The Canterbury Crusaders snuck in a Super Rugby Pacific win on Friday evening with a full-time penalty goal against the Auckland Blues. While immediate celebrations took place, they were undoubtedly about the relief of not losing to our long-time adversary, rather than another victory. As a self-confessed one-eyed Cantabrian, we have the on-going expectation that they will win every game. It’s not much different to our collective national expectation of the All Blacks. Losing, is not an option.
Have no expectations and you won’t be disappointed. Easy to say and hard to do. While it can be applied to our daily lives it is more difficult not to have expectations of our sports teams and individuals.
We are expected to turn up for work and we expect to get paid on time (think of your reaction when wages are not paid). In business we invoice for work completed or product supplied and expect payment and trust this will happen on time.
We have expectations, both positive and negative, of our friends, family, children, work colleagues and people we come across each day.
When it comes to sport, it leads to a complex web of expectations at many different levels, particularly with elite competition. It’s difficult to avoid!
With our own participation in sport, it is hard for each of us not to have expectations whether it is a 5km park run, a multi-day event, a card game, right through to the elite level of participation. Goals are set, objectives made whether it is winning or just finishing, beating a rival or a previous set time.
Take the Crusaders. We fans have unbridled expectations, sponsors and stake holders have a different set while the managers and coaches have distinct agendas. What about the players themselves?
It’s not like an elite athlete can perform with no expectations. All the time, energy, the planning, setting of objectives and sacrifices made, results are required and can determine their course to the top of their sport and how long they stay there. They will have goals and expectations to meet or surpass these.
In our daily lives we can temper our expectations and make readjustments. Think about the expectations that you have heading home after work, that the washing is brought it, the house is warm, dinner is on its way and so on. High expectations can lead to disappointment; no expectations can lead to a more positive experience.
This is difficult to apply to elite sport. Imagine sitting in front of Red Bull Racing’s Helmut Marko during a pre-season meeting and he asks the question, “What are your expectations for the season?” You’re hardly going to say, “I don’t have any!” It could result in a very short career.
This is where it becomes complex. An F1 driver has many stakeholder expectations coupled with their own for the season, each Grand Prix event, practice session, qualifying and the race. Then outside of the car there are a different set of expectations.
They can only control their own emotions and expectations. While they don’t have to take on the pressure around them, it’s a difficult task to manage the situation around them and one they would not have necessarily trained for through club level competition.
So, what sets those drivers apart, those that can deal with the pressure? While there is no one answer, a key would be experience, and maybe that is what gives Yuki Tsunoda the ability to perform satisfactorily in the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. Four full seasons of Formula One is a good foundation to take on the challenge of being Max Verstappen’s teammate and driving a very difficult 2025 RB21 car. Experience gives you the ability to park emotions and pressure to one side to focus entirely on the task at hand.
We may never know or understand what emotions Liam Lawson has gone through after being moved from the Oracle Red Bull Racing team to the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team after the first two Grand Prix of the 2025 season. No doubt his expectations were well and truly smashed and now he has to reset in a different team (while we fans reset our expectations).
This may be the best thing to happen to Lawson’s career. Every athlete will face a crisis at some stage which can define the path ahead. As Frank Dick, British Athletics Federation Director of Coaching (1979-1994) says in the video above, ‘The reason you go into tough arenas in life is to perform better. You cannot perform better unless you are challenged.’
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