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'You've never been in the arena': All Black responds after posting 'disrespectful' video after France loss
By Kim Ekin
All Black halfback TJ Perenara has responded publicly to complaints after he took to social media following the All Blacks 27-13 loss to France in Paris to call out “everyone talking sh**”.
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The 83 Test halfback defended the national side by posting a video on social media where he told certain fans to “shush” because “you’ve never been in the arena”.
The No 9 predicted that the All Blacks would be back, along with the New Zealand Warriors and UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, who all ended up in defeat on the same weekend.
“Obviously been a tough week for sport here in New Zealand,” Perenara said on a video posted to social media.
“But everyone talking sh**, firstly shush, you’ve never been in the arena.
“And secondly this is the time we need to get behind our teams and our athletes.
“Izzy [Israel Adesanya] will be back, the Wahs [Warriors] will be back, and the ABs [All Blacks] will be back.”
After blowback from Kiwi fans who thought that the message was “disrespectful” to the supporters of the All Blacks, Perenara responded with a second video to clarify his intentions.
“Now my message wasn’t to be disrespectful to the New Zealand public,” Perenara clarified in a second video.
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“It’s aimed at the people abusing our teams and athletes online.
“But other people shared a similar opinion to Mark and it got me thinking, so many people support and love our game, but do we know the game as much as we actually think we do.
“So if you have any opinions or critiques on what the team can do going forward let me know.
“I’m geniunely interested to see what knowledge is out there and if I think any of it is valid.”
I hope Perenara gives himself a stern talking to for criticising people for criticising other people.
By his reasoning shouldn't he just be blindly sycophantic towards the AB critics? He's obviously not a 'real fan' of frustrated and disappointed AB fans.
TJ should shush himself. No-one needs to have been "in the arena" to know when players are shit. He's not the filter through which all opinions are sifted , ranked, & graded. If he's referring to haters & abusers, then label them specifically. There's no excuse for this type of vitriol. But there are multitudes of fans who love the ABs who from time to time have a crack. As they should. To try to cancel & belittle them is arrogant. Get down off that pedestal TJ.
Absolutely.
He could also offer reasons why those opinion are wrong in his eyes.
If the knows the 'truth',
educate us apparently naive 'not real AB fans'.
I actually don't think I've seen or heard any attacks on individuals for the sake of it, as he implies.
T.J has a point, if you only support a team when it is winning then you are just a band wagon rider
The downfall starts when the "sportsman" turn on the fans. When you can't handle the heat, get out the kitchen
What's with the aimless kicking?
Good on TJ Perenara for Highlighting the arrogance of the so called supporter's of New Zealand 🇳🇿 Sportsmen, and Sportswomen. Abusing, and accusing our Sportsmen, and sportswomen is not the sort of encouragement they need when they down. They are like any other Zealander who are the feeling pain when things don't turn out the way we expect. The All Black's, The Warrior's, and Izzy Ardesanye will be hurting 💯% for letting their supporter's, and country down.
As my aunty Barbara once said to me, "Nephew, if you think you can do better than that person you are running down, why don't you go and take their place, and see if you can do better." People when our sportswomen, and sportsmen lose, they need our support of, "LOVE, AND ENCOURAGEMENT!" Not The Abuse, And/Or Accusation.
The main thing about all these sportsmen regardless of country is that the spectators should be respected as the people who are paying for this. If businessmen or women make mistakes they get fired and disciplined. Spectators are shareholders and have no other means to raise their displeasure, it should be done with a respect. Also Jeff Wilson was as disrespectful as the fans towards the opposition after losing to the Boks, why did Perenara not silence him or are retired All Blacks the only people qualified to insult?
AB were poor and you don’t have to be a former all black to see it
Don’t speak unless you are one of the elite type comments just don’t wash anymore
Certainly plenty to speculate
The emphasis on individuals trying to win the game must change to a team belief and team achievements and the use of team skills!
Lots of calling out individual players that is freaking disrespectful!
It really depends on the comment. If someone plays poorly then they should expect it to be mentioned.
Though I'm sure that some/most commenters don't really understand the game as much as they think they do.
Also, it's difficult to blame an individual in a team sport. Also, the instructions the coach are giving the players are unknown.
Losing sight of subtleties 'off the ball' and 'with the ball' that makes great ball playing athletes. It appears AB coaches are stuck with a pool of players chosen by other people further down the advancement route, quick successes there are based on basic physicality, some of my thoughts, that get me angry.
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To a degree. But the All Blacks coaches (in general and Foster) since 2012 have been picking 'ball running'/skillful players over hard working/abrasive players; especially in the forward pack. They've been signaling the types of players they want.
For example Tom Robinson never got a chance for the All Blacks and Akira Ioane kept getting in the squad for years.
The All Blacks coaches/NZRU have a decent amount of influence over who moves up the ranks. The All Blacks' coaches can talk to the NZRU chairperson and say that a particular player is in their frame and to pay them more to stay.
There is a simple solution if the All Blacks want to shut up the critics- WIN.
Win the quarterfinals.
Win the semifinals.
Win the Finals.
Ok. I'm gonna email Fozzy and forward your insights. Sorted.
The ABs have to get out of the pool first. Sure they 'should' beat Italy but it all rests on France beating Italy. And as France would have already qualified so they just may not care about that game too much...and be kind to their Italian neighbours...
Or, at the very least, start playing well!
When TJ refers to "arena" is he talking about "test arena"?
If so, how many on the coaching panel have played in the test arena?
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. What we are forced to watch is well below historical All Black performances and will attract plenty of opinions.
Spot on mate.
You never hear players telling fans to 'shush' when the feedback is positive.
Professional rugby is voluntarily funded by the public and is intended to be publicly viewed; the idea that the public then can't publicly express their views is nonsense.
If the players can't hack the negative feedback either don't read it (also if the feedback is nonsense, who cares what is said) or get another, private job.
I think fans do think they know too much but in reality when some things are so obvious people get frustrated and vent. The loose forward mix in our team is not right and has not been right for a long time. You don't need to have played test rugby to know that. It reflects on poor selection throughout Fozzy's time. If Ardie had been told you are my 7 he would have specialised and been the best 7 in the world. Now he is a just a very good 8. Just one example, there are many others. Another example we take the Auckland props despite their poor Super campaigns and don't find room to fit Moody in. His recovery and then value in our troubled scrum would have been worth the play by far. We miss him badly. Just having him to back up Ethan would be huge. Then we won't select Finau, it goes on and on.
Lets face it the only Blues that should be in this team are Telea and Ioane maybe Papali'i at a pinch. The rest do not cut the mustard and I'm sorry to say that includes BB his best days are behind him.
The simple fact is tho Colin that if the changes you suggest were done there is others who disagree and voice it strongly too. Many have no real idea about how a player is going sadly but we do certainly all have our favourites and want them in above others.
I am not happy either with state of affairs but he has a point. Does not mean you can’t have an opinion but some are just toxic. And none of those with toxic comments have ever played at that level so perhaps keyboard warriors should think twice before responding
Ahh the lazy “you’ve never been there and you’ve never done that so don’t speak” remonstrances from a player. Be careful, oh TJ, if we all followed that sage counsel, most of us couldn’t critique …. pretty much anything in life come to think of it. Try stealing less from T. Roosevelt and Tom Brady for your social media advice sessions.
I guess there is a difference between having an opinion and having an informed opinion.
lol well said
Spot on. The amount of BS spoken about the AllBlack is hilarious.
Unfortunately it's a very human characteristic to take pleasure from the big guy being knocked out. ABs have been giants of the game since Adam was a boy. They've been wobbling since the Lions 2017 and a lot of international rugby fans couldn't be happier. I do wonder how they will evolve. Will they adopt the northern power game? They'll be lucky to exit their pool on current form and lack of confidence.
Bravo, Mr Perenara.