It seems like Peter Dunne could learn a thing or two from the Hurricanes' culture.
As TJ Perenara said: "You lose by one or you lose by 100, you still lose."
The Internal Affairs Minister laughed off a speeding fine he received for travelling at 55km/h in a 50km/h zone -- which is ironic, because that's the exact analogy Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd used to describe his five players breaking curfew.
"It's one of those times where you get one of those speeding tickets for going 55 in a 50km zone and sort of think, so what?" Boyd said.
Perhaps he was referring directly to Dunne? I think not, but it's obvious Boyd's call echoed Dunne's thoughts.
It was revealed yesterday that Peter Dunne received two speeding tickets in a single day (Newshub / Simon Wong)
I'm not here to rant on politics, either -- I'll leave that to Mr Gower -- I'm here to write about how wrong Dunne was, and how right the Hurricanes were.
Protocol is protocol -- I like that stance. You bend the rules once and a bad precedent is set, and the rules will be bent further down the line. It's how poor culture grows, and the Hurricanes culture is the best it has been in some time.
It was like that last year, and it's continued this year, and for that Dane Coles and TJ Perenara deserve a lot of credit. The yin and yang of the Canes; Coles the humble, Kiwi bloke who leads with his actions, and Perenara the snappy halfback whose passion for the game has no peers.
They form a strong, albeit young leadership group that has gone from strength to strength this season -- and will continue to grow over the next handful of seasons.
TJ Perenara (left) and Dane Coles have both earned All Blacks caps (Photosport)
Coles and coach Chris Boyd are pretty straight up guys -- a spade's a spade and all that -- and while they wouldn't give the exact details of the five that broke team curfew in Durban, it's pretty clear that this was a minor offence.
But as minor as it may be, they came down hard on the players. That can't have been easy, four of the five are starters and one is arguably the best openside flanker in the competition.
You can argue whether the Hurricanes should have ever had a curfew in place to begin with -- they are grown adults after all. I don't have a curfew when I'm away for work, and I bet most other jobs don't either.
This is different though -- this was a self-imposed curfew. The players decided this, and as senior players, I'd imagine Cory Jane, Victor Vito and Julian Savea had a fair bit of influence on this.
If, for instance, the Hurricanes front office had enforced this, it might be a different story -- but these players broke a curfew that they'd imposed. No sympathy here.
And now, the Hurricanes have come down hard on the five, and you can be pretty certain this will never happen again. So credit must go to Boyd and Coles there.
As for Dunne, well, it's clear what he's still thinking: "So what?"
Newshub.
