Beaver book
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Bought it this arvo and read through it. Sumo Stevenson can get pretty sycophantic as a commentator at times but he can tell a story and I think he's done well here.
Cory Jane (also involving Sumo) book was a disappointment in the sense that firstly Upper Hutt's 2005 Swindale Shield win didn't get a mention but also the writing read much more like Sumo than it did C.J. Words were used that a bogan from Upper Hutt just would never use (or probably know in CJ's case)
Won't put any spoilers in but glad I spent my $34.99 on it.
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Good read provided you can get the mental image of Fat Guts Hansen in a spa out of your mind. I've always thought the stories of the sportspeople who've done it tough like Beaver and Norm Hewitt are so much more interesting than Richie McCaws book which sucked arse. I leant it to someone who i cant quite remembet and don't even care where it is now.
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@gt12 said in Beaver book:
Missed touch in Hong Kong, 2010.
Not the missed penalty that would have put the game away a few minutes earlier?
Or the repeated chip kicks out of his own 22 in South Africa in 2009?
He wasn't a great All Black who was vilified for one poor kick. He was off the pace for his whole career, yet kept getting picked - Hong Kong was just the point where it became literally impossible to keep picking him.
Each to their own but I find the pumping of Donald by a certain subset of the media, including the author, a little tiring.
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He's turned into a very handy 12, arguably better than he ever was at 10. Might have been better to play his whole career there.
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@Billy-Tell said in Beaver book:
He's turned into a very handy 12, arguably better than he ever was at 10. Might have been better to play his whole career there.
He took a fair while to get a bit of solidity in his body. He was quite slight in his earlier years and wouldn't have made much of a midfielder.
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@gt12 said in Beaver book:
It could be the missed penalty, but I'm pretty sure the 'kick' referred to in the book is the missed touch. I could be wrong though!
That is 'the kick', but there were plenty of howlers including that 10 minutes.
Jegga said NZ castigated him over one kick, they didn't. They didn't even castigate him.
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Donald was an enigma when he was in the ab frame. He mixed some clumsy arse shit with some incredibly good rugby. I remember watching the Chiefs after I'd seen him play like a tard. I expected to see more of the same but he carved up using a lethal mix of brute force and skill. It blew me away. Unfortunately he couldn't do that at test level.
The fact that he wasn't Dan Carter and was a ungainly dopey looking fucker made him an easy target. A convenient scapegoat.
Still, his story of redemption is awesome. Considering the shit he's had to cop to his face from people who probably can't even pass or kick a ball, it must be hugely satisfying.