A round up of the rugby this weekend and Bledisloe 4 – the Sequel – this one’s for the money!

Picture from http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/BqxaONj67mY/Wallabies+Captain+s+Run/ubtjjkLkXZq/David+Pocock

Bledisloe 4

Well you would have to start with the top two rugby nations taking each other on, wouldn’t you? The Bledisloe Cup is competed for every year by the All Blacks and the Wallabies, three matches would guarantee a winner every year, so what’s the fourth match about – especially when you consider that for the last few years it hasn’t even been held in Australia or New Zealand. Well as the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy sang, this one’s all about the benjamins. Product. Cash. And what better place to host it than the haven to capitalism that is Hong Kong? Well, lots of better places actually, as they’ve only managed to sell 25000 tickets.

The Cup as a competition is long gone this year as it’s 3-0 to the AB’s. Still, they are both fielding full strength teams, and they both know it’s an ideal warm up before they brave the cold of the Northern Hemisphere. No Sonny Bill Williams yet, but I’m sure the All Blacks have packed ‘The Pain®’ and their normal bag of tricks, and are going to win this by more than 7 points. The Wallabies will at least give them a decent match, they beat the Springboks on their last outing and are a rising force again, especially as their pack is back to full force. The player to watch for me is Australian flank David Pocock, a superstar in the making. He’s not really that well known this side of the pond, but he’s a really smart target to be signing in the next few years.

While we’re on the Southern Hemisphere, this weekend also sees the climax of another classic competition of the South, started back in 1889, for a cup that began life as an Lions trophy (the British and Irish type, not the toothy kind.) This year’s finalists are the Sharks, my team, and Western Province. Both sides read like a who’s who of the Springboks, lots of big strapping men, and it’s likely to be a tight , brutal match. Look out for Patrick Lambie, the young Shark fly half who could well be starring for the Boks on their end of year tour. As it’s a home match for the Sharks in Durban, I’m backing them to win against this impressively strong WP team.

Magners League

It’s nappy time for the Magners League as all the seasoned internationals – get ready for the internationals. Ulster and Munster buck the trend slightly – Ulster have their full SA contingent which means they pretty damn strong, especially in the pack, while Munster have enough depth to lose a handful of internationals and still have a more than handy team. I’m going with Munster on recent results.

Leinster vs Edinburgh This is where the nappies are going to come in handy as Leinster ‘tests the depth of the squad’ and who passes to dunno. Edinburgh – who have been up to some unusual preparation - http://www.edinburghrugby.org/content/view/3238/87/ are going to be a tough nut to crack, even at the RDS and I’m backing them for a win unfortunately

Connacht are away to Treviso, and even at full strength, I reckon Treviso are going to be too much for them.

Aviva Premiership

Gloucester vs Leicester is the pick of the bunch here, could be a bit more evenly matched with the internationals out. And I reckon Leeds are going to get their first win of the season against Wasps.

On the Telly

FRI OCT 29

Ulster v Munster, ML, BBC2, 19:05

SAT OCT 30

New Zealand v Australia, SS1, 09:30

Sharks v Western Province, CC Final, SS4, 16:30

LEINSTER v EDINBURGH, ML, RTE2, 18:05

Tri Nations Rugby - All Blacks, Springboks, Wallabies - mid term reports.

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/48187790@N05/4831234556/

With the action taking a break this weekend, it’s time to do mid terms reports, find out who hasn’t been doing their homework, and who could do better.

Australia

Record: 1 win from 3 matches, have conceded the Bledisloe cup AGAIN and look to be fighting it out with South Africa for second. Consistency – we don’t do that. But beat South Africa and looked competent and competitive in their last match.

Coach watch – Robbie Deans ‘We are building for the World Cup’. Could prove controversial when he reveals it’s for the 2015 cup. The job seems to have aged him, could look older than Graham Henry by the end of the tournament.

Star player – David Pocock by a country mile.

Style watch – New yellow jersey looks like beach wear – could be contributing to wrong mind set? Saia Faingaa is working those braids. George Smith might want to mention to him that the greatest Springbok prize in his era was not the Tri- nations or the World Cup, but one of his braids.

New Zealand

Record: 4 from 4. Have laid waste to the competition like the four horsemen of the apocalypse (who probably wore black shirts as well). Showing off in fact. Equivalent of teacher’s pet to refs. Standard seem to have dropped marginally in last match. This team could be destined for greatness.

Coach watch – Graham Henry – Smug, moderately insufferable. Has assumed the mantle of the wise man, starting to resemble Yoda. Must be sniggering at Robbie Deans.

Star player – All star performers but no one is bigger than the team – aahh.

Style Watch – Black is the new Black. Owen Franks’ short hair must be the reason he was the only AB yellow carded – the ref saw him and thought ‘Thug’. May as well get ‘Thug’ tattooed on his forehead. Close up photos have revealed this is in fact the case.

South Africa

Record: 0 from 3. Abysmal. Obviously did no home work at all on the new break down rules. Looked old and sluggish. Won it last year, from hero to zero this year. COULD DO BETTER.

Coach watch – Pieter de Villiers - ‘Conspiracy!’ ‘Favouritism!’ ‘What I meant was…’ It WAS a conspiracy – Elvis told him. Borderline psychotic rants vastly more entertaining than watching the Boks.

Star player – I’m struggling here – could have been Danie Roussow had he not failed to make contact with McCaw.

Style watch – style free zone. Mullet is the hairstyle of choice, and beards are in, making Victor Matfield look 15 years older than he actually is. The coach’s ‘tache is the only thing more ridiculous than what comes out of his mouth.

The All Blacks march on and the Aviva Stadium opens

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_herd/3028418939/

Well I hate to think what would have happened if the Wallabies hadn’t got to see the All Blacks attack plans. The New Zealanders all but wrapped up this years Tri Nations as a contest as they ran out convincing 49-28 winners over Australia. Their blitzkrieg style in the first half was just too hot to handle, scoring four tries and leaving the Wallabies grasping at shadows.

The match started with each side generously giving up a soft try, and then the All Blacks really got going when Franks was pretty unjustly sin binned. Both sides seemed to play better with 14 men. It it just me or does it seem like this Tri-Nations has been the easiest ever to pick up a yellow card? As Tana Umanga once famously remarked to a ref ‘We’re not playing tiddlywinks out here you know’

When Drew Mitchell was red carded (for dumb play which the Aussies weren't happy about http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/3979690/Drew-Mitchell-escapes-further-sanction) at the start of the second half it looked like it was going to be a massacre but the Aussies to their credit manned up and played some of their best rugby to score two tries. On this sort of form it could be a while before the AB’s ship three tries again.

Ritchie McCaw was back to his best, and Pocock chipped in a another big match, both of them, in the words of the commentators were ‘Like a seagull on a chip’ when it came to the loose ball.

What can you make of the result? The All Blacks are back to their devastating best , but they still have a few areas to work on. They fell off noticeably in the second half, is that players like Thorne, Woodcock, Mealamu and even the great Ritchie McCaw starting to show their age, great players for 50 minutes then going AWOL in the last 30 minutes?

The Wallabies have issues of their own, particularly in depth, did they have 6 debutants on the bench? And the inexperience of some their younger players showed as well, there was some very average defense shown by Brown and Genia, and you have to wonder how long Horne is going to last in the team. They really have to work on set pieces as well, their kick offs were abysmal and their line outs were all over the place. But overall I wouldn’t be too hard on the Wallabies, they had an awesome second half and their fitness might just tell next weekend.


The new Aviva Stadium

A new era in Irish Rugby kicked off at Landsdown Road in Dublin as the literally gleaming new stadium hosted an Ulster/Leinster combination taking on a Munster/Connacht selection. Note the anarchists were out in force.

The stadium was a lot more interesting than the rugby that’s for sure, as Ulster/Leinster ran out easy 68-0 winners. It was all about their backline ably marshaled by captain Luke Marshall and well assisted by wings Craig Gilroy and Andrew Boyle. Fly half Paddy Jackson kicked all his conversions including several from the touchline. The future of the eastern half of the country looks good.

The attendance was 25000, I caught the train and got in no problem, it was easy to get in and out and to get a beer or something to eat. There was good atmosphere, not dampened by the rain, although it did seem like quite a few spectators got wet, fine when you’ve paid €10 but maybe not when you’ve stumped up €75.

The first of many visits.

Boks suck again

Photo from:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7142999@N05/3585142124/

 

Look guys – I have a reasonably stressful job, my families away and the sun didn’t shine this weekend, so the least you could do is f£@*&ing try! That’s the Boks, who put in another woeful performance in a so far catastrophic Tri-Nations campaign. PDV will no doubt be having another rant about the ref, and although the Boks got murdered again, it doesn’t need the CSI to point out a few home truths:

1. They really miss Fourie du Preez

2. They really miss Fourie du Preez

3. They really miss Fourie du Preez

4. Did I mention they really miss Fourie du Preez? He’s as important to them as Dan Carter is to the All Blacks.

5. They are also missing Heinrich Brussow and Juan Smith.

6. They don’t have a plan B, so what is a deadly tactic with Fourie du Preez turns into lots of aimless kicking with everyone else.

7. Players like John Smit and Victor Matfield are showing their age and going to need to be managed carefully to last out to the next world cup.

8. I haven’t mentioned changing coach but that would help too. This is Graham Henry putting the boot in: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/3955106/I-can-t-take-de-Villiers-seriously-says-Henry

Out of this mess, Danie Roussow was immense, Pierre Spies showed a few good turns, and Jaques Fourie looked good. If I was in charge, from this team I’d swop Bekker for Matfield, Burger for Potgeiter, Kankowski for Louw, De Jong for Olivier, bring in Hougard on the wing, and drop Kirchner for Aplon.

For the Wallabies, Pocock was awesome, and Genia and Giteau are showing some of the form they are famous for. It’s all looking good for the first Bledisloe match of the year.