Started with having to avoid rubbing in the Bledisloe and assuring the Aussies that the Wallabies had been a bit unlucky. Kiwi John Smith, on humouring fellow staff at the Melbourne college where he works
Not a great run of sporting results
By Roger Childs
In fact it’s be a lousy ten days for sports fans across the Tasman. It started with the Wallabies snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the Dunedin test.
Leading 29-28 late in the game, they lost their focus and let the All Blacks run in the winning try in the 77th minute.
Then the Aussie cricketers lost the first test to Bangladesh by 20 runs.
Worse was to follow. Australia’s tennis number one, Nick Kygios, who was a finalist in the recent Cincinnati tournament, crashed out of the US Open being beaten in the second round, by the unseeded John Millman 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
How about football in Japan? No joy: the Socceroos lost 2-0 in their bid to qualify for the World Cup.
Well at least the netballers would save the day.
A certainty?
The Diamonds are ranked number one in world netball. Surely cleaning up the quad series tournament would be a formality. They were set to meet the Silver Ferns in the final game having disposed of South Africa and England earlier. The Kiwi had lost to the Roses.
An Australian victory was as sure a bet as the All Blacks beating the Wallabies.
But, as in Dunedin, the expected winners under-estimated the opposition. The Australians never recovered from a poor start and the Silver Ferns got home comfortably 57-47. They won the quad tournament as well.
Good times for Kiwi Sports teams
On this side of the Tasman the results have been pretty good.
As well as the rugby and netball victories, the All Whites beat the Solomon Island 6-1 and the canoeists, led by legend Lisa Carrington, picked up a hat-full of medals at the World Championships in the Czech Republic.
However we mustn’t rub it in!