Rugby

Huzzah the blackness, sitting in an English pub with 30+ English supporters, 2 kiwis, and a rather intense test match - not helped by Dan's decision to make life more equal by missing kicks...damn you bloody socialist!
Thought it was a good test match, tense - it was marred by too many mistakes - by both teams. I thought the English did a good job when they kept it in tight - their forward pack certainly stood up for this match. But the problem with teams playing NZ is the sheer speed of their counter attack. They don't need a 5 minute buildup to score, they need broken play and 30s. The brilliance of Richies pass earned him man of the match, and that's ignoring what a blinder he had for the rest of the match.
Unfortunately the English backline wasn't getting the best ball, and didn't seem very organised when they were on attack - but they were attacking which I guess is a step forward.

So we headed home for the Scotland v Aussie game - I was supporting the Scottish out of a sense of blind optimism and love of the spirit. Crickey, what a test. The Scottish defence was superb, an excellent example of dedication and focus - their team doesn't seem to have 'stars' (in the Dan or Richie sense), but as a team, that was an almost perfect example of teamplay. Aussie had, what 70% of ball? maybe more, and yet they couldn't get through. A dour attacking team Scotland maybe, but they were focussed, and throughly deserved that win. Bloody tense last 5 minutes tho. Was this the rebirth of Scottish rugby? It would be nice to think so...

me x