Obviously this is neither big nor clever but I can’t help it, it makes me laugh every time I see it! In this video Adrian Morley clatters Robbie Kerns a mere 12 seconds into a Rugby League international between Great Britain and Australia.
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That’s got to be the question on the lips of every England fan as they prepare to play France at the Stade de France in the last game of the 2010 Six Nations. If you look back at their Six Nations performances this year it doesn’t make great reading.
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It’s been a bad week for the English national team. First the cricket team is embarrassed by the West Indies. Then the football team is taught a lesson by Spain. Finally the rugby union team takes a beating by Wales today. BUT at least on the rugby front things are looking up because that best I’ve seen England play in a couple of years!

Last week against Italy they score 5 tries, win the game comfortably but it was like watching paint dry. They was nothing but criticism for Martin Johnson men, constantly conceding possession and doing anything but run with the ball. However against Wales it looked a different team (except the first 15 minutes!) The ball was still kicked away a little too often for the purist but at least the backs were attempting to break the Welsh line. England even managed to Read the rest of this entry »

It’s going to be a fine night tonight, it’s going to be a great day tomorrow! Rugby hits the headlines again tomorrow with the start of the Super League season coinciding with the start of the Six Nations Rugby Union tournament! The big question is of course what to watch?
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…or do we just expect far too much?

Personally I think it’s a combination of the 2, we are a bit rubbish and we certainly do expect too much of our national teams.

At the weekend I had the pleasure of watching both our national Rugby teams get stuffed. Please remember the we invented the sport of Rugby. First of all in a game that we were hotly tipped to win easily (why, our tournament record was shit?) our Rugby League team got hammered by New Zealand. Despite a mini comeback at the end of the first half this was not a close game. We were well and truly battered. At no point in the game did we even look like winning, never mind making it a stroll in the park. Read the rest of this entry »

Was last week a false start? I think today we are going to find out just how Martin Johnson’s England Rugby Union team intend to play. This afternoon they face Australia in the first of 3 games against the top southern hemisphere teams with South Africa and New Zealand to follow.
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I’m just sat watching England Australia, it’s a complete and utter fucking stuffing. The Australians have battered the English. Yet the English commentators fully expect England to make it through to the final where more likely than not they’ll play Australia. If England are supposed to be the second best team in the world at the moment and they’re getting beat by more than 40 points by the best team, why even bother carrying on? Why not just give Australia the trophy now and call it a day?

Personally from what I’ve seen England don’t look anything like the second best team in the Rugby League world at the moment (Fiji, New Zealand anybody?). At least half the teams in this years Rugby League World Cup have looked better than England. So I wonder why the hell are we just presuming that we’ll be in the final, we’ll be nowhere but back home if we play the same way against New Zealand in the semi final. That’s what gives me hope for the tournament, that the “usual” teams get a wake up call.

I guess I know why they didn’t bother holding this tournament 4 years ago, because at the moment it’s hardly competitive is it?

It’s kicking of right about now (check out the twitter account for a link), not that you’d ever guess it because other than a little bit on the BBC news this morning the Rugby League World Cup seems to have gone right under the radar.  You’d think that having bypassed the 2004 world cup because of a worry about the viewing figures that they’d have made sure to overdo the hype machine this time around, doesn’t look like it though?

It’s a bloody shame because Rugby League is an excellent watch.  When you think of how much England get behind the national Rugby Union team with a little bit of publicity you could get the same for league. There are some problems with the competitiveness of the tournament and the organisers know it.  That’s why they’ve gone down the line of changing the group system so that the better teams stand a better chance of getting through to the later stages rather than having walkovers at the semi/final stage.

Anyhoo the first game is England versus Papa New Guinae, expect plenty of hard hitting violence.  This is the sort of thing Sky Sports should be covering, not fishing!

(ps don’t forget it’s the Anglo Welsh cup today as well, plenty of top draw Rugby action. As if you needed an excuse to sit on the sofa all day with beer! It’s pissing down out there).