Pain

In 1986, the All Black forward Wayne Shelford needed 20 stitches to his scrotum after an international against France in Nantes.

How do you get 20 stitches in there…?

The History of French Rugby League

Fascinating article on rugby’s politics, the banning of league in France, the NZ Cavaliers and the status of rugby in apartheid South Africa, Romanian political investment in rugby and the death of many members of the team in the revolution (1989), the Gaelic games refusing to share facilities.

Scottish Rugby

It is showing signs of improvement - they put in a good performance against a limited Romania side, but does the nation deserve a rugby team if they will not go out and support it. Tonga vs Samoa attracted 35,000 to the south of France, a fair way from the Pacific. Scotland, playing at home in the premier rugby tournament, attracted about 31,000 to their main stadium in one of their two main cities (i.e., Murrayfield), and considered it a success. Very low expectations.

England vs South Africa

Now I am/ claim to be Welsh. I always have done, I always will. I enjoy watching England get beaten by most teams at rugby especially. However, on occasions like last night's thrashing by South Africa, a part of me is depressed, and remembers that I am technically 3/4 English... I have never seen a less competent, pathetic performance by a so-called top rugby side. South Africa were good, but England were abysmal. Atrocious kicking game (especially the missed kicks, Ben Kay trying the chip over the top, Perry missing touch, Farrell's drop outs going straight to SA's strengths), lack of support for the player going down in the ruck (balls turned over all over the place), the lack of basic skills of Perry and Farrell, the anonymity of captain Corry, the lack of decent backup in the sqaud to Wilkinson and Barkley (who, let's face it, are known to be injury-prone).

England are going to struggle against a fired-up Samoa.

The problems with developing minnows by the IRB

As posted on a BBC blog.

The Pacific Nations play each other and the Junior ABs and Aus A. There used to be a Pacific Rim competition but it was not financially viable. There are proper international competitions in most geographical areas. The IRB have put in funding to the "minnows": you can see this in the performances of Portugal, US, Namibia, Georgia so far.

The problems however are threefold: (a) there is no money from TV or sponsors or advertising for these other competitions;
(b) European and Tri Nation club and Super 14 sides put pressure on their players from minor countries not to play internationals - this makes it very difficult to get the best representative side out (witness recent tours of Europe by Samoa, Fiji, etc.). Usually the one or two professionals are the ones who aren't allowed to turn out;
(c) Tri and VI Nations teams are (with some honourable exceptions) reluctant to tour minor nations: witness the Tri Nations expanding by having a third game between each team rather than invited Argentina and/or the Pacific Nations combined team.

Additionally, the Pacific nations have for a long time had their best players poached by NZ (and others) - there have bee players who have refused to play for Samoa or Tonga as they were waiting to be eligible for NZ. If they said they wanted to play for NZ they stood a better chance of a Super 14 contract. Better prospects for the players and their livelihood, but not for the nations.

Rugby World Cup on ITV

Why, oh why. The BBC would do it so much better.

Does Argentina’s result against France give Wales hope?

Right, bear with me on this one as I’m certain that this doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, but I’m being traditionally Welsh and hopelessly optimistic about RWC 2007.

Argentina have beaten France and look likely to top their group as Ireland looked poor against Namibia. Assuming that the Tri-Nations teams top their groups, then the quarter0finals would be as follows:

Australia vs England
New Zealand vs France
South Africa vs Wales
Argentina vs Scotland/Italy

The first semi-final is likely to be between Australia and New Zealand, unless the French can find top gear against the All Blacks and really shock them. Wales have a chance to surprise South Africa, the weakest of the Tri-Nations teams, which would lead to a semi-final against Argentina, who by that stage may have run out of steam. So on that reckoning, it could be a New Zealand vs Wales final in the World Cup. And in a one-off match, who knows what could happen!

OK, I’ll come back to reality soon.

In The Night Garden...

The Pontypines have to go home without their children. Again. Will somebody please call social services.

Boffin

On "The Restaurant" a couple of nights ago, the contestants had to cater for 800 employees at Rutherford. Throughout, they were described as "the boffins", etc. I really think that is getting to be a discriminatory, derogatory word. Even "geek" has a more positive connotation.

Minnows at the Rugby World Cup

What is the point of giving yellow cards out to the Portuguese for technical offences against Scotland. Surely you need to keep the game as balanced as possible - fine give out cards for violent offences and dangerous play but make every effort to keep it to 15 against 14. The Portuguese have only 2 professional players for goodness' sake - they are certainly never going to beat the Scots, but they deserve to be given every opportunity to show what they can do. Putting on 100 points against a lesser nation does no-one any god, not the wining side as they don't get anythying from a thrashing, not the minnows, not the crowd, not the TV audience.

Superb first half try by the Portuguese by the way. If Leal is not playing professionally somewhere after this WC, I'm no judge of rugby.

Argentina

After that performance (beating France in the World Cup opener), it is a disgrace that they are not in the Tri-Nations southern hemisphere tournament or the VI Nations. They are rated 5 or 6 in the world, and have now beaten France on 5 of the last 6 occasions that they have played them, but SA, NZ and Aus refuse to let them into their club. We shoudl be spreading the creed of rugby, not ring-fencing it. Samoa and Fiji and Tnga will have their best players poached by the Suepr 14 sides after the World Cup, and those players will sign contracts which make it financially non-viable to play for their countries.

Great tournament in progress, but the 8 semi-finalists will be England, Ireland, NZ, Australia, Wales, South Africa, Italy or Scotland, and 2 of France, Argentina or Ireland. That's just too predictable. It needs to be spread further.

Britain's Next Top Model

It is nor often that I get angry about trash television, as I don't watch it that much. Sam freely admits that she is, however, hooked on Britain's Next Top Model. Tonight, the final three were on a Brazilian beach when the photographer called one of the girls very overweight. She was a size 10 or 12 at most, with hardly any belly at all. Just because you couldn't see the definition of every one of her ribs. The irony of the next programme being advertised being about celebrities on yo-yo diets did not escape me. Maybe in Brazil starving yourself on the beach sells magazines, but it is the symptom of a sick society. Would Marilyn ever have got anywhere in this day and age? I somehow doubt it.