Rugby - Hands Off Black!

[finbar]

Yes, it looks to be purely a financial decision. And obviously the other, better clubs - Quins, etc - weren't interested in paying what he wanted. Given that he's such a talented player, I wonder how much they might have been put off by his obviously mercenary approach.

[Havak]

They would have had to consider it carefully - they need to notionally work within the salary cap. So there is no real chance of Giteau being signed up here anytime soon.

More on the baffling decision of Marshall to retire from first class rugby (aka "go to play in Wales"). Apparently Lomu told him Wales was marvelous (and everything).

[Havak]

Finbar it is a fascinating time in Politics here - have you been following any of Tony's huge and mounting problems recently?

His home secretary is under pressure after admitting over a thousand foreign nationals were released from prison into the community instead of being deported and that he has no idea where most of them are. nealry 300 of those were released after he took the post over form Devious Blunkett (who also denies blame) so no blame shifting is working. then this morning his department have admitted there are perhaps 1500 more prisoners of 'uncertain' nationality. Huh?

The Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt suffered a huge judgment failure and addressed a Unison Union conference on Tuesday saying the NHS has had it's best year yet (in a year when NHS trusts are going bust and 7000 job cuts have already been made). Yesterday she repeated this claim at the Royal College of Nurses (normally the most moderate of trade unions!) and was heckled so badly her speech was terminated early.

The deputy Prime Minister "Two fists" John Prescott has admitted knocking off one of his support staff (twenty years younger than him) but he does 'regret it' so maybe that is all right then.

And of course the Culture Secretary split from her husband recently (he was the man alledged to have dodgy dealing with Berlesconi - but she knew nothing about that naturally!) only now the media interest has waned they are alledgedly reconciling - amazing that.

Tony Blair is sticking by all these clowns - he is in real danger of throwing away what should have been a guaranteed fourth term for Labour. They have been in so long now they are getting extremely arrogant - and clearly feel they don't need to be accountable for anything or to anyone. it so much reminds me of Thatchers administration going into 1990 - and that certainly is not a good thing!

And for myself I would be angry at all this is I felt they were still the labour party - but truth be told since John Smith died Blair has turned them very much into Neo-Conservatives.

An election loss would help them as they would have to purge all these tories masking themselves under New Labour labels.

Most hilariously 'everyone's friend' and 'ordinary man in the street' David Cameron (Eton alumni) hasn't moved the Tories forward in the polls at all - the Tories have stayed static, labour are at a 19 year low, the Liberals have gained slightly and the strong right wing parties like UKIP and the BNP have gained very strongly indeed.

There is a crunch time coming in British Politics - it is all most interesting.

*edit* There is also Iraq of course. It is very much a millstone around the Governments neck. Our casualites are not on the scale of the poor Americans but deaths have reached into three figures and people are starting to ask why young men need to keep losing their lives over there.

Without editorialising too much I would like to have a little wager with you and suggest one of the two opposition parties will break ranks and stand on a 'withdraw' platform for the next General Election (and yes I do expect the mess in Iraq to last another three years). I will also wager with you that doing so will give them a signigicant electoral boost.

[Havak]

Couple of rugby related bits:

Tigers are releasing Neil Back's young pupil Will Skinner at the end of the season. I'll let you search for Pat Howard's comments on it Finbar but in a nutshell he was too much of a specialist openside (!). Some other side is going to get a good one here - it will serve Howard right if it comes back to bite.

Bad timing and not much of a thank you given Will ran a try in from (reputedly!) 65M when our Development side sealed their League win on Monday night.

The bigger news I suppose is the RFU releasing the results of it's review into our 6N campaign. A truly shocking result in the end - it appears absolutely everyone except Andy Robinson was at fault.

Attack, defence and kicking coaches all go as does the controversial Aussie performance director. Turnip stays head coach but they are bringing a Director of Elite Rugby in above him (to handle all the difficult stuff - like actually winning games I presume?).

Silly stuff that they are over optimisitc in expecting people to buy. I still say a head coach with any personal integrity should have accepted responsibility himself instead of offering up his support team as a sacrifice.

Still Francis Barron believes the changes give Robinson the best possible chance of defending the World cup next year - what planet are these RFU types actually on?

The only real positives are that John Wells and Brian Ashton are respectively favourites for the forwards and backs coaching roles .

[Havak]

And now Newcastle have released Owen Finnegan half way through his two year deal.

The coach Rob Andrew had this to say: "Owen had high expectations but the relentless nature of the league and our style of play have made it a testing season.".

make of that what you will.

[finbar]

Yes, I've been keeping an eye and ear on the ups and downs around Westminster. And I don't just mean J. Prescott's. Ups and downs, that is. We don't have TV in the house so we're never far from Radio 4. The situation is becoming almost farcical. It's the sort of wholesale rot that sets in to a dog-tired, clapped out government. The government prior to this one, for example. Of course, a half decent oppo would and should capitalise. As this current government - then in opposition - did all those years ago, riding on the coat tails of sleaze and incompetence et al. And here we are one full circle later. Irony upon irony. Only proving that nothing ever changes in politics. Except someone's - anyone's - capacity to exploit another's weakness. Which Labour managed last time, but the Tories can't this time.

I wasn't aware that D. Cameron is having a negligible impact on the public. Probably doesn't surprise me. I always thought T. Blair as shallow as a puddle. D. Cameron strikes me as as shallow as a smudge, full of buzz words and Blairesque pontificating. He's trying to rebadge the Tories for the great washed, fundamentally conservative, mendacious middle ground. Trouble is, New Labour is already there. I doubt the public are interested in another version of the same thing. It's one of the fundamental problems with two-party systems. Whomever finds and conquers the middle ground is laughing, while the oppo tries its damndest to carbon copy them. The same thing has happened in Australia.

I also noted the mass sackings by the RFU. Utterly incredible. Everybody else's fault bar Turnip. I don't know how anyone - RFU, Turnip - can keep a straight face. I can only imagine they can't afford to pay out his contract.

Sorry to hear that O. Finnegan couldn't put down his pint long enough even to contemplate thinking about the vague possibility of maybe doing some training.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Cali, you're sure? What about ravagon's house bets now?

Not a problem. It was finbars house we were betting with anyway.

More on the baffling decision of Marshall to retire from first class rugby (aka "go to play in Wales"). Apparently Lomu told him Wales was marvelous (and everything).

But how can this be? Why there's a chap in a rugby thread I sometimes post in who's always telling us just how appalling these Welsh really are ...

[Havak]

Perhaps I am guilty of sweeping generalisations on occasion.

Having visited both Neath and Swansea I would however offer you my opinion that the lad would have been better off in Wycombe with Wasps. I also meant to add a wink smiley to the quote you highlighted to indicate I was being sarcastic. For a great player like Marshall to languish in the Celtic League because big daft Jonah told him the country ‘rocks’ is something well worth lampooning?

It is a busy week – Taine Randall has announced his retirement at just 31 – taking a job in the city. And by George Wales have gone and done it – they have appointed Gareth Jenkins. Next time the ABs, Wallabies or England beat Wales expect much whining and moaning from the Wales camp. No change there then.

D. Cameron strikes me as as shallow as a smudge, full of buzz words and Blairesque pontificating.

Yes indeed – very much modelled on early Blair – all smiles and smugness. Only people are not buying that for the reason you pinged – it is too similar.

Whomever finds and conquers the middle ground is laughing, while the oppo tries its damndest to carbon copy them.

Yes – with first past the post politics elections are decided by a tiny majority of voters in the middle ground here and all the parties court them endlessly. Trouble is these are the ‘neither fish nor foul’ demographic who lack strong principles of any kind and only look out for themselves (lets call them lower middle class and NIMBYs shall we?).

It leads to Governments with huge majorities who still do nothing with them for fear of upsetting the crucial demographic. Labour should be ashamed of themselves for not doing more to unpick Thatchers ruination of the UK.

A snippet of amusement – you have to be 21 here to hold an electoral office. The Tories have fielded a 20 year old candidate for council elections in Derby. If she wins she cannot take up the post. DOH!

[LDiCesare]

Are you saying the fault for the violence was entirely Bath’s?

Obviously no. August being cited and all that. But I'm pretty sure August got eye gouged too, though I couldn't identify the hand that did it. I'm just saying they certainly started it
On the other hand I had a fine experience on monday evening. We started the game on a very hard soil, with dark dark cloud shovering nearby. We played a little, and then it started raining. And then we interrupted the game for 5 minutes to let the lightning move safely away. 5 minutes waiting for the storm to move away in a drenched shirt is unpleasant, but at the half time, we spent 5 minutes getting cold in a mud-heavy shirt, which was hardly better. 3 days later, my boots were only beginning to get dry. The real joys of rugby: Having the referee tell you he must be careful because you're getting so brown he may mistake your shirt for the other side...

[finbar]

Now, LDiC, you always have to remember that no matter how badly off you think you are, there's someone - or something - worse off than you are. Take English rugby administration.

[ravagon]

Hmmmm. I wonder if havak has suddenly become an Irish Fan?
By which I mean London Irish. Looks as though they gave his favourite team a bit of a pounding?

Down this end of the world the Crusaders managed to lose to the Stormers (who've had a shocking season) and the mighty Western Force managed to draw with the Cats just above them on the table (a game they were widely expected to win).

Dramas all around it would seem ...

[Havak]

Having the referee tell you he must be careful because you're getting so brown he may mistake your shirt for the other side...

The joys of rugger – a proper winter game of 30 blokes all looking like the swamp monster. Except some of the girlies – who stay inexplicably clean(ish).

By which I mean London Irish. Looks as though they gave his favourite team a bit of a pounding?

It truly made my weekend.

Wasps have to go to Gloucester for their last game. 4th visiting 5th in the table and only two points between them. Only the top four qualify for the mickey mouse play offs (Sale have already secured top spot in the league). Wasps, or the “champions” as the three time runners up like to call themselves, may well miss out on the play offs entirely. And if they do I won’t shed too many tears.

[finbar]

Cripes. I couldn't find the thread. Thought it had been deleted!

I was so bored on the weekend that I listened to some of the Leicester match. Then I realised life was too short for that sort of thing.

Move back to the olive farm for a couple of weeks of house- and dog-sitting later this week. Back to the plasma TV and Sky and rugby!

[ravagon]

Last weekend was actually pretty eventful down this end of the world.
The Western Force won their first game (albeit undeservingly so) but are now in trouble with the Australian whatsits over 'improper' contractual advances to one of the Warratahs players.
finbar will no doubt be less than surprised to hear that the aforementioned 'Tahs have yet again stuffed up at nearly the last hurdle and may have thrown away the top-of-the-table position and a chance at a home final.
Oh and little George is in trouble for a nasty tackle and will miss the Brumbies vs Crusaders game (this could conceivably see the Brumbies knocked out of the top 4).


... and that's the way it was ...

[Havak]

In the year the play offs were extended to the top four - Wasps finished fourth.

What a stupid system that gives the fourth place side a shot at the Championship after a 22 game league program.

The sad thing is they will probably win it now! Four times in a row and never once did they top the table. It is time we knocked this S14 copycat nonsense on the head.