Alright thats it, the Andy Farrell comparison was the last straw. I am officially declaring that everyone is being a too harsh on this guy.
Firstly, i disagree with him getting a free pass into the All Blacks for much the same reasons that Nick does, hell i was one of Luke McAllisters biggest fans and i was violently against him being given free entry on return from UK. But! there are a few things that are grating on me.
1)SBW is not some calculating, money grubbing, attention seeker that everyone seems to think he is. He is a young, wide eyed, naive kid from Mt Albert. I have had the honor of meeting the guy before and he is a genuinely nice person. Hes a great sportsman, but off the field he doesn't know what hes doing and doesn't have a lot going on upstairs. From what i have heard he trusts people to a fault, this is how the Bulldogs were able to convince him to sign contracts that weren't in his interests, and how Anthony Mundine and co. manage to talk him into doing anything they want. It never ceases to amaze me when people tag him as this "man with a plan" thats just trying to get rich and get attention, that isnt the case at all. Hes just a kid that doesnt know what to do and is getting pulled in all different directions.
2)This guy isn't in New Zealand for the money (although his manager squeezed a lot out of the NZRU). He legitimately grew up wanting to be an All Black. He is a proud New Zealander, you can tell this from his league days, he turned down the higher honor and exposure of State of Origin and the Kangaroos to play for the nothing Kiwi team. He grew up playing rugby union, he even played on the winning Auckland Roller Mills tournament team (Probably the biggest youth rugby tournament in NZ) and had posters of Christian Cullen and Jonah Lomu on his wall. It just so happened that the highschool in the neighborhood he grew up in had a big focus on rugby league, he got picked up by a league scout as a teenager and the rest is history. Who knows how things would have panned out if he went to Auckland Grammar.
3)Have any of you heard of conformation bias? you should have Nick. If you guys all sit there angrily watching his highlights with the idea of how much you hate him and how bad at sport he is running through your head, then obviously you're going to find reasons to support your bias. Show me any play with any player and someone could find a fault in it. In this one thread i have seen the arguements:
-"Look he didn't have to beat any defenders, hes not that good what a **** player"
-"Look at how many defenders he had to beat! should have passed it, hes not that good what a **** player"
-"Look at that ball he passed! far too risky, hes not that good what a **** player"
-"Look at that tackle, sure he hit him hard but it was a shoulder charge, thats all hes good for hes not that good what a **** player" (Take your biased blindfolds off, he had intention to wrap in all those tackles, its not his fault if he hits them so hard that they fall away from him, give him credit where its due)
-"Look he saved a try, well... it wasn't a shoulder charge but under some technicality its probably wrong somehow, hes still not that good and a **** player" (Actually, if he does it the process of making a tackle then its not a knock on, Gregan vs Wilson much? its an identical tackle and people raved about Gregan.. also, didn't he propel the ball towards his own line anyway?)
"Is that all this guy decided to put on his youtube video?! thats it, he might be 24 years old and hasnt even played a game in NZ yet but im declaring his test career a dud right now."
Do you know what this exact situation reminds me of? Quade Cooper. Everyone thought he was overrated , they saw his highlights and said "Risky, flakey, lets see him do that again, fluke etc.." a guy even took the time to go through every game he played as a 20 year old and make a video showing all his errors. Even this year before the super 14 on this forum people were saying that he was a crap player, people wrote off his test career when he was 21, look at him now hes pegged as one of Australias best players even over Giteau.
4)Hes an amazing sportsman This guy is 6'4, 112kg, has great hands, is incredibly strong, can read a defense and and attack as well as any first five and is very quick. Hes any coaches wet dream, how about instead of ripping into him and declaring him a bust before hes been allowed to set foot on the field, lets give him say 5 games to show what hes got. How about that?
5)Oi, you guys, stop being such negitive dicks yeh?
