Rugby - Hands Off, Wattle!

[ravagon]

If you tell them you're a forward they'll probably make you take an IQ test.

Unless of course you're actually good in which case the paperwork will get lost somewhere and you'll be bundled into the AB reserves until you've met the residency requirements.

It was reported that the country is short of skilled people. Are you skilled? If not, stay where you are.

Moi? Skilled? Well, all things are relative I suppose ...

[finbar]

Originally posted by ravagon
If you tell them you're a forward they'll probably make you take an IQ test.

IQ Test? For a front-rower? Is there a Minus IQ test?

[Havak]

The other problem is that 'good' was never a word I really associated with my standard of play.

Off to Italy for a mini-tour tomorrow and back Wednesday. Had to mention this again just to cheer Finbar up. Valpolicella and Pino Griggio are words that have been beaten into the head of the 'old man of the tour' (he who chooses where we eat and drink)

[finbar]

All being well, we head off for Italy on May 27th, stopping in Honkers on the way for a couple of days with a friend of Mrs finbar's. We've found a property to rent for two years in S.E. Tuscany, almost on the border with Umbria. A small town called Castiglion Fiorentino, exactly half way between Arezzo and Cortona. The house is a blissful little 16th Century "townhouse", two bedrooms, with the main bedroom upstairs with a view from the window overlooking the beautiful Val di Chiana, the valley and plains where the Chiana cattle are raised. Rather looking forward to it. Just a bit.

On a lighter note, Scotland have selected an ex-L***** player from this country called McDougall. Only an average L***** player, I'm told, whose grandfather was born in Scotland. Which, apparently, makes him a rugby player. His main claim to fame is that he's one of three brothers who have played L***** here, and the second of them to serve a long suspension for testing positive to prohibited substances. I tell a lie. His younger brother didn't test positive. He did a runner when he saw the drug testers approaching. Literally. Jumped a fence and bolted. Later, when he presented himself for testing, he tested negative. But copped a suspension for doing the runner. How low have Scotland sunk?

[Havak]

Can I answer that a week on Sunday?

I think the answer is very low indeed. Their province system should start to produce results eventually but there are more tough years ahead right now.

It always cracks me up when their loose head Tom Smith gets interviewed on TV as the voice that comes out of him is pure Northampton - and he is after all English.

Brendan Laney and the Leslie brothers also had interesting accents.

Better news is that the younger Lamont brother Rory has joined his brother Sean in the Scotland side. Both are alumni of my local club (and both are truly Scottish to boot) so I am really pleased for them.

A L***** player here has just copped a two year ban for steroid use coincidentally.

As for Italy two years in that location will be rather nice I think.

[finbar]

I don't want to come back even before I go! I'm crossing my fingers that Mrs finbar's two years there will convince her not to want to come back to this sh*thole either!

[Havak]

Fingers crossed!

[LDiCesare]

Most recent news:
We won by 2 tries to nought.
I'm not talking about France-Ireland, since it's only the score at half time. I'm talking about the match I played yester'evening. We were just 15 players and had a neat total of 0 experienced props and 0 second rowers. We played with a hooker as tighthead prop (well, he's been playing prop several times now since I tend to get the hooker jersey everytime) and an ex-winger as loosehead. It's his second match as a prop and doesn't want to go back playing in the backs. That's a smart guy . We played a number 8 as lock and a center. The center behaved much better as a lock than as a back by the way. And our pack, although lightweight, managed to push back theirs a lot. That's a real pleasure, particularly when the captain (me) had seen that they were weak in mauls and said to put pressure there at half time. It paid. My throws in lineouts were abysmal in the late second half, but we're used to that too.

Back to the France-Ireland match now...

[LDiCesare]

Ireland 19 - 26 France
Very good French performance. I think the referee was very pitiful since several high tackles, including one late high tackle on Laharrague who had kicked the ball at least 5 seconds before, were not penalized. O'Connor should have been red carded imo. You don't elbow in the face a player, particularly when he's not got the ball and kicked it a long time ago.
The Irish only managed one try by O'Driscoll on a missed tackle by Michalak. I also think the ref should have made blown his whistle sometimes for the Irish tighthead popped out of the scrum a bit too often.
Anyway, the young Frnech players, Nyanga and Baby, shown great promise. Marconnet has also been excellent in my opinion. A prop who takes the better over his opponent in scrums, who tackles a flanker in the Irish in-goal getting a 5m scrum, and makes a decisive pass to Dominici leading to the last try, is a really good player.
Now we can just hope the Welsh lose one match and France can still win the tournament.

[LDiCesare]

England 39 - 7 Italy
Pretty average game for the English. They scored a lot, but that was expected against the weak Italian backline. Balshaw was good, except he missed one try where he had done all the work. He certainly was more dangerous than Robinson had been. The Italians really miss a good backline. Their best back was maybe Massi, who made so many mistakes that I can't really praise him.

[finbar]

Wonderful first half from the French, I thought, really exposing the Irish all over the paddock. Less impressive in the second half, but still a very good performance. There are some very good young French players appearing. Tamerlin's Baby had a very good debut, even if his head butt on O'Driscoll was one of the sillier things I've seen on a rugby field. I thought the ref was very ordinary, too.

Italy tried very hard and, I thought, managed to make England look average for too much of the game. Six tries is a nice haul, and they were the result of some quality backline moves, but England made very hard work of it elsewhere. I still don't see a lot of evidence of overall strategy and Noon and Barkley still don't convince me in the centres. What has Ellis done to offend the coach? Replaced yet again, and, again, with little gain.

Locally: Brumbies 22 -d- Stormers 19

Another gutsy effort from a seriously undermanned Brumbies outfit. They lost yet another backrower on the day of the game, taking the field with #s 11, 12, 14 and 15 with about six caps between them, and a bench loaded with debutants. The key to these gutsy, undermanned wins has been leadership. The likes of Larkham and Finegan are playing outstanding rugby themselves while both guiding and protecting the youngsters.

Clyde Rathbone, typically, was a Bok target. Thug centre DeWet Barry reached new lows. Warned for a high tackle, yellow-carded for a trip off the ball, he clobbered Rathbone with a high tackle off the ball that removed Rathbone from the field with a throat injury. Barry seems to have got away with it.

[finbar]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Most recent news:
We won by 2 tries to nought.
I'm not talking about France-Ireland, since it's only the score at half time. I'm talking about the match I played yester'evening. We were just 15 players and had a neat total of 0 experienced props and 0 second rowers. We played with a hooker as tighthead prop (well, he's been playing prop several times now since I tend to get the hooker jersey everytime) and an ex-winger as loosehead. It's his second match as a prop and doesn't want to go back playing in the backs. That's a smart guy . We played a number 8 as lock and a center. The center behaved much better as a lock than as a back by the way. And our pack, although lightweight, managed to push back theirs a lot. That's a real pleasure, particularly when the captain (me) had seen that they were weak in mauls and said to put pressure there at half time. It paid. My throws in lineouts were abysmal in the late second half, but we're used to that too.

Back to the France-Ireland match now...

You can't throw into a lineout? You're a candidate for the England XV!

[LDiCesare]

I threw well for about 50 minutes. That's still too much for England.
ANNOUNCE
From Murrayfield:
The Scot Rugby team is wanted on the field. The guys who stole their jerseys are already led 24-0 after 18 minutes.
Edit: 38-3 at half time for Wales. Even if the Scots find new players now they will be hard-pressed to do anything. I bet on a final score of 80-3. They need only 6 other tries...

[MOBIUS]

Nah, Wales didn't want to embarrass them any further...

Anyway I'm glad Scotland got back into the game - hopefully should make the Welsh realise they can't let up against the Irish for even one second.

It's gonna be amazing here in Cardiff next week, especially with St Pat's two days earlier! Part of me wishes Ireland were still going for the slam too - that would have really electrified the atmosphere!

[MOBIUS]

BTW, I noticed Jonny Wilkinson has injured himself again

I notice the Newcastle team sponsors are Northern Rock, should we think about changing that to Northern Crock for Jonny?

Poor guy.