RIP Philip Hughes 1988-2014

Australia and the cricketing world is in absolute shock following the announcement of the death of Australian test cricketer, Philip Hughes today.

Hughes who was 25, had been in an induced coma since he became unconscious after taking a bouncer on the back of his head while batting for South Australia against his home state, New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Hughes, who would have turned 26 at the end of the month, was reportedly on the verge of a return to the Australian test side for the upcoming series against India after a solid run in domestic cricket having been dropped from the test side last year after a dismal Ashes series.

Hughes made history by becoming the youngest Australian test cricketer to make his debut at the age of 20 when he was named to open with Simon Katich against South Africa at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. Hughes' rise was swift as was his downfall, as his technique was discovered by the English pace attack in the 2009 Ashes series.

Indeed, Hughes would be dropped numerous times from the test side but his talent was very evident for all to see and at age 25, the boy from a town in country NSW which grew bananas was set for a prolonged career with the Baggy Green not dissimilar to fellow Blues, Michael Clarke and Shane Watson.

Alas, we will never see a great talent flourish following this tragedy not dissimilar to Ayrton Senna's in 1994. There will be questions following this tragedy but I hope the governing bodies don't make hasty short-sighted decisions that will damage the game in the long run, i.e. considering banning the bouncer, etc. This is not the time to make changes to the game even as it contemplates its first death as a result of an action in the game.

Finally, thoughts must be with the family as well as rising Aussie fast bowler, Sean Abbott who will forever be affected by this, the latest high profile head injury involving an athlete in the last 12 months after Jules Bianchi and Michael Schumacher.

RIP Philip Hughes 1988-2014

Is this the Best Catch Ever?

The Beckham name has long been associated with great freekicks and goals.

Now it is set to be associated with great catches, thanks to Odell Beckham, Junior. The NFL rookie took this stunning one handed catch for the New York Giants in the Sunday Night Football game against their bitter rivals, the Dallas Cowboys.

Trent Boult et al. eat your heart out!

A Look Back at the 2014 Rugby Season!

9 months after the Chiefs and Crusaders played off in Christchurch, the long 2014 New Zealand rugby season is over with the All Blacks capping off another successful season with a hard-fought win over Wales in Cardiff.

It was always going to be hard to repeat the achievements of the perfect season of 2013 but 2014 should still be regarded as a highly successful season - the All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup, Rugby Championship and beat England in a 3-test series and were unbeaten on their end of year Northern Hemisphere tour.

Moreover, the All Blacks continued to show that a year out from the Rugby World Cup in England, they remain the team to beat even if they aren't quite at the top of their game - their mental strength and endurance are the envy of world rugby with only South Africa (rather fortuitously) overcoming that All Blacks steel in the last 20 minutes to beat them this season.

There will be some criticism about the closeness of the games which the ABs probably would have dominated a couple of years ago, i.e. Scotland and Wales, but that is really to disrespect and discredit the progress the opposition have made under their Kiwi coaches in the last couple of seasons.

The fact that the ABs finished strongly in those games thanks to their depth on the bench should give fans plenty to look forward to in a big year for rugby next year.

Hooker and halfback remain weak points even though Dane Coles, Keven Mealamu and Aaron Smith continue to play starring roles. It's a pity that Nathan Harris got injured early on in the tour as he definitely needed some experience in black, although James Parsons did alright against Scotland. TJ Perenara continues to improve but is nowhere the finished product that Smith is currently - calls for Andy Ellis to make a shock return to black next year are growing ever stronger.

Brodie Retallick, deservedly won IRB Player of the Year - he was definitely an ever-present and consistently the best performing All Black. His absence due to injury was very evident.

Along with Read, McCaw and Aaron Smith, Brodie must surely be one of the ABs' most indispensible players - a credit to his talent given lock is a position with plenty of depth.

So Rugby World Cup year beckons. For once, All Blacks fans can look forward to a more relaxed buildup as champions rather than having the burden of a 20-plus year drought although expectations should remain as high as ever.

However, given the battles that Steve Hansen's men have had to face in the last few years, there is a feeling that 2015 will just be another season for the men in black.

Provincial Rugby
2014 was a memorable year for provincial rugby.

New Zealand had a fine Super Rugby season getting 3 sides into the playoffs, i.e. the Crusaders, Chiefs and Highlanders who ended their 12 year playoff drought on the back of the fine form of Ben Smith and new All Black, Malakai Fekitoa.

The Chiefs and Highlanders unsurprisingly succumbed to the Brumbies and Sharks away from home leaving the Crusaders to fly the flag for New Zealand against the Waratahs in Sydney in the best Super Rugby Final for a long while.

The game was exactly what Australian rugby needed although one might argue that the result probably should have been to the Crusaders who must wait for their 9th Super Rugby title.

The hangover from that final seemed to affect the Canterbury players late on in the ITM Cup. After a flying start which seemed to signal a 7th consecutive title for the red and blacks, a shock defeat to struggling North Harbour marked a downturn of form which saw Canterbury's long reign of the title come to an end - to the joy of many fans who were getting bored by the red and black's dominance of New Zealand provincial rugby.

Taranaki and Tasman benefited from Canterbury's sudden loss of form with Taranaki winning their first national championship ever in front of a sold-out Yarrow Stadium over a determined Tasman side who many did not expect to make it this far in their first ever season in the Premiership.

In fact, it was the Final that rugby romantics in this country have long dreamt about - the season's surprise packages from the newest and smallest rugby base in New Zealand rugby took on a province that has recently more than matched the traditional powerhouses from the cities for the Final.

To cap it off, Hawkes Bay finally kept the Ranfurly Shield for more than a week and the log of wood will spend a hot, hot summer in Napier. At one stage, Southland nearly scuppered that dream but the Bay got the draw that they needed to keep the shield - a shame they couldn't quite beat their neighbours, Manawatu for a place in the top flight.

After years of being so close yet being so far, the provinces finally could claim to be the pride of New Zealand rugby.

Kiwis Win - But Where was the Crowd?

A Kiwis win over the arch-enemy from across the ditch is one of those sporting moments that New Zealand sporting fans should cherish and remember for a while with plenty of fondness.

After all, historically, the Kangaroos have so often had the wood over the Kiwis with a far superior win-loss record even if the Kiwis have started to show in recent years that they can match them on the big occasion - and more importantly win the matches that matter, i.e. tournament finals.

So, perhaps it is a bit mildly disappointing to see a crowd of only 25,000 plus turn up on Saturday night to watch the Rugby League Four Nations Final at the Cake Tin in Wellington, between the home boys and them Aussies.

Given the rarity of the Kiwis playing a game outside Auckland, given that this was a final and a unique opportunity to see a New Zealand side win a major tournament at home - something that doesn't really happen too often, you'd have thought that Westpac Stadium would have sold out in the week.

Alas, as of Friday, 20,000 tickets were sold with 5,000 walking up in the end for the 8:45pm kickoff - and weather could not be used as an excuse, with Wellington putting on a stunner of a warm November evening.

Ok, international rugby league does struggle to sell worldwide even if the reputation of the game has never been better - never has the game seen more credible competition as witnessed by England nearly upsetting Australia in Melbourne, Samoa almost causing the mother of all upsets against the Kiwis in Whangarei, plus the Tongans, French, Irish, Italians etc.

But in a country which considers itself the 2nd largest market for rugby league, anything less than a sellout crowd has to be considered a bit below expectations.

Perhaps the late kickoff of 8:45pm deterred many families from going - the kickoff time was obviously made for television reasons as it would be 6:45pm on the Australian eastern seaboard and 7:45am in England. The thought of being with a crowd of blue collar rugby league fans at that time of the night on a Saturday probably also came into play.

The lack of marketing of the game probably didn't help with the adverts only really coming in the last fortnight - probably a bit too late for many around the country wanting to come to Wellington to watch an international league test and a final at once. Indeed, for months, only avid sports fans knew about this game being in Wellington, yet there was almost zero build-up about this game until the last month when the banners started coming up around the city.

Contrast this to All Blacks tests which have a fan mile going to the stadium from Queens Wharf and a fanzone and you almost would have overlooked that international rugby league's big night was in town.

That I guess should be put down to the organizers of the Four Nations who probably missed a trick by organizing and finalizing this tournament so late - and missed a chance in really pushing rugby league's claims for superiority in the middle of the North Island.

And it's a chance they can't really afford to pass up much given how much sport is played down here - next week we have the cricket, and then the Wellington Phoenix the week after. Plus the fact, that sport has to compete with the hippies and Green party supporters that make up half the city.

Anyway, well done to the Kiwis and apologies to Steve Kearney who I doubted after that humbling World Cup loss last year. Kearney has bounced back well after a harrowing last couple of years with the failed Parramatta job and that World Cup defeat - he cleaned out the garbage from last year and has instilled some exciting players who will be very strong for years to come.

These are exciting fans for NZ rugby league with more players now plying their trade in the NRL as clubs hunt out the best talent from the schools here, and perhaps putting more of their own countrymen in the shadows - never has a Kangaroos side been this weak and susceptible to injury and this could continue as the old guard slowly retires.

Let's hope when the World Cup comes in 2017 we get much better crowds in New Zealand - the Kiwis certainly deserve the sell out crowds that the All Blacks - and All Whites for big World Cup qualifiers - get.

How to Really Grow Rugby in the Big USA

A sell-out crowd turned up to Soldier Field in Chicago on the first day of November to watch the best rugby team in the world take on the hosts. All but one of the crowd turned up to watch top class rugby rather than expecting a USA win over the mighty world champion All Blacks - a monumental shock if that happened anyway.

The game definitely delivered on that count with some scintillating skills through the hands for some sweet tries even if it wasn't quite a defensive masterclass by the hosts.

Trouncing aside, it was a good advertisement for rugby in the USA. The next step now is to make the USA team more competitive - and while high profile games against the All Blacks are great for marketers, it's unlikely the ABs will make frequent visits to the USA unless they want to prepare their players for the tour of the Northern Hemisphere by being 43-6 at halftime against the 20th rated team int the world.

It isn't really good for the morale of the Eagles too.

Indeed, USA soccer isn't where it is now because they kept getting friendlies between Brazil and the USA in the early days - although nowadays, they've gotten Brazil to play their friendlies in places like Miami and Los Angeles, which is something the NZRU could consider in the future against say the Wallabies or South Africa.

The way forward is really having a regular season competition based on the idea of the original NASL, the precedessor to the MLS which attracted the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and Pele in the 1970s. Imagine the likes of Bryan Habana, Dan Carter, etc. all spending the autumn of their careers in the USA.

Former All Black and now commentator, Justin Marshall, once commented that the trouble with rugby was not being able to play in "exotic" places like Barcelona or Hong Kong just because there was no competitive team based there. I reckon players would relish the opportunity to play your professional rugby in New York or San Francisco.

If USA Rugby can market the competition well - which I'm confident they can after the success of this game, then rugby is onto a winner in the USA. A tie up with the Canadians could also be good and make the competition stronger while giving Canadians an opportunity to play professional rugby in their homeland. Canadians have a long history of playing in USA based competitions and it has worked really well, e.g. NHL, NBA and MLB all feature teams from Canada's largest city, Toronto at least with Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg also having franchises in the cash-rich American competitions.

Positioning of the competition is key too - and that's where rugby has a glorious opportunity of being the sole active outdoor winter football code in North America post Super Bowl and college football season. The success and growth of the MLS has been down to not competing with the juggernauts of the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, but complimenting them - and that concept has been followed by the A-League in Australia which has been deliberately positioned to avoid competing with the NRL and AFL.

Late February to May is not a bad time to be playing rugby in North America with spring approaching in most places, especially in California.

Finally, a tie-up with Super Rugby, the English Premiership or French Top 14 could make the North American rugby competition. This is a concept that has been undertaken by the fledgling Indian Premier Soccer League where the likes of Atletico Madrid and Manchester City have bought a percentage of the franchises there. That way, the likes of Leicester, the Crusaders or Bulls could send some of their players to the USA for game time and development.

The future for rugby is bright in the USA - now's really the time to make hay while the sun shines.