Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
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Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black – Johnny Cash
48 hours later, it’s time to take off the dark sunglasses. To come out of the darkened room. To admit there are more important things in life than sport…
Yes folks, I am the man in black, well one of them at least, along with 15 rather more famous Kiwis who strode England’s increasingly dangerous pastures green last Saturday at Twickenham and tasted the bitter pill not of defeat but of near annihilation. 38-21. And we were lucky, as they say, to get 21.
A whitewash for the All Blacks. And I was there. Eyes closed much of the time but I was there. Twickenham reborn as the killing fields of New Zealand rugby. A supposedly certain victory, even among the most diehard English supporters, turned into one of the great sporting upsets (and performances) of our time.
[Things were going so well before kick-off]
Today, as is usual on a Monday, I received around 350 work e-mails. What was not usual was that about 349 of them mentioned the term ‘All Blacks’, often in the same sentence as ‘defeat’, ‘rout’ and even ‘slaughter’. Even my (English) travel agent got in on the act, quoting me a business class fare to Taiwan as £38-21. He’s no longer retained by the company…
One of my favourite Bob Dylan songs is called ‘I pity the poor immigrant’ and on Saturday I found out exactly what he meant. Twickenham is no place to be when your team, hitherto considered world beaters, is taken to the cleaners by the inspired local underdogs.
What’s this all got to do with travel retail? Plenty. You see I place the entire blame for what happened on my host for the day, Robbie Gill (below), Owner of The Design Solution, arguably travel retail’s leading design company. Robbie, of course, is the great champion of the walk-through concept. But did he really have to sell it to the All Blacks’ defence coach?
I’ll get over it. After all I coped with the desperation, the disappointment, the derision and the utter desolation of waiting 24 lonely years for the Rugby World Cup to finally return to its spiritual homeland in 2011. But return it did. And return, mark my words, the All Blacks shall.
More importantly though – and in reply to those 349 e-mails – let me say that England were brilliant. Not just good. Brilliant. Driven. Determined. Daring. Rugby as it should be played. Even faced with a Robbie Gill walk-through defence…
But that’s enough admiration. For while I have lived in (and loved) the land of the lily white jumper, the red rose and the Chariots of Fire for quarter of a century, my passion for my homeland and its illustrious, inspirational, iconic rugby team will never die. I will never, ever change colour, a sentiment the great Johnny Cash summed up better than I possibly could:
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.