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International rugby thread

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Steve19

Steve19

Watching. Always watching.
Staff member
This is a thread to allow the few of us who are rugby fans to have a thread to post random news and results from rugby around the world.

Famed English team, the Saracens, traveled to Cape Town today to play the Stormers rugby team. Stormers won the 9-try slugfest going away at the end but Saracens gave them a good start to their Super 14 warm ups.

Here is a link to the game report: Stormers vs Saracens, in Cape Town
 
Thanks for the thread, Steve. I'm going to try to catch more of the Super 14 this year. My coach did a two day clinic with the Queensland Reds staff and wants us to play Southern Hemisphere rugby. We'll see starting tomorrow (we travel to Ft. Benning), but I suspect it will be like trying to get a pee-wee football team to execute Pope Urban's spread option. :biggrin:

I'm reading a great book on rugby and the peaceful transition of power post-apartheid; fascinating psychological and political portrait of Mandela. It was published last year and is called Playing with the Enemy.

Meeting Dimitri for lunch at his favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

Cheers.
 
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The rugby right now is just stunning. I suspect that you guys can adapt to Southern hemisphere rugby more than you think.

Saracens were a good warm up for the Stormers. Tell our friend that I am back in the office Monday and we can complete that task we are laboring on.

For people interested in rugby but not sure where to look on the web, here are some sites:

Planetrugby

Rugby365

Rugby Rules

The official home of the World Champion South African Springboks

The official site of the New Zealand All Blacks

The official site of the Australian Wallabies (South Africa own us in cricket too)

Fantasy rugby at testrugby.com



Hope you find something you like.
 
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The Six Nations (1st-tier European) Tournament starts tomorrow. It looks like you can see the matches on Setanta US starting Sunday. The added intrigue this year is that many guys are playing for spots on the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa later this year. Should be great.
 
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Replay of last weekends 7s tournament in San Diego...great for those without Setanta.

Steve, watched the Lions vs. Cheetahs game...what a great game that was. Also was important because it was the first time an American (Todd Clever) took the field in a Super 14 game. He was an immediate difference maker defensively...
 
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Not a done deal yet, but rugby (and golf) have been recommended for the 2016 Olympics.

The host site will be announced in October (Chicago, Rio, Madrid, or Tokyo).

Link

Rugby and golf set for 2016 Olympic Games

Rugby sevens and golf are set to appear at the 2016 Olympic Games after an International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board vote on Thursday. The whole IOC membership will vote on their final recommendation in Copenhagen in October.
Click to expand...

It took 5 minutes to post news from the Brisbane Times. :biggrin:
 
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Not surprising all all given the format of the Olympics that they decided to include 7s rather than full 15s...but it's a step in the right direction either way...
 
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I've been very impressed with the cooperation among the countries and rugby unions to get this done. Got to think that this spirit of international cooperation made an impression. Sevens is absolutely the right sport. Smaller countries have a fighting chance, it's more spectator friendly, and it's realistically playable in a tournament format (I don't think the same can be said for 15s). Sevens Olympic publicity will drive interest in 15s.

If you can find the video the IRB sent to the IOC, it's pretty nicely done. Something about reaching out around the world or some such ecumenical drivel. :biggrin:
 
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Has anyone been watching any of the internationals this summer? South Africa are setting the pace in the Tri Nations so far with three dominant displays in their home games. Australia play New Zealand (with a returning Dan Carter in at fly-half) on Saturday, then two games against South Africa.
 
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I have watched all of the games. So far, all of the South Africa and New Zealand have won on home turf.

Sout Africa has been very impressive. Games against the All-Blacks are pure rivalry and anything can happen. So, the convincing wins were surprising even here in South Africa.

On the other hand, South Africa has won with the boot, which suggests a tougher time in Australia and New Zealand. Australia has the toughest challenge ahead. I suspect that they get beat the next three weeks.

Personally, I think that World Champion Springboks have the potential to go undefeated, provided that their coach keeps out of the way.
 
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