By John Tamihere
There is something about sporting teams and sporting events that help shape communities and our society generally.
Like many of our fathers, I endeavoured to stay up and watch the All Whites play their first game against Slovakia. One of my sons has a more timorous character and is better suited to playing soccer.
My other son plays rugby league.
I was sitting up with my son watching the preliminary introductions to the main game and it took me back to the time when we boys all sat down with dad around the wireless to hear the All Blacks on tour playing in Great Britain or South Africa.
These events helped shape relationships, attitudes, attributes and values.
Regardless of my passion for rugby league, this All Whites side lifted one's soul and made my son and our family absolutely proud.
This paper is one of the best sports documents produced weekly in this country and this All Whites side, as I see the individual profiles, are some of the best individuals and collective ambassadors this country has ever produced.
There are four players of Maori decent in the first eleven, and in the All Blacks side taking on Wales there are two Maori.
Who would've thought when dad and my brothers were sitting around the wireless in the early hours of the morning listening to the great All Blacks sides play, that 40 years down the track we would have more players of Maori extraction playing in the greatest global world cup competition known to mankind in 2010.
To have suggested this would've gained a one-way ticket to our local asylum.
I have had the opportunity to watch how soccer, as we call it, has grown in support. The calibre of administration, coaching and refereeing in NZ football has to be seen to be believed in regard to the commitment and professionalism that ensures tens of thousands of Kiwi men woman and children play this great code every weekend.
Regretfully, as with all codes, be it soccer, league, netball or rugby, the volunteers who drive the codes are really the mortar that hold the loose bricks of our society together. They very rarely get the acknowledgement and support they justly deserve.
As indicated, the attributes and values taught to our children in terms of commitment to a team, commitment to honesty and integrity in the way in which they play a game within the boundaries and within the law, cannot be replicated elsewhere.
And we cannot put a dollar on the value that sport plays in shaping our young people to be our great leaders of tomorrow.
We look forward to the All Whites playing the world champions, Italy, in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
I would wish for a win or at the very least a draw.
A draw against a team like Italy would rank as one of the greatest sporting achievements of any New Zealand side.
As a league fanatic, it would dwarf in absolute terms the magnificent win of the Kiwis in taking the World Cup from Australia in 2008.
Sunday News, 20th June 2010