Rugby: last weekend

FFS amazon associates is showing Susan Barf's the Gift (gonnarrea? Aids? chlamydia?) while I type this.

Anyway, with the Autumn Internationals, I have designated Saturday 'Rugby Day', where I sit, nibble food, possibly have a pint, and watch Rugby. I pay S off with food and she stays quiet, mostly.

Wales v Fiji
Just for a lark, I decided to support Fiji. I expected them to get cut to pieces by the mighty Gatland and his semi-competent gunners. What the hell happened? Fiji almost played with structure, and Wales had no clue what was happening. Dropped balls, confusion, a forward pack looking like they'd all been caught in a gay sauna. It wasn't pretty. But to Fiji's credit, they kept tackling the crap out of the Welsh, and it paid off. Enjoyed this game, ugly to watch, but brought back memories of supporting Wellington.  There has been criticism here of Gatland's open bollocking of his players. It seemed more than fair to me.

Scotland v Sth Africa
I know Scotland had been written off after the demolition NZ did on them last week. But really, the clinical precision of the NZ would have ripped any other team to pieces. Therefore my money was on Scotland. As  I mentioned during the 6 nations, they were playing as a team, and were very unlucky to not win more of their games. So as long as that team turned up, they were in with a chance against an understrength Sth African team.
The Scottish sunshine poured down, suiting their rather good first five, Dan Parks, and the forwards held up well against the SA pack. A very well deserved Scottish victory.

England v Samoa
Oh dear god have the papers been full of the English resurgence. I guess they have a point, there is a backline and mobile pack, both of which are foreign concepts forced on a surprised English nation. Samoa were quite unlucky not to do better in this game, if they'd had a better kicker the game would haev been closer. So the upshot is, yes the English are playing much better, but it's not chicken counting time.
As an aside, they are annoying good at peaking at the right time. Does this concern anyone else?

Ireland v NZ
I for one was expecting a re-enactment of the Irish financial situation, with NZ playing the role of the IMF, and Ireland playing the dual role of barrel and people.
Bastards screwed up my plan and played a blinder.
sure they lost, but they looked good doing it. It would have been a much closer match if NZ hadn't got a bit bored just after halftime and blown the Irish out of the water. So big potential for Ireland, although their team is getting on a bit. And, B O'D is still the bomb, sure he's not half as scary as Sonny BW, but he's still got it.

me