Team Spirit And The Ego

A united front is all important in team sport but, off-field, personality differences can fester.

- Paul Thomas

The violent late-night altercation in Dunedin between Melbourne Rebels rugby players Lopeti Timani and Amanaki Mafi that resulted in the latter facing a charge of injuring with intent to injure is a reminder that sports teams aren’t always the tight brand of brothers or sisters they appear or pretend to be. For all the hugs and high fives, teams are sometimes temporary constructs holding together diverse personalities with little in common and whose effusive solidarity recedes once the final whistle blows.

Hence David Kirk, who led the All Blacks to victory at the 1987 World Cup, contemplating the prospect of a reunion of the dominant Auckland team of the mid-1980s: “I wouldn’t have a beer with some of them next Thursday night, let alone in 20 years’ time.”

In recent years, the Australian men’s cricket team have provided notable examples of this divergence between appearance and reality. That’s perhaps not so much of a surprise following revelations earlier this year that disgraced vice-captain David Warner isn’t warmly regarded by some of his teammates.