England 19-26 Wales. How ever did we manage that?

Wales were utterly woeful in the first half. The lineout wasn’t functioning. They were getting driven off the ball at every ruck. And their management of the restarts appeared to be completely without thought or commitment. The only reason that England were not 3 or 4 tries to the good is that, like all four teams we have seen on show today, they were rusty. The moves were not working as they should. There was no lack of opportunities. And just like Jake White, I was expecting the floodgates to open in the second half.

When a team is getting as beaten as badly as that, all they can hope to do in the second half is not lose heart. They still have to compete. If they do, a miracle may happen. And so it did. I have seen England teams play poorly before now, but I have never seem one give away a game from such a position of dominance in such an abject manner. All Wales had to do was keep playing, get the basics right (if I may be permitted a cliché), and the points would come.

For the Welsh, I thought that Lee Byrne had a particularly good game. Phillips, Hook, Henson and the two wings showed flashes of what they are capable of. The pack did OK, but has to work hard on the lineouts and rucks. I’d still start Shanklin ahead of Sony Parker. The entire England team should be made to sit in the corner with dunce caps on their heads.

After all the nonsense about not winning at Twickenham for 20 years (which is true, but the English conveniently forget the game at Wembley in 1999) this was a particularly satisfying win. Now here’s hoping that Gatland and Edwards can turn this piece of good fortune into some solid good play for the rest of the tournament.

There was, of course, a game in Ireland too. Italy were not good, but as usual they relied on a lot of strength and passion to carry them through. Ireland were not good either, and can count themselves lucky to get away with a 16-11 win. Eoin Reddan was impressive, as was Rob Kearney when he came on. But Ireland have a long way to go to confirm their ranking as one of the favorites for the title.

This weekend sees the return of the biggest sporting event of the year. No silly, not the Superbowl, the Wales-England rugby match. The teams have now been announced, so it is time for a little punditry.
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It is getting close to Six Nations time here in the UK, and one of the more interesting stories that has surfaced is this one about the Welsh RFU telling players that they are unlikely to get selected for the national team unless they play their club rugby in Wales. Setting aside, for the moment, any legal issues that may arise from this, one is tempted to ask “why?” It has been a policy for some years in Australia and New Zealand (and possibly South Africa too) that players are supposed to play their club rugby in the Super 14. Given the expense of maintaining scouting teams on the other side of the planet, I can see why this might be so. But I don’t think that to play for the All Blacks you had to play your club rugby for a New Zealand side, which would be the equivalent rule. Also, having players spread around has advantages. It helps them play in the best quality rugby possible. Forcing players to play for Welsh clubs may mean forcing some of them to miss out on Heineken Cup rugby. And if your players are active in all of the best clubs around Europe you get good intelligence about the potential strengths and weaknesses of the your likely opponents. It all seems a little odd.

Then I started thinking about the excuses that were being trotted out about training and team cohesion and suddenly it all clicked. What the Welsh selectors are mainly worried about is getting access to their players. In Wales the club sides are effectively owned by the WRFU (in much the same way as MLS owns all the major US soccer teams). This is not the case in England (or France, I think). What the WRFU is afraid of is that if their players are contracted to English or French clubs then they may not be able to get access to them when they need them. Heck, even the English national side can’t always get players away from English club sides when it wants them. Suddenly the new policy makes a whole lot of sense.

Well, the World Cup final did not produce a scintillating display of running rugby. That was provided by the Pumas in their magnificent demolition of France in the 3rd place playoff. Jake White apparently told his side before the match to Keep It Simple, and they did that very well. England’s defense was magnificently aggressive, and it is possible that if the Bokke had tried harder to force a score they would have coughed up dangerous turnover ball and been caught in their own trap. It would have been ironic for them to lose to a breakaway try.

As it turned out, however, they kept things tight, took on the England pack, and at least stood tot-to-toe with them. They also avoided embarrassing turnovers and silly penalties. And when they got a kickable opportunity, Percy was flawless. That is the way that finals are generally won. He who makes the fewest mistakes is crowned champion.

As I said a couple of days ago, South Africa have been the form team of the tournament. They have no obvious weaknesses, and they always find something in the opposition that they can exploit. In this case their domination of the lineout made certain that England never had a reliable platform from which to attack. I was delighted to see Victor Matfield get the man of the match award. It would have been so easy to give it to Percy simply because he scored so many points, or to John Smit because he was the captain. Instead it went to someone whose work is often overlooked, but in this case was crucial to the success of his side.

Not much else left to say, really. It wasn’t a spectacular match. The best side won. See you all in New Zealand in four years time.

(Headline shamelessly filched from the Daily Mirror.)

In a few days time, a new World Champion of rugby will be named. Or perhaps not, because an English side that, earlier in the tournament, looked barely capable of beating the USA, has somehow managed to find its way to the final to defend the crown. Will they pull off a sporting miracle, or will the awesomely efficient Bokke provide a repeat performance of the 36-0 thrashing they handed out to England in the group stage?

Thus far South Africa have won all of their games, and it is easy to see why. They have the best lineout in the tournament. Their scrum and ruck are solid. Percy Montgomery has been superbly reliable with his kicking. Butch James has finally matured into a capable fly half. And in du Preez and Habana they have players whose speed of mind and of foot can break any defense. Only one team has really tested the Bokke, and that was the Fijians, who have the mercurial ability to score tries from anywhere, at any time. And if there is one thing that England definitely can’t do with any ease, it is score tries.

And yet, defenses win tournaments. Whatever other failings the English team might have, they are committed, organized, and mostly disciplined. They also know, as they proved against France, that if the game is in the balance with 20 minutes to play then Wilkinson will win the game for them. So South Africa need to establish a lead. If England are forced to play catch-up they’ll just spill the ball and throw interceptions that will get them into an even deeper hole. But if the Bokke can be prevented from scoring for long enough, then the game will go to whoever has the steadier nerves and the most accurate boot, and we all know who that is.

One area where England might be able to attack is the scrum. They completely destroyed Australia in that department. South Africa are, of course, another matter entirely, but they didn’t look 100% happy against Argentina. It looked to me like there was a lot of boring in going on, particularly on Os Durant’s side, and that Steve Walsh was turning a blind eye to it, presumably because, like me, he didn’t have a clue whose fault it was. How the referee for the final handles scrum infringements might be critical.

Aside from that, about the only non-defensive tactic England are likely to try is niggling the Bokke in the hope that they can get Schalk Burger or some other hot-head sent to the bin. It will, I think, be a bit of a bad-tempered game.

Overall, however, South Africa ought to win. That England have got to the final at all is something of a miracle. Although they would like to win, only their more fanatical supporters expect them to. If South Africa don’t win, they will be seen as having thrown away a golden opportunity. Their biggest enemy may well be nerves.

Incroyable!

Kevin has finally got around to watching all of the Rugby World Cup quarter finals, so it is safe for me to talk about the semis here.

There’s no need to guess what England will be up to against France. They’ll want to keep the same levels of aggression that they had against Australia; they’ll keep the ball tight, running pick’n’drive rather than sending the ball out wide; and they’ll play for territory in the hope that Wilkinson’s boot will give them the points they need. If they win 3-0 they will be very happy. (Confused American readers, just think Baltimore Ravens – possession football.)

As for France, they still haven’t really turned up to play so far this tournament, including in the shock win against the All Blacks. Hopefully a game against the English in Paris will be enough to rouse them into some sort of action. Serge Betsen will need to prove that he can succeed where George Smith failed, but if France are to win I think they’ll need a good performance from Yanick Jauzion, who can break any defensive line in the world if he puts his mind to it, and perhaps another Michalak Miracle.

Argentina looked a little tired against Scotland. I’m hoping that they were just taking it easy because they could afford to. They’ll need to step up the intensity again if they are to beat the Bokke. It could well turn into a kicking duel. Francois Steyn can hoof the ball further than anyone, but Juan Martin Hernandez is older and wiser and likely to win any ping pong game, so South Africa will want to leave the kicking to Percy Montgomery except when they are within Steyn’s drop goal range. Much as I have enjoyed watching Los Pumas epic journey, I suspect that the Bokke will be too much for them. South Africa are ruthless, determined, uncompromising, and they have Bryan Hanaba.

Incredible. Is this the best sport in the world or what?

I need to be able to check the functioning of the -More- feature. That means I need a longer post, so here comes some rugby stuff. If you don’t want to know the result of the England-Australia game, don’t click.
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I got to watch the Wales – New Zealand game live before setting off for The City. About the only thing that the All Blacks got wrong was Dan Carter’s haircut. Wales were outplayed in just about every area of the game. And I don’t think we played that badly either. The All Blacks are on a different planet from the rest of us. Their defense was awesome, though it was helped by the fact that they only needed to commit about half the number of players to the breakdown because they had Richie McCaw. And they only needed one sniff of a player out of place, or a missed tackle, to break through and score. The only real consolation on the day was that England got stuffed by a frankly poor South African side.

Wales 38-20 Pacific Islands
England 18-25 Argentina

‘Nuff said.

Oh dear, Wales v Australia at rugby. Who do I cheer for? Well, Wales of course. But I’m pleased to see the Wallabies digging themselves out of the hole they had got themselves into, and I think the draw was a fair result.

The best thing about the match from the Welsh point of view is that only a few years ago, faced by that initial Australian onslaught, they would have crumbled and been thrashed. But they didn’t, they fought back, and made a very exciting game of it. The Australian backs were clearly a lot bigger, stronger and faster, which is a problem, but not an insurmountable one.

As for the Wallabies, Giteau did very well at scrum half, but they’ll be a lot happier when they have Mortlock available and can put Larkham back where he belongs. The scrum is still crumbling worryingly at times. Definitely more work needed there. And of course if Giteau had made his kicks they would have won. Someone else has to take over the kicking duties.

Much more international rugby to look forward to in the next few weeks, but first we have tomorrows England v New Zealand game. What do we reckon? All Blacks by 30 points?

Update: Huh, only 21 points margin? Come on New Zealand, you can do better than that. (And probably will do later in the tour when you’ve got a bit of practice in.)

Ronan O’Gara…

Doncha just love those Irish. Just sayin… 🙂

Welsh, Scottish and Irish rugby fans have known for some time that English rugby players can get away with all sorts of foul play provided that they are “needed” to play for their national team in the near future. Even a few American rugby fans might remember Danny Grewcock kicking Mike Hercus in the ribs when he was lying well away from the play. Nothing gets done, because the people in charge of the disciplinary process are the same people who run the national team. But English rugby is a professional sport, and it has finally come to the attention of one of the club managers that this gives a distinct advantage to those clubs with a lot of England players in their side. So well said, John Fletcher:

“The message that sends is that it’s okay to go around a rugby field punching people in the back of the head.

“Of course it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Shaw is most likely going to be involved with England during the autumn Tests. It’s one rule for one and one for another.”

Now maybe we’ll see something done about this.

So, the US Eagles have qualified for the Rugby World Cup and the schedule is starting to come together. The tournament opens on Sept. 7th 2007 with the hosts, France, playing Argentina in St. Denis. And on Sept 8th we have USA v England in Lens. For 80 glorious minutes Mike Hercus and his team will be beloved by every rugby fan in the world (except the English). Here’s hoping that they enjoy it.

Have you ever wondered where newspaper sports journalists actually bother to attend the games that they report on? Perhaps they just watch the games on TV or something. Well here’s a clue. If the Independent’s reporter had watched yesterday’s Saracens-Blues game on TV (even in Welsh on S4C with English subtitles because the BBC was ignoring the game) then he can’t have helped but notice that the Blues player who was helped off looking much the worse for wear after scoring a try was actually Mark Lewis, not the instantly recognizable Martyn Williams. I can only conclude that the reporter was actually at the game, and perhaps had a beer or two too many during it.

Those of you who know me well will know that I have a tendency to sound off about the stupid old men in blazers who run sports. There are lots of reasons to get mad at them, but as far as stupidity goes, the Anglo-Welsh Cup (currently sponsored by EDF Energy) is a classic of bad design.
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