New Zealand newspaper The Press featured an article about the growth of hurling in Christchurch this week and they decided to reference the man who knows more about the sport than any other…
Christy Ring perhaps? Henry Shefflin maybe? Brian Cody? No, none of those three, but Hollywood tough guy Jason Statham, whose rather over the top description of one of our native games in the 2011 flick Blitz was used in an introductory paragraph about the rapid growth of the small ball game in Christchurch.
In fairness to the author Abbie Napier, it seems pretty clear that she uses the reference merely to attract attention and doesn’t actually believe Statham’s description of the game, although she might be inclined to change her mind if she ever decides to attend a particularly hostile Junior B encounter at any stage.
The report goes onto offer a pretty detailed explanation of the sport and includes quotes from Irish ex-pat Liam Kelly, a member of Christchurch McKenna’s GAA club, about the rise in the popularity of the game in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Hurling, of course, has a long way to go before surpassing rugby in terms of popularity in New Zealand, but if those seeking to spread the word adopted some of Statham’s tactics, then we’d wager it would take off very quickly indeed…
Hat-tip to Seamus Murphy for sending this one our way
