Men of Rugby
By 1995 a revolution seemed to have occurred. In that year the World Cup
was played in South Africa under the approving patronage of a black
president, and the All Blacks found themselves offered huge sums of money
with the establishment of an international professional rugby competition.
(5) The end of the amateur tradition symbolised much - it served the sense that
All Blacks were in the end just Kiwi blokes with a job like your or me. Now
they became paid entertainers performing on a stage like other people in the
leisure industry - actors, singers, rugby league players. And the end of the
amateur tradition destroyed the old idea that rugby players were like soldiers -
(10) prepared to sacrifice themselves and their careers for their country.
Furthermore, the rugby heroes who emerged in the eighties and nineties were
rather different from earlier models. The tough, uncompromising forward was
no longer a cult figure - indeed, one of them, Richard Loe, became if
anything a folk-devil. Those who took the limelight were flamboyant types
(15) who played in the backline - men like John Kirwan, the hero of the 1987
World Cup, who was stylish on and off the field, or Jonah Lomu, the hero of
the 1995 World Cup, a huge and boyish figure of Tongan background who had
grown up not on the farm like the rugby heroes of old but on the streets of
South Auckland.
(20) The 1905 All Blacks had won their way to the nation's heart as a
team with few outstanding individuals. They personified the toughness and
soldierly courage of the colonial frontier. They were ordinary New Zealand
men writ large. Their successors 90 years later were presented as exceptional
individuals who competed in an urban world of media hype and money.
Questions:
1. Identify the word in the first sentence of the second paragraph (lines 11-12) that indicates a development of the discussion. (A)
2. Explain in your own words one way in which rugby players were like soldiers (A/M/E)
3. Explain in your own words two differences between the 1905 and the 1995 All Blacks. (A/M/E)
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 1 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 38)
was played in South Africa under the approving patronage of a black
president, and the All Blacks found themselves offered huge sums of money
with the establishment of an international professional rugby competition.
(5) The end of the amateur tradition symbolised much - it served the sense that
All Blacks were in the end just Kiwi blokes with a job like your or me. Now
they became paid entertainers performing on a stage like other people in the
leisure industry - actors, singers, rugby league players. And the end of the
amateur tradition destroyed the old idea that rugby players were like soldiers -
(10) prepared to sacrifice themselves and their careers for their country.
Furthermore, the rugby heroes who emerged in the eighties and nineties were
rather different from earlier models. The tough, uncompromising forward was
no longer a cult figure - indeed, one of them, Richard Loe, became if
anything a folk-devil. Those who took the limelight were flamboyant types
(15) who played in the backline - men like John Kirwan, the hero of the 1987
World Cup, who was stylish on and off the field, or Jonah Lomu, the hero of
the 1995 World Cup, a huge and boyish figure of Tongan background who had
grown up not on the farm like the rugby heroes of old but on the streets of
South Auckland.
(20) The 1905 All Blacks had won their way to the nation's heart as a
team with few outstanding individuals. They personified the toughness and
soldierly courage of the colonial frontier. They were ordinary New Zealand
men writ large. Their successors 90 years later were presented as exceptional
individuals who competed in an urban world of media hype and money.
Questions:
1. Identify the word in the first sentence of the second paragraph (lines 11-12) that indicates a development of the discussion. (A)
2. Explain in your own words one way in which rugby players were like soldiers (A/M/E)
3. Explain in your own words two differences between the 1905 and the 1995 All Blacks. (A/M/E)
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 1 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 38)