Heavenly kicks and the names we give to teams we love

Otago Daily Times

14 hours ago

Forget the French. This season's great moment in rugby was seen by only a handful of spectators, and I was one of them.
Underdogs Maniototo were playing Alexandra on a sun-filled ground at Ranfurly and with minutes on the clock they hammered away at the opposition line and finally fullback Daniel Adam crashed over for a try in the corner which put his team ahead 16-15.
But wait. There's more.
Ben Maxwell's sideline conversion added the extra couple of points. But what a kick that was.
The ball hit the righthand upright, bounced back to connect with the other upright, then hit the crossbar before going over so the locals notched a win by 18-15.
There's probably no video of that great moment, so it lives on only in Maniototo memory, although the scoreboard still shows the score two weeks later.
Of course, I talked about the conversion all the next week but those who hadn't been there just shrugged it off with "aww, that happens all the time".
It doesn't. Sometimes a kick comes close enough to such immortality and gets a headline.
In April one kick almost surpassed that Ben Maxwell Ranfurly triumph.
England international, Philippines-born Marcus Smith, playing for Harlequins, tried a sideline conversion. The ball clipped one post, bounced down, smacked the opposite upright, ricocheted back on to the first post again and had a fourth touch, this time on the crossbar, before dropping back into the field of play. No points.
To match his kick, we go back to 2013 and a game between Newcastle and Bedford when New Zealander Jimmy Gopperth, playing for Newcastle, took a penalty kick which also hit the post, the crossbar and the other post before going over.
Sadly, I wasn't there so the Maggots' kick is the one I cherish.
The Maggots? In this sheep-farming country everyone knows maggots are pests which feed on sheep's flesh and cause severe tissue damage. Only the laid-back, dry humour of Maniototo could produce such a nickname for a rugby team.
Nicknames for sports teams are nothing new, All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks have been around for years and even Japan's moniker, the Brave Blossoms (once the Cherry Blossoms) is gaining traction as that country's rugby improves.
Locally, I'm coming to grips with the nickname business. I didn't have too much trouble with a recent ODT item about Green Island being beaten by Harbour which told me that "the Hawks beat the Grizzlies" but it's the lively weekly column Club Rugby Chat by the irrepressible Paul Dwyer which often has me flummoxed.
When Paul writes stuff like "Macca Palmer is set to play his 100th game this weekend for the Magpies against the Eels out at the Eelpit and the Prison Guards are back on the Prison Square facing off against West Taieri but I think Toko will have their hands full against the Pigs", I realise I'm out of touch with what's happening in other parts of the province.
The same goes with sports names on a wider stage: in Australia there's a backlash against these artificial brands which proliferate in professional sport. There has been a move back to animal names after years of names like Glory, Power and Storm and now the likes of Perth Bears and Tasmanian Devils are finding favour.
The T20 games polluting the cricket landscape have produced stuff like Brisbane Heat, Sydney Thunder, Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers but at least Cricket Australia insist the place name remains part of the nickname.
And there lies the nub of the issue. Supporting a team is easier if you know where they come from.
When players actually came from a province loyalty needs no public relations and fancy nicknames. Otago teams are almost always mainly locals and even the Highlanders are predominantly from Otago and Southland.
The made-up names rarely have the same magic, although the Auckland Blues is probably a fair reflection of the mood of that benighted metropolis. If the Crusaders would kindly stop winning then the Lambs would suit their Canterbury base perfectly, reflecting the province's most famous export.
There's history, too, in some English football team names. That Arsenal, founded by munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, are called The Gunners makes sense and Sheffield Wednesday reminds us that the club grew out of a cricket team which was formed when Wednesday became a half-holiday to be filled in with recreation.
As an aside, I always look forward to the St Kevin's College/Waitaki Boys' High School rugby game when over the hill from the college comes a band of supporters bearing the placard "up the Doolies!".
Perhaps not a good nickname in these politically correct times but, in the meantime, the Maggots can remind us that the team, locals to a man, come from sheep country.
■ Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.