A country so used to punching above its weight on the sporting field has seldom seen such success. Last month, the nation's female cricketing White Ferns won the T20 World Cup for the first time just days before their male counterparts secured a first Test series win in India. In Barcelona, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron dominated Ben Ainslie’s Brits to hold on to the America’s Cup; it is a Kiwi in Chris Wood that is powering Nottingham Forest up the Premier League.
So you’d forgive the All Blacks, New Zealand’s highest-profile sporting export, for feeling a little extra pressure as they begin a demanding European tour with a tango in Twickenham this afternoon.
“You look on extremely proudly when you see the country at the bottom of the world punching like that,” Scott Robertson, the New Zealand head coach, said on Thursday. “I just think it shows our fighting spirit. We draw on it, we’re aware of it, we celebrate it as well. It’s something that will inspire us.”
The problem for Robertson’s men is that this has been far from a vintage year for a side so used to being their country’s standard-bearer. Twelve months and one week ago, the All Blacks lost a World Cup final by the barest of margins, the curtain brought down on the Ian Foster era with a flash of red and bowed heads of disappointment.
The hope was that the all-singing, all-breakdancing “Razor” Robertson would inject extra energy and fun back into a brand beginning to lose its sheen. Having built a Christchurch dynasty with the Crusaders, his credentials were impeccable; while the July series win over England was not without problems, it represented a solid start to life in a role where success is a prerequisite.
この記事は The Independent の November 02, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The Independent の November 02, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Why is the American right so obsessed with high IQs?
With Trump and his followers repeatedly using 'low IQ' as an attack line in this election, Roisin Lanigan explores the ploy of invoking an intelligence scale born of eugenics and racism
'ITV's last Tour will be a moment of great sadness'
Four decades of free-to-air Tour de France coverage in the UK coming to an end was a shocker, Ned Boulting, the voice of ITV's long-running broadcasts, tells Lawrence Ostlere
Back to Blacks: game's top brand in search of its sheen
For New Zealand, these have been weeks of a sort of national nirvana.
Van Nistelrooy keen to give new man a welcoming gift
There is no doubting when Ruud Van Nistelrooy accepted the offer to become one of Erik ten Hag's assistants at Manchester United, he had his eyes on the big job.
Amorim enters the theatre of dangerous assumptions
In February, newly furnished with a 27.7 per cent stake in Manchester United but some £1.3bn poorer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe outlined the ethos that he hoped would end 11 years of “complete misery” and take his club to back “where it should be”.
Reeves hasn't supplied the material to build up Britain
Potholes and schools have their place, says Chris Blackhurst. But where were the big ideas to shake off our national gloom?
Relax, chancellor... lettuce is definitely off the menu
Borrowing rates have risen in the aftermath of Rachel Reeves's Budget, hitting a one-year high in the bond market and prompting strained comparisons with the mini-Budget in September two years ago which ended former prime minister Liz Truss's political career.
Teenager being shot in head sparks mass brawl in France
A 15-year-old boy has been left in critical condition after being shot in the head during a drive-by attack allegedly linked to drug trafficking in western France, local officials and media have reported, with hundreds of people caught in a subsequent latenight brawl.
'Ultimate swing county' in dire need of vote counters
Almost 1 million mail-in ballots received in historic surge
'I've never felt so concerned about the state of the world'
Security experts warn Rhian Lubin of a 'new world disorder' if Donald Trump re-enters the White House one that may threaten crucial Western alliances like Five Eyes and Aukus