Much Ado about a beard

Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand.

As well it should be. They seem to be the damn best at it. It happens to be about the only sport in which they regularly spank the Wallabies (thats the Australian Rugby Union team for the uninitiated) and for a "little brother" nation constantly in the shadow of their bigger regional brother... well lets just say you dont want to be seen in a yellow and green jersey when the All Blacks lose to the Wallabies! As was the case a couple of weeks ago!

To be honest, not a lot of countries (compared to say Football) have Rugby as their national sport. The traditional power houses of Rugby are:

- New Zealand "All Blacks"

- Australian "Wallabies"

- South African "Springboks"

And then we have France, England, Ireland, Wales etc... and obviously, Rugby Union is not the number one national sport in these countries.

And therein lies the rub!

New Zealand have not won the Rugby world cup since 1987. The All Blacks won the inaugural edition in 1987 and have not won it since. England and France have won once and Australia has won twice!!! In between world-cups the All blacks dominate and beat every one silly (literally and figuratively) but somehow have not managed to repeat the success of that first World Cup.

You can imagine this fact grates on the collective psyche of a nation that DOES have Rugby as their NUMERO UNO National Sport!

Which brings us to the issue of Carl Hayman's beard. Carl Hayman plays the prop position in the All Blacks and along with a trio of other players forms the main fulcrum of the team. He had a shaggy appearance (pic above) sometime ago and the All Blacks co-incidentally (or not?) had one of their most convincing runs in a long time. They vanquished all in their path.

Now the next Rugby World Cup is coming up in Sept/Oct and the All Blacks like in previous editions have been really dominating leading up to the competition.

So a group has sprung up here totally determined to get Carl to go back to his shaggy man persona and ensure the All Blacks triumph at the World Cup hosted by France!

The group is SO serious that they are asking all "...Kiwis everywhere throw down their razors and present a united, hairy front to the world..." And according to a radio report I heard this morning, they are asking not only the men - but also the WOMEN - who can grow beards to join in as well.

Stranger things have been seen in the world of sport!