Sunday 8 February 2009

Six Nations

Love this time of year. I've played Rugby since I was eleven and worked for the WRU for twelve years. I was particularly looking forward to the England v Italy game as I felt Italy could pull off one of the shocks of the tournament. That was until I saw the team selection.
There are four key positions in Rugby, hooker, scrum half, outside half and full back. A tight head can play loose head. Second rows can swap. A decent back rower can play all three positions. Centers can interchange as can wings. An open side flanker cannot play scrum half.
Nick Mallet coached South Africa to 17 straight wins so it's fair to say he knows what he is doing. But yesterday, playing Mauro Bergamasco at scrum half must rate as the biggest coaching faux pas ever witnessed on a rugby field. What was truly galling is Bergamasco has played 70 times for Italy and even when they were getting stuffed by every team and their dogs, Bergamasco was one of the few Italians who you could count on to put in a great performance. I just hope he isn't remembered for this one game.
Ireland did France in Croke Park. O'Driscoll proving once again why he's one of the greatest centres in World Rugby. Wales beat Scotland today to start defence of their Grand slam. Shane Williams ran another try in and at 11/10 was one of the betting certs of the weekend to score at anytime.
Looking forward to next weekend and Wales v England. Got my ticket and I don't expect anything other than a comprehensive Welsh win.
Been pissed all weekend so haven't played any poker. In actual fact, done nothing much other than sit in a pub drinking Cider.
In my last post I mentioned that this year was the first time I haven't been to an away match. Well lucky old me. Got offered a seat to France at the end of the month. Haven't told Mrs Rubbish yet, may just ring her when I get there.
Later.

No comments:

Post a Comment