Chris Hewett
Thinking allowed

It was a cheap shot, admittedly, but only a pacifist or a fool would spurn the opportunity to kick the New Zealanders when they’re down. “What’s the difference between the All Blacks and an arsonist?” your columnist asked a radio host during a breakfast broadcast in 1998, eventually breaking an unnervingly long silence with the punchline: “No arsonist would lose his last five matches.”
Whatever the opposite of “storm” might be, that’s how the joke went down. Which was fair enough from the perspective of a nation largely unfamiliar with losing twice in a row. O...