With only a few days before kick-off, it is encouraging to observe the anticipation amongst TRM inmates for the Rugby World Cup far exceeds that of the NZ election in October. No surprise…
So once again we have referred back four years to the TRM blog at the same time before the 2019 RWC.
TRM’s fishy RWC report
By shamelessly exploiting Rugby World Cup fever on fb posts TRM hope to achieve more impact, as this post has a very important message for overseas based anglers, far more important than the usual boring fishy update? TRM fishy inmates often include many tourist anglers from overseas with huge CV’s in other regions that we are unaware of. This is one example. Fly fishing just seems to attract such positive people. TRM are blessed to share their views.
Anyway, the conceptual basis of our cunning strategy was to exploit their reputation to expose all the false news bouncing around the internet and newspapers damaging our valuable world-wide reputation regarding the condition of our local rivers. After reading all the misleading bad news sensation-type articles in overseas newspapers “rubbishing” all NZ rivers claimed to be poisoned or polluted from dirty dairying or dried up from irrigation, we asked for help. We imagined the Council would rush in to protect their reputation? Nope – not interested.
TRM struggles to understand this. Tourism is the biggest “industry” in NZ. In tourist towns like Taupo it is even more important. But in Turangi it is the only industry keeping the town economically alive. So one might imagine Toe-paw Council or the Taupo Fishery Managers might be interested in protecting all the $$$ promotion and reputation to correct any misinterpretations of our local environment?.
TRM were motivated after we had received several email inquiries from prospective tourist anglers asking if the NZ wide pollution had affected the fishing in the Tongariro?
Accordingly, we begged the fishing clubs or Fishery Managers or Toe-paw Council to respond to correct the misleading statements.
Kiwi readers and anglers might understand the purposely composed bad news was more about marketing strategy to sell more newspapers, than trying to provide a balanced view. In the vacuum of nil response, TRM has had to try to concoct our own response. Toe-paw Council dodged their responsibility suggesting it would be better to come from us than them (?) as they would be interpreted as being biased, as TRM posts are always unbiased and squeaky clean? They advised they cannot prepare any such simple promotional videos as efficiently as TRM’s video marketing department as it takes too much time to gain approval from local Maori? How extraordinary! We only needed SWMBO’s approval of our budget – $nil!
So we asked for help from a few inmates – wearing their TRM colours – anglers from overseas who were already aware of the negative publicity – to comment. While all NZ is gripped in a frenzy of World Cup Fever this is an ideal “marketing opportunity” for TRM to exploit.
Raphael Ibanez is to France, what Richie McCaw is to NZ.
True. So (without his approval) we do not apologise for using his reputation to try to correct false impressions on the state of our rivers on the central plateau.
Just so you understand where TRM are coming from… We emphasise the sad reality is that the protection of the “100% pure” image should come from Council agencies or Government tourist offices or fishery managers, but we received no response. So we picked on Raphael and a couple of other experienced overseas inmates, who were aware of the bad press and just happened to be staying at TRM at the time, to try to achieve more impact on social media. The Council should be paying them!
Back to the French team Manager – Raphael. How is this for a CV?
Having played in three world cups, with 72 caps for France, 27 as Captain, he initially retired in 2003 to play for London Clubs, Saracens and Wasps, but was lured back to captain the French team to beat the AB’s in the quarter-final in 2007. After adding a further 26 caps – 15 as captain, Raphael was forced into retirement again through injury – finishing on 98 caps ! He then went on to coaching and is now appointed as the French Manager after the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Wow! Just another typical laid back TRM fishy inmate… Most significantly, he loves fly fishing and came to NZ on a secret mission to fish the mighty Tongariro River, as mentioned on the video.
With the AB’s playing France as the opening game for the RWC this weekend, with Raphael managing the French team again, NZ looks forward to a wonderful stimulating tournament.
Other inmates looking forward to the RWC and displaying their loyalty with their TRM hats are below…
Bonjour to Caroline & Denis supporting the AB’s from New Caledonia
Jane & Thad lead the All Backs cheer squad from Washington, USA.
Mike Pratt leads the Canadian AB’s support team.
G’day to the President of the West Island supporters team – Murray Cullen – who believes the AB’s superior ‘line speed’ will win (but don’t ask him what it is…).
TRM hats dominated (?) Eden Park 2017