas, is still seen by New Zealand Rugby as a worthy host for the nation’s No 1 team.
The All Blacks are a seriously big deal, here and around the world, and it is borderline miraculous in the modern commercial era that they continue to see value in coming south to this relative backwater.
And, even with my deep-rooted cynicism about pretty much everything in the modern world, there remains something deeply magical about an All Blacks test. The haka — so overdone these days but unrivalled when it is performed by the team who perfected it — and the noise of a capacity crowd and the sight of future greats like Will Jordan, Ardie Savea and Fabian Holland make it a fantastic spectacle.
But by this point of the week, honestly, your average rugby writer is bored to tears.
There is only so much you can write about France sending a second-string team (it remains an example of a disgraceful situation that World Rugby should have addressed years ago) and about how many Highlanders should be starting (all three) and about when Dunedin will next get a test (I remain deeply concerned this will be the last here for three years).
What we need now is a game, and a cracking one. Over to you, chaps.
Divinely blessed
Ardie Savea caused some confusion in the Super Rugby world this week when he referred to Moana Pasifika as ‘‘the Lord’s team, the people’s team’’.
Ardie, really?
The only people’s team in these parts is our plucky Highlanders — otherwise known as every rugby fan’s second-favourite team.
They might not have been greatly blessed by the rugby gods this season, no. But those who keep the faith will eventually be rewarded.
Good for the Landers
Lee Piper is a devout Dunedin Sharks man who can talk almost as much as club rugby mouth of the south Paul Dwyer, so beware when he starts pontificating.
But, after we had yarned at length this week about his family’s special relationship with former houseguest Fabian Holland, Piper made one extremely salient point.
For the Highlanders, getting not just incumbent prop Ethan de Groot but the rising Holland and the wonderful Timoci Tavatavanawai in the All Blacks is really massive progress for the club.
It says, to any youngster pondering a move to Dunedin for more opportunities, and indeed to established Super Rugby players seeking more game time, that the Highlanders are not some sort of dead end.
You don’t have to join the Crusaders (shudder) or one of the other New Zealand teams to get noticed.
So, who’s next?
Rising winger Caleb Tangitau is well on the way to national honours — he might have been playing tonight had injury not ruined his season.
Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens is in the discussion, Oliver Haig made such progress last year he made the All Blacks XV, and New Zealand under-20 halfback Dylan Pledger has future test player written all over him.
Portugal’s Catarina Amado (left) goes head-to-head with Spain’s Athenea del Castillo during their women’s Euro clash yesterday. Spain won 5-0.
Rock bottom
The Highlanders claimed the dreaded wooden spoon but at least they were competitive.
It has been shades of the ghastly 33-game losing streak for the Otago Nuggets, whose abysmal National Basketball League season finally comes to an end tomorrow.
There are good people involved with the team, and everyone sincerely hopes the rescue plan for a change of ownership can succeed. But sheesh, there is some work to do.
A bit more promising
For the region’s other flagship round-ball team, however, the prognosis is much more positive.
The Steel are showing strong signs of emerging from a long rut.
A former netball writer is famously modest, but he gently points out the resurgence really started when he was on deck to cover the Steel’s amazing comeback win over the Pulse.
Candy crushed
Shocked.
Appalled.
The Last Word is shocked AND appalled that a Kiwi candy classic, the Jaffa, is being canned.
Why must EVERYTHING about the world get worse?
No, I do not know why this terrible news belongs in a sports column. But we used to race Jaffas down Baldwin St, so that sort of counts.
Birthday of the week
Goose Gossage is 74 today.
The American baseball star pitched for nine different Major League teams, was a nine-time all-star, and won the World Series with the Yankees in 1978.
Born Richard Michael Gossage, he got his nickname when a team-mate commented that he stretched his neck like a goose to see signs from his catcher.
One last thing
He was our No 20.
Rest in peace, Diogo Jota.
