Wow, quite a Super Rugby surprise today. The much maligned new boys, The Southern Kings manage a well fought, come from behind draw with the table topping Brumbies. It's a new team, but I've never seen a team play with such spirit and play for each other quite the way they do. It's good to see, sad part is they are probably going to be relegated at the end of the tournament anyway.
South African conference is so tight at the moment, whereas the other 2 are far more uneven.
My Sharks play the Crusaders today. Crusaders are always dangerous and after a rough start to the tournament are looking more on song, hopefully we can beat them. At least the weather is good, hopefully we don't go too conservative.
And on my side of hemisphere (well, the side I'm following anyway 
), there was a quarter final for the European H Cup last night between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier. Was a shame to see Trinh-Duc have to walk out with a sprained ankle. We're big fans of his, and we're hoping it won't keep him out of the rest of the tournament (and French league), but it looked pretty serious.
This happened at the beginning of the match, and might explain Montpellier's lack of momentum. Clermont totally steamrolled them, although Montpellier did score a try towards the end of the match ("for honor" says my husband) with a final score of 36-14.
Definitely looking forward to another H Cup quarter final, Toulon-Leicester tonight (4:30pm GMT I believe).
Pray silence for the new England sevens kits - possibly the worst kits ever made.
I'm pretty sure if you look hard enough and long enough at the middle one, you'll see the face of Jesus.
Oh good grief, it hurts my eyes!!!!! Is that their new tactic, to hypnotize the opponent??
Those guys don't look too thrilled, now do they...
The white ones aren't too bad. The B strip though is horrendous.
So the H Cup semi finals are coming up this weekend, with ASM Clermont Auvergne / Munster Rugby on Saturday and Saracens / Toulon on Sunday. Who's watching?
I'm at a wedding on Saturday, but would like to watch the Munster match.
I couldn't really care much about Sarries/Toulon. Can we arrange it so they both lose?
Awww, now that's just harsh!!! I love Toulon, they're a great team, and I'm really hoping they'll win.
Matches start at 5pm GMT on Saturday and 6pm GMT on Sunday (if my calculations are correct).
Watched both games; Saracens v Toulon on a French channel. I had mixed feeling about the Clermont v Munster game, as I tend to support the Irish teams. On the other hand, Clermont deserved a spot in the final, given their play this year. It was a good game; Munster were on the verge of being run off the pitch a few times but they held it together and fought to the end. Given all the talk of them being too old, it looks like they have managed to bring in some good young players. The Saracens v Toulon game was not as interesting. Sarries managed to throw away their chances with some bad ball handling in the second half. Twickenham looked like it was only a third full, which surprised me. I'm hoping for a bigger crowd for the English rugby final, as the son-in-law and I have tickets.
My dislike for the expanded super rugby competition is getting intense. It's causing too many injuries, Sharks were carrying 16 going into this week's game with the Chiefs and players are flooding overseas for better money and easier working conditions.
All so the Aussies could have 5 teams in the competition, of which 3 are in the bottom 5 on the log.
Considering the injuries the Sharks loss to the Chiefs wasn't as bad as expected. 3 early tries were allowed in thanks to sloppy defense by players that don't know each other, but we rallied well to score 4 tries and salvage a bonus point.
Like pop58, I also watch both H cup semi-finals and was rather pleased by the outcomes. Clermont definitely earned that ticket to the final, no question about it. Completely agree about the second semi-final, I felt as if Wilkinson was basically the only reason Toulon won.
I definitely think Twickenham should be full (I mean, it's a *final*!). I wish I could go. The match will be reminiscent of Top 14 matches (French league), but... hopefully, we should see some interesting rugby. May 18th, right? 5pm GMT I believe?
Like pop58, I also watch both H cup semi-finals and was rather pleased by the outcomes. Clermont definitely earned that ticket to the final, no question about it. Completely agree about the second semi-final, I felt as if Wilkinson was basically the only reason Toulon won.
I definitely think Twickenham should be full (I mean, it's a *final*!). I wish I could go. The match will be reminiscent of Top 14 matches (French league), but... hopefully, we should see some interesting rugby. May 18th, right? 5pm GMT I believe?
May 25th actually and I think it starts at 3:00 pm. The same day as the Champion's League final at Wembley, though that is in the evening.
I can't see to access the official site, but wikipedia says May 18th, not 25th, that's weird... Guess I'll have to double check.
Edit: Ah, there it is! The official site says Saturday 18th May 2013, KO 17:00 in Aviva Stadium, Dublin (which is weird, because I thought it was in Twickenham).
I can't see to access the official site, but wikipedia says May 18th, not 25th, that's weird... Guess I'll have to double check.
Edit: Ah, there it is! The official site says Saturday 18th May 2013, KO 17:00 in Aviva Stadium, Dublin (which is weird, because I thought it was in Twickenham).
The Heineken Cup is on the 18th in Dublin. The English rugby final(the Aviva Premiership), which is where I'll be, is on the 25th at Twickenham. Sorry for any confusion.
Lost all interest in the European Cup final, without Leinster it has all the grace of two JCBs having sex. Clermont were the better team in organisational terms but on a tactical level they were awful. They've suffered from that for years now and only rolled over Leinster in the pools stages due to our extensive injury list. Schmidt leaving to coach our national side will weaken Leinster but to my mind they are still the best team in Europe right now.
Which leads me to the Lions, I assume everyone is watching. First big match today against Queensland. We will get to see a more starter team as I believe Wednesday was the impact players time to develop their game. O'Brien, Healy, Youngs, Wyn Jones et al I believe would be far more effective coming off the bench that starting and there seems to be some hints that Gatlands thinks the same.
On Healy, there is no doubt is has huge talent but I'm not happy with his behaviour lately. I have to accept he is innocent but seeing as he has gone home anyway due to injury, I'm a little cynical. Two and half hour disciplinary meeting sounds like a dressing down to me.
French - New Zealand game just ended. Good to see the refereeing is being consistently applied 
. I'm sure the Lions will take note of the failure to apply the breakdown and scrum laws properly. Referees are going to be one Northern Hemisphere and two Southern Hemisphere for the series. A least the Lions can pummel the Aussies fair and square for one match.
New South Wales hooker Robbie Farah made 52 tackles in the first State of Origin match last week, oh and he also suffered a broken nose and a fractured cheekbone during the game.
So, lessons learned from a weekend of test rugby:
Samoa can win games if they play rugby rather than engage in off the ball shenanigans.
France can make New Zealand work for a living if the mood takes them.
South Africa can run in 5 tries to 1 against Italy with only 43% of the possession and a nearly new team.
France played New Zealand this weekend??? Whaaa?? How did I miss that!!!!! O_O
Gonna blame the thesis writing, but as soon as it's turned in this afternoon, I'm digging through our cable box to see if it's available on replay.
Don't bother, Elemia. Several poor decisions in the first test that ruined the game. There is patently a different game played by both hemispheres and winning is dependant on who is refereeing. Not saying NZ are a poor side but when an average England team play them with a referee who applies the laws correctly they literally cannot keep the ball. The French simply didnt play in the final two tests.
Anyway watching the first Lions test. Cracking game.
One word: Phew.
Best team lost.
Hey Aussies, isn't the idea to kick the ball over and through the sticks 
Seemed like a nice warm up game for the main event on Wednesday.
What's the feeling on NSW? Can they over turn a 7 year loosing streak?
What's the feeling on NSW? Can they over turn a 7 year loosing streak?
As a Brit, I don't really have much invested in either side, I just like watching it as it is the highest level of rugby league. Having said that, NSW were very good in the first test and should have won by more, but there lines the problem, they lacked the killer instint to finish off Queensland. Also they were very lucky to have 13 men on the pitch, god knows how Gallen stayed on the pitch.
Their defence was brilliant though.
Then there is the issue of Johnathan Thurston, who was playing injuried in the first game, if he is fully fit, then NSW will really need to step it up. From a neutral point of view, I hope that Queensland win, and it comes down to a 3rd game decider, with NSW getting it.
I'm amazed at Samoa. After 2 weeks of success thanks to actually playing rugby they decide to get back to their usual foul play nonsense against South Africa.
Surprisingly the ref didn't like that and they got blown out of the game. Good performance by the Boks. Hard but clean, everyone contributed. New players and old warhorses pulled together.
Hopefully we can play like that in the Rugby Championship.
I must say that the tackle on SA's number 12 was one of the worst clothes-lines I have seen. I don't know if the highlights I saw had the same commentary team as you, but one guy was bemoaning the fact that a player was being redcarded...until the replay was shown.
Oh no, the commentators I had were very quick to pick that as a red as soon as it happened. No ball, high and straight arm.
One silly part was Tuilagi had just made one of the best, legal yet brutal tackles on Bryan Habana our no 11. Then he goes and has a brain fart like that.
This may be the best thing I ever read.
http://mobi.supersport.com/rugby/spr...
In those circumstances I determine on the balance of probabilities that the player did not intend to squeeze Strauss’s testicles, nor were his actions reckless. In the dynamic situation of a ruck in which he was attempting to clear out an opponent he attempted to grab hold of his shorts and accidentally grabbed his testicles
Well Queensland gave New South Wales a sound beating and lesson in rugby today. They were on a mission, after 20 mins of the game, Queensland had 10 sets and completed all of them, while NSW had just had 3. That made the tackle count 27 to QLS and 107 to NSW, no wonder they couldn't compete. It was perfect rugby.
State of Oranges confirmed as sports entertainment rather than actual sport. Commentators decrying that no one should have been sent off 'because the crowd love it'. What did they expect after Galen's effort last game.
It really was setup in that first 20 minutes. My friends in blue were sooking about the penalty count. Most penalties go to the team with the ball and that was certainly not nsw in the first quarter of the match.
That was a bog ordinary effort from the Wallabies. Genier put in a shocker going too wide to early I thought.
Great win though
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