While it mainly seems that something should be done to protect knees, the new measure is aimed at lowering the incidence of player concussions.

Any player who receives two high tackle warnings in a game will miss the next game.

This seems a worthy effort, as no one who plays rugby will want to advance into his or her golden years without being able to remember the days when they played footy, but the new rule will be prone to referee subjectivity.

We would offer a better solution if we had one.

It is obvious where this is, pardon the pun, headed.

Early in the season, the warnings will flow fast and furious, complete with the ensuing debate about this or that tackle.

As the season progresses, enforcement will shift to some degree as everyone attempts to adjust.

When the fan contacts the excrement, however, it will be when a finals team loses a key player in an instance that presents the appearance of a case of excessive referee zeal.

We have to acknowledge that when the high-tackle system was trialled in the Junior World Championship in Argentina last year, there were 20 warnings issued, with southern hemisphere squads encountering the majority of the penalties.

One report coming from New Zealand suggested that there are no genuine thugs left in the New Zealand game. Fake thugs, possibly, but none of the genuine variety.

The speed of the game puts players in an impossible situation.

What starts out as a textbook form tackle can become a high tackle in a Nano-second if a ball carrier stoops lower in an attempt to avoid a tackle altogether.

Short of banning contact sports altogether, there does not seem a method for protecting fragile human brains that is foolproof and consistently applicable.

The international game might devolve into a game of tag, where the object is to avoid being touched at all costs.

There is some degree of difference between the hemispheres in the physicality of the game. A tackle deemed peachy in New Zealand might draw a red card in the UK.

The issue of referee subjectivity appears when it needs to be determined if a high tackle was delivered with or without malice.

The post Super Rugby High Tackle Trial Will Out Players for Two Strikes appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

The optimist in us has nothing to say.

The first Test was a 296-run loss. Maybe the optimist in us could say that the Black Caps managed to keep it under 300, but that might be a bit of a reach.

The second Test produced a 247-run loss in Melbourne and the third Test was a 279-run loss.

Yeah, it was in the Aussies’ back yard, but the Black Caps had elevated themselves to the No. 2 Test ranking according to the ICC figures, so something a little closer could have been anticipated.

The last time New Zealand lost a Test series was nearly three years ago, in March of 2017, when the Proteas proved the New Zealand foil.

It is one thing to lose a series, but a little competition would have been nice, especially taking into consideration that since the home loss to South Africa, New Zealand have won six of seven with one drawn result.

Not even the penalty runs handed to the Black Caps in the final Test were able to ignite some fight, but such was not the case.

We were still babes the last time New Zealand produced a clunker of this magnitude, a 4 – 0 whitewash in England.

We were just starting elementary school when England came over and handed the Black Caps a 3 – 0 sweep.

Just prior to the latest debacle, India was the deliverer of a severe knock, with wins by 197, 178 and an astonishing 321.

Ninety-four Test sides never scored lower than the 256 New Zealand produced in Sydney.

India are coming over for a couple Tests and in typical fashion, wasted no time in delivering sound bites such as, “Play in the shadows,” and “The uncomfortable truth.”

In the words of cricket correspondent Bharat Sundaresan, “They didn’t face Australia or India, home or away, and didn’t have to tour South Africa. The three teams basically, who they simply haven’t managed to compete against or even push to any great extent in recent years.”

Climbing up the table on the backs of lesser countries is one way to get there, but when it comes time to produce against the major powers, New Zealand have failed spectacularly.

The post Bush Fire Smoke Produces Black Cap Lethargy appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

We do not intend to throw predictions about sports outcomes in 2020, but we have seen, over the past few years, perhaps the entire decade, a trend in sports to adapt to the pace of life, a pace that has accelerated as delayed gratification has been replaced with instant gratification.

We are speaking our course, about efforts to shorten sports contests to better match our shortening attention spans.

Whenever pro sports leagues have their annual meetings to plan for the next season, the topic of speeding up games is omnipresent.

Since New Zealanders are keen on rugby, we found the proposal by former England hooker Brian more interesting.

Moore favours the elimination of conversions and make tries worth seven points.

He made mention of the length of time teams were given to attempt conversions, stating that eliminating conversions would save as many as five minutes during a typical game.

Ignoring Sevens for the moment, Moore questions the difficulty of converting from tries scored near the corners.

Most football fans would agree that a try scored is better than a try unscored. The aspect of the game that makes it easier to score wide, with the resulting conversion being more difficult is an aspect that we feel adds an important tactical element to the game and demands precision from conversion kickers.

Given the chance, a player on a break with a clear path to the line will do everything possible to move the cross closer to the posts.

The “Interminable breaks in play that could be eradicated to make watching more enjoyable,” in Moore’s words, but as we have matured, by which we mean gotten older, breaks in the action give us the perfect amount of time to hit the loo and grab a fresh tinny.

That, combined with the fact that a minute is already shorten than it used to be, has us resisting Moore’s proposal, while at the same time, making us exceedingly grateful that once the rugby starts, the clock ticks, unlike the NFL, where the clock stops far more often than it runs.

The post Former Pom Hooker Suggests Eliminating Rugby Conversions appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

His length and bulk would make for a fearsome scrummer in the rugby codes or more possibly, a forward or a ruck in the AFL.

Breathe easy, any NRL or AFL club that would hate to be on the wrong side from Adams.

The Oklahoma City Thunder big man inked a four-year deal with his NBA club during the 2017 – 2018 NBA season that pays him $US 100 million over four years.

Adams could easily purchase an AFL or NRL club outright and never miss the money.

Add to that the fact that he does okay as a basketball player and he played a major role in the Thunder erasing a large deficit and posting the biggest comeback in the club’s history in a 109 – 106 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

In a tight finish, the Bulls had the right idea, sending Adams to the free-throw line. Adams banked the first one in, and then grabbed a rebound on his miss to complete a comeback from 26 points down.

It was actually Chris Paul who did the heavy lifting in the fourth quarter for Oklahoma City and the come-from-behind win was the biggest in the NBA this season, but even though Adams was a bit below his usual output in terms of points, rebounds, etc., he did what was required in finalising the remarkable victory. He scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds, but that 11th rebound was the one that counted.

Cris Paul made five three-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Thunder ate into a deficit that was 26, 19 at the half and 8 going into the fourth quarter.

In the final four seconds, Pal lobbed an inbounds pass to Adams, who was fouled during his attempt to catch the entry.

Were we the Chicago Bulls, we would have done the same thing in fouling Adams, who is the owner of a 51.5 percent free-throw percentage.

True to form, Adams banked in the first free throw, although no player ever deliberately attempts to bank a free throw. The second attempt clanked of the back of the rim and came straight to Adams. He threw the ball back out to Paul, who made two free throws to secure the win.

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The human brain is like an egg yolk, fits loosely inside the skull and does not appreciate being sloshed about and slammed into the bones of the head.

Progress is being made. More attention over the last few years to the potential long-term consequences of blows to the head have revealed that having one’s ‘bell rung’ is a temporary malady in the short term, but damage to the brain can come along years subsequent to the retirement of players involved in contact sports.

The syndrome has a fancy name, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CPE), which is easier to discuss using the word ‘concussion.’

A new initiative in New Zealand designed by the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the University of Auckland is looking for rugby players to undergo post-mortem brain autopsies in an attempt to better understand and prevent players from living out their days with any manner of cognitive difficulties.

CBR released a statement about the new research that said, in part, “Adding a sports injury aspect to its existing research platform is a significant step for the CBR and promises to deepen our understanding of the impact sports injuries have on the brain.”

Understanding the long-term impact of numerous knocks to the head is the goal for the CBR and they intend to work with other researchers in a collaborative effort to prevent athletes in contact sports codes from suffering decades after they have hung up the boots.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank in the U.S. is undertaking a similar task and the CBR can benefit and build on the work done in the NFL.

American gridiron players wear high tech protective headgear, yet give the fragile anatomy of the skull and the brain, those helmets have not eliminated concussions.

The biggest strides have been in various leagues in removing players at any indication of head trauma.

In the old days, a concussed player was given a snort of ammonium carbonate (smelling salts) and sent right back out on the ground.

The post University of Auckland Scientists Undertake Concussion Study appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

It is, after all, Canadian football and SBW already a giant of proper football of the sort played in the southern hemisphere, should find himself a giant amongst midgets when he plays at Toronto.

Williams is doing nothing of the sort, however, and has been involved in intensive training ahead of his debut in the English Super League.

We did see a photo of Williams doing a backflip from a trampoline into a pit of foam blocks, hence our allusion to Maccas and the pit of brightly covered balls that hold intense fascination for the kiddies that pledge allegiance to the Golden Arches.

Williams is working hard, not content to simply show up and collect his swag. He is undergoing an intensive 30-day boot camp at Australia’s high performancefacilityin Kingscliff, NSW.

SBW has felt the injury bug over his last several seasons and the programme he is currently using is intended to help him remain on the ground, as he will be a bid draw for Super League spectators and viewers who take a dim view of big-name players sitting out games.

Williams is attempting to learn how to protect his body. At 34, he does not have the luxury of missing a season and the $10 million Toronto will pay him will doubtless have a big impact of Williams’ rainy day fund.

There are other footballers in attendance, so what Williams is doing would not be considered radical.

Cooper Cronk used to do something similar as his clock wound down, but the pit into which he dove was not filled with foam blocks.

Cronk’s pit was filled with glass shards, rusty metal and used surgical instruments, all of which were doused with petrol and set alight.

Williams told Nine News, “The finished product is the big lights. You earn that right through that week, through pre-season, behind closed doors, when you’re at home doing your stretching, eating the meals that you probably don’t want to always eat. That’s how you get to that point.”

Hopefully, some of Williams’ meals are happy ones.

The post SBW Prepares Intensely for U.K. Super League Debut with Toronto appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

Watch out world! A New Zealander has taken the helm with the Wallabies.

The topic for now, however, is the impact a certain Simon Jones produced when he went to Japan for a role with the Brave Blossoms.

As the strength and conditioning coach, he helped the team move past Tier 2 status to the point that finds them ranked sixth in the world following the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Jones is credited with showing the Japanese players how to develop the strength and stamina to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals.

Jones is back in New Zealand to see if he can work similar magic with the Highlanders in time for the 2020 Super Rugby season.

Japan is savvy when it comes to gaining a desired objective. They could have insisted on a Japanese management group, but they went to the source of all that is best when it comes to football, using an all-New Zealand team, including coach Jamie Joseph, Tony Brown, Scott Hansen and Karl McDonald.

The question of perspective figures prominently in Jones’ case.

Had he had a role in the All Blacks third placing in the World Cup, he might be looking for work. Getting Japan into the quarterfinals means that he may never have to pay for his own rice and sake ever again.

Jones spent three years in Japan and while it initially may have seemed a lost cause, the New Zealand management team of which Jones was part showed the Brave Blossoms where they needed to improve to gain relevance.

“We did a lot of high volume running, and I don’t mean shuttles, it was during our actual rugby sessions. We based a lot of it on rugby metrics – what were the longest phases of rugby, how long is the ball in play normally, what do we need to do to play at a speed that was above the norm. We targeted the higher end of all those levels and trained above that, probably for longer than other teams.”

“You can still see the effect that it’s having in Japan on social media, I think there’s even a street parade coming up in December,” Jones said, in a report published by Southland Sport.

The post Simon Jones back in New Zealand after Whipping Japan into Shape appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

Us?

Not so much, but then, we are crammed into an aluminum tube that invariably is populated by screaming babies and people for whom the term moderation does not apply when it comes to the subject of body fragrance application.

You might think basketball players like to fly. They mainly have chartered flights for the team and support personnel.

No babies, no perfume overdoses. We hope they get plenty of legroom, as we never do and we are not lanky basketball players.

Of late, however, it seems that basketball players have a low opinion of air travel.

A case, perhaps, of familiarity breeding contempt?

There was a recent incident involving an NBA player who suffered an anxiety attack from ingesting a marijuana-infused candy on a team flight. He was high as a kite while high in the sky.

Now, news reaches us that New Zealand Breakers’ player Tom Vodanovich mixed sleeping pills with alcohol on a flight.

Sleeping pills and alcohol are the method of choice for some of those with a suicidal mindset, but we doubt that Vodanovich falls into that category, at least, that would be our hope.

The Breakers, to put it mildly, have been navigating choppy waters.

They have won just two games in the 2019 – 2020 NBL competition.

Their star import, Glen Rice Junior, a former player in the NBA, was suspended indefinitely pending the outcome of an alleged assault with intent to injure.

On balance, we would be less harsh toward Vodanovich, who said that he had no recollection of the flight from Perth to New Zealand.

It is often tempting to declare these incidents as the result of rich athletes taking advantage of their elevated status, but the prevalence of these behavioural incidents expose the raw underbelly of professional athletes, where players have difficult times trying to be everywhere at once and succumb to the pressures of a lifestyle that is far from healthy or ideal.

The post Breakers Vodanovich Adds Another Issue to Turbulent Breakers appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

We do not know who it will be, but the bloke had better be ready to suffer the slings and arrows of ascending to a role where comparisons to Hansen will not be limited to football results only.

The new man might face a presser where he is asked why he did not enter the car park at Trafalgar by the same route Hansen took.

One prominent name that has arisen in the hunt to fill the All Blacks coaching vacancy is that of Tony Brown, who has indicated that he would be loyal to Jamie Joseph, who took Japan to the quarterfinals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Brown has said, “I think our relationship [with Joseph], how we coach, how we know each other is what I love about the game of rugby. I’ve decided that me and him, wherever he goes I will go. I’m not sure where that is.”

Brown has limits to his loyalty to Joseph, however, as he has ruled out following Joseph to the Wallabies, if that eventuality were to unfold as Australia seeks a replacement for Michael Cheika.

Warren Gatland might make a logical choice, but the Hamilton born coach has an agreement to take the British and Irish Lions on tour to South Africa in 2021, so New Zealand might find Gatland a costly selection.

We would suggest that the new New Zealand coach might need protection from a mob of torch and pitchfork wielding New Zealand peasants should the All Blacks commit the unforgiveable sin and lose a game to Australia, but everyone knows there are no peasants in New Zealand.

New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey is part of a panel of five that will make the decision on Hansen’s replacement and he did little to temper expectations when he told reporters, “This is a hugely exciting time for New Zealand Rugby. We know that the All Blacks and New Zealand have been served well by exceptional coaches, so we are well aware of the importance of the task ahead.”

The post Hansen’s Successor will Need Extra Thick Rhino Skin appeared first on New Zealand Bookmakers Blog - News, Odds and Information.

Ten million is almost NBA money and it is certainly NFL money, at least for some on the lower-paid positions.

Toronto is playing its first season in the top tier of the English Super League after beginning in 2017 as a third-tier club in League 1.

Canada is a huge market for rugby fans, trailing only Australia, France, New Zealand and the U.K. in terms of followers.

Williams is 34 and if there were ever a professional footballer who deserved one last chance to cash the big cheque, it would be SBW.

He could have got nothing near $10 million playing in the NRL, although some clubs expressed an interest.

Signing with a newer club reminds us of MLS bringing in David Beckham for some star power. Toronto coach Brian McDermott said as much.

Williams has played all over the place.

He made 118 NRL appearances in two stints, from 2004 – 2008 with the Canterbury Bulldogs. He left for a spell, and then returned in 2013 to play for the Chooks.

SBW has played in France and Japan, and has played a lot of union football.

Wolfpack owner David Argyle had almost an entire side of superstars as targets, with Williams as the bullseye.

Argyle has since removed himself from the leadership position he held with the club as chairman and chief executive after copping to directing a racist slur at a visiting English player.

Our first inclination was to doubt that a Canadian would offend anyone for any reason, until we found out that Argyle made his fortune extracting minerals in Australia, that is, he is/was a miner.

The addition of Williams will find him joining his fellow New Zealander Bodene Thompson (from Warrington).

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