Upset Over an Upset, Ricky Stuart? Don't Be

I am a writer that doesn't follow the rugby league as much as I do the rugby union. I chat frequently with people in my circles, and teams like the Sydney Roosters or Manly Sea Eagles have been left out of the conversation.

To begin with, the USA isn't that strong of a powerhouse in rugby union, let alone league.

It's one of the few sports where a country like Lebanon, for example, can actually outplay us in. Lebanon isn't even ranked in the International Rugby Board World Rankings (as of Dec. 15, 2008).

To be fair to the Tomahawks, they ended up losing to a Samoa side in 2007 that ended up qualifying for the Rugby League World Cup. But wait a minute...a Rugby League World Cup?

At first I thought that the only world rugby tournament out there was the Rugby World Cup. But lo and behold, a Rugby League World Cup does exist. The first edition was played in 1954, and it's under the auspices of the Rugby League International Federation.

For the bulk of the previous Rugby League World Cups save three, one team-and one team only-has dominated the tournament: Australia.

No, it's not the Wallabies. It's the Kangaroos. The same Kangaroos side that got themselves tested by the Tomahakws in 2004. All right, maybe some of you didn't know that these Kangaroos had to rally to win, 36-24. But it was great while it lasted. For three quarters.

Cutting to the chase, the manager of the Australia team, Ricky Stuart, could not stomach the fact that his side lost to New Zealand, who were out to prove two things: rugby league is not just about the Kangaroos, and rugby in New Zealand is not about the All Blacks.

New Zealand's team, the Kiwis (who could give their union brethren a run for their eye bulges in performing the haka), defeated the Kangaroos 34-20, and Stuart proceeded to blast in Ashley Klein's and Stuart Cummings' faces a presumption that Klein was a cheat, and supposedly fixed the game for the Kiwis.

(Cummings is the director of referees for the England Lions, and Klein officiated the final at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.)

Schadenfreude aficionados, rejoice.

Before the match, it was promised that Stuart would have the job for life if the Kangaroos won. If "for life" actually meant "only a few more days," then Geoff Carr, the Chief Executive of Australia Rugby, might as well been Nostradamus.

Australia is to rugby league as the USA is to softball. A year ago, the Kiwis were shut out, 58-0. In a test match in Melbourne, England were humiliated, 52-4.

One country can only dominate a sport for so long.

At Beijing, in the Olympic softball gold medal final, Japan had to give Mike Candrea's women their well-deserved comeuppance the same way Stephen Kearney's mean had to show Australia a thing or two about being considerate.

It depraves me to see that a coach of this magnitude would devolve to that of a young boy who fusses that his mummy didn't give him his lollipops as the pass the candy store on a Sunday.

There have been many widely-publicized falls from grace, but to see the manager of a team that is still among the world's best be reduced to this might as well have outdone them all.

To paraphrase a Renato William Jones quote, "The Australians have to learn to lose, even when they think they are right."

Such is the case with Ricky Stuart, who should have learned by now the power of losing with class, even when he felt that the outcome should have different.

Its this sort of childish behavior that fails to do justice to what amounts to a great victory for New Zealand, and also a great victory for the future of rugby league internationally.