There are some rivalries that transcend their sport. India v Pakistan, The Ashes, City v United, Spurs v Arsenal, Everton v Liverpool, Michael Jordan v Isaiah Thomas, Nadal v Federer. As much as the home nations, and France are united in their hatred of England, it is safe to say that rugby’s most celebrated rivalry is New Zealand and South ...
To say that Rassie Erasmus has the most difficult job in world rugby would not be an understatement. The Springboks are not just a rugby team, which he can select on form and talent. They are a symbol – a heavily weighted one – of the rainbow nation and its bipolar relationship with the sports team. To add to Rassie’s ...
New Zealand’s RWC pedigree reads: Champions, Semis, Runner-Up, Quarters, Semis, Quarters, Champions, Champions, Semis. Not a terrible return. Ireland’s World Cup pedigree reads: Never beyond a quarter final. So it is improbable to think that we we are now at an RWC quarter final and Ireland are the top-seed going into the Stade De France on Saturday. Perennial RWC favourites ...
In terms of time, column inches, broadcast minutes and impatience for it to come around, I don’t think there has been a game this anticipated, since perhaps the third Lions’ Test in 2017. The entire rugby world, neutral and supporter alike, were waiting for kick off at the Stade De France. Much of the lead up to most tournaments, whether ...
I’m up at 6 and somehow don’t seem to want to wake up. It’s hot these days but the sun doesn’t come up till well after 7am which takes some getting used to. I drag myself out of bed and pack for a couple of days. I expected this to be autumny and didn’t pack a lot of Sri Lanka ...
It’s Saturday, and after two days of mad running around, I have a bit of a lie in. Plenty on the cards in terms of matches, but two are foregone conclusions with Italy purring into a bit of confidence over Namibia who were brave in their game and Ireland smashing the daylights out of Romania. Many people will talk about ...
It’s game day! What a build up this game has had so far, much more than even RSA v NZ from 2019 in Tokyo. I check my e mail again, just to make sure I wasn’t sleep walking, and confirm that my ticket is, indeed, approved. After a massively tiring previous day, I stay in all morning. It’s easy to ...
It’s 7am when I touch down at CDG. Make it off the plane pretty quickly and bid adieu to Jack and Kathy, from Melbourne who I befriended on 6 hour journey from Doha. They are here to watch their 15 year old grandson play rugby and hopefully watch the Wallabies beat Wales. The immigration queue is long, but moves relatively ...
The news that Upekha Fernando was in hospital and having his leg amputated at the ankle, reverberated on all the WhatsApp groups that had even the fewest Thomians on it. It was then that it struck me what a profound impact he had on all of us who were either his contemporaries, juniors, or old boys young enough to be ...
Sunny English summer days are often described as ‘glorious’. I never understood why, because every non-monsoonal day in Sri Lanka is glorious, by that definition. It is the rarity which begets the glory, you see. And a glorious, sunny day, would have ushered in an incongruous end to Sri Lanka’s limited over tour of England. As it turned out, the ...
The fourth Bledisloe Cup test between holders New Zealand, and Australia in Brisbane, ended up being far more than just a dead rubber. The game served up two red cards and two yellow cards and may have seen more cards being dished out if TV pundits were allowed to be sent off for unbecoming behaviour as well. John Kirwan and ...
‘Destiny’ is a funny word. A word that most people writing about sporting events don’t use unless they can help it. But there are very few alternatives in the thesaurus to describe South Africa’s third RWC triumph in as many finals appearances. Given their dismal performances soon after the semi-final showing in the 2015 edition, Rassie Erasmus’ climb was much ...
For the first time in two weeks at the RWC, a high profile coach has not given the media a selection bombshell. First the omission of George Ford, by Eddie Jones prior to the quarter final, and also last week’s controversial inclusion of Scott Barrett in the third row by Steven Hansen. This week, Erasmus and Jones have stuck with ...
The All Blacks are the best team in the world. Not the best rugby team in the world, the best TEAM in the world, across any sport, through the passage of time. They are in hallowed company along with Phil Jackson’s Bulls, Ferguson’s United and Steve Waugh’s Australians. That’s just the recent company, not taking cognisance of Pele’s Brazil. So ...
The fact that the All Blacks are out of the RWC is almost old news now. At least, insofar as an All Blacks loss is ever old news. Usually, any loss they suffer is marred by controversy or spectacle. Late penalties converted by the Lions, red cards gifting the Wallabies a rare triumph or moments of magic from Cheslin Kolbe ...
Tomorrow’s World Cup semi-final is not so much a rugby match between two teams, as a chess match between too coaches. I’ve never watched competitive chess, and don’t understand how hundreds of people could watch Kasparov and Karpov stare into the board willing each other to make a mistake. But that’s only because I don’t understand chess to extent that ...
“We’ve been preparing for this match for two and a half years” says England coach Eddie Jones, inviting journalists to “Do the math. If we top our group and they top their group and we win our quarterfinals it’s a semi-final against the All Blacks. We’ve known that for some time”. This was on the Tuesday in game week. A ...
Being the only brown journalist in the post-match press conferences at Asia’s first Rugby World Cup, it’s difficult not to feel a little conspicuous, and a little lonely. The world is here, in Tokyo, but apart from the Japanese press following their own team, the world is largely white. Watching, as I do, the Rugby World Cup Daily Show religiously, ...
Rugby is no longer a fifteen man game. It is a twenty three man game, and in the World Cup it is a game where squad depth means pretty much everything over a six week tournament. World Cup favourites, the All Blacks, named their squad last week and the immediate flutterings after the announcement have now died down. Owen ...
Last week, after the draw against the Springboks on home soil, I asked if the cumulative performances of this All Black team were telling a tale most fans have shrugged, shuddered and closed the book on. Then, out of nowhere, for the first time in 17 years, the Australians left the All Blacks winless in two consecutive games. The ...