Another cute player ...

Jean-Baptiste Elissalde , the French half-back, is quite cute! He's the one who kicked the ball into the crowd in Cardiff at the conclusion of the France v NZL match.

Out go the ANZACs, defeated by Poms and Frogs ... aaaggh!

This morning (or should I call it afternoon? Given I got up for the second time at 1.30pm today after watching both quarter-finals, it feels like morning to me) I am both frustrated and speechless: frustrated by the Wallabies and rendered speechless by the All Blacks. What an event is this Rugby World Cup!

The English deserved to win their match against Australia (there, I've said it): the Wallabies were ill-disciplined and flabby against an urgent and attacking English side. The scrums were a travesty on both sides (how many scrum re-sets did we have to endure, huh? Set the bloody thing and don't collapse it, bozos!) and the Australians' ball-handling skills were flawed and careless. So many dropped balls out wide. Lote's try was a thrill; however, too many penalties allowed JW to put the points on the board and Sterling's missed kicks at goal sealed the deal. The Australians lost the match because of poor play and that's really really annoying!

Full credit to the English - they obviously wanted it more and played like a team out to show their critics they were up to defending their crown. They lifted over the last week and played like a well-drilled machine. I still can't stand Jonny Wilkinson though - lay the egg and get on with it!

The All Blacks' match against the French is another story: why do the New Zealanders choke in the World Cup?? They don't choke in the Bledisloe or the Tri Nations ... why in this competition? Why? Why?

This was their event for the winning. The best team in the world and a flawless run through the pool rounds. Their first half was immaculate. They played tight, disciplined, fearsome rugby and made several attacks on the French line. Their ball-handling was perfect and they moved the ball around quickly and precisely. At half-time they seemed unbeatable at 13 - 3.

In the second half it was if the two teams had swapped jerseys. The French regrouped and ground down the All Blacks' resolve. McAlister was sent off for ten minutes for blocking, and the beginnings of what could be called rot set in. A try set up by late ring-in Michalak (passing it on to Jauzion to score) came of what appeared to be a forward pass but it did its job - the French could see the door was open. Dan and Byron came off injured in the second half and the panic set in. Despite a determined effort by the men in black to drive the ball over (the forwards would be knackered - they made several attempts at scrummaging the ball over the line, and did in fact score another try) our little ANZAC brothers couldn't keep the Frogs out. A last minute penalty from the French and Les Bleus secured a spot against England in the Semis.

So my tipping for the Semis is now 50% wrong and we're left with the Frogs and the Poms to fight it out next week - I'm practising my 2nd language even harder now - Vivent Les Bleus! I cannot bear the thought of the English winning the RWC for a 2nd time as they'll bloody beatify them and then eract statues and rename the English counties after each of the players. Yuck. The spectacle of the French side playing in Paris to contest the Final is much more attractive.

Who will they play? God knows! If the next two quarters play out like the first two the Fijians will win by 30 and the Scots by 50! Every Australian should be made to barrack for Fiji this evening - not hard, they're a super team and deserving of their large fan base. Plus, the team I absolutely hate the most are the South Africans. The Argentinians will make it a cinderella story if they make it through to the Finals ... imagine the Falkland Wars II should the English be their foe .....

Bah! Go Fiji! Go Argentina! Go France!

The All Blacks romp home against Romania

The All Blacks have stomped all over the Romanians, 85 - 8. Dan didn't play as he has a calf strain. He's saving himself for the French :-)

Big wins to the Wallabies and the All Blacks!

ChicRugby and ChicRugby's friend Cat stayed up last night to watch the Wallabies v Japanese and the All Blacks v Italians.

Actually we drank champagne and chatted during the All Blacks game. I could see Dan kicking away, with my peripheral vision, but we had other things to talk about and we got distracted ...

No matter. The upshot is that this morning both the Australians and the All Blacks are sitting nicely at the tops of their pools with cricket scores against their names - excellent. I pity the poor Cherry Blossoms; they got hammered. They continued attacking as best they could but tiredness and the superior fitness of the Wallabies wore them down in the second half. Rocky Elsom played very well and scored the fastest hat-trick by a forward in the Cup's history. The Wallabies scored 13 tries!

The All Black match just seemed to feature Dan kicking a lot. The New Zealanders scored 11 tries.

Very tired this morning (I fell asleep on Cat's sofa) and am thinking that coffee will be my best friend until the 20 October.

Oh, and the English won as well - but we don't care about them.

Picking a 'rugby minnows' team to support during the RWC ....

It's customary during the Rugby World Cup to pick a 'minnows' team to support ... you know, one of those countries that 'play' rugby but really have lots of expats in their teams or add colour to the Cup but not a lot of competition.

I'm quite liking the Japanese team. The Cherry Blossoms will play in Pool B with the Wallabies, the Canadians, the Welsh and the Fijians. They probably rank in playing status with the Canadians (a quarter-final spot as their best placing) but they do carry the distinction of fielding the number one try scorer in the game today, Daisuke Ohata. That's him on the right with Kiwi-born Andy Miller. He's scored 69 tries for his nation's team, 5 more than former record-holder David Campese.

Other minnows include the USA, Tonga, Romania, Portgual, Georgia and Namibia (the Wallabies once beat them 142 - nil). Out of these teams only the USA really has any chance of making it out of the pool rounds, although the Tongans play an entertaining game and supply a lot of players to other Southern Hemisphere teams (like the Fijians).

So, choose a minnow to support and add some fun to your Cup as well as some support to these teams' fan bases.

Go the Blossoms (even their nickname is nice :-)) !

Farewell Bledisloe and Tri Nations Cups

Now, it's been a few days between posts at Chic Rugby.

That's because I didn't watch 3/4 of the game between Australia and the All Blacks.

I was at my hairdresser's.

Needless to say the result was disappointing for the men in green and gold.

And Dan the Man Carter was responsible for a goodly part of the carnage. We love Dan, but not as much when he's playing Australia. See him kicking another penalty goal in the picture above. 21 points to his name.

Ouch.

Where to now for the Wallabies? The World Cup Final, that's where! The boys will need to get it together to overcome the mental challenge of losing two prestigious competitions against the World Cup favourites, in order to regroup and retake the prettiest cup on offer in world rugby. They can do it, they have the potential.

On another note, former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has scored a job with the Springboks as they too prepare for the World Cup. John O'Neill, the recently reappointed head of Australian Rugby has made the jokey comment that Jones' appointment will actually help the Wallabies as he wasn't that great a coach during his tenure and the Australians lost lots of matches!

Hope he gives them the same match tips he gave the Wallabies. Maybe he could go coach the All Blacks as well?!

Richie McCaw ... cute, but a cheat?

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is creating discussion in the lead up to Saturday's test match against Australia.

Just what is he up to?

My observations of Richie's play is that he comes in at the breakdown from off-side a lot. The All Blacks' assistant coach Steve Hansen is quoted in rugbyheaven.smh.com.au as describing the debate as "nonsense". That "a lot of the time he's forcing them (the opposition) to come from the side to remove him, so we should be getting the penalty. He's that quick, he'll make a tackle and get to his feet. Sometimes it's an optical illusion."

I'm not so sure. It's a lot of optical illusions .... it seems to happen in every game. Is he getting away with it because he's the captain? Or because he's in with the refs? Or because he's cute?!

Off-side is a tricky rule to police in rugby as the action is fast and the ref's eyes can't be on every player at every stage of the game. 'Off-side ref!' is a common cry from disgruntled spectators watching a match.

It remains to be seen if Richie is simply 'that quick' or he's sneaky enough to take advantage of the chaos after the scrum breaks down or a maul has scrambled possession of the ball. There are distinct rules about from which direction a player may enter the break-down and coming in from the wrong direction results in a penalty.

And successful penalty kicks equal 3 points for the other side (i.e. us!).

Let's hope the refs are onto it on Saturday .... we need every point we can get :-)

Oh dear ... some mucking around sees Julian out of the Bledisloe Cup this weekend.

A tackle at an after-party has forced Julian Huxley out of this weekend's game against the All Blacks. Silly boy! He suffered a corked thigh.

Takes me back to prowling the day and boarding houses of the school he went to; it was a school tradition to 'pile on' and crash tackle at random.

It seems he hasn't grown up!

Enjoy watching the game on the bench, if you can, Julian :-(

This weekend: New Zealand v South Africa

Saturday afternoon (our time) will see the All Blacks up against the Springboks, in Christchurch. Both teams are coming back from defeats against Australia and will have something to prove.

The smart money is on the All Blacks, as they are always fiercer competition when they have the home-ground advantage. The Springboks will be playing under their fourth captain in four games, Johann Muller. He plays in the second row of the Bok's scrum, and looks it (oh dear).

The All Blacks have announced some team changes due to injury and poor play. Byron Kelleher, another All Black hottie (and the lovely Dan's playing partner at half-back), will not be playing.

But Dan will - hooray!

This is the one time you can all barrack for the All Blacks.

By the way, Australia is currently leading the Tri Nations table with 9 points. The other two nations are on 5 apiece. Let's see how things stand after the weekend but it's certainly looking exciting for the match between Australia and the All Blacks on July 21 (the second game of the Bledisloe Cup).

Aaaagh, it's too much :-)

Julian Huxley - my Wallaby connection

Julian is having a much better game this evening than he did against the All Blacks last week. Julian was a Year 12 student at the boys' school I taught at 10 years ago. He used to help my U13Es full-back with his goal-kicking practice. Julian was a 1st XV player as well as a 1st VIII rower. He was also a good school student and went on to study Law at ANU.

He joins other old boys from his school in the Wallabies squad, including Stirling Mortlock (I taught Stirling's younger brother Stewart). There's also lots of them in the Waratahs squad. The boys from this historic school have become outstanding athletes. I remember them as totally gorgeous :-)

Incidentally, Stirling has just put another 3 points on the Wallabies score with a nice penalty conversion.

Half time: RSA 17 v Aus 10

My favourite rugby player: Dan Carter

Alas, he is an All Black but he is GORGEOUS. Here he is promoting Jockey shorts for Jockey NZ.