The Star: October 11, 2018
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44 Thursday <strong>October</strong> <strong>11</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
Sport<br />
Smail new<br />
Canterbury<br />
rugby boss<br />
THE CANTERBURY Rugby<br />
Football Union announced<br />
yesterday that Tony Smail has<br />
been appointed its new chief<br />
executive officer.<br />
Smail, who has been acting<br />
chief executive for the past three<br />
months, was confirmed by the<br />
CRFU board.<br />
Smail replaced Nathan<br />
Godfrey who resigned from the<br />
organisation in August.<br />
He joined the CRFU in 2012<br />
as chief financial officer and has<br />
been responsible for running<br />
the finance, ticketing and<br />
international high-performance<br />
unit teams for both the CRFU<br />
and Crusaders.<br />
He joined the CRFU following<br />
financial roles in the commercial<br />
sector.<br />
Smail played rugby for 40<br />
years, at senior level in both<br />
Invercargill and Christchurch,<br />
and more recently with Belfast<br />
and the president’s grade at<br />
Prebbleton.<br />
Smail moved to<br />
Christchurch from Southland<br />
in 2002 with his wife and three<br />
children.<br />
Boks bring excitement back<br />
IS IT bad that I’ve enjoyed<br />
watching the All Blacks be outplayed<br />
by South Africa in recent<br />
weeks, rather than romping our<br />
way through the competition<br />
like we have done in recent<br />
years?<br />
Sunday morning’s match<br />
against the Springboks had even<br />
me – the guy who says “nah,<br />
I’ll just watch a replay at an<br />
acceptable hour” – absolutely<br />
fizzing to get in front of the<br />
television at 4am to see the All<br />
Blacks look to get back at the<br />
Boks.<br />
Although looking for 70min<br />
like they were going to do so, the<br />
spectacle didn’t disappoint when<br />
Scott Barrett and Ardie Savea<br />
both pushed their way over the<br />
in the final 4min of the match.<br />
Yes, it wasn’t pretty. But there’s<br />
a different kind of satisfaction<br />
watching the All Blacks battle,<br />
and at times, struggle to stay<br />
within catching distance of their<br />
opposition.<br />
I’m not saying I don’t enjoy<br />
watching our boys smash the<br />
Boks. But when we absolutely<br />
rip them to shreds 57-0 like we<br />
did in Albany last year, it doesn’t<br />
exactly leave you with the<br />
energy and keenness required to<br />
wake up in the early hours to see<br />
the boys pack together to take<br />
on the Boks again.<br />
Sunday morning’s 32-30<br />
win also gave us some answers<br />
following the shock 34-36<br />
One-eyed Cantab<br />
Gordon Findlater<br />
gordon.findlater@starmedia.kiwi<br />
loss three weeks earlier in<br />
Wellington. Richie Mo’unga is<br />
the man for the clutch moment<br />
kick and, yes, our backline still<br />
looks vulnerable without the<br />
RIVALRY: <strong>The</strong> Springboks<br />
are causing us problems<br />
again and it’s for the good<br />
of the game.<br />
presence of Jack Goodhue.<br />
Another thing I took from the<br />
match in Durban was how good<br />
it looked watching a test match<br />
in the sun.<br />
We may have snuck one<br />
over the South Africans on<br />
the scoreboard, but in terms<br />
of promoting top flight<br />
international rugby, the South<br />
Africans hold the trump card<br />
against the ‘rugby will only be<br />
played at 7.35pm’ NZRU.<br />
I’ve harped on about this<br />
before but we should learn<br />
something from the 5.05pm<br />
kick off in Durban. Even if you<br />
weren’t in a position to make it<br />
to the match, how good would<br />
Friday after work drinks go<br />
coinciding with the All Blacks<br />
kicking off?<br />
Let’s go one further. Why not<br />
use Christchurch as our test<br />
product for the reintroduction<br />
of afternoon test rugby? We<br />
won’t need a covered stadium<br />
for a 2.30pm kick-off.<br />
It’s our<br />
45th<br />
Anniversary<br />
year!<br />
#areyouupforit<br />
45th Anniversary<br />
Retro T-shirt<br />
available when<br />
entries open on<br />
1st December <strong>2018</strong><br />
Sunday 24th March, 2019 www.city2surf.co.nz
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