Put aside, for a minute, the issue of whether Lord President Baron His Royal Highness The One And Only Legend Right Honourable Viscount Duke Der Kaiser King Richie McCaw should be given a knighthood.
(This is still a debate? Of course he should.)The bigger question is what sort of statue we should erect of the great man in the place that produced him.
And should we (as in, the folks of North Otago) build a statue?Yes.
Yes, we should.
He is no ordinary rugby player, no ordinary man, and no ordinary ambassador for the best little province in New Zealand.
Let's take a punt on something big and bold, and invite local artists to submit their proposals for a statue, and scream to the world that not only do we have incredible buildings, penguins, steampunk, fantastic eateries, a heck of a rugby team and a province full of great people and great beauty, but we also produced our greatest All Black.
. . . and they will come
I think I was the first to argue - quite convincingly, and with real meaning, if I do say so myself - that Oamaru should have a statue to embrace its status as the birthplace of McCaw.
But my goalposts have shifted a little.
Oamaru should still be getting more mileage out of its McCaw links, but the statue should be plonked about 65km inland.
Spending some time in and around Kurow last week reminded me that the Waitaki Valley is the real McCaw country.
The wonderful people up there have the closest links with Richie. And - assuming they want it, and I hope they do - a statue should have pride of place in their little town.
TV trauma
These are indeed weird times for the average sports fan accustomed to being able to watch pretty much everything in their living rooms.
Some lamented Sky TV's 20-year near-monopoly in New Zealand, but there are far more complaints now the market has been fractured.
It's just a pain to have to pay multiple subscriptions and rely on inconsistent internet to be able to watch everything you want to watch.
It's only going to get trickier for Sky, which has lost a bunch of stuff in the last couple of years.
Last weekend, someone commented that he wanted to watch three things: the PGA Championship, the English Premier League, and the series between the Black Caps and South Africa.
Sky had the rights to none.
As I've said before, if you are JUST a Premier League fan or JUST a golf fan, and you have the suitable internet speed and technology, the new era is fantastic.
For Joe Average sports fan? We've gone backwards.
Wintry wonders
Every two years, they gather on the snow (and ice) of Central Otago.
Many come from far corners of the globe. Most are completely unknown to New Zealanders, who possibly think Ted Ligety is a Republican candidate and Yuki Kadono is a spicy beef dish.
They speak a strange language - they ''stomp'' qualifying runs, and get ''dialled in'' to things, and try to pull off ''switch corked 720s'' and ''backside 520s''.
Yes, following the Winter Games can be extremely confusing, but you really should try.
The event has gone from strength to strength and is a vibrant addition to the Otago sporting landscape.
World Cup selections
A quick reminder about our competition to pick the All Blacks' 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup.
Fire down the names you think will be read out, and either email (hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz) or post (World Cup Competition, ODT sports department, PO Box 517, Dunedin) them, plus your name and address, by noon on Friday.
Calm down, chaps
One of the great unwritten rules of being a sports journalist is that you never start cheering in the press box.(Unless you attend a Ranfurly Shield challenge in Invercargill, in which case it is perfectly acceptable to barrack for Otago or North Otago . . . or any team playing the Stags, really.)The Australian media attending an NFL pre-season game at the weekend obviously didn't get the memo.
They roared and screamed and clapped and presumably threw in a couple of shouts of ''bonzer'' and ''gidday mate Foster's VB ridgy-didge drongo Barry Crocker'' when Jarryd Hayne peeled off a big run for the 49ers.
Locals were not impressed, and word is the visiting reporters were given a formal warning for their behaviour.
Maaaate.
Food, glorious food
The Boston Bruins ice hockey franchise is tackling the IRS (America's IRD) for the right to deduct the full cost of feeding players on road trips.
The Bruins have been told they owe more than $US85,000 ($NZ128,800) in taxes because they should have deducted only 50% of the food cost, because that's the law.
Slightly ironic that a professional organisation raking in millions of broadcast and sponsorship dollars quibbles over a few plates of pasta.
But then you think about the amount of food these big lugs will put away. I will never forget a road trip with the Highlanders abut 10 years ago. Boxes and boxes and boxes bulging with tucker. And that was just lunch.
The first quote
''I've had one bad game this season and everyone's all over it.''
- Fading Manchester United star Wayne Rooney claims he's had one bad game. Bit of a stretch.
The second quote
''In his insular world, he is the king, but he needs to look outside his bubble. He needs a fight with me more than I need a fight with him.''
- Australian boxer Danny Green keeps serving it up to rival Anthony Mundine.
Triumph
What a remarkable contrast in two prominent Australian sportspeople in recent weeks.
There was Jason Day, winning his first major, crying, embracing his wee boy, and interacting like an absolute gentleman with his vanquished opponent, Jordan Spieth.
If only tennis brat Nick Kyrgios had an ounce of Day's class.
Disaster
Lots of reasons, lots of excuses.
But the fact Steven Adams, our best basketballer, was in New Zealand at the same time as the Tall Blacks were losing to the Boomers without him?Just sad. Very sad.
