Rugby - Ball's Out!

[LDiCesare]

Interesting to see how some good and successful coaches can be sacked by their players. The same happened in France to Berbizier during the '95 World Cup. The players ended up training without the coach... He still had done a good job, but human relations didn't work. He was very authoritative, too, and bent on discipline. In comparison, Laporte would have left but the French players (and the powers that be) asked him to stay.

[finbar]

Yes, it's an interesting phenomenon. And a worrying one, particularly in the case of the Brumbies where the players are clearly running the organisation. The management, announcing that Nucifora's contract wouldn't be renewed, waffled on very unconvincingly about the coach having done the job he was employed to do but that someone else was needed to take the young players to the next level. Absolute crap. The players wanted him out, and management bowed to their wishes. Everyone knows the truth but the Brumbie management made themselves a laughing stock by inventing other reasons for the decision. The Brumbies' players are player/managers of the franchise. Presumably they will only accept a new coach who accepts that the players run the show. A worrying precedent.

[Frozzy]

The thing that amazed me about the Blues v Bulls game was after all the heavy tackling (surpising for an S12 game), after all the players had left the field, Kees Meeuws and the Bulls prop were still out there discussing the intricacies of front row play. Brilliant.

[finbar]

Yes, I saw that too. Great stuff. I read somewhere that Kees started a Fine Arts course. It didn't say whether he finished it.

Stormers 21 -d- Reds 20

Another match in which both sides tried very hard to hand the win to the oppo. The Reds are an unimaginative, error-ridden team who really need to examine why, with some good talent in the team, they so often end up playing schoolboy stuff. The Stormers' work rate does them proud. They're still in the top four, and if they stay there, they'll be making up the numbers.

[LDiCesare]

Here finbar will be glad to hear that his favourite French player scored a try and played quite well in Toulouse's game against a weak Edinbourg side. Those Scots really need to invent something to get out of the hole they're sinking into.
Biarritz also made it to the half finals, so the European cup will see a French finalist, either Toulouse or Biarritz.
A nice match from Toulouse, with good performance from the pack and Heymans on his wing.

[Tamerlin]

Stade Toulousain 36 - Edinburgh Rugby 10

The Toulousains have played without Jean-Baptiste Ellissalde (half-scrum) and Frédéric Michalack (fly-half) and have alternated the good and the bad, to the point I was becoming worried until the second Toulousain try after which the machine started to roll over the Scottish players. The first twenty minutes of the first half was very good and the second twenty minutes were rather dull from the Stade Toulousain's side, Edinburgh scored a try at the worst time just before the half-time coming back to 10-7. The first twenty minutes of the second half were not good neither but the last twenty minutes saw Toulouse at its best.

A curious thing, Vincent Clerc (winger) replaced Dupuy as half-scrum and scored a typical half-scrum try.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by finbar
Yes, I saw that too. Great stuff. I read somewhere that Kees started a Fine Arts course. It didn't say whether he finished it.

A five minutes talk, at best, is largely enough to sum up the whole subject in the Southern Hemisphere.

[finbar]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Here finbar will be glad to hear that his favourite French player scored a try and played quite well in Toulouse's game against a weak Edinbourg side.

Did she ladder a stocking in the process?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
Stade Toulousain 36 - Edinburgh Rugby 10

Only 26 points? Talk about under-performing.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin


A five minutes talk, at best, is largely enough to sum up the whole subject in the Southern Hemisphere.

Yes, they were discussing the merits of NH rugby, and had to repeat themselves several times to get to five minutes.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Frozzy
... Kees Meeuws and the Bulls prop were still out there discussing the intricacies of front row play. Brilliant.

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by finbar


Only 26 points? Talk about under-performing.

Just like beating the Cats by less than 50 points should result in the firing of the coach.

Speaking of which Pretorius & co. seem to have finally sorted themselves out and beaten a jet-lagged Chiefs outfit. Gee, the Chiefs looked very tired, though.

[finbar]

I didn't see any of it, but I saw quite a bit of the Crusaders match. They looked weary too. Bloody long way over there from NZ. It was the problem the Waratahs faced - travelling from SA to NZ in the space of a week.

Tamerlin, of course, who only attends home games, knows nothing of the effects of travel on the human body.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by finbar
Tamerlin, of course, who only attends home games, knows nothing of the effects of travel on the human body.

Wrong, I used to follow the Stade Toulousain away from home and I am still travelling during the final phases to the exception of the final itself because I hate the Stade de France.

[finbar]

Yeah yeah, a likely story. Now what's this I read about your girlie winger getting into biffo with the Edinburgh physio? Didn't fancy taking on a burly Edinburgh prop so she picked on their physio?