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Max Bania: Wallabies bring abuse upon themselves

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Groucho

Greg Davis (50)
A most depressing assessment:

Time to settle the debate over why New Zealand has so little love for the Wallabies once and for all.

Contrary to what you may have heard, it's not because they have the unfortunate tendency of tipping over our All Blacks in important games - like any time we meet at a World Cup.

Nor is it because we're jealous of Australia's economic prosperity, warm and weather and sandy beaches.

And it's certainly not because of Australia's annoying habit of claiming our best and brightest talents as their own (we don't care where Quade Cooper was born, by the way - he's definitely an Aussie).

The answer is much simpler: it's because there is not a lot to like about many of this current crop of players.

Much has been made of New Zealand's so-called "Aussie bashing" and at the focal point of our rage is charmless lout Quade Cooper. Every team needs a pantomime villain, but without the wit or aptitude for pantomime, Cooper is just a villain.

There's been enough said and written about the Tokoroa-born playmaker that it will suffice here to say that the fact Cooper has further encouraged the invective since arriving on our shores says all you need to know about his character. For egomaniacs like Cooper, any publicity is good publicity.

It would be forgivable if Australia's recent litany of larrikinism started and ended with their backline general, but it doesn't. Other recent events and incidents that have stuck in the Kiwi craw include:

- James O'Bieber joining the Melbourne Rebels, because it will enhance his "rugby brand".

- James Horwill taunting Aaron Cruden as he lined up the match-winning conversion for the Hurricanes against the Reds earlier this year. Hilariously, Cruden nailed the conversion and gave the Wallaby skipper the send-off he deserved.

- The disrespectfully over-the-top reaction to last year's win over the All Blacks in Hong Kong. So you scraped home in a meaningless Test at a meaningless venue. Congrats.

- Last year's Paris bar altercation between Cooper, O'Bieber and Kurtley Beale, which allegedly escalated from juvenile taunting of each other's unusual first names. Unbelievable.

It all smacks of that old chestnut of lacking respect; not just for the All Blacks but for their opposition and the game in general. You can see it everywhere; from Cooper's cheap shots on Richie McCaw, to Digby Ioane's well-rehearsed victory-dance, to the brashness and overconfidence that permates their press conference rhetoric.

The Wallabies can tear any team apart on their day, reckons Kurtley Beale. So can the All Blacks; they just have the restraint and humility not to boast about it any time there's a microphone in their face (ironically, for a team supposedly so full of self-belief, the Wallabies' constant need to talk themselves up perhaps hints at deeper insecurities).

We don't like trash-talkers and so we take particular satisfaction when the pro-green-and-gold opinions of Wallaby has-beens like Toutai Kefu and Bob Dwyer are exposed to for the ill-considered, jingoistic folly that they are. That's what made the lop-sided hammering at Eden Park in August so satisfying.

In fact, with a few notable exceptions such as Spiro Zavos and Greg Growden, the Australian rugby media is brimming with cheerleaders only too happy to perpetuate tired myths about McCaw's cheating and the All Blacks' perpetually-fading "aura of invincibility". Look no further than the three-man circus act that is the Fox Sports commentary team of "Clarkey, Kearnsey and Marto" for proof of that.

It didn't use to be like this. Past Wallaby teams and their media contingent have come here in good faith and enjoyed cordial relations with their Kiwi counterparts. The likes of Nick Farr-Jones, Tim Horan and Jeremy Paul are such gentlemen and students of the game that their opinions are regularly sought during New Zealand rugby broadcasts.

It's hard to imagine this current crop of Wallabies - on whom the merits of sportsmanship and the proud history of the game appear to be lost - ever ingratiating themselves to the New Zealand public in the same way.

Nor would they particularly care to, one suspects. After all, they're not here to win friends; they're here to win a World Cup. But that leaves their fans in a bind.

Wallabies supporters can do one of two things. Either they can pressure Robbie Deans and the ARU into reeling in some of their maverick players by voicing their concerns en masse.

Or they can accept that as long as their players continue to make themselves the target of ridicule, they're going to be tarred with the same Aussie-bashing brush.

http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-world-cup/max-bania-wallabies-bring-abuse-upon-themselves-4419118

:(

"We don't like trash-talkers and so we take particular satisfaction when the pro-green-and-gold opinions of Wallaby has-beens like Toutai Kefu and Bob Dwyer are exposed to for the ill-considered, jingoistic folly that they are." Oh, the ironing. ::)
 

Swat

Chilla Wilson (44)
I read this a while ago. I'm so over this shit fight... This is the least logical argument yet, he's trying to justify the collective emotional response of underlying vitriol towards an entire country on 22 million people due to:
a) Beiber talking about his be brand
b) celebrating a victory in an 'over the top manner' in HK and
c) a piss weak scuffle between mates that no one even knows what happened and finally
d) the overriding theme of lacking respect.

Face the facts you dumb f#ck. a, b, c and d have little to do with it.

You don't like us because we can take your cup away. Grow up.
 

Groucho

Greg Davis (50)
I read this a while ago. I'm so over this shit fight... This is the least logical argument yet, he's trying to justify the collective emotional response of underlying vitriol towards an entire country on 22 million people due to:
a) Beiber talking about his be brand
b) celebrating a victory in an 'over the top manner' in HK and
c) a piss weak scuffle between mates that no one even knows what happened and finally
d) the overriding theme of lacking respect.

Face the facts you dumb f#ck. a, b, c and d have little to do with it.

You don't like us because we can take your cup away. Grow up.

I was genuinely shocked when I read it just now, Swat. Imagine the furore if one of our Aussie scribes had written such trenchant personal criticisms of another national team's players!
 

Swat

Chilla Wilson (44)
I was genuinely shocked when I read it just now, Swat. Imagine the furore if one of our Aussie scribes had written such trenchant personal criticisms of another national team's players!

I'm sure we have and will continue to do so, I've got no problems with criticising people, what pisses me off is when people attempt to construct an argument with such obviously bullsh*t reasoning they just belittle the intelligence of their readers (or conversely reveal their own shortcomings).
 

vidiot

John Solomon (38)
Max Bania is max banial. That is breathtakingly audacious in its diritude. But great motivation for purveyors of the wallaby brand.
 

Riptide

Dave Cowper (27)
So much of this is pure manufactured media bollox and frankly it's crap that get the game more press coverage and column inches which is sorely needed in Australia. Cooper's idiotic, puerile taunting of McCaw* has one huge upside; it gets press inches for the game and the story isn't that bad. The way NZ'ers are going on about this is ridiculous; you'd think Cooper was glassing McCaw. I find it offensive that the attacks are becoming more personal with the inference that Coope r is now a dreadful human being and a blight on mankind. Screw them! Yes, we get it that McCaw is a great player and that you want the world to genuflect out of respect for him. But enough.

The constant thrashing of the Wallabies by those who object to the Wallabies confidence and exuberance betrays a fear of them. We bleat about the ABs and their cheating when they beat us in 10 out of 11 contests. The world screams about the English maul and arrogance when Johnson, Dallaglio & co were steamrolling through the game. It's tiresome.

(*I'm somewhat of the opinion that McCaw is attempting to unsettle Cooper and npot the other way around. Frankly, a No.7 would want to unsettle the oppo's main creative force and playmaker. Is it another sign of McCaw's brilliance that he has us all hoodwinked as well?)
 

da_grubster

Ted Fahey (11)
ha, he is one of the old posters off thesilverfern!

bullethole and barnya previously. good liverpool supporter!! Onya barn!!
 

teach

Trevor Allan (34)
I don't think enough kiwis care enough about aussie teams to even know that Bieber is moving teams. I never saw a single article about Horwill taunting cruden.
Tired media hacks generating column inches. Past players seeking the limelight making stupid sound bites.

The experience of aussies in NZ are a lot different than what is being reported. The ones i have talked too seem to be enjoying themselves.

The only accurate comment is describing Cooper as a pantomime baddie. Someone for us to boo. If it comes down to a Bok/Wallabie final you will find that you guys will get the support.

If the cup was held in Aussie, McCaw would probably be booed, and we would probably be crying about it too.

How about just enjoy some of the great games of rugby that have been on offer.

There is nothing wrong with the wallabies talking up their chances. It shows confidence and self belief. I think most Kiwis are too scared to talk up the ABs too much for fear of jinxing them.
 

hedgo

Frank Nicholson (4)
by far the funniest part is that he bags kefu and dwyer and yet champions growden and jeremy paul as paragons of objectivity and reason, (as 'gentlemen and students of the game,') - two blokes who have done more for the high horse, bandwagon industry than andrew bolt. growden is a deans apologist par excellence, while jeremy paul's attempts at objectivity over the non-selection of crabeau were embarrassing to say the least
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
I don't think enough kiwis care enough about aussie teams to even know that Bieber is moving teams. I never saw a single article about Horwill taunting cruden.
Tired media hacks generating column inches. Past players seeking the limelight making stupid sound bites.

The experience of aussies in NZ are a lot different than what is being reported. The ones i have talked too seem to be enjoying themselves.

The only accurate comment is describing Cooper as a pantomime baddie. Someone for us to boo. If it comes down to a Bok/Wallabie final you will find that you guys will get the support.

If the cup was held in Aussie, McCaw would probably be booed, and we would probably be crying about it too.

How about just enjoy some of the great games of rugby that have been on offer.

There is nothing wrong with the wallabies talking up their chances. It shows confidence and self belief. I think most Kiwis are too scared to talk up the ABs too much for fear of jinxing them.

Shh Teach, don't tell Groucho and Swat etc that. I have said in a couple of threads in here almost exactly what you have said, but you will find on any forum people like to take comments/write ups by idiots like Bania and take them as fact, not realising that noone with an iota of intelligence believes them.
 
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