BRING BACK LOTE

well,

to put it simply, as Jesus has remarked before, the Deans show must end.

his selection policy of capping as many players as possible and calling it blooding is the biggest waste of time since the All Blacks rested all there players before the 07 world cup.

Jesus was the first to call Deans overrated and he wants to say that this weekends game against the barbarians was a fine example of this. Now i know we have three or four weeks against sub par opposition before the real test of the tri-nations but the fact of the matter is, that in deans "putting pride back in the jersey" bullshit, he has infact made it clear anyone who plays super rugby should be dissapointed not to wear a gold jersey at some point.

first lets talk about Matt Hodgson, Mat is 28, he is a converted 7 playing 6 and offers nothing close to what Mumm, Rocky or Kimlin offer in the same position. Yet he now has a free tracksuit and jumper to wear around the house as he was selected to join his Force teammates in the back row of an Australian team heading for embarrasment. Ad to this that Pek Cowen or however you spell his name is likely to scrum against italy at some point after playing about 20 minutes of good super rugby and you have a free jersey for every Australia. Infact if Deans was Prime Minister we would all have probably just got a Wallaby cap and not 950 buckaroos.

then comes his back three selection. firstly he talks up JOC before going with last years failure, AAC. i like AAC but can we have him on the bench, he covers several positions and is a strong runner. his impact on a game would be much better with half an hour to go than it is fromt he first moment.

Drew mitchell & Turner on the wings is my main gripe though. To drop Lote shows just how stupid a coach Deans is. he claimed Turner had a better season at the Tahs but ignored the fact that the room Turner recieved 9/I0 times came from Lote drawing defenders to the other side of the field only to turn the ball back out to turner. Then comes drew, WTF? honestly, the guy played fullback for his own team, a team that managed to win only three games against club teams from which we hope to beat there combined national teams, moron.....

Lote has played 63 tests, for 30 tries.

not really a bad strike rate in terms of things, ad the number of tries he saves a game, plus the number of metres he makes throught he ruck, which quite frankly per game is more than most forwards combined and you have someone of such emence value to australian rugby that to play his "non selection" throught he media is a piece of shit.

UP YOURS DEANS.

how about putting a trophy in the cabinet that wasnt made up the week before. 

Giteau the great

super expansion plans

the economy crashed the other day. i didnt care to much i was drunk and having an asthma attack after smoking a bong with a local homeless man. why is this relevent, answer - after 11 beers and 2 cones i harness the mindset of John O'neil. thats right, 11 beers and 2 cones and i become a part of the O'neil thought process.

so that leads me to an idea i had during this drunken, stoned and tired conversation, the idea of a lifetime, and idea to harness the raw economic prowess of asia and hord the money for australia!!!!!!

the super 14 is set to expand next year to include a fifth australian team, but with the current credit crisis these plans might be at the wrong time, what better way to use this opportunity than for australia to give the franchise to asia!!!

while i would prefer the team went to honk kong so tourists could stay at asian disney land, Japan seems to be the front runner to get a side and with there international team building and interest already int he country it seems like a fair call. why should we give them the side? its simple, if we place our team in japan, we can have a half japanese half aussie side, this means that we can send a few veterans and some up and comers to japan to team with locals, this gives japan an opportunity to learn and be more competitive as they gradually fill an entire team roster and also gives them knowledge not to employ eddie jones. it gives australia the chance to blood new players without experiancing the player drain that the force created by not having any local players.

if the super rugby series is to be expanded again in a few years time, japan could then take control of this franchise completely and australia could attain a fifth team leaving a gradual and easy transition to filling the team when the time is right!

could work, might not,

but lets just hope someone does something to actually create a new team rather than steal with dirty money and prostitute players like whores around the country! 

god speed little munchkins.

jesus out!

WARATAHS BLINDSIGHTED!

recruiting for the 2009 super rugby season in australia hit new highs and lows in the last few weeks, while clubs secretly go about recruiting international players, queensland raided new zealand, rumours had it the waratahs were chasing all black ali williams, and perth continued to poor water on suggestions of player unrest by talking about other organisations and ignoring anything close to denial!

but this is about the waratahs, and there search for a new blindside flanker.

with the loss of Rocky (may he rest in ireland) and Vics (may he not strain his shoulder doing exams) the waratahs are desperatly trying to block a couple of sizable gaps in there pack, but in my opinion the answer is right in front of them.

with the addition of scott fava and the promotion of beau robinson to the main squad the gaps are already plugged and we can save money and make a big play for rocky in a years time when he turns up on australias doorstep with a souped up agent looking for cash!

my plan is to move palu to number 6, i know he is the best 8 in the country but by moving him to six he blocks the channel in defence that is Beales main problem and allows the second part of the plan to come into effect, TPN to 8, with freier back at hooker, TPN can move to 8 were his around the ground abilities and strong running could prove the vital cog in a rebuilding waratahs pack, with speed agility and ball playing ability TPN can avoid the crooked throws and become the premier 8 in the country, plus be a back up for 2 late int he game and allow the fresh faced robinson to take advantage of tired defences.

with mumm back in the pack at lock we would have a strong agile ball playing pack with plenty of backup on the bench, while the lineouts will suffer without vicks, there is only 1 or 2 people in world rugby who could possibly fill that gap and none of them are off contract so its mission impossible at the moment, could be worse than mumm, sharpe could be coming!

jesus out!

FAN OF THE BAND!

it almost kickoff in Auckland, Aucklands Super rugby team are called the Blues. apparantly, that is after a pirate of the same name. A pirate called Blue beard. ive seen him, (not live cos i only go to new zealand when there is a chance of a trophy or im picking up an overrated coach so the wallabies have an excuse!) Blue beard comes around the ground on a pirate ship, a pirate ship on wheels in the middle of a rugby stadium, fake canons blazing as if this stupid weirdo with an oversized head was going into battle against people who cheer for him! and cheer they do, as if there lives depend on it, perhaps the canons are shooting prizes into the crowd, i dont know what would make a group of kiwis cheer so hard bt it must be some sort of Australian visa or dole check!

for years, the pre game and post game show has come and gone from rugby grounds around australia. In Canberra a meeting between the Tahs and Brumbies is usually met by a showing from the Australian Army, they sky dive in and fire canons and everyone claps when clearly its boring as batshit and hs no place on the ground at all! (if these people are so good at there job, why aint they fighting a fucking war somewhere!)

in Waratah land, there used to be a band called SADDLERASH, yep you read that right, they had a meeting of the minds and named there band after the rash you get from riding a horse all day! (i used to get it from my ex wife! not pleasant, she really should have shaved!) Now saddlerash would play after the game, they would encourage everyone to go to one end of the stadium and keep drinking while the band sang covers of songs no one asked to hear! the best thing about the saddlerash experience was that they came onto the ground on a stage being towed behind a tractor, they entered the ground from the opposite end of the field about 10 minutes before full time and slowly crept up the sideline, at times this was hillarious as there isnt much room and the tractor would collect signage and cameramen in its effort to be at the bar by the end of the game! 

when i was backpacking through europe pre game entertainment reached its pinicle though, i went to see London Irish play (cos i was staying near were they played) before the game, they not only had riverdance style entertainment (which was extra funny as riverdance has alot to do with tap dancing and the dancers were prancing on a semi wet field!) this was topped off with a girl from page 3 of the daily mirror posing topless with a retiring player in front of a group of young fans! (and yes she was awesome!, you would happily get saddle rash for a ride on that shit!)

so when i think back on my many trips to the rugby, the ups and downs, the cheerleaders, the pirates, TAHMAN (who doesnt qualify as anything but awesome!), the Barter Buggy Kid, there is something i miss and something that i think needs to make a comeback to rugby everywhere around this great country. The club rugby warm up game. two teams from the local scene or two country teams or even a subbies comp, let them play in front of a crowd, let teams from all divisions apply to play a game in the lead in to a tahs or brumbies or anything in between match! Let there club come out in numbers and colours to support them, let them be involved, make it a fundraising thing, have teams compete raising money for charity, team with the most gets to play a match before the super 14 game. invovle rugby in rugby, i dont need to watch a fuckin pirate or the army, i didnt join the army, i got drunk fat and payed to sit in a fucking chair and watch rugby, so give me what i chose in life.............MORE FUCKIN RUGBY!

jesus out.   

SUPER 15

i was watching a Britney Spears clip and i realised something. While she is getting older i still like to look at her ass!

this brings me to todays topic, Super Rugby. I have Loved the Super Rugby experiment since the game went professional, being a passionate Tah man (not the actual Tah man................. or am i?) ive struggled through some dark years, ive had some great joys, but like watching a Matt Dunning field goal, a lifetime of sitting between the posts has led to the competition itself becoming a bit stale. 

which leads me to Britney, ive never been a fan of her singing, but i like to watch. sort of how i look at the crusaders. hate the fact they win, but love to watch them play!  ive never really loved the super 14, but i love to watch rugby and its a good brand of rugby.

so its with much rejoice that all three unions involved seem to be showing signs of coming together to do something special with providing more games and more local derbys.

i only hope as the competition expands again and things change that they leave the product as is on the pitch. the call to put another team in aus needs to be offset by more international players being allowed here. As was shown with the force the country doesnt produce enough players for the four current teams, and while we are slowly building we do not need another team pillaging talent from the four existing franchises.

part of what makes a team great is when its players and colours stay loyal and traditional. If players start jumping teams left right and centre and changing jerseys or locations then they abandon those that have invested time and money in them.

while making the product bigger and more exciting i would just like to say to those making the decisions, stay loyal to who you already have before you build, we need to build on what we havem not at the expense of it. the money you have is from a company that relies on the general public watching. make us want to watch. but most of all, make sure Britney Spears ass never changes! 

THE TOUR

one of the great joys of playing rugby or being a rugby supporter is the tour.

you get to go to exotic locations such as brisbane, new zealand, south africa or if your really lucky then you might even get to visit canberra.

this story centres on on such rugby trip a few years back to see the waratahs play the brumbies.

it started as four young kids sitting in the SFS one friday night talking about how there was only a couple more home games left and finished with the suggestion of a road trip to Bruce Stadium in Canberra for the game the following weekend.

it was decided what car to take, who was going, who was organising tickets, who was organising accomadation. Jesus being a single strapping lad at the time was given the job of making sure we left on time so we could get porn and fireworks before game time!

so saturday came and we jumped in a car and hit the most boring of freeways to the most boring of towns (sorry perth you cant win everything) the hours ticked by, as the boredom set in, the driver had insisted we could not drink in the car so instead we had to make conversation, without alcohol, gay references and man love are alot more gay than at the pub at 2am, but thats a blog for another time (or perhaps greenandgoldrugby) .

so we arrive in canberra and the young chap in charge of accomadation reveals he hasnt actually booked anywhere, not a problem, its Canberra, it wont be sold out. So we head to the Hostel and on the way i ask if we have to pick the tickets up or if we already had them, turns out we hadnt booked tickets. so we drive out to the stadium to try to get some, SOLD F'n OUT!!!! so no tickets and its already pushing 3pm, game time 7.30, what do you do?

FISHWIJK, or however you spell it, the firework and adult entertainment capital of Australia. so we load up, and head back to sydney, arriving at the local pub just before half time.

you see the rugby tour being the tradition it is doesnt always go smoothly. like a touring Australian team in Jo'burg the road isnt always smooth and clear. You need the group as a whole to come together and deliver on the day.

like a hangover on gameday after a big first night, the tour is met with danger and dizzyness, as you piece together what went wrong on the day, its easy in hiensite to just blame Matt Giteau without realising it was probably Nathan Sharpes fault to!

jesus out!