Birmingham Post - Sport Blog

The Weekend Preview - Guess which Midlands team won't win?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:07:14 +0000

Apologies for another break in service, brought about by a dire need to spend some time with the nearest and dearest, hopefully the transmission will continue unbroken for the foreseeable.

Looking back at my last entry, entitled 'Time to walk the talk' it is clear most of the region's sides were only capable to limp the whimp(er).

Moseley failed to beat London Welsh, Harlequins won at Worcester and Stour were thrashed at Wharfedale.

But all that is in the dim and distant past. Last Saturday was marked by Boo-Gate - did they didn't they? - an appalling Worcester performance and the weekly Manchester Try Fest at Stourton Park.

But Round Nine will go down as The Chip, with the nation's cameras and the entire Bristol defence trained on him and his goal-line, Joey Carlisle impudently chipped his way out of a hole and took his Coventry team 70m downfield.

They say the border between genius and madness is a thin one and - with both feet just on the wrong side of the divide - here are this week's predictions.

The Weekend Preview - time to walk the talk

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:30:06 +0000

Thankfully last week's blow outs didn't materialise as Bees grabbed Exeter's coat-tails to emerge with some self respect and Mose shut down both Bristol and themselves.

This weekend, with the exception of Bees - who will struggle at Cornish Pirates - all of the West Midlands' teams have matches they need to win if they are to achieve their season's ambitions.

If Sixways is to become the fortress Mike Ruddock desires, Quins must be dispatched.

If Coventry are to finish in the top eight of the Championship, Plymouth at home should be a banker and if Moseley are to maintain their current form London Welsh have to considered as the most vulnerable of the powerhouses.

And incredibly Stour go looking to win a sixth straight fixture at Wharfedale.

The Weekend Preview - Blow outs all over the show

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:29:57 +0000

Excuse the temporary loss of service folks, illness - namely the most virulent strain of flu known to humankind - prevented me from raising a single digit in the direction of my keyboard last week.

Clearly I would have predicted all the results correctly and trust you have enough faith in my crystal ball gazing ability to grant me a perfect five from five.

No? It's a fair cop.

I honestly expected Worcester to beat Montpellier and Plymouth to leave Moseley with four points and I can't claim with a clear conscience I'd have backed Coventry to win at Doncaster.

A good week to be ill then, you might say.

Let's see what happens this weekend...

Controversial Coventry and bankrupt Bees

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:33:10 +0000

Now what to write about this week? No, can't think of anything. Midlands rugby has been a bit stagnant of late.
What we really need is a good old Coventry story. Surely the club that put the 'Co' in controversy can come up with something.
Or perhaps there's a tale brewing down Sharmans Cross way, it's been a bit on the quiet side recently.
But that were the case.
Moseley and Worcester are ploughing on enjoying the novelty of mid-table mediocrity, models of consistency as the oval ball sands shift around them.
Down the road Bees are rarely out of the headlines or off the messageboards and Cov have found themselves a perfect storm to weather.
What to write about indeed.
So in the light of both issues I'll offer a few unrelated observations, sit back and wait for my own perfect storm.

The Weekend Preview - History at Sharmans Cross Road?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:06:12 +0000

Some intriguing fixtures this week with the first Championship local derby between Coventry and Moseley and a reshuffled Worcester side going to Leicester.

And of course there could be the last ever game for the current Bees vintage, unless they can unravel their financial tangle that has dragged them to the precipice.

Whilst not wishing to blow my own trumpet, I think I'm due a surreptitious little 'toot' following a 100 per cent return from last week that included correct predictions for Moseley's win over Doncaster and Worcester's over Sale.

That's 14 out of 15 so far this season. OK trumpet down.

And this week...

The Weekend Preview - Round Four

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:32:33 +0000

Hurrah. I got my first one bang on last week. The tea-leaves informed me Exeter would leave Butts Park with a two-try advantage and so they did.

Boo. Optimism overcame me and my first wrong prediction was made for the Wasps-Worcester clash. If only Mike Ruddock hadn't told his men to launch an aerial bombardment it might have been a different story.

From now on, no favouring the Midlands sides.

Five more matches this weekend and perhaps the least clear cut set of matches. Worcester could win or lose at home to Sale, as could Moseley with Doncaster and possibly even Coventry at Cornish Pirates.

The Weekend Preview

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:09:15 +0000

Here we go then, neck on the block time once more.

This weekend's games pit the country's haves against the Midlands' have-nots and once again it's difficult to predict much success for our local sides.

As for last week, I correctly guessed all five outcomes though no margins of victory.

Bees were a surprise taking Bristol to within four points while I though Mose would get much closer to Pirates.

Here's this week's matches.

The Weekend Preview - is launched

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:01:25 +0000

Most of my week is spent chasing the region's rugby players and coaches for their thoughts on games coming and gone and the pressing issues at their clubs and in their divisions.

That doesn't leave me much time or space to make my own observations, something I intend to rectify from today onwards in this blog.

Each week I'll take a step down the route marked 'Professional Suicide' and assess the main rugby matches involving our leading teams and will respond to any comments made by readers.

At the end of Professional Suicide I'll turn right and head down Prediction Alley, known to all journalists to be a dead end.

So here goes....and remember folks, it's only my opinion:

Cheating, the oldest art

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:46:45 +0000

There's been a lot of hand-wringing and soul searching in the fall out from Bloodgate and the subsequent ban dished out to Dean Richards.

I, like many people, am gobsmacked that Richards has involved himself in such shenanigans, though considerably less so that one of the leading professional clubs has been caught out.

The financial pressures placed on teams to win Heineken Cup and Premiership matches is always going to filter down to the coaching and playing staff and the temptation to do something underhand intensifies as the stakes become higher.

Richards' involvement is testament to that because in my experience, even as a frustrated Scotland fan when he used to deny us Grand Slams for fun - he has always demonstrated high integrity.

England to be awarded World Cup, shame it's not the rugby version

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:10:18 +0000

The IRB is understood to be on the brink of rubber stamping the selection of England as hosts for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

White smoke is expected to emanate from the game's tallest chimneys at some stage tomorrow, in support of the preference made by RWC Ltd.

Yet confirmation of the most done of deals and the opportunity to see the world's finest oval ball exponents will leave me with a sense that our sport has been jilted.

In including just two club stadiums - Leicester and Gloucester - and eight football arenas on its schedule the RFU has effectively sold the game out when it had an opportunity to show everything that is great about English rugby.

Ollie Thomas, Moseley's loss is Chalon's gain

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:25:26 +0000

There has been an unusually high turnover of players at Billesley Common this summer, particularly in terms of players leaving the club.

Ian Smith's way has been evolution rather than revolution so traditionally you could count on the fingers of one hand the players who have either not been retained or opted to go elsewhere.

Dan Norton, Jack Adams, Andy Binns, Ollie Thomas, Richie Bignell, Paul Cox, Ben Buxton, Paul Arnold, Richard Vasey and Adam Whitney have all moved on for a variety of reasons.

Clearly Binns' well-deserved retirement is a big blow, even though it was always going to come sooner rather than later with the triumph at Twickenham and impending fatherhood all pointing to a straightforward decision.

Tom Williams. Was it really that bad?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:36:57 +0000

Schalk Burger, Alan Quinlan, Bakkies Botha and Trevor Brennan. Just a few names to wrestle with, if you're brave enough, while pondering rugby's latest bad boy.

Burger, you will recall, assaulted Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald at the very start of the second Test when he stuck a digit into the Irishman's eye socket. He was subsequently banned for eight weeks.

Munsterman Quinlan was found guilty of something similar in the Heineken Cup semi final with Leinster. His sentence was a 12 week suspension.

Botha meanwhile body-charged Adam Jones thereby injuring the Welsh tighthead and putting him out of the sport for six months. For this offence the lock was suspended for two weeks.

Perhaps the worst of the lot Brennan was banned for life after he waded into the crowd and punched a spectator in a quite unprecedented attack, the like of which has rarely, if ever, been seen before.

An afternoon to remember

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:41:32 +0000

I have been fortunate enough to watch rugby for a living for more than five years now and I've seen some wonderful matches and individual performances in that time.

And I've always said that Birmingham & Solihull's victory over London Wasps in February 2004 was the highlight of that period.

How the world marvelled as the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers dumped the biggest names in the sport on their illustrious backsides.

Saturday was another such occasion. Moseley's National Trophy semi final upset was cast from the same mould.

No, that's not quite right, rather it was the same cocktail of manic motivation and condescending complacency that left Exeter comatose in the gutter and Moseley intoxicated with their own success.

BUT - An ode to hope

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:28:29 +0000

Tomorrow's the famed double-header
When Mose could be slapped even redder
Painful defeat to an end would bring
A truly special EDF spring

But...they're not supermen coming from Ex
And there just might be a last hurdle hex

Most say they don't have a sniff,
Those red and black hordes of coach Smith
Their guests will be far too strong
Not a foot - or a toe - will go wrong

But...if Mose stick it to every last Chief
Those critics might yet come to grief

In the cup they've lost out to Mike Teague
And there's not been much good in the league
Years of losses have piled like the leaves
And scattered on the cold Billesley breeze

But...Saturday's the day when it's through
All those deferred dreams in the end may come true

It's a long shot, we admit it, of course,
But if Exeter fall from their horse,
And Mose steal an improbable win
How the proud city will grin
And in beating those giants from Devon
For once the Common will be heaven.

Anon 2009

Champagne moments from the first round of Six Nations

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:15:58 +0000

I have to say even having invested 12 hours of my life getting to and from Twickenham to watch a dire England performance and seen Scotland turn in a shambolic first half display that would have discredited Mauro Bergamasco - it's great to have sport's finest tournament back.

And if the next round is anything like the last, we're in for a shed-load more treats.

I can't wait to go to Cardiff this weekend for the next instalment of what will probably be another Welsh procession. Not that I begrudge it one little bit.

The sight of France ripping the Boys in Blue to shreds will be pretty scintillating too and one can only wonder what Ireland will do to Italy if they play anything like.

But let's reflect awhile. Here are my five highlights of the first weekend. Feel free to add yours.