RWC 2011 - Odd shaped balls

[Lee Grant]

Use this thread to discuss interesting or even trivial matters from the RWC. They need not be rugby related. Needed – a better title for the subject than I came up with.

Are there any G&Gers at the RWC that want to start a thread about their experiences at the RWC apart from the rugby? There's probably more than one given the Kiwis that use the forum; so there could be a separate thread for personal experiences (not too personal) at the RWC. Needed – a good thread subject title.

 

[whatty]

RWC spam thread

 

[RugbyFuture]

someone please help Lee, hes gone mad with anticipation for the RWC!

 

[Sully]

Nothing wrong with a bit of RWC love.

 

[DPK]

Nothing wrong with a bit of RWC love.

Just we had our priorities right and had a bout of rabid Bledisloe Fever every year. (Does that belong in this thread, Lee?)

 

[Lee Grant]

8. Jone Qove and winger Sereli Bobo both turned down offers to play for Fiji in the RWC and played for Racing Metro in Rd. 1 of the Top 14 last weekend.

Toulouse have 12 players absent at the RWC - but Clermont have 14.

 

[yourmatesam]

8. Jone Qove and winger Sereli Bobo both turned down offers to play for Fiji in the RWC and played for Racing Metro in Rd. 1 of the Top 14 last weekend.

It'd be nice to see the iRB show a bit of backbone and suspend these blokes from club rugby.

 

[Slim 293]

It'd be nice to see the iRB show a bit of backbone and suspend these blokes from club rugby.

How so?

You can't force them to play for Fiji.

 

[Newb]

8. Jone Qove and winger Sereli Bobo both turned down offers to play for Fiji in the RWC and played for Racing Metro in Rd. 1 of the Top 14 last weekend.

Toulouse have 12 players absent at the RWC - but Clermont have 14.

i hope this wasn't because the club pressured them to stay. nation over club anyday.

 

[Sully]

Well you would have to consider how much Metro would pay against how much Fiji is playing. Family first sometimes.

 

[Nusadan]

Recollect same thing happened with Samoa in 2003 or 7...some players 'retired' from test rugby to enable them to meet the demands of their French clubs...Trevor Leota, if my memory serves me right, was such example, he was a stalwart in the hooker position.

 

[Cutter]

If the Fijian RU was payed a transfer fee whenever a Fijian signed for a club, it might be able to afford to pay its players during the RWC the equivalent of what they would earn for Racing Metro over the same period. I've long advocated transfer fees being paid to international bodies.

 

[Lee Grant]

Romania had to get a replacement for their winger Catalin Fercu, one of Romania's best backs. He failed to board the team's flight to Christchurch because of his profound fear of flying.

This didn't go down well with some of his team mates who kept saying: "Fercu, Catalin."

 

[Lee Grant]

Hands up those who know what the anthem was for Ireland at the 1987 RWC without looking it up.

 

[light]

Ireland's call?


remember singing it with them during the 2003 WC. Mind you I don't think I'm right..

 

[barbarian]

'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' by U2?

 

[bring back rucking]

soldiers song

 

[Jnor]

Hands up those who know what the anthem was for Ireland at the 1987 RWC without looking it up.

Fields of Athenry

 

[light]

I know it now.. but I cheated to find out so I'll just wait :|

 

[Lee Grant]

Hands up those who know what the anthem was for Ireland at the 1987 RWC without looking it up.

This from the Belfast Telegraph:

It's May 25, 1987, and Trevor Ringland is lining up for Ireland's first ever match in the inaugural Rugby World Cup against Wales in Wellington. The Welsh team and their supporters had just given a hearty rendition of their anthem 'Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau/Land of My Fathers'.

The Irish team, in contrast, stood on in silence. Then, over the tannoy, came a crackled tape recording of The Rose of Tralee. Ringland and the Irish players just looked at each other.

As the Ireland rugby team was drawn from both sides of the border, the decades-old protocol for anthems was that for games at Lansdowne Road in Dublin, Amhrán na bhFiann (The Solider's Song) was played while God Save the Queen was played for games at Ravenhill.

But no anthem had been previously played when the team was on foreign soil.

"Now there are many songs you are going to lay down your life for, but a really bad tape-recording of the Rose of Tralee was not one of them," recalls Ringland, who went on to win 34 caps for Ireland as well as play in two Triple Crown winning sides and represent the British Lions.
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