Word: bubka
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...generations, the All Blacks have been the world's outstanding team, with a 75% win record against all rugby-playing nations, many of which have never beaten them. Yet the first Cup, of 1987, is the only one they have won. They're the rugby equivalent of Sergei Bubka, the Ukrainian pole vaulter who broke 35 vaulting world records but won only one Olympic medal...
...country mad. More or less constantly since the first Cup in 1987, the All Blacks have been the world's outstanding team. In the years between Cups, they routinely trounce everyone. Yet that first Cup of '87 is the only one they've won. This makes them the Sergei Bubka of rugby - and don't they hate it. "The truth is, we do tend to fall over and we're sick of it," says All Black great Frank Bunce on the eve of the sixth World Cup, which begins on Sept. 7 and climaxes at Paris's Stade de France...
Before that, sports had always been about seeing a winner emerge, a loser limp off and for rooting interests to develop accordingly. Now, with results not an issue, there was still something appealing about watching Bubka go. He competed against himself, and was quite possibly more determined than he would be against an actual opponent...
...able to appreciate this part of the drama as I watched the game on the Classic Sports Network almost three decades later. I owe that appreciation, in part, to Sergei Bubka...
...place where you can watch others. For me, the best place will always be the Garden, regardless of the sport. It's a good place for me to look up and see Reed's No. 19 hanging from the Garden rafters and envision Sergei Bubka soaring through the air seemingly just inches below it, close enough to touch the banner if he really wanted...