Rugby - The beautiful game

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by finbar


Thanks for the summation. So you still reckon 15 points?

No worries, yeah, I think 15 is about right.

Depends who you're talking about. The remaining full-blood aborigines live mostly in settlements on their lands. Unfortunately, they're being just about destroyed by everything we brought to the country - most of all, booze. There's a larger number that has inter-married. They suffer the same problems. More so, in fact, because a lot of them have completely lost their roots. They're stranded in a sort of hellish, nightmarish limbo. Part of the problem is that, just beneath the surface, this is an incredibly racist country. (The further north you go, the more racist the average Australian) So, tragically, there's probably never going to be a solution. Eventually, the full-blood aborigines will cease to exist altogether, and, ultimately, through inter-marriage, there will be next to nothing left of them at all.

Interesting. Perhaps in the long run it will be better this way because I look at the integration of the maoris into NZ society as being pretty successful. There are no full-blooded maoris left, but there is also very little racism against maoris.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Caligastia
Interesting. Perhaps in the long run it will be better this way because I look at the integration of the maoris into NZ society as being pretty successful. There are no full-blooded maoris left, but there is also very little racism against maoris.

I suspect I would see it as an indictment of our intolerance and contempt for anything other than our own.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by finbar


I suspect I would see it as an indictment of our intolerance and contempt for anything other than our own.

I suspect you would

So...are we all in agreement with giving the Boks a 15 point start? We should start placing bets soon.

[finbar]

Yeah, let's go with 15. I suspect all the Boks' bullsh*t about the Ben Tune drugs thing is just going to motivate the Wallabies.

So start betting! If you're backing the Boks, they have to (a) lose by less than 15; (b) draw; or (c) win the match for you to collect. If you're backing the Wallabies, they have to win by 15 or more.

(In actual fact, we probably should have fractional margins - in this case, a margin of 14 1/2 - to prevent everyone getting their money back if the margin is - in this case - exactly 15. What does everyone think?)

Anyway, lay your bets, gents! I'll do all the sums just as soon as I finish this work that I was meant to have finished last Tuesday!

Anyone care to bet that Andydog will or won't bet 31.3865 gold?

[Caligastia]

14 1/2 sounds good, put me down for 20 on the Wallabies

[academia]

Well Finbar, this time i´m with your team

20 on the Wallabies!!!!

[finbar]

What a fickle mob you lot are! Sniff a couple of easy pieces of gold and your pathological hatred of the Wallabies goes out the window!

[ravagon]

No margin from Havak?

Well, my pathology runs deep (and I guessed at a 14 point margin earlier) so I'll try and give finbar his money back (Somebody has to ). 10 on the Boks.

Originally posted by finbar

Clearly, Havak would miss me more than I would miss him. After all, I have an ongoing supply of easy meat with the Kiwis.

[I wrote what I considered to be a rather amusing quip about staying in one's own league and sticking to Camelia's - then thought up several ways in which it could be used against me before I'd even finished it - hence I'm not going to include it. ]

[finbar]

Originally posted by ravagon
No margin from Havak?

Yeah, further up the page. Havak used the same parameters as he used for the first 2 games of the series and came up with a margin of 7 points. I think we all - including, I think, Havak - regard it as a bit slim.

Well, my pathology runs deep (and I guessed at a 14 point margin earlier) so I'll try and give finbar his money back (Somebody has to ). 10 on the Boks.

The margin's now 14 1/2 in order to avoid everyone getting their money back with a 15 point margin result. Okay?

[I wrote what I considered to be a rather amusing quip about staying in one's own league and sticking to Camelia's - then thought up several ways in which it could be used against me before I'd even finished it - hence I'm not going to include it. ]

Coward! Getting smashed around the lughole's part of the fun around here! I think I must've been a front-rower in a former life.

[finbar]

Tri-Nations Match #3 Betting

Okay. The margin has been set at 14 1/2. Meaning the Wallabies have to win by 15 or more; or the Boks lose by 14 or less, or draw, or win.

Bets to date are as follows:

academia 20
Caligastia 20
ravagon 10

Backing as follows:

Wallabies

academia 20
Caligastia 20

Springboks

ravagon 10

I'm still weighing up my options. My kitty is, um, skinny. I might need another tactical bet regardless of my allegiance.

[ravagon]

Re: Tri-Nations Match #3 Betting

Originally posted by finbar

I'm still weighing up my options. My kitty is, um, skinny. I might need another tactical bet regardless of my allegiance.

Better make it count.
I can just imagine the last few games with your bets reduced to single-digit quantities. Andydog would have a field day.


How about a rule allowing whomever hath the smallest pot to place his bet last? Or is it not worth the bother?

[finbar]

Re: Re: Tri-Nations Match #3 Betting

Originally posted by ravagon
Better make it count.
I can just imagine the last few games with your bets reduced to single-digit quantities. Andydog would have a field day.

The words "every dog", "has", "his" and "day" spring to mind.

How about a rule allowing whomever hath the smallest pot to place his bet last? Or is it not worth the bother?

Nah, sounds too much like the sort of stuff the Western Australian parliament would legislate.

[Havak]

we drew in Perth and lost over there.

I remember both games well – the game over there is where Giffen threw the punch that let the Boks slip through for a try. The Perth game is where it took a last minute penalty for you to square up. It was lucky the ABs were so kind to you last year or you might have been at the foot of the table thanks to the Boks?

Regardless of that I have to go 20 on the Wallabies please (yes it IS against my religion to back them but I have to pick who I think will win or what is the point?)

My specs fogged up during that paragraph. Couldn't read a word.

Was it the righteous truth of my argument steaming the very tears of agreement off your cheek? Well maybe not.

An inseparable nattering pair

Heh I like to talk rugby and you like (or have) to correct my misunderstandings a lot. Nothering in the way of nattering there.

Gee, I'm misting over ...

So you should. It’s a valid compliment to you. So often whilst over there I kept running into the ‘yellow blinkers’ brigade where any hint the Wallabies weren’t perfect could easily start a fight. I did meet some good solid rugger blokes too but they weren’t the majority on that tour. As mentioned many times the tour was too built up and attracted too many non-rugger types.

Like, for example, that a certain Pom rugby team isn't fit to don the Italian tricolour!

Of course that Pom team was sporting the pure tri-colour nearly seventy years before the Eyeties started using it – before that they used the Kingdon of Italy flag (a despoiled tri-colour) – but then you knew that right?

My outrage is ... is ... is ... indescrivibile!

Personally I’m happy to see you keep flying my club colours.

If it makes you feel better our green is a much darker green?

Incidentally as I tend to wear my club fleece (with the tri-stripes on the arm) on tour I have been mistaken for an Italian all over Europe – ironic given that unlike yourself I can’t speak a word of it.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Caligastia

Interesting. Perhaps in the long run it will be better this way because I look at the integration of the maoris into NZ society as being pretty successful. There are no full-blooded maoris left, but there is also very little racism against maoris.

An interesting point actually and this may be just the place for it too - given the popularity of RU in NZ and that the "NZ Maoris" are pretty much just the AB's minus a player or two (and sometimes not even that).
I'm pretty sure that point wouldn't be lost on any of the visiting teams they've ever played against either.

Integration through rugby. (and maybe that little haka thing too ).

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
I remember both games well – the game over there is where Giffen threw the punch that let the Boks slip through for a try.

Yeah, well. Swings and roundabouts. I'm sure Giff got more than 5 points' satisfaction out of it.

The Perth game is where it took a last minute penalty for you to square up. It was lucky the ABs were so kind to you last year or you might have been at the foot of the table thanks to the Boks?

All too true. Bloody Boks can be like mobile phones, can't they? Going off at the most inopportune times?

Regardless of that I have to go 20 on the Wallabies please (yes it IS against my religion to back them but I have to pick who I think will win or what is the point?)

Oh ye mercenary twayts, the lot of ye!

Was it the righteous truth of my argument steaming the very tears of agreement off your cheek? Well maybe not.

More p*ssing myself laughing, having the heater on ... the laws of physics taking over ... steam ... say no more, really.

Heh I like to talk rugby and you like (or have) to correct my misunderstandings a lot. Nothering in the way of nattering there.

Frankly, I reckon it's assez atroce - ought to get his Gallic blood boiling, murdering his beautiful language - that Tamerlin's slinging off at us. For crying out loud, without us the others'd be digging through the Off Topic Archives for this thread whenever they feel like the occasional post! In fact, I'm lobbying Caligastia for a change of name for this thread - Havak & finbar's Rugby - The Beautiful Game! I figured I'd let you go first. Put a bit of cheer into your life before Guernsey or Jersey top you for Commonwealth Games medals.

So you should. It’s a valid compliment to you. So often whilst over there I kept running into the ‘yellow blinkers’ brigade where any hint the Wallabies weren’t perfect could easily start a fight.

Morons. Self-delusion's up there with self-abuse as a form of exercise - initially pleasant but ultimately pointless.

Of course that Pom team was sporting the pure tri-colour nearly seventy years before the Eyeties started using it – before that they used the Kingdon of Italy flag (a despoiled tri-colour) – but then you knew that right?

First cultural appropriation, now a history lesson on cultural appropriation. Actually, you should feel honoured even to be almost associated - noting your later point about the green - with such a rich, vibrant and meaningful tricolour.

Personally I’m happy to see you keep flying my club colours.

Get the green right then run that by me again.

If it makes you feel better our green is a much darker green?

Enough said!

Incidentally as I tend to wear my club fleece (with the tri-stripes on the arm) on tour I have been mistaken for an Italian all over Europe – ironic given that unlike yourself I can’t speak a word of it.

What sh*ts me most of all is that you're about 2 hours flight away from the place! And I'm 22 hours away!

I think I might end this post here. I was doing pretty bloody well till that last bit.