Seeing as we're about to be told in the day or so that we won't be hosting the Rugby Championship, let's deal with some happy rugby news before the bad stuff comes.
I love All Blacks naming day. I really do.
How can you not? The sheer joy on display is heartwarming. Well, it is to me anyway. If you’re in any sort of Grinch mood then better stop reading/watching this now because it might get a little schmaltzy - and unashamedly so!
Watching the newbie ABs getting named is just such a happy experience. And if you’re unable to take some vicarious enjoyment from it, then maybe you need to check where it was and when it happened that you stopped feeling like a human being should.
Because there’s something about the culmination of a dream, about seeing someone achieve all they ever wanted to achieve that is just joyous. And I never get tired of seeing it.
Caleb Clarke has emerged as perhaps the unwitting star of Sunday’s All Black show after retelling the almost childlike anticipation coursing through his veins the night before.
“I couldn’t sleep” he said. “I kept waking up and looking at the clock. 4am so back to sleep. Wake up again, look at the clock 5am. Lie back down, wake up, look up, 5.30 this time! Poor old Aaron Smith my roommate, I must’ve driven him mad”.
I’m wondering if maybe Aaron knew exactly what was going on and himself went back to the time he was paired with an old hand the night before going through a very similar experience?
It’s so deeply personal yet it’s also played out on public so we all get to see the raw emotion we say is so often lacking from men in our country.
And last Sunday also happened to be Father’s Day, so a double celebration for most first hearing the news then immediately bled to share it with those closest to and most proud of.
No, I don’t know any of the seven young men who earned their first call up last weekend but I think I know enough to guess a smidgeon of how much it will have meant. And the fact that it still means as much means heaps. It’s so very New Zealand. It’s so very real and raw. It’s a tradition unique to our country that is incredibly cool.
Something I hope we never ever lose.
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