Yours Please #6

By Ryan Nixon, Scott MacLean and Hamish Girvan

1) After the shock result in India, the Black Caps crashed back down to earth in Christchurch.  The key talking point appears to be around Tom Blundell – what is the solution?

@MadMaclegend – He’s badly out of form with both the bat the gloves and really could use a break to try and get himself back in order. I’d really consider bringing Dane Cleaver in, but at 33 he’s not the future that Mitch Hay and Max Chu are. Blundell’s been given plenty of rope by Stead & co in the absence of other options, but those are there now, and that length is getting short quickly for him to turn it around.

@girvana – Blundell’s batting form is more the question rather than the one-off catching yips that occurred in Christchurch. At 34 Blundell still has a couple of years left at top level but is it time to start blooding Mitch Hay in the next series? The next test series after England is the Zimbabwe tour in mid-2025 – he has been in the set up already so it’s not new. Why not?

@NewYorkNixon – The solution is a simple one. It doesn’t involve Will Young coming in, and it doesn’t involve tinkering with the roles of Tom Latham, Devon Conway, or Glenn Phillips. Blundell’s form over the last 12 months simply doesn’t warrant further inclusion in the side, and the answer is determining which specialist keeper in the domestic scene is the next option. Dane Cleaver or Mitch Hay appear to be the most realistic options, and I’d lean towards Hay. This test side has a number of younger players already, and establishing Hay alongside them can help build a solid core.

 

2) Scott Robertson is making no secret of the fact he wants Richie Mo’unga back in the All Blacks.  Is now the time to select from overseas?

@MadMaclegend – I’ve been against it, because once you open that door there’s no going back and there’s the unknown of what it would do to our domestic rugby. But if we were to – and there are good arguments with rugby becoming increasingly global – then you’d want a fairly tight criteria for doing so, much along the original “Giteau’s Law” the Wallabies brought in.

@girvana – Rugby needs to change and regardless of whether it’s Mo’unga or anyone else it’s time for those that think rugby should kick off on Saturdays at 2.45pm and All Blacks should be picked from within a domestic competition to have a rethink. South Africa allows overseas based players to be selected for the Springboks and also Australia (success of that a work in progress) however players realise that time in the game is short and to maximise their revenue opportunities should not be penalised. Is Ardie Savea not the same player he was even though his pre-All Black rugby was in the Japan competition this season?  Having players overseas will allow global interest – and as for impacts on the domestic game, it is pretty broken as it is.

@NewYorkNixon – It’s a complex question, because in doing so it makes it hard to then keep our best players in the domestic comps, which risks devaluing them. If they did relax this rule, it would have to be just that – a relaxation. Strict criteria about who would be eligible from overseas would be needed, to ensure young players with All Black ambitions don’t depart.

 

3) About a third of the way through the EPL season and Liverpool holds a 9 point lead in the Premiership.  Is the title race over?

@MadMaclegend – I’d hesitate to say it is over before Xmas and they’ve let the league slip from a strong position before, but with City in free-fall, United only finding themselves under Ruben Amorin after sacking Erik Ten Hag, Tottenham doing Tottenham things (thump the Manchester pair away and lose at home to Ipswich), and Chelsea being unconvincing it’s really only Arsenal who seem equipped to challenge the Merseysiders. Unless they fall over themselves.

@girvana – Nothing in the EPL is ever over and teams can slip up (just ask the 2014 version of Steven Gerrard) however if Liverpool go into the New Year with this 9-point lead it’s all over. They are playing too well to let a 3-game lead diminish and the Gooners will bottle it as usual.

@NewYorkNixon – Stranger things have happened, but it would take an almighty collapse. Arne Slot’s first season as manager has been something of revelation, as he’s blended his own, more controlled football philosophies with the heavy metal football of his predecessor. Probably the bigger questions for Liverpool are now off the field, where extending key players Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, and Trent Alexander-Arnold should be a priority.

 

4) If you could see one world sporting record beaten, what would it be?

@MadMaclegend – Take a look at the women’s track and field ones, where there’s a bunch that date back to the 1980’s and are held by East German and Soviet athletes and are rightly viewed with scepticism knowing what we do know about their doping programs. But my choice isn’t one of those, it is one that dates from the same era. While the men’s blue riband 100m has been lowered several times (and raised where the holder was nuclear-powered) since, the women’s has remained at the 10.49 that Florence Griffith-Joyner ran at the US trials in 1988. Surely it has to fall sometime!

@girvana – It’s surprising that Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m 10.49 second time set in 1988 is still the current women’s 100m world record. It would be great if that could be broken just due to some of the controversy around performance enhancing drugs that were alleged but never proven which is part of Griffiths-Joyner’s legacy.

@NewYorkNixon – Lowest test cricket score of 26. Mainly because I just wish it wasn’t held by New Zealand.

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