Musings on Sport

Irish Coping with Pressure

2009-03-01T22:13:00.000Z

So Ireland came away with the win, just, but what else?

Well certainly not a performance, but it was a win and hopefully there are factors at play in that performance that can help going forward. For instance.
O'Gara can't play as badly again. O'Connell & O'Callaghan were good in the lineout (eventually after 2 yrs in Green without) but ineffectual out of it. Whilst Heaslip was only good instead of great, and Paddy Wallace didn't create much and Bowe & Fitzer weren't in the game. Kearney didn't do much as well, but was still a reasonable threat in the game.
Players that shone. The obvious one was the captain, who definitely looks like his old self. Scored a great try (a blindside flankers try not a centre) but Ferris was immense in the pack. He is developing into a powerful flanker who shuts opposition threats down.

Aside from the actual performance, what about Ireland's perennial inability to handle being favourites in a situation, and cracking up.

Well I believe (ney, gravely hope) that Kidney is the single change required to change the attitude in the dressing room. Both in terms of how they play, but also mentally about not being afraid of winning. He's experience of winning at the highest level in club rugby and that is important, he knows how to win games and titles. And he will inspire the team. But they have to inspire themselves.

Now as for the performance against England, I'd like to point out that the result was still a win. And that is what matters.

But lets look at the score against France again. Won by 9.
Lets look at the score against England with 2 minutes to go, winning by 8.

So Ireland are improving remarkably over previous seasons. They conceded the late try against England, but were still ahead because they entered the final minutes with a two score advantage. This single factor is what gives me hope that Ireland are learning how to win matches regularly and cope with the pressure.

New Weapon in War on Drugs

2009-02-28T12:36:00.003Z

Came across a very interesting article on the NY Times this morning, a feed that is used for news, particularly political news from the US.

Well this is a sport blog not a politics blog so you can be assured that story was sport related not political or social, as the headline could also suggest.

Well the article title is Cycling Ready to Use Blood Profiles to Fight Doping.

Blood doping has been challenging the scientific community since the early 1970's, where it was demonstrated that blood transfusion significantly improves physical performance.

There is a variety of purposes of blood doping, but the main purpose is to increase the amount of red blood cells in the blood, because red cells transfer oxygen around the body. And in particular for sport, to the muscles. This increases Increased ability to get oxygen around the body is vital in endurance sports (like cycling). Because increased red blood count increases aerobic capacity (VO2 max) and endurance.

There are many different applications of going about blood doping. One common method is to freeze your own red blood cells, and then introduce them into your blood before competition.

And the UCI (the International Cycling Union) believes that it is close to bring a case of doping against a cyclist based entirely on an "athlete’s blood profile".

The idea is to create a blood profile, or a biological passport for athletes.
The biological passport, a program long discussed by sports and antidoping officials, is designed to make it harder to hide use of performance-enhancing drugs

“The beauty with the blood passport is that you don’t need to know each and every drug that is out there because you see the indication that something is being used,” said Mr. Parisotto, who was the principal researcher in the creation of the first test for EPO used at the Olympic Games.

The key in all this is because a conventional test can detect synthetic EPO in a rider’s system for a few days. The biological passport is permanent baseline, and “the signature that the rider used EPO will stay in the blood for much, much longer, maybe 5-10 days or longer, depending on the dosage,” Mr. Ashenden said and spikes & troughs will be harder to explain away by a suspected athlete.

Ashenden is the project coordinator for an Australia-based research group, the Science and Industry Against Blood doping.

Still, Mr. Ashenden said, the biological passport is not perfect. Riders who transfuse their own blood may not be caught because the swings in their blood values are not as dramatic as they can be with EPO use.

“I do believe that the whole biological passport program is going to be the future of antidoping or one aspect in the arsenal of the future of antidoping.” said McQuaid.

The cycling union said it had taken more than 8,000 blood samples from its riders, compiling more than 800 blood profiles. Each rider has provided about 10 blood samples in unannounced situations, both in and out of competition. The riders are also subject to conventional drug testing.

Scientists involved in the analysis of the blood profiles said that three to six blood samples are necessary to form a baseline for each rider.

And then any change from this baseline could be an indicator of doping.

The key is understanding which markers in the blood are the important markers to really detect doping. Eight different blood markers, including hemoglobin, are examined.

And now the science part.
The markers are put into formulas and models that determine the statistical probabilities that an athlete is doping. Mr. Parisotto said the goal was to reach a 99.9 percent probability.

Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said that the case would most likely come down to whether the science was good enough and reliable enough to show that nothing but doping could have caused a variation in an athlete’s blood profile.

Mr. McQuaid and others at the cycling union expect to go to court to prove that their program works, and they are bracing for an expensive legal battle.

David Howman, the director general of WADA, said “We are very anxious to ensure that this is a successful project because the sooner we have a successful case, the better it will be for future cases. This will be a significant step forward in protecting clean athletes.”

I for one hope that this step forwards succeeds. I hope that sport, and in particular cycling gets clean and gets clean fast.

Six Nations; Surprises?

2009-02-08T14:53:00.003Z

Yesterday I predicted Ireland would beat France, thinking the score would be 25-18 with 3 tries scored to 2 tries. I almost almost correct. Both teams scored an extra penalty and Ireland made all three conversions.

Today I am predicting that Scotland will beat Wales.

Their provincial teams are playing well. Their players are confident. They are at home.
Whilst Wales are over confident and rarely put two six nations back to back. And opening day is often a weak game for them, like the French.

So we will see. I'm excited about the game and the rest of the tournament.

Oh this is interesting. Ryan Jones is out injured, interesting. With Henson already out that will hurt Wales in the leadership and experience divisions.
Although it is not like Scotland are not without injury problems. Murray & Hines both out. Losing Murray is huge as I would think that he is a genuine contender for Lions tighthead jersey. While Hines is always a handful (whilst he stays on the pitch).

Wasps vs Leinster

2009-01-16T13:12:00.002Z

This Leinster side looks like about as close to the best 15 I could imagine Leinster putting on the park.

If CJ is fit and starts it would be the best 22 I could ask for.

Kearney at full back, this is his perfect position. It is a much more exciting selection than Dempsey there. He needs to play 15 to have a chance at the Lions 15 jersey and he looked good for that role during the summer tour down under.

Horgan & Fitzgerald on the wings with Drico & Felipe centres. Horgan is often touch and go on form, he tends to show up for Munster games and England, but if he is on form he is devastating strike runner. Fitzgerald moved to the wing allowing Contempomi and O'Driscoll to stay at centre is great, as it is important that Fitz stays in the team. He's the top try scorer for the season, 6 but 4 of those are from the wing. Also he is much better positional awareness on the wing than D'Arcy showed in his comeback games. Isa continues to play at outhalf, he was a shining light there in the recent games, though Felipe played there against Cardiff and excelled.
These changes mean Darce & Dempsey are on the bench. As I've stated above, I prefer Fitzgerald on the wing over D'Arcy and Kearney at full back over Dempsey, so I'm glad they are on the bench and not starting. There was talk of Isa on the bench and D'Arcy starting at inside.

In the pack Leo has recovered from his broken collar bone and captains. Jennings successfully appealed his 3 week ban and starts. So it is now in the front row to see who gets in. Jackman has recovered from his injury and starts, whilst it is touch and go on CJ van de Linde. So Ollie Le Roux might start there instead, he is still a devastating prop. So not overly worried there. Props will be confirmed 1 hr before the game according to Leinster site. The rest of the pack picks itself with Leo fit and Jennings cleared.

Rocky is going to eat Danny boy all night long. And I think the rain benefits Leinster and the bigger pitch certainly does as well.

Quality of Rugby Reporting

2008-12-08T08:59:00.002Z

The bias of the BBC (and British publications in general) towards British teams is well known. But they normally show some favouritism towards Irish teams as well if they are not facing British opposition.

But this weekend I felt this was not the case and it annoyed me.

I looked at BBC Rugby for preview information on this weekends Heinekin Cup rugby games. The BBC article only mentioned Leinster team news and nothing about the Castres team apart from team sheet at the bottom of the page. So far so traditionally biased. But over on Planet Rugby their article started off with Castres team news and then Leinster team news. Before concluding as is traditional for the site with FORM Information, which did point out that Leinster were overwhelming favourites given Castres dismissal form.

Now the game itself on BBC article. Leinster fail to gain crucial bonus point. They go through basic information about the game before mentioning that Leinster are 6 pts ahead in the group before their crucial showdown with Wasps. And now you are seeing my frustration. This is an article about an Irish team against a French team but has being written for Wasps fans to update them on what has happened in relation to them.

By that stage they should have a better idea about the cost of their failure to bag a fifth point at the RDS.

Has anyone else noticed that Leinster are 6 pts ahead in the group with their own faith in their hands, bonus points are needed if games are split not if you win out. Even if they lose to Wasps they would still be favourite to win the group given the two bonus points they've already gained, one at the expense of Wasps in a 41-11 win. The first tie breaker in the Heinekin Cup is head to head record. So Wasps would need score 4 tries and win by 31 points against Leinster to overhaul that tie breaker.

Now over on Planet Rugby, their article is titled Leinster leave it too late. Yes they failed to gain the bonus point only scoring the 3rd try in the 76th minute, but the link to the article is Leinster Lash Castres.

But their article does point out that the win gives Leinster a clear advantage in progressing to the knock out rounds, as they put it, Leinster managed to put one laboured foot into the Heineken Cup knockout stages as they overcame a dogged Castres 33-3 at the RDS on Saturday.

This both doesn't bring too much attention to games outside the game being discussed. And gives props to Castres for stubborn defence. They went on to criticise Leinster for not reinforcing their earlier Tournament form when they thrashed Leinster. They proceed to give a much fuller depth article on the events of the game rather than just the scores you got on the Beeb.

There was nothing about crucial games against English clubs that they've already hammered that have little or no form in the basement of the Premiership.

Just the facts Jack, just the facts.

Also the quality of coverage on the site is far better in general. And there was text match commentary of all the games on this weekend, not just the ones contested by British clubs. So we were able to find out what was happening in Clermont yesterday afternoon.

The post match report on this has the link title of Munster come up short in France with the title inside of Clermont clobber champions, now that is some good alliteration.

Haka Time to Stop

2008-11-27T07:43:00.000Z

New Zealand Rugby should not be allowed to do the Haka on touring matches.
Sure in front of their own crowd at home they can do whatever they want. But away from home they should not be given this advantage. Away from home they should be out of their element and not have home comforts. And it is considered an advantage for them. It pumps up them up and is supposed to intimate the opposition. And whatever the response of the opposition to it, is taken a slight or insult to pump up the All Blacks, or worse still, the basis for assaults (Lions Tour 2005).

Further it annoys me to read that their players and coach are now complaining about how Wales reacted to the Haka last week [BBC article, Henry Warns England]. Because after the game whilst they were still in Cardiff and on their way to the dinner with the Welsh players the coach and senior players praised the Welsh response to the Haka. Now down in London they are warning England not to do the same because it pissed them off last week and Wales got pumped because of it. Well if it pumped the All Blacks up so much, why did it take till the second half for them to overcome a tiring Wales team that started missing tackles and not making impacts at tackles. Because in the first half especially early on, it look like it was Wales that was pumped up.

Last year when Wales made the All Blacks do the Haka in the dressing room before going out onto the pitches to defer the advantage away from the visiting team. The All Blacks complained and said they were insulted and it pumped them up for the game.

Two years ago Scotland had them to the Haka before the anthems and fireworks and everything else the Scots had planned to create a great atmosphere for the home fans. All Blacks complained and said they were insulted and it pumped them up for the game.

The consistency here is All Blacks complained and said they were insulted and it pumped them up for the game.

O'Driscoll consulted Mauri community leaders for how to response to the Haka, what was the traditional response to the War Dance. And he was told, the leader of the receiving tribe and their youngest member go out and receive the challenge in front of the rest of their tribe. Then lift up some grass to blow in the wind to accept the challenge.
We all know what happened 1 minute into the game. Afterwards, the All Blacks complained and said they were insulted and it pumped them up for the game. But not pumped up to the point that the injury inflicted on O'Driscoll was deliberate nor a spear tackle.

Last week the Welsh coach told his players what to do. He is a Kiwi and a former All Blacks head coach, so you would think he knows a thing or two about how they might response. But still the All Blacks complained and said they were insulted and it pumped them up for the game.

The Aussies normally sing Waltzing Matilda at home games and didn't even do it for the 2003 World Cup as it was felt that it was unfair to have this extra home bonus effect at the neutral World Cup. Sorry this is bull crap, they should have sung their bloody song. The outcry in the country was huge. Waltzing Matilda is known as the unofficial national anthem. But the Union didn't buckle and it was not sung.

Ireland have a different Rugby National Anthem to the countries Official National Anthem. Now the main reason for this is that the National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, is a militant song and deemed inappropriate to ask players and fans from Northern Ireland to sing and listen to. Not a popular change in Southern Ireland, where the majority of the population live. It is seen a sop to the North. But at home Ireland play both anthems, but away from Ireland they only play Ireland's Call.

So I come back to my point, I re-iterate that the Haka should not be allowed be done away from home.

Ireland v Argentina Pre Match Analysis

2008-11-21T07:59:00.002Z

I think that things are not as terrible for Ireland as some have made out.
Looking at the Argentina squad it is not their strongest team.

The team for this weekend for a start is missing their captain and creative beating heart, Felipe Contepomi.

But there are plenty of other changes in their personal that show this is not their strongest team they are forced to take the field against Ireland, and with it the chance to miss out on avoiding one of the Big Tri Nations teams in the group stages of next World Cup. And also Ireland's chances for staying in the top 8 and a place in the second pot rather than 3rd pot.

Now Argentina's team for this weekend is
Backs; Agulla, Leonelli, FM Aramburu, Avramovic, Carballo, Hernandez, Vergallo,
Forwards Roncero, Ledesma, JP Orlandi, Alvarez, Albacete, Durand, JM Fernandez Lobbe (capt), JM Leguizamon.
Replacements: Basualdo, Ayerza, Lozada, Galindo, Figuerola, Fernandez, Stortoni.

The team two weeks ago against France at the start of their European Tour shows only one unchanged player in the backs, with another 2 moving position. With only 1 change in the pack, flanker Galindo out and number 8 Leguizamon in with Lobbe moving to 8 and taking the arm band from Contepomi.

Backs; Stortoni, Leonelli, Tiesi, Contepomi, Agulla, Hernandez, Vergallo,
Forwards; Roncero, Ledesma, Orlandi, Alvarez, Albacete, Durand, Galindo, Fernandez Lobbe.

But how do these teams compare with the team that played in France last year finishing 3rd in the World Cup. Lets look at the team that started the tournament.

Backs: Ignacio Corleto; Lucas Borges, Manuel Contepomi, Felipe Contepomi, Horacio Agulla; Juan Martin Hernandez, Agustin Pichot (captain);
Forwards; Rodrigo Roncero, Mario Ledesma, Martin Scelzo, Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, Patricio Albacete, Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Lucas Ostiglia, Juan Manuel Leguizamon.
Replacements: Alberto Vernet Basualdo, Santiago Gonzalez Bonorino, Rimas Alvarez, Martin Durand, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Federico Todeschini, Hernan Senillosa.

Only Hernandez & Agulla are starting both games in the backs. None of the others were even on the bench last year. What about the forwards?
Tighthead Scelzo is replaced by Ledesma of lowly Rovigo.
Lock Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe replaced by Alvarez of Perpignan.
Flanker Ostiglia is replaced by Durand of lowly Champagnat.
Durand played on the bench last year and started the 3rd/4th place run off match.

So almost none of the exciting backs that light up the World Cup are back tomorrow, but much of the forward grunt is still there, and it is largely the pack that played last year.

So what about Ireland. Well it is largely the team that played last week with two important changes and one other slight change.

Geordon Murphy is selected at full back in a clear change of intention. Dempsey was picked to not lose last week, Murphy is picked to attack. I firmly agree with this selection, my only difference I would have I liked to see on the bench is Horgan or Dempsey on the bench ahead of Earls as they have greater experience and versatility. Also I don't think Paddy Wallace is good enough for Ireland and would prefer to see younger Sexton on the bench or Earls kept there with Kearney or Murphy viewed as back up outhalf in event of injury. Chances need to taken and a bolder squad selection would have being interesting.

Now up front, the main change is Flannery returning to start ahead of Best, spot on correct call, but it looks again like the hooker is being blamed for line out problems rather than the unit as a whole. But either way Best was poor in general and needed to go. I would have preferred to see him dropped out of the 22 entirely with Jackman brought in on the bench.

The other change to the team is Quinlan out due to a ban for stamping. Interestingly Woodcock also cited after his yellow card for a punch was cleared of additional punishment. Ireland are appealing against the ban, result on that expected today, if successful Quinlan will be on the bench this week.
So Ferris starts at 6 and I am glad to see this change as I thought there was a good shout for him last week. But I am still disappointed that Ireland are not selecting a genuine openside in their starting team. O'Connell has also passed the fitness test, I desperately hope that he is fit and not being selected half fit because he is Paulie, as he was not taken off for a long time last week when it was clear he was hobbling. Lastly change on the bench sees a genuine replacement lock brought in with O'Kelly recalled. A bit of a surprise seeing the old man brought back in rather than O'Driscoll from Munster or Caldwell from Ulster.

So I believe that if Ireland can recover their past prowess in the line out, compete at scrum and continue to impress on the ground then the exciting back line should get enough ball to overwhelm the understrength Argentina team.

Quandary of Ranking Points

2008-11-21T07:38:00.002Z

World Ranking Points are at stake in every match. The two teams World Ranking Points are compared with an artificial 3 added to the home team, then the two are plotted against each other on a graph with 5 possible results resulting in the change to the Ranking Points of the two teams.

Basically there are 3 lines on the graph with the difference between the modified ranking points along the X axis, and the change in ranking points after the game on the Y axis. With 0 on the X axis not at the intersection point of the Y axis.

The 5 results possible for the implication of Ranking Points are

Win by Home Team by Less than 15
Win by Home Team by More than 15
A Draw
Win by Away Team by Less than 15
Win by Away Team by More than 15

The 3 lines are higher ranked team wins, draw and lower ranked team wins. So lets take this weekend's game in Dublin.
Argentina are ranked 4th with 82.82 pts
Ireland are ranked 8th with 77.18 pts.

The difference in pts is 77.18 (Ireland's pts) - 82.82 (Argentina pts) + 3 (Home Advantage). So there is only a difference of 2.64. Meaning that there will not be a big difference in points depending on the result. But Ireland could still lose points if they lose the match, as reported on the BBC, they would lose 0.73 pts.
Now that is if they lose by less than 15 pts.

Because if a team wins by 15 or more points the core value is multiplied by 1.5, so Ireland would drop 1.095 pts not 0.73. I don't have the exact number of the gain if Ireland were to win, but it would be between 1 and 1.5 pts.

What is very interesting in the World Ranking Points and their implications on the World Cup groups is that if Ireland were to beat Argentina, then all the teams from 5th to 7th (England, France & Wales) have a chance to get into 4th.

Argentina are currently 4th and if they lose would lose around 1.25 pts
Argentina 4th on 82.82
England 5th 82.11
France 6th 80.13
Wales 7th 79.58

Simplest task is for England to beat South Africa. 3.34 modified difference in pts, a lot of chance to gain pts, around +1.25, putting them 4th regardless of other events, depending on their next game against New Zealand.
Now if Argentina win (and by more than 15 pts as well), England could still overtake them by winning by over 15 pts. England would overtake Argentina by around 0.2 rating pts. Because England would gain more from beating South Africa than Argentina gain by beating Ireland, especially when multiplied by 1.5 for the big win.

For Wales to get 4th place they would need to beat New Zealand and Argentina, England & France to lose. A Modified difference of 9.83 would see them pick up 2 full pts with a win, but still need the others to lose pts not gain any.

France play Australia and would need to win by more than 15 pts to get into 4th place. The modified difference between the two teams is 3.57 which would see them gain around 1.36 pts or 2 if they win by 15 in the game. So under Argentina and England's current ranking, so require both to lose for their their new 82+ ranking to be enough to be 4th. They would also require Wales to not beat New Zealand by 15 pts or else that would put them ahead of France.

Lower down the World Ranking System, there is a direct match up for the last place in the 2nd pot of teams. Ireland need a win to stay 8th (unlikely to gain 7th, require 15+ win and Wales to lose by 15+) but it is being above 9th that matters not how high unless it is top 4.

Ireland play Canada, New Zealand & Argentina in the Autumn Internationals.
Scotland play New Zealand, South Africa & Canada.

Ireland beat Canada by more than 15 pts, Lost to New Zealand by 15 pts.
If Ireland fail to beat Argentina they would drop to 9th place.
Scotland lost to New Zealand by more than 15pts, lost to South Africa by less than 15 pts and are likely to beat Canada by more than 15 pts moving them to 8th place.

So what I find odd is that since they have similar results Ireland would lose the place.

So it is an interesting weekend of rugby ahead to determine what pot the teams are in when the draw for RWC 2011 is made on December 1st. It is about time that World Rankings are being considered not just previous world cup performance. Of course, it is still being used somewhat, as there are 12 teams that will be in the 3 seeded pots not the top 12 in the World.

First Test Selection Questions

2008-11-12T18:15:00.000Z

I've just looked the Irish squad and team selection for Kidney's first proper test.
This is Ireland's 4th game in the post O'Sullivan era, but the two summer tests were not under Kidney, as he took England's queue and dodged the bullet of getting off on the wrong foot. And instead his first actual game in charge was the romp over Canada. Hardly a real test. They are a third rate power in decline. The gap between the almost haves and the have nots in rugby is huge. The gap between the haves and the almost haves is huge in itself. Look at Wales inability to step up and take any of the numerous chances it had to win against South Africa at the weekend.

Now the squad selection against Canada was reasonably promising. Plenty of youth was included. But opportunities were missed. Sexton should have being started at 10 not O'Gara. O'Gara is the guaranteed starter at stand off for Ireland and will be for the next 3 years. But we need to groom his replacement and give him game time. Paddy Wallace was selected on the bench, so if he is seen as the replacement to O'Gara than he should have started. But he is more of an inside centre than stand off. But even still 30 minutes against Canada was not enough. Now Sexton is not getting all that much experience at Leinster it is true. He is playing at 10 every other game but Contemponi is the place kicker no matter what.

It was good to see one of the younger props given a chance to start. And in Earl's Munster have unearthed a gem behind the scrum. And it was great to see him in and playing well. There was no messing around elsewhere behind the scrum with the established new order played. Which is Fitzgerald as an outside centre with O'Driscoll and Bowe and Kearney on the wings.

And in the back row, Ferris was given a chance and he took it. He is one of the few bright spots coming out of Belfast at the moment. And Jennings was finally given a chance in the Green Shirt. He is superbly talented ball player who is very strong and quick on the ground. Both took their chance and played well, with Ferris getting the accolades as Man of the Match.

Now comes the real test. New Zealand, a team that Ireland have beaten. A few close games in recent years, and a stronger left shoulder from O'Gara, a better ref (who had gone to specsavers) and Ireland might have slayed the bugbear.

So there have being a number of changes from last weeks team. Some were expected a lot were not.
Hayes was always coming back in for Buckley. Wallace was always likely to come back in for Ferris. And Earls was always going to be dropped with the decision on his replacement between Dempsey (defence) or Murphy (offence).

Dempsey was selected at full back in a clear defensive decision by Kidney. Dempsey has being playing for Leinster this season and is in form. But he is not explosive or exciting, but steady and reliable. Murphy is on fire for Leicester and it is shame that he was not selected in a more exciting and aggressive team that decided that they could beat New Zealand rather than just try to not get embarrassed. Another alternative was reverting Kearney to the full back position he occupied in the summer tour with gusto. But he is not playing there for Leinster, Dempsey is, so it is decision of the player with the jersey keeping the jersey. No reprieve for Murphy with a change of coach. He has to wonder what he must do to get back into the Irish team. He might retire internationally if he is overlooked in the Spring.

The rest of the backline was as expected with Kearney and Bowe retaining their spots on the wings. It is a decent back 3 that should pose problems to New Zealand, but likely with their boots rather than with their running.

In the centre, the blossoming partnership of Fitzgerald-O'Driscoll continues and this is one of the few exciting aspects of the Irish squad selection. But the fact is that there are few alternatives to this partnership. Trimble has fallen backwards not moved on in the last season. D'Arcy is injured still and not likely to be back this season at all. Wallace is viewed as backup to every position it seems. Horgan is a wing not a centre and I'm glad that he is not being looked at in this position. And the Kiwi's playing so well down in Limerick are not eligible because playing 7's for New Zealand excludes them for some reason. It would be exciting to see Mafi play with O'Driscoll against England never mind New Zealand.

Now the big decision in the squad was at scrum half. O'Leary is in with Reddan dropped to the bench. This is an interesting decision and not one I wholly oppose. I firmly believe the role should be between the two and Stringer who has being dropped down in Munster should not be in the mix and should not have being on the bench last week against Canada. So I hope O'Leary has a good game and gives Kidney more positive selection problems.

Now the pack, and here I've serious problems.

Rory Best brought in ahead of Flannery! What on earth is that call. If you're worried about Flannery's scrummaging then pick Jackman, because Best does nothing better than either hooker. He's marginal on whether he throws better than Jackman, but he is certainly worst at that than Flannery. He's a better scrummager than Flannery but not Jackman. And he is not better in the loose at either carrying or clearing out than either player.

As I said before, no expectations nor hope that Buckley (or longer shot Healy) ahead of either prop. And the Second Row is the best fit partnership we have. I would prefer to see Cullen starting just on form, but he broke his collar bone. O'Kelly is older and doesn't start ahead of either O'Callaghan or O'Connell.

Back row, I've another problem, but at least this unit is not too bad. Heaslip starts at 8, thoroughly agree. Wallace comes back in, again agree just on the wrong side for me. He's an blindside not an openside. Again Ireland are not picking an openside. Quinlan gets the nod, he's a talented player and I'm glad he's getting a shot he was certainly one of the players worst treated by O'Sullivan. But that doesn't grant automatic selection nor your former chief cheerleader is in the top job. Against the All Blacks, or anyone but the All Blacks in particular turnovers win matches, ball possession and retention wins matches, and a strong and quick and genuine openside wins matches. Jennings should start at 7 with Wallace at 6, Heaslip at 8. With Ferris, Quinlan and Leamy competing for the spot on the bench and impact with 20 to 30 minutes to go. An openside coming off the bench is cold and not up to speed on the ref and liable to give a penalty away at his first breakdown.

So more right than wrong in this selection. But some of the same old mistakes are being made. An Ulsterman seems to be selected for political rather than purely footballing reasons. Best is not the Best Hooker in the Country. And again there is no openside selected in the first 15. Teams with no opensides do not regularly win and retain ball on the ground, and will give up turnovers. And against an operator as crafty as McCaw that is an essential position. New Zealand have lost every match this year he has missed, and won all bar one that he has played. They have have a 95% record with him in the team in the last few years. The Tri Nations was dominated on the ground and at the breakdown. Australia played two opensides and overwhelmed the McCaw in the first game, overwhelmed South Africa and in the final game with McCaw back in and up to speed gave him a run for his money. Opensides win the ball that is needed for Out Halves to distribute and win matches.

It is not only at scrums and lineouts that ball is retained but at the breakdown.
Until Ireland learn this lesson, I do not believe Ireland can step up and compete against the top teams.

Irish Rugby At A Crossroads

2008-11-12T07:20:00.000Z

I firmly believe that Irish Rugby is at a crossroads. A new coach at a nexus of young new talent, ageing players and bitter rivalries between factions within Irish Rugby.

The new coach was the right choice. O'Sullivan had to go, he should have gone after the World Cup not wait until after the 6 Nations. He was a spent force and he had lost the players. He was in the job a long time and the message was stale. He also was too wed to his core group of players and unwilling or unable to look outside this small group. So when they underperformed there was no plan B.

At the provincial level things are going really well in the two main provinces. Things are not perfect with Ulster faltering and Connaught not pushing on. Also Leinster continue to flatter to deceive when it matters most in Europe. But this season has started well for them in Europe, but it is not in group stages but in the knockouts and getting to a final that will only end the doubters, and probably even that will not be enough winning it will be required. But last season they won the league comfortably. And down in Munster, the arrival of some powerful Kiwi backs have sparked creativeness to go with grunt and team commitment. And under Kidney they went all the way and won the tournament for 2nd time in 3 years.

So Kidney steps up to the big seat. And change is given a chance at the International Level.

However change was swept through the lower level, with Munster retaining within and appointing Aussie coach from the backroom. Rather than the IRFU moving Bradley from Galway freeing up Connaught for one of the better club coaches to step up to Provincial level. That has not happened, so we have Irish national coach, Irish coach in the bottom province and Aussie's in the other 3 provinces.

But things are looking rosy on the player side. Kearney had a great tour during the summer. Earls has come through this season very impressively down in Munster. Sexton is getting more and more game time at Leinster. Heaslip is now the regular number 8 at club and country level. Fitzgerald is being groomed as a centre and is playing well there with O'Driscoll. Ferris up in Ulster is another exciting prospect.

So there are plenty of youthful joys to look at in Irish Rugby, and perhaps things will be brighter next year and in 3 years time at the next World Cup.

Greatest Olympians - A few points for the Debate

2008-08-14T13:05:00.000+01:00

This talk of Phelps being the greatest Olympian of all time rankles me. Yes he has more gold medals than others. But he competes in a sport where it is possible to compete in multiple events. It is not possible in some sports let alone in some endurance sports.

I have long believed that Sir Steve Redgraves performances in rowing stood him apart from history as a great, if not greatest Olympian.
I do rate winning 5 golds over 20 years in 5 different Olympics as superior to winning a truck load in the pool where it is easy to double (or quad up).

Phelp's performances are more impressive than Spitz who won more from Relays than Individuals than Phelps has. But Phelps will need to come back in 2012 and win again to really join the likes of Redgrave in the pantheon of Greats.

Carl Lewis's performances are impressive. He won the Long Jump 4 times between 84 and 96 (84 is not diminished by the lack of Communists as he was the World Number 1), he also added 100m in 84 & 88 plus some relay golds and silvers in other events.
But his performances and entry into the pantheon of Greats is diminished by the fact that he had a positive test before the US Olympic Trials in 1988 but was still let go to Seoul where he was given the 100m gold after the biggest Olympic Drug Cheat story ever took the gold back from Ben Johnson.

Paul Elvstrøm won 4 golds in 4 consecutive Olympics as well in Sailing, so like Lewis 4 consecutive individual winner. Still more impressive than Phelps. As you have to compete in 10 races in a Sailing competition to win. He competed in 4 more Olympics unsuccessfully.

Al Oerter also won 4 golds in individual consecutive Olympics. He competed in the Discus and won in 56, 60, 64 & 68.

But Sir Steve's performances in winning 5 in a row in an event are superior to these 4 time winners, though theirs are individual. His winning 5 is not unique but they are consecutive. Reiner Klimke & Pál Kovács, but I'll talk about Pál Kovác below.

Reiner Klimke competed in Dressage and won 6 Golds and two Bronzes. Dr Klimke won in 64, 68, 76, 84 & 88 as part of the German Dressage team, winning a Individual Dressage Gold in 84 to go with Bronze's in 68 & 76. These were won on 3 different horses. USSR won in 72. And Germany boycotted the 1980 Olympics with the Team Dressage being won by the USSR.

Nor are these 5 different Olympic wins the best in history. Birgit Fischer & Aladár Gerevich have 6.

Birgit Fischer competed in Kayak.
She competed in 2 Olympics for East Germany and 4 for Germany. 1980 she was 18 and in 2004 she was 42. She was unable to compete in 1984 as East Germany boycotted those games. Her most dominant event was the K4-500 which she won Gold in 88, 96, 2000, 2004 & Silver in 92. 80 she won K1-500m & 92 she won K1-500m In all she won 8 golds and 4 silvers over the 24 period.

But she is not alone in winning golds in 6 different Olympics. There are two Hungarians who have achieved this feat as part of the Hungarian Sabre Team.
Aladár Gerevich & Pál Kovács are even more remarkable. Like Birgit they missed an Olympics between their events but they missed two for World War 2.
The Hungarian Team won Gold in 32, 36, 48, 52, 56 & 60 in Team Sabre event. Gerevich was in all 6, Kovács was in the last 5. Gerevich also won a Foil Team Bronze in 1952.

Pál Kovács won Sabre Individual Goal in 52 & Bronze in 48.

Aladár Gerevich also won the individual in 48, Bronze in 36 and then in 52 he took the Silver behind Kovács. In Rome in 1960 he was 50 and the Hungarian Olympic Committee thought him too old so he challenged and beat all the Hungarian team in individual members.

So Lewis, Elvstrøm & Oerter won the same event 4 games in a row. Fischer didn't win the same event 4 times in a row, there was a silver in there but then she didn't get to compete in 84. Redgrave, Kovács & Gerevic competed as parts of teams but that doesn't diminish their achievements.

Wimbledon 2008

2008-07-08T20:38:00.000+01:00

so the championships have come and gone again and everyone goes back to not caring about tennis again.

But i can tell you i loved this year's event. Its not just the shocks, the thrilling final, the weather and of course the fact that i went again.
No i actually like tennis.

I went to the first tuesday same day as last year. This year i was accompanied by my girlfriend Rachel, and my brother and sister. We arrived around quarter to 7am and were issued queue cards, #1916. Good lord, i arrived around the same time last year and got court 1 tickets. No hope this year as its 500
Show Court tickets for each of the main show courts.
So when we got in we waited in the crowd before they allowed people in through to the courts. And made our way straight through to court 3. Thankfully we got onto the court and at the back of the stand. This allowed us to stand up and look over the wall.

The stewards allowed us to keep our seats before the start of play to leave the court. So my brother and myself stepped out went to the toilet bought some hats (the sun was splitting) and some ice cream. Oh we also saw Nadal.
We came back and the girls then went for a wander.

At noon play began on the outside courts. From our vantage point at the back of court 3 we could see 6 outside courts.
First up on court 3 was Tommy HASS he was playing G Canas. It was an interesting game. Haas struggled at first losing the first set but Canas fell badly and injured his leg. Haas was able to get on top of the match. But after winning the second set and racing out to 5 love lead he allowed Canas back in before winning closing the set 6 4. Final set was fairly straight forward and Haas won though to play again.
Over the wall British #1 A Keothavang was taking on V King. Peter and Claire watched most of this game and Rachel and I listened on Radio Wimbledon to the commentary from around the grounds. King won the first set but the British player fought through and won the match.
Back on court 3 italian seed Schiavone was back on court to finish a game a set up and 4 games all. But Paszek was not interested in giving in and was the quicker starter. Especially after the italian got riled by a terrible line call and then lost the set 5 7. In the 3rd set Schiavone broke first to go 3 2 up but threw it back and the game match went on before finally being won by Schiavone 10 8.

Meanwhile back on court 2 in front of a half empty crowd the #4 seed Davydenko was completely out played as he looked out me sorts by B Becker as Benjamin won in straight sets.

We were get great views around the courts as we watched several games progress including a giant man win on court 4.

Next on court 3 was Russian Zvonareva was up against Japanese Nakomura. This was fairly dull match. With the Russian winning 1st set 6 1 but started poorly in 2nd set 0 2
Behind us former champion Lyndsay Davenport was romping home well it looked like she was until her injury held her back in 2nd set 5 4 up lost the set 5 7.
Zvonareva got back to 2 2 and didn't look like a seed against the double handed Jap off both hands and the set went to a tie breaker. Nakomura.

Myself and Rach took this opportunity to head off court. Peter and Claire had left during Schiavone's game.
They were back on court and were lucky to get back up to us.

We had been sitting there for 7 hrs and needed food and to stretch our legs.
After getting some cod and chips and wandering around we wandered over to court 6. Where Daniella Hantuchova was looking super sexy. I mean super strong. She takes way too long between points but that gives great opportunity to take photos.
She cruised to straight set win.

At this point it was getting close to 9 and was a little chilly so we called Peter and Claire off court 2 to head home. They were watching young Briton Eaton through 2 sets of his straight sets win. They weren't too impressed about about leaving the game. But it was getting late.

So we'd a great day out. This has taken quite a while to write on my phone so thats all i'm going to write.

England Cricket agrees to Twenty20 bonaza match

2008-06-11T14:40:00.000+01:00

This should have an impact on holding off an exodus of England players to the cash rich Indian Premier League

read more | digg story

This deal has been long in the offing, and it is a huge amount of money available.
On top of the Twenty20 Champions league, the world game is seriously moving towards Twenty20.

Rugby Let Downs

2008-06-11T06:51:00.000+01:00

I got up early last weekend to watch Ireland play New Zealand.
The Kiwi team contained several uncapped players, looked raw in a few positions and the Irish team was settled, the players must have been in high spirits with nearly all of them having just won something for their clubs.

I was disappointed before the game that Fitzer got injured and wouldn't start in the centre with Drico but not as disappointed with the team selection, which showed no signs of change from the bad old days of its a forward pick someone anyone from Munster.
Yes they just won the Heino and that was a brilliant achievement, but that doesn't or at least shouldn't be enough to write a blank cheque to auto choice for national side.

Why was Rory Best on the tour instead of Jackman? Yes start Flannery but why Best as replacement?
Why was Mick O'Driscoll the replacement lock? He is bench for Munster, so why was he ahead of either of Leinter's locks, or Casey from Irish? Leinster had the best lineout in the Magners, and Leinster took Munster apart up front in their two games, Casey was the best lineout operator in English premiership last 2 seasons. I think it should have been O'Connell and Cullen starting with O'Callaghan on the bench.
Why was there no openside in the starting team again? Modern professional teams (except Munster and apparently Ireland) use an openside to win ball. The modern game is more dynamic and crafty ground operators win turnovers which win games. It is good that Ireland have finally started picking a genuine number 8 at number 8, and Heaslip is brilliant, but the talk is that if Quinlan wasn't injured it would have been a Munster 8 in the pack.
Ireland have decided to play 3 blindsides for years instead of a balanced backrow.
I've no complaints with the selections in the back field, I was glad that Kearney was starting at fullback, Dempsey offers great cover, and with Fitzgerald injured I was relieved that Wallace was picked at inside instead of the continuation of a failed policy of playing Horgan there.

Okay so the game.

Why if you keep losing lineouts in shit conditions, why do you keep throwing to the back?
O'Connell is supposed to be a leader, Flannery is supposed to throw well and Horan and Hayes are supposed to lift well, so why did this Munster to Munster lineout keep failing?
If your lineout is creaking you go back to basics, throw to first receiver guarantee position, forget the fancy setup stuff. (Ireland did this after conceding the try and won all lineouts in the last 10 minutes, all to O'Callaghan, Best is not the best thrower but its not too hard to throw 7 foot).

Why did it take so long to make changes, changes should have been made earlier.
Jennings needed to come on, but when he did, why was it for Heaslip? That really pissed me off, they kept the Munster boys on there and just took off the token Leinster player to replace him with another.

Stuart Barnes stated that New Zealand won the game due to dynamic performances at the breakdown. So I wonder which position gives you that, not any position that O'Sullivan, Bradley or Kidney have ever heard of. OPENSIDE

The game was there for the taking, despite our inefficiencies in creating space out wide. Despite our inability to win our own lineout, despite our inability to have solid scrum position, despite our inability to contest the ground.

It was there to be won, and we let it slip.

So where next, 2 changes made for Australia game.

Stringer in for Reddan? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT about?
Stringer is washed up, even Kidney knows that and he was dropped by Munster for O'Leary. So why is he now in ahead of Reddan, who is a far far superior player.

Best in for Flannery? Why? How does this improve our team, Best is not the best line out player, and I don't blame Flannery for the line out failures in Wellington, I blame O'Connell.

Wait 2 changes, and thats them there?
Jennings in for Leamy (Wallace out played him completely), surely. No. Nothing changes just the managers name it seems.

A New Time in Irish Rugby

2008-03-20T11:51:00.001Z

Firstly I think it should be said that Eddie O'Sullivan was Ireland's most successful coach. He had a great time and for much of that time he had very limited resources as there was not a lot of depth to the team.

True we didn't win any Championship's or Grand Slams, but 3 Triple Crowns and we got up to 2nd or 3rd in the World Rankings. Beat South Africa and Australia, and ran New Zealand close down in New Zealand.

But the fact is we didn't win any Championship. We still haven't beaten New Zealand, and we didn't beat Australia or South Africa in the Southern Hemisphere.

He has been in charge of Ireland since 2001, and it was a great time in Irish rugby.
We were made to think we were great, and the fact of the matter we had a great team.
We still have the makings of a great team but we needed to move on and get new players in and a change of attitude in the coaching setup to allow change.

There is a lot of work required for any new coach. New players are needed, new structures and set up with backs and forwards coaching needing overhaul. But the divisions between players from Munster and the rest of the team need solving straight away. But also no player is above the team, including Brian O'Driscoll and if he is not playing well he should be dropped as well.
A new captain is needed, clearly, we lack leadership on the pitch, and O'Gara seems a natural choice. Earns his place on performance not just reputation, and has leadership experience from province. But he failed to step up against England, but well so did just about everyone else.
The one thing that has to be done, is depth needs to be built and youth given a change.

O'Sullivan was always hesitant about using his bench, which was completely out of step with the modern game. He has his grudges against some players, and definitely had a basis to Munster. But that is not unusual in Irish Rugby. Ulster are the poor man's cousin, Connaught doesn't even exist in people's eyes, oversea's players out of sight, out of mind, and well lady boys only for lady boy positions on the pitch.

This year Leinster are the dominant pack in Irish rugby, if not Celtic League rugby.
Leo Cullen has been immense in the middle of this pack, but completely overlooked by Ireland. So are Ireland's back row ground operators. Gleeson must have done something to O'Sullivan to be overlooked for this long (but he is now 31 and retiring anyway, so an old problem). Lets look forward, and well Jennings was overlooked whilst he was in England playing for Leicester, he was regarded last season as the best backrow in the English Premiership. He is now back in Ireland to try and get picked, but still can't get in. Because bench Munster players will be picked over first team players from other provinces or from aboard.

O'Sullivan went into the 6 Nations picking a team that looked remarkedly like the team that failed in France. His golden 15. Only 1 change that was not forced on him. Eoin Reddan (Wasps) finally picked over Stringer (Munster) at scrum half. And he was brilliant.
The other changes made in the backs, were not by design but because of a series of injuries. The failed experiment of Trimble (Ulster) on the wing ended with D'Arcy (Leinster) injured. This allowed him to play in the centre where he belongs. And allowed Kearney (Leinster) to break into the team, and boy did he excel. But Horgan (Leinster) was recalled over Bowe (Ulster) or Fitzgerald (Leinster) initially for the bench, despite his lack of game time or fitness, because he was of the golden 15.
But then Murphy (Leicester) was dropped, and rightly so because on the wing he was muck. O'Sullivan kept pissing on him so when he did play he felt he had something to prove and on the wing this led to disaster. This allowed Bowe to come in, and the backline was looking like it should have looked at the start of the 6 Nations on form.

Moving forward, Ireland's back situation looks quite good if they can find confidence.
O'Gara (Munster) is our only outhalf currently. Paddy Wallace (Ulster) is not up to the task, we have to wait for Sexton (Leinster) to get more game time and develop into the player he looks like he will.
But more importantly we need either O'Driscoll (Leinster) or D'Arcy to be fit to play alongside Trimble. But they also need to be in form and have confidence.
A back 3 of Bowe, Fitzgerald and Kearney is young, exciting and full of gas.

Now the pack is a completely different matter. Yes there will always be a core of the pack that will be from Munster. But they don't own those jersey's and should be as dropable as anyone else. O'Connell (Munster) was put back into the 2nd row for the Wales match with almost no game time, and he was anonymous throughout the game, but kept his place against England. This was reputation picking not form or fitness.
But change was made, with Heaslip (Leinster) great form for his province finally been rewarded with a tilt for the national side, and this allowed Leamy (Munster) to stop pretending to be a 8 and get back to what he is very good at, 6. But I don't think both him and Wallace (Munster) deserve to start for Ireland just because of past games and being from Munster. What about Jennings, Gleeson, nevermind Hogan and Keogh both Leinster now, both under 25 but both former Munster boys who left the province to try and get game time behind the mythical boys.

Buckley (Munster) and Healy (Leinster) are both young props and well both look decent and Ireland, don't have many props traditionally so getting these guys up to speed is essential.
Hogan can play 2nd row or backrow, so not a bad bench player in transition.
Or what about dropping Leamy or Wallace to the bench as an impact sub after 60 minutes to allow Jennings to get into the team and start doing what every time needs, winning ball.
The backs are already moving in the right direction, but more progress is required by the team as whole.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Ireland vs Wales

2008-03-06T15:32:00.001Z

Beeb article on Irish team for Wales game.

I would have liked to see Fitzgerald start instead of Horgan.
Horgan hasn't played a lot of rugby in the last 8 months. He was reasonable at the weekend for Leinster away to Connaught and got the winning try. But last month (admittedly as centre) he was very rusty against England A.

And I am really disappointed to see Jackman dropped in favour of Best, our weakest line out thrower, so how is he going to improve it there?

O'Sullivan said Jackman's relegation to the bench followed a "ropey" start against Scotland that had put the home side on the back foot for a lot of the first half.
"I don't want to go into the game and risk that again," said the Ireland coach.

But then again, Jackman plays for Leinster and well he's a forward from Leinster, so you're cut.

Given that we need to win possession against Wales, doesn't mean drop your most in form hooker. Sure there were problems at the line out, but well concentrate on winning ball elsewhere. Like the scrummaging, where Jackman had a huge contribution to that facet of the game. And with Paul O'Connell coming into the team, you would expect the lineout to improve anyway.

But if you want to win ball, then pick a fucking openside. What the fuck are we still doing without a real openside.

So its funny old game, but 6 of the 8 in the pack and 8 of the 12 forwards in the 22 are from Munster. Leinster have been the dominant pack in Irish rugby this year. And yes much of our scrummaging comes from 2 foreign props. But there are 4 young Irish forwards in that pack including Heaslip.
Keogh and Hogan come from Munster, so maybe they could be picked, no chance.
Jennings, voted the best number 7 last year in the Guinness Premiership, maybe could be picked, no chance.

And Leinster are using two opensides and a real number 8, and that is why they have been winning ball. They are not still in the Heinekin Cup because their backs (just like Irelands) were misfiring, and they had a savagely tough group. Munster's group was no where near as tough as Leinsters.

Anyway. I am at the game this weekend. I am sitting in the Canal End, courtesy of getting a ticket from Donogh.

I am really looking to watching Rugby at Croke Park, it will be my first time at Croke Park since I was in school, and certainly the first time since it was done up.

I think the Welsh revival is a sham.

Wales didn't beat England, England lost, they imploded in on themselves and didn't have the leadership on the pitch to shut the game out. Vickery displayed actual leadership in the French game stayed on the pitch for 80 minutes and with the ball with 5 minutes left the forwards just put it up their jump and rumbled over from 60 yards.

The Welsh half backs weren't anything special whilst they were on the back foot against England, and certainly didn't change that game on their own. If we force their pack backwards, their backs have no gain line ball and won't win the game on their own. Williams is a flat track bully, good at beating wide open sides but useless when it really matters. What did he do in the World Cup, and how bad was he on the Lion's Tour?

I think our Tight Five can rip them a new one, and give our (now in form) backs the ball to clinically kill off the Welsh hope. We have not been beaten in Dublin by Wales since Gatland was Irish coach.

Next step for Ireland Rugby

2008-02-11T11:37:00.000Z

I would not be surprised if there were no changes to the Irish 15 for the next game against Scotland at the end of the month.

I would also not be too upset either, the team are coming together better but importantly there were changes made before the last game based on form and they were good changes.

I don't think Jackman should be scapegoated for the line out. It looked like his throwing was reasonable, but that the jumpers were at fault. The French jumpers looked strong. The change in momentum in the lineout came first at changes to the French personal then then with Mal coming off. We were winning ball out of touch long before Best came on. When he did come on, we had already started to turn the screw in all confrontation areas. We were shunting the French scrum backwards, Jackman was a big part of this. Best came into a pack that had momentum and was ripping into a French pack shorn of confidence. It appears that the French lack depth at the moment.

Now putting forward my belief of what pack I would like to see.
I would like to see the starting front row. I think that Leo Cullen should come in for Mal with Mal dropping out of the 22. I think that if Paul O'Connell is fit that he should start on the bench. I would have liked Flannery to start on the bench as well but it now appears that he is injured, a poetic twist of faith he has broken bones in his hand. Now the real change I would like to see is in the back row. I would like to see an openside start the match, replacing either Leamy or Wallace, preferably Wallace. Gleeson or Jennings are the obvious picks to fill this role with Gleeson hugely out of favour with O'Sullivan, so in that case I will pitch for Jennings, he is also the younger player and we need to start blooding youth now at the start of a world cup cycle.

An openside should start a game not come off the bench as an impact player, as he will not be up to the speed of the game and more importantly the ref. So he is sure to give away a penalty at the breakdown quickly.

However think of the bench of forwards I am proposing, and the impact these players would have in the last 20 or 30 minutes of a game. Flannery, Paulie, Wallace and Buckley (though I would prefer Healy for the running prop position, he is younger too) . These 4 forwards come on and change the dynamic of the game completely. And coudl allow Ireland to dominate the go forward ball. They would all be eager to perform and reclaim starting jerseys. But players like O'Connell and Wallace need to be thought that they don't own Irish jersey's by right they have to perform for them. Wallace has performed well and it would be tight between him and Leamy to keep the starting 6 jersey in my book. I would expect them to step up and perform and Paulie would be in to start the following game on performance not just name. Which is all he would included on the bench for if we're honest.

In the backs, my ideal changes would be to drop Dempsey and Murphy. And replace them with Fitzgerald and Bowe, playing them on the wing and moving Kearney to full back.
This would be a very exciting back 3 with pace and confidence, and one that could surely be trusted to finish chances created by the pack. I don't think Horgan should even be on the bench, I would put Dempsey there. What game time has Horgan really had, he looked rusty against England A.

All that said, I fully expect that this wont happen but changes will be made.
Murphy to the bench, replaced by Horgan.
Paul O'Connell in for Mal, with O'Kelly dropping to the bench.
And before todays injury news I would have said Flannery to start with Jackman dropped to the bench.
Well doesn't that team look awfully like the flops in France with the sole exception of Heaslip.

France make 6 changes!!

2008-02-06T13:23:00.000Z

BBC article on the French team announcement for Saturdays match.

I am very surprised to see Clerc dropped to the bench for this weekend. Rougerie selected ahead of him. Potentially viewed as better under the ball and as a better kicker, but we will see, because kicking is not what Rougerie is famous for.
Skela is selected in what is a clear intention to respond to a tactical kicking game from Ireland.

We will see what happens on Saturday evening. But it is very interesting that they made so many changes without injuries.

Eddie rings the changes and gets closer to real 22

2008-02-06T12:46:00.000Z

BBC article on the Irish squad to face France on February 9th.

Best is dropped to the bench (from whence he should have started) and Jackman is in to start at hooker. His throwing has come on leaps and bounds this year, and he has always been a reliable scrumager, yes Best is better in this area, and Flannery is better out of touch, but Jackman is the more all round player, explosive around the park and is the form hooker for Ireland.

The only other change in the pack is a multiple change, with Easterby dropped to the bench, and Leamy moved to 6, and Wallace moving over to 7. This pair play there for Munster so it makes more sense for them to line down there than at 6 and 8. But I still don't approve of not using an openside at international level. It is a crucial position and a genuine openside is needed to win clean regular ball on the ground. Jennings or Gleeson are both having a good season for Leinster, and Gleeson would also offer leadership to the pack that was sorely missing last Saturday.
This shift in personal is designed to make room for a genuine number 8 to come in at the back of the scrum, Leamy is a talented player but doesn't put his weight in at scrum time. Whilst Heaslip will, he is young and incredibly talented. He will offer some genuine running potential from the base of the scrum, as well as muscle to push it. And coupled with Reddan at scrum half will force the opposition flankers to think about what is going to happen at an Irish scrum, rather than the obvious deep ball to ROG.

In the backs there are changes but mainly due to injury. With D'Arcy out injured, Trimble is moved to Inside Centre, leaving a berth on the wing, which is filled by Rob Kearney. Rob is young and incredibly talented. In his 3rd season for Leinster and still only 22, he has a long career for both Leinster and Ireland ahead of him. With Fitzgerald also still to make an impact for Ireland things look exciting in the back 3 positions for Ireland. But back to this game, and last week, Kearney came off the bench and looked good, he was one of a few players who held their hands up against Italy and he is rightly installed on the wing, joined in the back 3 by Murphy (switching to right wing) and Dempsey at full back. It is a good back 3, although Murphy will need to perform much better than he did against Italy, as there is a lot of ill feeling directed his way in Ireland currently.

Shane Horgan is selected to fill the gap on the bench, I think this is still a match too early for Horgan, he didn't look very sharp against England A's. I would have preferred to see Fitzgerald or Bowe selected here. Bowe had a great game against England A on the wing, and should have gotten the nod.

Okay so the team is looking better, but there is no real intent to win ball in this team selection, whilst the backs look exciting, the game plan last Saturday was to kick ball not release strike runners, so in that regard, Dempsey, Murphy and Kearney are all very suited to that task, but equally if Ireland decide to spread the ball they can all certainly run it.

I will of course cheer Ireland on this Saturday, but I will not expect a great game nor a victory. Although, Ireland are the new France, and you never know which Ireland will show up.

In response to Gav's conversion post

2008-02-04T14:10:00.000Z

This is in response to Blog post by a gamer friend of mine who has previously failed to understand what I get out of sport.

Last night was a great advertisement for the NFL, and anyone who is into "sport" (rather than just soccer) or anyone who was willing to engage in that game could not help but come away excited about the game itself.

I have missed much of this season because I don't have Sky Sports anymore, but I did read some reports and occasionally got to watch the Channel 5 highlights show.

But I did organise time off this morning to watch the game. And I went into it planning on cheering the Pats [my third team behind Bears (family), Saints(fairytale story and Reggie Bush), but ahead of the Cowboys (my childhood)] though I of course had a bet on the game, and didn't fancy the Pats to win by 2 touch downs, so took the Giants with the points. This lead me to cheering the Giants as the game unfolded. I too revelled as Blitz after Blitz rained down on Brady and he looked ruffled, the normal untouchable (at least mentally) Brady was ruffled by the big D of NY. The blitz came from all over the park not just the front 4 but free safties and strong safties were turning the corner or sometimes going straight through the middle in on Brady.

The drive at the start was impressive, but it was the 88 yard drive with under 3 minutes on the clock that was magical, with the drive looking dead with Pats hands on Brady he squirmed away (thanks to a new rule that lets the play go on as long as he doesn't look like he'll get hurt) and threw up a bomb that Tyree some how took out of the air. And the play was alive and Burress came up with the ball in the end zone 4 plays latter.

I thought that someone on the Defensive side deserved the MVP but you can't bemoan Manning who has had even more critics than his brother, who was accussed of always choking. The Manning boys have now won back to back Superbowls and back to back MVP's.

Great time to be getting into the NFL Gav, next season should as the Yanks like to say, Be off the Hook.

Superbowl XLII

2008-02-03T23:24:00.001Z

Sitting down now, I've got crisps and drinks on hand.
Really looking forward to the start of the start of SUPERBOWL XLII.

I'm cheering the PATS tonight, but I am betting against them on the spread, I've just backed the Giants at +12.5pts (£10 @ 1.94). That is far too many points for any team to give up in a grand final. The PATS have won 3 Superbowls in 7 years all by 1 field goal.

I am betting on Moss to get more than 75.5 yards (£5 @ 1.66) , and to be the MVP (£3 @ 8.4)

But my long shot bet in honour of British cover and the tight win mentality that has happened at Superbowls, including all 3 of Pats wins, I've backed Tynes £2 @ 100 to be the MVP. If he kicks the field goals and wins the match for the Giants I could win almost £200 on that bet plus the handicap bet.

GAME TIME. LETS GET IT ON.

O'Sullivan continues cronyism.

2008-01-29T13:10:00.000Z

Eddie O'Sullivan has announced his match 15 and 22 for Ireland's first 6 Nations game.

And apart from the players out due to injury or suspension, there are only 2 players that are in that are different from the World Cup fiasco, and one of them is technically in for an injury.

Murphy & Reddan included in the backs. Reddan is finally been given a chance at the international stage that his form for Wasps has deserved. Murphy is in on the wing, with Trimble starting on the other wing and Dempsey at full back. With Horgan injured there was always room for change here, but I still can't agree with the inclusion of Trimble on the wing, especially ahead of players like Kearney or Fitzgerald, or even Bowe. I would have started Trimble, but in the centres with O'Driscoll, the only player who deserves to be picked on reputation not form. Because reputation not form is why D'Arcy is in the team at 12. O'Gara keeps his 10 jersey but there is no challenge to him, with Wallace on the bench and Sexton with the "A's", I was surprised that Sexton was even included in the 6 Nations squad given his experience.

In the pack though, is where my full bile and bitterness encompasses. I was always likely to be bitter when players I would have picked in the starting 15 were not even in the squad, let alone the match 22. But to see the World Cup fiasco pacl almost entirely kept apart from at hooker and lock, both due to the other factors, Flannery vied with Best at the world cup, with Best mostly getting the nod, well he is in now as Flannery is out for 8 weeks for a citing from stamping. But Best wasn't even really in the original 22 before the citing panel's verdict, so for him to jump ahead of the form Irish player of the last year is criminal. What does Jackman have to do to get into the starting team?
Become consistent with his throwing.
Check.
Up your performance around the pack from your already strong play there.
Check.
Improve your scrummaging.
Check.

No not good enough, just like being the best openside in the country isn't good enough for Gleeson, maybe if they wore Red during the winter months instead of blue they might be in. Joinging Jackman on the bench is Heaslip!! what the fuck.
Heaslip has been outstanding for almost 3 seasons now, but this is the closest he gets to the team. With the World Cup loose forwards getting the nod, despite form or province playing positions been taken into account.
I expected the line up pairing to be as it was, after Leo was dropped in favour of O'Driscoll. My real ire is at hooker and 8 in this team. I will accept Trimble on the wing, because Murphy is on the other wing and Reddan is been given a chance. But against better sides than Italy, Trimble will be exposed again as not international wing standard.

Here is my match 22, omitting Flannery and Horgan due to injury and suspension.

Ireland Squad for 6 Nations Announced.

2008-01-15T16:54:00.001Z

Eddie has picked his squad for the 6 nations.

Great to see some players being selected on form,
From BBC
Under-pressure O'Sullivan said that selection was due reward for the players in form.

have Leinster been left with any backs for the League, 7 selected?
And can many of those selected really claim to be on form?
Fitzgerald, Kearney and Sexton certainly, but Sexton is a bold selection for Eddie, still wet behind the ears out of Marys.

In the pack, I can't believe Quinlan again gets the nod for body bag duty.
It is good that Jackman and Heaslip got called up and Cullen recalled, surprised at Healy in the same reign as Sexton. Interesting to see that the form statement has been carried through with O'Connor getting a recall but what does Gleeson have to do to get recalled?

But seriously Quinlan, the guy is a squad player for his province what on earth is he doing in the national squad when players like Gleeson and Jennings are left behind.

Waiting On Newcastle

2008-01-15T16:46:00.000Z

I am waiting on Newcastle to appoint a manager now.

On Thursday last week, I laid Harry Redknapp to be the manager at 1.82
I risked £20 on the bet for £24, which was rapidly snapped up. I saw the market move down to close to 1.5, which would have been even better for me. But I got in whilst I saw it creeping up from 1.7.

On Sunday Redknapp categorically ruled himself out of the race. He is now trading at 27, with today Houllier moving to favourite at around 4.2, Hughes was there yesterday but has drifted back to 8.4 behind Keegan 7.6.

I quite fancy, Jol at 26 myself, but I'm already quite invested in the market, so will leave it alone.

Because when they finally make a decision and announce a full manager, not an interim manager, I pick up £45.

RWC Round up and Future hopes

2007-10-30T12:14:00.000Z

Well the Rugby World Cup 2007 has ended and South Africa were crowned world champions.
There was no fairy tale ending for England, they battled hard and overcame expectations but in the end were beaten by the better side.

No it wasn't a try. Shut up about it. Thankfully anyone rugby related in this country didn't bang on about that missed try. It was only soccer journalists and soccer supporter who for 2 weeks were rugby experts.

Great world cup, but not for Ireland. We have a lot of work to do to just be competitive at the 6 Nations next year, never mind finally try to win the damn thing.

Amazing world cup for Argentina. I cannot see how they can still be left out in the cold of international competitions after this world cup. Logistically it would be easiest for them to play in Europe, they have apparently said they would play in Spain. It is easiest for them to play in Europe, because that is where there players are. If they were to play in the Southern Hemisphere, then a lot of their players would need to leave France and England and move South, otherwise they would burn out playing competitive rugby all year round without a break.

It would also be feasible for them to play European rugby out of Buenos Aires. They would have 6 games in the expanded 7 Nations. That would be 4 at home, 3 away, rotating the next year to 3 at home and 4 away.
Okay so lets look at that.
2 at home, then 3 away and then 2 at home. Then next year, 2 away, 3 at home, 2 away.
With the teams playing them having the week either before or after the game off.
But surely this isn't really needed, when you consider the distances that the TRI Nations already travel to compete.

Okay unlikely to happen, they are more likely to come in on the Tri Nations, which would mean that the guys need to leave their clubs and lives and head south if Argentina are to be competitive. If they come in on the Tri Nations party, I would also like to see the Pacific Islands play as 1 team in an expanded Southern Hemisphere 6 Nations with Japan as well. Japan has a professional rugby league already up and running and its currently the retirement home for Tri Nations players, and the breeding ground for Pacific Islanders who can't get into the All Black team.
I think if you are looking at an expanded Tri Nations, you should also expand the Super 14. Bring in a team from Argentina, bring in a team for each of the Pacific Islands and a team for Japan as well. Thats another 5 teams, but given that the Super 14 currently only plays 13 regular season games plus a play off. Hardly a huge stretch for this over pampered players playing in front of empty stadiums.
The supporters would certainly welcome the change and for Australian fans a chance to not be bottom of the table with a Japanese and Samoa side involved, or maybe not for poor old Western Force.

If the Islanders don't get to join the party or can't be convinced to form one team.
Then I hope at the least there will be a Southern Hemisphere 4 Nations with Argentina added. You could also look to set up Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, USA and Canada in a Pacific Tournament.

I expect the only change will happen is that Argentina will be in the Tri Nations in 2010 (Current TV agreement runs to 2009), and maybe the players will move south for it as RWC 2011 is in New Zealand.

A good week betting for me

2007-10-30T10:11:00.000Z

Well a good 10 days if I'm being accurate.
Started back on the 19th, I staked £10 and get back £62.36.

I picked Arsenal (2/9 home to Bolton), Man City (4/7 home to Brumie), Chelsea (8/13 away to Boro) and Portsmouth (11/8 away to Wigan) in a trebles from 4 selection. £2 a line, all teams won so all 4 lines paid, £36.76.

I didn't fancy Portsmouth that much, even through they were playing struggling Wigan.
So I dropped them from the accumulator. So kept Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea added a few from the Championship, (My new favourite league, which I'll get into below) Watford (4/7 home to Hull), Bristol City (13/8 away to Norwich). Both these Championship matches were teams at the top and in form playing teams at the bottom. They both came in, it was looking ropey for a moment as Norwich equalised 20 minutes out but two late goals for Bristol saw them and my £2 acca through to a £25.60 payout.

So I withdrew £60 off the account, and left on the spare £2.36. Which on the 23rd I through on another acca. This time mostly Championship as they had mid week games, I decided to stir clear of European football, except Arsenal (1/5 home to Prague), well I am a gunner and we did stuff them 7-0 so I was proven correct on that score, I would have taken Barca and Liverpool plus Man U and Chelsea if I'd looked around, and probably messed up in the UEFA cup. So glad I dodged the European action.
Okay so the £2.36 acca was Arsenal, Watford (5/4 away to Coventry), West Brom (4/7 home to Blackpool), Burnley (8/11 home to Norwich) and Bristol City on Wednesday night (11/10 home to Saints). I had to wait till Wednesday night to get a result on this one, but Bristol duly obliged and the pay out was £36.32.

Pulled £25 off the account, hoping that it would go through quickly as I was still 2 days from pay day. It didn't but no harm. So I decided to broaden out the betting and take in an old favourite of mine the NFL. For this I needed more money, so I lodged back on £28.68 of winnings to bring the account balance to £40.

£15 was to be staked on NFL. I got this one horribly wrong.
I was looking at 4Folds from 5, which means I need 4 results to get a paid line.
5 lines, £3 a pop makes up the £15. The lines were Patriots (10/11 for -16.5 home to Redskins), Saints (21/20 for -3 @ 49ers), Colts (20/23 for -6.5 @ Panthers), Bears (10/11 for -5 home to Detroit) and Giants (10/11 for -9.5 "@ Miami" London Game). The Pats, Colts and Saints were all very dominant in their match ups. The Bears stank up Solider Stadium and left me needing the Giants to hold on in the final 2 minutes against the Dolphins. They were 10 ahead going into the 2 minute warning. But couldn't hold the Dolphins offence who came away with a touch down to lose the game by 3. If the Giants had have held on, I would have picked up £41.91 on that line alone.

Better luck back in the football and my new favourite league, the Championship.
Okay these bets include one game from the Premiership and one from Division 1, but is still lower league.

4Folds from 6 was all lower league. Leeds (4/9 home to Millwall), Bristol City (11/10 home to Stoke), Burnley (5/4 home to Saints), West Brom (4/9 home to Norwich), Draw Leicester - Barnsley (9/4) and Watford (5/4 away to Crystal Palace). Leicester broke form and actually won at home, only 2nd time in 7 matches, previous being their first home game. And Burnley let me down conceding 3 to the Saints who haven't looked like scoring much away from the South Coast. But last night Watford brought home the bacon and recovered some of the losses on this one. I still lost money on this bet.
£1.33 a line, 15 lines on 4Folds from 6, £19.95, with one line coming in, I got back £13.11.

Okay but like I said Watford brought home the bacon last night as they were the final leg of my acca from the weekend. £4.95 acca on Leeds, Watford, West Brom, Bristol City, Man Utd (1/6 home to Boro) and Everton (11/10 away to Derby). Winnings on this beauty were £119.56.

I have now withdrawn £100 off the account, leaving £32.77.
I've £7.77 has gone on a Carling Cup acca.
Spurs (1/3 home to Blackpool), Liverpool (1/4 home to Cardiff), Arsenal (1/2 away to Sheff Utd), Everton (4/7 away to Luton), Chelsea (1/6 home to Leicester) and Portsmouth (6/5 home to Blackburn).
And another £22.50 on 4Folds from 6 on these lines, £1.50 a line, 15 lines. Leaving £2.50 on the account.

I'm looking for £25 for the weekend. Which will be £10 trebles from 4 on the NFL, £10 trebles from 4 on the footie, and a £5 acca.

But if this acca comes in then I will be up £150 profit.

Rugby Refereeing Interputation

2007-10-07T12:20:00.000+01:00

In response to Tim's email,

Been away for the last couple of days. Watched the All Black - France match. Disappointing result, but much more so because it was decided by the referee rather than the players.

Ohh no you didn't try to blame the ref.

Ohh I feel a vitriol blog post coming on.

New Zealand have for too long being allowed break the rules. They are cynical cheats and they get away with it. That is why they have been able to dominate the world. McCaw is only the best open side because he gets away with cheating.
I jumped with joy when Barnes pinged McCaw right at the start of the game, and he continued to not allow the Kiwi's slow the ball down.
Lay awkwardly on the wrong side of the ruck. Pull players over the top of rucks disrupting. In the second half the All Chokers realised that they couldn't get away with their normal spoiling game and had no plan B. You couldn't contest the ball, you couldn't slow it down, and French were able to play rugby and play they did.

The other typical cynical Kiwi stunt is blocking the runner. And yes your lad shoulder charged the runner and he went to the bin.
Time and again Kiwi players fail to retreat under the high ball. Their typical trick is to eye the man, turn their back step towards their line once and then into the path of the runner with their hands in the air. Collins is the worst offender for this.

So yes the ref did decide the out come of the game. He let the game happen as it is supposed to.

Are you going to say the Australians lost because of the ref as well?
He started off shakey and punished England for being dominant at the scrum but then he remembered the rules of the game and it turned the game on its head. England soared, Australia withered.

Northern Hemisphere sides are often infringed upon against the letters of the rules by Southern Hemisphere refs who have a different interpretation of the rules. Especially at scrums. But also on the ground and on mauls. I don't understand how a league (Super 14) that is supposed to be about free flowing running rugby allows the ruck to be an area of illegal spoiling and slowing the game down.
It is a skill in legally slowing the ball down. But McCaw, Chris Jack and co always stop over it.

RWC Another Conversation during France - New Zealand game

2007-10-06T22:01:00.000+01:00

This conversation was with my friend Rachel, who for her sins was born in Limerick and is a Munster fan. This one went right to the end of the game.

Rachel: rugby*
dude all greys!!
me: where have you been, thats all news
and its mostly greys as its black shorts
Rachel: sooorrrryyy
me: the irb tried to force them the french into white by saying the all navy classed with the grey. they refused, the comprimise was the white shorts
Rachel: ah
me: so far behind the times so far
[tongue]
Rachel: i usually am
me: dirty cheat at the end
Rachel: ?
me: mccaw
Rachel: ah
me: that is some bench the french have
dominci, chabal and michalic
Rachel: wow
Sent at 19:55 on Saturday
Rachel: jaysus watch chabal
me: that could back to haunt them, getting up in there faces like that
Rachel: it could
me: traille at full back is a risk
Rachel: ref is barnes
hmm
he's only a baba
me: understands the scrum rules
Rachel: always good
me: well the southners don't understand it
Rachel: i know
Sent at 19:59 on Saturday
me: turn off baby fuck mccaw
allez les bleus
Rachel: huhhhh??
ah
you're amusing
me: allez les bleus
Sent at 20:02 on Saturday
me: decent enough game, the injury took the edge off
brilliant mccaw pinged by the ref love it, i knew barnes was a good ref.
Rachel: lol
Sent at 20:11 on Saturday
me: do you hear the song?
Rachel: haha fields of athenry
me: we were expecting to be in this game
Rachel: i know, one of the fellas from work is gone over
i spotted a few fellas in green hats alright
Sent at 20:17 on Saturday
me: spreadbury you pussy make the call don't say go upstairs
Rachel: he was in touch
me: spreadbury was in a perfect position to see that. he should just call it
Rachel: which was obvious without the video thing
yeah, but they're too afraid to
me: he's a bad ref and a worse linesman
Sent at 20:19 on Saturday
Rachel: dan carter used to be attractive
what the hell happened??!
me: you grew up??
Rachel: probably
i've done a bit of that
Sent at 20:22 on Saturday
me: brave little frog
Rachel: lol
Sent at 20:38 on Saturday
Rachel: [smile]
me: fuck sake that is a shocking miss
Rachel: yup
me: especially if you put yourself up there over the chosen kicker
Rachel: yeah, you'd want to be putting them over in that case
Sent at 20:42 on Saturday
me: i think they need to bring dominici and michaelak on and change the game to running, supported by chabal playing whereever they want
Rachel: one man went to mow...
yeah, they definitely need a big change
Sent at 20:46 on Saturday
Rachel: silly chip
me: great chip illegal block
Rachel: ok yes, block was bad, but he still chipped the ball straight into the path of 4 all blacks
me: they had a penalty
Rachel: true
me: fucking 2nd commentator on itv has complained every time that Barnes has pinged cynical all black play. he just called it absurd refereeing
Rachel: silly man
me: Collins pillar work is illegal as well, you are not allowed hold or pull a man only push
the 2nd commentator was called Murray, but he doesn't sound Scottish, I think he has a bias so I'll find out where he's from
Rachel: he's def southern hemisphere
aust/NZ
me: you on itv?
Rachel: utv, but yeah, i got the same guy
he sounds like a new zealander
Sent at 21:07 on Saturday
me: here comes the beast
Rachel: yup
Sent at 21:10 on Saturday
Rachel: hurray
me: alles les BLEUS
Sent at 21:13 on Saturday
Rachel: your man is annoyin me now
me: Still can get 7 dec odds on France
Rachel: lol
me: I've thrown £3 at 6.8
Sent at 21:16 on Saturday
me: bastards
yeah he is kiwi
Rachel: thought so
feckers
me: that replacement doesn't look confident he looks scared
Rachel: never good
me: bollix dropped the ball.
ice cream time
Rachel: ooooh, can i have some??
me: sure there's a shop down the road
Rachel: funny
me: thank you
here all week
well off next friday but thats most of the week
Rachel: i think i've got some ben and jerrys in the freezer here
where u goin friday?
me: the beast is on, here comes beauty
Rachel: lol
me: i'm off to leeds next weekend for psychocon
Rachel: oh yes!!
hope you enjoy!
me: YEEEESSS
Rachel: hell yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me: a mile forward a mile forward but YEEEESSS
Rachel: shhhhh
jaysus it was a mile forward...
me: and now they are ahead
Sent at 21:30 on Saturday
me: what a kick
Rachel: i was typing the same thing
me: going backwards and a huge bounce to put it well into touch
they don't have an out half anymore the all chokers, evans just went off
Sent at 21:33 on Saturday
me: what a hit on McCaw
Sent at 21:36 on Saturday
me: openside gap
closed alright
turn over baby
that looked like a late hit on Michalak
no out half so they've no one to put into the pocket
Rachel: turned over again
2 more mins
me: I think they should have passed that back to get a bigger kick on it
Rachel: probably, they didn't clear it too far
me: a few holes there
Rachel: yup
me: why did he concede a 5 minute scrum there???
Rachel: no choice
me: oh no gets a 22, fair enough
Rachel: couldn't get it away
me: dropped
backwards bastard
YESSSS
Rachel: yessss
me: they've won they've won
England France semi final holy shit

RWC Conversation during France - New Zealand game

2007-10-06T20:51:00.000+01:00

This conversation was between myself and a rugby friend.

me: allez les bleus
Sent at 19:48 on Saturday
me: i hope they stuff the mostly greys
Sent at 19:51 on Saturday
me: that could back to haunt them, getting up in there faces like that
Sent at 19:57 on Saturday
John: Game on
me: i'd have started Chabal
ballsy call putting Traille at full back as well
John: me too
me: never mind the rookie at out half
John: comeon the the shades of gray!
me: turn off baby fuck McCaw
allez les bleus
allez les bleus
allez les bleus
Sent at 20:02 on Saturday
me: they see Chabal as a lock!
Sent at 20:05 on Saturday
John: nah its some loser
there's 3 pts
me: Harinordoquy is not some loser
he caught nearly every line out against us as an 8
Sent at 20:08 on Saturday
me: i don't know why he didn't start give the type of game they are trying to play
brilliant McCaw pinged by the ref love it, i knew Barnes was a good ref.
Sent at 20:11 on Saturday
John: its getting better for sure
20 tackles from France
get rugby
me: they need to start competing on the ground. slow that ball down
Sent at 20:15 on Saturday
me: do you hear the song?
Sent at 20:17 on Saturday
John: NZ are looking to close out the game early
me: beautiful try]]
solid scrum out of them as well
John: yeah they've found their feet for sure
What are the Irish piss heads like - The Feilds from Munster shrits at the French NZ game
me: brilliant staying on the wrong side. they always do it. glad it got called
picked for his kicking and misses
Sent at 20:28 on Saturday
me: brave little frog
John: foolish
me: yeah
great hit on Collins through wasn't it?
John: nice
Sent at 20:39 on Saturday
me: first time they run, powerful ruck clearing, recylcing and a penalty
hmm a game plan change
fuck sake that is a shocking miss
John: yeah school boy at this stage
me: especially if you put yourself up there over the chosen kicker
John: "Worlds greatest outhalf" as he calls himself
me: who?
John: Cater
carter
me: ahh no Beauxis the french lad was picked for kicking gmae and kicking.
over Michalak for running game
Beauxis missed the first penalty and Elissalde said i'll go this time
Sent at 20:43 on Saturday
me: well he got it right in the end
i think they need to bring Dominici and Michalak on and change the game to running, supported by chabal playing where ever they want
John: they need to change something
me: its not completely over for them. but they're not going to win by kicking it long
Sent at 20:47 on Saturday

me: brilliant, from the study, the wee french lad, to beat New Zealand we need to bring beauty and the ebat
*beast
Sent at 20:56 on Saturday
me: what a heave
Barnes is doing a great job
that is another one that the all blacks are always doing, blocking the runner
usually Collins, but I suppose he was too busy being driven into the grass
Sent at 21:03 on Saturday
me: fucking 2nd commentator on itv has complained every time that Barnes has pinged cynical all black play. he just called it absurd refereeing
Sent at 21:04 on Saturday
me: here comes the beast
John: he's a god amoungest men
its infact a crime that he won't make the final
I want to be him when I grow up
me: haha
i don't think you can pull off the hair
John: or the beard
I tried a while ago and realised why I don't do it
me: this is brilliant, they are running the ball and just went 60 metrees
couldn't finish the over lap shame
THEY'RE IN
alles les BLEUS
alles les BLEUS
Sent at 21:13 on Saturday
me: Still can get 7 dec odds on France
John: nope
me: what?
they are dominating this game now
Michalak still to come on, the All Chokers have pulled Carter out
Sent at 21:16 on Saturday
me: I've thrown £3 at 6.8
Sent at 21:18 on Saturday
John: good stuff
alright got to shave and get going
talk to you tomorrow
me: OHH he's a BEAST
Sent at 21:20 on Saturday

John is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when John comes online.

John headed off just before the Kiwi late try to put them back in front.

RWC; WOW the Quarters are ALIVE

2007-10-06T15:51:00.000+01:00

Wow what a result.

As you will have seen have my earlier posts I didn't expect this to happen.
But it didn't stop me cheering England on. I was worried for my head not my wallet earlier on, when the ref was penalising England in the scrum for boring in, when it looked for all the world to be Australia caving. It looked like another game of the stronger scrum being punished for being stronger.

As soon as England were allowed to scrum Australia didn't look like world champions.
The English destroyed them up front, absolutely pulverised them into submission, starting winning ball on the ground, disrupting the line out and of course creaming the scrum.

It would have been a huge win if Johnny had have been on his game. He missed by my count 3 penalties and 2 very kickable drop goals.

Now that is not to say that England are suddenly world class. They were exposed in the backs, and didn't really look like scoring tries when they spread it wide.

With that in mind, without an Irish or French ref in the semi final (can't be French if France win tonight) then they haven't a hope against New Zealand. An Australian or South African ref will punish them in the scrum, what is more for some reason, in the southern hemisphere you are allowed lie on the wrong side of rucks, you are allowed fall on top of rucks, you're allowed come in from side and over the top off your feed offensively. McCaw is only the best player because ref's don't use the full rules on him.

Tonight.

France vs the All Greys.

England ref. France can win.

RWC Predictions

2007-10-05T21:12:00.001+01:00

I think the final in Paris will be South Africa vs Australia.

A latter post will show that I am putting my wallet behind this statement.

Everyone expects South Africa to beat Fiji and then Argentina. Argentina are looking the real deal in this world cup and I'm delighted they are getting a chance to show how good they are on the big stage. Despite what it meant for Irish rugby. But their style of game is not suited to playing the Boks. Who will punish the kicking game of Las Pumas.

For Australia to make the final.

Australia beat England (likely) and then beat New Zealand (difficult).
But frankly this isn't that impossible, look at past world cups,
Australia have beaten the Kiwi's in 91 and 03 semi's.
New Zealand lost to France in the 99 semi, and South Africa in the 95 final.
They make the latter stages of the tournament then bottle it.
Australia were in the 91, 99 and 03 finals. Winning it in 91 and 03.
They were very poor going into the 03 world cup, but ended up in the final. Australia were knocked around this time last year by Ireland and Wales but lo and behold here they are again looking the real deal, they always do it for world cups, they are the Germany of rugby.

The team they have at the moment is looking pretty good. Their scrum is not a complete disaster, they fancy themselves out of touch, the best scrum half going, very creative young outhalf and a devastating back 3 who can kick and handle the high ball.

Bet of OZ, longest odds of the likely nations as they have to beat New Zealand in the semi's, but sure they've done that before. Oh and they've beaten New Zealand this year.

My RWC bets

2007-10-05T20:56:00.000+01:00

Okay I have made a few little punts for the weekends sportfest.

Total lay £40. That is a lot more than I would normally gamble on a weekend. But apart from £10 bets I have being having with my boss it is the first time I've gambled since the big golf tournaments this year.

Okay I bet on Betfred and Betfair this weekend. £20 on each.
On Betfair I first laid New Zealand to win the world cup. £10 lay @ 1.76, if the Kiwi's do do what everyone in the world that has even heard of rugby thinks they will do and win the RWC, then I will have to fork out £7.60. If as I suspect they will not win the world cup after having to overcome France in the quarter, then Australia in the semi and finally South Africa in the final. I don't see them winning that streak. They are bottlers. Then I pick up the £10 laid.

Next I bet on the finalists.
1st S Africa / 2nd Australia £2.50 @ 11.5
1st Australia / 2nd S Africa £2.50 @ 16

I have outlined in the previous post why I think this is possible.

The last bets on Betfair were try scorers from the weekend.
£2.50 @ 7.4 George Smith (AUS) & £2.50 @ 2.7 Lote Tuqiri (AUS)
on Australia vs England.
£2 @ 2.64 Felipe Contepomi (ARG)
on Argentina vs Scotland

Okay now onto BetFred.
Much simpler betting here. I am going with 5 picks, the 4 RWC QF's plus what I think is a banker. Arsenal at home to Sunderland. I have added this to my 4 picks and switched from Trebles to 4Folds to increase the odds going.
So my picks are.
Arsenal to win 1/6
Fiji +34 10/11
Argentina -13 10/11
New Zealand -14 10/11
Australia -13 10/11

So thats £3.50 a line on the 4Fold thats 5 lines for £17.50.
To round this out to an even £20 bet I have taken the accumulator on it as well.

If Arsenal win and I get 3 of the quarters right, the pay out is £28.41 per right combination. If I get the 4 quarters right, that 4Fold pays £48.69, with the 5 bets combined paying £160.14 plus the £38.74 on the £2.50 acca.
Of course something will go wrong, I'm not that lucky.

But then I did pick up £110 on Paddy @ the Open.

Rugby Bias to Change

2007-09-23T10:38:00.000+01:00

The quarter finals are as follows.
Q1; Winner Pool A v Runner Up Pool B
Q2; Winner Pool B v Runner Up Pool A
Q3; Winner Pool C v Runner Up Pool D
Q4; Winner Pool D v Runner Up Pool C

With semi finals as follows
Winner Q1 v Winner Q4
Winner Q2 v Winner Q3

Now the current and long standing rules of the world cup are as follows.
The seeding for the next world cup is, the 4 semi finalists will be pool top seeds, with the losing quarter finalists as the pool second seeds.

This is designed for this format
New Zealand, Australia, France and England as the pool seeds.
South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as the pool second seeds.

These 8 nations are the 8 founding nations of the IRB. Nearly every world cup a team from outside this group gets through to the quarters, but for some reason they don't get the cosy pool their seeding deserves. The unfortunate founding nation somehow ends up in their pool anyway, and for some unknown miracle of scheduling ends up with the easier set of match/rest day combination. This situation is more of a professional era issue, and is designed to ensure that the non-founding nations don't interfere with the party.

Example you ask,
Take the last world cup, RWC 2003, Argentina beat Ireland to the QF in RWC 1999, but ended up in the same pool as Ireland (and the host nation, hmm familiar). But they had 4/5 days turn around on matches as opposed to Ireland and Australia's 6/7, despite being the seed in the group.

Now lets look at the groups after match 3 for a moment, which I've done in the previous post.

It looks like
Argentina v Scotland
New Zealand v France
Australia v England
South Africa v Wales

As already mentioned in this post, unless the rules are changed to the two tier world cup. This will also set the seeding for RWC 2011 in the land of the long white cloud. Scotland, Wales and to a lesser extent England will again get a free ride in the group stages whilst at least one team with a superior world ranking has to slog it out in a tougher group.
This year Group D contained 3, 5 and 6 in the world rankings. Scotland were 11th, Wales are 8th and England 7th.

Is it too much effort to set the world cup seeding 1 year before the world cup based on the world rankings ( 17th June '06) after the summer tours the year before. That would have created

New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and France as pool top seeds.
Ireland, Argentina, England, Scotland as the pool second seeds.
Italy, Wales, Fiji, Samoa as the pool third seeds.
I would then leave the rest to qualifying, maybe even the pool third seeds to qualifying.

Pool A NEW ZEALAND ARGENTINA ITALY TONGA
Pool B SOUTH AFRICA IRELAND WALES CANADA
Pool C AUSTRALIA ENGLAND SAMOA USA
Pool D FRANCE SCOTLAND FIJI ROMANIA

Just look at the groups you are getting instead of what we had.
If you took the rankings after last year's autumn internationals, Ireland would have been 5th despite beating Australia and South Africa as their game against Pacific Islands didn't count for points.
But what about earlier this year. The world rankings from April of this year, so after the 6 nations.

Pool A NEW ZEALAND WALES FIJI TONGA
Pool B IRELAND SOUTH AFRICA ITALY USA
Pool C AUSTRALIA ARGENTINA SCOTLAND CANADA
Pool D FRANCE ENGLAND SAMOA ROMANIA

There is no way either of these groupings is less exciting then we have had at this world cup. And my own country of Ireland would still have a tough ride even being a pool seed using April's rankings.

Will they make a move to using the world rankings for seeding, no.
They will bring in the two tier tournament, but Unless there is a promotion relegation factor then I don't see how it will work. But more to the point, the developing rugby nations can't compete against the founding nations because they don't get regular rugby. 6 Nations and Tri Nations are amazingly beneficial for developing teams, what do Fiji and Tonga have, their best players playing for New Zealand.

RWC Week 3 Round up

2007-09-23T10:22:00.000+01:00

It would be very bad for rugby in general if Ireland were to win next week.
The Argentinan's deserve to win this group and avoid the All Blacks in the semi final.

They are currently ranked 3rd in the world after beating France away. If (when) Las Pumas end Ireland's world cup (misery) next weekend then they would win the group and get the runner up of group C, which looks like Scotland. The Scots are sending a second string side out against New Zealand to avoid injury for the big game next weekend against Italy. But with the way Italy are playing so far this world cup, they are unlikely to beat Scotland in great French city of Edinburgh.

So that would leave quarter finals of
Argentina v Scotland
New Zealand v France
Australia v England (sorry Tonga)
South Africa v Wales

Now these are not all mouth watering games, And what is really galling is these pairings this will also set the seeding for RWC 2011. But I'll get back to that in another post.

Getting back to Las Pumas, Scotland are no challenge for them, and they will walk through to a semi final against the Boks. whilst Wales will surely give them a good game and will score tries, South Africa just have too much class for them.
So that leaves Australia to end the Red Rose's ambitions and start the self loathing again. The game that absolutely stands out though is the one in the picturesque French city of Cardiff, as it is not an easy ride for the All Blacks.
The French will be away from home in their own tournament but because of the darker jersey they will have a 50/50 chance of making the All Blacks wear not Black, what is their away strip Tim?

So for the good of the tournament, for the good of rugby in general and to put a big middle finger up to the IRB please Ireland don't remember how to play rugby next wee kand lose to Argentina, so that they can make the semi final with the Tri Nations.
I dearly wish that they also beat South Africa and win it all. Because that would really shake the foundations of rugby to its core. A non-founding nation winning despite the in built favouritism to the founding nations. And yes now I will move onto the seeding post.

thank fucking christ but that is diabolical

2007-09-15T21:47:00.000+01:00

Ireland were lucky tonight.

We could have maybe should have lost that game.
But what the fuck, how on earth were we even allowing Georgia to be that close to us.
We have the best team we have ever had, and statistically this was our most experienced side ever. And god if that is our best than never mind about quarters we won't even get that far.

No bonus point for us. We didn't deserve the 4 pts we did get never mind the 5th that we felt we would get.

I don't even know where to start about what went wrong with us, it is a shorter list about what we did right. hmm nothing about sums it up.

The problem is that was our best team, so where next, the coach got grief about not making changes after the performance against Namibia, well any changes from this side will only weaken the quality of the team, but maybe not the spirit and desire of the team. I hope the axe falls in the front 9.

The camp has a problem and it is the first 15 are elite and the other 15 are making up the numbers and Eddie has made it known by not making a single change from the Namibia game.
This has caused agro this week.

Irish Sport

2007-09-13T14:52:00.000+01:00

This was a reply to my brother about the state of Irish sport.

Very confident of Irish advancement in the RWC. I had no faith or expectation on the soccer front. I stopped caring and almost entirely stopping watching Irish soccer when Stan was appointed.

On the rugby side,
we can't drop as many balls as we did against Namibia,
we can't miss run so many moves again as we did against Namibia,
we can't miss throw as many lineouts as we did against Namibia,
ROG wouldn't miss as many touches as we did against Namibia.

So we've Georgia to sort out the problems before we get into France and Argentina. Neither side looked good defending deep in their first two matches.

The following is my embellishment of these points.
Georgia troubled Argentina but never looked like scoring tries, but if Argentina defended long balls like they did against Georgia against Ireland, Shane Horgan or Hickie will score tries (plural). We will not leave as much space out wide to allow the free tries that Argentina got late to to finally get their 4th try and thus BP.

But the Argentina game is a long way in the future. First we have to start to gell together as a team again. We have to work the numbers, create good angles and find the gaps and put 4 tries on Georgia early and then push on, not sit back and let Georgia come onto us like we let Namibia do.
After Georgia we have France who will surely will bring the noise, but why should Ireland care, if we play our best we can and will beat France. Losing is not an option, New Zealand is not acceptable alternative in the knockouts.
That said if we beat Argentina and lose to France it comes down to bonus points and points differential. Interesting group, this group of death.

RWC Slipping to mediocrity

2007-09-09T20:45:00.000+01:00

That was a pretty shoddy effort by Ireland against a lowly ranked side.
We should be peaking at the world cup, but Ireland for all the preparation and conditioning that O'Sullivan has been able to put in it has not assisted in giving Ireland a solid platform to mount a challenge for the world cup.

We sent a second side squad down to Argentina, then a second string side out against Scotland, losing all 3 matches involved. So time to build some momentum and give the big boys some game time, well we just about beat Italy in Belfast with pretty much the best available team to O'Sullivan, and that win was courteous of a dubious try.

So in now to the world cup proper and after the massive shock on the opening game (yes I know I called it but it was still a shock) this group was ripe for our best prepared and most talented Irish side in our history to go on and do something special and not settle for glorious defeat.
Well on a night that was humid not wet we dropped a lot of ball, Darce had a mare of a game and only really held the ball once or twice, Strings over egged the pass quite a few times not giving ROG much chance. And he didn't set the world alight with his goal kicking either, which is not good for us as we will need him to make those tight kicks in the big games to follow.

The running lines, the breakdown support will improve. The line out needs a huge improvement, maybe Flannery will start the next game because Best miss threw too many times. The scrum was not solid enough, especially given that apart from their front row Nambia had no muscle or weight in the pack.

There is a lot to work on this week, but we have another warm up game to get it right before the France game. It could be worse, we could have played like England did and have their game next week.

McClaren is right to pick Heskey

2007-09-08T17:02:00.000+01:00

I'm sitting down to the start of the England soccer game. And aside from the wonder that they are playing in soccer and rugby at the same time?? Well ITV4 have the rugby repeated after the soccer so I'll switch over then.

Anyway back to the headline. I am furious that a number of British newspaper writers have described Heskey's call up as a regressive move and want to know why Defoe is not being picked ahead of him.
Well Defoe is a bench warmer for his club so doesn't deserve to be anything more than a bench warmer for his country. I don't think he should even be on the bench of his country when he is not getting regular games for his club. Spurs are playing Keane and Berbatov up front week in week out, and have thrown away a lead last week when they took Keane off for Defoe, 9 shots in the 68 minutes Keane played, 1 shot in the 32+ minutes Defoe played, with Defoe not getting the single solitary shot that saw Spurs surround a 3-1 lead.

So why Heskey, well he is playing regular football for his club, he is playing well and has scored for his club this season. Also in 12 matches that Owen and Heskey have played together for England Owen has scored 11. They work well together and England need a bit of muscle against a side that is going to put 11 behind the ball to compliment the speed and skill of Owen.

In the middle of the park, I'm also glad to see Barry get the nod, it is a just reward for his form for Villa. And he was hugely instrumental in inflicting Chelsea's first defeat on them this season.

That is all for now, I will rant later about why foreign players should not be blamed for England's mediocrity in world football.

RWC: 1 from 1

2007-09-07T21:53:00.000+01:00

The main reason I picked Argentina apart from hunger and understanding about France is the French choice at full back and Chabal on the bench

And I was spot on about the full back, Heymans, he is winger not a full back, caught out of position time and again. The Argentinians targeted him when they did kick it which was not all that often as they sought to keep hold of the ball. But what was really important about when they did put boot to ball they chased down hard put pressure on the French backs, but they also varied their kicking put it up in the air Garryowen style.

When the French brought Chabal on they did look like they might steal a result but the Argentinian defence was immense and despite Spreadbury's best efforts to ruin the result that was so richly deserved. Allez les PUMAS.

RWC Le Kick Off

2007-09-07T19:46:00.000+01:00

Okay so under 15 minutes to go to the start of the Rugby World Cup 2007.
And I want it on record that I don't think New Zealand will win the world cup.

I will not be surprised if Australia beat them in the semi final again.
For me the winner is coming from the other semi final that is South Africa (pool winners over England) versus the winner of the France Ireland game and therefore the winner of the pool. Ireland can win that match but it is a big ask to win in Paris and in the world cup against France, our record against the top teams in the world cup is very poor. Narrow defeats exist but embarrassing hammerings are on the record as well ala the result against France 4 years ago. Last time Ireland were in Paris to play the French we were knocked around in the first half before coming back in the second half to yet again almost win. For this Irish team almost is no longer good enough.

Now lets get back to shock announcements, I think Les Pumas could upset the aristocrats tonight. France are expected to win of course they are but Argentina have a lot of players in France and they have a great record against France.
So I am going for a big left field pick and putting my cards on the table, Argentina to win tonight (or least narrowly lose, which is good enough for them).

So here is what I expect to be the quarter finals.
South Africa vs Wales
Australia vs England
New Zealand vs Ireland
France vs Italy.

Yes sorry I think our preparation is not great, we have no form too many players who have not had a lot of game time because of injuries.
The other surprise in that list is I think Italy will beat Scotland and come second to the All Blacks in pool C.

Okay here come the players and I can't get onto betfair, well probably for the best.

Tour de France

2007-07-10T12:12:00.000+01:00

I went out and watched the Tour de France, at Hyde Park corner, near the The Royal Artillery Memorial.

It was a great day out, I arrived into London at Green Park station, I met up with some Irish guys who raced with Finglas Ravens back in Dublin. And decided to spend the day with these guys. We walked through Green Park down to Buckingham Palace. It was jammers down there so we wandered up the route, and finally settled on watching it from the above location, which allowed us to get onto the barrier.

It was an amazing day out. The spectacle of the event is truly breathtaking.
IT was also very informative to listen to the Irish lads talk about the riders, taking about saddle position, cyclist position on the bike etc.

I will see if I can get the video I took of local hero, Wiggins on here. But failing that I did take photos.

The rider I most wanted to see was George Hincapie of Team Discovery Channel, as he is Lance Armstrongs old friend and domestique.
The Brits involved were also well worth the cheer and I managed to get video of Wiggins and a picture of Cavendish. I missed Kloeden and Valverde which was disappointing as well as race favourite and winner Cancellara. He was phenomenally fast and smashed everyone else. When Kloeden went round he was 12 seconds faster than the others, Hincapie looked like coming close to Kloeden but was still 10 seconds off, but Cancellara went 13 seconds faster then everyone else. Coming in at 08:50.
To establish that kind of supremacy over 7.9km is very impressive.

Here are the photos that I took during the event.

Wimbledon 2007 rather pathetic isn't it?

2007-07-04T11:05:00.000+01:00

I posted over on Garner in the City about my trip to Wimbledon this year, and I posted photos online as well.

So what are my thoughts on this years championship.
Well it is rather pathetic isn't it?

The rain has been almost constant, apart from Tuesday (lucky me) there has been rain delays every other day of the championship. As of last night, they were 177 matches overdue. The men's quarter finals should be played today but some 4th round matches are still be played never mind the two 3rd round matches still to be played!

On the womens side of the draw the quarter finals should have been on yesterday, they at least are almost ready to play all the quarter finals, but not quite.

The quality of the competition has not been great, much of the media attention has been on the Williams sisters, and whilst they have had some interesting matches, they are not inspiring in their performances. Sharapova and Henin have been efficient in dealing with their opponents and now both play the Williams sisters, Henin has Serena in the quarter final, Sharapova has Venus in the 4th round. With any luck the tournaments can now jump into life as the average players have been eliminated and only "quality" remains. I can't see any result other than Henin beating Sharapova in the final, I would have liked to see Hingis advance further but a straight sets 3rd round exit followed dropping a set in the first round.

On the mens side of the draw, the rain has likely helped Nadal stay in the tournament and he is now in the 5th set locked at 4-4 on what will be the 3rd day of play if they come out today. As a betting man, I would think that if anyone is going to beat Federer (who has the day off again, 5 straight days!) it is not going to be Nadal, but Roddick.

So here is hoping that this is not a complete damp squid of a tournament.
And I did really enjoy my day out, but the weather and the people I met certainly helped.

Drab Final Day

2007-05-19T19:10:00.000+01:00

So that was a waste of waiting, 7 years they've been waiting for the FA Cup to return to their precious Wembley. And aside from the heavy charges for burgers and tickets the real problem with the new Wembley was the pitch and what happend on it.

The pitch cut up far too easily for a new pitch. The weather was great today, yes it has rained a lot recently, but surely the roof should have been closed if the pitch was getting too much rain.

But that is neither here nor there, the fact remains that despite getting the finalists that the FA wanted, they did not get the final they wanted.

UTD are supposed to be an open attacking side, but how is that they continually play this dull games against other dull sides. They are the champions of England with the player who has been crowned by all and sundry as the best place going but yet he nor the rest of the team could light up the day. Rooney had a pretty decent game but late on but never looked like scoring, though his ball in extra time should have ended in a goal.

But he has not won every award going as player of the season, Ronaldo has, and please prove me wrong and show me a game on the big occasion that Ronaldo has played well for his club. He was a non event against Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea in the league. And now against Chelsea in the cup as well. He has destroyed the minor sides but against the top 4, he has done nothing special or even basic really.

So why is he the best player currently playing?

Ref's have bias

2007-05-06T22:35:00.000+01:00

BBC article

I've said it for a long time that teams like UTD always get the easier of the decisions from the ref's. This proves it statistically. Statistically they have conceded the fewest number of penalties and yellow cards as the visiting team.

My trips to the Arsenal stadium

2007-05-05T10:51:00.000+01:00

This is from my first visit to the Arsenal since moving to London.

Arsenal 1-1 PSV.
Champions League: Wednesday March 7th, 2007.

The program from the PSV game.

This was my view on my first visit to the Arsenal. Shame the result wasn't right.

The Arsenal versus Man City.
Premier League: Tuesday April 17, 2007

The much postponed game finally happened. And just like a bus. You wait ages for one to show up and two come at once. Cesc scored again and Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners.

Irish Cricket now ICC approved

2007-04-17T13:16:00.000+01:00

So Ireland are now a full ICC ODI team.

That means that we should be entitled to more games against the big boys, and technically we shouldn't be considered minnows anymore, but as Bangledesh still are, I don't hold out much hope.

I'm hoping that the English counties will release Irish players to Ireland for matches, I think, but I'm not sure, that they are now forced to since we've full status.
It would be nice if next summer, (not this summer games already scheduled) if Ireland was involved in a triangular tournament with a side touring England. Or if at the least the sides touring England also played a game or two against Ireland. England and the touring opponents could use us as warm ups for their own ODI series. But that would not be a bad thing for Ireland as it would mean regular international matches against the top sides.
We've games this summer against the Scots and the Dutch, but that is not going to really help Ireland progess to the next level is it.

A dark dark day

2007-04-01T23:07:00.000+01:00

Okay so there is not much I can say about yesterday is well I still believe that I did well not to swear on TV.

RTÉ 9 O'Clock news.
Coming out of the ground I was stopped by RTÉ and asked what I think went wrong for Leinster today.

Well in typical form I blamed the ref. None of you could be surprised by that assertion was uttered from my lips. But I'm impressed that I was vertical, not swaying and I hid the beers I was still holding.

I do believe that another ref, a stronger ref would have punished Wasps more at the breakdown. And being consistant does not mean you bin one of ours because you've binned two of thiers.
But for the game that unfolded, Wasps were the better side on the day.

Oh well there is always the Magners league and next year.

To stan or not to stan

2007-03-23T14:44:00.000Z

I have been asked what I think are Ireland's chances of beating Wales tomorrow. (Football by the way)

Here was my response.
"In the office sweep, I took dull all draw.
Mainly because I would never back against my own.
But I expect Wales to win 0-1. Probably Craig Bellamy.
I would not even be happy if we won tomorrow, because if we lose tomorrow and don't win on Wednesday Stan should be out of a job."

I really do hope we lose both of these games. Then not only should Stan lose his job but the top men at the FAI. They are clueness, they followed up a poor appointment with an appointment with no mangerial experience.
Brian Kerr was not the right appointment, good youth coach, average coach with St Pats. But the Irish domestic league is not a top league, and youth football is not anything more than a learning ground. We needed to follow up this mistake with appointing a manager who knew what he was doing.
So what did the FAI go and do?
They pick an ex player, who had 3 months experience as assistant manager in the lower leagues of English football.

They will fire him this week hopefully, but that is not the end of Ireland's problems. The problem is the FAI. They are the same shower that failed to send the equipment out with the team before the world cup. Leading to the captain doing what he thought was right. But he had no right to be racist at the manager and storming out.
Anyway I digress.

The FAI have decided that they should have a pop at the GAA. They have not endeared themselves with the GAA, and they were not allowed train at Croke Park last month.
Furthermore, it now appears that the GAA will not allow Croke Park to be used for soccer friendlies or games of no consequence.

Bravo the FAI, bravo. The IRFU have been in and out of GAA headquarters with plaudits and acclaim, the GAA are happy to have them back.
The FAI will barely be tolerated for the games already agreed.

Thats just not cricket

2007-03-18T11:46:00.000Z

Pakistan is not taking losing very well. The president of the country is now being blamed because the head of cricket in Pakistan is one of his cronies.

The beeb had a great article on the match.

Oh my god, the Irish are bringing the cricket to the cricket world cup.
It took our match against Zimbabwe to get the world cup going, it was a tight entralling match, which ended in a tie. Only the third tie in world cup cricket.

But that was not enough for the Irish, who are in the second tier of the game.
There is the test playing nations and the others. And it is shocking that people think that the non-test playing nations should not be at the world cup.
Because if the Irish were not there, then the 4th ranked team in the world with fearsome batting line up would still be in the competition.

Instead Ireland have sent them crashing out. It was amazing. First over and we'd got a wicket, and things just got better from there. Pakistan were skittled for 132.
A small score and Ireland set into getting after it.

So on our national day, we just missed out on the rugby but we have set the cricket world cup alight.

you have to ask, do Ireland have any chance against the Windies or of causing any further upsets in the super 8's?

So close but not close enough

2007-03-18T11:37:00.000Z

We should not beat ourselves up about not winning the Championship yesterday.
Ireland went to Rome and did exactly what was required of them.
Posted a big score for France to chase.

The French went out and did exactly that. They chased and they secured the Championship with a late try (I'm not going to talk about how there was no grounding) and had to wait a few hours to receive there trophy as mathically England could win it all.

It was not that late try or the (double movement) late try scored by Italy, it was the late try that France scored in Croke park that won them the Championship.

But I do think that Ireland will be a better team for coming close and coming up short.
When it comes to the World Cup at the end of the year I believe Ireland will have a better chance of putting France away, putting Argentina away and moving on out of the group and towards the semis, where anything can happen.
In Paris when we take on the French to decide what happens in the group and who plays the All Blacks in the quarters, the Irish players will not be resting on laurels at the end of a successful season. They will not have in the back of their mind the fact that they won the Championship. They will go out there and know that it is do or fail. If they don't win the season is a failure.

Why can't ref's officiate the breakdown?

2007-03-13T23:16:00.000Z

Well Ireland struggled to impress last Saturday but despite Scotlands best attempts to kill the game and the ref's willingness to let them, Ireland managed to come through with a tight win.
And after the very impressive events at Twickenham. I didn't think England had it in them to pull that one off. It is now all to play this Saturday, Ireland are up first against Italy. We need to beat Italy by 5 more points than France beat Scotland.
This is entirely doable. If Scotland play like they have in each game of this championship (first 7 minutes against Italy aside) then they will not concede a big score. And they will score 12 to 18 points depending on what the ref sees.
However if the ref is stronger than the ref's that Scotland have faced previously then they are in trouble, as they will have players in the bin. Will be forced to stop killing the ball, these two factors will create a lot of space out wide for France to score tries.

However Ireland should be able to put Italy away by a large margin. Ireland can't surely lose against Italy, even playing badly there should be a 5 to 8 win in there.
But if Ireland spread the ball, dominate out of touch and continue to demonstrate that they can hold up a front row long enough for the ball to be fed out the back.
Then surely Ireland will score 4 or 5 tries and a hatful of penalties and surely only concede a hatful of penalties.

Wales versus England is however the last game of the weekend, but who cares about that one. We just have to wait for it to finish to complete the St Patricks celebrations with Ireland winning their first championship since I was a wee lad.

A little bit of me died last week

2007-03-13T23:12:00.000Z

On my first trip to Emirates I had the joy of witnessing Arsenal in full flow.
Passing, passing and you've guessed it passing some more.

The stadium is amazing. I was so looking forward to the game. I got up to my seat, up behind the goal that Arsenal were attacking into in the first half.

Arsenal had a surprising vibrancy about them, right up until they scored.
Then they settled right back into their usual attitude of waiting for the perfect goal.

For far too fucking long we, the poor suffering, Arsenal supporter we have been told that we are on the verge of a great breakthrough and a golden age.

Why does Fletcher continue to pick players on past glory and not current form?

2006-12-03T13:56:00.000Z

Duncan Fletcher the coach of the English Cricket team (contains Welsh players, players born in S. Africa and Australia!) refuses to pick Monty Panesar. He has choosen 1 spinner in his first two teams in the Ashes, a reasonable plan. But he has picked the wrong one.

Giles is been choosen persumely on past glory and the fact that he is a better man with the bat than Monty.

I don't deny that Monty can't bat, I don't deny that Giles was great in the Ashes last year.
But that was last year, he has been injured for much of this year and has not heaped glory upon himself so far in the Antipodies.

You don't win games by out scoring the other team, wow bare with me. You win matches by taking 20 wickets and having a higher score than the other team. If you can't bowl the other team out you can't win the match, at best you can draw it by batting until the close of play on day 5, or they are still there at the close of play on day 5 because you couldn't get rid of them.

Take the current test, England really well with the bat in their first innings. But did the 11th batsman have to bat?
No England declared whilst the first bowler was at the crease, Giles as it happens, and he did alright with the bat, but who cares about his 27 runs, if you don't bowl the other team out.
Also he cost England 107 runs by dropping Ponting on 35.

So what if you have to bat to 11, and Monty gets a duck, if he comes in when called upon to bowl and takes 3 or 4 wickets, which he is more than capable of doing.

So in my humble and not unique opinion, drop Giles before he drops the Ashes.

What on earth are the Aussie's at?

2006-11-25T12:54:00.000Z

I have been listening the Ashes going to bed and when I wake up on the radio.
BBC have great coverage.

So I fell asleep last night with KP losing his wicket and things looking doom and gloom for England.
So it came as quite a surprise when I woke up early (the plan to catch up on sleep having fallen through) to be hear the commenators describe Ponting flicking a ball around the corner.

Hmm, Ponting, why are you batting, you have a massive lead over the English!!
No follow on?

425 run lead, when 200 is all you need to force the follow on. An innings win was on the cards, and it would have piled the pressure on the english going into the Adelaide test. But no they have decided to go back out and bat and embrass the English bowlers. That damage was done in the first innings, no need to go out and do it again, especially when the fans weren't interested in that. There were thousands of empty seats as the Aussie's second innings wore towards the close of play.

There are rumours that the Aussie players gain a cut of the gate receipts so prolonging the game was based on that. I hope this is not the case.

Point of the Blog

2006-11-25T12:52:00.000Z

This is a new blog where I will pontificate on sport.

I am opinionated and I will not mince words and shoot a straight line.

I am a fan of nearly all sports. Rugby is probably my main sport, but I am a massive fan of soccer, NFL and in the last year Cricket.