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Richie McCaw after having his eye gouged - Source: ONE News -
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First things first; there I was, your faithful columnist, the day after the Rugby World Cup final - packing up my gear in Auckland to head home to Wellington - with a hectic six weeks of hugely enjoyable work completed on the tournament - when a newspaper website rang to ask me for more details about an assertion I had just made that day on a final radio wrap-up show. I had said on radio that I had seen a French rugby player commit, in the last minutes of the World Cup final, some eye-gouging on the All Black captain Richie McCaw.
The horror of what I had thought I had seen on the TV coverage from Eden Park had been confirmed for me a day later from within the All Blacks wider World Cup camp. So I mentioned the attack on McCaw on National Radio.
I thought it was worthy of being made known - and still do. I am very certain eye gouging has no place in any game and even if it does occur late in any game - it has to be revealed so that those who perpetrate such violence - either by accident or design - are identified and asked to explain. If it is proven such an incident happened then - again, either by accident or design - that player deserves a degree of sanction.
But after my radio utterances all hell broke loose - and suddenly I felt the weight of not actually reporting the news - but being right in it!
The first mentions came within minutes onto fast reacting newspaper internet sites (they must have radio monitors on their staff). The headlines first shouted; "Quinn Makes Allegations!"
My phone then started ringing and didn't stop all day. Reporters from all over the place; radio, TV, newspapers, and blog sites - around New Zealand and offshore - all wanted to know if I was 'for real' in suggesting that Richie McCaw's eyes had been attacked during the Rugby World Cup final.
I stuck to my guns I hope - all the while wondering why I was the only one who had seen the alleged incident. (There were after all many hundreds of reporters and media at the ground on the night and millions of viewers.)
The attention on myself only died down when extra video of the incident was revealed during the same afternoon by TV coverage which showed in more graphic detail the actions of a French player, Aurelien Rougerie, in a fiery late-match ruck. His hand was seen raking across McCaw's eyes, catching in the New Zealanders left eyelid and stretching it alarmingly. That is how I viewed it anyway (though, to be fair, some of my mates say they did not see anything like that at all).
The much-loved All Black captain was shown needing considerable attention from medical staff and he snarled something about what had happened to the referee as he jogged back to position and the game resumed. (In the days afterwards McCaw said he had no idea whether the actions on him were deliberate but his team mate Kieran Read did let slip on one TV news outlet that McCaw had told him at the time that he 'had been eye-gouged.')
With the better video vision the papers and TV stations thankfully started leaving my name off their headlines; suddenly they became 'We Can Now Reveal' etc, as the various media outlets climbed further into the story and claimed their own involvement. Fair enough. I was relieved.
The point now is; to this day I do not know if Monsieur Rougerie's actions on McCaw were deliberate. Probably only the Frenchman does. But he seems to have got away with no discussion at all on the incident by rugby's authorities.
If his actions were accidental he still ought to come under some consideration for sanction, warning or punishment. Car accidents bring punishment sometimes don't they?
The Rugby World Cup Final is rugby's biggest world exposure occasion and for a man's eyesight to be endangered in such a game (in any game actually) deserves at the very least to be scrutinized so that it does not happen again.
If I may speak modestly here; I think I have a fair record of identifying foul play in rugby. My commentaries on World Cup games this time marked the 40th anniversary since I was a fumbling lad who called the fourth Test on radio 1ZB in Auckland when the British Lions played New Zealand in 1971.
In the years since I can also recall getting it in the neck from the New Zealand TV public for being sort of 'disloyal' for identifying an All Black who committed a serious stomping foul on a famous Welsh player in a tour game. And I know another time I cost another All Black Test player his chance to be considered for going to a World Cup because I had revealed when asked by the selectors to identify who had kicked a rival in a final All Black World Cup trial. I also got in it in the neck from a number of people for being the 'bad guy' when another All Black was involved in an infamous eye-gouging incident in an NPC final. No need to mention the names involved here. If you recall the incidents you will know who I am talking about.
So under the heading of being consistent I stand by my exposure of the Rougerie incident. Sure it happened at the end of the World Cup final and wild celebrations broke out about three minutes later. With no actions being taken I have also reflected on what Kiwis would have said if New Zealand had lost the game 8-7 to France and the eye incident had been exposed then? We all know all hell would have broken loose.
The game of rugby was never better exposed than in the six glorious weeks of the 2011 event but even in its last moments of its last game the game still needs protection from itself. Earlier in the tournament Sam Warburton the outstanding young Welsh captain asserted he had accidentally mis-tackled an opponent but he got red-carded for his actions - even later, after a formal hearing, he was sent packing from the tournament. At the very least the actions on McCaw merited some aftermath.
Some French people have asserted that any investigation of what happened to McCaw should be coupled with what the New Zealand captain himself did earlier in the game when the young French plamaker Morgan Parra took a knee in the head. I disagree but they have their view.
Please do not see me as some sort of vigilante; 99% of my broadcasts and discussions over the years have been legitimate conversations on the good things the game offers.
But now with the advantage of a few day's reflection on what happened to McCaw, I find it very interesting and a little sad that most people in rugby authority seemed to see my actions of exposure of the eye-gouging incident, during my four or five hours of 'fame,' as being that of the grouchy guy with the bucket and shovel who was following the elephant's grand parade.
.....
And now to the good stuff; from start to finish the Rugby World Cup 2011 was a 'fist in the air' triumph for our country. From the arrival of 20 international rugby teams, with their crazy, zany, beautiful fans and our own metamorphosis from being a previously conservative rugby-watching nation into wild face-painted, black-wearing, flag on the car, flag on the house, flag in the shop window nation, we loved the whole thing.
Of course there were some issues we had to deal with along the way which made the whole show not perfect, but that's us. Overall it was a great six weeks.
The best part of course for New Zealanders was that the All Blacks won the William Webb Ellis trophy for the first time in 24 years. The 8-7 score line somehow matched the year of the previous win - 19 - '87'. The worst part was that beautiful rugby-mad Christchurch and wonderful north and south (and even Mid) Canterbury never got to see one bit of the footy memories eleven other cities and towns will now have forever. I salute Christchurch and thought about them often over the past six weeks.
In between, hundreds of thousands of us, no - millions of us - actually had the time of our lives. The images will be with us forever.
This World Cup was so beautiful below are one man's personal rambles;
It started in October 2010 when I said to my wife, 'I think I'll buy some tickets for this World Cup. No bugger's going to want this old bloke for media work.' So I bought two Tier II tickets for every game to be played in Wellington. But in the end my family got to enjoy most of them while my diary filled with all manner of invitations.
In the end I did 38 air flights over the World Cup weeks. Not as many flights as some others in the news media but bloody amazing for a free-lancer I reckon.
Over the six weeks of the 2011 Rugby World Cup I got to appear regularly on Sky TV (seven weeks of World Cup Stories), Maori TV (various match commentaries and studio hosting), on TVNZ ( Good Morning every Monday with John McBeth and Brendan Pongia) , on National Radio (as Morning Report's regular guy along with Bob Howitt and John Hart), on Newstalk ZB (across their various outlets but New Plymouth in particular where I have done a weekly half-hour show with Phil Quinney - it's called Quinney versus Quinny - for nearly a decade now), and on Radio Sport ; I spoke at 14 functions (from Dargaville to Dunedin), including hosting the reunions of the 1991 Manu Samoa team and then the 1987 All Blacks; I wrote weekly pieces here for TVNZ's website, for the official RWCup Tournament Magazine and several other publications. And I had the utmost pleasure of shuffling into the press boxes at a number of games and just hanging out with old mates who I had seen at each of the other six World Cups I had been to.
Plus I took two grandkids (aged eight and nine) to a game each (my only turns with the pre-booked Wellington tickets), hosted four noisy dinners parties at home for visiting media mates some of whom stayed over; I also did a road trip for three days with John McBeth - and survived(!), worked with or met socially men and women I hadn't seen for years, avoided some media pricks I am not fond of, ate and drank too much, put on weight, missed out on my regular Wellington waterfront exercise, had some serious sleeping issues (not enough), was videoed singing the only song I know ('Johnny B Goode') with that funny guy, Leigh Hart; lamented on another record that 'I'll Never Be An All Black'; stayed in some good hotels and bad ones, collected every issue of Rugby Herald, Rugby Heaven and Rugby News and I tried to obtain as many World Cup programmes as I could to store at home (thanks to my wife Anne for her ongoing tolerance).
And finally I must mention that a fortnight into the tournament I got my first 'gold card letter' from John Key's mob, having turned 65 the day after the first visiting team, Tonga, arrived in New Zealand, thus starting all of the madness.
You think I had fun at my seventh Rugby World Cup? I'll say.
Special personal moments; I loved the game I saw in Whangarei when Canada beat Tonga in front of a 'red crowd' (the fans of both teams proudly wearing their country's colours); I cheered loudest when Tonga then beat France in Wellington and I held Maggie Quinn's wee hand in the crush afterwards; I thanked Sam Whitelock inwardly when he leaned out and signed the shirt of grandson James's All Black shirt after the game with Canada ('He's my favourite, Grumpy, said James.')
My most memorable game in the crowds was Samoa v Fiji (a 60,000 slice of Polynesia at Eden Park); I got soaked to the skin in a downpour on my way to see France v Canada in Napier; the most priceless on-field moment I saw was Leigh Halfpenny pulling his headgear back from over his eyes while running at full pace, leading to a vital Welsh try; I hated the ongoing communal booing of Quade Cooper, but I loved the standing ovation that the same crowd spontaneously erupted into three minutes from the end of the All Blacks game against Australia; I could not believe the pass Israel Dagg threw, underhand, for Ma'a Nonu to score in the same game.
And as for the final the grimness of the battle with brave France and the victory taken by Richie McCaw, coach Graham Henry and the other brave and highly-charged All Black battlers, was the icing on the cake of the best six weeks of sporting action I will see in my lifetime.
What do you think? Comment below.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentare you kidding said on 2011-11-01 @ 10:04 NZDT: Report abusive post
Mr Quinn I agree entirerly with you but do you really expect the french to do anything about it. I think we are living in a dream world if we think this will go any further than just a lot of noise. I think it should but in the long run we beat them and we have the cup and they have a lot of crying to do so boo hoo not even eye gouging could get you there.
kezza92 said on 2011-10-31 @ 19:18 NZDT: Report abusive post
Sensational read Quinny - from over here in the Middle East - Kerry H
Tyke said on 2011-10-31 @ 12:15 NZDT: Report abusive post
Unfortunately all Quinn is doing is confirming that NZers are a) bad losers and poor winners and, b) that NZ sports commentators should be renamed AB fan club commentators. Let's have a bit of balance & fairness - what about McCaw's knee incident?
Mock said on 2011-10-31 @ 11:23 NZDT: Report abusive post
Keith, no problems with you calling this at the time but you should have fronted up for calling (or strongly implying) that Desautour was the gouger. And as a separate issue the writing off of the French and the disrespect shown to them before the game by various arrogant journalists was ridiculous. I'm not sure if you were involved in that. As everyone is saying Rougerie should be out for at least 6 months. Richard