The United States Of Hubris

Pundits who believe a team of NFL players could easily beat the All Blacks are buying into a sporting myth.

- Paul Thomas

It seems I underestimated the tenuousness of New Zealand’s claim to be the pre-eminent rugby nation. As noted last week, there was a time when leading All Blacks thought world domination was France’s for the taking. That didn’t eventuate, but it turns out we’re sitting on a time bomb: if the US ever put its mind to it, the All Blacks would go from rooster to feather duster in the blink of an eye.

After watching a few minutes of US college rugby as he was getting a haircut, ESPN writer Kevin Van Valkenburg tweeted that if he had a year, a handful of National Football League (NFL) superstars and an NFL practice squad, “the US would so thoroughly dominate rugby, other counties would quit”.

You might think that’s a big statement, but apparently not. According to some local writers, you’d have to be a “Trump-sized” ignoramus or bent out of shape by the “true national psyche of New Zealand: insecurity” to believe otherwise.

Up against the wall in dunce’s caps, we were pelted with assertions. By virtue of its population and wealth, the US produces super beings and has vastly superior training programmes and development and support systems.