Mark Keown

It is time to make some changes. 1. Allow the All Blacks to play from anywhere... that is the nature of true professionalism. 2. Open up the Super 14 fanchises to private funding... increase their incomes! 3. Extend the Super 14 into a two round competition, allow the NPC to become an almost amateur feeder system to the Super 14. 4. Dump the Tri-nations on an annual basis, make it bi-annual, go back to tours. 5. Play rugby in the afternoon not the evening. 6. Forget all the rule changes and focus on fixing one thing, the tacked ball area. Spend as much time and money as it takes trying things until the solution is found that stops the killing of the ball, the slowing down of the ball, the mess that is the tackled ball area! This is what is killing rugby. 7. Allow technology where tries are scored including forward passes (Cardiff, bugger) etc (thinking of the Hurricanes the other night!). 8. Black out games in the home area to force people who want to watch it to go e.g. Blues games bl...

How can Graeme Henry be All Black coach? His response yesterday proves the point. He supported Richie McCaw's decision to ignore his instruction last year to take a drop goal! How can Richie McCaw be All Black captain. TV3 showed a caption of his indifference to the French-Ireland game last year before the World Cup. This alls says, "arrogant!" They were complacent. I say again, Henry destroyed the All Blacks after building them magnificently. Why second guess the previous three years. In those three years the All Blacks played the Super 14 and dominated it. They then hit the internationals, with some degree of rotation, but playing the A team in the big tests. They then went on a tour of Europe and thrashed all before them. Why would you start screwing with the Super 14, rotating players without settling on a combination, reconditioning players when they should be playing, and then get to the World Cup underdone? There should also have been 2 tough pre-World Cup games in...

What a shocker. You run the A qualifying time for the Olympics and you are not selected. If you are Michael Aish, you run it twice, and don't get selected! What are the NZ athletics selectors doing? This is ridiculous. These people have made the marks (one twice), and they are not selected. We are a struggling nation in the world of athletics, one of the most competitive sports in the world. When you do the time you should be on the plane. Previous performances are not the point. I think the NZ athletics system of selection is too tough all round. Last year for the World Youth's they set harsher qualification times than the IAAF standards (e.g. 4.32 for the girls 1500 instead of 4.35). This is bizzare thinking. It is not as if we are brimming with talent. So, where Aish and Hunter-Galvin are concerned, I hope they appeal and win their appeals. Whatever their past performances, they have shown their ability to make the games, they should go. Just as Beatrice F has done it. She t...

The Bible begins with the statement, 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. Now this to me is axiomatic and worthy of dying for. That is, Christianity is based on the notion that a brilliantly intelligent cosmic being is behind the created order, it is the product of his creative brilliance. Beyond this Christians disagree, and with a great degree of strong feeling. There are those who are absolutely convinced that the Genesis account must be interpreted literally and that God created the order in exactly six 24 hour days in exactly the manner described in Gen 1-2. Other Christians are not so sure and are happy to accept some of the notions of science including an older earth. They reject that there is a need for six literal 24 hour days noting that the Hebrew for "day" is used differently through the OT, that the sun and moon were created on the fourth day, and that there is clear symbolism in the text. They thus accept the general outline of Gen 1...

Nice work Olympic Committee in picking these two to fill the places for Beijing. They have gone for the highest ranked of the Kiwis. Currently Reid is ranked 12th and Bozone 34th. In the women, it is a closer, but Hewitt is ranked 6th and Samuels 14th. So although Samuels has won more national races this season, Hewitt is a proven performer in the international theme. Bozone is the man of the future but Reid is a happening thing for sure. We have a great team for both men and women, so go the Kiwi's, bring home the bling!

Do those who run rugby realise the dilemma they are in? I do not think they do. Talkback radio and my own experience supports that rugby in NZ in huge trouble. The kids are dropping out, the game is in a mess and people are incredibly disillusioned. There are many reasons: 1. The game is dangerous: this is an old chestnut that reduces interest from many parents, smaller kids. While huge efforts are made to improve it, it is still a game that causes injuries. 2. Polynesian dominance: this goes with 1. above. Skinny small kids will play in the weight based competitions, but the open grades are dominated by the Polynesians who mature early and dominate physically. This is not a racial criticism as they are to be congratulated for their talent. It is a real issue, causing many to give the game away. 3. Rule Changes: Rugby needs to look at the example of soccer, settle on a set of rules which they believe are the best possible rules for the sport and leave them! ELV's are the next round...

I should comment on Mahe vs Rob one more time even though it was decided weeks ago. Well done Mahe! Awesome! I am glad that he is going to the Olympics and I believe he will win. I still believe that Rob is his match, but the old heart went on the day. I think it is a good outcome because now they will both return with medals, hopefully gold! Go Kiwi!

Yeah right! It was on TV news tonight that a man had become pregant. It turns out that "he" is in fact a woman who has taken testosterone, had a mastectomy and has lived as a "man", while retaining his female sexual organs. So what is the fuss all about? "He" is a "she"! Why on earth is this on television news as the lead story. This is a great example of what Rod Thompson called a "thin culture" when he spoke at the BCNZ chapel last week! This is nonsense. What we have is a woman getting pregnant! It is a tragic example of the state of the media. The "man" had appeared on Oprah telling "his" story. It illustrates the poverty of our world! We are in serious trouble in western society. Aside from those extraordinary situations where people are genuinely biologically trans-gender, in my view there is no such thing as "trans-gender" in ultimate terms. We are made in the image of God male or female. We can have...