Sir, – Could we all please simply call our rugby opposition today by their rightful national name – New Zealand – rather than by the relentlessly over-used moniker based on the colour of their gear.
South Africa, Argentina, Australia et al, all have traditional monikers, Springboks, Pumas, Wallabies, etc, but at least they still mostly travel under their standard national name.
Is there perhaps some subconscious, innate acceptance of New Zealand’s dominance at play here. If so, we’re going to be always on a hiding to nothing even before the kick-off, if we constantly defer and refer to their rather foreboding moniker.
A solo-colour strip, white fern or no, surely doesn’t deserve such profiling. If we allow it to, we’ll surely be “monikered” off the field!
– Yours, etc,
JIM COSGROVE
Lismore, Co Waterford