Runners take part in the annual 5km Santa Dash in Liverpool. PHOTO: REUTERS
Reality bites
You cannot say you were not warned.
Every southern rugby fan should have known what was coming when New Zealand Rugby announced the All Blacks’ home schedule for 2026.
Dunedin has been sidelined with Christchurch predictably getting a test at its fancy new stadium, Eden Park getting two big tests, and that slumping city of Wellington somehow rated a superior host at that weirdly shaped stadium of 100 names.
Having just four home tests meant it was always going to be unlikely to get a sixth All Blacks test in Dunedin in six years.
It is a drag, but it is not the end of the world. We have gone a year (or three) without a test before, and survived.
What we need now is a successful Highlanders team to regularly bring in the crowds, and one of those events involving music and singing. A concert, is it?
Rae of light
Imagine it is 2023-24 and you are asked to rank all fast bowlers in New Zealand cricket.
Where does Michael Rae rank on that list? Maybe 15th or 16th?
No disrespect to the lesser-known "Razor", but you would have got long odds on the former Otago man earning a test cap.
That is what makes sport so great, of course. He got his chance thanks to a swag of retirements and injuries, and already has three test wickets that can never be taken away from him. (He finished the test with six).
Bravo, sir.
Lando the great
For better or worse, I am riding or dying with Liverpool (above all others), the Penrith Panthers, the New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Rams and the Valley rugby club.
But, er, am I allowed one exemption to the rule? May I transfer my Formula 1 allegiance?
It is not as if I am a huge F1 fan. But after consuming the first couple of seasons of Drive To Survive, the wildly successful Netflix series about the circuit, I felt it was time to choose a team.
Naturally, I picked a dud: Ferrari, mainly because of some invented links to Liverpool (both red, both with a glorious history, both having sort of fallen on hard times — referring in Liverpool’s case to the pre-Klopp years).
The obvious pick should have been McLaren, both because of the Kiwi links and because my brother is a big fan.
If I had only chosen papaya, I would be basking in the glory of Lando Norris and McLaren doing the double.
Mo madness
Regular readers will have noted this column has made suspiciously few references to the greatest football club in the world in recent weeks.
Liverpool’s season lurched to new crisis levels when megastar Mohamed Salah, royally peeved at being benched for three consecutive games, launched into a rather shocking broadside at his treatment, and was then left behind when the team went to Italy for a game.
This was not how it was supposed to end.
Salah is one of the top five players in Liverpool history, a man who scored and created goals for fun and helped bring the glory years back to the club, and who is coming off an unbelievably great season.
If he is done, it is just such a sad finish to a wonderful career.
Paul’s wings clipped
Speaking of legends finding themselves on the outer, spare a thought for NBA star Chris Paul.
The basketball great was dumped by the Los Angeles Clippers — famously NOT considered one of the great sporting organisations — and sent home during a road trip.
Reports later circulated that Paul and Clippers coach Tyronn Lue were not on the best of terms and that the team felt Paul was being too demanding of his team-mates.
Paul is now 40 and his legacy as one of the game’s greatest point guards is secure. He was a 12-time all-star, ranks second in NBA history in assists and steals and won two Olympic gold medals.
He never won an NBA title, playing in the finals only once, when the Phoenix Suns lost to the Milwaukee Bucks.
There is one obvious path left for "CP3", otherwise known as the "Point Guard": a season in the New Zealand league. The Nuggets should give him a call.
Name of the week
Godiva Kim.
The rising Australian golf star has signalled her intent to turn professional a few months shy of her 18th birthday.
The Queensland amateur champion was just 6 when her burgeoning talent led to her featuring in the Gold Coast Bulletin, a newspaper where former Mountain Scene editor Ryan Keen had a long spell.
Kim played the 2023 Australian Open as a 15-year-old and seasoned observers feel she could be set for an outstanding career.
Year’s end
This is the final Last Word for the year.
We have some special features in the coming weeks, and the column will likely resume on January 10 for just a few Saturdays until it goes into hiatus for most of the Super Rugby season.
Thank you for reading, thank you for your feedback and have a safe and happy Christmas.
