By Jim Kayes
It sticks in the craw, every time I see it. Or them, to be more accurate.
Maori All Blacks. All Black Sevens. Junior All Blacks.
Apologies to New Zealand Rugby (formerly the New Zealand Rugby Union and before that the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, but hey, what's in a name) but there's only one All Blacks team.
It's the one Richie McCaw captained in 111 Tests. It's the team that's the best of the best and whose name is one that's revered in the rugby world and feared by many. They are the team Ireland and Scotland are yet to beat; the side Wales haven't beaten in more than 50 years. They are the team France will always fancy themselves against and the side South Africa see as the ultimate test. They're the team England openly wants to be and Australia privately yearns to be.
Maori All Blacks captain Charlie Ngatai (Getty Images)
Our Maori side has a wonderful history and must be retained and maintained as they are with a game against the USA Eagles in Chicago in November. But they are not, as the Rugby Union continues to call them, All Blacks. Not even close.
Equally, Sir Gordon Tietjens has ensured the New Zealand sevens team are consistently one of the best in the international game and they will rightly be regarded as a gold medal prospect at the Rio Olympics in August. But with the exception of this Olympic year, when All Blacks Liam Messam and Sonny Bill Williams will strut their stuff in Brazil, the sevens team is a mix of players who couldn't quite cut it in 15-a-side and those who are on their way to being All Blacks.
As for the Junior All Blacks, they haven't played for a few years but remain on the Rugby Union's website where they're described as "New Zealand’s second XV". How on earth can a "B" team carry the moniker "All Blacks"?
The rush to attach the label to other teams came before AIG signed on as sponsor of the real thing, but it wasn't by chance that it allowed the Rugby Union and AIG to get more leverage from more teams. Makes sense, but doesn't make it right, especially when the policy is sexist, as well as wrong.
The Black Ferns women's team aren't called the All Blacks women and the female sevens team is listed on the Rugby Union's website as New Zealand Women's sevens – which is accurate but hardly seems fair given the lads are "All Blacks".
There is a simple solution. Just call one team the All Blacks, the one that's been around since 1903.
Newshub.
