AUCKLAND LETTER:The high number of players whose World Cup is over already, either injured in the
warm-up games or in the opening week, shows what a tough sport it is, writes GERRY THORNLEY

ROBBIE DEANS was asked during the week if he was surprised about the high number of players whose World Cup is over already, either injured in the warm-up games or in the opening week. The Wallabies coach said he wasn’t surprised in the least given the intensity with which the game is played. It really is becoming a savagely hard sport.

With all teams putting their best foot forward in a World Cup, there is liable to be plenty more casualties, even if the worst Irish news so far happened in training.

Of all the injuries you didn’t want to hear happening it was anything to do with Jerry Flannery’s calves, which had limited him to just three failed comeback games in 18 months before he finally appeared to get a run of games with five successive caps this season, four off the bench and starting at home to England.

When word filtered through on Wednesday, you feared the worst, and sure enough his World Cup is over. At 33, it compounds the knee injury David Wallace suffered when tackled hard by Manu Tuilagi in the final warm-up game against England when Ireland’s best ball-carrying forward over the last decade attempted to stay inside the touchline.

Both are top blokes as well as quality international players. It’s particularly cruel on Flannery (whose parents arrived in Auckland on Tuesday) given a freak injury training also cut short his Lions trip to South Africa two years ago before the squad departed.

At the time, Flannery was arguably the best hooker in Europe and would, all things being equal, have probably become the starting Test hooker on that tour. His ball-carrying, accurate darts and scrummaging have been missed by Munster and Ireland.

He’s always been intensely driven and, at times, perhaps pushed himself too hard. But these calf problems have been just cruel bad luck.

A deep thinker about the game and articulate, Flannery has always been one of the most popular with those of us in the fourth estate, not only because he always gave considered responses, but he wouldn’t know how to give a dishonest answer if he tried.

Of course, in between Wallace and Flannery, Ian McKinley having to retire at 21 after losing his sight in one eye, was even worse. That rarity, a professional rugby playing product of St Columba’s, McKinley is a lovely young lad who ate, slept and drank rugby. He plans to go into coaching and would, undoubtedly, still have much to offer the game.

But first Wally, then Ian and now Flah; it really is becoming a brutally tough sport.

The arrival of his parents in Auckland only served to compound one’s disappointment for Flannery.

Their grim week wouldn’t have been helped by the weather, for it seems to rain every half hour or so in the city of sails, and the wind has almost been constant.

There have been sunny patches to lure you out on the street before a dark cloud or two rolls in.

The green and gold invasion began to spring up last night, though apart from the pubs, and to a lesser degree the restaurants, local retailers have said there has been no upturn in trade since the World Cup kicked off, while Auckland taxis have said business is, if anything, down.

This is not entirely surprising, for it is often quicker to walk, as thousands were doing last night on the way down to the Fanzones in the Waterfront area. Certainly thousands have vowed never to utilise the Veolia rail system again after the horror stories from opening night a week before.

Auckland is a grid pattern system but to the frustration of all taxi drivers, and their passengers, the lights very much favour pedestrians, with each green light for them being extended by a 20-second long countdown in orange. They could be cut in half and the traffic would move altogether quicker, for with the emphasis on the pedestrian, it seems cars catch every red light at every block.

Nor is it surprising the restaurants aren’t thriving as they might have hoped thus far, good though they are.

Unlike France four years ago (or any time for that matter) New Zealand wines are not noticeably cheaper than imported wines. In a Brazilian-style restaurant (basically a never ending supply of meat off skewers for as long as you were of a mind) on Thursday, where several of the Irish and Australian media were eating, the starting price for New Zealand wines was NZ$62, almost €40.

As you would expect, the World Cup, rugby and especially the All Blacks, have been all-consuming. Last week’s events have been systematically examined, with the government effectively taking over the show from Auckland city council to prevent repeats of some of the chaos.

It appears every product being endorsed in shop windows or in television adverts is done so with a rugby theme – mostly involving the All Blacks.

Flags adorn cars everywhere you look, mostly All Blacks, but there were plenty of Samoan flags fluttering from cars as they tooted their horns on Wednesday night following their win over Namibia, mostly in the direction of their crestfallen Tongan counterparts after their loss to Canada.

There’s a bit of an edge between these Pacific Islanders.

The pictures from Invercargill and New Plymouth in midweek shows that the weather appears to have been much worse elsewhere in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Watching the tryless bore between Scotland and Georgia on Wednesday night in a sodden Invercargill, the thought occurred that World Cup organisers must have had a masterplan in fixing the draw.

So it was that they put England (aka Leicester in white, or black), Argentina, who invariably bring opponents into an arm wrestle, Scotland (who struggle to score tries), the Georgian wrestlers and Romania, who to be fair, surprised most with their adventurous offloading, all in the same group and more often than not put them as far south as possible.

Genius.