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.
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Jeremy Clarkson has been crapping on about this ‘try’ ever since they bombed out in the final, and now Mark Cuerto is jumping on the bandwagon and crying in the papers again.
