From the bottom of the ruck

6Nations - the Cro Magnons will triumph in Dublin

2012-03-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

Scotland need more Cro Magnons

Wales will be at home on Saturday afternoon, enjoying a take away pizza, with full Italian seasoning. Their biggest risk in this game is shipping any more injuries as they are starting to get a bit thin on the ground, but they should beat Italy comfortably.

In the later kick off, Ireland take on Scotland at the Aviva in what’s likely to be an epic battle. Rugby is a visceral game, appealing to the primordial enjoyment of combat in all of us. That’s why primordials are best suited to playing the game, with Neanderthals commonly used in the scrum, while Cro-Magnons , slightly higher in the evolutionary pecking order, make good backs. Ireland have a good selection of both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons to choose from, while unfortunately Scotland currently have a dearth of Cro-Magnons, and have been forced to select mainly Neanderthals in the back line. The Scottish supporters will no doubt be trying to capture some good breeding stock to improve their gene pool while they’re over for the match, and as by observation, all the ladies like a man in a kilt, they could well get a result.
I’m actually reasonably worried about this match, as Scotland are picking up a bit of form, and their massive pack is going to attempt to knock the stuffing out of us. Without a decent kicker for Scotland though, I’d say we’ll scrape by even without the inspirational Paul O’Connell. And Dublin will rock this weekend, because as the say, ‘the craic is mighty’ when the Scots come to town.

Sunday could be a classic as England travel to Paris to take on France. There’s huge history between these two teams and countries, on and off the field, and their relationship is perfectly summed up by this interview with former international Sebastian Chabal, in France. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfUmW_Mf5qc
You have an English reporter, with no French, at a press conference in France, trying to talk to a Frenchman who can speak English but won’t.

France are nowhere near the heights they reached in last year’s World Cup, while conversely, England are nowhere near the lows they reached at their tournament. It’s an England side with a lot of potential, but not really a team yet, although they have some very good promising individual players. If France is Irelands bogey tem, then England is France’s, but at home, their crowd won’t tolerate a loss and they should win.

RBS Six Nations
Saturday , March 10
Wales vs Italy 14:30
Ireland vs Scotland 17:00
Sunday , March 11
France vs England 15:00

6 Nations - short and bittersweet in Paris

2012-03-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Two strings to his Bowe (picture http://bit.ly/ABHF1Y )

So the first one was called off, the second was a draw, could we not make this the best of three and get a result here? We had such a good chance with the half time lead to get a result in Paris for the first time in 12 years but it wasn’t to be. Sarkozy himself probably nipped down to the changing rooms at half time and described what the impact of an Irish win would have on the terms of our bail out deal. It is going to go down as the one that got away, but it’s a good while since Ireland have played that way, and it is France at home we are talking here. From any angle, what both teams managed to do with a ball that must have been like a bar of soap was pretty amazing. Bowe was the stand out player with two trys that he made with his own fair hands. And Kearney, what can you say? O’Connell is a complete legend too, how many French ribs have got an ice pack on them courtesy of him? Ferris would put the fear of God into anyone with his tackling and Best was outstanding. For the French, Dusatoir and Maestri were the stand out players for me.

This isn’t Ireland’s six Nations, but with two matches to go we can still go out on a high.

RBS Six Nations
Sunday , March 4
France vs Ireland 15:00

6 Nations - Paris in the spring - but is the French Cockerel going to be plucked up?

2012-03-01T00:47:00.000-08:00

We're going to pluck you up!

This is an open letter to the French Rugby Federation. Paris is a delightful city, and while our supporters last time enjoyed your scenic but overpriced hotels, and sampled your world renowned (but exorbitantly priced) cuisine, none of that was an issue – we’re Irish, we’re used to being ripped off. Supporters travelled to your famed city in a variety of ways, some flew in comfort (Aer Lingus, Air France) some flew cheap and nasty (Ryanair), some watched from the comfort of their own lounge , or at their local pub.

And we know how these things can sneak up on you, we realise you only had six months to prepare for the match, from the time the fixtures were announced. But we were thinking, both travelling supporters, and those left behind, if it isn’t too much trouble, would you be able to provide a pitch a match can actually be played on this time? We understand it can sometimes be difficult to meet the high expectations of fans, but if you’re not too busy getting pissed on your admittedly superb wine, chasing skirt (or trouser, whichever is your fancy) thumbing your noses at the English (although we do that too) and whatever other busy affairs you have to tend to, a pitch our team can play on would be class. Thanks, yours etc.

Now I have that off my chest, what about the match? Ireland have an unchanged side from last week. We still look a little off the pace, and need a big step up to get a result in Paris. The French have not really hit their straps either, so both sides are looking for a win here to kick on the rest of their challenge. We have a bit of an issue with the French. The English for instance can be bigger, faster, stronger than us but when we need to we can really pull one out the fire with them. Apart from the odd occasion we beat them, you’re always left with sense of frustration after playing them, that feeling we haven’t done ourselves justice. I would so love to see the French cockerel slaughtered, plucked, spatchcocked and roast a on a barbeque. If our loose trio gets going, and Earls clicks at centre, and we get a bit dollop of luck, we could sneak it. But Paris is a hard place to go and win, so I’m going with a narrow loss for Ireland.

RBS Six Nations Sunday , March 4
France vs Ireland 15:00

6 Nations - England get really close, Scotland fairly close, and Italy nowhere close

2012-02-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

The last handy running Scot before Hogg (picture http://bit.ly/yt2mpo )

Ireland got things underway at the Aviva on Saturday with a convincing win over the ItaliansThe Italians made a good fist of taking the game to a rusty looking Ireland in the first half. The crowd was starting to get pretty restless – first we went to France, and you didn’t play, then we come to the Aviva and you don’t play either. After half time, normal service was resumed and Ireland ran out easy winners. Earls got one, so did Court and Trimble, and Bowe got two, while Kearney is back to near his best. Eoin Reddan’s introduction speeded the game up and gave ~Ireland the front foot ball they needed, and Sexton’s near impeccable boot kept the score board ticking. Kidney must be feeling the pressure a bit – moving Bowe into centre, and using his bench effectively – very unKidney like. So We’re back on horse with a win, let’s get stuck into the French now.

It wasn’t the massacre I predicted at Twickenham as the English manned up and could have got a result with a bit more composure. They’ll feel a bit hard done by, but this isn’t the last great scorer, it’s the jungle of the 6 Nations, and whether you win or lose gets marked, not how you played the game. I just wish Wales had played that badly against us. England defended well, and attacked well, but only in fits and starts. In the long run, that’s not an issue as the new combinations will gel, and they are only going to get better. The Welsh had no rhythm, and there was no flow to their game. Wales staggered but progressed, England came out of it honour intact, and it’s all still to play for as the 6N is not won or lost yet.

The French in typical fashion, kept the Scots guessing up until the last ten minutes, then turned on the power and put the game to bed. It was a hard fought full blooded affair, one for the RSPCA to get on the case, as I saw cruelty to several animals including Rougerie and Grey. On the positive side, Scotland scored two tries, and their backs looked like they really meant it for the first time since, um, Scot Hastings played. On the downside, it’s played three, lost three, and they are going to arriving in Dublin desperate for a win. France are looking frighteningly good (exhibit A – Fofana), and the Wales France match is going to be a killer.

In the Pro 12, Ulster, Munster and Connacht won. Leinster got an away draw against Glasgow, which I didn’t catch because I hadn’t worked enough credit in. Result for Irish rugby!

RBS Six Nations
Saturday , February 25

Ireland 42 - 10 Italy
England 12 - 19 Wales

Sunday , February 26

Scotland 17 - 23 France

I'm tipping Ireland, Wales, France, and Stan for Munster!

2012-02-23T00:36:00.000-08:00

Stan for Munster (picture http://bit.ly/xfxQNq )

Ireland are up first to defend their honour against the Italians, and to get back on the horse after their defeat to Wales. The team still has a bit of a stodgy feel it to it, with O’Callaghan and D’Arcy there for the ride, and Earls badly misplaced in center. He’s not there for his tackling or handling skills, fairly basic requisites for a center. D’Arcy may be there because of a lack of options, but the time is now to be giving Bowe a go, or look at O’Malley, even Trimble could be an option. Italy have taken a punt on Tobias Botes (pronounced Bow-tez) at fly half. Not a bad player, but he can’t kick penalties to save his life. I can’t see any other way Italy are going to score points, so that pretty well scuppers whatever slim chance they had in the first place. I don’t know if it’ll be proscecco rugby from Ireland but they will surely win this easily.

The match of the weekend is the contest between England and Wales. Wales are like a juggernaut pounding down the M25, while England are more like a mini with a learner driver, changing lanes without checking their rearview mirror. The results are not likely to be pretty. England may well beef their team up with Flood, Lawes and Tuallagi, but – loads of unfamiliar combinations, it’s not likely to gel in time. Could easily be a match to go down in history, and not for the reasons England want. Wales by 10-14 points. While we’re on Wales they’ve apparently been boosting their fitness with treatment s in freezing cryochambers in Poland. Aren’t those the ones the Irish team used in the build up to the 07 world cup, which did us basically feck all good. Do you think the Poles sabotaged the chambers as payback for us robbing them of a generation of young people?

The final match of the weekend is Edinburgh, where the Scots will be trying to get the better of the French. Thanks to a colossal balls up on the part of French rugby in Paris on THAT Saturday night, they haven’t played together for a three weeks, while the Scots were actively bashing their brains out against Wales a mere two weeks ago. The Scots stepped up their game from England to Wales and if they step up again, they are going to give the French a good match. France may feel the backlash of a lingering grudge by the Scots for decisions going against them against Wales. The French, on paper, should beat them easily, and will probably do that.

Finally, with Tony McGahan on his way out of Munster, time to throw a leftfield suggestion into the hat. With the IRFU and the FAI sharing the Aviva Stadium, could the spirit of sharing not extend to managers, or in this case , ex managers, namely Steve Staunton? Graham Henry could be an advisor, but I’d back Stan the Gaffer to deliver something completely unexpected for Munster.

RBS Six Nations Saturday , February 25
Ireland vs Italy 13:30
England vs Wales 16:00
Sunday , February 26
Scotland vs France 15:00

McFadden 16 - Scarlets 13

2012-02-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dave O'Callaghan - one to watch (picture http://bit.ly/xiI2Ha )

This weekend was a bit of a disaster frankly in terms of watching rugby. Friday night was U11 Leinster cricket for my son, and the rest of the weekend was spent doing some chores and earning a bit of credit for the upcoming 6 Nations rugby black out weekends on the way

I followed the Leinster and Ulster matches on twitter. It sounded like a filthy night at the RDS (the weather that is, not the ladies night), not conditions for slick ball handling, and from the reactions I’d say Leinster butchered a few good scoring opportunities. Scarlets were right in the match right up until the last minute, when McFadden, who scored all of Leinsters points, put over a penalty to win at the death. Now YOU know what it feels like to have something taken from you right at the end! The mystery for me, notwithstanding a decent display from the Scarlets, is how the Welsh sides in general are fairly average, but their national team is awesome. While Ireland, with three banging teams, have a good side, but not good enough to beat Wales.

Ulster squandered an early lead to lose to the Blues, and George Clancy is not flavor of the month in Ulster by the sounds of things. I think they should be starting with Marshall/Pienaar at this stage. I’d also be taking a long hard look at Muller in the captaincy role – I saw him have a good few arguments with refs at the Sharks, and there’s only one winner when you argue with the ref.

I caught some of the Munster match, good attack, but their scrum was under pressure a fair bit – and that’s the least Irish bit of the team. Don’t’ tell me you been talking to John Afoa! The guys who caught my eye while I was watching were Peter O'Mahony, and Dave O'Callaghan in particular.

And Connacht got a draw against Glasgow – result!

RaboDirect PRO12

Benetton Treviso 14 - 35 Munster
Newport-Gwent D'gons 21 - 10 Edinburgh
Connacht 13 - 13 Glasgow
Cardiff Blues 21 - 14 Ulster
Ospreys 23 - 7 Aironi Rugby
Leinster 16 - 13 Scarlets

Pro 12 , team news for the Irish Provinces, and Steven Sykes, look away now!

2012-02-16T00:33:00.000-08:00

(picture http://bit.ly/zKU3sk )

I’ve been totally neglecting Leinster since the start of the Six Nations. So now I’m back, homemade Valentine card in bashful hand, I still love you, don’t worry. They seem to have been doing just fine without me, and in fairness I did catch the good half of their match against Treviso, where it all went very swimmingly indeed. It was an opportunity for the young guns like Madigan and O’Malley to strut their stuff, and the y didn’t disappoint.

In team news, Leinster are apparently having a cosy chat with Brad Thorne, who’d be an excellent short term signing, and Donnacha Ryan is also apparently considering a move to the big province in Ireland (I’m talking population here ) which I’d be over the moon with if they can pull it off. If they are looking to dip into their kitty, and go overseas, I’d look at Andries Bekker from the Stormers, and preferably actually Flip van Der Merwe who’s an up and coming Bok. That is, if Seven Sykes hasn’t permanently sullied the waters for Saffers in Leinster. The big waster is already back playing (ie running a around on a rugby field, something he did precious little of in Ireland) for the Sharks, passing up a golden opportunity to play for one of the top clubs in Europe, and earn some €’s. And the IRFU made us give up Nathan Hines for him?

Munster also have some new additions on the way, with James Downey and Casey Lualua on their way to Limerick. Roger Wilson is on his way to Ulster, and is a great signing, while the rumours are rife that Tommy Bowe is on his way to the Man City of the PRO 12.

With Chris Ashton another high profile mover in the NH, from the Saints to Saracens, and the Ospreys coaching staff clearing out, isn’t it time to start thinking about doing transfers only in the off season? There are enough distractions as it is.

I expect the Scarlets are going to feel the force of Irish disappointment and get sent home with a loss and a flea in their ear by Leinster on Friday. It’s ladies night on Friday, and they’ve already sold nearly 16 000 tickets for the match – take a bow, all you supporters! Cardiff/ Ulster should be a tough match, but I’m backing the red hand, Munster should thump Treviso, and Connacht will be lucky to get any change out of Glasgow.

Snow in Rome, no go in Paris, and no luck for the Scots

2012-02-12T12:22:00.002-08:00

Fat lot of good that did (picure http://bit.ly/ziiqqF )

Snow in Rome for the Six Nations match between England and Italy... and the snow on the pitch was a lot prettier than the match that was played on it. Easy to be cynical from a warm dry couch, but you’re not likely to see three more shambolic international tries in a hurry. There was lots of aimless kicking, interspersed with plenty of earnest but ineffectual bashing up the pitch, scrum resets and failed line-outs. But frankly what were we expecting, it was cold and wet, Italy are the least skilful team in the 6N and England has a young inexperienced team. As hard as England tried to throw the game away, Italy just went that extra mile to hand it back to back to them on a plate, with charge down Charlie providing the final coup de grace.

To put it all into perspective, the first match of the day was the pinnacle of organisation compared to events in Paris that evening. So the Italians, where rugby is complete minority sport, laugh off the first snowfall in Rome in 27 years and get THEIR show on the road, while the French, moneybags of the world of rugby, call the match off two minutes before kickoff in front of a packed stadium because of a frozen pitch? Ireland didn’t lose on Saturday night, so at least that was some good news.

Wales saw off the Scots on Sunday in a gritty encounter. Is there any description of Scottish rugby that doesn’t involve the word gritty somewhere? The Scots managed to drag the game down into an arm wrestle in the first half, then an error from the kick off led to a Welsh try, and after that, the Scottish yellow cards ended the match as contest, as the Welsh scored first against 14, then against 13. Scotland finished the stronger, and got a try, their first in 5 games. Wales could be going for the slam now, they didn’t play as well as they did against Ireland, and they are shipping injuries at an alarming rate, but they have momentum.
RBS Six Nations

Italy 15 - 19 England
Wales 27 - 13 Scotland

6 nations preview from a bitter, bitter man

2012-02-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Even though I’m not quite finished sulking over last week’s loss to Wales, I suppose there’s matches on this weekend, so whatever, here are my predictions. And wayhey! It’s post number 200. However did I get here?

The ‘action’ if that’s what we’ll call out, kicks off in Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Stuart Lancaster , caretaker coach, is apparently ‘excited’ by England at the moment. No there’s a man that’s easily pleased. This match promises all the excitement, tension and display of skills that were evident in the Scotalnd/England match i.e. not very much. England have a load of youngsters on a learning curve, and I know Italy beat France here last year. But that’s the bloody French. Italy will only win this England somehow manage to hand it to them on a plate.

Playing the French is difficult enough for Ireland at the best of times, never mind when they’re at home, nevermind when you’re still trying to pick yourself up from being stabbed in the back by your erstwhile Celtic ‘mates’, Wales. Then to add to that, they gone and put the match at 8.00 pm, it’s going to be freezing cold, and even the French are saying the pitch is going to be like concrete. So what can we expect from Ireland? They weren’t terrible against Wales, just inconsistent, so I suppose it’s fortunate in a way we get to play the team whose middle name is ‘inconsistency’ next. We have to work on our tackling and our defence. We seemed to stand off Wales a bit, and not get stuck in to the rucks and mauls. So we need to change all that, and get the Leinster style of the backs running angles onto the ball going. It’s an awesome French side if they play to their potential though, and it’s hard to see us doing much apart from damage limitation.

Wales round up the weekend by entertaining Scotland on Sunday. In team news, Bradley Davies’ attempt at Greco roman style wrestling moves on Donnacha Ryan have been viewed dimly by the IRB, who gave him a 7 week ban. For Scotland, Dan Parks spat the dummy, and flounced from the International scene – probably milliseconds before he was axed from the squad anyway. Wales are going to gobble Scotland up and spit out the bits, with only the Scottish scrum providing a modicum of roughage. Scotland are awkward enough to keep the score the right side of respectable.

On Thursday night Leinster will take on Treviso, with a few youngsters on board, but still a handy enough looking team. !5600 tickets have been sold –that’s massive!

RBS Six Nations
Saturday , February 11
Italy vs England 16:00
France vs Ireland 20:00
Sunday , February 12
Wales vs Scotland 15:00

6 Nations round up - Ireland need a hug right now...

2012-02-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

We need the right Donnacha (Picture http://bit.ly/zIj43y )

France’s performance on Saturday has me wondering if I’ve tipped the right horse for the 6N. The ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’ (as my colleague refers to them) were in typical erratic form, scoring four trys without ever looking like their hearts were in the match. When they put their minds to it, they were devastating, imagine if they’d concentrated for the other 75 minutes! Italy have a fantastic team 1-8 ,they would win an 8 man form of the game hands down. But it’s the seven bystanders behind the scrum that are their problem. The French front five are looking a little elderly, and are eminently there for the taking. Saying that, Picamloe was massive, and Malzieu, Rougerie, Fofana and Dusatoir were all top notch.

I was hitting the fast forward button in the Scotland England match to try and get the game going. Scotland’s problems are Italy’s problem. The secret to beating Scotland (covers page) is to give them the ball. They have not a notion of what to do with it, either handing it straight back, or toiling diligently away with scant effect. In fact, both teams treated the ball like a live grenade, to be disposed off as quickly as possible. England at least have the excuse of youth and inexperience, but really, all they had to do was put in a few tackles and let the Scots self destruct. Ross Rennie was just about the only player on the pitch who showed any penetration – has he ever played fly half do you think?

The last match of the weekend was the best by a country mile with both sets of fans on the edges of their seats and with their hearts in their mouths up until the last second. Ireland need a hug right now for the manner of the loss, but they got beaten by a better team. Kidney has to keep on weeding out the passengers, DOC for a start, and use his bench better. Murray and Sexton are still building up a relationship which means we go in fits and starts some times, but I can’t think why Donnacha Ryan didn’t start to help match the dynamism of the Welsh forwards. North, Faletau, Priestland and Phillips were all superb for Wales. Tough for Ireland, but it’s no disgrace to be beaten by that team. Completely deflating though.

It's the bigest, it's the baddest - it's the 6 Nations 2012!

2012-02-02T00:41:00.000-08:00

Six European countries are going to be going into battle, and this time, anyway, it’s not over the Euro. No, it’s Six Nations time, a reminder that spring is on the way, time to get behind your country as they take on all the old foes. But first, a quick look at form.

England
They won it last year (despite not being good enough to beat Ireland) but a lot has happened in the intervening year. They didn’t have the happiest World Cup, with off field antics (dwarfgate, boobgate, ballgate, etc) getting the way, and on field form being in short supply. They’ve had a big clean out of players, Martin Johnson is gone and they have Stuart Lancaster as caretaker coach in charge of a fairly green looking squad. They have the players, but will the combinations click in time...probably not, so a mid table finish is likely.

France
They were beaten by Italy last year, then came within a whisker of claiming their first World Cup, so very French of them. Having ditched clown-in-chief Marc Lievremont, installed Philippe Saint-André and retained most of the players that got them so close in the final, they must start as favourites for this year’s tournament. But, never knowing what to expect from the French is the oldest adage in the book, so let’s see.

Ireland
We came so close to nearly doing well, beating Australia, topping our group – then getting sucker punched by the Welsh. Coach Kidney is still in place, and our side is a settled side, to me a bit too settled, like a fine wine with a load of sediment at the bottom. I think the team could do with freshening up, we are treading water at the moment, will probably finish mid table this year, then make the changes we need about a year too late.

Italy
Italy have a new manager, Jacques Brunel but he has the age old problem of no players to pick from, with only one and a bit decent teams as his selection base. They are likely to be winless this year.

Scotland
The Scots have a bit of player form, with Edinburgh the first Scottish team to make the quarters in yonks, and have a settled coaching team. They don’t have a lot of players to pick from, always struggle in the backs, but have a pack they will make you feel like you’ve been put through a cement mixer. 5th spot beckons unless they can do a number on England and other results go their way.

Wales
Wales are the joker in the pack, they were growing in stature with every match at the World Cup, and have all the ingredients for success. But you never with the Welsh. They are playing with confidence, but are carrying a few injuries, notably Rhys Priestland , the one player who really makes them get their groove on. The draw suits them this year, so second is probably where they are going to finish.

RBS Six Nations Saturday , February 4
France vs Italy 14:30
Scotland vs England 17:00
Sunday , February 5
Ireland vs Wales 15:00
France V ItalyFrance have a bone to pick with Italy after last year’s ignominious defeat in Rome. The French have any number of players eager to impress the new coach, and while the Italian pack will delay the onslaught, France will inevitably win this match, and handsomely.

Scotland v England
Are Scotland up for this one? Do bears poo in the woods? Scotland will be itching to get the new England reign off to a bad start. I can see a ferocious forward battle, but a fairly inept backline duel, the skill of Fodden and Ashton blunted by the inexperience of Farrell and the woodiness of Barrett. And I hope Charlie Hodgson has been doing his tackling practise – because he’ll need it... Scotland with millimetres to spare

Ireland v Wales
This is the jewel in the crown of the opening weekend, Scots/Eng is likely to have the strange fascination of a slow motion car crash, France/Italy is for the people who pull the wings off flies, but the Aviava should see some decent running rugby. If I was Kidney, I would have booted DOC and D’Arcy into the stands, and Earls is not a centre, he’s not a centres bottom, Kidney should be made to write out a hundred times ‘Earls is not a centre, he is a wing’ . Otherwise, looking OK, good to see Trimble starting, and O'Mahony and McFadden on the bench. Are we going to be able to avenge the defeat in last year’s world cup? Without Priestland starting for Wales, I’d say we have a good chance. We can put aside old Lion and Celtic friendships for the moment , and give cheery Warren Gatland something to be really miserable about. Ireland to scrape home in undignified fashion. O’Gara drop goal in extra time not out the question.

The Hounds get bitten by the Saxons

2012-01-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

Dan Tuohy (Picture http://bit.ly/xUdkgh )

I didn’t have the time to watch the Wolfhounds/Saxons match, but no problem, I just hit Sky+. The problem came when I wanted to watch it and filed came up on the screen - too much Phineas and Ferb, Downtown Abbey and America’s Next Top Model on the hard drive. So I cleaned all that crap off, and recorded what I thought was a rerun of the match, which in turn turned out to be half baked highlights package.

And it’s a pity as it didn’t look like the worst match either, the Saxons seemed to have the upper hand, but the Hounds didn’t give up, put together some moves, and kept trying until the end. There were a few players that I wouldn’t hugely rate that surprised me – Dave Kearney took a good line for his try, and did some sterling work in defence as well. He’s coming on in leaps and bounds. Tomas O’Leary looked sharper than I’ve seen him for a long time, and scored a fine determined try. In the pack, Dan Tuohy put in a storming performance and has to be on the bench for Ireland, while Henry and Ruddock are knocking on the door for higher honours. Keatley and Madigan both showed some good touches, and are worthy stand byes at provincial level.

I was concentrating on the Hounds obviously, but did notice Robson for the Saxons, and I thought Armitage stood out as well, if only he could sort his disciplinary record out. Apart from that, Burns looks like he could go far, and Spencer seems to be in the right place at the right time, both playing at Saracens and within the England set up.

Now, bring on the real thing!

Saxons 23 – 17 Wolfhounds

Lots of grumbling and giving out about the Ireland team

2012-01-26T00:43:00.000-08:00

Trimble (http://bit.ly/wandY4)

These are the squads for Ireland and the Wolfhounds ahead of the Wolfhounds match. (clears throat and gets ready to give out). Now I know Leo Cullen is out injured, and James Coughlan is in for him – we all knew he was injured when they included him anyway? Also, six out of the Wolfhounds and the additional players have the opportunity to put their hand up for the senior squad.

My beef (prime Irish beef of course) is with the world cup over, we should now be focusing on form and younger players, and it looks likewe have several passengers in the squad of 24. Paddy Wallace is the biggest culprit, having neither form nor age on his side. As a good Leinsterman, it pains me to say it, but D’Arcy’s form has been moderate to say the least, and he’s in the twilight of his career. Jennings is another player who I’d love to have available for Leinster for the next few years, but I don’t see him as Ireland material. DOC has been a brilliant servant for Ireland, but if he’s on the bench at Munster now, why is he going straight into the senior squad? And I really think Earls is lucky to be there, he’s been injured, and is still getting back to form. So out of 24 players we’ve already got 5 people who are pretty lucky to be there.

Then looking at the Wolfhounds, I’m going to look totally anti Connacht here, and I’m not, but why have we got players like Duffy, McCarthy and John Muldoon in there, even Tomas O’Leary. Are they ever going to use the opportunity to step up to the senior squad? Where’s Paul Marshall, where’s Damian Browne, where was James Coughlan in the first place? Why is Carr in limbo?

We’d be better off proactively getting younger players and players with better form into the team than playing it safe, and only making injury enforced changes. I can see a moderate 6 Nations this year, and a worse one next year with the current strategy. I could see us starting with a 15 that’s going to run out of steam with 20 minutes to go, with no game breakers on the bench. We’ve got three teams in the HC cup quarters, but it looks suspiciously like a pigs ear could be made out of a silk purse.

Do you think, as part of the bail-out deal for Ireland, along with all our financial plans for the country, our team sheet gets discussed in Paris and London before we see it? ‘Vraiment, D’Arcy et 'class'’ ‘Wallace has always been a top chap’

This would be my Ireland team:

15 Kearney 14 Trimble 13 Bowe 12 McFadden 11 Fitzgerald 10 Sexton 9 Reddan 8 Heaslip 7 O’Brien 6 Ferris 5 O’Connell 4 Ryan 3 Ross 2 Best 1 Healy

Bench: Cronin Murray O’Gara Loughney Tuohy Hagan Coughlan Earls

Good luck to the Wolfhounds anyway, I hope they beat the Saxons.

Ireland training squad for Six Nations Rory Best, Tommy Bowe, Tom Court, Sean Cronin, Leo Cullen, Gordon D'Arcy, Keith Earls, Stephen Ferris, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Shane Jennings, Rob Kearney, Fergus McFadden, Conor Murray, Sean O'Brien, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara, Eoin Reddan, Mike Ross, Donnacha Ryan, Jonathan Sexton, Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace.
Additional Players Fionn Carr, Craig Gilroy, Jack McGrath, Ian Nagle, Peter O'Mahony, Tiernan O'Halloran.
Ireland Wolfhounds Stephen Archer, Isaac Boss, Gavin Duffy, Chris Henry, Denis Hurley, David Kearney, Ian Keatley, Ronan Loughney, Ian Madigan, Mike McCarthy, Kevin McLaughlin, John Muldoon, Tomas O'Leary, Eoin O'Malley, Rhys Ruddock, Mike Sherry, Nevin Spence, Devin Toner, Dan Tuohy, Damien Varley, Brett Wilkinson, Simon Zebo

Irish provinces in the Heineken Cup - so many superlatives, they broke my superlomometer!

2012-01-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

James Coughlan (picture http://bit.ly/wxGF9b )

Leinster put in a solid fifteen man performance to top their pool, and confirm their home quarter. Missing a few of their out and out stars in the starting 15, they still had enough in the bag to effectively put away Montpellier, who had picked a full strength side. Kearney, Mc Fadden, and the usual suspects in the pack of SOB and Heaslip all stood up to be counted. A bonus point would have been good, but apart from that it’s home quarters and all to play for.

Connacht had kicked things off for the Irish provinces in awesome style on Friday with a fine gritty over Quins. The match was played in near hurricane conditions, and somehow, Qunis couldn’t use the wind at their backs in the second half to get the win. To describe Connachts’s tackling as ferocious is to do them a an injustice, it was an out and out war around the rucks and mauls. Connacht won the match with sheer bloody mindedness, just absolutely refusing to lose. Quins could go to Toulouse and win, but not to Galway! The Galwegians had a win coming in the HC, and this was not no more than their due.

Connacht’s heroics had ensured Ulster’s qualification, but the Ulstermen had to try and get something out of Clermont’s home fortress for a home quarter. It wasn’t their afternoon really, they had a few decisions go against them, and they didn’t have the ruthless efficiency they showed against the Tigers the week before to put away the chances they did get. But they got close, really close to a win and there aren’t too many teams that get to do that. So qualification again for Ulster, two years in a row, not too shabby.

It was left to Munster to round things off for the Irish provinces, against the in form Saints at the MK stadium. Munster were 5 from 5 coming into the match, but have been in scratchy enough form, requiring a few drop late goals to scrape through and not ever hitting their straps up until now. Even in the first 20 minutes, it didn’t look like it was going to be their afternoon. Ronan O’Gara got a pass in their own 22, found a pen, wrote ‘hospital’ on the ball and popped it off to Mafi, milliseconds before Mafi was absolutely creamed by Manoa. Saints got a penalty try from that scrum. Mafi a few minutes later tried a really speculative offload in the Munster 22, and again the Saints came away with points. But Munster hung in there, got a try of their own after a storming run by Coughlan, who’s in sensational form, and were in touch at half time. In the second half, Munster flicked the switch and unleashed a blitzkrieg attack on the Saints, and didn’t let up until the last minute. It was the stuff of nightmares for Northampton. I think it’ll be a while before such a complete second half performance is matched, probably not this year anyway. Munster are back, big time, and must be favourites now for this years tournament. Zebo got a hat trick, but it was the ultimate team performance that delivered those tries and more and that win.

So this is the draw for the next round:

Munster v Ulster
Leinster v Cardiff Blues
Edinburgh v Toulouse
Saracens v Clermont Auvergne

Overall, English clubs are the big losers with one only one club through, the Rabo Direct Pro 12 are the winners with 5/8 and france are about right at 2/8. One Irish side is going to have perish straight away, but apart from that, things couldn’t be better for the Irish teams right now.

Friday , January 20
Connacht 9 - 8 Harlequins
Gloucester 34 - 24 Toulouse
Sunday , January 22
Biarritz 36 - 5 Ospreys
Benetton Treviso 20 - 26 Saracens
Saturday , January 21
Bath 23 - 18 Glasgow
Leinster 25 - 3 Montpellier
Leicester 33 - 6 Aironi Rugby
Northampton 36 - 51 Munster
Castres 13 - 16 Scarlets
Clermont Auvergne 19 - 15 Ulster
Edinburgh 34 - 11 London Irish
Cardiff Blues 36 - 30 Racing Metro 92

Heineken Cup predictions - knowledge of biorhythmic algorithms not required

2012-01-19T00:58:00.000-08:00

Steven Sykes - Seldom Seen Man (picture http://bit.ly/zmPmli )

Likely to top the whole shebang are Leinster, and a win against Montpellier should do that for them, even without the bonus point. Leo Cullen is a worry, although not you could tell from the Leinster site, and Fitzgerald and Strauss are back in the frame, as apparently is the seldom seen Steven Sykes, who has not turned out to be a fantastic replacement for Nathan Hines, it has to said. Four points for Leinster.

Munster have to beat the Saints at home tall order in itself, plus they are rocked by injuries, and not in the finest vein of form. I’m not knocking them, they’re unbeaten, but just this moment it would take a minor miracle to come home with a win. The news that Ashton is getting flouncy at training at Franklin Gardens is a bit of comfort, as that is sure to disrupt the Saints.

Ulster have to beat Clermont away. Who knows what Clermont are going to bring to the party, but at home they are a mightily impressive side. Clermont have not lost at their fortress since November 2009. So even a bonus point for Ulster is going to be a major achievement, and could spell the end of the Ulstermen’s campaign. I'll bwe shouting for Ulster all the way though

Edinburgh and The Blues both look like they’ll make it as the Exiles and Racing are not in the best of nick these days.

And in Pool 6 you’d think that Toulouse and Quins should both get out. Then Saracens should top group 5.
So this is my order:

Linster
Toulouse
Saracens
Edinburgh
Clermont
Munster
Cardiff
Quins

Enjoy the weekend!

Heineken Cup
Friday , January 20
Gloucester vs Toulouse 20:00
Connacht vs Harlequins 20:00
Saturday , January 21
Northampton vs Munster 18:00
Castres vs Scarlets 18:00
Leinster vs Montpellier 13:30
Bath vs Glasgow 13:30
Clermont Auvergne vs Ulster 15:40
Leicester vs Aironi Rugby 15:40
Sunday , January 22
Edinburgh vs London Irish 15:15
Cardiff Blues vs Racing Metro 92 15:15
Benetton Treviso vs Saracens 13:00
Biarritz vs Ospreys 13:00

Heineken Cup - Irish teams in 1,2 and 3 in the qualification standings

2012-01-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

Devin Toner (http://bit.ly/zjvEFB )

Leinster had their work cut out for them by the burly Scots in Glasgow. The Warriors brought unrivalled physicality to the party, and had Leinster rocked and pegged back in the first half. So smart game plan by the Scots, absolutely playing to their strengths. Leinster had to keep themselves occupied with repelling the Scots, and it took a moment of magic by Sexton and Kearney, and one prolonged attack finished by a belligerent Boss lunge, to win the match. Well, we know Leinsters defense is the business, but the Scots had their attack under control. They missed Fitzgerald, and I’d be looking at Carr not Dave Kearney. McFadden showed a few good touches, and his place kicking is immaculate. Cronin had some stormng runs, and Toner is growing more influential in the team all the time. Even my photocopier is telling me, you need more toner! Leinster qualify for the quarters, and have next week to work on home advantage.

Ulster Leicester was the match of the weekend, with the Ulstermen using home advantage to absolutely pulverize the Tigers. It’s seldom that you see the Tigers get so comprehensively outplayed in every facet of the match, but they weren’t just played, they had a tank driven over their scrums, their lineouts, their mauls, their backline. Good times for Ireland as Trimble, Cave, Tuohy, put their hands up for national honours. The crowd, the atmosphere, this match has passed straight into Ulster folklore. It had the hairs on the back of your head standing up the whole match.

Munster had a tough encounter at home against a determined Castres side. Post match interviews with O’Connell talking about frustration with their performance. Hard man to please, five from five, qualification in the bag, only unbeaten side in the tournament, and they feel they should have done better. Admittedly they left a few tries behind, but Castres are some team, big strong talented players. Munster need more composure in the last 5 metres, and I think that’s where Murray is still learning his trade, his control of players and split seconds decisions are still coming. Great to see three Irish sides in such good form, one two and three in the current qualification table.

Toulouse beat Connacht 24-3, so fair showing from the Galwegians. Exiles passed up a good chance to push for something more as they fell to the Blues. I also saw the Scarlets hopes dashed by the Saints, just felt the Scarlets should have done better, they needed to take their chances. And I saw Saracens beat Bairritz, not very convincingly, but they all count.

Heineken Cup
Friday , January 13
Ospreys 44 - 17 Benetton Treviso
Racing Metro 92 24 - 27 Edinburgh
Ulster 41 - 7 Leicester
Saturday , January 14
Montpellier 24 - 22 Bath
Scarlets 17 - 29 Northampton
London Irish 15 - 22 Cardiff Blues
Aironi Rugby 0 - 82 Clermont Auvergne
Munster 26 - 10 Castres
Harlequins 20 - 14 Gloucester
Toulouse 24 - 3 Connacht
Sunday , January 15
Glasgow 16 - 23 Leinster
Saracens 20 - 16 Biarritz

Heineken Cup taster

2012-01-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

(Picture http://bit.ly/ynrFms )

Leinster have a full bill of health for their encounter in Glasgow, with Leo Cullen, Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Jennings, Ian Madigan, Eoin O'Malley, Rhys Ruddock and Richardt Strauss all in the frame for selection. Glasgow are in fourth in the Rabid 12, and sit at second in their HC pool behind Leinster. A win here and they could really fancy their chances of topping the group. So this is a big match for Leinster, Scottish teams have often been stumbling blocks in the past, and they want to win all their remaining matches starting on Sunday, and see if they can get home advantages in the next round. I’ve just watched some of the Bath highlights, and awash with pride I’m going with the Leinstermen to crack Firhill , down the bogeyman Scots, and come away with a win, if not a bonus point.

Ulster take on Leicester at home, in what promises to be a fantastic match. Both teams have put together a good string of results in the last few weeks, something to build on and take into this round of HC matches. Ulster would love to put some daylight between themselves and Clermont, and a win against the Tigers would see them get one foot into the next round. I think Ruan Pienaar is the key to this match, his return and excellent form is driving the team forward, and I’m expecting a home win from them.

Munster have Castres at home and have no recent injury worries to contend with, with even Niall Ronan in the frame for the match. There are several new faces in the Munster team at the moment, but the ethos is the same- stand up and fight! Castres are bottom of the group, and have never made good tourists. I can’t see them telling all their friends that Limerick is a great place to visit after this weekend either. So Munster with a comfortable win then.

Connacht travel to Toulouse, and won’t disgrace themselves I’m sure. They have nothing to lose, Toulouse will be underestimating them, and I could see Connacht giving Toulouse a fright like they did to Quins.
Exiles take on the Cardiff Blues at the Ma-jet-ski stadium, and on recent form it’s hard to know hat to expect from Irish. Expect the unexpected! For the record, I think they’ll win and throw the whole pool open.
Elsewhere, I’ll try and see the Scarlets Saints match to see two form tams slug it out, and will catch the Saracens Biarritz match as well. Sarries are my dark horse team to go far this tournament.

Heineken Cup Friday , January 13
Racing Metro 92 vs Edinburgh 20:00
Ulster vs Leicester 20:00
Ospreys vs Benetton Treviso 20:00
Saturday , January 14
Scarlets vs Northampton 13:30
Munster vs Castres 15:40
London Irish vs Cardiff Blues 15:40
Montpellier vs Bath 13:00
Aironi Rugby vs Clermont Auvergne 13:30
Toulouse vs Connacht 15:40
Harlequins vs Gloucester 18:00
Sunday , January 15
Glasgow vs Leinster 12:45
Saracens vs Biarritz 15:00

Ulster thump, Connacht slump, Leinster slide in on their rumps, and Munster shouldn't get down in the dumps!

2012-01-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Legend! (picture http://bit.ly/A7P2lq)

Leinster welcomed back their internationals, and put last weeks performance behind them as they narrowly beat the Cardiff Blues at Cardiff City Stadium. The Blues were still in holiday mood for the first 10 minutes, asLeinster ran in two excellent tries that the Blues were interested bystanders to. But the Blues fought their way back into the match and could have sneaked a win with better kicking. The Leinster pack stood up to be counted, Heaslip was immense, Cronin was lively, Toner played the best match I’ve ever seen him play, and in the backs Kearney and McFadden always looked threatening. Reddan has his detractrors, but he sets perfect tempo for Leinster, like a master traffic director. For the Blues, Halfpenny was great, but I thought I’d see more of Warburton than I did.

Munster looked a bit ring rusty as they beat Treviso and landed the bonus point for four tries. The match was closer than the final score suggests, and Munster have to be concerned with the ease with which Treviso scored their try. The International camp, had the biggest influence on Munster of all the four provinces, but this is the sort of warm up they needed for the Heineken Cup matches coming up. The highlight of the match was Nigel Owens’ dressing down of the Treviso scrum half Botes. ‘I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m the referee, you’re the scrum half, you do your job, I’ll do mine. If you keep on shouting at me, I’ll penalize you – this is isn’t soccer’! Legend! Bloody right as well! Munster had a few good touches, Earls, unrecognizable with a new hair cut was sharp, Zebo was useful, and O’Connell led from the front. They need to calm down a bit when they’re in the red zone, and not descend into one off runners, as they left a good few tries behind. And Treviso, to their credit, are a much improved side.

Connacht were in dismal form as they were trounced by Aironi in Viadana. They can turn it around though, they just need to work on tackling, handling, scrums and lineouts then they’ll be there. They can play so much better than this, and they will next weekend in the Heineken Cup. It’s time for them to settle on a fly half, and from what I’ve watched it should be O’Connor or Nikora. At their best, they have a running style similar to Leinster, but we didn’t see any of that.

Ulster got a good win away to Edinburgh, that’s never an place to come away with a result, and they did it emphatically.

London Irish were back to win winning ways with a close win over Sale.

I watched the Saints/Quins match, where Northampton ran a tank over Harlequins, giving them a comprehensive hammering in every facet of the match. Quins miss Nick Evans badly, and have no big guns to bring in and save the day either, while Saints had a really powerful bench. I’m still expecting Quins to bounce back though. Lee Dickson must be in hot contention for an England place, especially after party boy Danny Care ruled himself out with a series of drink related incidents.

RaboDirect PRO12
Aironi Rugby 20 - 6 Connacht
Munster 29 - 11 Benetton Treviso
Cardiff Blues 19 - 23 Leinster
Scarlets 16 - 14 Glasgow
Newport-Gwent D'gons 21 - 20 Ospreys
Edinburgh 20 - 42 Ulster
Aviva Premiership
Sunday , January 8
Saracens 26 - 19 Bath
London Irish 21 - 19 Sale
Saturday , January 7
Worcester 21 - 15 Gloucester
Newcastle 10 - 16 Exeter
Leicester 29 - 11 Wasps
Northampton 24 - 3 Harlequins

Leinster take on Cardiff in the battle of the Blues and all the provinces are back to full strength.

2012-01-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

Au Revoir Delon (Picture http://bit.ly/xXuzDu )

Coming up for Leinster is a date in Cardiff with the Blues. All of the Welsh sides have been bursting wth confidence since the World Cup and a trip to Cardiff City Stadium is a tough proposition. I didn’t learn much from the Blues website – most of these club sites are crappy ticket sale vehicles masquerading as information about the club. They say their squad is ‘nearly up to full strength’ As the Heineken Cup gets going again the weekend after this, they are probably right. And ‘Blue Magic’ reckons that Kevin McLaughlin, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney, Eoin Reddan, Mike Ross and Jonathan Sexton are all in the frame for selection. It’s going to be close to full strength for both sides to try to kick themselves into shape for the weekend after, and notwithstanding home advantage, I reckon Blue Magic will prevail.

Ulster are on a high after thumping Munster, but Edinburgh are no pushover with Michael Bradley in charge, and they’ll be hurting from a loss to Glasgow. At full strength, Ulster should do it though.

Connacht travel to Vidana to have a go at Aironi. If they can nearly beat Leinster, they should sort out the bottom team, even away. I see winger Tiernan O’Halloran has signed up for 2 more years with them, which is excellent news. I expect the Galwegians to take this one.

Munster are going to like a bear with a sore head after last weekend, and Treviso are going to feel the pain. They need to pay the Italians their due respect and work through their phases, but they will. Munster are back at full strength, and I’m expecting a big showing from Paul O’Connell, new Ireland captain in Brian’s absence, and having just signed a new two year contact himself.

London Irish are going to have to try and right the wrongs of their humiliation by Bath last week, and do it against in form Sale too. Rumour has it that Delon Armitage is off to France and taking Nick Kennedy with him. Delon will not be a desperate loss, as he hardly seems to find time to play any rugby these days with his busy schedule of suspensions and injuries. Nick Kennedy is a whole different kettle of fish though. At the Madejski, home support should just about see them through, but then I thought they were going to hammer bath, so what do I know. Saints and Quins should be a cracker too.

RaboDirect PRO12
Friday , January 6
Newport-Gwent D'gons vs Ospreys 19:05
Edinburgh vs Ulster 19:30
Saturday , January 7
Aironi Rugby vs Connacht 15:35
Scarlets vs Glasgow 18:15
Cardiff Blues vs Leinster 18:15
Munster vs Benetton Treviso
Aviva Premiership
Friday , January 6
Northampton vs Harlequins 19:45
Saturday , January 7
Worcester vs Gloucester 14:45
Newcastle vs Exeter 15:00
Leicester vs Wasps 17:00
Sunday , January 8
London Irish vs Sale 15:00
Saracens vs Bath 15:00

Munster stumble, Leinster stagger, and the IRFU get it in the neck

2012-01-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

O'Hallaran -one to watch ( picture http://bit.ly/rPjfr4 )

I caught the Ulster Munster match on Friday, where Munster were absolutely spanked by the Ulstermen at Ravenhill. Ruan Pienaar was the star of the show for me, scoring a try and doing everything a scrum half should. Terblanche scored a try and is a shrewd short term signing. Munster looked disjointed, and sadly lacking in ideas behind the scrum. In fairness to them, they were heavily affected by the loss of their internationals, while Ulster were hardly affected at all, as they have all their foreign stars to fall back on.

I suppose the IRFU is hoping that their new rules on foreign players are going to mean all provinces are equally affected when the internationals are withdrawn. I’m not sure if the treatment here isn’t going to kill the patient. I was feeling fine until I saw the doctor, now I don’t feel so good. My two cents worth is that we currently don’t have enough quality players to field 3-4 top level teams. Foreign players are going to avoid Ireland because of the complicated transient nature of the contracts offered. At the same time, the number of games being played goes up and up, so bigger squads are needed. The net result is going to be that the provinces are going to struggle to compete in the Pro 12 and the HC, and if that happens, it hard to see how the national team isn’t going to struggle. Then if our stars get fed up and chase big contracts in France, we’ll really be shagged.

Now I’ve depressed the hell out you, my alternative suggestion would be that the IRFU brings in a minimum number of games over the season where Irish teams have to field all Irish qualified players, start with 6 maybe, going up to say 12 over 4-5 years. I’d also be interested to see a how restricting players from playing in Ireland would stand up in court.

Leinster straggled past a gutsy Connacht side at the Sports ground. Without Isa Nacewa to kick them home, they would have been in deep poo. They didn’t ever put their stamp on the game, and with the disparity in resources available to both teams, they should have put Connacht away easily. I like the look of O’Hallaran for Connacht, and also their team ethic. Leinster have to work hard on their discipline. Connacht deserved that match all the way, but we’ll take it!

London Irish were hammered by Bath at the Recreation Ground. Player of the match was Michael Claasens with Stephen Donald close behind, and Abendanon is such a classy player for them. Irish looked like they were going to be all over them at the start, but Bath just wanted it more. Is there an issue with leadership at Irish? They really needed someone to pull them together and get stuck in to a vulnerable Bath team.

I went to the Quins Saracens match earlier this week with an 82 000 crowd, fireworks to start, and a lot to admire about the way the match was played. Unfortunately for Quins they got bad stage fright in the first 20 minutes, and Saracens had them eaten by that stage. Saracens have a very cautious game plan, based on massive forward power and watertight defense, and it works. They are going to make waves in the HC I reckon. I also watched Quins scrape past Exeter, with a diabolical kicking display from Clegg. You should never mix politics and sport obviously. From an Irish perspective, great to see prop Andress, fly half Steenson and lock Hayes shine. Hayes hasn’t missed a league game in three years. Legend! Getting back to Quins, Mike Brown is a pleasure to watch, solid under the high ball and in defense and a danger with ball in hand.

Ulster 33 - 17 Munster
Exeter 9 - 11 Harlequins
Bath 30 - 3 London Irish
Connacht 13 - 15 Leinster

Happy Christmas everyone!

2011-12-22T01:29:00.001-08:00

Leinster soar, Munster rumble, and Quins excell.

2011-12-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

The 'lip (photo http://bit.ly/sa2ZtT)

Another weekend, dominated by rugby, I do have a proper life as well, no really. Ok not really.

Leinster soared high on Saturday, as they pretty comprehensively thrashed Bath at the Aviva Stadium. 7 tries does it for me. Fitzgerald is getting back to his best, Heaslip was immense, and Sexton was masterful. They have an irresistible attack, but with three tries conceded, they have to work on their defence. BOD was in the Sky studio instead of on the pitch where we want him, and he’s going to have to impart some of his experience to McFadden and O’Malley. Their discipline was fairly ordinary in the first half but they always had too much for Bath, who apart from Louw, Barkley and Abendenon look very run of the mill.

Sunday afternoon saw Munster welcome the Scarlets to Thomond for a titanic battle that went right down to the wire. Scarlets would be making mincemeat of half the teams in the Heineken Cup the way they are playing, and they made a good fist of surprising the men in red, before Munster roared back and took the game away from them. Munster’s pack is impeccable, but somewhere between Murray and O’Gara their backline doesn’t get the chances they deserve. How many times did Earls get passed the ball for instance? That aside, the engine rumbles on, 4 from 4.

I also saw most of Connacht Gloucester, a pretty heart breaking loss for the Galwegians. They have a total team ethic, while Gloucester seemed to be every man for himself. O’Connor impressed at fly half – they impressed all over the pitch actually.

Ulster got the 5 points they needed, while Irish slipped up at home, and are really going to struggle to get out of the group now. Saracens Ospreys was a good hard match, won by Saracens doing all the basics well, solid scrum and line out and excellent defence. They don’t use their line much though. The Ospreys look really competitive, Tupuric is great to watch, Ryan Jones was the MOTM for me, and Ashley Beck is a star in the making. Mauritz Botha is outstanding for Sarries.

Finally, I saw Quins give Toulouse a bloody nose in their own back yard with an excellent away win. Don’t underestimate the power of the top 2 inches in a match, Toulouse were wondering by how much they were going to win, and Quins had nothing to lose. Mike Brown could do no wrong, Care was brilliant, and they all played for each other. Toulouse had two tries not given, missed plenty of penalties, and have no one to blame but themselves.

Biarritz 29 - 12 Benetton Treviso
Edinburgh 19 - 12 Cardiff Blues
Ospreys 13 - 16 Saracens
Aironi Rugby 20 - 46 Ulster
Leicester 23 - 19 Clermont Auvergne
London Irish 19 - 25 Racing Metro 92
Gloucester 23 - 19 Connacht
Leinster 52 - 27 Bath
Montpellier 13 - 13 Glasgow
Sunday , December 18
Munster 19 - 13 Scarlets
Toulouse 24 - 31 Harlequins
Northampton 45 - 0 Castres

Leinster, fresh off the bold step, set to clean up Bath

2011-12-15T03:59:00.000-08:00

Geech - in dub (Picture http://bit.ly/tOabR6 )

Part deux of last week’s matches kicks off this weekend, with a big day on Saturday. Ulster are away to Aironi, and should accept no less than a five point win. Ulster have a full squad to pick from, with only Paddy Wallace and Jared Payne out with injury. Could we get to see Pienaar again for the match? Connacht take on Gloucester at Kingsholm, with the welcome return of Mike McCarthy. They got really close last week, but away wins at this level are not all that common, and I can’t see them winning this one.

Leinster have no injury problems at the moment ahead of their home clash with Bath. Are they going to pull the plug on Bath, clean up Bath, or another cliché I haven’t thought of? This week’s preparation should have included a bit of time for the team on the bold step, while they reflected on where it went wrong last week. The review of the match must have been like one of those video nasties from the 80’s, up there with Driller Killer. Bath travel with nothing to lose, while the Leinster have all the pressure to show they have the form to try and retain the Heineken Cup. I’d say Bath are going to feel like they’ve been hit by a freight train. Bath have a spectacularly uninformative website, so I’ve no update on their squad, but I did find out that their coaches Sir Ian McGeechan, Brad Davis and Martin Haag, along with Nick Blofeld and David Trick, will be doing a meet and greet in the Lagoona Bar in Dulin on Friday from 8-9pm.

Munster have Keith Earls back in the squad, but I doubt he’ll play, while Peter O ‘Mahoney is out for the moment. Scarlets have as useful a website as Bath, but from a neutral point of view I’d like to see George North back in action. A tough group sets you up well to succeed later, and it looks increasingly likely they will top the group. This will be a hell of a match, but Munster’s home advantage should do it for them.

London Irish’s chances of progressing are pretty slim, but if they can beat Racing away, they can beat them at home too, and then they just have to hope for other results to go their way.

Friday, 16 December 2011
Biarritz v Treviso, Pl5, 20:00
Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues, Pl2, 20:00
Ospreys v Saracens, Pl5, 20:00

Saturday, 17 December 2011
Aironi v Ulster, Pl4, 13:30
Gloucester v Connacht, Pl6, 15:40
Leicester v Clermont Auvergne, Pl4, 13:30
Leinster v Bath, Pl3, 18:00
London Irish v Racing Metro 92, Pl2, 15:00
Montpellier v Glasgow, Pl3, 15:40

Sunday, 18 December 2011
Munster v Scarlets, Pl1, 12:45
Northampton v Castres, Pl1, 15:00
Toulouse v Harlequins, Pl6, 15:00

Leinster the butchers at Bath, and Munster are like Jason from Friday the 13th!

2011-12-11T12:43:00.001-08:00

Strings (picture http://bit.ly/t9PaLX )

Ireland 3 / 4
Scotland 1 /2
France 3 / 6
England 3 / 6
Italy 1 / 2
Wales 1 / 2

I started off the weekend rugby viewing early by taking in Newcastle/Toulon. In terms of interest and excitement levels I put it somewhere between Crown and Dulux, with watching Crown Paint dry definitely having a slight edge over this match. Dulux Paint, now that’s really boring stuff to watch dry.

I thought I was going to catch a bit of the Ulster match on TV on Friday, but I thought wrong, as the match wasn’t shown anywhere in the universe. No weedy excuses Sky, you could have showed it and didn’t. I did, however, get to see the rather excellent Harlequins/Toulouse match. Top of the Premiership v top of the T14, and the Frenchmen were clear winners. They were just better, more skilled, bigger, more physical and clinical. What made it a great match to watch though was the way Quins took the game to them, getting them on the back foot and scoring a good try in the process. There’s no shame in losing to that team, and Quins need to suck their methods into the DNA of their young players.

Saturday I saw the Scarlets/Munster match, another hard fought but enjoyable match. Munster are like Jason, you think you’ve killed him but he always comes back, there’s always a sequel. Munster were pants for the first 20 minutes, the ball was shooting out the back of the scrum, their line outs were shocking, and they couldn’t kick or pass the ball. Scarlet should really have been 15-0 up and that could have the match. Instead, Munster clawed their way back to parity, when they clearly weren’t playing as well as the Scarlets, then got into the lead and never looked back. Munster have leaders like O’Connell and O’Gara that pull together the young talented players around them and give them purpose and direction. Scarlets really let that one slip, but same as Quins, they are paying their dues, and will be back themselves one day.

Sunday I watched the ‘mighty’ Leinster take on Bath, and I watched that one on Sky+, which was handy, so I could fast forward past all the shitty bits. So it took me about 15 minutes to watch the game then. Leinster took three absolutely golden chances to score, hung them from a hook, and butchered them in front of a shocked crowd. Bath have some talent, but they are team in transition, and Leinster should have had them gutted and filleted in the first half. Instead it was Leinster eking out a win with penalties while Bath scored the only try of the match. I think Leinster had ‘bonus point win’ lit large in their minds before the match, all the planning went out the window and it was every man for himself. SOB, you SOB! Oh well, still an away win, and they get the chance to make up at home next weekend.

Finally, I saw the Saracens/Ospreys match in x6 speed. Feck me, Saracens have a big team! Mauritz Botha is a giant, they are all massive, and players like Goode give them a cutting edge too. Fair play to Ospreys for getting a point and living with the physicality. Strings put in a good little cameo. What the Ospreys could have done a with a few cool heads at fly half and scrum half though, they could even have pinched a win.

Connacht lost to Gloucester but certainly didn't disgrace themselves.

Irish got a good win over Metro!

Glasgow 20 - 15 Montpellier
Bath 13 - 18 Leinster
Clermont Auvergne 30 - 12 Leicester
Connacht 10 - 14 Gloucester
Benetton Treviso 30 - 26 Biarritz
Scarlets 14 - 17 Munster
Racing Metro 92 14 - 34 London Irish
Castres 41 - 22 Northampton
Saracens 31 - 26 Ospreys
Ulster 31 - 10 Aironi Rugby
Cardiff Blues 25 - 8 Edinburgh
Harlequins 10 - 21 Toulouse

Return of the Heineken Cup, and Leinster to sack Bath

2011-12-08T08:51:00.001-08:00

(picture http://bit.ly/s4UxOD )

So it all kicks off again on Friday for the Irish provinces, with Ulster hosting Aironi. Now this has to be 5 points in the bag for Ulster, non negotiable, and to rack up a good points difference just in case that comes into play later, which they should do easily enough.

Connacht get to host Gloucester, and see what they can get out of the Gloucesterians. Gloucester don’t seem to be in a good place at the moment, and they lose this one they’re going to feel a whole lot worse that’s for sure. Well, I’ll stick my neck out and say they’re going down, Brown, in Galway. That’s if Connacht can play the way they did against Quins.

Munster away to Scarlets could be the match of the weekend. What are the bets that O’Gara produces a drop of magic in the last minute to make it three in a row? Munster have been rocked by the loss of Doug Howlett, leaving a 6 ‘1” hole in their backline. He’s out for the season as well, so I hope they find someone to sign to bridge the gap. Scarlets look like the form Welsh team, with all their internationals back from the World Cup full of confidence. They’ve got the best fly half in Wales in the shape of Rhys Priestland, and Luke Charteris is shaping up to be the best lock in Wales as well. The young guns of Munster had a setback with the Ospreys last week, so is the team going to be able to bounce back this week. There’s a lot of changes going on at Munster, with some of the old heads moving on, and some fantastic new talent coming though. I'd give Scarlets the edge in thi match.

Leinster travel to Bath, a city famed for it’s Georgian architecture, and it’s baths, obviously enough. Bath have some talented players in their squad, but modestly placed at 10th in the Premiership, they are not setting the world alight so far this season. Olly Barkley and David Wilson are players I’ve always rated, but they have just lost captain Moody for a few months. Leinster meanwhile, are riding high in the Pro 12, and have Gordon D’Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Jamie Heaslip and Kevin McLaughlin all back in the frame for selection. I’m going with Leinster to sack Bath.

London Irish face a tricky away game at Racing Metro, and even if the French don’t really seem to get the Heineken Cup, they are normally hard to beat at home. So O/3 for the exiles then :(

Friday, 9 December 2011
Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh, Pl2, 20:00
Harlequins v Toulouse, Pl6, 20:00
Ulster v Aironi, Pl4, 19:30
________________________________________
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Castres v Northampton, Pl1, 13:30
Connacht v Gloucester, Pl6, 13:30
Racing Metro 92 v London Irish, Pl2, 15:40
Saracens v Ospreys, Pl5, 18:00
Scarlets v Munster, Pl1, 15:40
Treviso v Biarritz, Pl5, 13:30
________________________________________
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Bath v Leinster, Pl3, 12:45
Clermont Auvergne v Leicester, Pl4, 15:00
Glasgow v Montpellier, Pl3, 12:45

Leinster excell, and Peter Allen, look away now!

2011-12-04T07:57:00.001-08:00

Fergus! (picturehttp://bit.ly/sCJzJ7 )

The first match I watched this weekend was Leinster at home to Cardiff. Excuse me while I reach for the book of superlatives. They made fairly heavy weather of the first half, then in the second the floodgates opened and the Leinstermen were queuing up to score. What was impressive was how the understudies rose to the occasion – McFadden is playing and kicking superbly (better than Johnny?), Madigan played really well, and Fionn Carr is hungry for work, on attack, on defense, filling in well at scrum half when needed, he’s knocking on Ireland’s door, never mind a Leinster starting place. Steven Sykes looked impressive, as did van der Merwe, hard to fault anyone really. A big shout out for Nathan White, prop try of the year? The Blues, with their internationals gone, could just about find a 1st fifteen, but had no subs to speak of. Bring on the next round of the HC for Leinster!

Then I caught the Wales Australia. The Welsh seem to have lost their mojo for the moment, I’m sure it will be back, but all the urgency of the World Cup was gone, they didn’t ever really seem to mean it when they attacked. Frankly, the first half was as dull as ditch water. The whole thing was crying out for a try, a punch up, a streaker, anything. In the second half ½ penny made a pretty calamitous decision to bring down O’Connor, because by the time he made it back from his yellow card Wales had leaked three tries and the match. Wales got two tries back and closed the gap to six points, but it was definitely Australia’s day. Shane Williams bowed out with a late try, bringing the curtain down on the match and his long successful career. Wales will be back, bring back Charteris, Phillips and Alwen Jones and they’ll fire again. Apart from Priestland, Warburton and Faletau, they had a quiet day at the office. Australia, meanwhile, miss Cooper and Beale, they looked solid but fairly ordinary.

Ah, Saturday afternoon, time to relax and watch Munster take on a very understrength Ospreys side. Or not. It’s not often in my experience that a ref changes the outcome of a match, generally he’s equally inept with each side. They can really spoil a match though. Peter Allen stuck pins under the fingernails of this match, he drowned it’s sweet little puppy, he told it Santa had died. It’s possible you might have enjoyed this match if you were an Ospreys supporter. But for everybody else, it was a shambles, with Allen trailing around, ineffectually trying to assert his authority on the match. I was impressed with how the Ospreys also-rans stepped up to the plate, and not very impressed with how Munster coped with the pressure they were put under. Peter Allen didn’t help, but they just weren’t expecting the competency Ospreys displayed.

Ulster got baqck to winning ways, and Connacht couldn't hold off treviso.

I rounded off the weekend watching Irish away to Saracens. This wasn’t a great match. I don’t want to make a habit of giving out about the ref, but the biggest feature of this match was Smalls voice, who's apparently an ‘elite’ referee. He didn’t so much instruct the players as nag them, frequently, in an unfortunate nasal tone. It was all penalties for Sarries, hardly any running rugby- turgid- is that the word? Absolutley turgid. Fair play to Irish as for getting the only try. Impressive for Irish were Garvey, and replacements Dermody, Allinson and Armitage. Farell for Saracens is not to everyone’s taste but he can certainly kick.

Wales 18 - 24 Australia
Ulster 24 - 17 Scarlets
Edinburgh 50 - 10 Aironi Rugby
Leinster 52 - 9 Cardiff Blues
Connacht 13 - 15 Benetton Treviso
Ospreys 19 - 13 Munster
Saracens 15 – London Irish 11

Irish Pro 12 action, and Wales and Australia.

2011-11-30T10:13:00.001-08:00

We salute you (picture http://bit.ly/vqN12C )

Pro 12 Preview

Ulster take on the Scarlets at home. Last week they played Glasgow, who are always an awkward side to play against, in admittedly poor weather, but they still took ‘dire’ to a whole new level. I hope they can turn themselves around, and with Scarlets wealth of international players, they should be facing a weakened squad, hopefully featuring an orange peeler or two. No excuses this weekend!

Connacht are going to find it tough enough against Treviso, but this is the type of game they really have to start winning if they want to go places. I think they’ll win.

Leinster have the Blues to contend with this weekend. And no, it’s not the Dublin GAA, it’s the Cardiff Blues this time.

Leinster: 15 Isa Nacewa, 14 David Kearney, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Sean O'Brien, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 Leo Cullen (capt), 3 Nathan White, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Mike Ross, 19 Damian Browne, 20 Leo Auva'a, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Jonathan Sexton, 23 Rob Kearney.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito (capt), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Taufaao Filise, 2 Ryan Tyrrell, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Marc Breeze, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Michael Paterson, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Dafydd Hewitt.

That’s a strong team for Leinster, with big names on the bench as well. The Blues have a lost a few players to the Aussie match – bet the centers are pleased not to have to tackle Jamie Roberts!No sign of Henson yet, but the combination of orange and baby blue holds little appeal anyway. At home, with a decent away win last weekend, I’m going with Leinster.

Munster have to play the Ospreys away from home, but if you’re going to play a Welsh side, this is the weekend. All their internationals have made a massive impact on their return from the World Cup, but they are going to leave big holes again. So I kind of fancy Munster in this one.
Wales Australia

This the rematch, Wales were handed 4th spot at the World Cup following their defeat to the Aussies, and this time…it’s at the Millennium Stadium!

Wales have lost a few of their heroes from the World Cup, Phillips and Charteris being their main losses IMO. It’s the swansong for legend Shane Williams, and I hope he goes out on a high. Wales have stated they are targeting the Aussie midfield, and I’ve seen some less than impressive tackling from O’Connor too. The Aussie scrum is still suspect, but more than anything Wales need to bring speed and confidence in attack.

The Australians meanwhile, need to move the ball themselves. Without Beale and Cooper they don’t have the potency they could, but Ioane and O’Connor are the danger men on attack. Rookie scrum half Lloyd Williams can expect to get the treatment, and the Aussies will probably win or lose by how effectively they get to Williams. Wales to take it on with home advantage though.

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Ryan Jones, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Tavis Knoyle, 21 Dan Biggar, 22 Alex Cuthbert.

Australia: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 James Horwill, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Nathan Sharpe, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Ben Lucas, 21 Ben Tapuai, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.

Exiles and Saracens looks like an excellent match, but a losing point would be a good result for Irish.

RaboDirect PRO12
Friday , December 2
Ulster vs Scarlets 19:05
Connacht vs Benetton Treviso 19:30
Edinburgh vs Aironi Rugby 19:30
Leinster vs Cardiff Blues 20:05
Saturday , December 3
Ospreys vs Munster 18:30
Sunday , December 4
Newport-Gwent D'gons vs Glasgow
Saturday , December 3
Wales vs Australia 14.30
Sunday , December 4
Saracens vs London Irish 14.00

Quarter of the story

2011-11-29T13:47:00.001-08:00

Happy on the ship (picture http://bit.ly/rU0rED )

England weren’t the only team to exit at the quarter final stage, how have the other 3 teams have fared since then?

Ireland
Brian O’Driscoll is still captain( if they can patch him back together again), Declan Kidney is still coach, and pretty safe unless Ireland have a disastrous 6 Nations. World Cup? What World Cup?

South Africa
South Africans did what all passionate fans do when their team exits at the QF stage – they blamed the ref. Never mind aging players, dodgy tactics and even dodgier coaching, no Bryce Lawrence is the man who’s afraid to visit the Republic now, whose Facebook page ‘Petition to stop Bryce Lawrence ever reffing again’ has 84000 fans. The Boks has a bit of boozy night out of their own, but their fans kept it simple and blamed the ref. Pieter de Villiers kind of resigned but is reapplying for his old job

Argentina
I googled ‘Argentina rugby world cup dwarves’ and nothing noteworthy came out, so the Argentineans had a quiet world Cup, and no aftermath.

England
The world cup is a distant memory now for three of the losing quarter finalists, except for one. Dwarfgate, boobgate, ballgate, chambermaidgate, ferrygate, twikileaks, fines, expulsions, resignations, outcries – England’s rugby world cup campaign morphed smoothly into an episode of Eastenders. Moody is gone, Johnson is gone, Tindall was gone – but now he’s back! and RFU members are defecting like rats leaving a sinking ship, with the notable exception of Rob Andrew – he quite likes the ship. He may the only man left to pick a new England coach. Now, as an Irish fan, I should be sticking up for Andrews. Keep up the good work Rob! Director of Elite Rugby for life! But beating England when they’re crap is not much fun.

I’m no fan of some the England players, but I’m tired of all of this now. Apart from chambermaidgate which is completely disgraceful, they behaved like idiots, but so what? They were still putting their bodies on the line for their country, and they got beaten in the end frankly by a more talented French side. All I want now is for Andrews to be fired, the admin to be put into the hands of administrators, and for England to hire a decent coach. The next and only time I want to hear about English rugby is for their success or failure on the field. From the perspective of the other three teams, it’s time to move on.

Champagne rugby from Leinster and Munster, 2l value cider rugby from Ulster

2011-11-27T08:41:00.001-08:00

Leinster played Treviso Stadio di Monigo in a entertaining match. OK, I would say that because Leinster won and won well, and did it with a good portion of the front line players absent. And a lot of fringe players put their hands up and staked their claim for a first team spot. Fionn Carr goes from strength to strength, Jamie Hagan played well as did Rhys Ruddock , and Johnny hard to say second name at 8 had a stormer. And in the back line, O’Malley, McFadden and Madigan all looked the business. Treviso played well as well, handling was good, and with a bit of luck they could have won this match. They had good home support, and their fans had something to shout about.

Now if the Leinster match was champagne rugby, drunk from crystal wine glasses, then the Blues/Treviso and Glasgow/Ulster matches were 2 litre bottles of Tesco value cider, drunk straight from the bottle on a canal bench with only the swans for company. Ugly, painful rugby, abysmal skill levels, that had you wondering why even the handful of spectators had bothered to make the effort. The Blues at least eventually managed the four point bonus try, but Ulster – Jesus wept. They’ve got Darcy, Cave, Spence and Trimble in the backline and they should have been making merry with the ball. Instead of standing around like interested bystanders while Humphries kicked. At a minimum, they should have been going for a bonus point out of the match, but in fairness, they way they played they didn’t deserve anything. Connacht also lost out to Connacht. Wed I watched AC Milan/Barcelona, Thursday the Blues, Fri Ulster – I’m going to go over to the dark side and start watching soccer just now.

I also watched bit and pieces of the Munster match and it’s obvious there is a gulf in class between high flying Leinster and Munster, and the ghetto of Ulster and Connacht. Munster’s young guns showed us what they had, with Barnes, Zebo , Archer , Keatley, Holland and O’Dea all showing they are ready to step up. They could work on their defence a little, as the Scots crossed for a few easy enough trys.
London Irish put in a good win against Wasps, which I didn’t see, and the last match I saw the Ba Ba’s get thrashed by the Aussies. Poor Ba Ba’s rather than excellent Aussies, but they could only play what was in front of them. O’Connor did well at fly half, and Victor Matfield, as always, shone in his final outing, a giant amongst giants.

Benetton Treviso 20 - 30 Leinster
Connacht 6 - 17 Ospreys
Munster 34 - 17 Edinburgh
Scarlets 22 - 12 Newport-Gwent D'gons
Glasgow 17 - 9 Ulster
Cardiff Blues 38 - 0 Aironi Rugby
London Irish 21 - 17 Wasps
Barbarians 11 - 60 Australia

Leinster in Italy, and the Ba Ba's take on Australia

2011-11-24T00:43:00.001-08:00

James O'Connor (Picture http://bit.ly/uoNyyZ )

Leinster head off to Italy to take on Treviso this weekend – a few years ago the main concern would have agonising over the right trainers to pull the signoras, after having thumped the Italians. Things are different these days though, and Leinster are not going to be arriving with a B team if they want to win. Fergus McFadden is apparently back in the frame, which would be great, and Damian Brown could return as well. I’m still expecting Leinster to beat Treviso, but bearing in mind that they drew with the Ospreys in the HC cup last week, they will need to play about 60% as well as they did in the first half, for 90% of the match to win. A win then.

Ulster should have enough firepower to take out the Warriors, even at Firhill, while I’d expect there to be unhappy hunting for Connacht against a still classy Ospreys side. Munster are going to have their hands full against Edinburgh, who’ve had a new lease of life with Irish coach Michael Bradley, who’ll obviously have an inside track on the men in red. But if Munster can beat Castre away, they’ll beat the Scots at home.
Scarlets and Dragons, with the current form of the Welsh, could be the match of the Pro12 weekend.

The Exiles take on Wasps at the Madjeski in a London derby, with Irish hoping to put behind their Heineken cup disappointments. I’m backing them to win.

Barbarians vs Australia

This is a decent looking Ba-Ba’s side, where I’m particularly interested to see Robbie Fruean show his stuff, alongside Mortlock who could really still have something to offer Australia. Hope Stringer has a good match as well. The Aussie side is out, with Pocock as captain, good move, and James O’Connor is going to be playing ten. The Ausiies had a fairly disappointing WC by their standards, so hopefully we get to see what they could have done on Saturday.

Barbarians: 15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sam Tomkins, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Eusebio Guinazu.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Jason White, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Nemia Kenatale, 21 Richard Kahui, 22 Seru Rabeni.

Wallabies team

15. Adam Ashley-Cooper , 14. Lachie Turner , 13. Rob Horne , 12. Berrick Barnes , 11. Digby Ioane , 10. James O'Connor , 9. Will Genia , 8. Ben McCalman , 7. David Pocock (captain) 6. Scott Higginbotham , 5. Nathan Sharpe , 4. Rob Simmons , 3. Salesi Ma'afu , 2. Tatafu Polota Nau , 1. James Slipper ,

Replacements:16. Stephen Moore , 17. Ben Alexander , 18. James Horwill , 19. Dave Dennis , 20. Matt Hodgson , 21. Nick Phipps , 22. Ben Tapuai

Thu 24 Nov 19:30 Blues   v   Aironi Cardiff City Stadium
Fri 25 Nov 19:05 Scarlets   v   Dragons Parc y Scarlets BBCw
Fri 25 Nov 19:35 Warriors   v   Ulster Firhill Stadium ALBA/ni/RTE
Sat 26 Nov 15:00 Treviso   v   Leinster Stadio di Monigo
Sat 26 Nov 18:30 Connacht   v   Ospreys Sportsground S4C/TG4
Sat 26 Nov 20:30 Munster   v   Edinburgh Thomond Park Stadium TG4/ALBA

Can he kick it? Yes he can! ROG boots Munster home, while Leinster get a bonus point win.

2011-11-20T12:28:00.001-08:00

ROG (picture http://bit.ly/s9T5MP )

This week I did get to watch the Leinster match, as they put away Glasgow in a bonus point performance. And they scored two tries while Toner was in the bin! Not taking anything away from Toner, but they definitely played better without him. Heaslip had a good match, O’Briens all round game is fab and his ball handling skills are sublime. Nacewa is in a class of his own, and O’Malley and Madigan all put in good performances. In fairness Glasgow weren’t great, they have a competitive scrum but not much behind it – they should get the cash from selling Richie Gray and buy one decent back.

Munster had everyone reaching for the superlatives again, as that man ROG drop kicked them another win. His prowess sits on the foundation of some awesome work done by the pack, O’Mahoney, Ryan and O’Connell all really shone. Competition for places in the Irish scrum is going to be very healthy indeed. There’s life in the old dog yet!

Ulster played some really good rugby but still came away empty handed at Welford Road. They should really have got a least a point, and the Tigers are looking pretty ragged round the edges, hanging on for dear life for a while there. I thought Tuohy was outstanding, as were Trimble, Ferris and Muller.

Connacht were fairly well thumped by Toulouse, but that’s no disgrace, it’s happened to teamas far more august than them.

London Irish faltered again, but considering they played most of the match with 14, they were good value for their losing bonus point.

The result of the weekend was Scarlets win at Franklin Gardens. The Saints last minute loss last weekend, and the departure of Fodden before the match, really knocked the stuffing out of them. They’re not my favourite team, Hartley leads from the front with a brash in your face style that doesn’t endear him to most. There is a lot to admire about their brutally efficient style though, but they sure missed Fodden, and looked a bit blunt and clueless without him. Scarlets are growing with each match, Priestland North Davies are all top performers, and Morgan at 8 was awesome.

I also watched Bath hang on for dear life against Montpellier. Did you know that fly halves Trin Duc and Donald played for France and New Zealand in te World Cup final? Well, you would have if you’d watched the match, because the commentators only mentioned it about a 100 times. Montpellier are going to be a handful at home for Leinster, while Bath need a bit more x-factor if they want to really succeed.

Wales 2 ½ /3
Scotland 1 /2
Ireland 2/4
England 3 / 6
France 3/ 6
Italy ½ / 2

Edinburgh 48 - 47 Racing Metro 92
Cardiff Blues 24 - 18 London Irish
Clermont Auvergne 54 - 3 Aironi Rugby
Northampton 23 - 28 Scarlets
Benetton Treviso 26 - 26 Ospreys
Biarritz 15 - 10 Saracens
Gloucester 9 - 28 Harlequins
Connacht 10 - 36 Toulouse
Leicester 20 - 9 Ulster
Castres 24 - 27 Munster
Sunday , November 20
Leinster 38 - 13 Glasgow
Bath 16 - 13 Montpellier

Peter de Villiers for the England job, and Leinster and Munster to prosper this weekend

2011-11-16T10:50:00.001-08:00

My tip for the new England Manager

Leinster face a tricky task at the RDS of subduing a resurgent Glasgow side. Edinburgh are the Scottish side that normally have the irritating habit of pooping Leinster party, but the Glaswegians will be on to keen to emulate them. Before last weekend, I would have put the men in a blue (which is apparently VERY similar to that of a team in another unnamed code) way favourites against the Scots, but given the turnout last weekend, I’d say Jonny Sextons boot is going to come in very handy again. BOD and Hines leave massive shoes to fill, hope the fillers are found soon. Leinster should win at home though.

I’m backing Munster to sort out Castres, their attack may not have the penetration of some of the other teams, but their defence is as tight as a ducks bottom. Connacht proved against Quins that they are no walkover, but Toulouse are an altogether different proposition. However manky French form is away from home, and however vociferous the capacity home crowd is going to be, you’d still back Toulouse. Ulster Leicester is likely to be the most competitive Irish tie, to me it’s the story of a team on the rise meeting a team in decline. At home the Tigers should still have the edge, but it likely to be a full blooded and bloody match.

London Irish are going to struggle against the Blues you’d think, I had high hopes for them – but you can’t lose at home. Pity Delon Armitage can’t take some time out from his busy suspension schedule and play some rugby.

Elsewhere, I fancy Gloucester/Quins could be a real humdinger.

New England Manager

Johno is no more, they may never find someone else to replace his magnificent scowling abilities, but can they get a decent coach? Front runner is Jim Mallinder, and why not, he’s on the up at the Saints. He’s won Parker Pen Shields, LV Cups and European Challenge Cups, and is most likely on the cusp of something great at the Saints. Other leading candidates are Graham Henry and Nick Mallet, and Conor O’Shea has had a mention. Eddie O’Sullivan is also on the market, may not be to eveyone’s taste, but how often did England beat Ireland when he was in charge? My favourite for the position is Peter De Villiers, just for the craic. With some of the English players acting like clowns, his insight into this area could come in handy. I’m going to go leftfield with my choice for the job though. Times have changed, the position has a media spotlight on it now, and the players are pretty well paid, and can misbehave and act like divas. I’d emulate English soccer and go outside the fold, with Toulouse coach Guy Novès as a man that can handle the circus better than most.

Friday, 18 November 2011

Bath v Montpellier, Pl3, 15:00
Leinster v Glasgow, Pl3, 12:45Biarritz v Saracens, Pl5, 13:30
Castres v Munster, Pl1, 15:40
Clermont Auvergne v Aironi, Pl4, 20:00
Connacht v Toulouse, Pl6, 18:00
Gloucester v Harlequins, Pl6, 15:40
Leicester v Ulster, Pl4, 18:00
Treviso v Ospreys, Pl5, 13:30
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Sunday, 20 November 2011Cardiff Blues v London Irish, Pl2, 20:00
Edinburgh v Racing Metro 92, Pl2, 20:00
Northampton v Scarlets, Pl1, 20:00
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Saturday, 19 November 2011

Heineken Cup - top marks for Wales and Scotland, Ireland could do better, England scrape through, France and Italy fail

2011-11-13T12:51:00.001-08:00

Best hair of Round 1 - Joe Marler (picture http://bit.ly/sY4QLq )

Wales 3/3
Scotland 2/2
Ireland 2 ½ /4
England 3/6
France1 ½ /6
Italy 0/2

I had an epic fail as a Leinster supporter this weekend. I Sky+ the match as I was working – then chose the wrong match to delete just as I was about to watch... But I knew the result anyway, and it didn’t sound like a classic. I thought they were going to win, but a draw away from home will do as well. I’ll make it up to Leinster next weekend. Andato add insult to injury I caught a bit of each of the other Irish matches, but not my team!

First up was Connacht – what a match from the Galwegians! First in the premiership , at home,takes on on 9th in the Rabowhatever, it didn’t sound like it was going to be pretty. But as it turnedout , from a Quins point of view, it wasn’t pretty or comfortable, as they clung on for the win. And that was despite some pretty generous refereeing which saw Quins nonchalantly belly flopping in to loose mauls at wiil, and Robshaw spending most of the time on Connachts side of the maul. John Muldoon was the standout Connacht player for me, and I though Jordan Turner Hall was excellent for Quins.

Then I caught some of the Ulster match, who put in a fantastic win against Clemont. The Ulster scrum is first class now, packed with imports, but it’s Ferris and Best that stand out. Behind the scrum though, things are not so rosy, and it took a moment of magic from Adam D’Arcy, on a sub, to turn the tide for Ulster. They’ve got talent in midfield, but no incision, and they need to try and fix that to really go places. Clermont – that was just about France, so awesome win.

Munster/Northampton was a classic, where the home crowd, massive patience, and Ronan O’Gara saw the home team through. It was not a night for the faint hearted, an absolutely colossal forward battle, but plenty of attractive running rugby as well. Ben Fodden is awesome, fast skilfull and tough and Munster had their hands full containing him. The four players that really stood out for Munster were the loose trio of James Coughlan, Niall Ronan, Peter O'Mahony, Donnacha Ryan, and of course, Dougie Howlett. The first four are only going to get better, and the team is starting to look really balanced again, but they need Earls and Jones back in a hurry, to give them a threat behind the scrum.

Elsewhere- the rise and rise of the Rabo Protexyexy Super 12 – five out of five for Scotalnd and Wales, how about that! England scrape a pass, and the French are abysmal. Gut wrenching loss for Irish.
Racing Metro 92 20 - 26 Cardiff Blues
Harlequins 25 - 17 Connacht
Aironi Rugby 12 - 28 Leicester
London Irish 19 - 20 Edinburgh
Scarlets 31 - 23 Castres
Montpellier 16 - 16 Leinster
Ulster 16 - 11 Clermont Auvergne
Munster 23 - 21 Northampton
Ospreys 28 - 21 Biarritz
Glasgow 26-21 Bath
Toulouse 21 - 17 Gloucester
Saracens 42 - 17 Benetton

Hide the batteries for the remote - it's Heineken Cup time!

2011-11-10T03:35:00.001-08:00

Heineken Cup Preview

Pool 1 Castres Munster Saints Scarlets

Northampton are the 400 pound gorilla in Munster’s group, Castres sre the other big team, they may be3rd in the T14 but their HC form has been merde forever. Players like Fodden and Ashton lift the Saints above fairly predictable premiership fare. I want to see the next generation of Munsterites like Murray, Jones and Barnes shine, and they’ll need to get Munster out of this group. They’ll just about pip the Saints at home this week. Saints to top the group and Munster to come out second. The Scarlets will keep them all honest.

Pool 2 Blues Edinburgh London Irish Racing Metro

In this pool I think Irish can do the business, The Blues don’t often perform at this level, Metro are to nouveau riche, and Edinburgh don’t have the consistency so Irish it is.

Pool 3 Bath Leinster Glasgow Montpellier

Leinster are The Champs©! But without O CAPTAIN! my Captain! BOD it’s going to long and winding road for Leinster. He’ll be back but… I think Nathan Hines is a big loss as well. But it’s not all doom and gloom, Leinster should make it out of this group fairly easily, Bath are a mid table outfit and Montpelier are 3rd from bottom in the T14, while Glasgow don’t have the resources. And if Leinster make it out of the pool as they should do, pick up a few players and a bit of form, anything could happen. I’m going for an away win for them this weekend agsinsdt Montpellier.

Pool 4 Aironi Clermont Tigers Ulster

Ulster are still the Man City of the Irish provinces, with big name signings two a penny. Not having Pienaar is going to hurt them, and some of that imported beef has been aged well past its prime. This is a challenging group, where I’m picking Clermont to win and Ulster to come out second. Tigers – I think they’ve turned a corner, but not in a good way, and need to rebuild a bit.

Pool 5 Treviso Biarritz Ospreys Saracens

This is another tough as old boots pool. The Ospreys have to be hurt by the loss of their big names, so it’s down to Saracens or Biarritz, and you have to back Biarritz with their experience.

Pool 6 Connacht Harlequins Gloucester Toulouse

Connacht make their debut in the HCup, and face Quins in the first match of the tournament. It’s going to be a learning experience for the Galwegians, they look well enough drilled to pull off a few surprises, and they have the advantage that they are going to be way underestimated. Toulouse are going through IMO, and Gloucester might make it tough for them, or compete for a runners up spot.

I picked 5 out of 8 last year but not Leinster making it out of their pool (cough)

We Won! We Won! We bad! We Bad! Even handed look at Leinster's win over Munster

2011-11-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

Stand up for Stefan!( Picture http://bit.ly/s34Jin )

Starting off with Leinster Munster in Dublin, as a Leinster supporter you’d have to say it was very satisfying result, it would have been horrible to have lost three in a row to Munster. It wasn’t really a classic – it was impressively intense, but skill levels and discipline were nothing to write home about. Leinster were better for the first 60 minutes, and Munster for the last 20. Can we not add a bit of unpredictability to this fixture, or is it always going be Munsters forwards against Leinster’s back?

Leinsters scrum was underwhelming – I think we are going to miss the out and out grunt and aggression Nathan Hines provided. Devin Toner adds a lot, but why are we getting pushed around by Munster? McFadden, Fitzgerald, and Kearney all look shook sharp and inventive and broke the line with relative ease.
Munster still bring an immensely physical presence in the pack, but are fairly devoid of ideas in their back line. Mafi always seems to look for contact, and it’s very seldom that he runs over anyone. The one time he took the gap and offloaded they made about 30m. Barnes looks like he has a lot to offer, but they are really going to miss Earls while he’s out. I would just love to plug someone like Conrad Smith in there and see what he could do.

So we have the bragging rights until we meet again at Thomond, where I suspect it’s going to be a might tougher for Leinster.

I also caught the first half hour of the Ulster/Connacht match – the wrong half hour I think. Ulster have got some great names playing for them now, but God what they could do with a few simple basics like catching the ball. This match put Ulster back on track, and with a little more patience they could do well. Stefan Terrblanche is really handy player to sign, pretty similar to Paul Warwick in versatility and composure.

Connacht don’t look half bad either, they attack well, but then lose concentration, and their kicking was atrocious. Pretty difficult when half your stars disappear every year though.

I also caught a smidgen of the Irish/Tigers match – come on Irish! Great result against a major team like Leicester – Richard Cockerill must be having their guts for garters.

RaboDirect PRO12
Aironi Rugby 6 - 18 Glasgow
Ulster 22 - 3 Connacht
Ospreys 9 - 9 Scarlets
Benetton Treviso 11 - 22 Edinburgh
Leinster 24 - 19 Munster

Aviva Premiership
Newcastle 16 - 16 Worcester
Bath 13 - 26 Harlequins
Exeter 19 - 24 Gloucester
Leicester 24 - 24 London Irish
Wasps 13 - 24 Northampton
Saracens 23 - 10 Sale

Munster will be the cannon fodder on the Dodder!

2011-11-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

Here’s an amazing fact I gleaned from uber Leinster blogger Harpin on rugby – more people are going to watch Leinster and Munster at the Aviva stadium than all the Pro 12 matches last weekend put together! Irish fans are putting their money where their mouths are.

There’s a lot of good looking derbies this weekend, with Dragons/Blues and Ospreys/Scarlets also likely to be fiery affairs with the high Welsh rugby is on at the moment.

For Leinster and Munster, it’s time to put aside the disappointments and triumphs of the world cup, and get ready to knock lumps out of each other. There’s nothing like it the satisfactions stakes compared to putting in a really good hit on an erstwhile Ireland team mate. The ladyboys of Leinster were the perennial whipping boys for Munster, up until a few seasons ago. Then, the unthinkable happened, they grew a pair, and for a good few years it was Munster who couldn’t buy a win. Now it’s sitting somewhere in middle , tilted a little on the Munster side, with 2 from 3 last year, and the Magners league to go with it. This’d be the most keenly contested derby match outside of the Gaelic fixtures , and it’s a stereotypical town versus country match as well. Although players like the Tullow Tank, Sean O’Brien, Dublin boys like Felix Jones, and international stars like Dougie Howlett and Isa Nacewa don’t quite fit into that mould.

Munsters team from last week was as follows, and as they are sticking with the same squad I’d expect O’Callaghan, Niall Ronan and Mafi to start this week. Pretty damn strong so.

15 Johne Murphy, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Will Chambers, 12 Danny Barnes, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Denis Leamy, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Denis Fogarty, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 John Hayes, 19 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Niall Ronan, 21 Tomas O'Leary, 22 Scott Deasy, 23 Lifeimi Mafi.

This was Leinster’s team from last week, and I’d hope to see O’Brien, Heaslip , Nacewa and O’Driscoll back, and strauss to start. Oh, and it’d be great to have Healy back as well. So what’s it going to be? I have to back Leinster, with home support, and to me Sexton is the man who’s going to make the difference.

Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Dave Kearney, 13 Eoin O'Malley, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Leo Auva'a, 7 Dominic Ryan, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Nathan White, 19 Steven Sykes, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 John Cooney, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Fionn Carr

Fri 4 Nov	19:05		Dragons		v		Blues		Rodney Parade		BBCw

Fri 4 Nov		20:00		Leinster		v		Munster		AVIVA Stadium	TG4
Sat 5 Nov		14:30		Aironi		v		Warriors		Stadio Zaffanella
Sat 5 Nov		15:00		Treviso		v		Edinburgh		Stadio di Monigo
Sat 5 Nov		17:35		Ulster		v		Connacht		Ravenhill	BBCni/RTE
Sat 5 Nov		18:30		Ospreys		v		Scarlets		Liberty Stadium	S4C

Rugby,clamping, and blundering Sharks

2011-10-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks a lot!

Well, there’s no two ways about it, I’ve been neglecting Leinster. I had my head turned by the World Cup, and poor old Leinster have been pining away, waiting for my return. Or not. They seem to have been just fine, thank you very much, without my support. I’d vowed to turn over a new leaf, and had made all the plans to get home and watch the match. That was before the abomination of the streets of Dublin, a dastardly vicious vile clamper had his evil way with my car on Friday evening. By the time that was all sorted out, the match was gone, and I had all the good humour of the antichrist. Pity because it sounded like a good match with lots of tries, and Jonny Sexton on hand to guide the visitors home.

Ronan O’Gara claimed all the points as Munster took out Aironi, while Connacht and Ulster lost out to Welsh opposition. The big result of the weekend I guess was Glasgows upset of the Ospreys.

I finally got a bit of time to sit down in front of the TV to catch the Currie Cup final, and see if the Sharks could cure those clamper blues. And did they make me happy? No, they made me more peed off than ever, as they adopted the Springbok model and looked for people to run into all afternoon. Do you think they woke up in the morning and thought ‘I’m going to run over people all day long!’. All you have to do with the Sharks is tackle and wait for them to make a mistake. The backline are mere bystanders, Lambie and Michalak only seemed to get the ball when the Lions kicked it to them. In fairness, even as a Sharks supporter, it’s good to see the Lions do well again, it’ll be interesting to see if they can carry this form into the S15. And look what happens when you get a decent coach!

Rugby World Cup 2011- The Awards

2011-10-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

‘Best Beard’ Canada’s Adam Kleeberger – you can see why he grew the beard

The ‘Black is Beautiful’ Award – the All Blacks. After being the best team in the world for most of the last 24 years, they get finally get the title to go with the fact.

The ‘I could have been a contender’ Award: Samoa, who’s chance of making it big were scuppered by unequal treatment from the IRB. (Them and all the other little countries)

The ‘Bring on the clowns’ Award – England! Dwarfgate, Boobgate, Ballgate, and they left their A game at home.

The ‘Most farcical performance in a major tournament’ Award France. Lose two, stagger out of the pools, get to the final on a wing and a prayer

‘Performance of the Tournament’ Award: France in the final

‘The Little team that could’ Award – Ireland, who could beat Australia, helped a Northern Hemisphere team into the final, but couldn’t beat Wales…

The ‘You’ve made your point, now STFU’ award: Samoan Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu. Making the smaller teams play games every three days is unfair – but not in the same league as killing 6 million people. The IRB is not likely to face a crimes against humanity tribunal.

The ‘Move to the top of the class’ award – Wales. Sucker punched by Fiji four years ago, they looked like they could go all the way at one time.

The ‘Multiplicity’ Award: Jerome Kaino - was there only one of him on the pitch at a time? He seemed to be everywhere

The ‘My kicking went brilliant in the warm up, honest’ Award: Piri Weepu

Rugby world Cup final 2011 - Black is the new black

2011-10-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

Deserved champs (Picture http://bit.ly/oC3Y57 )

So 7 weeks and umpteen matches later, we get a final that, even until the last minute, the last play of the match, could have gone either way. New Zealand brushed off 24 years of pain to finally double their haul of World Cups. And France make the startling discovery that (cover the screen so no one else gets to see this) if you want to beat the All Blacks – you have to play better than them. That’s what France did for 64 minutes of the match, but the All Blacks won it with fifteen minutes of excellent play in the first half, and one minute of good play in the second half. C’est la vie.

Everything that could have gone wrong for the All Blacks, did. First of all, the French surrender monkeys that had been booked for the final failed to turn up, and instead we got 15 lean mean hungry Frenchmen who had the skills and the nous to go nearly all the way. The All Black line out was pretty shambolic, their scrum creaked, and then there was the kicking. Rugby coaching 101 states the first thing you do is pick a good kicker. The second thing you do is pick another good kicker. If I had somebody kicking for my life, Piri Weepu wouldn’t be top of the list – Piri Weepu wouldn’t even be on the list. Let’s be kind and say his radar was a little off. Then there was the fly half merry go round. Dan Carter is the best fly half in the world. When he was injured, his replacement, Colin Slade, is possibly in the top 15 in the world. His replacement, Aaron Crudden might make the top 30 on a good day. When Crudden was injured, on ran Stephen Donald who knows fly havles in the top fifty in the world. Graham Henry could see the apocalypse unfolding in front of him, the tactic was – don’t let him touch the ball! Or do anything! The second someone passed him the ball, Henry’s eyes glazed over and he sent the word for his head to brought on a plate. And for two valium.

But it was the All Blacks day, Donald did what Weepu couldn’t and banged the ball over when he had to, and they just about held their nerve to kept the French out. I couldn’t think of another team that would have beaten France in the final, and it’s no more than they deserve. For France, their loose trio was immense, Bonnaire, Dusautoir and Harinordoquy were all outstanding, in fact their whole pack was – let’s face it, 1-15 they played out of their skins.

Now it’s all over things can go back to normal in the world of rugby, the All Blacks can carry on beating everyone, the French can go back to concentrate on the T14, and maybe, just maybe, one day they’ll find a coach without a mustache to make them into world beaters.

French journalists pay homage to that tache

In the other match, Australia outplayed game Wales to claim third. It was the Hook and Jones disaster series again for the Welsh I’m afraid.

Finally, this is a big shout for avid rugby fans Ciaran Kelly and his friend Alan Burnell who are heading to Zambia next June to help with Brent Pope's Rugby Legends Foundation as they build homes for the Habitat for Humanity project.

If you'd like to make even a small donation to help them out please follow this link and click the "sponsor me now" button! Get in behind them!

It's Lethal Weapon, Johnny Logan, the All Blacks and the French - it's a dodgy 80's remix

2011-10-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

The last time France and New Zealand met in the world Cup final was in June1987. Johnny Logan wanted to hold you now, Whitney Heuston wanted to dance with somebody, Lethal Weapon was big at the box office, 'Aertel' teletext service debuted on RTÉ Television and Charlie Haughey was back in the house. And this little guy was practicing stealing balls out of the playpen.

Well, we’ve all passed a lot of water since then, or however the saying goes, can the All Blacks get what they’ve been waiting 24 years to claim back? And have the double satisfaction of winning the World Cup AND beat the French who’ve been their nemesis twice since the. In a word, yes. They comprehensively dismantled the number two side in the world last week, pulled them apart, danced on the bits and blew raspberries at what was left. They made the French look pathetique when they met in the pool stages, and there would be many ( four million Welshmen for a start) that would argue that France don’t deserve to be there, especially after having lost twice already.

After having been knocked out by the French last year, you’d think that the All Blacks would never underestimate them again, and I’m just about sure they’re not although they wouldn’t have seen much to scare them so far. The French have got a few rays of hope – I reckon their front row is going to give the AB’s a torrid time, and the All Blacks attack better than they defend – Ioane ran through nearly their whole team last week. It’s going to come to patience, discipline and composure and consistency, and even their most ardent supporters are going to have to admit that France don’t have the last two. What I’m hoping for is a great match, and for the French to display even half of their potential. So the all Blacks by 2 or three then.

On Friday, the Wallabies and Wales fight it out to decide who’s the third best team in the tournament. Has a really nice ring about it doesn’t it, third best. You’ve narrowly missed out on a spot in the final, or been robbed, depending on your nationality, and now you face the potential indignity of losing twice in two weeks and being called the fourth best team. The last time they met in a 3rd 4th paly off was - 1987! They should do like the boxers do and just give everybody a bronze medal. For the record, I’d say Australia are going to shade it, but it could be a really entertatining match, and bad luck Wales I’ll be shouting for you again.

Composure and World Cup Rugby

2011-10-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Alain Rolland (Picture http://bit.ly/nZajIr )

Australia 6 - 20 New Zealand
Wales 8 - 9 France

This weekend was all about composure – if you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs – you’re probably not French, Welsh or Australian.

I was really looking forward to the French Wales, two teams giving it welly, a feast of running rugby, a try fest, spy vs spy unlocking each others defenses. Well, we didn’t get was on the tin on Saturday. The Welsh will all be sticking pins in their Alain Roland dolls, while the French confound us again, doing barely enough to scrape through. The low point of the match was Warburtons sending off, after that, the French thought, ‘Ne problemme pas, this one’s in the bag’, and the Welsh could only do so much with 14 men. The incident was a 50 50 call, judged on the real time view of the officials, and could easily have been a yellow as well. Now if you were a Welsh conspiracy theorist, you’d be going into overdrive. What nationality is Alain Rolland? Irish. And who did Wales beat last week? Ireland. And who did Wales controversially beat in the 6 Nations with a dodgy refereeing decision? Ireland. And who was the ref that day, and touch judge today who could well have helped the decision on the sending off? Jonathan Kaplan. It all comes together…

Leaving that aside though, Wales left 11 points you’d think they should have got on the table, and so really they should of won this anyway, with a magnificent effort from the 14 left on the field. If you ever wondered why Gatland has been starting Priestland, Hook and Jones were there to provide the answer. Where was the drop goal when they needed it? I was disappointed there was so much kicking by both teams, and Wales’ unloading game deserted them. So the French straggle into the final, well thye still have a lot in reserve because they didn’t use any of it this weekend. Their man of the match for me was Yashvili, who just kept the game ticking over nicely. I knew Wales wouldn’t thank me for shouting for them.

The first 20 minutes of Sundays match were as good as you’ll see anywhere anytime. The All Blacks put maximum effort into breaking the Australians, which they did successfully, and then went into containment mode. Australia got into the match a bit after that but never looked like they were going win. The All Blacks had that composure I was on about , sorely lacking for them last week, but the Australians never had composure, Quade Cooper had a mare, they really missed Beale, and didn’t have anyone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drag themselves into back into it. Even Sonny Bill Williams long overdue union yellow card for a shoulder charge didn't dampen their spirit. The All Blacks do all the simple things really well, and then have that X Factor – not the Louis Walsh type (Although I’m sure Gary Barlow has it in him to throw a dwarf) – players like Dagg and Jane that can turn the game on it’s head in a flash.

The win meant the world to them, their whole scrum started punching the air and giving each other high fives when they won a scrum penalty near the end – steady on lads, it’s only Australia – but they rightfully claim their place in the final.

Wales carry the burden of their reponsibility for beating Ireland into their France match, and the Wobblies get to grips with teetering All Blacks

2011-10-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Aaron Crudden - no pressure mate (Picture http://bit.ly/nTLtYE )

Saturday , October 15 Wales vs France
Sunday , October 16 Australia vs New Zealand

First up is Wales and France. Now Wales, occupying as they do the spot rightly belonging to Ireland, have a massive responsibility to beat France, since they denied us that opportunity. You broke the heart of a small nation that’s been through a lot lately, and when light appeared at the end of the tunnel in the shape of a best ever world cup result, you built more tunnel for us. All of that lovey dovey post match celtic bonhomie might disappear in a flash if Wales make like England and go all pathetic in front of the French.

Meanwhile it’s Gallic smirks all round in France at the thought of kicking Les Rosbifs out of the World Cup, but they need to now nail down another performance now, two in a row, oooo tricky. Wales are bursting with self confidence, but how do they stop that from going over into cocky? For France, there is disheartening harmony between Lievremont and his players at the moment, they seem to work best off the friction of mutual loathing. The French coach has persisted with Parra at fly half, which worked abysmally against the All Blacks and Tonga, but seemed to reasonably do the trick against England. Because Parra at fly half makes no sense to me, it’s probably absolutely the best thing for the French to do.

Performance vs performance, I think Ireland were better than England, so on that basis Wales put in a better swowing than France, and they sustained that form for the whole match. It’s going to be a fairy tale for Wales if they win this – but I kind of think French experience should kick in to see them clinch a win. I wouldn’t be too disheartened though Wales fans ,with my record, my tip for success for France is the probably the death knell for them.

Then on Sunday we have the match that could easily have been the final, if magnificent Ireland hadn’t saved the Northern Hemisphere by bumping the Wobblies into the path of the All Blacks. 8 weeks ago, at home, this would have been good night nurse for the Aussies. But a lot has changed in the last two months, the AB’s are now done to third choice fly half, with Aaron Crudden now in the hot seat attempting to fill the size 15 boot sized gap left by Dan Carter. He’s got 5 caps for New Zealand, but has never played a whole match for them. It would the stuff of legends if this cancer survivor could guide the All Blacks home. The other pillar of the team, Captain Fantastic McCaw has a crocked foot and is below par on his admittedly stellar standards.

How about those Australians, not too consistent, but they are a cunning bunch, living off scraps last weekend to pick the pockets of the Springboks. It’s every New Zealanders worst nightmare, a bunch of jeering Aussies leaving the land of the long white cloud waving the World Cup in the tear stained faces of the Kiwis. Australia have a fairly sorry excuse for a scrum at the moment, but enough firepower behind them to trouble most defenses. The All Blacks have a far superior scrum, and even Carterless are a match for the Australian backline. That equals an All Black win. But the New Zealanders are all over the place at the moment, they look like nervous wrecks, and I’m afraid that this could be the end of the road for the Blacks again.

The music dies for Ireland in New Zealand

2011-10-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like that too if it's any consolation (picture http://bit.ly/owtAHc )

New Zealand 33 - 10 Argentina
Ireland 10 - 22 Wales
England 12 - 19 France
Australia 11 South Africa 9

I woke up on Saturday morning with a funny feeling in my stomach about the Ireland match, and it wasn’t just that curry I had on Friday night (although that may have had something to do with it). It was the day the music died for the Irish in New Zealand. There’s no point in beating about the bush – Wales were just better on the day, sharper, hungrier, faster more physical, better sums it up pretty well. We looked like we had a chance when we got it back to 10 all early in the second half, but then Wales stepped up a gear. They had all the answers to the questions we asked of their defense, and they wore us down until the two trys they scored in the second half were pretty well inevitable. They were given away way too easily, but you can only defend for so long against that sort of attack until the cracks start to appear. Wales can go far now if they can just keep hold of themselves.

There weren’t too many Irish players that had fantastic matches, not that they played badly, just that they were shaded all over the field by the rampant Welsh. Now’s not the time to knock the team though, they gave it everything they had, but came up short. Players O’Connell, O’Driscoll O’Gara have been unbelievable for Ireland, and it must be very hard for them to take that they didn’t manage to push Ireland on to their best ever world cup finish. A sad ending for some of the greats of their generation BUT things are looking up in the long run – we stopped at the pool stages last world cup, got the quarters this time, that means we’ll make the semis in 2015 and the final in 2019! Keep the faith!

France finally decided it was time to stop messing and play some rugby, and they had England caught like a rabbit in the headlights. Johnson had made a few dodgy selections, Flood at center for instancewas always going to have the potential to go wrong, he should have taken the bull by the horns and dropped Wilkinson. And what was he thinking picking Easter when the man’s clearly in the advanced stages of pregnancy – aren’t there health and safety regulations about that anyway? On the bright side, Dan Cole, will be releasing a limited edition miniature garden statue of himself after the tournament. England looked leaden and devoid of ideas – they peaked just before their match against Ireland in the six nations. France will be reveling in the superlatives coming their way, they played some sublime rugby, and should they chose to turn it on again, could go all the way.

After Ireland were knocked out, I threw my weight behind my ‘B’ team, the Springboks. Big mistake. Ireland were at least beaten by a better team on the day, whereas the Springboks absolutely butchered a perfectly winnable match against a below par Australia. All they know about is running in to people as hard as they can – you wouldn’t want to pass or your mates might think you were a sissy. Australia rode their luck, they used up lives 4 to 9 in this match. It’s enough to make you weep. Anyway, good luck to the Aussies, there are no prizes for trying really hard and doing everything but winning, as the Springboks have discovered.

Finally Argentina got their shot at being the first team apart from Australia and France to knock the All Blacks out of a World Cup. They made a fairly good fist of it for the first half hour, and even had the lead for a while, but they ran out of steam eventually. The All Blacks look fairly out of sorts – Slade, trying to fill the massive boots of Dan Carter, looked unsure of himself, and the giant hook removed him from the field at the 30 minute mark just after the Argentinean try. They got the win, but they look eminently beatable, and it’s those jammy Wallabies who get a shot at them next.

So that's a shocking one from four right for me.

It's going to be Ireland, England, South Africa, New Zealand

2011-10-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

All the warmth and compassion of Kim Il Jung (picture http://bit.ly/qIHg4x )

Saturday , October 8
Ireland vs Wales 06:00
England vs France 08:30
Sunday , October 9 South Africa vs Australia 06:00
New Zealand vs Argentina 08:30

The action this weekend kicks off at the indecent hour of 6.00am with a mouth watering contest between Ireland and Wales. Mouth watering because they are arguably the two form Northern Hemisphere teams, and are evenly matched in strengths. They both have ultra competitive tight fives, young talented and mobile loose forwards, and exciting dynamic backs. Could it come down to coaching then?

Both Gatland and Kidney have coached Ireland, both are not entirely comfortable in media interviews, but that’s about where the similarities end. Kidney is a kindly self effacing man who comes across like everybody’s favorite uncle. Gatland has a less friendly demeanor and has been said (not by me I might add) to exude all the warmth and compassion of Kim Il Jung. Kidney comes across as somebody who really doesn’t like the attention, and who’d prefer not to be there. Gatland’s media tactics are constant ham fisted attempts to wind the opposition up. He should really save his breath as based on his previous utterances, the biggest motivation for the Irish team, never mind progressing to the semis for the first time, never mind the pinnacle of careers in the offing, no the biggest single motivator for them will be spoiling his day on Saturday.

Kidney is a good man manager, developing players and bringing out the best in them, and getting the Grand Slam for Ireland in 2009. He makes tough decisions easily though, if he made decisions based on sentiment he would have brought Stringer and O’Leary along with him. Gatland has brought the Welsh along in fits and starts, they got the Grand Slam in 2008, but in the meantime he’s dropped his captain Ryan Jones and had to discipline various players for off field drinking offences.In fairness he’s brought a young keen team to this Cup.

It’s going to be a tight tight match, but I’m backing Irish experience and Declan Kidney to take them through to the next round.

England France Neither team is much burdened by the weight of expectations for this fixture. England have the better form but have looked pretty lackluster so far. Paper thin wins over Argentina and Scotland hardly mark them out as tournament favourites at the moment. They are certainly not playing to their potential, which saw them claim the 6 Nations title and score a shed load of tries in the process. They’ve been disappointing so far to me anyway, pre tournament I thought they possibly had the best chance in the NH of doing something this World Cup. Speaking of disappointing, France’s campaign has degenerated into the same sort of farce that their soccer team put up last year. Marc Lièvremont is the new Raymond Domenech. He hates the players, the players hate him. France have the talent to win the whole thing, but barring a French style miracle they’ll be on the plane home on Sunday.

Australia South Africa. This should be the most competitive match after the Ireland Wales match, as the two Southern Hemisphere giants lock horns. Australia’s form has been moderate, king of the Southern Hemisphere teams they may be, but when they came up against a quality side like Ireland, then we saw what they made of. They really seem to have their tails between their legs now. The Boks have also been in so so form, scraping past Wales, and not looking too flash against Samoa either. Confidence seems high in the Bok camp, and I think they’re going to bully their way past a talented but erratic Australian side.

New Zealand Argentina. Now I’m expecting the AB’s to win this one. But then me, them, the whole world expected them to thump France in the last World Cup. This is just the sort of block they tend to stumble on in the World Cup and theyno Carter to steady the ship. Plus the field is going to going to be full of white and blue missiles on Sunday as Argentina, in fairly literal terms, lay their lives down for their country. There’s a Latin drama about everything they do. But the Men in Black are big enough, bad enough and street wise enough this time not to make the mistake of previous cups and underestimate the men for the land of the Pampas, so I’m expecting a close match, but a win for New Zealand.

Sometimes it just feels good to be Irish...

2011-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Dan Carter - desperate luck ( picture http://bit.ly/p7MEHF )

The action started on Friday with the South Africans edging past Samoa in a brutal encounter. Samoa will feel they were hard done by this tournament, and they were.

Australia started the games on Saturday by banking 5 points against Russia, and topped the pool for the moment. Then it was France’s turn to show us what they had. Or not. There is a sublime French team at the World Cup, but they are still waiting to make their first appearance. Instead we get the tragicomic French team, hammered by the All Blacks last week, and sinking further in to the mire with an abysmal performance against Tonga. Serious World Cup contenders? Non. They still manage to get through in second spot though.

In the last match on saturday it was Scotland’s chance to try and put England to the sword. All the plaudits are for the Scots, but plaudits don’t count for anything when you lose and exit the World Cup. England continue with their ruse that they are a really good team pretending to be average, scraping through two tight matches to lull all the other teams into a sense of false security. They are certainly making a good fist of being average as half the team went missing in action against the Scots. I reckon, Haskell, Croft, and Tualagi had good matches for England, and that was it. Jonny Wilkingson’s metronomic kicking has deserted him – metronomy is not the first word that springs to mind when he kicks now. So if he can’t kick anymore, you have to question his place in the team, and his injury may sort that problem out for England. The Scottish front row were epic, the whole team gave it their all, but for all that effort they never really looked like scoring a try. With this run of form in the pools, England vs France is bound to be a stormer.

Very early on Saturday, Argentina booked their place in the last eight with an easy win over Georgia. New Zealand went through an elaborate training exercise with Canada – they must have score a hundred tries by now. But a successful pool stage has been soured by the loss for the rest of the tournament of the best 10 in the world, Dan Carter. The AB’s don’t have an experienced back up – and that could be them fecked again. It’s very cruel for Carter. Wales ran riot against Fiji to seal 2nd place behind the Boks and go into the next round with some serious momentum.

Finally, it was left for Ireland and Italy to tussle it out for the last place in the pool. Sometimes it just feels good to be Irish, and Sunday was a day like that. Ireland survived a tense first half to come roaring out in the second and batter the Italians. There’s form all over the place suddenly in the Irish team – Bowe, Heaslip, O’Brien, Ferris, Healy – and that doesn’t do justice to everyone else as there were no weak links. Murray is settling into a first choice role and Kearney and D’Arcy are threatening again. Scoring tries doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore, we got three and deserved another two.

I was a bit disappointed in the Italian tactics, though, it was very niggly with lots of off the ball stuff going on. They were trying to keep it tight and physical, and look for a yellow card for Ireland. Maybe I’m wrong – maybe Italian hooker Ghiraldini was just trying to clear a bit of grass out of Cian Healy’s eye – and you know what it’s like when you try to help someone and they just take it all the wrong way. Those Irish can be so touchy! Well, it’s ciao to the Italians, as we look forward to a date with the Welsh. It’s the first World Cup we’ve topped our pool.

South Africa 13 - 5 Samoa
France 14 - 19 Tonga
England 16 - 12 Scotland
Australia 68 - 22 Russia

Argentina 25 - 7 Georgia
New Zealand 79 - 15 Canada
Ireland 36 - 6 Italy
Wales 66 - 0 Fiji

Rugby World Cup - last chance to get on the bus!

2011-09-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ronan O'Gara - sign out of picture (picture http://bit.ly/oLQ6tU )

Right, this is where things get really interesting, no more hiding your light under a bushel, get in there and prove you’re good enough for the next round! Samoa have to knock down the biggest, thickest door in the tournament to stay in the tournament on Friday. They outmuscled the Australians pre tournament, can they do the same to the Boks? Beating the South Africans at their own game by taking them on physically is a mammoth task – most teams have profited by outsmarting them, which doesn’t seem to be nearly as difficult. While I have every admiration for the Samoans, and sympathy with their match schedule, I can’t see them having the tactics or the discipline to overcome the Boks, so that is them gone I’m afraid.

The Scots are in a similar position with a similarly sized door, if a bit paler, as they plot against the Auld enemy. They can beat England, I’m sure of that. But can they manage to jump through the whole range of hops necessary for them to get through to the next round? They have beat England, score four tries, deny them a bonus point, climb the greased pole and eat the candy apple with their hands tied behind their backs. So Scotland are on the plane. They just don’t have the firepower to do what they need to do, they’re never going to score four tries.

Wales Fiji is a interesting one, but Fijians have had a pretty disastrous time of it with only one win, and not good performances in the two they lost. They beat Wales to make it into the next round last World Cup, but Wales are a different team these days, even without Hook and Lydiate. So no fairy tale ending this time, the Fijians to lose, and the princess to marry the frog with no spell on it.

Then it’s the last big match, and the only one where the underdog, Italy ,has any real chance. If Italy beat Ireland, and deny us a losing bonus point, that would be Italy and the Aussies on their way and us on the plane. We tiptoed past them in Rome in the Six Nations, wouldn’t they just love to go one further this time? They have the forwards to tie us up in knots, and realistically, we are one front row injury away from disaster. Our backs are far better than theirs though, and I’m actually expecting quite a lot from Ireland in this match, a statement of intent.

It will be interesting to see who starts at fly half on Sunday. O’Gara is top class international, with excellent place kicking skills, and he’s brilliant at keeping the game in the other teams half. His running game is not of the same standard as his kicking though. His inside pass for instance- you know the sign board they use to let you know how many extra minutes are to be added on in a soccer match? It’s like there’s a man waving a sign board on the sideline saying ‘O’Gara is about to make an inside pass’, that’s how much notice the other team gets. Sexton is good positional kicker, and a great man running with the ball, getting the backline going. He tackles better than O’Gara as well. He falls down on his place kicking though, when he lines up a place kick these days, that’s the time to make yourself a cup of tea or get another beer from the fridge as you really can’t watch. I think we need a running game to beat Italy, so I’m expecting Sexton for the first 60 and O’Gara to close it out. That’s unless D’Arcy is out, in which case they may both start. The front row is going to be under massive pressure, but the players I want to really stand up are O’Callaghan and Heaslip. Are we at the bus stop or on the bus lads? I think we’re on the World Cup bus, Ireland by 10.

Ireland: Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll (capt), Gordon D'Arcy, Keith Earls; Ronan O'Gara, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Mike Ross; Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell; Stephen Ferris, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Donnacha Ryan, Denis Leamy, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton, Andrew Trimble.

And that's the team, bit surprised to see ROG and Murray but, who can argue with Kidney?
Fri - 30th Sep 11
08:30 South Africa vs Samoa

1 October:
Australia v Russia, Nelson (0330 BST)
France v Tonga, Wellington Regional Stadium (0600 BST)
England v Scotland, Eden Park, Auckland (0830 BST)

2 October:
Argentina v Georgia, Arena Manawatu, Palmerston North (0100 BST)
New Zealand v Canada, Wellington Regional Stadium (0330 BST)
Wales v Fiji, Waikato Stadium, Hamilton (0600 BST)
Ireland v Italy, Otago Stadium, Dunedin (0830 BST)

Rugby World Cup - sob story for France, SOB story for Ireland

2011-09-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sen O'Brien (picture http://bit.ly/r33MLY )

Australia made some small amends for their recent fall from grace by pummeling the USA, who at least had the solace of scoring a try against the No.2 side in the world. England look like they are back in the groove, playing free flowing rugby and chalking up a good total against the brave but limited Rumanians.

The match of the day, maybe even of the tournament, was supposed be the one between the All Blacks and the French, but it didn’t live up to the hype. New Zealand, while they’re no Ireland, are a formidable team. They went through about 30% of their gears, and still smashed the French. The French started with blistering pace, then it looked like they had a meeting with their shop steward and played to rule after that. The All Black back line absolutely ripped the French to shreds, running in try’s just about at will. French coach Lievremont must have known that playing a scrum half at fly half was going to disrupt the team, but who knows what his plans are. This is a World Cup, there’s only one winner, and neither team has won or lost anything yet. The French are safely in the ‘easy’ side of the draw, but what’s frustrating is that you feel they have the talent to beat anyone, anywhere, and should have been going for a win. For the All Blacks, Carter, Dagg, Jane and Kaino were all outstanding. The only soupcon of comfort for the French was that they put immense pressure on the All Black scrum – if the French hadn’t scored a try in a ‘huh?’ moment while the clock was supposedly stopped after a series of scrum penalties, they were odds on for a penalty try.

Samoa kept themselves in contention with a good win over Fiji, then it was Irelands turn to put Russia to the sword. It was pretty much an Ireland B team, and Russia are really weak, but they scored 9 tries, a couple of the fringe players like Trimble and McFadden put their hands up, and Sean O’Brien is in the stratosphere at this stage with another stellar performance. 6 o’clock on a Sunday though! Feel my ‘real fan’ credentials growing by the minute.

The last match on Sunday was Scotland/Argentina, one place apart in the world rankings, and evenly matched in strength and style. It was an appalling day in Wellington, so ball handling was diabolical, it was scrum reset after scrum reset, in a fascinatingly close contest none the less. A try by Argentinean super sub Amorosino made the difference and clinched the win for the Argentines. Absolutely gutting for the Scots.

Moment of the weekend – Francois Pienaar in post match commentary – ‘The loose trios are so fast these days – in my day, the difference between me jogging and sprinting was a change in my facial expression!’

Australia 67 - 5 USA
England 67 - 3 Romania
New Zealand 37 - 17 France
Fiji 7 - 27 Samoa
Ireland 62 - 12 Russia
Argentina 13 - 12 Scotland

RWC2011 French selection for New Zealand really gets me going

2011-09-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sonny Bill Williams -eager to give some French Lessons (picture http://bit.ly/oiWmqM )

During the week Italy ran out easy winners over minnows Russia, while Tonga overcame Japan in a far closer contest.

Ireland face Russia next themselves, and going on Russian form so far this will be an exercise in giving the Irish squad a run and possibly trying a few combinations. We don’t want to risk any of our frontline players, our match against Italy is the match the Italians have been building up to for four years, and can you imagine beating Australia and losing to Italy? Makes you go cold.

The big encounter of the weekend sees hosts New Zealand take on their bête noire, France. French coach Marc Lièvremont, came in early with his team selection, and he’s gone and picked a scrum half at scrum half, and a scrum half at fly half. Now I try to be as even handed as I can on this blog, and avoid national stereotypes, but in this case I’m prepared to make an exception. You really feel that in true Monty Pythonesque style that Lièvremont is waving his private parts in your aunties face with this selection. Maybe he does feel that your mother was a hamster and that your father smelled of elderberries.http://bit.ly/r6U6h4 Jesus wept, what have the French done to deserve a coach like this? Well, in fairness, they do break Irish hearts on a regular basis, with Vincent Clerk the chief villain. And they have made a habit of destroying the dreams of a certain little southern hemisphere nation every four years or so. Then there was the Rainbow Warrior- actually, the French are getting exactly what they deserve! And just to piss us off even more, they’ll probably go and win the match just to rub their Frenchness in our faces. I think Lièvremont has a lot more in common with Springbok Coach Pieter De Villiers than a French surname.

Now that I have that off my chest, what are their chances of beating New Zealand?. I know Parra plays fly half at club level when needed, but he’s not a first choice there even at club level, so this is surely going to disrupt the team. The rest of the team is really solid, but not necessarily first choice players. I think that Lièvremont has an eye on sticking in the easier side of the draw( that’s OK Marc, you wouldn’t be the first team to underestimate the Irish). And the All Blacks are going to feel like it’s their moral obligation to wipe this French team off the face of the earth to avenge events four years ago. They’ll oblige the French and give them a sound beating.

Sunday sees two pivotal matches. First up. Samoa and Fiji are going to lock horns. This is a must win match for Samoa to try and keep their qualification hopes going. The Samoans have been doing some serious giving out about their match schedule, and rightly so. Top tier teams like South Africa and Wales get leisurely 6, 7 even 8 day gaps between matches while the minnows get sometimes only 4 days to recover, which is not nearly enough given the physicality of the sport. Samoa should win this one anyway.

Argentina and Scotland is another key match, probably to decide the runner up spot to England in that group. Now I’m not expecting a try fest. In fact, I’m not expecting to see too much of the ball at all, only briefly appearing at the back of a ruck before next one is set up. Both teams have reputation for a decent pack, and reasonably limited backs. So if you’re a fan of wrestling, you could be in for a treat. For the record, I’d say Argentina are going to shade this one, which could set up an almighty final match between Scotland and England, as the Scots try to qualify.

Wednesday, September 21 Tonga 31 - 18 Japan

Tuesday , September 20 Italy 53 - 17 Russia

Thu - 22nd Sep 11   09:00 South Africa vs Namibia

Fri - 23rd Sep 11   09:30 Australia vs USA

Sat - 24th Sep 11   09:30 New Zealand vs France
07:00 England vs Romania

Sun - 25th Sep 11

08:30 Argentina vs Scotland
06:00 Ireland vs Russia
03:30 Fiji vs Samoa

RWC11 - Ireland beat Australia - move over DKNY there’s a new name in grand design, DKCC! (Declan Kidney Cork City)!

2011-09-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Move over DKNY, there’s a new name in grand design, DKCC! (Declan Kidney Cork City)! Nobodies talking about four losses in a row now! We didn’t just beat the Australians, we BEAT them! A 9 point win when no one’s given you a chance – how sweet is that! Just about none of the media, few of the fans, but most importantly the Australian players didn’t think Ireland had a hope. Ireland didn’t do anything flash, just went about their business in a determined fashion, kept the ball tight, and established an absolute dominance in the scrum. The most kudos for this performance definitely go to the front row and the loose trio, but 1-15, what a performance, no stars just one for all and all for one. Genia, Cooper and Beale were near invisible for Australia as Ireland stifled the life out of the Aussies. Even our bench was stronger, with O’Gara and Trimble both looking sharp. There was nothing the Wallabies had either on or off the pitch that could match us.

Australia now face the unenviable task of needing to beat the Springboks in the next round – that’s if they beat the USA first, although I’d definitely back them to beat the USA, especially if they get Pocock and Ioane back :). And as for Ireland – well, you wouldn’t want to get too carried away, but it’s a sweet, sweet moment to savor, it feels like the sky’s the limit at the moment.

Here’s the phrases the Aussies should have learnt for the match:

Is féidir le Paul O'Connell teacht le cabhrú linn lenár scrum nuair a scoireann sé?
Can Paul O'Connell come help us with our scrum when he retires?

Riamh Tá na beers i Bondi ceirteacha tarraingthe ag do dtíre ag dul go dtí an blas céanna arís.
Those beers in Bondi pulled by your countrymen are never going to taste the same again.

Tá tú ceart iad do sheila ag lorg níos fear
You're right your sheila's are better looking

Earlier on Saturday, the Springboks picked up where they left off after the first 5 minutes against Wales with a pretty impressive victory over Fiji. Fiji looked really good for the first 20 minutes, they had the Boks on the ropes, but then the Springboks struck back, playing uncharacteristically fluid rugby. They were, dare I say it, exciting to watch! Every South African out there put his hand up and there are some interesting headaches for the South African coaches now. This is a great group for Wales and South Africa, there is no hiding place against Samoa and Fiji, you either survive or die, and whatever doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger.

Wales Samoa was the other big match of the weekend, and it was a massively physical encounter – both teams must have felt like they’d been run over by an 18 wheeler. Wales are growing in confidence, they didn’t have it all their own way but they showed enough composure and grit to grind out his win. They must have sealed their place in the next round with that win. Samoa don’t have a good enough scrum to really compete at this level.

Elsewhere, The All Blacks annihilated Japan, Argentina thumped Rumania, and France ran out easy winners over Canada. England took a break from their busy schedule of dwarf throwing and cleavage diving to easily account for Georgia.

New Zealand 83 - 7 Japan

Sat - 17th Sep

Argentina 43 - 8 Romania
Australia 6 - 15 Ireland
South Africa 49 - 3 Fiji

Sun - 18th Sep

France 46 - 19 Canada
England 41 - 10 Georgia
Wales 17 - 10 Samoa

Ireland to upset the odds, Wales to dogfight it out - bring it on!

2011-09-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ireland expects...

Samoa 49 - 12 Namibia

Tonga 20 - 25 Canada

Scotland 15 - 6 Georgia

Samoa, the potential dark horse of the tournament, made short of Namibia. Canada produced a minor upset, overcoming the more fancied Samoa, while Scotland failed to impress in a drab victory over Georgia. It was pretty much a Scots B team though.

Fri - 16th Sep 11

09:00 New Zealand vs Japan

Sat - 17th Sep 11

04:30 Argentina vs Romania
09:30 Australia vs Ireland
07:00 South Africa vs Fiji

Sun - 18th Sep 11

09:30 France vs Canada
07:00 England vs Georgia
04:30 Wales vs Samoa

Japan, the Brave Blossoms, are likely to wilt in the face of an All Black onslaught. Ouch is probably going to be the best way to describe this match.

Ireland v Australia is the plum match of the weekend. Australia are ranked 2nd in the world, Ireland a more modest 8th, although in fairness we did fall like a stone from 4th in our less than successful run up to the World Cup. I’ve heard people claiming that we are, to use the technical term, about to be ‘hockeyed’ by the Wobblies. Oh ye of little faith! On Saturday, Kidneys master plan will be revealed, as Ireland go from chumps to champs and sort out the Antipodean giants. And our sheila’s are better looking! I don’t have the stats or the logic to back this up, this is a more primordial pit of the stomach based assessment of our chances. We’ve got the players to do the job, all we need is belief, and in fairness a bit of luck, and we can do it.

There are a couple of key players that are going to have to really perform, none more so than Johnny Sexton who needs to show the form that helped deliver the Heineken Cup for Leinster. Gordon D’Arcy is another that owes us a big time, his most useful contribution to date would have been to pull his socks down and try and blind the opposition with his legs, but he can and will play to his potential. The loose trio of O’Brien, Heaslip and Ferris need to dish out a performance that will be the stuff of legends, getting the ascendancy in the loose and disrupting the awesome Wallaby backline. Donncha O'Callaghan needs to much more than just ballast in the scrum, and Eoin Reddan is going to have to match and better Will Genia. We don’t have anything to lose in the match, the pressure is all on the Aussies, everyone’s expecting us to lose. ‘mon Ireland! Is feidir linn!

The Springbok Fiji match also looks pretty interesting. The Boks were under serious pressure at one stage the last time they met Fiji in the World Cup, but then they pulled themselves together and won easily in the end. This is a new gentler, kinder set of Boks, none of this ‘Kill’em all and let God sort them out!’ approach any more. Fiji are not the team they used to be either though, and I think the South Africans are still big and beefy enough to squash the Fijians.

Wales and Samoa is the last match of the weekend, and one of the most intriguing. Wales came into this tournament with a young team and high hopes. And they came within a whisker of a major upset of the current World Champions last weekend. But they have to suck up the disappointment of that loss and really concentrate, because one more stumble and they’ll be on the plane home. Samoa showed in their defeat of an admittedly weak Aussie selection in July that they are no pushovers. They’ve beaten Wales before in the World Cup, and have another chance to carve out a bit of history for themselves. They’ve got all at the moment, size, skill and experience. I think Wales are going to win, but not by much more than they lost to the Boks.

Rugby World Cup round up - all the biggies win

2011-09-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Would you ever run the feckin ball?

New Zealand 41 - 10 Tonga

Scotland 34 - 24 Romania

Fiji 49 - 25 Namibia

France 47 - 21 Japan

Argentina 9 - 13 England

Sunday , September 11

Australia 32 - 6 Italy

Ireland 22 - 10 USA

South Africa 17 - 16 Wales

New Zealand got the show going in fine style with a 6 try demolition of Tonga. The eagle eyed choker spotters weren’t impressed – ‘They fell off in the second half! Dan Carter had a poor match!’ Six tries does it for me though, and Tonga are not an easy team to beat. Quite an interesting pre match haka competition as well, where I thought the Tongans had a slight edge.

I didn’t catch the Scotland Romania match, where the Scots kind of tiptoed past the Romanians by all accounts, or the Fiji Namibia match, where Fiji clocked up a good score in what was said to be an entertaining match. I then made a fatal error by writing off the Japan France match as one the French would slam dunk the funk out of the Japanese to go for a run, in time to watch the England Argentina match. Well, the Brave Blossoms, ( and spell check saved my blushes on the first spelling of blossoms, cough) obviously spurred on by the news that I’d got them in the office draw, really took the game to the French, and at times looked like they were going to record their second ever world Cup win . (Their only win so far is ironically over Zimbabwe). I watched for a bit when Japan got their second try, and I wasn’t feeling the love for the French from the crowd. There were plenty of Japanese supporters, the Kiwis were all oddly behind the Japanese, and all the neutrals were backing the underdog. One sniff of victory for the Japanese and half the western world descended into raucous ‘allo ‘allo style derision of the French. They managed to pull themselves together in the end and get the win. Nihon gambatte!

Then it was the supposed match of the day, England v Argentina. You can win pretty, you can win ugly, but at the end of the day, a win is a win. But England’s win was as ugly as Martin Johnson’s face in the post match interview – yes, it was that bad! It was a poor match by any standards, with both teams bereft of ideas, either bashing it up the middle, or kicking it aimlessly away. They were both content to play without the ball and wait for the other team to make a mistake. Don’t get me wrong either, I’m not knocking England for the sake of it, they played some good rugby in the Six Nations, attractive running rugby. They are back in the straight jacket of a kicking game, except their wunderkind Johnny has lost his mojo. The commentary didn’t help either – when I heard them labeling their group with England, Argentina and Scotland the ‘Group of Death’ it was fortunate there was a large basin handy. Captain for the day was Mike Tindall, and he would do well to learn from the John Smit/Ritchie McCaw book of conversing with the ref – it’s ‘Yes sir, No sir, 3 bags full sir’, not ‘Yes, but…’ England scraped out of this one by the skin of teeth – please in their next match can they start with Youngs and Flood and run the ball a bit? The most exciting part of this match was the streaker by a country mile.

On Sunday, Australia started slowly and then ran away with it in the end. Then it was Ireland’s chance to start righting the wrongs of 2007. Except they still had Steady Eddie, now coaching the USA, putting a spanner in the works. Ireland were underwhelming, they got the win, but still made far too many mistakes for a team that has ambitions to go far in this tournament. The USA competed well physically in loose play, but their scrum and lineout were awful. Still, the match was played in pretty appalling conditions, and it still seems like half the Irish team is just back from injury. Tommy Bowe made a good few fluff ups, but got two tries as well, Earls looked lively, and O’Gara was on hand to steady the ship at the end. A win is a win is a win. Let’s just bank it and move on.

The last match of the weekend was Wales/South Africa, and it was the most keenly contested. The Boks started like a house on fire, then gradually lost their way – they had a few ‘senior’ moments I guess. I think Pieter De Villiers had to gently remind this bunch of veterans why they here and what they were doing at half time. Wales played really, really well, and I thought they had it won several times in the match. The Boks still had a few gears to go up though, and however badly they played, when they needed to, they went straight up the field and scored a try under the posts. The Welsh will be kicking themselves, this was the one that got away, but if they carry on playing like that they can still go a long way in this competition. The World Champs look anything but.

So I pick NZ, Australia, Ireland, England and South Africa for this weekend

2011-09-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here’s a look at the big matches this weekend

Ireland vs the USA

Ireland come in to the tournament on the back of a less than impressive build up, with a 0 from 4 record in the summer internationals. You’d have to qualify that though by looking at the stern opposition in the last 3 matches, England and France. And coach Declan Kidney took the opportunity to do some tinkering and try out a few combinations instead of just putting out his strongest side each time, mindful of the fact that we might not win. Were they hiding their light under a bushel, or managing expectations of their World Cup chances, or a bit of both? On Sunday we start to find out.

We got a Grand Slam in 2009, and a couple of Heineken Cups and Magners’ League titles with the provinces in the last few years so the talent is there, just a matter of it all clicking for us to have a good run in this tournament. For the USA, the fact the match takes place on September the 11^th gives them extra motivation, but they just don’t have the player resources to mount a serious challenge. So this game for Ireland is all about performance, starting the build up for bigger games. We should get out of our group, and when it gets to the knock outs, anything can happen.

New Zealand Tonga

Picture from http://bit.ly/qkrpB2

This is the opening match. The All Blacks are, as always, No 1 in the World leading into the World Cup. They slipped up in their last match, losing to Australia, and conceding the Tri Nations title at the same time. Is that the sound of the All Blacks clearing their throats for another choke? They are always the team to beat anywhere in the world, and at home they are just about unstoppable, so this tournament is theirs to lose. Tonga are unlikely to be competitive apart from in the physicality stakes.

Argentina vs England

England arrive with pretty big expectations, based on an improvement in form over the last few years. From bitter experience in the last World Cup , Ireland and France could tell them not to underestimate the Argentineans. I don’t get the sense that they see Argentina as a serious threat, but with a constant focus on size size size they should be able to steamroller the South Americans.

Australia Italy

This is one for Irish fans to watch (not literally as it’s on at 4.30 in the morning but we’ll be there in spirit). A win for Italy would leave us well poised to top our group and meet up with probably Wales or Samoa in the next stage. Now I know we basically picked Italy’s pocket in the 6 Nations with a last gasp win, but surely this is a time for us Europeans to stick together and stand up to this Southern Hemisphere giant? Italy probably only have a small chance of beating Australia, but they have beaten France this year so you never know. Australia are in good form, probably not consistent enough to go all the way but they should have a good run. Forza Italia!

South Africa Wales

South Africa are the current holders of the World Cup. However, they arrive at the tournament with pretty much the same model that they used in the last World Cup, only with a lot more mileage on the clock, and various dents scrapes and a dodgy head driver in coach Pieter De Villiers. So while they probably won’t disgrace themselves I couldn’t see them going all the way. Wales are on a bit of a roll recently, but I don’t think they have quite enough in the tank to take out the Boks in this encounter. Warren Gatland's typically ham fisted attempts at stirring things with the Boks, and half the team saying 'The Boks don't scare us' = 'The Boks scare us a lot.'

Fri - 9th Sep 11   09:30 New Zealand vs Tonga

Sat - 10th Sep 11
07:00 France vs Japan
02:00 Scotland vs Romania
09:30 Argentina vs England
04:30 Fiji vs Namibia

Sun - 11th Sep 11
04:30 Australia vs Italy
07:00 Ireland vs USA
09:30 South Africa vs Wales

Ouch! Leinster really suck in Wales, while all the other Irish provinces win

2011-09-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

New boy Nathan White (picture from http://bit.ly/oVmh3b )

When Leinster are good they’re brilliant, but when they suck, they really suck. Well, they developed awesome suction in Wales this Friday night. From a team that had to hand Northampton a try on a plate, so tight was their defense last week, to a team that proved as watertight as a leaky sieve this week. And they had some of their big guns back this week, that proved as fearsome as pop guns to the Ospreys. The Welsh won’t turnover the Leinstermen this easy again, well I bloody hope not. As a Leinster Fan, it was horrible to watch, fumble, tumble, stumble. The break down was an out and out disaster. I think the whole team should be given lines – write out 100 times – I must not pass the ball without looking – I must catch the ball when it’s passed to me – I must tackle – I must protect the ball at the breakdown.

Third choice scrum half is obviously an issue, Matt Berquist looks off the pace and a bit underwhelming in general – is he 100% fit?

Then to add insult to injury, all the other Irish provinces won, admittedly either at home or against weaker opposition or both. Lads, this is your golden opportunity to shine while the big boys are swanning around in New Zealand, don’t waste it!

The intensity the Ospreys brought was pretty impressive, they look in good nick. Any simple ball handling skills they displayed made them look masterful in the face of what Leinster were dishing up.

The only bright spot for Leinster on the weekend was in the formidable form of prop Nathan White, Waikato captain up until Saturday, now on his way to Leinster on a one year deal. Don’t really know him but he certainly looks the business. He has some other skills that may help Leinster out with Manu Tualagi if they ever play Leicester again which you can see here:

Aviva Premiership

I watched most of the Irish/Quins match, not too inspiring, Irish are going to have to find some new gears if they want to do anything this year. But what a fantastic win for the Exeter Chiefs, the Irish team for this generation, beating the Tigers.

RaboDirect PRO12

Friday , September 2

Ospreys 27 - 3 Leinster

Ulster 28 - 14 Glasgow

Edinburgh 15 - 38 Cardiff

Benetton Treviso 9 - 11 Connacht

Munster 20 - 12 Newport-Gwent D'gons

Aviva Premiership

Saturday , September 3

London Irish 24 - 29 Harlequins

Worcester 17 - 12 Sale

Leicester 28 - 30 Exeter

Newcastle 9 - 22 Bath

Saracens 15 - 20 Wasps

Leinster update

2011-09-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

Richardt Strauss (picture from http://bit.ly/qFw66J )

Leinster travel to Swansea to take on the Ospreys this Friday. Wins are hard to come by in Wales, so the Leinstermen will have their work cut out for them.

The teams haven't come out yet, and I'll do an update when they finally emerge.

In the meantime, here's a bit of squad news from the Leinster camp. Isa Nacewa, Eoin O’Malley and Richardt Strauss are all back in the frame to start, let's hopethey pick up where they left off last season.

Steven Sykes has a medial ligament injury which means he's out for 2-3 weeks while Andrew Conway has hurt his ankle and will miss this match.

I've put the whole RaboDirectPro12 fixtures list up on my blog here. It's from the official site, but as things go haywire after January, you have to wonder if there's a more official website, or a most official website out there? I'll be back!

So that's the Leinster team: with the big names back. Berquist gets a start, and looks like competition for places is going to red hot this season with Fitzgerald moved into centre. I was impressed by the way Jamie Hagan held his own against Northampton, and he gets another start. Leo Auva'a was also impressive in his run last week, and he's going to be knocking on the door to start.

Both teams are hit by the World Cup, and Ospreys have lost a host of stars for good. Still an impressive starting side though, it's all going to depend on how goth sides gel. Should be a good match, pity it's on BBC Wales from an Irish point of view. Have to go with Leinster from a patriotic point of view!

LEINSTER:
15: Isa Nacewa
14: Fionn Carr
13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Luke Fitzgerald
11: David Kearney
10: Mat Berquist
9: John Cooney
1: Heinke van der Merwe
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Jamie Hagan
4: Damian Browne
5: Devin Toner
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Dominic Ryan
8: Rhys Ruddock CAPTAIN
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Aaron Dundon
17: Jack McGrath
18: Jack O'Connell
19: Mark Flanagan
20: Leo Auva'a
21: Cillian Willis
22: Ian Madigan
23: Brendan Macken

OSPREYS:
15: Richard Fussell
14: Kristian Phillips
13: Andrew Bishop
12: Ashley Beck
11: Hanno Dirksen
10: Dan Biggar
9: Rhys Webb
1: Duncan Jones
2: Mefin Davies
3: Cai Griffiths
4: Ian Gough
5: Ian Evans
6: Tom Smith
7: Justin Tipuric CAPTAIN
8: Jonathan Thomas

Munster have put out a strong side against the Dragons, with poor old Tomas O'Leary warming the bench for Peter Stringer.I'll be interested to see how Ian Keatley gets on with his move from Connacht, with international duty and rest periods for Ronan O'Gara he should get to see a lot of top level rugby. Win for them.

Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, D Barnes, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Shery, S Archer; B Holland, M O'Driscoll; P O'Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Varley, W Du Preez, J Hayes, D Foley, T O'Donnell, T O'Leary, S Deasy, S Zebo.

Ulster get to take on Glasgow at Ravenhill, and it's a handly looking side. This is what I',m going to be watching tomorrow night sans BBC Wales. Craig Gilroy is always exciting to watch, as is the scrum half Marshall, and I 've got big expectations for Tuohy. Several players get a chance to show their wares while the internationals are gone, and they should beat Glasgow.

Ulster (15-9): A D'Arcy; C Gilroy, D Cave, N Spence, I Whitten; I Humphreys, P Marshall; (1-8) P McAllister, A Kyriacou, J Cronin, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, W Faloon, C Henry (capt).
Replacements: N Brady, C Carey, A Macklin, N McComb, R Diack, I Porter, P Jackson, P Nelson.

Connacht

Haven't got a team for Connacht yet, but what an exciting time for the province - they have Mazda on board as a sponsor, have nearly sold out their 3000 season tickets, got some cash from the Government for ground improvements, and they're in the Heineken Cup!

Time to back Ireland, and New Zealand for the World Cup

2011-08-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Practise your tackling, Sir! (picture from http://bit.ly/nWeSXC )

Saturday , August 27

Ireland 9 - 20 England

Tri-Nations

Australia 25 - 20 New Zealand

Ireland England

I’m trying to make this a match a match report rather than an autopsy or a wake, you may not believe it, but I am trying promise. I didn’t see the whole match, and had the misfortune to miss Tuilagi brushing Earls aside to score England’s opening try, but the commentators made up for that by talking about it non stop. So what went wrong for us to finally break our winning streak against England? That can be fixed in time for the World Cup anyway? Well, our line out has gone very shaky, so let’s hope Gert Smal can work a bit of magic in the next few weeks and get that right, because it wasn’t too long ago we were guaranteed our own ball, and often in with a shout on the oppositions throw. We also need to play centres at centre – it’s a radical concept I know, but Earls proved on Saturday he’s not a centre’s bottom. Please let’s play McFadden there if needs be. We’ve really got to work on our defence, as we even made Mike Tindall look masterful and composed as he set up Armitage’s try. Yes we that bad! But it’s the first time since forever that Geordan’s been back in the team, and Bowe is still rusty, so we can and will improve. Murray shouldn’t even be on the bench in any of the big matches after a fairly headless display.

Harder to fix is going to be our lack of physicality – we absolutely milled England the last time they were here. Losing Heaslip and Wallace didn’t help, but that’s one area we need to seriously step up a gear. Blunt attack is the other area that’s a worry – put Kearney and O’Driscoll back and we’ll look a lot sharper, but it was pretty distressing to see us aimlessly battering against a solid English line in the last 10 minutes.

Losing Wallace is a blow, a big one, but did we really ever have him? He seems to have really struggling with injury.Jennings has big shoes to fill.

But all in all, there’s no point in getting depressed, we’re off to the World Cup, we only need to beat Italy to get of out our group, and after that it’s one offs when anything can happen. Going into the thing with sober expectations is probably the best thing for us, we have a Heineken winning team in the mix there, and fantastic players from one the premier teams in Europe in the last 5 years, Munster, we can play better, and we will, C’MON IRELAND!

England meanwhile, look confident, didn’t really do too much but took their chances when they came. They are going to need more than they showed on Saturday to make any waves at the WC, but their curve is on the up.

Australia New Zealand

All the pundits are queuing up to announce the choking has started already. I don’t buy it myself, they were never really up for this one, for whatever reason, even the haka looked like they were trying to convince themselves about how potent they were. Australia, to their credit, played really well, and all things being equal are certainly in with a shot at the World Cup. The All Blacks seldom had decent front foot ball to attack from, I know how good the Australian backline attack is, but I think their defence is suspect. Losing Read was a big blow, Thompson less so as I’m not a fan, would have had a host of others before him. At home, with the players at their disposal, this World Cup is still New Zealand’s to lose. But it’s only right that Australia get to bask in the light of a well deserved win over the AB’s, and their first 3N in 10 years.

Showdown at the the OK corral (AKA the Aviva) for Ireland and England, and All Blacks to pip the Walllabies.

2011-08-25T01:13:00.000-07:00

Time to perform (picture from http://bit.ly/qJgwOH )

Saturday , August 27

Ireland vs England 14:30

Australia vs New Zealand 11:05

First off, a look at the matches, and then a quick look at the Ireland World Cup squad.

Starting off in Dublin, where Ireland welcome England to the Aviva stadium. This is a big one, a huge game for both teams. They both been underwhelming in the build up matches, although England did at least beat Wales, while Ireland are still to open their Summer 2011 account. A win here is non-negotiable for both teams, so it’s going to be irresistible force coming up against an immovable object (and I rather fancy England, with their focus on size, in the immovable object role). They both desperately need a win to kick start their 2011 World Cup campaign. Ireland v England is always a massive game anyway, and I’m struggling for adjectives here, this one is going to be – epic!

Both teams could pinpoint a 20 minute spell in their last team which would trouble any opposition – and a good 60 minutes that wouldn’t scare too many teams. For me, England are really missing Ashton and Youngs, and their centres leave me cold. Would have loved to see Barkley in there. They need to work out how to get Fodden more involved, and I’d also like to see armitage being given a crack at centre. Finally, their pack is looking ponderous, unlike the cement mixer treatment they giving most teams in the 6 nations.

Ireland look about 10% where they need to be to do some damage at this World Cup. I’m hoping that D’Arcy and O’Driscoll are going to shake off the ring rustiness off their first outing of the season. Then the whole team needs to show a bit of composure – be patient, run it when it’s on, but kick intelligently too. We have the firepower, we have the passion, just a bit of composure lads, and we can down the English for the umpteenth time in a row. I’ll do an update when the teams come out.

So those are the teams below, good to see Geordan back. I'm not sure about our centre pairing though, neither D'Arcy nor Earls has much form at themoment. I hope they set Ferris on Tuilagi as soon as possible. Not so sure if Ireland are going to win without O'Driscoll.

Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Rory Best, 17 Tom Court , 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Conor Murray, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Fergus McFadden.

England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall (captain), 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Nick Easter, 7 James Haskell, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Joe Simpson, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Delon Armitage

Australia All Blacks

This is the Tri-nations decider, with the Boks, perennial jokers in the pack, gifting both teams an opportunity for the title. The match will not be graced by James O’Connor, omitted for acting his age and going out on the tear the night before the squad announcement. That makes way for Fainga’a in the centre, a better balanced backline now anyway in my opinion. Elsom has been relieved of the captaincy, with Horwill a good replacement. This is as good a team as the Wallabies could have put out, but is it going to be enough to take out the 50 stone gorilla in the black corner?

This is fairly close to an All Black A team, with only fatty Piri Weepu (sorry, horizontally challenged) and Adam Thompson the bolters. They are oozing with confidence at the moment, and on paper should take the Aussies no problem. But Australia are one of two teams (France are the others) that make a habit of pooping the New Zealanders party, and they’re at home today as well.. Over the 80 minutes, in what is going to be a brutal encounter, maybe it’s the bench that is going to make the difference, and as the Blacks have more potent options there, I’m going with an All Black win, but only just.

New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu , 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock

Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 John Afoa, 18 Ali Williams, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Colin Slade, 22 Isaia Toeava.

Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Anthony Fainga'a, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Radike Samo, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Dan Vickerman, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu. Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga'a, 17 Salesi Ma'afu, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Ben McCalman, 20 Scott Higginbotham, 21 Luke Burgess, 22 TBA.

Ireland Squad

The big talking point of the squad was the exclusion of O’Leary and Fitzgerald, and the inclusion of Buckley. By weight, we could have left Buckley at home and taken them both! But only 30 players could go, and I feel for Fitzgerald, would have taken Horan instead of Buckley, but it’s Kidneys head on the block and he’s doing what he thinks is best for the country. Time to get behind the coach and team and do something special at the World Cup!

Ireland's World Cup 30: Rory Best, Isaac Boss, Tommy Bowe, Tony Buckley, Tom Court, Sean Cronin, Leo Cullen, Gordon D'Arcy, Keith Earls, Stephen Ferris, Jerry Flannery, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney, Denis Leamy, Fergus McFadden, Geordan Murphy, Conor Murray, Sean O'Brien, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara, Eoin Reddan, Mike Ross, Donnacha Ryan, Jonathan Sexton, Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace, David Wallace.

BTW do me a fovour a drop over to

https://owa.bordbia.ie/owa/redir.aspx?C=7e72d4ca734447788101ccea954ab86b&URL=http%3a%2f%2fapps.facebook.com%2fbethereporter%2fcontests%2f135263%2fvoteable_entries to vote for Declan Whooley

Ireland falter again Springboks (Can I kick it? Yes you can!) get a win, and Wales on fire

2011-08-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Where's Geordan? (Picture from http://bit.ly/qYTkkc )

Saturday , August 20

Wales 28 - 13 Argentina

Scotland 23 - 12 Italy

Ireland 22 - 26 France

Ireland France

What a pleasure after seeing the Boks kick everything, to see Ireland passing and running so freely. They started like a house on fire, and were good value for their 8-0 lead after Healy scored a try after a series of attacks. After that try though, things went distinctly pear shaped, and it was foul up bleeps and blunders central. We seemed to kick quite often, and poorly, drop the ball and pass to no one in particular. That let France back into the game, and their confidence grew, the trys came, and they built up a handy lead. When we gifted them an intercept try the game was all over. What is it about Ireland and finishing strongly though? They started to click again in the last 10 minutes, and we fully deserved our two trys at the end. Who had good matches? Sean O’Brien made ground, Fitzgerald had a good break, Trimble continued his strong run of form, the front row was solid, and O’Connell is getting back to his best. Looking Iffy – O’Leary, who passed much better but made some real howlers too, and it wasn’t Earls finest hour either. Felix Jones did fine until he went off injured, but really, where’s Geordan?

France meanwhile, have all the tools at their disposal, but Lievremont will no doubt still find a way to stuff it up. O from 3 is obviously not an ideal start for Ireland – I suppose we can only get better, just feel like we’re neeearly there, maybe once all the changes stop happening we’ll hit our straps.

Springboks New Zealand

So the Boks eventually open their 2011 account against a B All Black team. For the first 20 minutes, it looked like it was going to be a walkover, as the All Blacks shredded the Bok defense. But a combination of good scrambling defense, utter desperation, and a lack of composure in the last 5 meters by the AB’s meant that somehow the Boks survived, won a bit of ground, kicked a few penalties and hung in there, building up a lead against the run of play. They still look rusty as hell, and to say their play is one dimensional, is a vast overstatement of their dimensionality. Can I kick it? Yes you can! The only time Jaques Fourie touched the ball was when an All Black passed it to him. Fourie du Preez looks way off the pace, but they had a few bright lights, Bismarchk du Plessis was awesome, they had a very solid scrum, Heinrich Brussow is back big time, and Habana looks to be back into the groove. For the AB’s Slade had a few good touches, a few bad touches, and if Carter gets injured they’re shagged. Dagg was good in flashes, as was Kahui, but even the All Blacks can’t throw together untested combinations and expect them to click straight away.

Wales Argentina

This was an excellent game. Argentina were tough as teak, and dominated the first part of the game with both territory and possession. They had hardly anything to show for it though, and at the first opportunity presented to them, Wales scored a try. they look sharp fit, and ready for the World Cup, they got better and better as the game wore on, while the Argies got steadily worse. Stand out players for me were Knoyles, and Alun-Wyn Jones is in the form of his life. Nicolas Vergallo looked sharp for Argentina. Lee Byrne looks off the pace, as he would with such a long lay off. The good times for Wales continue!

South Africa 18 - 5 New Zealand

Ireland to flay the French, South Africa to slay the All Blacks and Wales to wallop Argentina

2011-08-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

Felix Jones (Picture from http://tinyurl.com/3lysylz)

Saturday , August 20

Wales vs Argentina 14:30

Scotland vs Italy 17:00

Ireland vs France 17:00

Tri-Nations

South Africa vs New Zealand 15.05

Ireland France

Ireland: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.

Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tom Court, 18 Mike McCarthy, 19 Stephen Ferris, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Luke Fitzgerald

15 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers)14 - Johne Murphy (Young Munster/Munster)13 - Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)12 - Ian Keatley (Munster)11 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)10 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)9 - Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)1 - Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks)2 - Sean Cronin (Leinster)3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)4 - Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)5 - Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)6 - Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)7 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)8 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Replacements:16 - Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)17 - Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)19 - Niall Ronan (Shannon/Munster)20 - Conor Murray Garryowen/Munster)21 - Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)22 - Ian Whitten (Ballymena/Ulster)

So these are the teams to face France and Connacht. The team for Ireland is pretty well our top squad, with the only surprise being the inclusion of Felix Jones so hats off to Kidney for not playing it safe. Although Geordan Murphy must have the thickest skin in the squad. Looks like if you play in England, they treat you like you’re English! Good to see O’Driscoll and Darcy back. Would love to have Bowe back in action as well, hopefully that will be soon. Tomas O’Leary gets another chance to try and demonstrate that he’s the No. 1 choice, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Fantastic to see Ferris on the bench again, the French will hope he stays there.

France: 15 Cedric Heymans, 14 Maxime Médard, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 David Skrela, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louise Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascale Papé, Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.

Replacements:16 Guilhem Guirado , 17 Fabien Barcella , 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Raphaël Lakafia, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Marty, 22 Vincent Clerc, 23 Luc Ducalcon.

This is the French team, and it’s impressively strong when you think 13 changes have been made from last week. No point trying to second guess which 15 Lievremont thinks is stronger, because it’s patently obvious that he doesn’t have a clue who his strongest 15 is. Frankly, he doesn’t have a clue full stop. Look at the riches he has available to him though. Think DK has got the upper hand with his team continuity, and at home, it’s going to be a green day.

South Africa New Zealand

The 2011 Tri-nations has been a damp squib for the Saffa’s, can they end it with a bang? They’ve picked good looking team, I would have stuck with Butch, but apart from that it looks well. Also great to see Bismark back. There is likely to be a nice air of desperation about the team as they go looking for their first win of the season. The All Blacks haven’t sent over a full strength squad, with Carter and McCaw in particular likely to be missed. I get the sense, rightly or wrongly that the AB’s see the Boks as easy meat, and expect lots of running rugby and tries. They’d better be careful. Without Carter, I’m backing the Boks.

South Africa: 15 Pat Lambie, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.

Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ashley Johnson, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Butch James

15 Israel Dagg, 14 Isaia Toeava, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Liam Messam, 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu (capt) 1 Tony Woodcock.

Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Jarrad Hoeata, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Cory Jane.

Wales Argentina

Wales get Byrne, Halfpenny, Adam Jones and Davies back for this match, good looking team, and interesting to see Knoyle at scrum half. Argentina are at full strength, looks like some of the guys are getting a bit long in the tooth, but it would never pay you to underestimate Argentina. Wales look to be on a roll though, so I reckon they’ll take this.

Wales: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 George North, 10 James Hook, 9 Tavis Knoyle, 8 Ryan Jones (capt), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.

Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Andy Powell, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Lloyd Williams, 21 Stephen Jones, 22 Aled Brew.

Argentina 15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Gonzalo Camacho, 10 Felipe Contepomi (c), 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.

Replacements: 16Agustin Creevy, 17 Martin Scelzo, 18 Mariano Galarza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Nicolas Sanchez, 22 Juan Imhoff.

France adopt traditional one crap half approach, looting of Chariot wheels, and Springok front row dominated by Aussies- yes they were that bad!

2011-08-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Donncha Ryan (picture from http://bit.ly/qPr6O1 )

Saturday , August 13

Wales 19 - 9 England

France 19 - 12 Ireland

Italy 31 - 24 Japan

Canada 27-7 USA

Tri-Nations

South Africa 9 - 14 Australia

Ireland France

France played to their strengths and adopted their traditional game plan – play brilliantly in one half, and crap in the other. In the first half, they were just about unstoppable, running freely and putting immense pressure on Ireland which caused loads of Irish mistakes. Vincent Clerk, the irritating little shit (albeit a talented one), scored his obligatory try against Ireland. It could have been a lot worse at half time, but Ireland hung in there, and went in only 10 points down. It didn’t look like Ireland had performed, but they had actually managed to contain France pretty well.

Then, in the second half, it was all different. Do you think Kidney and Lievremont put their heads together before the match and there were lots of nods and winks as they split the halves? Anyway, Ireland started to really run at France, and it worked, they seemed to make good ground every time they tried something. Then the class of the subs told, as O’Connell and Heaslip hit the ground running. Murray looked good too what an environment to make a debut. There were problems – the lineout was bad, it got better with O’Connell and Flannery, but we still coughed up right on their line in the last few minutes. We only have two props, Healy and Ross. Other than that, Trimble gets better each match, and Ryan must be pencilling his name onto the list with another useful performance. We’re building nicely! For France, their backline was outstanding as always and Mermoz’s departure probably contributed to a wobbly second half. The new number eight Lakafia had an awesome debut.

South Africa Australia

This is what it’s come to - Australia put the Springbok front row to the sword – yes the Boks were that bad. By kind courtesy of Sky, I only caught the 2^nd half, and it wasn’t great rugby by either side, the rain didn’t help, but the Aussies definitely looked better. For the Boks, it was 13 changes from the last offering, so they looked rusty – this was their first competitive match this year. It wasn’t an out and out disaster, I rate the Aussies, but the match was there for the Springboks to win. They have old players and some sort of game management was going to be needed, so their build up is probably sensible. Basically I don’t have very high expectations for them at the World Cup. A bit of tinkering will help – John Smit should not be on the field, and if I was Pieter, I’d bench Bakkies, Roussow, and Jean de Villiers for the next match. Next week is the All Blacks. Gulp. For the Aussies, Genia and Ioane were as sharp as ever.

Wales England

Yes, so the looting spreads to Cardiff as some chariot wheels go missing. It took a supreme effort from Martin Johnson, visibly shaking with rage, not to grab the mike off old chum Will Greenwood and shove it where the sun don’t shine so he could get busy dismembering his team in the changing room. They spurned numerous first half chances, and paid in the second half.But it’s not time to push the panic button yet – he changed 12 players from last week, and they had home advantage then. Bit worrying when your B team does better than you’re a team, but it’s a blip. He needs to tinker a bit – not sure who should be captain as Moody always seems to be injured, and his tinkering needs to remove Tindall and Hape. Apart from that the A team needs game time.

For Wales, Hook is my man! Priestland is really stepping up to the plate, Henson is gone by the looks of things, Warburton is in amazing formand Faletu played much better as well. Good times for Wales!

Sprinboks to lose at home, Ireland to win away(maybe) and Wales to go all the way this time(possibly)

2011-08-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Saturday , August 13

Wales vs England 14:30

USA vs Canada 16:00

Italy vs Japan 19:45

France vs Ireland 19:45

Tri-Nations

Saturday , August 13

South Africa vs Australia

Ireland France

France have played Ireland a big compliment by picking a strong team for their match in Bordeaux. It’s possibly not their out and out A team but these are quality players and Raphaël Lakafia is the only new cap to start. They obviously want to win this one, and while they are going to be a bit rusty, Ireland are going to have their work cut out here.

So this is Ireland, now with extra strength! The big guns are out in the front row, which are going to be needed, and Kidney has deployed his ultimate weapon of destruction at flank in the shape of Sean O'Brien. And on the bench we have Heaslip and O'Connell, so now I'm really looking forward to this match! We're probably going to hit full strength next week, but this team has an exciting look to it, I reckon Earls will shine, and lets see what Murray can do. As O'Gara is the only specialist fly half in the 22, I expect Wallace at 10 at some stage, so it'll be interesting how that works out. Hard to predict this match, but Ireland could sneak it.

Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Donncha Ryan, 5 Leo Cullen (c), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Paul O'Connell, 19 Jamie Heaslip, 20 Conor Murray, 20 Fergus McFadden, 22 Felix Jones.

France: 15 Damien Traille, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 David Marty, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Raphaël Lakafia, 7 Imanol Harinordoquy, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Romian Millo-Chluski, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Sylvain Marconnet

Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Lionel Nallet, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 David Skrela, 22 Maxime Médard, 23 Fabien Barcella.

South Africa v Australia

I was watching highlights of the Australia/Ireland match the other day from the 1991 World Cup, told from an Aussie point of view. Nick Farr-Jones – ‘They were very friendly, hospitable, couldn’t do enough for us, then when we got on the field they beat the hell out of us!’. After Ireland went ahead in the last 4 minutes through Gordon Hamilton’s try, this is what the players were thinking: Tim Horan ‘We’re on the plane, we’re going home.’ Michael Lynagh – ‘We’re going to win, we just need to stay calm’ John Eales ‘My clothes are in the washing machine at the hotel and I won’t have time to pick them up before we fly home!’

That was an awesome Wallaby side, but how is the 2011 edition going to fare on Saturday? They arrive on the back of playing exceptionally well against the All Blacks but still getting thumped. Consistency is not their byword – in the last year they were the only team to beat the All Blacks, they got beaten by England, thrashed France and lost to Samoa. Sentiment in the Republic is that the Wobblies are due for another hiding. I’m not so sure...

The Springboks to me at the moment are a lot like England were before the last World Cup. Some really talented but aging players, coaching all over the place. Is a two week break going to have transformed players like Matfield, Habana, Du Preez into world beaters again? I know we’re supposed to be getting their A team this week but South Africa just don’t look hungry enough anymore, and while their defence should still be rock solid, I don’t see them offering much in attack. Coaching wise, I couldn’t see Pieter de Villiers finding his particular coaching skills on offer in demand from any other team, at international or club level. Australia meanwhile, apart from a world class front row, have all the ingredients to make things happen, flair, beef, skill, just not the consistency. I’m going with a win for the Aussies, I don’t think the Boks are going to be able to contain their enthusiasm.

This is the Bok team:

South Africa: 15 Frans Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Butch James, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Gerhard Mostert, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Morne Steyn, 22 Gio Aplon.

Good to see Brussow back, this team is no pushover, but will they have the dynamism?

Meanwhile, Higginbotham and Sharpe have come in for Australia.

Wales England

So these are the teams, starting with Wales who are looking a lot more attacking this week. I'm a fan of Hook, good to see Priestland get another shot, and my only quibble is in the orange figure of Gavin Henson. I don't doubt he has aboility, but when in the last few years he has shown any form to justify his inclusion?

England are big and mean again, but Foden, Ashton and Flood add the flair they need. Tindall and Hape don't inspire very much in midfiled, but with Lawes champing at the bit we could see some fireworks.

So who's it going to be? If England won last week with a weaker team, this should be easier this week with a stronger team. Would love to see Wales run them close though.

Wales: 15 James Hook, 14 George North, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Gavin Henson, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Lloyd Burns, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Josh Turnbull, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Tavis Knoyle, 21 Scott Williams, 22 Aled Brew.

England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Mike Tindall (c), 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Hendre Fourie, 6 Tom Wood, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 James Haskell, 20 Danny Care, 21 Charlie Hodgson, 22 Matt Banahan.

Ireland Scotland, Wales and England all do OK and the All Blacks shine

2011-08-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday , August 6
Scotland 10 - 6 Ireland
England 23 - 19 Wales
Tri-Nations
New Zealand 30 - 14 Australia

Starting off with Ireland/Scotland, this was a match where I was expecting to concentrate on the Irish ‘performance’, to draw attention away from the fairly sizeable loss they were likely to incur. Well, never mind that, they nearly pinched a win, leading up until the last 5 minutes. Scotland were fairly near full strength, whereas Ireland only had 3 or 4 potential first choices playing. So it went pretty right for Ireland, and fairly wrong for Scotland, they beat our first team last year, and I was expecting a bit more from them. Sean Lamont was their stand out player, the only one who seemed to be able to make a break. It’s a bit harsh, but Scotland so badly need a bit of flair in their backs, a bit of incision otherwise it’s just waves of attacks with players running straight into tacklers.

Now to that Ireland ‘performance’ - stand out players were Fitzgerald, getting back to his best, Kearney who has a few rough edges but looks his back, and to my amazement, Leamy who lead from the front, give away no penalties/yellow/red/cards and did everything you’d expect from a captain and an international professional. Trimble also played well, and depth in the wings is looking good. O’Leary did OK, his all round play is good, but he needs to pick the pace up, as that suits Ireland’s game. Boss look faster and passed crisper when he came on. Ireland defended really well, that was a fantastic effort, and looked much sharper than Scotland on attack. Pity the match wasn’t 5 minutes shorter! Flannery had a good little run at the end.

All Blacks/Australia

There was a marked difference between this match and the other two, these sides were both full strength and up to speed. Speed was a big difference, the pace was breathless. And you’d have to say, the Wallabies aren’t often going to play that well and lose. They were made to look ordinary by a masterclass from the All Blacks – defend, defend, then score with the one opportunity presented. Dan Carter was godlike, from the kicking tee, kicks out of hand, line breaks, tackles turnovers, drop kicks, he was unbelievable really. All the New Zealanders were excellent, with Conrad Smith putting in another star turn.

Quade Cooper was given no space, put under huge pressure and didn’t cope too well, but he’ll be back. O’Connor and Genia played well, Higginbotham made some good runs, and Ioane was excellent as always. They need a bit more beef at lock, and look a bit short of ideas at centre. All the sides preoccupied with size at centre (England, South Africa, Australia at the moment) should have a look at Brian O’Driscoll and Conrad Smith and think about skill over size. So a loss for the Aussies, but I’d say they’ll fancy their chances against the Boks.

Finally England/Wales. Don’t much like the England black, especially at home, what’s wrong with the white? Wales looked closer to full team than England, but quite a few late minute changes, with Stephen Jones dropping out at the last minute, and Stodart leaving the field injured in the second half, they ended up a lot more experimental. England had size, size, size all over the pitch, new/returning players to look at, and some them put their hand up. Tuilagi had a good debut, Armitage looked really sharp, and Stevens put in some sterling work. Some put their hands down as well – Flutey was pretty invisible, and then probably in no danger but I didn’t see Tom Palmer do too much.

Wales defended well, and looked more incisive than England, with Williams, North and Warburton all having fantastic matches. I know England are going to get better, but they have work to do, and need to get more creativity into centre – I was thinking maybe Armitage? Fodden and Flood will get them pumping again I’m sure. Wales with a few more first choice players are going to be really hard to beat at home, next week. England Won, but it was prey well honours even performance wise.

Rugby Feast - Scotland/Ireland, England/Wales, and the All Blacks get ready to squash the Wobblies

2011-08-04T02:22:00.000-07:00

Jerry Flannery (picture from http://bit.ly/nUhiaY )

It’s typical isn’t it, you wait for ages for a decent international to come along, and then three come at once! And with seamless efficiency, as usual, they are all on nearly at the same time! The spoilsports in the Southern Hemisphere couldn’t be convinced to move their match to a later slot, just because it would’ve been in the middle of the night, or some such feeble excuse.

Tri-Nations

Saturday , August 6

New Zealand vs Australia 08:35

International Matchs

Saturday , August 6

Scotland vs Ireland 14:15

England vs Wales 14:30

Each match has it’s own appeal, and will be keenly studied as a form guide for the WC. (That’s the World Cup) (although the WC is the perfect place to study form). I’m expecting the NH teams to mix their selections up a bit, then hit full strength by the end of the month.

Patriotism means I start with...

Scotland vs Ireland

This is a perfect warm up for Ireland. Scotland are a nuggety side, seem to have Ireland’s measure recently, and are always more than up for it at home. Hopefully, we’re going to show them the respect they deserve, bring our A game, and kick our Celtic neighbour’s arses. Scotland have picked a side which has a backbone of experience, and a bit of experimentation with players like Jackson and Ansbro, and some new faces on the bench. It’d wouldn’t pay you to underestimate them I’d say (insert favourite cliché concerning kilt, claymore, or at a pinch, Braveheart ).

Scotland: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Nikki Walker, 13 Joe Ansbro, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Rory Lawson (capt), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.

Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 David Denton, 20 Greig Laidlaw, 21 Nick De Luca, 22 Jack Cuthbert.

Ireland meanwhile have a few big names in the frame for this weekend who’ve been absent for a while, with Flannery, Kearney and O’Leary all tipped to start. Apparently the plan is to give all members of the squad two and a half to three games, so there is going to be quite a bit of rotation. I’ll give an update when the team is announced.

Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Mike McCarthy, 5 Leo Cullen (capt), 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Tom Court.

Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 John Hayes, 19 Mick O'Driscoll, 20 Kevin McLaughlin, 20 Isaac Boss, 22 Felix Jones.

So Flannery is on the bench, Kearney and O'Leary are in, and McFadden and Trimble get to show their wares in the midfield, while Leamy, Ronan and McCarthy feature in a new look loose trio. It's a debut for Connachts Mike McCarthy. Good to see Felix Jones on the bench as well. That's a fresh looking team, a chance for some fringe players to stake a claim. There are not that many familiar combinations so they may take a while to get going, but we're not going to be bored anyway.

Then continue with the most competitive match...

New Zealand vs Australia

It’s number one and two in the World, both playing full strength teams, so absolutely, this is going to be a beast of a match. The Wallabies started their campaign by hammering the hapless Boks, then handing them over for a thorough milling by the All Blacks. So we know they can both beat a sub standard (or possibly any standard, but let’s not run ahead of ourselves) Springbok side, but who’s going to win when they play each other?

The Reds have been the shining light in Australian rugby this year, winning the Super Rugby Cup, and there a lot of Reds in the Aussie team, with the main two to watch out for being Quade Copper and Will Genia, in an unchanged team from their last outing. If both of them don’t end up with size 15 All Black boots all over them, I’d be very surprised. That will cut off the links to players like O’Connor, Ioane and Beale.

The All Blacks have made a few changes from last week, more dynamism in the pack, and the introduction of Piri Weepu being the main features. Man for man, I expect the Wallabies to get beaten up in the pack, the All Blacks are stronger, more agile and more street smart. There’s no point sitting on the fence is there? Now having said that, I was expecting the All Blacks to physically mash the ‘Boks’ last week, in the same way that Samoa steamrollered the Wallabies three weeks ago. And it wasn’t like that, the All Black backs had their evil way with the Springboks, but if anything it was All Blacks getting injured in the physical forward confrontations.

Mmm, still think the AB forwards will dominate. The New Zealand backs are just as exciting, and more experienced than the Wallabies.

The Aussies will be right up for this one and the All Blacks are always a bit worried about those Wobblies. However, using the Boks as a yardstick, New Zealand are going to win by 14 points, and I think that’d be a fair result, maybe a bit closer.

And finish with the match that sold out Twickers...

Manu’Rocky’ Tuilagi and Charlie Sharples , and Lewis Moody are tipped to start for England, so we could see fireworks of all sorts, in front of a huge sell out crowd. The pressure is going to be on England to come up with the goods in front of their fans.

This is the England team.

England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Matt Banahan, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Danny Care, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody (capt), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.

Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mouritz Botha, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Charlie Hodgson, 22 Charlie Sharples.

I think big is the best word tro describe them. In the back 7, Armitage and Care are likely to be the main sources of inspiration, the rest are mainly run over rather than run round players. I'd like to see Sharples get a run. Stevens makes a return as well.

I like the look of that Welsh team, would have liked to see Hook in there, but apart from that, and the fact they look a bit light in the front row, they are going to give England a very good run for their money. Looking forward to this match a lot. If I had to pick a winner - think Wales might just do it!

Wales: Rhys Priestland; George North, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams; Stephen Jones, Michael Phillips; Paul James, Huw Bennett, Craig Mitchell, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (C), Toby Faletau. Replacements: Lloyd Burns, Ryan Bevington, Luke Charteris, Ryan Jones, Tavis Knoyle, Scott Williams, Morgan Stoddart

All Blacks reveal new kit in training exercise

2011-07-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

The new jersey (picture from http://bit.ly/rijiW4 )

New Zealand 40 South Africa 7

So as a Springbok supporter, I had the electro shock therapy, I had the counselling, but unfortunately I can still remember the match on Saturday. In the context of the World Cup, this is a gamble, a strategy. South Africa have an aging stable of stars they are trying to nurse through to hit their peak in a few months time, and to do that, they’ve sacrificed the overseas leg of the 3N. At the same time, they were hoping to uncover a few diamonds in the rough, and I suppose they haven’t been entirely unsuccessful in that regard.

The best place to start is the all conquering men in black, sporting new kitI’m not entirely sure about yet. What we got was a series of running attacks, superb, offloading in the tackle, and competency in the set pieces. Dan Carter, apart from a bit of wobbly kicking, put in a superb tactical display, he seems to have that ball on a piece of string. Cory Jane always looked dangerous, and Zac Guildford popped up everywhere at the right time. Time to be picky though. Putting 5 trys on this Springbok team, is that enough? The guys have barely met, the defensive system was like a sieve, I was expecting the All Blacks to be a lot more ruthless. It was like an elaborate training exercise for them, and at least gets them primed for the real start of the 3N next weekend.

For the Boks, Lambie looked good, tackled like a Trojan, and is pushing his way up the current fly half pecking order. Mostert had a stormer of a match, i was really impressed, and Deysel was like a human wrecking ball. Going backwards are Steyn, and Smit, while playing better, wouldn’t make the starting line up of any other top 5 ranked team. Chilliboy showed a serious turn of speed there as well. This is heaping pressure on the A team back in the Republic, think they need a miracle, never mind a bit of rehab.

Tri- Nations rugby - the Springboks move to New Zealand, and the only threat they pose is in crimes against fashion

2011-07-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dan Carter - he's not a jockey or a boxer

Tri-Nations

Saturday , July 30

New Zealand vs South Africa 19:35

Now that the carcass of the Springboks performance against the Wallabies has been laid to rest, it’s time to look forward to their match against the All Blacks. I say look forward with all the keen anticipation of a trip to the dentist. And after their dire showing, what else could we expect other than for a few All Blacks to come out and say they’d have to be careful of the Springboks. Jeremy Kaino was one of them seeing them as a ‘good team’ and as a ‘threat’ and Jimmy Cowan agreed with him. Reading between the lines, there appeared to be a few things that were left unsaid. Like ‘It wasn’t their piss poor tackling that worried us, or their dodgy front row, or their wonky line outs. They seemed to drop the ball a lot so we’re not worried about their handling, and they run out of puff (and ideas) pretty quickly, so it’s not their fitness or strategy that is a problem. Really, we’re just saying what our PR guy told us to say, it’s a job you know, that’s what we get paid for , doing as we’re told.’

I can’t see much threat in this Springbok team myself, there are crimes against fashion going on in the footwear department but apart from that they are a pretty tame set of Springboks, let’s face it, an out and out B team. Their only chance to lose with a bit of dignity is to bring their trademark aggression to the party, which was totally absent last week. They are a massive bunch of feckers in the forwards, and if they do some damage at the breakdown, broken field runners like Aplon and de Jongh could make their mark.

This is the Springbok team:

South Africa: 15 Pat Lambie, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Adi Jacobs, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 4 Gerhard Mostert, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Dean Greyling.

Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Ryan Kankowski, 19 Ashley Johnson, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Wynand Olivier, 22 Odwa Ndungane.

It's good to see Lambie starting, he can easliy slot in at fly half if needed, and Jacobs and De Jongh is a much better center pairing. Stegman should have been cut, and Roussow should have been playing at lock. A new lock pairing, injury enforced, is not going to make lineouts or scrums any easier, although I like the look of Mostert.
The All Blacks are resting no 8 Kieran Reid, lock Brad Thorn, prop Owen Franks and hooker Keven Mealamu. This is their team:

New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements:16 Corey Flynn, 17 John Afoa, 18 Jarrad Hoeata, 19 Liam Messam, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Colin Slade, 22 Sonny Bill Williams.

Man for man. this team is just better than the Springboks. The loose trio is more moblie, and that will be critical at breakdowns where the Springboks are going to get massacered. It's going to be a tough day at teh office for teh Springboks on Saturday.

The Springboks in their current guise have at least one competitive fixture under their belts now and could look and play like more of a team this week. But when you’re up against it in the front row, at line outs, and your defence is not organised to the nth degree, the only outcome of this match can be an All Black victory by plenty.

The Wallabies win the first Tri Nations 2011 match, and the rise of the metrosexual Springbok

2011-07-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Juan de Jongh (Picture from http://bit.ly/oZo1T5 )

Tri-Nations

Australia 39 - 20 South Africa

As expected, the Wallabies made short work of the Springboks on Saturday. This is a sea change for the Springboks, the rise of the metrosexual Bok, with Juan De jongh boots the only bright spot in the team. The Springboks were always the bad boys of rugby, hanging on the ball when you tackled by a Bok wasn’t your first priority, hanging on to your head was your first priority. I mean listen to John Smit’s post match interview – ‘Well you have to look for the positives. We didn’t hurt anybody, the boys played nicely, we made some friends, hugged a few of the travelling fans and exchanged twitter names with a few of the nice Wallaby boys. And Juan really worked those boots – you go boy!’ .

There was none of this good sportsmanship shite in the old days (maybe only if you won). You’re the Sprinboks, you’re supposed to be out there ripping people’s heads off! This is what I was expecting to hear from John Smit – ‘That lousy New Zealand ref was against us from the start, if he ever comes to South Africa, he’s dead meat! And if I get my hands on that fecker Will Genia (although I might struggle to catch him - actually I seem to struggle to catch most people nowadays) he’s going to meet my friend paaain. Maybe I could get Gio Aplon to catch him – then he could meet Gio – then he could meet my friend paaain. I’ll tear his liver out and eat with some fave beans, and Gio, you’re from the Cape, what’s a good South African red that goes with liver?’

So what about the match? The Wallaby scrum was adequate without being outstanding, although Stephen Moore had a good match. Genia, Cooper and Ioane were in a class of their own, and should have scored more tries. South Africa were woeful, they defended like they’d only recently met, which they had I suppose, Dannie Roussow looked useful, Ashley Johnson had a decent debut, and that was it really. John Smit doesn’t look like an international player, Ruan Pienaar was off the pace, Deon Stegman was invisible and Wynand Oliver offered nothing in midfield. I was expecting at least physicality from the Boks, the Samoans showed the Ausssies struggled to deal with that, but that was sorely lacking. If they had a game plan I’d be interested to know what it was. The Springboks did well to only lose by twenty points. The Wallabies get their show on the road again, although against such poor opposition, I don’t know where that leaves them. The All Blacks are going to be the real test.

Tri Nations 2011 kicks off - 1st round of the wooden spoon battle?

2011-07-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Tri Nations Preview

State of the Nations

Australia

Up until last weekend, when the Samoans made merry with their reputation, I would have said the Wallabies were in pretty good nick, with a Reds Super 15 title in their midst, and the Waratahs also having had a decent season. What a difference a week in rugby makes (to borrow a phrase)! Again, to borrow a phrase, they completely ‘misunderestimated’ the Samoans, and overestimated their own abilities. Last week’s Wallaby offering was a cross between an 2nd team, a 3rd team , and that mangy dog that lives out of dustbins. This week, apparently, they are putting out their ‘A’ team. Prospects for winning the 3N – pretty dodgy.

New Zealand

New Zealand are always the 400 gorilla in the black corner, it’s not about beating them, but trying to lose by at little as possible. Are Australia and South Africa going to mount a serious challenge to their 3N title? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

Prospects for winning the 3N – excellent

South Africa

The Bok’s decision to send a B/C team over to Australasia effectively scuppers their chances of winning any away matches. They will have other excuses for losing their home matches.

Prospects for winning the 3N – slim to none

Australia vs South Africa

It’s old news that the Wallabies made a right bollocks of their preparation for this match by losing to Samoa. That’s one better than the Boks though, who haven’t played any warm up matches, and have no idea at present how bad they are. They face an underwhelming Australian scrum, and a backline that has world class elements in it. I wouldn’t really put Pat Mccabe in that category though, I’d rather have seen Fainga'a in there, or heresy after I dissed him last week, Giteau. Does Cooper have enough to work off him outside him? He didn’t really have his best match against the Crusaders when they put him under pressure, and he is sure to have the odd large Springbok strolling over his head.

The Bok scrum is adequate but not exciting with John Smit the only world class(ish) player, while their backline has pace to burn – Aplon, Basson and Mvovo are all seriously fast. I wouldn’t be scared to be tackled by any of them though, or rely on any of them to catch high balls. And we have Steyn and Olivier in mid field with all the creativity of a plank, so they are going to need to throw Lambie on if they can’t win it on penalties. Even then, there are no settled combinations, so it could come off swimmingly – or go horribly wrong.

Prediction

If the Wallabies don’t win this one, their World Cup chances are fecked, and Ireland are looking good in their World Cup group. But they will beat this ragtag bunch of Boks, probably by a good margin.

South Africa: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Wynand Oliver, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Ashley Johnson, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Johann Muller, 4 Flip Van Der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Dean Greyling.

Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ Van Der Linde, 18 Alistair Hargreaves, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Adrian Jacobs, 22 Patrick Lambie.

Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 James Horwill, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu.

Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga'a, 17 Pekahou Cowan, 18 Nathan Sharpe, 19 Matt Hodgson, 20 Scott Higginbotham, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Anthony Fainga'a

Sat - 23rd Jul 11 11:00 Australia vs South Africa

Sat - 30th Jul 11 08:35 New Zealand vs South Africa

Sat - 6th Aug 11 08:35 New Zealand vs Australia

Sat - 13th Aug 11 16:05 South Africa vs Australia

Sat - 20th Aug 11 16:05 South Africa vs New Zealand

Sat - 27th Aug 11 11:05 Australia vs New Zealand

Everybody loves an upset (except Australia in this instance). All bow down to Samoa!

2011-07-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Alesana Tuilagi (picture from http://bit.ly/qwwDRm )

International Match
Sunday , July 17

Australia 23 - 32 Samoa

Everybody (except the Australians in this instance) loves an upset don’t they? Samoa has a population of 230 000, and they must all still be partying right now. Imagine if they had a population the size of Australia? What can we learn from a defeat like this though? Well first of all, don’t feck with the Samoans. Actually, Wales could have tipped the Australians off there, but they obviously kept schtum. Secondly, no real news, but Australia don’t have a B team. They can just about scrape together 22 world class players, and some of them would make a world 15, but after that the cupboard is bare. Finally, Monsieur Giteau, even if he got a poor service from an out of his depth Phipps, is not a particularly good fly half, and is going to be lucky to make the team at all at this rate.

Samoa are going to have this match on DVD forever, and why not, they absolutely smashed Australia, they physically dominated them so thoroughly the Aussies must have had 15 stretchers on stand -by for the final whistle. The Samoans won every collision, every tackle was savage in intensity, they were hungrier, sharper, and played as a cohesive unit. How the Australians got it so wrong is a mystery, they turned points down several times to go for the corner, and basically showed the Samoans no respect at all. There were half baked combinations all over the pitch, and several players showed they are nowhere near international standard, Davies, Phipps and Hodgson in particular. But with Beale and Genia on the pitch, things did look a lot brighter for the Aussies so i wouldn’t write them off just yet.

For Samoa, Alesana Tuilagi and 9 Kahn Fotuali'i were outstanding, but they all were, take a bow the islanders!

Some dodgy analysis based on questionable research has the Aussies nosing it

2011-07-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

The exciting graphic above (all my own work – I know, it’s hard to believe) shows the relationship between a provincial side winning the Super10/12/14/Rugby and the county of that province going on to win the Tri- Nations. It works 70% of the time. Well it failed miserably last year, as the Boks, despite the Super final being played between two SA sides, went on to get creamed in the Tri Nations. The Boks won it in 2009, but by 2010 the AB’s and Aussies had them all figured out. Well maybe they were crap too, but the net result for the Boks was one solitary win against Australia.

So that big build up is to have a look at the theory that as the Reds won the Super Rugby final, this means the Wallabies have a 70% chance of claiming the Tri Nations in 2012. Mmm, not so sure, shows what you can do with stats. But let’s not write them off just yet, and they get their warm ups underway with a match against Samoa this weekend.

This is their team:

Australia: 15 Mark Gerrard, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu.

Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Dan Vickerman, 18 Scott Higginbotham, 19 Beau Robinson, 20 Will Genia, 21 Kurtley Beale, 22 TBC.

Not too many Reds about which is not surprising as they need to get a rest sometime. Having said that, this is a quite a light weight team IMO, I would have thought they’d be tying to get some of their top combinations going already. Phipps at 9 is a surprise, as is the sight of Vickerman on the bench – is this Help the Aged week? But I’m only a humble blogger, not the mighty Robbie Deans, so let’s see

Samoa have a good team, no doubt about it, they are normally ultra physical, a bit weak on set pieces, and deadly in broken play. I think the Aussies may need some of the cavalry on the bench to see this one home...

Samoa: 15 Paul Williams, 14 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 13 George Pisi, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 George Stowers, 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 6 Taisina Tuifu'a, 5 Daniel Leo, 4 Kane Thompson, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (c), 1 Sakaria Taulafo.

Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Census Johnston, 18 Filipo Lavea Levi, 19 Manaia Salavea, 20 Brenton Helleur, 21 Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu, 22 James So'oialo.

Sunday , July 17

Australia vs Samoa 14:00

The Currie Cup and the ITM Cup have got going. I don’t know about the ITM Cup, but the Currie Cup only tends to get exciting with about three weeks left in the season. So if I watch anything at this stage, it will be by accident.

Reds are the Super Rugby Champs

2011-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Radike Samo (picture from http://bit.ly/ny2rKZ )

One thing that really stood out for me in this Reds/Crusaders final, and that was Radike Samo’s hair. What a magnificent afro, even if he’s doubled the size of the hole in the ozone layer all on his own with hairspray. This was a worthy final after21 weeks of competition, as easily the best two sides in the competition slugged it out for the cup. Taking a step back, the ‘Saders with a home venue could easily have had a top two finish, got a weeks rest, and missed out on a 22000 km round trip. They looked tired by the end of the match, and just slightly off the pace.

But the Reds could only play what was in front of them, and did well to beat this excellent Crusader side. The Crusaders played a fairly conservative game plan, with intense pressure on the breakdown, the scrums, and were up quickly and in the face of Genia and Cooper. Cooper didn’t really have his best match, he had to resort to a lot of kicking to cope with the lack of space, and he didn’t kick very well, either to close or too far, and his far kicks weren’t well followed up. Carter was pretty quiet too, and has been for the last number of weeks, missing a few kicks that he should really have put away. He put one sublime grubber through that led to his try, but there was little of the flair he has on show, and the whole backline was pretty quiet, a bit in their shells.

It took ages for the Reds to find their rhythm, they were over eager, kicking and running at the wrong time, but when Digby Ioane finally found a bit of space, he made the most of it, running through half the Crusaders team. I blame Peter Crouch for the start of the dance celebration, but I guess Digby’s try was worthy of making a fuss over. Then it was Genia’s chance to shine, he found a little space, pinned his ears back and went for it, scoring the match winning try.

That’s the first time the Reds have won the competition, they were the form team, and played arguably the most attractive rugby. When you think great players like John Eales never got to lift the trophy, it shows you special the team of 2011 is. The Crusaders will be back, but time for the Reds to bask in some well deserved limelight.

Super Rugby

Saturday , July 9

Reds 18 - 13 Crusaders

Super Rugby Final - BRING IT ON!

2011-07-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Quade Cooper (picture from http://bit.ly/mXEBfz )

Super Rugby

Saturday , July 9

Reds vs Crusaders 10:40

Super Rugby reaches it’s climax in Brisbane on Saturday after what seems like about 30 rounds of matches. OK maybe not thirty, but about 4 or 5 too many anyway. But it’s a fitting end to what has been grueling season as the two top teams by some distance fight it out for the title. 48 000 fans turned up the last time they played, to see the Reds shade the Crusaders with a 17-16 victory.

The stand out player for the Reds this season has been Quade Cooper, who seems to be able to dip into his bag of tricks and come up with a winning play on cue. His defense is not fantastic, and his kicking could do with some work, but his attack is sublime. All around him are eager runners, cutting lines of attack that have defenders grasping at thin air. And underpinning this attacking play for the Reds is stout defense, a more than able scrum, and intense competition at the breakdown.

For the crusaders, the stand out player for me is Sonny Bill Williams, who attracts 2 or 3 defenders every time he has the ball, but still seems to evade defenders and offload at will. Fruean alongside him is one mean customer. Then there’s the rest of an oustanding backline, and a truly world class scrum that are going to look to dominate the Reds, and make the breakdown an absolute warzone. Dan Carter has looked pretty quiet recently with all the fireworks going on around you, but if you were going to put your house on someone to kick points for you then this would be your man.

This really is shaping up to be the best final ever as neither teams knows when it’s beaten and can turn defense into attack in the blink of an eye. On paper the Crusaders are stronger, and we all know what they’ve been through this season, there’s more to this than just rugby for them. But the Reds are just brimming with confidence, and at home in front of what will be surely be another record crowd, I’m going with Quade and the boys. BRING IT ON!

Super Rugby - The Reds are hot, and the Crusade continues.

2011-07-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

The Reds are hot! (picture from http://bit.ly/mqCI87 )

Brisbane was the venue for the opening clash of the semis. It’s not so long ago that the Reds where the whipping boys of the competition, fighting it out for the wooden spoon with the Lions and the Cheetahs, even the newly created Force eclipsed them. Nothing much has changed for the Lions – and just when you think things couldn’t get worse for them , they go bust. The Reds meanwhile, have blazed a trail in the opposite direction, lighting up the sky with a string of stellar performances, winning and playing eye catching rugby at the same time. They ooze confidence, and have a practically watertight defense.

The Blues never really seemed to turn up for this match, they spent most of the time looking like rabbits caught in the headlights, and one try against the general run of play was all they really had to show for themselves. I was a bit disappointed that some of the ‘names’ in the Blues ranks, Rococoko, McAllister and Rene Ranger (when he was on couldn’t spark something), while the Reds threatened to break through every time they had the ball. The Blues were outmuscled by the Reds pack as well, so the Reds are not just about flashy backs. The Reds claim their first place in a Super final, and at home as well. It was a class match, end to end stuff, and a brilliant advertisement for Super Rugby. Cooper and Genia are in a class of their own.

There was a lot for the 2nd semi to live up to then , which it didn’t in the slightest. the only similarity was that the Stormers gifted the Crusaders a try early on, just like the Blues did to the Reds. The big question was were the Crusaders going to be able to cope with all the travel, and the resounding answer was yes. Remember how I said the Stormers looked a bit iffy on the big occasion? Well, iffy doesn’t come close to describing this performance, they were absolutely smashed by the Crusaders, physically as well as mentally. The Stormers need to get themselves a decent front row in a hurry, it was men against boys for them in the scrum, and I don’t think I’ve seen a South African team so comprehensively outmuscled at the breakdown since oh, the Springboks played the All Blacks in last years Tri-Nations.

What Ireland should be learning from Super Rugby is that the South Africans possess a set of competent if not outstanding forwards, and a set of backs with zero creativity among them. It’s the Boks Ireland should be targeting for win out of their World Cup group, not Australia. The Springbok pairing of De Villiers and Fourie didn’t produce one line break between them the whole match. The Crusaders meanwhile, seemed to break through at will, Fruean and SBW were in devastating form, and their pack was absolutely world standard. They book a place in the final, in a match I really can’t wait for. The Stormers had their injuries, that must be third choice scrumhalf, Peter Grant was just back from injury, they missed Duane Vermuelen and lost Burger with a broken finger. But they are a long, long way off winning the tournament.

Saturday , July 2

Reds 30 - 13 Blues

Stormers 10 - 29 Crusaders