Anyway, I have my Sky TV on order, and it arrives in time for day two of the second test, but apart from that, what with a lack of sports channels, and a rather large amount of this white dusty stuff, I haven’t seen a huge amount of sport, but one thing that stands out is poor old Rafa Benitez, 6 months in, just won the World Club Championship, and he has been sacked on the eve of Christmas Eve by Inter. To be fair though, if Liverpool had done that with him, they might not be in the state they are now!!

So with the snow clearing, England looking to bounce back from the disastrous defeat in the last test, in which they put up about as much as a fight as Audley Harrison, and with the Festive season bringing a whole raft of fixtures in the world of sport, I reckon it’s time to get my blog back on!!

I’ve just managed to get a job in my local too, to fund my writing addiction, and I’m still going to be riding a whole world of bikes in my Motorcycle Diaries, plus, plus some rather exciting meetings lined up in the world of media for January, and I must admit, it is truly amazing to be back home amongst the greatest set of friends and family a guy could ever have.

Honestly, sometimes, I feel it’s so easy to forget just what’s really important in life, and coming home really makes you remember that, especially if the important things in life boil down to my mum’s awesome cooking!!

Anyway, time to be away and wrap my presents, unfortunately due to my work situation, my family wont bet getting Ferrari’s and Ponies this year, in fact even the price of coal has risen so much (ps. old people would probably actually love some coal for Xmas........it could keep them warm for hours) so that they will have to make do with a carrot.

Hey a Carrot is for life, not just for Xmas!! Anyway, I might returneth with another blog tomorrow, if not though, well can I just wish you all a very Happy, merry, and festive Christmas, this will be the first one in about 8 years I can spend the whole thing at home with my family...............unfortunately for them ;-)!

PS I love how the news is asking for people with 4x4 cars to make themselves available for elderly neighbours and relatives............I never knew old people were so into off-roading..............hang on was that a joke.............I think it was.........sorry.

Audley has announced today he will continue as a “boxer”, despite suffering one of the worse defeats in history, since I foolishly decided to take on my brother in the Rumble in the Suburbs...circa 1988......in my mum’s front room. Back then my brother boxed amateurly, I was only 7, and he was 18. Plus to make if even more one sided, we only had one set of gloves, which I foolishly persuaded my brother to let me wear (as I thought I would be a proper boxer) without realising that getting hit by an ungloved hand hurts a lot more than a gloved one!

Hell even in that fight, although it may have been as one sided as the supposed Battle of Britain, and trust me it lasted a lot shorter, at least I got more than one punch off, I mean Harrison threw on punch...........one punch................I mean if you take into account the money he made that must be the best £ to punch ratio ever managed by a fighter!

I genuinely found myself caught up in the hype for the Haye vs. Harrison fight, with Haye coming across as focussed, determined, successful (or as we Brit’s like to call it...arrogant) to Harrisons understated, nice guy, underdog persona, and at points, the boxing logic part of my brain (yes I have one.........and yes more surprisingly I do have a brain!) shut down to allow me to believe that maybe, just maybe, the gentle giant Harrison could win!

The sad fact is though, Harrison didn’t even deserve to be in the ring with the World Champion, and it seemed to just be a fitting and the final chapter in Audleys embarrassing career that promised so much, but delievered so little, after his Olympic success.

Is Audley that bad a boxer? Obviously not, I mean the guy was a superb young prospect, and seemed to have all of the tools, but making the step up to the big time, he just never seemed to have the right head on.

His career just seemed to go from one joke to another, and every time he stepped in the ring he looked about as energetic as Santa on Boxing Day, and seemed to have no cutting edge. Is it because he is such a nice guy, maybe he doesn’t have that selfish side to him? That ruthlessness that allows you to push yourself harder and faster than your opponent in training and in the ring, perhaps he truly believes all of his hype and feels he doesn’t need to make an effort, hell, maybe he is a pacifist, who knows, the fact is that he has failed to deliver the goods for over a decade now, and that he could even still get a fight with the World Champion should be alarming.

So what does Audley have left to achieve, surely at the age of 39, any matches now will be almost pantomime esque, as people are lured to watch a lame tiger try and justify the hype the industry built up around him? You have to ask, what is he trying to achieve now? Is he doing it for the money? Does he truly believe he can still win a world title? Should any of us care....probably not!

As a fighter, who had so much promise, it must drive him mad not to deliver on it, and he seems as equally non plussed about it as us, but like in life, if you keep letting people down by promising the moon on a stick and not delivering, people tend to get annoyed, and it will be interesting to see how much mileage his career has left. As a truly nice guy, and someone who I think means well, I do wish him luck in the future, but personally, I think it’s time we moved on, and focused on true boxing talents, like the aforementioned Haye, and Carl Froch who pretty much put on one of the best displays of the year, some might say faultless, against Arthur Abraham in Finland on Saturday, yet got hardly any press exposure!

Another nice guy, Froch is genuinely world class, and I personally would love to see him get the credit he deserves, because this guy is truly a talent who can deliver in the ring!

Maybe Harrison should do the right thing and join Henson on Strictly!

As for the snow, my dog Murphy is loving it, and for once, not working has its benefits as I get to spend most of the day playing with him in it, but it’s not exactly great for the sporting world! It seems as though the ice age has actually cometh, instead of developing ways of combating the freezing conditions (such as under soil heating, Snoods etc) maybe we should change our sports to be more compatible with the new weather? More on this tomorrow!

Be excellent to each other compadres!

It is with a sad heart I leave, but it was time to move on, and pursue my next goal, within the field of sport. You can probably guess by the dwindling number of posts on here, I was getting less and less time to write and do work for 5 Live, so I thought, why not try and do that full time!

Anyway, watch this space!

One of the great benefits of being unemployed, apart from watching my dopey dog playing in the snow, has been the freeing up of my time for the important things, bear wrestling with my dog, drinking coffee, and watching rubbish films.................I mean.........erm to watch lots of sport!

Yes the last week saw England draw the first Ashes test at the Gabba, following what can only be described as a sensational, record breaking partnership for England by Cook and Trott. Honestly, watching them negotiate that tricky final mornings play was tenser than watching a fat person, who is on a crash diet, in a cake shop. The potential for collapse was always there, but the guys batted brilliantly, and how demoralising will it be for Australia to bowl all day for 0 wickets?? Especially on a fifth day Gabba pitch! Cooky and Trott, any doubts anyone ever had over your temperament couldn’t have been answered in any better way!

Anyhoo, it is definitely us Poms who will have the spring in their step come the 2^nd test, and I reckon this is turning into a bit of a special England team!

The rugby this autumn has been fascinating, first our loss to NZ, in which we showed massive signs of improvement, the simply scintillating display against Australia, a bruising match against the Samoans, and next up was the World Champions South Africa and wow, did England learnt just why a cornered Springbok is so dangerous. They had a real point to prove following their results on this tour, and England must have felt they were there for the taking, but it was not me to be for Johnsons men, and they learnt a very important lesson. After the precision of the Australia game, England were smashed about the park by the Saffers, and while they gave as good as they got (Big Ted and Thommo can hold their heads especially high!) the brute force of the South African game disrupted us.

Still, we may have gone down for the 7th time in a row against the South Africans, but I really think these Autumn tests have shown us the promise we have going forward to the World Cup in 2011. Firstly, players like Lawes and Croft (who unfortunately damaged his shoulder against SA) have shown that just because you are a big unit, it doesnt mean you can’t be exceptional athletes too! I also thought Young’s looked awesome, although he needs to pass from the base of ruck more, as he does that really annoying thing of taking a step with the ball first, which allows the oppo extra time to get up in defence, and until the last game I thought Flood had been on fire!

I’m still not convinced by Cueto, sure he has rediscovered his best form, but I still don’t feel he is a game breaker, and he is too similar a player to Ashton, I would like to see some real attacking talent on the wing, maybe Varndell, or another option like Vainikolo back. I would also like to see Banahan play at outside centre more, as after a shaky start, he showed real promise, and I feel that Tindall’s time has past, and Armitage has lost a shocking amount of form, but Foden has shown what attacking rugby at 15 is all about

.he has been immense in this series!

Anyway, after all of these games to get us in the mood, Scotland's resurgence, Wales stumbling and Irelands inconsistency, it should be one hell of a 6 nations!

Anyone else think Tottenham are looking a bit good at the moment? Yes Man Utd are back to the top with the 7-2 drubbing of Blackburn, which by the way has probably earned Berbatov a few more years at Old Trafford, but surely it is Tottenham, who with the midweek win in the Champions League, and their incredible comeback at the Emirates, managed to come from behind to beat Liverpool.

Now when you look at the league table, sure they may seem some way off, but Our ‘Arry definitely has a way of getting the best out of his players, and of course he does have Bale! I think this could be a much closer league than last year, not only could any of the bottom 10 go down, but at the top, Man City, Spurs and Bolton looked to have really upped their game. Anyway time will tell I suppose!

It has only just dawned on me, that by having my weekends free again, I can actually start playing a bit of rugby again...ohh and cricket on a Saturday!! Woo!

Yeah so really everything is a bit up in the air at the moment, I’m mostly going ot be focusing on the sports side of things, and maybe doing a few music shows somewhere down the line, but one thing is for certain, with all of this time on my hands, I will have lot more time to post here!

You lucky crazy cats! Oh and with the snow, the Bike front is nonexistent at the moment, although I might pop down to the bike show this week!

I shall blog back tomorrow, with my thoughts on the rotation of crops in small allotments, and why the BOC needs to employ Gnomes.................honest ;-)

Sure Arsenal always seem to play well in the group stages of Europe, but it must be said, this year I have been very impressed by the way the team seems to have a bit more balance to it. More experience e in defence, good holding players in midfield when needed, with Diaby and Song, the creativity of Wilshere and that certain young Spaniard, and of course when you have a wealth of attacking talent like Walcott, Van Persie, Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky, Chamakh, and even Bendtner (no sniggering) it is looking like Wenger has built a squad to win the Champions League........I hope!! Oh and it was also wicked to see Eduardo fit and scoring again, even if it was odd seeing him score one for the oppo at the Emirates!

Anyway, it’s also great to see an England prospect like Wilshere shine on the biggest stage at the tender age of 18, his fearlessness reminds me of a certain teenager that came on for Everton against Arsenal as a sub and smashed a screamer to win the game................whatever happened to that lad Rooney?

Oh yeah, he had the world at his feet, at one of the biggest clubs in the Zooniverse, and he has decided he isn’t happy? Now I feel two things about this, firstly, you’re a professional sportsmen, whatever things are going on in your personal life, sort them out, stick with the club that has stuck by you and stop being such a child, secondly, I want to see him playing his best again, and if he feels that is not going to happen with United, fair play, time for pastures new.

I almost feel he should go abroad, get away from the tabloid pressure, and start a fresh, but I also feel he should be a man, take responsibility for his actions, and sort it out. Either way, I can imagine most the managers of the big clubs in the world made a call to their Chairman yesterday saying, how much ya got to spend? Even Harry Redknapp chirped up, although I don’t think I could take Rooney in a Spurs top!

Away from all the speculation, how about Stoner at the Aussie MotoGP on Sunday, honestly, he may as well just been given the race before hand, the only thing that was going to stop him winning was another of his far to regular crashes this year, and after the drama of last week, it was a shame that he and Lorenzo had such a huge gap between each other, and the following pack. At least Rossi and Haden made it interesting for 3^rd, which was made even more intriguing by the fact they are teammates next year, and I really can’t wait now for next season now, when Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo will be going hammer and tong at each other once more!

I had a day of on Sunday for the first time in weeks, and I decided to make the most of it, by watching the aforementioned MotoGP and then a whole world of European Rugby, and my goodness, how good were Leicester? They have had a bit of a miss-firing season so far, but they way they dismantled a dangerous Scarlet’s side showed that they are finally getting things right!

I thought Young’s and Flood looked deadly in attack, the Tuilagi brothers were immense once more, and wow our forwards are blooming ace too! Okay the Scarlet’s aren’t a Munster or Stade Francais, but they showed how dangerous they can be with their try just before half time, and the way in which we responded blew me away. The Tigers put down a marker for the rest of the British teams in the Competition, and bring on the next round I say!

This week I have mostly been chatting to Slipknot, Alter Bridge and Rob Zombie on my new evening show, and also working hard on getting myself back to match fitness, admittedly in still working on the basic strength side of things the fun cardio starts next week, but it’s actually going really well! One day I might actually break into a run again.......one day! I’m also massively looking forward to Supersonic Festival this weekend in Brum, where I work as a roadie for my Johnny Doom, it gives me a chance to see a festival from the other side, and I love the vast diversity of experimental music on display, so I will blog back next week once I’ve caught up with the weekends sporting action!

Be Excellent to each other!

The Heineken Cup made a triumphant return, and while it was great to see Europe’s premiere rugby competition return, it was a bit of a wakeup call for some with Bath and Wasps losing out in gripping encounters, my beloved Tigers just scrapping a win against underdogs Benetton (and boy was it close, nice one Tuilagi) and London Irish pipping Munster at home in a huge win at the Madejski.

The MotoGP out in Sepang gave us one of the best races of the season, and you can have no doubt how much it meant for the wise old master Rossi, to be on top of the podium with the newly crowned Jorge Lorenzo looking up from 3^rd, as all riders would say, he may have won the title, but “I’m the fastest!”. Honestly, I have massively enjoyed this season, even with Rossi out, Pedrosa blowing his chances off the title with his injury, and Stoner misfiring, it may have been a procession for Lorenzo (and who can argue with his consistency) but we have seen some amazing racing. Just think of next year, when you will have Rossi lining up for Ducati, Lorenzo for Yamaha, Stoner for Honda.............I’m actually drooling at the thought of it!

If that wasn’t enough, my weekend was made even better by Sunday afternoon, when the Bee’s won their first game of the Championship season at Damson Park against Esher. I am very privileged to be involved with the boys at the club, and I am loving doing the match Pitch side announcements, but if anything, seeing them run out there each week is spurring me on even more to get back match fit, which I must say is going rather well by the way!

The Bee’s really do play some of the best rugby you will ever get to see, sure it may not be as structured as some of the bigger clubs in the league, but with their improved size in the forwards, and with players like Semi and Adrian Griffiths in the back row, who bring bulk, and incredible ball handling skills and off loading abilities, honestly, they are one of the hardest teams to defend against I have ever seen. They can do structured, but when they go all “Headless chicken" style, they simply rip clubs apart! Esher were good, and either side of half time scored tries to give us Bee’s fans a moment of worry (as it is the 2^nd half that has let them down so far this season) but if anything the boys stepped up a gear, and by scoring 6 tries, they really did a demolition job on the boys from the South.

Nice work lads, bring on the next home game!!!

I can’t tell you how much I am loving the evening show at Kerrang too, as I really do have the freedom now to play whatever I want, and having spent 8 years in radio, dreaming of this kind of job, I am having so much fun!

Training is going really well too at the legendary Arch 20 Gym in the Jewellery Quarter, although I made the school boy error of going a bit too heavy too early on my dead lifts, and now I’m walking around like the hunchback of Notre Dame, but I am surprised at how quickly my body is responding to the strength work, and now all I need to do is get cracking with the cardio.........................the bit that really hurts lol! That starts next week!

Anyway, best get back to listening to the mountain of new music I want to get through, and making my training meals for later, I’ll try and blog over the weekend, and spare a thought for my poor doggy Murphy who has had his manhood *ahem* removed.....................doesn’t he look cute!!

No, instead the US mounted an awesome charge, and unbelievably it went down to the final match between McDowell and Mahan, and right down to the penultimate hole..............now that’s pressure. I must admit, having played a number of sports over the years, pretty much all team sports, I simply cannot imagine what it must have been like to stand over that putt at the 17^th knowing that a miss could cost your team, and continent the sport’s biggest prize.

Hold his nerve he did though, and I must admit, Monty deserved this more than any major win he has failed to deliver over the years. Often a man given a lot of stick for his moody demeanour and seemingly petulant behaviour, I thought the European Captain was simply awesome the whole way through the tournament, he came across as confident, intelligent, savvy, and downright likeable, and his decisions were all spot on, including leaving McDowell as the final singles player, as he knew he was the man to deliver in the pressure cooker esque environment.

Fair play boys, I’m not the biggest golf fan, but even I couldn’t take my eyes off the tournament as it progressed over the weekend, and a lot of praise should also go to the fans who made it such an awesome environment for some of the best players in the world to battle it out, oh special mention to Ian Poulter too, who I thought was the player of the tournament over the 4 days! Yay, take that America!

Oh and having caught up on the MotoGP yesterday from Japan, I must say, putting aside the fact that Stoner won at a canter, and Dovizioso rode superbly, wasn’t it awesome to see Rossi and Lorenzo battling it out hammer and tongs for the entire duration of the race. When it came to the final few laps, you just assumed Jorge would ease off and simply canter to 4^th place, as with Pedrosa out, the Championship is surely his, but no, he went at it with the Doctor, and what a race they had, with Rossi nailing him once again in the final few corners!

On a personal note, I kicked off my brand new In Demand show on Kerrang last night, and I don’t thing I’ve ever had as much fun with my clothes on as I did between the hours of 7-10pm last night, as I have in my whole life. As a presenter I have never been focused on talking about myself, or “What’s in the papers/soaps” as some do, for me it’s all about the music (apart from on my Offside show where it’s obviously all about the sport) and to have a show where I literally get to play the freshest newest tunes, along with some awesome old school classics, with no one telling me what to do music wise, was the most liberating thing ever!!

Bring on 7pm tonight, when I get to do it all again!

Okay I may have been joking about the make-up, but not the hair, and rumour has it, now that I am 1 month back into full time training, there may even be a chance for me to play a bit of rugby again, but we shall see!

Firstly, it has been a huge gap since my last blog, and so much has happened, where to start? Well now I have my days to focus on the sporting side of things (and no, not just heading to Tamworth to snowboard all day!) I will be writing a lot more often, especially, as on my first day off, I’ve only landed the awesomeness of the final day of the Ryder Cup, the start of the Commonwealth games, and even India vs. Australia at cricket! Also because I have no actively started to contribute to BBC radio Five Live, and hopefully, after my special report on the Women’s Rugby World Cup, you’ll be hearing a lot more of me on that certain bastion of British Sporting genius.

I’m also the new pitch side announcer for the Birmingham Bee’s, so you’ll be getting a lot more updates from my fave Championship rugby side, as I will be watching all of their home games, and I hope they can turn around there start to the season which has so far seen them lose all of their games!

I have also been doing a whole world of stuff in the world of motorbikes as I’m sure you are aware, and I was gutted yesterday that the final Round of the British Moto X championships at Hawkstone was called off, especially as we drove for 2 hours to get there, and were forced to turn around half a mile from the track due to flooded roads, although the event was in itself then called off, which was such a shame for my Express Insurance team mate Jake Nicholls who was in 2^nd place and had a chance of winning the title with 75 points up for grabs. Ah well, you can’t beat the British weather it seems!

Anyway, as I write this, Europe are 9.5 to 6.5 over the USA in the Ryder Cup, and we are also ahead in most of the singles matches currently underway, so I will crack on with watching that , and catching up on the Moto GP action from the weekend, and blog back tomorrow with my thoughts, one sad thing was watching Arsenal lose to Chelsea at the weekend, especially as I genuinely though we were the better team, but once more, it just shows that the big name players such as Drogba, can make such a difference...............Chamakh just isn’t quite there yet, but hey ho.............so much for another season ;-)

Right then, I best get cheering on Europe, and also get my lazy arse to the gym, currently 13 stone, only another 3 to go before I’m back at playing weight lol!

Until next time!

Well I suppose that’s what I should have expected now I’m the big 30, and more importantly this was the first season where I haven’t been playing rugby beforehand.........but still...............wtf??

I used to be the uber fit guy who would rip into everyone else when they moaned about being sore from playing a bit of cricket, don’t get me wrong I have always played hard, but come on...compared to rugby it’s not exactly “Hardcore” but yet, it has taken me till today to be able to move enough to actually enjoy taking my dog for a walk!

Ah well, could be worse, we could have lost! I am glad to say all the pain was worth it as in my first full league cricket game for almost two years, not only did we managed to win, but I grabbed 3-32, a catch, and was a part of the winning batting partnership as we chased down 166 to win against Olton and WW, not bad for an old man! I must admit as well how much I genuinely enjoyed playing on Sunday too, roll on the next game this weekend, and perhaps, just perhaps it’s time I got back in the gym........either that or get a wheelchair and a full time masseuses!

It was such a good win, we managed to get showered and changed in time to watch the World Cup final................and wow do I almost wish I hadn’t, what an awful game, the only pleasure I took was in predicting the result and score perfectly by saying that Spain would win 1-0............but unluckily I don’t bet, so even that wasn’t much consolation!

The World Cup has been an odd one, I am starting to think that the media pressure and incredible hype around the sporting world’s biggest tournament in this day of the magical interweb, has meant that teams now approach each game with so much fear, as they daren’t make a mistake and lose, that they simply can’t go out and play.

The hosts South Africa deserve immense credit for the tournament, after all, it is not their fault the world’s best players didn’t turn up, but it will genuinely go down as one of the worst ever world cups for me in terms of football played, only really Germany, and some magical moments from teams like Japan even attempted to light the blue touch paper, and I reckon we need a major rethink, or a huge amount invested in sports psychology for the players, before 2014 rolls around.

Better news was the English winning the One Day series against Bangladesh, especially in the way they simply destroyed the Tigers in the deciding one day. It was good for Bangladesh to grab their first win against England, but you have to say that unless they can improve their pitches back home to breed better seam bowlers, they will never be able to truly compete on the world stage, which is a shame as I think they have some amazingly talented batsmen!

I was very happy with the way all of the players brought in during this series, including Bopara, Shazad, Trott and Bell all stepped up to the plate, along with established players like Swann and Broad outdoing themselves, and with Swanny and KP to come back, England really do have an embarrassment of riches coming through the ranks now, maybe it’s the Academy and lions systems already repaying dividends!!

Either way, bring on the Ashes man!

The F1 wasn’t bad either, with Webber’s win bringing about some rather unsubtle taunting of his teams bosses, and after nicking his nose cone to put on Vettel's car in qualifying, understandably so, but I thought the real story was Jenson Buttons drive from the back, and Hamilton’s excellent 2^nd place which keeps him top of the Championship. There is still a very long way to go, but I really fancy these McLaren boys to edge it over the superior cars of the Red Bulls, especially as there test drivers aren’t at each other’s throats and trying ot run each other off the course at every turn.

Silverstone was magnificent in the sunshine, and I hope that will be the case when I go down tomorrow with Michael Dunn, the competition winner on my show, who gets to come and attend the California Superbike school with myself................and I can’t wait!

Awesome news that I have just heard as well, is that all of the Birmingham & Solihull Bee’s home games next season are to be played on a Sunday, unfortunately the rumours that this has been organised to try and tempt me out of retirement and back into a Bee’s shirt (as I do my Offside show on a Saturday and so can’t play) can’t be confirmed right now, but no matter what you can bet I will be there to watch every week at the very least!

Right I best get to bed, and rest my weary old bones, as I have to be up at 5am tomorrow to get to Silverstone, and as I have found out to my peril, my body just isn’t what it used to be J!

Yes the World Cup, I have watched every game, and what can I say, I’ve loved it! As a passionate and fervent England fan, of course I was dreadfully disappointed, in fact I actually am almost beyond caring, simply because watching England’s supposed “Golden Generation” was like watching petulant children arguing over who gets what toy in kindergarten.

Yes, there may have been issues in the camp, but I don’t care, they are all grown adults, and they should take responsibility for their actions as men. No excuses, it’s as simple as that, no amount of tension in the camp, or confusion over a 4-4-2 system we have been playing since dinosaurs ruled the earth are excuses, in fact, I hate excuses.

It’s simple, as men, and I don’t mean as footballers, but as men who should show pride in everything they do, we simply don’t have any. Honestly, while England were limping through a World Cup they had enough talent to win, I watched the England rugby team beat an Aussie side they had no right to beat. Know how they did it? Passion and desire, something which our football players seem to know nothing about.

I’m sorry to be so condemning of my national team, but I’m being serious when I say I genuinely feel a bunch of passionate amateurs would have shown more heart than our lads did. I love football, but unfortunately, with the amount of diving, and dishonesty that is now core within the game, what do you expect? If you raise people to play with no pride in themselves, how will they have pride in their country?

People keep saying that they play well every week for their club, why can’t they do it for their country.......simples, they get paid playing for their club and it’s their careers on the line, while with England, they can play as badly as they want, and they still go back to their jobs. Pride, something you can’t buy, but that comes from within......think I’m being harsh, well how about when we were playing badly, why didn’t one of these so called superstars go looking for the ball, trying to turn the game around? I’m sorry, when you are that good, you can have an effect on a game, hell I’m a good Sunday morning footballer, nothing more, but I could have made a bigger difference than Rooney did, simply by chasing every ball down and trying my best..............nuff said.

There are a million and one things I could go on and talk about from the sports psychology side of things, through to the preparation, to the idea that they were simply too tired (try being a rugby player, a top class game is equivalent to a category 3 car crash, yet we play every week too!), but I’m simply going to move on, before my head explodes from frustration.

So as I write this, life is good, I’m loving my show on Kerrang, Spain are about to play Germany to see who will face the Netherlands in the World Cup final, England have beaten the Aussies in a One Day series at the cricket, and I have 4 amazing motorbikes outside my flat for some riding fun, if you want to see what I get up to on them, simply check out my Motorcycle Diaries! In fact the Diaries have been my main focus recently, along with getting nice trips to the MotoGP and Isle of Man, but I am glad to day I am back playing cricket with Harborne, and after two games, both rained off in the end, I can tell you..........I’m back!! Well I got a wicket....................let’s move on swiftly!

So yeah, in other words, from here on in, I will try and blog a whole lot more, even if it’s only a few lines, to keep you updated on what I’m up to and my thoughts on the goings on in the world of sport!

First up tonight’s game, well I reckon Germany are the team to beat in this World Cup, and as good Spain are I can see it being 3-1 to our vanquishers, the Germans, and I for one will be cheering them on, as at least they are playing with pride, and that Ozil is world class........!

So I’ll let you know what I think of the game tomorrow, oh and I’ll also update you on some new and exciting developments in the world of Wilkins!

Magnana

What a Weekend!!

There was so much amazing sport on for me to peruse, I had a proper Sportgasm, and didn’t actually leave the house, despite the beautiful weather outside, simply so I didn’t miss any action!

Blackpool did the business in the Football league’s richest game, when played out one of the greatest half’s of football I have ever seen with Cardiff at Wembley! You have to feel for Dave Jones, each time his team took the lead, they were pegged back within 4 minutes, and then Blackpool had the audacity to take the lead. That first 45 minutes of action was amazing, and although the 2^nd half didn’t bring any goals, it certainly brought tension, but it was Ian Holloway’s men who managed to hold their nerve, and secure the biggest payday of the clubs history.

I love Ian Holloway, not only is he a top manager, he is simply great to have around the top flight, as he is one of the charismatic men around, and I’m sure we are in for a treat next season as he tries to keep the Tangerine Army up! Cardiff, well as much as I would have liked to have seen a Welsh team in the top flight, they just couldn’t pull it off, and with debt mounting at the troubled club, they will have to hope for a Far Eastern cash injection instead of the £90 million will supposedly make its way into Blackpool coffers after their victory.

We also saw The Cardiff Blues beat a very good Toulon side in the Amblin cup final, Toulouse win an incredibly tense all French Heineken Cup Final, and of course, a certain Special One work his managed against Bayern Munich.

I love Jose, any man who has that much confidence/arrogance has to back up his words with actions, and having won the Champions League with Porto, and now Milan, and this season achieving an unprecedented treble (League, Cup and Champions League) with the legendary Italian side, there can be no doubt that he certainly walks the walk as well as talking the talk. Oh and that Milito is quite tasty too, and congrats to the Inter side, as they thoroughly deserved there win!

Will he jump ship now though and try and bring back some glory to another sleeping giant in Real Madrid, well you would think he would have to be mad to leave Inter now, especially with an offer of a huge contract on the table, but it looks like he might. Some are saying this is madness, but if he feels he needs a new challenge, and he hasn’t seemed to happy of late with some behind the scenes wrangling at the Italian club, leaves it all starting to point him towards taking on possibly the most high pressure job in Football (England manager excluded!).

The MotoGP was pretty damn sweet as well, with Stoner once more crashing out, and he must now be livid at having given up 70 points on the leaders, especially when he has looked pretty damn fast at every circuit so far. After his wasting illness last year, I imagine he would have been just dreaming of getting in a few podiums at the start of the year, but so far, he hasn’t managed to finish a race, which has left the 2 Yamaha riders of Rossi and Lorenzo to battle it out at the front! The Honda’s of Dovizioso and Pedrosa are also looking good, even if Pedrosa let his teammate and Hayden slip by him on the final lap, and I must admit, as much as I love my F1, I can see the MotoGP season providing the most thrills and excitement this year as the season wears on.

Rossi and Lorenzo are so evenly matched it’s frightening, and unlike in F1, no team orders will be on track to keep these two apart! Rossi is still recovering from a shoulder injury, and I think settled for 2^nd in the end, but take nothing away from Jorge who rode and outstanding race, although I do think you will see Rossi taking the majority of the chequered flags in front of his teammate once back to 100%. Either way, this title fight is going down to the wire, and if Stoner can get back into it, and the Honda’s take it up a notch, then this could be an awesome battle for the title.

If that wasn’t enough there was also my boys I trained with a year ago, in the England 7’s team taking part in the IRB 7’s at Twickenham where they unfortunately were knocked out by a very good South Africa side in the Quarter finals, but it was Australia who went on to the lift the trophy, although I have to admit, having watched as much of the action as I could, I would say rugby is the winner in this shorter format of the game. I love 7’s, I loved playing it, and I love watching it, and for anyone looking for a good introduction to rugby, I don’t think you could find a better version to try and watch, as the skill and pace on display at Twickers was quite simply astounding.

After all this I was gutted to sit down on Sunday evening to watch the Premier League Darts final, only to find it had to be postponed till tonight due to a power failure, oh well I really can’t complain having watched about 20 hours of sport over two days, and anyway it simply means it’s on tonight now, as well as England last warm up before the World Cup against Mexico!

I really have had to knock think of the World Cup over the few months, as I know I would simply get so excited my head would explode, and that is not very conducive to watching our boys out in SA, but I just get so pumped at the prospect of this awesome tournament, that I can’t wait for it to get underway, and you can guarantee I’ll be watching every game!

This week see’s me make my cricketing comeback on Sunday with Harborne, and I can’t wait! I’ve been in the gym for just a week, but already I’m starting to feel a lot fresher and fitter, and I am starting to feel that competitive edge coming back into my everyday life, let’s just hope my neck/dilapidated body can hold up this time, but so far so good!

I’m also going to be testing the new Ecolve Electric race bike at Silverstone this Thursday, which I am very lucky and privileged to be doing, although I have had to put off my Snowboarding return till next week to fit it in! If that wasn’t enough I’ll also be watching the England Vs Bangladesh test match which starts at Lords on Thursday, The French Open, in which Murray has just won a thriller in the first round against Gasquet, eventually winning in 5 sets, having come from two down, and of course, the Darts Finals, which I can see Phil Taylor walking, although I do like the look of Simon Whitlock, and of course on Saturday, my beloved Tigers take on Sarries in The Guinness Premiership final!

So in other words, one Sportgasm down, many more to come, bring it on is what I say, and I shall endeavour to blog back later in the week do update you on how my sport absorption has been going!

And to get involved, whether to take part in the walk from Rugby to Twickenham, or just to sponsor donate some money, just click here.

Matt Hampson talks about the Walk4Matt 2010 at its LAunch

Now, going from one rugby legend to another, Martin Johnson will definitely be breathing a lot easier this week after England’s massive win over Wales on Saturday. I will start off by saying we did not exactly play well, and if it wasn’t for Alun Wynn Jones little trip (which has got to go down as one of the worst decisions ever by a player.........he was a yard in front of the ref, it’s not like the England player wasn’t going to get tackled anyway, and in any rate, any trip is illegal.......sheer stupidity........thanks though Alun), well I truly think, that we would have been struggling against a Welsh side who came back strong in the 2nd half.

People will point to the 30-17 scoreline and say, ah it’s a win, but as much as it gave me great pleasure beating the Welsh on Sat, there is a huge amount to work on. First up, getting the ball away from contact quicker, by this I don’t just mean the incredibly pedestrian way the ball was coming back from rucks, which can only be compared to watching a sloth try and run the 100 metres............with his shoe laces tied, I mean looking at offloads out of contact, a few times when England made some nice breaks, too many of our players were running heads down and not aware of those around them.

I also think there is still a hell of a lot of work to be done on the back line, with Flutey back in for the Italian game, I expect to see a bit more dynamicism, and hopefully a bit more aggression to the back line. A lot of people are criticising Wilkinson for standing too deep at 10 on Saturday, but there is nothing wrong with being deep if you are attacking the ball with pace and directness, but England always seem to be waiting for something to happen when they spread the ball down the line, instead of trying to make something happen.

I just think the players need a bit of belief, and a bit more decisiveness, and then we might actually look like a bit of a tasty side. The forwards were top notch, although I still felt we were missing out in the contact area in a massive way. Tackling has changed in rugby, it is no longer just a means of bringing an opposition player to the ground, but an offensive weapon, an aggressive and powerful enough tackle can turn a ball over, and you should be looking to knock your opposite man backwards every time he goes into contact, not only cos it hurts, but it breaks up the momentum, stops them getting go forward ball, and is draining on the opposition.

Yet still we often go into tackles without any real aggression and passion, and our players need to change that mindset. Looking at the positives though, Wilkinson may not be the player he used to be, but his boot is still metronomic, it was great to have Armitage back, Easter, Haskell and Moody added a great balance to the back row, and at times we controlled the game, but, there is still a very long way to go if this team wants to be in with a shout for challenging for the next World Cup.

As for Wales, we know how good they can be, and this was one of their off days, but as I said, I truly think they would have won, if not easily, at a canter perhaps if Alun Wynn Jones had had his head screwed on. Oh and one final thing, those England anniversary shirts...................well they just looked weird, like the players were being asked to wear their old school outfits.....but I suppose that was the point!

Ireland versus Italy, I could pretty much leave just there, Ireland were poor, but understandably so with the game against France to come, and well Italy, it’s the most lacklustre I think I have seen them play in this tournament, and instead of being a passionate side that is coming on leaps and bounds, they seem to have stagnated, and will be looking just to nick a few tries in this tournament, as I believe a win is way beyond them.

I thought the game of the weekend was actually Scotland vs. France! France were powerful, strong, and in Bastereaud they may have found a bulldozing new talisman........well if he can keep his off field antics to a minimum (He was sent home from the NZ tour after missing a curfew and turning up the next days with cuts and bruises over his face.........he then lied and said he was assaulted by some NZ fans, but later, after CCTV of him turned up, admitted he had just got very drunk and fallen over his hotel room table).

I do think however that Scotland should take heart, a few times they made real breaks through the French Defence, but just didn’t not have the support runners, and if only they had done some work on how to get round a Blitz defence before then game, because if you can fix the inside man with some runners of ten, and then look to spin it, fixing the outside man in his channel, well its actually quite easy to break down.

Anyway, the French will be happy with their display, and already Bastereaud is trying to build up his clash with O’Driscoll, which no offence to the Scot’s will be a much sterner test for the young battering ram. In fact Ireland vs. France at the weekend has the potential to be THE game of the tournament.

After all the egg chasing, I switched to the football come Sunday afternoon, although after the first half I wished I hadn’t, as my beloved Arsenal were taught a real lesson by Drogba and Chelsea. After last week’s “Men against Boys” debacle against Man Utd, I really thought the worst was going to happen, but I must say I thought Arsenal came back with spirit, and passion , but were lacking one key element, a World class striker. How often has Wenger missed the chance to bring in someone of that description, and now, you really are starting to see what we are missing. With no Van Persie, Adebayor gone, and Bendtner really not up to much, who have Arsenal got to score 20 up front in a season?

They passed the ball around beautifully in the match, but it was so easy to break down, as we had no real threat in the final third and just tried the usual “pass the ball into the back of the net routine”. So near and yet so far, and with those points dropped, I really can’t see past Man U or Chelsea now for the title, and I actually think, looking at the fact United have their remaining “Big” games at home, they should now be favourites. Wenger will one day learn, as much as his brand of total football can work most of the time, against tactically astute teams it can be easy to defend against, and he has no plan B.......which to me is a real shame, if only we had someone decent up front!

United marched on with a demolition of Portsmouth, with a bit of help in the shape of a hat trick from a Mr Own Goal,  (sign him Wenger!) and Liverpool did well to repel a lively Everton side at Anfield, but the result of the weekend had to be Hull’s 2-1 victory at the KC stadium against Man City, a game that to me as a neutral reminded me what the Premier League is all about! Since then Pompey have almost folded, but were given a weeks stay of execution by the High court, Man City showed there was no rot setting in as they beat Bolton at Eastlands, and I went at least a whole hour without hearing about John Terry for once, which was nice!

Finally, I continued my snowboarding adventures at the Tamworth Snowdome with my Instructor AT, and you should have seen my face when I arrived the other day for my lesson, when he pointed to what resembled to me Mt Kilimanjaro halfway down the slope and said............you’re jumping of that today!

My hangover, combined with my complete lack of ability to remember how to board (which I blame on the hangover, left me thinking “No way” after a couple of runs, but after focusing on doing my first “Rail” (literally a metal bar lodged a foot above the snow that you slide down, I thought, hell why not and lined up for the huge 6 foot (it looked bigger!) jump........and fail........the first few times actually, simply because the jump was so daunting I didn’t get up enough speed beforehand.

Being the slightly stupid and very competitive man that I am, I wouldn’t give up – no matter how hard I stacked it, and after having a few of the lads give me some encouragement (“Go faster you eejit”) I finally got enough speed to hit the ramp and sail graciously through the air for about 10 feet, before landing in a slightly more controlled heap.

My time was up, and I hadn’t truly landed it yet, but I had to go, and annoyingly this week I can’t make I down, but if you are there at the Snowdome next Tuesday or Thursday, you may very well see me at the top of the hill, snorting like a bull and slapping myself around the face like a mad man, because there is no way in Hell that kicker is going to beat me............oh and if you are there, maybe have an ambulance standing by??? Lol!

I’m excited this week too, as my new Camera gar has arrived for the Motorcycle Diaries, and this now means I can do some awesome things with two specialist cameras, and an in built mic, that should make the Diaries even better........if that’s possible anyway!

Oh and if that wasn’t enough, DJ’ing at the St Trinians Subculture party on Saturday was one of the greatest nights of my life, thousands of people, and my god did that dance floor look of the hook
.oh and did I mention the ladies???? I will be doing it all again this week, by DJ’ing and hosting a few bands at the Wharf in Walsall on Friday, and then destroying the O2 Academy come Saturday night for Subculture once more, head down if you’re in the area!!

Right, snow please go away, I want to ride motorbikes, and also bring on the sporting action over the next few days!! There are some crucial footy games, and of course the weekend brings the return of the rugby, and while it may not have been the most barnstorming of opening weekends in the terms of the excitement of the games, I get the feeling this week will be a little different!!