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16 August 2014
Is this the best photograph ever taken of a rugby dive-pass? If it's not then show me a better one. This is the great Danie Craven playing for South Africa v New Zealand in the third test match of 1937 at Eden Park in Auckland. Some old historians claim Craven 'invented' the dive-pass for a halfback in the 1930s but in fact it was first used to best effect by an earlier Springbok half, by the name of Dauncie Devine - in the South African team which played New Zealand in South Africa in 1928. Read more »
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16 August 2014
On a recent away rugby trip (to Nanjing for the Summer Youth Olympic Games rugby sevens) a group of us were sitting around, like reporters do, having a drink and chewing the chat. During the course of the conversation I picked up two or three great stories - all of which will be drip-fed into this 'yarns' selection on the www.keithquinnrugby.com website. Read more »
16 August 2014
Some Random thoughts at the end of the build up days here in Nanjing as we reflect on what we know about this place and settle down for the broadcast experience ahead at the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games. Read more »
20 August 2014
John Roughan in the New Zealand Herald recently wondered if the All Blacks of today have lost the art of losing gracefully. The great Fred Allen was a hard man who drove his team's hard for test wins. Nothing else mattered but to win. His teams played tough for 80 minutes. Yet see how he lost so generously here in 1949 - with the South African captain Felix du Plessis. And Fred's team lost all four tests in a row on that tour! Read more »
20 August 2014
And so the Rugby 7s at the these 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games simply raced over another two days to its conclusion today. No time for me to write a diary yesterday but here goes, back in the hotel now that the whole thing is over. Read more »
21 August 2014
Today a complete change of roles for me in Nanjing at the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Rugby Sevens has finished so today my commentary roster had me heading out to the tennis complex for some broadcasts there. I worked with Auckland Glen Larmer (he's a great bloke - though he calls himself a 'former - Wellingtonian' which is interesting as he went to Naenae College) Read more »
23 August 2014
There are two nights of events covered in this report from the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games 2014. My commentary stints ended last night when I worked the weightlifting with a fair-dinkum Aussie broadcaster John Harker. I had listened to John and Jim Watt from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games a couple of weeks back when they did the boxing together - and I had been mightily impressed. They were a great combination. (I actually thought John was commentating the boxing with Bill Connolly for a while so similar were there Glaswegian accents!) Read more »
24 August 2014
Play goes on here in Nanjing at the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games and I am still enjoying it hugely. We are now in the second week and heading for the finish line. In watching young people with a maximum age of 18 go about their competition I must say my eyes now have become attuned to seeing them as full adult competitors and not as younger versions of the 'main' Summer Olympic Games. The kids here to me look the same and play with as much commitment. It's been great to see them evolve and 'grow up' as it were... Read more »
24 August 2014
A rainy Sunday in Nanjing and I wasn't starting my work day here at the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games here till early afternoon. That meant there was time for my good mate, the British commentator John Burgess and I to head out on a sightseeing trip. Did I say sightseeing? That word hints at visiting fun tourist attractions with lively sights to see. But this morning's trip was anything but... Read more »
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I cannot believe it was so long ago! But right from a VERY young age at Benneydale and Berhampore in New Zealand I knew I wanted to write and talk about rugby - and I've been doing it all my life. (And many more to come I hope!)
INTER-ISLAND MATCH
This was a game which was begun in New Zealand in 1897 and which became an annual one (with the exception of 1930 and the war years) until 1986, between teams representing the two main islands of New Zealand.
The inter-island series, North Island against South Island, was, through the 1920s right up to the early 1970s, consistently up to international standard. In its heyday, the game was eagerly looked forward to by everyone in New Zealand as it featured a match that often had the look of New Zealand ‘A’ against New Zealand ‘B’ (the ‘A’ team being the side which won!). Sometimes the game did officially double as an All Black trial.
In the 1970s lack of promotion of the game led to loss of interest. The New Zealand Rugby Union, after years of playing the inter-island game at major grounds, started moving it to lesser towns. Public support fell away and towards the end the game was marked by the number of top players who declared their unavailability rather than by those who did turn out. It was sad for New Zealand traditionalists when the match was abolished in 1987 and replaced by a three-way regional trial series featuring teams from three new zones, Northern, Central and Southern.
The last annual game in 1986 was typical of the decline of the North v South game. Played in the smasll town of Oamaru in the South Island, the game had a local college match as its curtain-raiser. When the college game finished, most of the crowds of local schoolchildren drifted away home, leaving the inter-island match to go ahead in front of a much smaller audience. The North Island won the game 22–10, ending the annual series with 49 wins. South had won 26 times and there were three drawn games.
The North-South game did return for special one-off games in 1995 and 2012. The former was an All Black trial and the latter was a fundraising game for the financially troubled Otago Rugby Union.
Ironically the inter-zone series which had followed the cancelled North-South series in 1986 had only three seasons of play before it, too, folded through lack of interest.
Which club supplied seven players of the 1971 British and Irish Lions touring team to New Zealand - five of whom played all four tests?
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