Cheatin' Kiwis

On Saturday along with thousands of others I will make my way to Lansdowne Road to see the Irish rugby team play. I have been trying to remember how often I have done this and can't. A few times a year for the last 20 years, probably about 100 times.

In all those years the ritual, as with most people and their favourite sporting occasions, has hardly changed. Maybe have a drink in Slattery's pub beforehand, maybe not. The crowds, the colour, the match. The sense of optimism beforehand, sometimes justified, often (under Eddie O'Sullivan's under-achieving leadership) not.

Afterwards I will travel my traditional route. Like hordes of other people I will go from one watering hole to another, doing the same things as always, meeting the same people, probably having the same conversations. Most times the evening will include having a laugh and a joke with the opposing supporters, but I don't believe that will happen this weekend.

Saturday's occasion will be different to any of the 100 or so international rugby matches I have attended before. The reason it will be different is because at Lansdowne Road this weekend, we will be witnessing the most cynical group of athletes ever assembled outside of an Olympic sprint final. For the New Zealand rugby team, winning is everything and it is worth anything. Anything it takes to win, they will stoop to it. Violence, assaults, cheating, you name it, if New Zealand find their backs to the wall any time on this current tour, you will see it from them.

The spear tackle on Brian O'Driscoll during the Lions tour this summer is really only the tip of the iceberg. To everyone outside of the most biased viewer, that was a late and illegal act, carried out by two players whose motive was to take the Lion's captain out of the game. That it brought the game into disrepute, shamed their country in the eyes of the world and could have put O'Driscoll in a wheelchair for the rest of his life was immaterial. Winning is worth anything, even cheating.

But then New Zealand rugby players have been cheating for generations. The latest manifestation of this is the tactic of obstruction we saw on numerous occasions during the Lion's tour and later in the Southern Hemisphere's tri nations championship. In rugby it is illegal to run in front of the player carrying the ball, it masks the ball carrier from the defence and you are essentially just getting in the way of the play. Yet two of the tries scored against Wales last weekend came as a result of employing this tactic and it is something we have seen time and again over the summer. It will take a very long time to convince me that it is not an illegal play which is practised by them.

On another occasion last weekend the Welsh were denied a try when one of their backs was held back illegally. This is another illegal New Zealand strategy developed almost to an art form when their backs are to the wall, again we saw it many times in recent months. It is not something we have seen much of in the past, because before the age of the video referee, it would have earned you a smack on the jaw. But now New Zealanders are getting away with it time and again, cynically exploiting a failure of referees.

But then cynicism is nothing new for them. Before last Saturday's match in Cardiff, the BBC showed footage of a previous game where with just minutes to go Wales were winning against New Zealand. At a lineout in the Welsh half one of the New Zealand forwards threw himself on the ground. The referee fell for it and gave him a penalty. They scored and won the match. The history of the game is littered with such examples, but then, for New Zealand, winning was always worth anything, even cheating.

It speaks of something deeply flawed in the psyche of the New Zealander that cheating to win is widely accepted. But then, this is a country whose only contribution to the culture of the world in recent years has been the film Once Were Warriors, a devastating critique of their own society. (The Lord of the Rings trilogy filmed there was a Hollywood movie.) They are a dour and unimaginative lot who are despised and derided by their nearest neighbours, the Australians.

Do New Zealanders suffer from a massive national inferiority complex which makes them accept cheating? It is because the only things their country is known for are rugby, sheep and maybe a bit of sailing? Do they really feel the only way they can get any respect from the rest of the world is by winning at all costs? Probably for all of these reasons.

Get over it lads. Stop cheating, earn some respect instead of contempt and let us watch and admire players like Daniel Carter without his great talent being dragged into the mud by the cynicism of those around him both on the pitch and in the stands.

Fergal Keane is a reporter for RTÉ Radio's Five Seven Live