Word: cupfuls
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Mitchell is a casualty of a failure that drives his country mad. For 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...
...truth is we do tend to fall over and we're sick of it," said former All Black great Frank Bunce on the eve of the sixth World Cup, which began on Sept. 7 and climaxes at Paris' Stade de France on Oct. 20. The World Cup is the big profit-turning event (the previous one made $37 million for hosts Australia) for a game that was played for love until turning professional in 1995. Since that time, players have grown not only richer but a whole lot bigger and faster. While that may sound like progress, the game...
...problem with hitching your identity to a sport is that it can drain the fun from playing it. And at the pointy end of recent World Cups, the All Blacks have looked clammy - which is how their supporters are feeling now. "My friends and I are rugby tragics, but no one's mentioning the Cup," says Auckland publishing executive Paul Gardiner. "Our mentality is such that when we watch these games we'll be too scared of losing to enjoy them...
...Although the All Blacks are the Cup favorites, rivals are taunting them with predictions of another premature au revoir. It doesn't look likely. Under coach Henry, the Blacks have been potent, winning 38 of their 43 matches since the last Cup. But if it isn't to be New Zealand's time, who else can win? Probably only the big-occasion Australians or the grinding, brutal South Africans, whose ruthless preparations for this Cup signal their determination to lift it. On home soil, the always-stylish French are another possibility. Asia's sole representative, Japan, under former All Black...
...carried on the theme from Lynch movies like Blue Velvet of sordid secrets and ancient horrors hidden behind a façade of wholesome Americana, proving that TV could equal or surpass film in its storytelling ambitions. Twin Peaks may have had the shelf life of a freshly poured cup of coffee, but it was damn fine nonetheless...