Set piece magic
John Solomon (38)
Go to any other advanced Rugby nation that isn't Australia, and there's a guarantee that you'll be feeling the heat.
Go to England, and you'll have the might of a nation that controls World Rugby as a conquered entity on your back. Lose, and you lose the political game, and your career.
Go to South Africa, and if you don't penalize Australia correctly you'll have a facebook page made about you saying you should never referee again (Bryce Lawrence), you'll also receive security advice not to referee in South Africa.
Go to New Zealand, you will have every geopolitical institution in the country pressuring you. You will have the media pressuring you, you will have the fans throwing Rubbish at you, you will have the captain of new zealand come out and attack you in the national media (richie mccaw on wayne barnes), you will have the media outside your hotel, you will have players pressuring you and in your face.
If an Australian player gets involved in a scuffle with an All Blacks player, they might as well be put on the CIA's no fly list, they might as well change their name to Emmanuel Goldstein and move into Orwell's dystopian 1984 (some would argue New Zealand as a country is such a dystopia anyway). They are routinely bullied, harassed and intimidated. Quade Cooper has been nothing short of relentlessly humiliated and bullied in an utterly ferral and utterly despicable, indeed at times defamatory manner by the New Zealand public.
He might even have a case of section 18c against various New Zealanders.
My question is why do we let them get away with it? Have a shocking game in Australia as a ref, oh well its a game. Be a relentless thug that eye gouges, get away with it with no further implications.
As a country, we need to get with the program. We need to understand that the other countries in this game are not nice. They are happy to wage utter war with our players mental welfare if it means winning. We need to bully the All Blacks. They need to be harassed in the street like Quade Cooper is, we need people SHAMING Owen Franks for his disgusting, foul eye gouge. At a political level, we need prime ministers questioning Romain Poite's utterly disgusting, criminal treatment of Stephen Moore. Why do we let them get away with it??????????????
Go to England, and you'll have the might of a nation that controls World Rugby as a conquered entity on your back. Lose, and you lose the political game, and your career.
Go to South Africa, and if you don't penalize Australia correctly you'll have a facebook page made about you saying you should never referee again (Bryce Lawrence), you'll also receive security advice not to referee in South Africa.
Go to New Zealand, you will have every geopolitical institution in the country pressuring you. You will have the media pressuring you, you will have the fans throwing Rubbish at you, you will have the captain of new zealand come out and attack you in the national media (richie mccaw on wayne barnes), you will have the media outside your hotel, you will have players pressuring you and in your face.
If an Australian player gets involved in a scuffle with an All Blacks player, they might as well be put on the CIA's no fly list, they might as well change their name to Emmanuel Goldstein and move into Orwell's dystopian 1984 (some would argue New Zealand as a country is such a dystopia anyway). They are routinely bullied, harassed and intimidated. Quade Cooper has been nothing short of relentlessly humiliated and bullied in an utterly ferral and utterly despicable, indeed at times defamatory manner by the New Zealand public.
He might even have a case of section 18c against various New Zealanders.
My question is why do we let them get away with it? Have a shocking game in Australia as a ref, oh well its a game. Be a relentless thug that eye gouges, get away with it with no further implications.
As a country, we need to get with the program. We need to understand that the other countries in this game are not nice. They are happy to wage utter war with our players mental welfare if it means winning. We need to bully the All Blacks. They need to be harassed in the street like Quade Cooper is, we need people SHAMING Owen Franks for his disgusting, foul eye gouge. At a political level, we need prime ministers questioning Romain Poite's utterly disgusting, criminal treatment of Stephen Moore. Why do we let them get away with it??????????????
