Newport Nasties rugby up and firing

The Newport Nasties over 35’s rugby club may not be on the tip of everyone’s tongues yet but they soon will be.

Some 25 blokes who last pulled on a guernsey a minimum of 7 years ago have foolishly come out of the woodwork to relive former glories (and show their sons that they still have the magic).

The Nasties have managed for Season one to arrange 6 matches and host a touring side from Chile. No mean feat.

The website is atracting a cult following and is receiving messages of support from as far afield as India and Wales.

Anyway, best of luck to the nasties when they travel up to the central coast on the Palm beach ferry this coming Sunday for their date with destiny.

Australian schoolboy Haka

Kiwi’s take their rugby seriously of that there is no doubt. What follows is a touch bleary due to the volume of beer consumed whilst the tale below was being recanted, however, you will get the gist.

Over dinner last night my wife’s cousin (a musician and rugby lover) starting telling us about his schoolboy trip to New Zealand to play rugby. His school offered scholarships for music so that should provide some context as to their rugby playing aspirations.

The teacher who was taking them on the trip was from Sweden and had no rugby knowledge whatsoever. He was though, keen and thorough. After reading a book on New Zealand rugby he decided that his team also needed their own haka to perform before matches.

What of course the book could not get across to this teacher from Sweden was the pride associated with the haka and the complete hatred of all things Australian on a rugby field.

The teams headed onto the field for the first match of the tour.

The kiwi hosts proudly stood on their 10 metre line and laid down the challenge to their opponents with a passionate and vigorous haka. One can only imagine what went through their minds when their opponents formed their own semi circle and started their own challenge, which involved much arm waiving and started with the unforgetable line of “Walla Walla, tiki tiki”.

You have to remember that this was being performed to us at the same time as the story was being told from there the beer and laughter construed to make the rest too hard to remember.

For the record the aggreived hosts broke the jaw of the Australian number 10 (who had led their haka) straight from the kick off, the slaughter continued throughout the tour…. As did the Australian haka.

Breaking news – A kiwi who can write a good blog.

Just came across a great better rugby rules blog from the land of the long white cloud.

The article I read compares Chess and rugby to Checkers and League and I have to say it is spot on (as is this and that list could extend into the 00’s ).

Looks like the rugby world has a new authority on rugby.

Rugby, is it the worst represented sport on the net?

Rugby needs a shake up on the net, plain old news results sites are starting to bore me (including mine!).

Can there be a more poorly represented sport on the internet????? What can we do to spruce it up a bit? If you have seen anything innovative let me know… I am starting to get desperate!

Answers on a postcard too…. just leave a comment then!

Finally the ELV’s deliver

It has been a while coming but the ELV’s have finally thrown up a couple of good matches in a row. Both the Chiefs v Crusaders and Reds v Force highlighted the benefits of the new laws.

While I am writing I have thought of another improvement that needs to be rushed into the new ELV’s, the more penalties a team kicks in a match the more they are worth points wise, so up to 4 they are worth 3 points, 5 – 6 they increase to 4 points etc… probably needs a bit of work but would give the more cynical teams food for thought.

OUCH !

No more words needed – OUCH !

http://www.sports-city.org/news_details.php?news_id=3981&idCategory=1

Next big rugby power – Russia

So who will it be?

There are the obvious suspects…. Georgia, Fiji, Romania, USA, Canada…. etc.

For me it is Russia. Why? They have a fledgling pro league. They have the population. They have the physique and they don’t need the 6 nations.

They sit in the perfect spot, they can play the European teams, they can play the Asian teams and they can play the North Americans travel isn’t a problem. Their only hinderance is the weather, even that can be worked around.

I think that they will qualify for the 2011 RWC. There, I’ve said it!

Best Rugby Ground in the world

Of course the usual, Millenium Stadium, HQ, Ellis Park etc will be trotted out…

How many of them though can rival this?

This ground is in the most fantastic spot. If you know somewhere better then leave a comment….

Good causes in Rugby.

I urge you all to take a look at the good work being done in Rwandan Rugby by the good people at the friends of Rwandan rugby.

They have fulltime coaches positioned in Rwanda making a real difference to the community and helping to grow the game we love there at an alarming rate. Well done to all involved.

Belgians on top of their rugby world

Belgium have pulled off a famous victory in the FIRA 2A division this past weekend.

This victory has moved Belgium to the top of their group, the FIRA competition plays out over 2 year cycles and has three tiers with multiple divisions within each tier. Promotion and relegation are par for the course.

The top tier contains many famous rugby nations who have provided many magical moments from recent world cups. These teams are of course denied the promotion that they all desire and the game in Europe needs to the 6 nations cash cow each year.

One can only hope that within the next 5 years a fair promotion/relegation policy is adopted by the 6 nations to reward countries such as Belgium and Moldova for their hard work in promoting the game we all love.

What is a fair policy? To me a fair policy is not a one off play off between the winner of the FIRA division one and the last placed 6 nations team. Fair would be a straight promotion/relegation on an annual basis.