The All Blacks rookie who could be a surprise Rugby World Cup gem – Chris Rattue’s winners and losers

OPINION:

WINNERS: Tamaiti Williams/All Blacks

New Zealand has found the prop they have long been looking for.

The young Crusaders front-rower is a physical colossus, plays both sides, is a mobile ball runner, can win
turnovers, is imbued with the Crusaders’ defensive ethics, and his snappy short passes are in the Brodie Retallick class for a tight forward.

Injuries to more experienced Crusaders have helped the All Blacks find, potentially, a surprise 2023 World Cup gem, with a great future beyond that.

I have not seen a New Zealand prop with more potential than Williams. He has it all, and that includes rising from the outstanding Crusaders system.

Williams confirmed he is a superstar prospect in a torrid Super Rugby final win over the Chiefs. Most impressively the 22-year-old almost lasted the distance and was particularly prominent smashing the ball up in the early exchanges.

Unlike flamboyant hookers, props mainly to go about their business with little fanfare around the world apart from a few exceptions like former Springbok Tendai Mtawarira.

About the only All Blacks props to step out of the low-profile zone are the infamous ones, particularly Keith Murdoch and Richard Loe.

Williams looks something special though, and his bulk is a big part of that.

No pressure…but Williams has got cult hero written all over him.

LOSER: Rugby/sports sanity

Welcome to sport’s version of a lunatic asylum.

Welcome to groundhog day.

I don’t watch too much rugby these days — as little as possible — and the Super Rugby final was simply more proof of what a good decision that is.

Will this basketcase of a sport ever break free of the endless, mind-numbing referee bashing and ruling analysis that follows virtually every significant game?

Faced with 80-plus minutes of argy-bargy, coaches, pundits and fans feel compelled to do the same afterwards.

Indeed, you could sense a Chiefs whinge in the wind while listening to their assistant coach David Hill’s halftime interview.

Rugby referees, who have an impossible job officiating a sport of infinite angles and rules, are in a lose-lose situation.

They have become the scapegoats for an unstructured sport that has lost its way because professionalism makes demands it cannot meet.

The referees and everyone else are not helped by players such as Chiefs back Anton Lienert-Brown, whose ridiculous upright charge on Crusader Dallas McLeod put the heat on referee Ben O’Keefe.

The Chiefs got a lucky break, with test star Lienert-Brown allowed back on the field after his soft yellow card sanction.

But their coach Clayton McMillan was having none of it as he found a disingenuous way to attack O’Keefe over other decisions.

“I don’t want to bag the ref,” McMillan said after the game, which is just another way of bagging the ref.

McMillan should take his disappointment out on the real culprits like Lienert-Brown and test captain Sam Cane, who is no Richie McCaw when it comes to understanding how to read referees and utilise the rules.

WINNERS: The Warriors

They are already the best Warriors team in the club’s history for my money.

Coach Andrew Webster has worked a miracle.

After smashing the hapless Dragons, Warriors fans have a pivotal game at home against the Rabbitohs to salivate over this Friday.

The place will be packed. The revolution has arrived.

The club’s two grand final teams quickly disintegrated for an array of reasons.

But something says that, finally, success is here to stay, that this is a club that can be in the hunt most seasons.

The medium-term concerns involve Shaun Johnson and Tohu Harris, the key playmakers who are in their 30s and play in a way that will be hard to replace.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…the rest of the season shapes as an exhilarating ride.

WINNER: Mark Zuckerberg v Elon Musk/hyperbole

The Facebook, oops Meta, boss and Twitter handler are taunting each other towards an MMA clash in the octagon cage.

UFC boss Dana White says it would be the “biggest fight ever in the history of the world”. In other words, it would make White a truckload of money.

Still, I’d watch it, although the predicted $160 pay-per-view would sting.

WINNER: Martina Navratilova

The 66-year-old tennis legend, who has had throat and breast cancer, announced she is clear of the disease. Fantastic news.

WINNER: Edgbaston atmosphere

The first Ashes cricket test was an absolute classic. Cricket at its best. England have kept their adventurous spirit on a roll by including an 18-year-old leg spinner in the squad for the second test against Pat Cummins’ Australia.

Crazy declarations are one thing. Throwing Rehan Ahmed to the wolves is another — it would be a shock if he played at Lord’s, which is hardly a spinner’s paradise.

Even Bazball has its limits.

WINNER: Amateur boxing

As knockout blows go, it isn’t one.

Dodgy boxing has been kicked out of the Olympics, apparently.

Yet it will still feature in Paris next year, and has apparently been guaranteed a place at the Los Angeles Games four years later.

Huh?

What’s the bet it gets to stay in the Olympics, somehow.

A boxing breakaway has already been mooted, to that end.

WINNER/LOSER: Anti-racism/All Whites

I beg to disagree.

The All Whites should not have walked off the field, over an alleged racist remark by a Qatari opponent in Austria.

It is not the players’ place to be both judge and jury, to make such decisions in the heat of the moment.

Of course the fight against racism is important, for football and society.

But players also have the right to properly defend themselves, against both the facts of any charge or any misinterpretation.

And referees can’t rely on the claims of one side or the other if they haven’t heard an offensive remark themselves.

I don’t believe fans, teammates or opponents etc should pay for the sins of one player either.

The matter needed to be dealt with after the game.

And where does this end?

In other words, who gets to decide which issues are important enough for an international sports walk-off or not?

WINNER: Queensland

Their State of Origin glory is built around a connection with their fans.