TRI NATIONS ALL VICTORIOUS BUT PLENTY OF QUESTIONS

Well the Tri Nations teams have comprehensively won the first round of matches with their 6 Nations counterparts.

The Springboks defeated Wales 20 – 5
The All Blacks defeated Scotland 32 – 6
The Wallabies defeated Italy 30 – 20

Of the three victors only New Zealand looked anything like a decent team, both Australia and South Africa were well below their best. With South Africa in particular fortunate that Wales conspired to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

New Zealand are on course for the Grand Slam, The Wallabies will lose against Wales and The Springboks will win the remainder of their matches.

At the start of this tour I thought that the Tri Nations teams would steamroller the 6 Nations teams, this was purely based on the tri Nations teams having been playing under the ELV’s for longer. It seems that only New Zealand will really make that prediction come true.

Will this be a stellar week for Scottish rugby?

Scotland the new powerhouse of World Rugby? maybe.

With the Jocks rolling Fiji in the Rugby League World Cup the attention now turns to the Union players who will run out at Murrayfield this weekend against a experimental All Blacks line up.

It may be the Scots first outing of the season and it may turn out to be their best as they are more than a warm chance of an upset. New Zealand had a sapping and in parts unimpressive win over The Wallabies last week.

Scotland might not be the easy beats they are made out to be.

Rugby Canada to push Irish very close

This weekend sees Ireland host Canada in their first test of the Northen Hemisphere Autumn.

Canada played a warm up match in Portugal last weekend and scored a reasonably comfortable 21 – 13 win. The Canadian management are pointing to an inexperienced team which is being groomed for the 2011 RWC in New Zealand.

I feel that this is a little piece of cunning on the Canadians behalf, this will be an Irish team that will be a little out of sorts for an hour. If Canada can show larger chunks of the form that won them the match in Portugal we could well be in for a bit of an upset in the emerald isle.

All Blacks for the grand slam and a Haka in the garage?

On form New Zealand have just beaten the second best team in the world in Hong Kong. They also beat them with an experimental backline.

There is no one capable of halting them on their tour to the UK and if anyone gets within 15 points of them I will be amazed.

Off on a slightly different tangent, I wonder whether we will see a repeat of the debacle in Cardiff a few years back where the All Blacks threw their toys out of the pram and did their Haka in the garage of the Millenium Stadium?

Why did they? because they thought that they were more important than the National anthem of their host nation. Arrogant beyond belief.

Shouldn’t the US Eagles be over in Europe?

It is great that the US Eagles will be playing Uruguay in Utah on Saturday, November 8.

I would believe that perhaps the Eagles might have been better served playing in Romania/Italy or Georgia and not visiting Japan next. Those three teams would have provided a real challenge to The Eagles, the cost of the trip may have been prohibitive. But a well structured TV deal would have taken care of most of the overheads.

I think that this was a real opportunity missed in the schedule of the US Eagles.

Barack Obama in at 10 and John McCain is picked as a hooker

With the US presidential election looming large I thought it prudent to assess each of the candidates for their potential position on the rugby pitch (vital analysis I know).

There have been a few world leaders over the years who have had significant ties to the rugby pitch (I even think the present US president played a little).

So down to business knowing the skills and physique needed for each position and having covered many of the physiques! I feel that I am well qualified to comment. Here we go…

Starting with the current poll favourite Barak Obama:

If Barack Obama was a rugby player then he would surely be an outside half full of silky skill commanding and orchestrating the players around him. Making the match run at his pace and on his terms.

And onto his challenger John McCain:

John McCain would have to be the dogged hooker who you just could shake off, always scrapping never giving up. You will find him packing into every scrum and hitting every ruck and maul at pace. His commitment finally wearing down the most worthy of challengers.

Who would the crowd love more? Usually in rugby the outside half gets all the plaudits… well I suppose we will soon find out whether this rings true in US Politics also.

6 Nations switch

This weekend sees the Bledisloe cup clash between Australia and New Zealand being played in Hong Kong in what is a superb piece of marketing by both Unions.

The natural progression as I see things would be for a Six Nations match to be played in a country where there is a strong Rugby flavour much like Hong Kong my choice of venue for a match such as England v Ireland would be Dubai.

Dubai has the Stadia, it has the high quality hotels required. It has world class airlines flying there. It affords a weekend away which is well within the pockets of most rugby fans and it has a bundle of expats from the 6 Nations countries.

In my humble opinion this would work and work very very well.

Make a Difference: Invest in Rugby 2008 USRFF Annual Campaign

Hardly a day passes that we don’t hear from a kid who wants to start playing rugby or from a parent looking for a rugby team so they can sign their kids up. Together, we can make sure that they’ll always find a team to play for.

It’s great to see more kids wanting to play the sport that has meant so much to so many of us for years. After all, rugby offers physical fitness, teamwork, discipline and commitment, invaluable lessons that will help shape a child’s life.

With all of us working together as a team, more and more kids will be playing the game in 2009.

In order for this to happen, the Rugby Foundation needs help from you by donating today to our Annual Campaign (See www.usrugbyfoundation.org)

We have set a goal of raising $50,000 by midnight, December 31, 2008 to kick start our programs for 2009.

Your  contribution today will enable the USRFF to continue to provide:

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Ball Grants – to help introduce the game to thousands of children through rugby clubs, physical education programs and community initiatives.
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Start-Up Kits – for high school and U19 programs.
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Development Grants – to up and coming US high school or Age Grade players allowing them to participate in overseas clinics.
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Kevin Higgins College Scholarships – to graduating high school seniors who continue to play rugby at the collegiate level.
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High Performance Grants – to promising US collegiate or Age Grade players who have the potential to represent the US in international competition.
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Educational Grants – assists referees and coaches to advance their knowledge through USA Rugby sanctioned referee and coaching courses.
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The Dennis Storer Coaching Award and Alan Kitchener Referee’s Award – two new grants in 2008 named after two long serving stalwarts of U.S. Rugby. Recipients of these two grants will take part in coaching and refereeing clinics offered abroad.

And as always, the Rugby Foundation will continue to look for other ways we can assist in the growth of the game in the U.S.

We ask you to support the sport that has played such a major role in your life by giving to the USRFF Annual Campaign Fund. The Foundation relies on the financial contributions from members of the rugby community like you to fund these important programs.

Please make your tax-deductible contribution today and help the Foundation do its part in seeing that the growth of rugby in our country continues to flourish.

Your contribution, whatever the amount, will make a difference in the sport.

Thank you for your support.

Yours in Rugby,

Brian Vizard
Executive Director
USRFF
www.usrugbyfoundation.org

If you prefer to mail in your donation, please make check payable to the USRFF and send to:
USRFF
2131 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101

BATTLE ROYALE FOR SUPREMACY IN TRANS TASMAN RUGBY

The past few weeks on TV and on the web all the Rugby talk has been about the upcoming match between The wallabies and All blacks in Hong Kong.

However, during this timeframe the junior teams for both countries have been doing battle as have the ladies teams.

The current status reads as follows:

1. All Blacks lead the Bledisloe series 2 – 1
2. The New Zealand Black Ferns have defeated the Wallaroos 2 – 0
3. The Australian schoolboys gained their first ever win over their New Zealand counterparts in the land of the long white cloud.

What can we draw from this? Simply that the gap between the two nations across all levels of rugby is closing and fast. Just as it should be.

Welsh rugby needs to grow up

Just when you think Welsh Rugby is maturing after a couple of grand slamd in the last 5 years you get this and then this.

For the love of god it is like watching two five year old children squabling in a kindergarten playground.

Grow up all of you ! behave like the multi million pound enterprises that you are.

Wales have a number of tough matches in the next two months, perhaps concentrating on those is the way forward.