Say it enough, maybe it’ll come true

Dec 19

Posted by Gagger
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So I’m scanning the TimesOnline looking for some sort of rationale on why the poms have given Ashton a pay-as-you-go 12 month contract, when I stumbled across this remarkable piece of self-delusion:

That try will stay on Mark Cueto’s mind forever

The England winger talks to Times Online in an exclusive Q&A

You were denied that try by the television referee in the World Cup final. Does it still hurt?
It’s always going to be in the back of my mind. Rob Andrew was speaking to the boys in the dressing room after the final. He had been in a similar situation in 1991 [when England lost to Australia] and said that losing in a World Cup final is something that you will not forget for the rest of your life. Given what happened with that try, for me the memory will only be stronger. (Watch the incident here and judge for yourself)

You said afterwards it was a try. Are you still convinced of that?
I am, absolutely. There was no definite view to prove that it wasn’t a try but there were 101 views to prove that it was. In that situation, the benefit of the doubt must go to the attacking side. In any other game, it would have been given.

Now, I thought this had all been knocked on the head, most notably by Martin Johnson directly after the match upon watching the replay. But to help Mark, who I can only assume is still undergoing therapy, here are a few of those missing photos, which do make the other 101 pretty fµcking redundant.
Photo below from Moses at OxenShizer
Just happy to help.

Was close though.

Dec 18

Latho, the canning of the ARC, & Yoda lives on

Posted by Gagger
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There have been a few stories in the last couple of days that haven’t exactly painted the ARU as a caring / sharing organisation.

First off, rumors started circulating that Chris Latham, one of the only 2 wallabies that would have made a World Cup 15, has signed with Worcester in the UK for the northern hemisphere 08/09. This means he’ll play the S14 season, with the Bledisloe game in Brisbane being his last test.

In a nut shell, all Latham wanted was the same package he got last year to stay in Australia. The ARU, no doubt spooked by the 32 year old’s knee injury last year, decided to offer that money, but only in a pay per game basis.

“Had I been offered the same amount of money that I was on this year for the next few years (by the ARU), I would have definitely stayed,” said Latham, a veteran of 78 Tests.

“So it has been pretty disappointing in that instance that I couldn’t come to that agreement here.

“The (ARU) offer was incentive-based and I really didn’t think given my position that I needed incentives to play rugby – I never have.”

“They (ARU) obviously thought that I wouldn’t be able to carry through for too many more years, and that’s the line that they’ve taken,” he said.

While you can see the ARU angle on this: at 32 will Latham make it to 2011; probably not. And if not, shouldn’t we be making space for someone else? On the other hand it looks pretty cold and a little short sighted. Without Latham and Mortlock, there is currently no Aussie back-line. How happy will we be in 2009 about this?

You almost had to laugh about the way Pat Howard dressed up the ‘favour’ they’d done Latho by forcing him out:

“Chris has been an outstanding contributor to the game in this country for a long time. It is for that reason the ARU has agreed to an early release.”

How big hearted.

But if the ARU aren’t on your shit-list for messing with St Latho, you can’t help being pissed off by their canning of the ARC. The fledgling comp was loved by players and fans as giving a chance for seeing a decent grade of national feeder talent for S14, level of rugby that both SA and NZ have, but not Australia.

Obviously the financial loss of the competition’s first year (A$4.7m) wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term. But it seems crazy once you’ve invested in the structure, set-up and brand building to flush it all down the toilet. You could even reorganise it radically, but by shelving it you make creating such a comp in the future pretty much impossible; cynicism from clubs and media will be even higher than this time around. Fans and sponsors will also be pretty wary of investing, having been burnt once already. Another short term decision?

Finally, just when you thought the ARU were making some questionable decisions comes news from up here in pommyland that Brian Ashton, the incumbent team doormat, I mean coach, is having his contract re-newed for another year. The logic being that they got to the final, so no problems there!

I don’t think any living being in England wasn’t painfully aware of how wrong his tenure went throughout the world cup due to Lawrence Dallaglio’s well (over) publicised book. Ashton stopped having any control over the team once they got but-raped by South Africa 38-0 in the group stage – effectively his last game in charge. It seems the ERFU’s state of denial is almost as deep as a the Kiwi’s.

Dec 14

Wallaby 2008 fixtures

Posted by Gagger
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SEE WALLABIES 2008 SQUAD HERE

Strayed across the fixtures for the Australia rugby team in 2008 today so thought I’d stick ‘em on here (not that I’m having rugby withdrawal at the moment or anything).

14 June 2008: Qantas Wallabies v Ireland, Melbourne (Venue TBC)

28 June 2008: Qantas Wallabies v France, Telstra Stadium, Sydney

5 July 2008: Qantas Wallabies v France, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

5 July 2008: New Zealand v South Africa, Wellington (Venue TBC)

12 July 2008: New Zealand v South Africa, Dunedin (Venue TBC)

19 July 2008: Qantas Wallabies v South Africa, Subiaco Oval, Perth

26 July 2008: Qantas Wallabies v New Zealand, Telstra Stadium, Sydney

2 August 2008: New Zealand v Qantas Wallabies, Auckland

16 August 2008: South Africa v New Zealand, South Africa, Newlands Rugby Stadium, Cape Town

23 August 2008: South Africa v Qantas Wallabies, South Africa, The Absa Stadium, Durban

30 August 2008: South Africa v Qantas Wallabies, South Africa, Ellis Park, Johannesburg

13 September 2008: Qantas Wallabies v New Zealand, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Bring it on!

Dec 12

Learning to deal with Deans

Posted by Gagger
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With the appointment of Robbie Deans as the next Wallaby coach drawing inexorably closer, the reality of having a Kiwi calling the shots for the Aussie team doesn’t seem quite so bad. Amongst all the windbagging that’s gone on throughout the coach selection process, three opinions of late have made a big impact; from respected voices in the game, and then from Mat Rogers.

Big-hitter 1 was no other than Australia’s most successful captain ever – Nobody (Eales), who summarised his position on Deans by saying

“There comes a time when it’s time to learn from others.”

As usual, a pretty grown up attitude from the big man.

Big hitter 2, and the most persuasive so far, was world cup winning coach Bob Dwyer who pointed out:

“Deans is the best qualified for the job by a country mile,” he said.

“I think he is so far ahead of the other coaches in the world, let alone the other coaches who have applied.

“Unfortunately for us we don’t have anyone with the qualifications who is Australian.”

Dwyer said when Deans was the All Blacks backline coach with John Mitchell they scored more tries per game than under any other coach in their history.

“People say to me ‘you can’t score tries today, defences are too good’. I say the Crusaders can score tries by the truckload,” he said.

A Crusaders player told Dwyer they could spend a whole session just working on support play.

“There is not a coach in Australia who does that detailed work. All our coaches are CEOs or managing directors who don’t get down to the coalface,” he said.

“It’s a crying shame, but that is the way it is.”

It didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to Dwyer that Deans was a Kiwi who had missed out on the All Blacks job.

“Just because the All Blacks are too stupid to appoint him that doesn’t mean we should be,” he said.

And then there’s Mat (one T). For a man that’s on the record claiming Union sucks, the tattooed Rogers manages to generate almost as many column inches over it as Gloria Jones. However, this week he strung more than a few sensible ideas together when he said in reaction to Nick Farr Jones (who had claimed he would not have been motivated by a Wallabies coach with a Kiwi accent before a Bledisloe Cup match):

“That’s ridiculous. Nick Farr-Jones played in an amateur era so this comes from an amateur,” Rogers said.
“If he played in a professional era he would understand you do your job regardless of who is telling you. Players have too much pride in their performance to worry about that (nationality).

“If you need a coach to fire you up to play in a Bledisloe Cup match, you shouldn’t be even be there.”

Where does all this get you? At the end of the day Deans is unquestionably the best qualified and skilled Coach going. The only reason Nucifora was the front runner until now was because his record came closest to the Cantabrian’s. And don’t forget his unsuccessful trip to the RWC’03. Far from a negative, this is a priceless learning experience for any coach.

In today’s professional game, do we honestly believe a Wallaby wouldn’t respect such a guy and take that respect into a Bledisloe game? Of course not. In fact, out of all the other contenders, I can’t see anyone a Wallaby would respect more; his record, and the way the Crusaders have spanked all our S14 teams and the Wallabies therein over time, would speak for themselves.

And so, despite giving John O’Neill some stick for so publicly nailing his colours to the Deans mast (!?) so early and mucking a whole process around to fit that, you’ve got to say that his balls-out approach is looks like it’s going to pay off; he stuck to his guns unerringly, and used every trick in the book to wait the Kiwis out.

The one scenario I’d still throw out there is this: what happens should the Kiwis come to their senses and have a well needed clear out at the top of the NZRFU within the next 2 years, then throwing out a please come back to Deans for 2011? As the song goes – “do I stay or do I go?”. I hope the ARU lawyers are all over that contract.

Otherwise, the pieces are fitting together yet again for JO’N. Which I guess is why he gets the big bucks.

Dec 6

Henry gets ABs….Deans for us?

Posted by Gagger
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While I’m not convinced it’s the right idea, it looks like John O’Neils christmas present has come early as the ABs have reappointed Ming the Merciless:

GRAHAM Henry was reappointed All Blacks coach today, the New Zealand Rugby Union said, despite overseeing the team’s worst ever World Cup performance this year.

Henry, 61, coached the All Blacks to 42 wins and just six losses after first being appointed four years ago and the union’s acting chairman Mike Eagle said Henry was the best of four candidates interviewed by the board.

“Graham’s record, both on and off the field, is among the best in All Blacks rugby history,” Eagle said. “He has given a lot in a successful period for our game and the Board is convinced he has more to give the All Blacks and New Zealand rugby.

“As a result, we believe that in the best interests of New Zealand rugby, Graham and his team were the right choice.”

So John’s neck might just feel a lot better a lot quicker, or does this story have another twist in it yet?

Dec 3

South Africa vs Barbarians video highlights

Posted by Gagger
1 Comment

Not a bad effort except it leaves out Rocky Elsom’s solo try!!
Check out the pace of the new Boks number 8 Kankowski.

Dec 1

Barbarians vs South Africa: result, score, review

Posted by Gagger
3 Comments

Classy Barbars 22
World Chump B team 5

So many times an all star Barbarian team has disappointed through poor defence and lateral attack, but not today. Almost to a man the Barbars played their hearts out and showed this Springbok team to be out of ideas. The first half was a cracker, the Corinthians scoring two great tries, and probably spilling another three, going in at the break 15-5 up.

The first try came from classic counter-attack; the Boks were in possession 10 metres out when Habana switched pass to no-one. Ma’a Nonu, a handful all day, toed the ball almost to the half way, picked it up from around his bootlaces at pace with two men on him and offloaded to Giteau who found Conrad Smith with a cut out pass. Smith couldn’t outpace Stein but held up the ball long enough for the swarming BarBar backup to arrive and Giteau, out of 3 others lobbed over the line.

The second was a Martyn Williams classic: he looks and runs like a pudding, but manages to pull freakish feats of skill from no-where. Seeing nothing on while attacking from the Bok 22, he chipped the defensive line for the Italian prop Pucciarello (who had a cracker) to regather, draw 3 defenders and then offload back to Williams who scooted to the line. By comparison, the boks could only manage a dot over try in the corner when the ball popped out of a ruck.

Early in the second half the game was meaningfully ended when Stein hoofed the ball downfield for the human steam train and Fiji winger Neivua to motor his way back to the half way line. From the recycle, Elsom put himself in through a gap in the mid-field, and then ran a Campo-esque diagonal to the try-line with 3 springboks hanging off him until it was too late. Kid Dynamite slotted the conversion from the side-line.

This signaled time for the heavens to open and the South Africans to lose direction. Stein tried and failed with long range drop goals at 22-5 down and even through they camped on the Barbars 5 metre line for 30 minutes, the world champions came away with nothing, such was the resolute defence of the scratch team they faced.

Despite the South Africans killing the second half, from a rugby lovers perspective, the first half was worth the price of admission alone. The Barbars ran with purpose and used their hard runners like Nonu, Rokocoko and Neivua to great effect to straighten play, with Jason Robinson reminding us of his unique ability to beat men in his last international game. Considering they had only a week to gel, their linking play was outstanding.

From an Aussie rugby supporters viewpoint, Giteau and Elsom were excellent, popping up at important times all over the field. 17 out of the 22 points ain’t bad! Giteau’s handling and distribution is of a different order and Elsom is starting to look like an established world 15 back-rower, outshining Jerry Collins. I also liked the look of Ma’afu at 3 who was imposing around the ruck.

Ultimately this game probably doesn’t say that much about the Springboks, they had only 5 players from the final and were missing their leader Smit. What it does say though is that there is still a place for the ideals of the Barbarians, even in this professional era where Sheridan’s club can ban him from playing for them (to then give him the weekend off) and world cups get ground out through penalties and drop goals.

Long live the Barbars.

The scorers:

For the Barbarians:
Tries: Giteau, Williams, Elsom
Cons: Giteau 2
Pen: Giteau

For South Africa:
Try: Pieterse

Yellow card: Troy Flavell (Barbarians, 70 – foul play, dangerous tackle)

Barbarians: 15 J Robinson (England), 14 J Rokocoko (Blues & New Zealand), 13 C Smith (Hurricanes & New Zealand), 12 M Nonu (Hurricanes & New Zealand), 11 I Neivua (Warriors & Fiji); 10 M Giteau (Western Force & Australia), 9 J Marshall (Ospreys & New Zealand); 1 F Pucciarello (Munster & Italy), 2 M Regan (captain, Bristol & England), 3 S Ma’afu (Brumbies), 4 B Cockbain (Wales), 5 J Harrison (Ulster & Australia), 6 R Elsom (Waratahs & Australia), 7 M Williams (Cardiff & Wales), 8 J Collins (Hurricanes & New Zealand).

Replacements: 16 S Brits (Stormers), 17 J D Moller (Stormers), 18 T Flavell (Blues & New Zealand), 19 M Owen (Dragons & Wales), 20 T Shanklin (Cardiff & Wales), 21 P Grant (Stormers), B Cohen 22 (England).

South Africa: 15 R Pienaar, 14 A Ndungane, 13 J Fourie, 12 F Steyn, 11 B Habana, 10 A Pretorius, 9 E Januarie; 1 CJ van der Linde, 2 B du Plessis, 3 J du Plessis, 4 J Muller (captain), 5 J Ackerman, 6 S Burger, 7 J Smith, 8 R Kankowski.

Replacements: 16 T Liebenberg, 17 H van der Merwe, 18 A van den Berg, 19 B Pieterse, 20 W Olivier, 21 W Julies, 22 C Jantjes.