Rugby - Six Nations, S14, Lions, Can't Wait

[finbar]

Cripes, who'd be Robbie Deans? His team plays a mixture of absolute rubbish and excellent rugby with more of the former than the latter. There has to be a recipe somewhere. Well, there is. For starters, Will Genia provides much quicker, sharper and more accurate service than Luke Burgess. He's proved that since he came into the squad. Ryan Cross is never going to be good enough at #13. How much more effective were the Wallabies with the Genia-Cooper-Giteau combination? Genia for Burgess, Cooper to #10, Giteau to #12, Ashley-Cooper - a good player - to #13. Then it's just a matter of fixing the schoolboy handling errors, ball retention problems, and giving away of soft tries. Sigh ...

Nice, though, to see the Boks showing they can play very fine rugby without resorting to kicking. Quite a team.

[Havak]

Not a bad side for sure. King of the SH pile right now.

I see the ABs are desperate to lure Mauger back down to NZ. Understandable.

[finbar]

King of the world pile, I'd've thought, by a margin.

[Havak]

Closely followed by the 'lame' Lions, and with the caveat that France can simultaneuosly top and foot the pile depending on which way the wind is blowing at the time.

I am ever hopeful England will start climbing the hill again at some point. I hope Jonno learnt something from his captain not making the Lions squad. I doubt he did.

[Havak]

Although it is nice to see him talking common sense about blood capsules after the Dayglo helped hysteria that it was 'endemic' (still it got Larry a nice new job eh?).

The RFU does have a sense of humour then. Dean Richards (no, not that one) will referee Quins opening game against the insects.

[finbar]

Yes, the Lions would rank second, though none of their constituent parts would individually threaten the Boks. France? Well, as you say ...

A different D. Richards reffing Quins is delightful. Obviously it occurred to no one at HQ. Such ironies would be beyond them.

Also good to see Robbie Deans making some overdue changes. With Genia at #9, Giteau shouldn't be having to field passes over his head, off his toes, or from behind him. If there were some sort of miracle cure for schoolboy handling errors, the Wallabies could be in with a shout.

This morning, at the dentist, I discovered that he not only dislikes soccer - a burning-at-the-stake offence here - but played rugby at #7, still plays occasionally, and his son plays. What an educated chap! We discussed - in Italian - what a fine game it is, and he remarked that a Spanish mate of his ended up at a match at Millennium Stadium and couldn't get over how the supporters of both teams actually mingled together without either knifing or setting fire to each other. Yes, I said, that's a fundamental difference between rugby and soccer.

[Havak]

The great joy of the autumn series for England is they don't have to face the Boks Finbar. And all three sides they do face are not as good as the Boks on recent results.

A lock named Vickerman has turned up at Saints - this is the Bok U21 skipper who offended all of South Africa when he chose to be a Wallby isn't it?

Oh and Mr Latham is fit again at Worcester and their entire season rests on him given the lack of quality around him.

The season kicks off this friday (tricky game at Sale for us) and the following morning i should see the Boks wallop the Wallabies again?

[finbar]

I don't know that he was U21 Bok skipper but he was certainly one of their young stars. The family fled for safety/security reasons. The Wallabies certainly miss him. He's at Cambridge studying Economics for three years. I could think of more interesting things to do with my life for three years, like watching grass grow.

[Havak]

I am fairly certain that he did skipper them at U21.

A shame he is not studying in Leicester.

[finbar]

But you already have that promising youngster Ben Kay.

[Havak]

Ben has been a great servant of the club. But that dropped ball in the RWC final will follow him around for the rest of his life.

Blaze needs to break through this year at lock. As does my other tout Skivington at Wasps. Time both men stepped up to the senior side as there are young bucks lurking in the U20s who might leapfrog them (Lawes, Gaskell and Kitchener according to the BBC - I have seen the latter two play but Lawes is new to me).

At least the BBC website is now tipping Ben Youngs - so it's not just me who rates him.

[finbar]

Sale Sharks, Wallabies. Nice double. Pity I didn't have money on it. I was right - if the Wallabies could reduce the schoolboy handling errors and cut down on the penalties, they had to be in with a show, particularly with their backline. Even if the Boks' minds didn't seem to be completely on the job. They started out as per last week, trying to run everything. Later, they tried to resort to the kicking game. In the end, they seemed to be trying to play 7s. In fact, only three high quality last-ditch tackles saved them from real embarrassment. Will Genia made some mistakes in his first start but his service is vastly better than Luke Burgess'. That's a big loss for the Boks. They didn't respond well to the pressure.

[classical_hero]

Finally. After playing total rubbish my home town, they finally played like they can.

[Havak]

It was a dire game in attrocious conditions and Tigers got what they deserved after a bright start for being pulled into a game of aerial ping pong. No argument with the result.

Sale won't challenge for honours this season by the looks of it though - and Tigers will need to buck up massively in order to do so.

Well well well - those Wallabies pulled the rabbit out the hat. Good - we want them nice and confident for the game at HQ.

[Havak]

Do you think George Robson is very popular with the Quins management right now?