Spinoff Article about Chris Rattue

Here's an article about everyone's second favourite columnist/troll, Chris Rattue. Don't worry, it doesn't link through to one of his articles so you can click through with a clear conscious.

The most divisive man in New Zealand sport explains himself
Chris, all we can hope really is that you die in a car accident or in some other similar way. Regards, Dave Smith.”
This is an email that arrived in the inbox of New Zealand Herald sports critic Chris Rattue a few days ago. Dave’s oddly polite “regards” aside, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. With the possible exception of Wayne Barnes, Rattue is the most hated man in New Zealand rugby.

I avoid Rattue articles and when I see an article is by him I immediately click back or close the browser. However, I actually enjoyed the perspective this article gives. It's interesting to hear how passionate about the provincial game he is... I was under the impression he hated rugby. Actually, some of his criticisms stem from the All Blacks domination of the NZ rugby landscape and the marginalisation of the tiers below. I read Dan Carter's book and Rattue actually has a point that by the end Carter was treating the Crusaders as a way of getting ready for the All Blacks.

Maybe I'm just mellowing now that the All Blacks have won back to back World Cups and so I'm not so defensive

@Milk
I agree with a few points he makes, especially -

“New Zealanders are quite insecure about the national identity. They get very defensive about anything they feel is sort of non-patriotic. On one side, we have this overly patriotic ‘can’t criticise New Zealand’ crowd, then on the other side you have someone like me, who people deem to be overly critical. We’ve never been strong in that middle ground of putting ourselves into perspective without using a sledgehammer.”

The issue I generally have with Rattue is more that, for a guy with a BIG platform in a top NZ paper, and a very strong view on things, he's wrong WAY too often. Really wrong. Carter at the WC being an obvious one. But I'm sure if you took 100 articles by him where he makes definitive calls, he's barely right 50% of the time. And in most jobs that gets you fired.

If Aaron Smith threw 50% of his passes into the stands he'd get sacked. And Chris does that on paper week in week out.

I'm cool with him being loud mouthed & outspoken, but he's a journo FFS, you have to be at least a wee bit accurate.

When you read the backstory - adopted, raised on welfare etc, you do get a pretty solid insight into why he is the way he is. Its like when a porn star says "So my uncle used to touch me.." & you go "ooohhh!, phew! now I'm seeing how you ended up doing triple anal"

Yeah, nah. Still rate him as absolute dross google "Rattue Henry" and you will see a collection of his biopolar articles including the classic "I am not supporting the All Blacks" again in 2008 to the "Ben Smith and Ma'a Nonu are two of the worst AB selections Ted ever made".

The article also seems to arbitrarily say he is a quality columnist and wordsmith. Leaving his opinions aside his articles are infantile, rarely follow a coherent thread from start to finish and rarely backs up any of his assertions with fact or historical precedent. He is barely qualified to post on the fern.

Yeah, he's had some mares. They talk about the 'Village Idiots of Rugby' article, as the one that really kick started him being more controversial. I hated that article and found it really rude.

Interesting to read about what it's like from the other side of these articles, particularly that he's giving some thought into whether he's becoming a caricature. (also funny that another reporter called him out on it).

Here's his article about Carter. History went on to show he was wrong... but at the time he had some fair points, unfortunately it has all the subtlety of a rabid dog attack.

*The explanations for the All Blacks' mainly awful performance against Georgia have been flowing thick and fast and yet the man in the middle of the mess seems to remain untouched.

Dan Carter had a shocker, his performance being so bad that it was hard to discern what the supposedly deliberately twisted game plan actually was. His goalkicking was completely off, his command as impossible to find as his running game, some hospital passes to team mates bordering on a dereliction of duty.
...
Carter needs to be dropped on that performance alone. Instead, we've been bamboozled with tales of All Black subterfuge, the sort of double dealings that could fill a John le Carre novel. Next thing, there will be corpses turning up in opposition hotels with fake game plans stuffed in their pockets.*

Whats with the bit about how hot some guy is too? Is that a "subtle" way of saying Rattue is in the gays, without saying it? It came acrtoss as deeply weird...

The worst part about that article following the Georgia game was it completely and utterly ignored what the coaches said. It wasn't Carter playing poorly; it was him playing with an arm and a leg hog-tied behind him because the coaches wanted to place the team under pressure.

They freely admitted to it.

I gave up reading the spinoff piece because it came across as a sop piece rather than taking him to account. I'd have some semblance of respect if he just admitted that clickbait headlines and articles designed to inflame opinion were what kept him employed, what paid the mortgage.

I don't mind a contrarian but they can't just be a contrarian for contrarians sake, they need to have some solid reason or logic behind their argument every time. The problem with Ratpoo is that yeah, sometimes he gets that right, but most of the time he's just regurgitating his dipshit biased opinions because it seems like that's how he gets his rocks off and, of course, the clicks. In the shitheap that is NZ sports writing, where facts and analysis are almost always left in the gutter, he's the king.

I have no problem with Rattue being thought provoking.

But he has developed this habit of taking 1 or 2 poor games and making ridiculous statements

"The Chiefs won't win Super Rugby this season" (they did)
"Ben Smith is a journeyman" (he isn't)
"Dan Carter is past it" (he wasn't)
"Richie McCaw is past it" (he wasn't)
"The NZRFU are an evil Nazi-like organisation" (they aren't)

And so on.

I no longer read his articles.

Too outspoken without being accurate enough , with more emphasis on the second part .

Nothing too wrong with having a different opinion , but its like he is forcing the issue ,

too much too often ..... listen to me everyone, im controversial .

If he was honest in his rants he wouldn't bother me but like the British trolls -Jones Gallagher etc he just talks to much shit to think of as anymore than a clickbait whore.

Having said that , that was an interesting article and the one Rattue wrote about the time he was beaten up by a gang of ferals was really good too.

Interesting article, I think @taniwharugby hates him the way he does cos he was so cool and handsome at polytech. It's obviously all jealousy on his part.

how did I know @MN5 would somehow include me...TBH, the only time Twattue crosses my mind is when you alert me to stuff about him, I don't sit there hating on him 24/7 like you think I do.

I don't really care for his reasoning as to why he is a troll after clicks, I don't rate him, so don't read him.

As I mentioned in the Stephen Jones thread I genuinely like it if the "Troll" is actually clever or witty in what he says ( and as someone else mentioned actually having played international rugby helps the credibility too ) but Rattue and Jones haven't done this and aren't.

There's not many sports writers I do like, Phil Gifford will either wank on about a ) the Crusaders or b )) some All Black of yesteryear....Marc Hinton and Toby Robson are just plain boring.....Spiro Zavos doesn't seem to write anymore....

Ironically the one I do enjoy is someone who I fucken hated as a player, Austin Healey. From all his carryon when he played I thought he'd be a real fuckwit but his articles are really good. I remember feeling the same way about Will Carling too who is a real funny bugger, I had to take a cold shower afterwards.

Thank god there's Matt Dawson, he'll always be a cock and just in case I ever forget that the Hakarena video is only a Youtube click away.

@MN5 said in Spinoff Article about Chris Rattue:

As I mentioned in the Stephen Jones thread I genuinely like it if the "Troll" is actually clever or witty in what he says ( and as someone else mentioned actually having played international rugby helps the credibility too ) but Rattue and Jones haven't done this and aren't.

There's not many sports writers I do like, Phil Gifford will either wank on about a ) the Crusaders or b )) some All Black of yesteryear....Marc Hinton and Toby Robson are just plain boring.....Spiro Zavos doesn't seem to write anymore....

Ironically the one I do enjoy is someone who I fucken hated as a player, Austin Healey. From all his carryon when he played I thought he'd be a real fuckwit but his articles are really good. I remember feeling the same way about Will Carling too who is a real funny bugger, I had to take a cold shower afterwards.

Thank god there's Matt Dawson, he'll always be a cock and just in case I ever forget that the Hakarena video is only a Youtube click away.

I enjoy reading Peter Fitzsimons. Richard Loe is good too, straight to the point type writing.

@SammyC

Exactly my point dude and both of them have been there and done that which helps the cred immensely. Add Will Greenwood and Gordon D'arcy to that too, the latter in particular did some great stuff last year and his brutal honesty about why he was dropped in a land of midfield giants was cool.

As I said Hinton and Robson are just dreary. We all have eyes and ears, we know BB is a silky attacker, Kaino hits hard, SBW can off load.....it's like they've given up even trying to write with any flair.

I actually think Marshall writes some pretty insightful and analytical stuff, but definitely better with pen than microphone!

@taniwharugby said in Spinoff Article about Chris Rattue:

I actually think Marshall writes some pretty insightful and analytical stuff, but definitely better with pen than microphone!

I disagree. The evidence for the prosecution:

Leeds halfback and former All Black Justin Marshall says closed-roof stadiums and no pushing in scrums are changes he would like to see to the game of rugby.

In an interview with British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, Marshall said he thought scrums were too weighted against the lighter or weaker pack.

"You should be able to win your own scrum and create a comfortable platform. The purists in the forwards will be going mad at that, but it is just the way I feel," Marshall said.

Sure it's from 2006. But once a retard..

@Duluth

There's also another rule which would be interesting, drop a couple of players ( who needs flankers after all, dumb pointless position, that Rueben Thorne guy didn't do ANYTHING ) and have a rule where one teams gets it and if they get tackled six times they have to turn it over.....

THAT is the way of the future.

John Drake was excellent in the Fairfax papers and behind the mic.

Liam Napier is the best traditional rugby journo in NZ.

Loved Hansens comment. Made it my signature.