Q07064

New Zealand IS better than Australia at sport

To most, sport is a big occasion when New Zealand verse Australia. When New Zealand plays Australia in all main sports, it is considered as the biggest rivalry. Australia should be topping the world rankings in all sports such as: Union, Sevens and League, why? Because of the amount of money going into their academies. In our small country we are doing a sufficient amount of work to be punching above our weight in all sports played between the two countries.

Australia put millions of dollars every year into their sporting academies to bring out the best in their athletes. With New Zealand being such a little country with a little amount of people and money, our sportsmen and woman have to do most of their own training, whereas over the Tasman they get it all paid for. This means our athletes are choosing to work hard because they have to if they want to be at their best. Our Southland Rugby academy has very little money going into it due to the financial crisis that hit them at the end of last year’s season. This now means that the union have to rely on sponsorship from community franchises to keep them going. It seems that Australia has not had this happen to them and never will because they rely on sport to advertise their country. If New Zealand put more money into sporting academies around the country, our country would not have the same heart as those that do today without the money.

Rugby union is a big occasion when it comes to the two countries in both numbers, 15’s and 7’s. Recently NZ has had sublime play in the HSBC sevens world tour with a series win and also last year winning the commonwealth games gold medal against Australia in the final. Australia does not have much depth when it comes to sevens whereas New Zealand 15’s rely on the 7’s squad as a breeding ground to the All Blacks. An example of this is Victor Vito, he was a no name before he reached the New Zealand sevens squad and then cantered into the All Blacks for the June tests last year. It is world cup year this year and the All Blacks need fast agile players to make up the squad. Stats show that New Zealand are world number one going into the last 3 tournaments and then when it they have not won it, months after they are back at one. If New Zealand keeps at what they are doing now and recruiting 7’s players the New Zealand public will not have to worry about losing the world cup come September.

Rugby league is another main sport played between NZ and Australia and is widely regarded is the local Darby. Whenever it comes to the finals of a tournament say the Four Nations last year, we performed under pressure in the final to win it last minute. League is not considered our number one sport but is still regarded as a top game. The main region’s that play league are Auckland and Canterbury, these are considered the breeding grounds to our own New Zealand Warriors. The Junior Warriors are another source of all New Zealand talent that continuously beat Australian sides, last year they were winners of the Toyota Cup. For these reasons New Zealand are a better league side than Australia even though they recruit NZ youths to join their academy’s every year.

If we can still perform the way we are for the next two years or so we may be unbeaten in all main sports like Union, Sevens and League. If Australia still keeps up the amount of money being put into their academies, they are not getting the return they need. For these reasons New Zealand IS better than Australia at sport. Who will you choose to win Rugby World Cup 2011?