Wednesday 16 June 2010

Should we stop bagging the Aussies now?

Yeah, I know we like bagging Aussies, but the fact is it’s not reciprocal.

When Australia got thrown out of the 1995 Rugby World Cup quarter-final by an England drop goal and NZ played England the next week in the semi-final, to a man and woman my West London Australian football team and accompanying WAGs were cheering as loudly as I was when Jonah Lomu ran over Mike Catt and the rest of the English rugby team. (And their after-match haka in the main street of Bath had as much enthusiasm as even Pita Sharples would hope for, if not any finesse.)

I’ll wager something similar was happening across the Tasman last night and this morning.  (Well, maybe without the haka.)  I’ll bet that while we NZers were getting excited about Germany kicking Aussie arse, Aussies were getting excited in a more positive way about the All Whites’ success, and were just thrilled as we were when in the last minute they won our first point in World Cup history.  (It’s a bit like seeing your little brother do well, I guess.)

So to test that theory, here’s a selection of last night’s match reports from a suite of Aussie news rags:

FROM villain to hero, Winston Reid did for New Zealand what no one could do for Australia. ..

 

And here’s a poll from Melbourne’s Herald Sun:

Poll
And this was their teaser on the main page:

BitOfAllWhiteSo maybe we should stop bagging the big feller, huh?  Well, maybe not so much anyway.

Finally, in related news, German engineers develop a Vuvezela-blocker for your lounge, and England fans? Well, they’ve been developing their own vuvuzelas for their next game:

UK Vuvuzella

9 comments:

Sean Fitzpatrick said...

Fair comments - the Aussies I know are always perplexed by the kiwi need to slag them off.

MarkT said...

You are right PC. The chip on the shoulder that Kiwi's have about Aussies is mostly one way. Aussies largely see NZ'ers as junior versions of themselves, and congratulate them when they pull off an upset. Similar I would say to the Canada/America relationship. Tall poppy syndrome, and all that...

the drunken watchman said...

mate was lamenting that no kiwis turned up at the Sports' Bar for the RWC final.

"And we went to so much trouble", he said, genuinely perplexed and offended, "we even parked a dummy sheep out the front on a trailer, complete with a carrot stuck up its arse". Bloke just couldnt understand how kiwis could be such bad sports.

And yes they genuinely want NZ to win just as most kiwis are desperate for Australia to lose.

the drunken watchman said...

... wtf continued. Something strange happening here posting comments from afar.

...lost the bit about it being Bali, 1999 RWC final, and my Aussie mate doing the lamenting...

Barnsley Bill said...

I am calling bullshit on this one peter.
Simply put. The Aussies hatred for the British took precedence over their love for mocking the ginga headed stepchild to the west.
They back themselves and anybody playing England.
Their fondness for NZ is irrelevant in the example you offered.

Peter Cresswell said...

@Barnsley: Huh, what would you know about it? Bloody poms telling us our business. Bah.

;^)

Shane Pleasance said...

Yeah, we should stop bagging forthwith. One ounce of trouble from our new neighbours the Chinese/Fiji, and we will get to see just how many friends we need. 'Cause we have nothing.
And I'm not banking on settling our differences with soccer.

sagenz said...

http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/australasia-1--slovakia-1-kiwis-get-the-point-20100616-ydks.html

You are quite right how the ozzies identify with us peter

Andrew B said...

Who would have thought we'd be cheering for a Maori called Winston?