Sir Peter Snell recalls his Tokyo double 50 years on

Sir Peter Snell was clearly an athletics freak, yet it can only be wondered what might have been missed had he not been inclined to check out what Arthur Lydiard had to offer as a coach.

Fifty years on from his finest expression of his abilities on the track in Tokyo at the 1964 Olympic Games, Peter Snell's feat in winning the 800m-1500m double has never been repeated by a male.

Clearly the most dominant middle-distance runner of his era, Snell achieved at a level that can only be admired, all the moreso with the passage of time. That the 800m world record he set, on grass, at Christchurch's Lancaster Park in 1962 still stands as New Zealand's best time over the distance is testimony enough to his class.

There were many other aspects of his career that demand admiration.

But it is his moves after competing in Tokyo, and then coming home to set two more world records at meetings in Auckland in November 1964, that provide a demonstration of his drive.

His subsequent move to study in the United States, and his achieving a doctorate in exercise physiology is just as inspiring in demonstrating that in spite of not making the most of his ability in academic terms in his youth, he was able to achieve subsequently.

It was no mean feat to be named New Zealand's Sportsman of the 20th Century but it was just one of a host of accolades this remarkable Kiwi achieved.

He spoke with me as a celebration of his Tokyo success 50 years on at Radio Live in Auckland in September 2014.

You can listen here: 

Sir Peter Snell Interview

McCaw, Carter can lead All Blacks to World Cup win

Robbie Deans still has the desire to coach the All Blacks.

 

In Auckland to begin a nationwide tour to launch his autobiography, Rugby in Red, Black and Gold, Deans pre-empted the obvious question from the media by introducing the subject himself.

"I get asked if I aspire to coach the All Blacks? The All Blacks are the ultimate coaching gig, who wouldn't want to coach the All Blacks?

"You've got the best players in the world and they are players who understand the responsibility they have, and the privilege they have."

Deans said he wasn't obsessed with the position, and that was probably a good thing. But it was a case of not knowing what was around the corner. For the moment he was enjoying his stint with Panasonic in Japan.

He felt the All Blacks were playing well at the moment and making a strong case for their World Cup campaign next year.

New Zealand were still benefiting from the key move they made in 2003 when they put a 'huge amount of work into leadership', within the All Blacks to ensure they could master their own destiny.

"It didn't happen quickly. They thought they were ready to go in 2007 but ultimately they weren't. Richie [McCaw] talked about it himself in his own book. It takes time but to win the World Cup you have got to have genuine leadership beyond the captain.

"You have to have a captain of substance for a start and he's got to have a support crew and New Zealand have done a huge amount of work on it and they have done it very well.

"You see it routinely, getting home in games late. That's not about directions from the coach's box, that's about those blokes out there," he said.

The All Blacks would go well in next year's World Cup, he said. They were driven, had good leadership and they had an opportunity to do something that had never been done – to win away from home and to be the first team to win three World Cups.

"I'm not a betting man, but I wouldn't be betting against them," he said.

And two of the players he introduced to Super Rugby and International rugby, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter had roles to play in the exercise.

Deans said McCaw's career had been remarkable.

"He continues to defy the norms. What he puts his body through and the fact he continues to grow, and you constantly get these suggestions that he's no longer as good as he was. What a load of nonsense.

"He just keeps ahead and he uses everything he's got to do that, but most importantly with Richie, the point of difference with him now, is that you get another two or three percent out of everyone else around him. So you're talking about another 50 percent from the team - simply because he's there. He's making an impact not just by what he does but through his influence.

"It's unprecedented. He deserves the title [greatest All Black] that [Colin] Meadsy had for so long," he said.

Deans said it was no surprise the All Blacks selectors were giving first five-eighths Dan Carter all the time to come back into the side. He could still be a point of difference.

"I would be confident he will get that job done. He doesn't fail in too many things he sets his mind to. His experience, his left foot, his defence, his attack, his decision-making are the defining things in those moments and we haven't seen him at that end of a tournament – the business end of a World Cup, we haven't seen him yet.

"He's a bit like Richie, he could take it to another level and in doing that, I'm not talking about as an individual, I'm talking about his influence on the whole group. That's what great players do – they make teams better," he said.

The injuries he had suffered were frustrating, but were down to the speed at which backs played. They were more vulnerable to soft tissue injuries and to impacts because they were travelling faster whereas forwards took blows at a slower speed, he said, adding there was probably a physics explanation of that phenomenon.

Deans believes that despite all the turmoil surrounding his own dismissal and that of Ewen McKenzie, Australia still have the ability to win next year's World Cup.

While feeling some understanding for McKenzie, Deans said international coaching was 'a tough gig' and what was happening in Australia was not good for the game.

He believed coach Michael Cheika was good enough to get the best out of the side. "His flame burns hot and he will get a lift out of them," he said.

"If Australia came through their pool well they are a team still capable of becoming the first side to win the World Cup three times. If they come through their pool all right they are very well positioned to go on and win. Australia have got serious X factor but the key area is up front," he said.

Deans said from a New Zealander's point of view it was vital that Australian rugby was strong.

"One of my motivations in going to coach in Australia was actually the importance of Australia to New Zealand. It is very important to New Zealand rugby that Australia is competitive and strong. And having been over there and experienced the environment, it is a tenuous environment. It's a tough environment," he said.

But the game had to be viable.

"They are competing in the world's toughest tournament, [the Rugby Championship] which was a point of advantage so long as the side remained competitive and the game remained viable domestically and that's their biggest challenge.

"Because they are competing in the toughest sporting environment in the world in terms of other codes [AFL, NRL and the A-League]. And they're all village games, wherever you go people have an interest down the street and that's rugby's challenge in Australia," he said.

"Cheika knows the context [rugby politics] intimately. But he doesn't get involved in the off-field stuff. That will be an asset.

"The politics don't worry him, he's his own man," Deans said.

And having the ability to pick his own support staff would be vital. Deans said not being able to choose his own people had been like 'coaching with an anchor'.

"Michael Cheika knows the situation. He came out of the heart of Randwick and was a good appointment for the Waratahs and his personality is such that he doesn't get involved in the off-field stuff. He tends to drive his thinking, and his actions and the group to the things that are important to them.

So far as the 'enfant terrible' who was behind all the controversy, Kurtley Beale was vital to the Australian side.

"Kurtley Beale is a great kid but he does some daft things. He's vulnerable to the company he keeps, and that's the key. It would be a great shame to see him lost to the game. He's got a point of difference and he's a player people turn up to watch."

Wallabies can still win World Cup in spite of turmoil

Former Wallabies and Crusaders, and All Blacks assistant coach Robbie Deans believes that despite all the turmoil surrounding his own dismissal last year and the resignation of Ewen McKenzie, Australia still have the ability to win next year's World Cup.

While feeling some enmity with McKenzie, who resigned after Saturday's 28-29 defeat by the All Blacks, Deans said international coaching was 'a tough gig' and what was happening in Australia following the Kurtley Beale textgate controversy was not good for the game.

He believed incoming coach Michael Cheika was good enough to get the best out of the side.

"His flame burns hot and he will get a lift out of them," he said.

"If Australia came through their pool well they are a team still capable of becoming the first side to win the World Cup three times. If they come through their pool all right they are very well positioned to go on and win. Australia have got serious X factor but the key area is up front," he said.

Deans said from a New Zealander's point of view it was vital that Australian rugby was strong.

But the game had to be viable.

"They are competing in the world's toughest tournament, [the Rugby Championship] which was a point of advantage so long as the side remained competitive and the game remained viable domestically and that's their biggest challenge.

"They are competing in the toughest sporting environment in the world in terms of other codes [AFL, NRL and the A-League]. And they're all village games, wherever you go people have an interest down the street and that's rugby's challenge in Australia," he said.

Australian rugby was poles apart from New Zealand, however.

"The distinction between Australia and New Zealand is essentially the background of the players – what they've come out of and what they go back to routinely and from that end they are poles apart."

New Zealand had a much more competitive structure right through the grades. There was a strong schools competition in New Zealand whereas Australia's top schools played about six games a year.

"Players are only as good as the competitions they come out of. It starts from age group because they whole way through there is competition and players become accustomed to competing and accustomed to the fact they need to keep growing and developing because they understand the moment they relent someone will go past them.

There were no guarantees either financially or in playing strength that Australia could remain at the top. Finance was always an issue while there was the prospect of a mass exodus of players after the World Cup.

New Zealand had been through the same situation and it was in 2001 when a high performance meeting was held to set priorities in place. It was something New Zealand had been able to do because the NZR control the revenue streams and control most of the appointments. Through that power they can make decisions in the best interests of the game.

They realised that if the All Blacks jersey suffered they might not have anything to run off.

Deans said he was still enjoying the game and was enjoying the change in Japan with the Panasonic club but he said he didn't know what was around the corner but he was up for whatever was.

"My grandfather stopped me playing basketball once. I suggested I was going to play basketball and he said, 'I don't think so' and closed it down very quickly. Imagine if I told him I was going to coach the Wallabies?"

He said he was much better equipped as a coach now as a result of his experiences for whatever comes.

Keep mediocrity at bay

This year's election campaign has got to be one of the most disappointing in recent history.

It may be the uptake of early votes holds a surprise for us yet but it is hard to escape the feeling that the country is sleepwalking its way toward the future.

It doesn't help that so-called leaders' debates are increasingly about the host rather than the combatants. Everything is so sanitised.

Dirty politics came as no surprise. The opportunism demonstrated by the participants merely confirmed a style of government foreign to everything New Zealanders have come to accept.

A country that lent two generations of its young men to two World Wars, which struck out with the people's support on a nuclear-free policy that is still in place and which has carved its own place in the rough-tough world out there, continues to find itself without a vision.

Neither of the leading parties have cared to demonstrate an illuminated path to the future in their election talk.

And one of those parties is heading towards taking New Zealand into a free-trade agreement, and probably the other party is in agreement, about which the voting public have no say whatsoever.

Is this government by the people, for the people?

Perhaps the best analysis of where New Zealand is heading was provided by Gordon Campbell in a piece that deserved far more coverage than it appears to have received. I have no qualms in putting a link to it here.

http://werewolf.co.nz/2014/09/third-term-losers

Frankly, New Zealand deserves better than what has been offered so far in the election campaign.

As Van Morrison so aptly put it, 'We've got to fight every day to keep mediocrity at bay'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShMpkx_toFw

Spring in Auckland, 2014. The Tuis have been going to town.

Craig Cachopa throws his lot in with England instead of NZ

Craig Cachopa has given away ideas of playing for New Zealand and is attempting to qualify for England.

Cachopa, who has signed a two-year contract with Sussex, made a half-century in each innings of his county championship opening game against Warwickshire.

The former New Zealand Under-19 captain was attracted to England after playing with Luke Wright and Chris Nash during New Zealand's domestic season.

Cachopa told The Cricket Paper he had been on holiday in Paris when he was rung by Nash and asked if he could play for the Sussex 2nds a week later and after doing well in that appearance he had continued to play, winning his first team place at the Horsham Festival.

Cachopa holds a Portugese passpart, courtesy of his father Joe.

"I wanted to be a Black Cap one day, but things have changed now and I am trying to qualify to play for England. Every cricketer wants to play at the highest level," he said.

Cachopa's brothers Carl and Brad have joined with Auckland for the forthcoming first-class cricket season.

Kevin Skinner's legacy is more than just his play in 1956

It would be a great shame if All Black great Kevin Skinner, who died on Monday, aged 86, was to be remembered only for his 'policing' work during the 1956 series win over South Africa.

The details are part of rugby mythology and have often been greatly exaggerated.

It must have caused some frustration to the front row prop to be forever associated with the so-called 'sorting out' of the South African front row when he was recalled from retirement for the third and fourth Tests of the series which inflicted the first series loss on South Africa in the 20^th century.

Before that Skinner had won fame as part of the great Otago rugby team of 1947-50 that played under the control of coach Vic Cavanagh. He toured South Africa in 1949 when New Zealand's scrum proved so dysfunctional in comparison to the Springboks that they called in South Africa liaison man with the team Bo Wintle and Danie Craven to help them.

But, in spite of that, Skinner made his mark on the South Africans in the three Tests in which he played.

He played in the four-Test series against the British and Irish Lions, including the third Test where due to replacements not being allowed, New Zealand played with only six forwards as a result of injuries during the second half, and still won.

While selected as All Blacks captain against the 1952 Australians he did not get the job on the 1953-54 tour to Britain and France. But he did play 27 of the 35 matches.

So to 1956. For all the talk of how he used his punching power to sort out the Springbok scrum, Skinner maintained that there were only two incidents in the third Test and the talk was so bad afterwards about what allegedly went on that Skinner let it go for a while then wrote a letter to the editor of the Auckland Star saying that they had had a fair go with the subject and it was about time they looked at something else.

Skinner did tell author Bob Howitt in his book New Zealand Rugby Greats that his whole approach was based on not backing down.

"We had found in 1949 that the Boks would always try you on. If you showed them what you thought, and didn't back away, they settled down and played rugby," he said to Howitt.

Winston McCarthy in his book "Rugby in my Time" claimed to have the inside story on events in Christchurch.

"Skinner had his first hit in the second lineout in the Christchurch Test. Chris Koch stepped across him [in the first lineout] which blocked him from coming through, and Skinner warned him: 'Don't do it'.

"I think they're about the only words he spoke to them the whole of the tour. The ball went into touch and Koch did it again. So Skinner clocked him. Otherwise it would have just kept on happening. He was cheating, so Skinner said, 'Don't cheat'. There was no trouble in that front row."

McCarthy also related a conversation he had at the Test dinner after the Christchurch match with Springbok Jaapie Bekker.

"Jaapie said, 'Winston, wasn't Kevin Skinner the heavyweight champion of New Zealand?' I said, 'Ja, that's right. Back in 1947 I think it was, Jaapie. Heavyweight amateur champion'.

"He said, 'Does he still box in the right?' 'Oh no,' I said, 'Gee, Kev hasn't been in the ring since 1947'. Jaapie said, 'Well, tell him to take it on again. He's bloody good.'"

But putting it all into context was veteran New Zealand journalism J M Mackenzie who said what Skinner's return had done was give New Zealand 'sorely needed equality in hooking the ball from set scrums and definite supremacy in other aspects of scrummaging'.

South African tour correspondent Reg Sweet summed up the impact of Skinner's inclusion in the Test side when he said: "Skinner was an instant success in the front row, changing positions to oppose Bekker and Koch in their turn and stabilising the New Zealand scrum in a manner not achieved before.

"Skinner was tough, very tough. But he achieved the object of his recall to test rugby, and he walked off Lancaster Park at the end with sleeves rolled up as he always had in South Africa, looking as cool and unruffled as if he had been on a training trot."

In choosing the 30 best international players outside South Africa in his autobiography South African supremo Danie Craven said both Skinner and Johnny Simpson would be his props.

"Here we have two strong and heavy props who can take and give it, whose backs never show any signs of the strain they have to endure. What is more, they not only can stand the strain, but they have that little bit extra which makes the strain of their opponents wellnigh unbearable."

Skinner's place in rugby history is assured but it needs to be remembered for more than just the 1956 series. He was a key contributor to New Zealand finally ridding itself of the aftermath of the 2-3-2 scrum and developing the technique and power that would be the cornerstone of later generations of All Blacks packs.