tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73726243058175699372025-12-11T08:13:54.610+00:002007 World Cup Rugby news, views, Rugby Union betting tips plus results from World Cup Rugby in France 2007.mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-78349773775226365892007-06-17T16:29:00.000+00:002007-06-17T17:06:33.669+00:00

I hate to be a pessimist, but it's not looking good for New Zealand's rivals for the 2007 RWC. They steamrollered France 61-10 last week and defeated Canada 64-13 yesterday.The manner of the victory over Canada was laboured and disjointed for large parts of the game, but rather than giving Australia, South Africa or even England some hope, this is just another sign that the All Blacks are going

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-50231089894455658142007-06-17T16:24:00.000+00:002014-06-25T11:56:47.307+00:00

England rugby coach Brian Ashton has put together a 47 man squad for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. That's right: 47. Seems an odd sort of number, that. Not as odd as recalling Lawrence Dallaglio, but odd nevertheless. What is even odder is that Ashton admits he only knows five of his starting line up. Um, the World Cup starts in a couple of months. If you don't know who your starting

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-43629580973741652142007-04-04T20:13:00.000+00:002007-04-04T20:24:03.004+00:00

The head coach of Tonga Rugby Union - Adam Leach - resigned by email on Friday saying that "there is a dysfunctional situation in Tonga, they need to sort out the administration and management of the game over there."In essence, Leach, who managed to get Tonga into the World Cup Finals, is unhappy with the amount of interference with his team selection, claiming that "the last team chosen was

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-14216307018854364702007-04-03T15:36:00.000+00:002007-04-03T15:59:09.559+00:00

Despite claims last week that South African rugby was past the point of 'quota' systems and were only picking players on merit, it is very clear that race is still a big issue for the 'Boks.There have even been threats from Butana Komphela, the chairperson of South Africa's parliamentary committee on sport to confiscate the team's passports if "the team is not representative."By representative,

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-83329626158225356242007-04-02T18:50:00.000+00:002007-04-02T18:56:23.688+00:00

Full time celebrity and occasional rugby player Gavin Henson's cruciate knee ligament injury now means he won't play again this season.Unfortunately for the Welsh national team, this means that Henson is now doubtful for the rugby World Cup.When he's not messing around with Charlotte Church, trying to be the Welsh Posh n' Becks, Henson is a pretty useful player in a number of positions and he

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-52423496632138577602007-04-02T18:21:00.000+00:002007-04-02T18:49:05.943+00:00

England and Sale's Jason Robinson has stated he will retire from club rugby at the end of this season and from international rugby after the 2007 World Cup in France.Although Robinson had already retired from the international game once before, I don't think this will be a Frank Sinatra type retirement this time round.In my view, Robinson is one of the England 'old guard' who still has something

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-65158189218809528662007-04-01T19:33:00.000+00:002007-04-01T19:51:52.881+00:00

I must confess that I work in marketing, but I promise you I have never come out with anything resembling this load of old rubbish :"We take the view there are three pillars the All Black brand is marketed on," says NZRU commercial manager Fraser Holland. "Team performance, history and heritage, and New Zealand and its culture. There is no doubt that performance is the most important pillar."Um.

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-48601895147672869252007-03-31T14:52:00.000+00:002007-03-31T14:58:20.984+00:00

After weeks of speculation linking coach Marcelo Loffreda with the Leicester Tigers, the president of rugby union in Argentina, Alejandro Risler has come out and said that Loffreda will stay with Argentina until after the World Cup.Risler said :"I'm sure that the Leicester's offer is in recognition of Loffreda's work with the Pumas in the last eight years. We are going to think about his

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-77542026075306148762007-03-30T16:47:00.000+00:002007-03-30T16:50:51.443+00:00

Do you ever get the feeling that some websites just don't have enough news?Today's World Cup rugby non-story is...wait for it, it's a goodie....Jonah Lomu Tips All Blacks To Win World Cup.I know. A real surprise, that one. You would never have guessed, would you?

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-33540334418394091572007-03-30T15:21:00.000+00:002007-03-30T15:55:32.725+00:00

It now looks likely that highly regarded Cheetahs coach Rassie Erasmus will be used "as a consultant" to the South Africa national team at the rugby World Cup in France 2007.This has been confirmed by Andy Marinos, who is South Africa's manager of national teams (whatever one of them is).From the perspective of the Springboks, it makes good sense to utilise as much rugby knowledge as possible to

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-18138539281416231892007-03-29T15:02:00.000+00:002007-03-29T15:10:29.956+00:00

Loved this interview with England Rugby Football Union chief executive Francis Baron regarding England's chances of holding on the World Cup.There's nothing like a positive outlook to help your team along. And Baron really does have NOTHING LIKE a positive outlook.Not only are England in "a development phase", but it is "a big ask" to expect England to defend their title and he even goes so far

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-38798696436080450872007-03-27T21:56:00.000+00:002007-03-27T22:05:24.729+00:00

It seems that Lawrence Dallaglio - an England back of the old school - has finally accepted that he has pretty much no chance of playing for England in the 2007 rugby World Cup Finals.In an interview with the Daily Express, Dallaglio shows his awareness of his position within both the Wasps and England set-up and accepts that he isn't even first choice for his club side.“It has been a different

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-52164725638193382362007-03-27T20:41:00.000+00:002007-03-27T20:57:39.429+00:00

OK, UK terrestrial channel ITV has announced that French car manufacturer Peuguot and EDF Energy are the first sponsors of their 2007 World Cup Rugby coverage.It's hardly glamourous and exciting news but it still amuses me - and I'm sure a large proportion of the English public - that EDF Energy seem to sponsor anything and everything and yet still no one knows what they actually do.Postscript:

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-14550425025233442492007-03-26T15:37:00.000+00:002007-03-26T15:43:01.056+00:00

Following neatly on from my last blog post, there's a good article here about the pointless-ness (is that a word?) of end of season tours in a World Cup year.The author - Peter Jackson - points out that France arranging a tour of New Zealand and England playing out in South Africa only a couple of months before the Finals is probably not a very good idea.It's kinda stating the obvious, I agree.

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-35085861478345605132007-03-26T14:53:00.000+00:002007-03-26T16:46:47.391+00:00

Perverse rugby story of the week is this one :The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) are upset with their Argentine counterparts because they can't get confirmation of venues for two proposed Ireland rugby tests in Argentina this summer. They are considering cancelling the tour as no one in Argentina has a clue about, well, any of it, really.The strange thing is that Ireland don't really want to

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-49012423234309763392007-03-25T11:06:00.000+00:002007-03-25T11:11:15.534+00:00

Yesterday's play-off second leg between Portugual and Uruguay ended with an 18-12 victory to Uruguay, but it is Portugal who qualify for the World Cup rugby finals, having held a 7 point advantage from the first leg.The Portuguese get to be whipping boys for a group that includes favourites New Zealand, Scotland, Italy and Romania but right now, all here at world cup rugby blog wish them all the

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-44141473321652124442007-03-23T21:24:00.000+00:002007-03-23T21:56:04.466+00:00

Here's one that will annoy the New Zealanders that read this blog (hi Caroline !) :Always charming Australia rugby boss Gary Flowers has suggested that the New Zealand players rested for the Super 14 may have put on a few pounds.Oh, alright, he's said that they've got fat and aren't the force everyone thinks they are.It's always good to see some rumours replacing news as the rugby World Cup

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-25122260988575364792007-03-23T19:48:00.000+00:002007-03-23T19:58:08.205+00:00

The IRB is trying to restrict press coverage of the 2007 rugby world cup in France by setting out limitations on the number of photos and amount of video coverage that can be shown on the internet.You can read the full details at WorldCupWeb but essentially the International Rugby Board are saying that only 30 seconds of video footage, 5 photos per half and 2 photos from extra time may be used on

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-56745614843330837822007-03-22T18:58:00.000+00:002007-03-22T21:05:44.641+00:00

Anyone thinking of having a little bet on the rugby World Cup would be mad to look much past the All Blacks. They have such strength in depth that they could put out a reserve team and still win the damn thing.Their real international rivals - France, South Africa; maybe Australia and Ireland - just don't have that level of depth and experience.And much of it can be put down to coach Graham

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-28955296906501332462007-03-22T18:19:00.000+00:002007-03-22T18:31:29.345+00:00

The 2007 rugby World Cup hasn't even had it's first game yet and already there is talk of going back to the 16 team tournament of years past. Syd Millar of the IRB has suggested that New Zealand 2011 might be the first world cup since 1995 with sixteen teams.Apologists for this view suggest that this will avoid "lopsided scorelines which benefit neither the winners....nor the losers".Sorry to

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-51558955060010710772007-03-21T23:08:00.000+00:002007-03-21T23:35:22.130+00:00

With the second leg of the play off between Portugal and Uruguay approaching fast (March 24th to be exact), it appears that the interest in rugby is coming alive in both countries.The Portuguese government has increased funding for the sport, and is building of new facilities for rugby inside the national stadium and with Portugal the most likely to qualify (they won the first leg 12-5) the

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-33722642744827199472007-03-21T20:37:00.000+00:002007-03-22T18:30:34.782+00:00

With Rob Andrew backing Johnny Wilkinson to be an important part of England's World cup rugby squad plus Mike Catt's intention to postpone his retirement until after the tournament, I've got to ask the question: are either of these men really who England needs as fly half during a major tournament.Catt will be nearly 36 when the 2007 RWC starts and his hamstrings surely can't take the strain. I

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7372624305817569937.post-40117004125446856932007-03-17T19:27:00.001+00:002007-03-21T19:03:30.642+00:00

With the 2007 rugby World Cup less than six months away, I'd like to welcome you to the World Cup Rugby Blog with a little reminder of what you are all missing.It's a video from YouTube contrasting the last rugby World Cup final with the last football World Cup final.Just watching the footballers dive around like they've been poleaxed is amusing in itself, but when you contrast it with the climax

mark_shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12943304823090212030noreply@blogger.com0