By: Larry Williams | Monday, August 06, 2012 4:17 PM

The Olympics coverage, our success in London, Afghanistan and the Super Rugby final are the topics of Larry Williams' Memo tonight

Olympics coverage

I have been in the US for the last few weeks and their Olympics coverage is abysmal compared with here. I note that there have been some complaints about the Sky and Prime coverage here but from what I have seen its world class.

NBC have the Olympics in the US. What this means is that they play a few of the minnow sports live and mostly on a couple of their other channels like MSNBC.

On NBC itself through the day they play usually beach volleyball or water polo or any other sport that nobody wants to watch. The key sports like swimming and gymnastics are delayed by many hours and edited highlights played in prime time that night.

NBC don’t even show the key sport highlights in their news. They save it for prime time. So, we are getting a very good deal here.

 

Our success in London

Again NZ punches above its weight in the Olympic arena. Rowing has a history of producing winners. Whatever rowing is doing, the rest of our sports need a dose of it. Rowing is a huge sport in Australia, the US and Europe and yet NZ just keeps right up there. Rowing is a tremendous story.

I think we can expect more medals in the next few days from other sports. The medal count is far from done and dusted yet. A sure bet is Valerie Adams. The expectation is a gold but it will almost certainly be a medal.

Then there's triathlon and Nick Willis - who knows.

 

Afghanistan

Sadly two more NZ soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The pair were with the Provincial Reconstruction Team and died after a battle which injured six others. There have now been seven killed in Afghanistan.

The deaths, of course, are a tragedy. The fact is this is what you get in a war zone. Soldiers understand the risk but it doesn't make it any easier when troops are killed.

There is much made of how much good the reconstruction forces have done in Bamyan province and I do not doubt that. What I do doubt is that the Afghanistan that is eventually left behind will be any better than when the international forces went in.

The Taliban insurgents will quickly take up again and for that reason this has all been a futile mission. The war will not change anything.

 

Super Rugby

It was great to see the Chiefs win the Super 15.

The Chiefs were well coached and the players clearly bonded with each other. They were the dominant team this year and deserved to win the title.

You had a wonderful group of talented players but it needs more than that to make a team successful. The ingredients were all there with the Chiefs. There was a culture that most other teams couldn't replicate. You can have all the fancy names but if there is no team culture instilled, you're wasting your time.