Wallabies meet The Queen
Dean “the white Mummba” Mumm is tucking into the Vodka and Oranges, and is that John O’Neill I see hiding behind her royal highness? Dare I ask what his his hands are doing??
It makes sense for the Queen to meet the enemy, it’ll give so much more meaning to the knighthoods bestowed on the captain and coach, not to mention the OBE’s for the remaining players if they do happen to win.
I’m gutted that the ARU have dropped the ARC after just one year. They have cited financial reasons for the axing, however I have my doubts. The skeptic in me feels that success of the ARC would look favourably on the Flowers administration. That combined with trying to cut costs to make Deans salary without affecting big wig bonuses…… but I’ll leave those accusations for Growden.
For those who don’t know (and that’s probably most), the Australian Rugby Championship was a competition set up last year to provide a level between the disparate state club competitions (such as Shute Shield in Sydney and Queensland Premier Rugby in Brisbane) and Super 14 (14 teams ; 4 from oz, 5 nz and 5 sa). In theory the ARC was to provide a proving ground for young players, similar to the National Provincial Competition in Enzed and the Currie Cup in Seth Efrika. Without a strong domestic competition we’ll always have young blokes jumping into the deep end of Super 14 to sink or swim, and many more never getting a chance to show their wares.
The comp was never going to make a lot of money, in fact it was well known right from the start that it was going to run at a loss in the millions. In my opinion running the comp at a loss isn’t a terrible thing, and if you look at the Moomoo (Pura) Cup you’ll see a perfect example of why this statement is true. It runs at a huge loss, yet CA realise that having a quality breeding ground for future baggy greens ensures continued domination of the top tier of cricket, which in turn brings in the big bucks. These big bucks are then invested back into the game and the cycle is complete.
The ARU seem unwilling to make a loss at any level, so after having invested heavily in the first year of competition have thrown it away, which is a tragedy. Following are a bunch of arguments for giving the comp a second year:
Well, I’m appalled. Here’s Heather Locklear.
Pommy Bashing
ARU CEO John O’Neill has come out and fired a pre-emptive strike at the Poms with
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s cricket, rugby union or rugby league, we all hate England”.
Personally I don’t think he’s gone far enough by neglecting to mention Lawn Bowls, Sailing, Netball, Soccer (especially at Upton Park), Darts, Snooker, Surfing, and how they shafted us in the war. To be fair though, they did take Rolf Harris. I can only assume that he’s attempting to galvanise public support for the Wallabies by encouraging a bit of old fashioned pammy bashing, lets hope it doesn’t have the opposite effect and stir the Poms to an upset in the quarters.
Do it for the Kingdom
Tonga are tapping into the worldwide hatred of the Poms and urging supporters from all rugby denominations to get behind the kingdom in their knockout match against the unwashed on Friday night (AEST). Here’s a few inspirational words from their captain Niki Latu.
“It’s the biggest game in our history. We have a great chance of getting into
the quarter-finals. We don’t want to be going home next week. England is a
one-off match and the losers won’t get another chance to put it right.”
“We’ve got the best team we’ve ever had and have done really well. We
haven’t got the greatest facilities or equipment in Tonga, but we’ve shown here
that you don’t always need that. This is going to be our biggest moment, for all
Tongan sporting history.”
“I know that everyone will be cheering for us, Scotland, Wales, every country … even Iraq. It’s just a massive game, we’ve got nothing to lose so we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Who’s got the biggest balls of them all?
Daniel Carter and Johnny Wilkinson are not happy with their balls, feeling that they are heavier on match day than at practice.
Both were very heavy, they shifted quite a way, right to left, which is quite unusual for me, with no wind.” whinged Wilkinson.
Perhaps the team policy of no WAG’s on tour should be relaxed to improve the respective kickers’ swagger.
What’s all that aboot?
Following up on my blog last week where I suggested that Spreadbury was a tool, this interview between John Taylor and South African Referee Craig Joubert confirms my suspicions.
Video referee, Craig Joubert, claimed his hands were tied by referee, Tony
Spreadbury.“When he consulted me he indicated he was going to disallow the try
but just wanted to check on the double movement. There was definitely a stop and
then a second attempt to get the ball over so I confirmed it.“But what about the fact that he was never held and therefore he was not tackled (which means he is perfectly entitled to go again)?” queried John Taylor
“Ah, that’s the problem. We spent hours discussing the protocol relating to the
television match official and it was decided that he should be very specific in
answering the referee’s question. I did not have the right to raise the matter
of whether or not the tackle had been completed because he had already made that
decision.”Had the try been given Canada might well have won the match and
that could well have given them third place in the group and automatic
qualification for the next World Cup under the new rules for this tournament.
Pommy Bashing
ARU CEO John O’Neill has come out and fired a pre-emptive strike at the Poms with
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s cricket, rugby union or rugby league, we all hate England”.
Personally I don’t think he’s gone far enough by neglecting to mention Lawn Bowls, Sailing, Netball, Soccer (especially at Upton Park), Darts, Snooker, Surfing, and how they shafted us in the war. To be fair though, they did take Rolf Harris. I can only assume that he’s attempting to galvanise public support for the Wallabies by encouraging a bit of old fashioned pammy bashing, lets hope it doesn’t have the opposite effect and stir the Poms to an upset in the quarters.
Do it for the Kingdom
Tonga are tapping into the worldwide hatred of the Poms and urging supporters from all rugby denominations to get behind the kingdom in their knockout match against the unwashed on Friday night (AEST). Here’s a few inspirational words from their captain Niki Latu.
“It’s the biggest game in our history. We have a great chance of getting into
the quarter-finals. We don’t want to be going home next week. England is a
one-off match and the losers won’t get another chance to put it right.”
“We’ve got the best team we’ve ever had and have done really well. We
haven’t got the greatest facilities or equipment in Tonga, but we’ve shown here
that you don’t always need that. This is going to be our biggest moment, for all
Tongan sporting history.”
“I know that everyone will be cheering for us, Scotland, Wales, every country … even Iraq. It’s just a massive game, we’ve got nothing to lose so we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Who’s got the biggest balls of them all?
Daniel Carter and Johnny Wilkinson are not happy with their balls, feeling that they are heavier on match day than at practice.
Both were very heavy, they shifted quite a way, right to left, which is quite unusual for me, with no wind.” whinged Wilkinson.
Perhaps the team policy of no WAG’s on tour should be relaxed to improve the respective kickers’ swagger.
What’s all that aboot?
Following up on my blog last week where I suggested that Spreadbury was a tool, this interview between John Taylor and South African Referee Craig Joubert confirms my suspicions.
Video referee, Craig Joubert, claimed his hands were tied by referee, Tony
Spreadbury.“When he consulted me he indicated he was going to disallow the try
but just wanted to check on the double movement. There was definitely a stop and
then a second attempt to get the ball over so I confirmed it.“But what about the fact that he was never held and therefore he was not tackled (which means he is perfectly entitled to go again)?” queried John Taylor
“Ah, that’s the problem. We spent hours discussing the protocol relating to the
television match official and it was decided that he should be very specific in
answering the referee’s question. I did not have the right to raise the matter
of whether or not the tackle had been completed because he had already made that
decision.”Had the try been given Canada might well have won the match and
that could well have given them third place in the group and automatic
qualification for the next World Cup under the new rules for this tournament.