[aftermathman]

first it was the turn of England, the reigning world champions, playing the Aussies, (for you guys in the US, "world" in this case means other countries not like the NFL "world champions" Indianapolis who beat Chicago ). The Australians were hammered by the mighty manhood and forward power of England and simply had no answer. They are on the long plane ride home, England advance but is it to meet France or New Zealand.

The mighty NZ All Blacks have looked invincible crushing all before them so far, however they are up against the French, the most enigmatic team in world Rugby. Disaster for Howardh, his boys are found wanting and join Aus on the long plane ride home, bad luck boys.

To paraphrase a famous Norwegian commentator when Norway beat England at soccer:

Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Rachel Hunter, the Australian guy who invented the rotary washing line, Kylie Minogue ...

your boys took one hell of a beating here tonight.

Who'd have believed it.

Neil.

[Howardh]

mighty All Blacks have fallen at the final hurdle.....yet again to the murcurial French. The game changed for us when McCallister was sin binned fifteen minutes into the second half. We can argue all day if that was neccessary, but at the end of the day the French lifted and we did not.

England dicked the Aussies in the forwards full stop and deserved their shock quarter final win. The semi final next week between France and England will be a rip snorter. I'm not pickin it, but the winner will win the Rugby World Cup.

Congrates Niel your boys played brilliantly.

GO HARD SCIENCE

[aftermathman]

your boys set the benchmark in world rugby. The winning of the world cup is becoming an albatros round All Black's necks. It remains a mystery to me why NZ cannot win the cup with all that talent.

Take care mate,
Neil.

p.s. In case you are wondering the Norwegian quote I "lifted" in my post went:

'Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher - can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Your boys took one hell of a beating!'

(Said by Bjorge Lillelien on Norwegian TV when Norway beat England 2-1 in Oslo in a World Cup qualifier in Sept 1981).

It was voted best piece of commentary ever in the UK.

[K.Ibsen]

So, from someone here in the U.S... Is rugby some sort of sport?

Excuse me while I get psyched for this weekend's matchup of superbowl 40 of the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Go Seahawks!

[made it up]

LOL... There are places in this world that are not part of the USA, can you believe it??
Sorry, was it the kiwis or poms that won? I wasn't paying attention.
Well that's not completely true Australia didn't win I know that much!
BTW Russell Crowe isn't really one of us (he was born in N.Z.)
Cheers,
Lee

[Howardh]

is also New Zealand born and bred. Discovered on Takapuna Beach as a 15 year old and became one of the worlds leading super models. Brought up and educated in Glenfield on Auckland's North Shore. Married Rod Stewart at 20 (he was about 105) The rest is history. Russell Crowe is also a New Zealander but has lived across the ditch in Aussie land for a long time. Brought the South Sydney Rabbitohs (a top Aussie rugby league team that plays in the NRL.) two years ago.

Goooooooo the Steelers


GO HARD SCIENCE

Watch out for some ground breaking news from Craig Venter over the coming days and weeks.

[aftermathman]

Originally Posted by K.Ibsen

So, from someone here in the U.S... Is rugby some sort of sport?

Excuse me while I get psyched for this weekend's matchup of superbowl 40 of the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Go Seahawks!

Funnily enough you were in the Rugby world cup too, (I wasn't going to mention it but you lost to England as well and have been knocked out).

You did have one moment of fame when your winger, Takudzwa Ngwenya, outran the (assumed) fastest man in rugby, South Africa's Brian Habana. Habana infamously raced a Cheetah once, mind you I'd run bloody quickly if I had a Cheetah after me )

He still went home though, heck I need to enjoy this 15 minutes of glory before next weekend.

Having lived in Miami I have been a Dolfan since 1981, oh dear, they would do better in the world cup than the NFL.

Neil.
(Basking in glory).

http://rugbydump.blogspot.com/2007/1...an-habana.html

"If you've been on another planet for the past few days you may not have heard of this guy. So let me introduce you to the young man the entire rugby world has been talking about - Takudzwa Ngwenya.

Otherwise known as Z, Ngwenya is the 22 year old Zimbabwean born flyer who, on Sunday night against the Springboks left Bok speedster Bryan Habana for dead, scoring a fantastic USA Eagles try that will live long in the memory as a World Cup classic.

Z not only finished off a length of the field break that started with Todd Clever's intercept, but he also did something that to my knowledge no other man has ever done on the international stage - he ran around Bryan Habana.

And since then, the phonecalls haven't stopped, with him already having been approached by two English clubs. A move to Europe looks on the cards for sure.

Radiologist Ngwenya is modest about the moment of the World Cup so far.

"I was thinking of kicking but then I thought I would try and get him to stop, and then gas him out wide," Ngwenya said. "And he did stop. It's not that I'm fast, I just got him to stop so that worked pretty well. I knew he would be annoyed. If I got beaten by a slower person, I'd be annoyed."

"He (Habana) is the best winger in the world," Ngwenya said. "I was intimidated every time he got the ball. If you look at the video or saw the game live, I was just yelling 'come on, come on'. I was intimidated. I didn't want to leave him one on one with me - and luckily I didn't."

Ngwenya describes the two speedsters' meeting after the match:
"He just said, 'Nice job', and 'Sorry about the bump'.

"Sorry about the bump" referring to the headclash that between them early in the second half.

All in all, a great match and nice to see the USA being so actively involved in the World Cup. For the first time they look to have a true rugby superstar, who scored a try that will not be forgotten any time soon and will hopefully raise the status of the odd balled game in the US".

[Suffolkchris]

Neil

But does one swallow make an Indian summer? Lets hope so.

It really is a case of that old boxing analogy "you are as good as your last fight"

And now the French in France, wouldn't it just be wonderful to be in the stadium to experience the game. Better than a double dose of Levodopa!!

Chris

[BEMM]

I have lived in the US for manymanymany years now, and Baseball still eludes me, I can't for the life of me figure it out. The players wear pyjamas with knee socks and spit sunflower seeds, they stand on mounds and someone comes and steals the bases, and the people in the stands are allowed to catch the balls and take them home to keep. Very peculiar game.
Now soccer I understand.........
My sincere apologies to all Baseball fans. Feel free to make fun of soccer - or of opera, I like opera too.

birte

[paula_w]

Bemm,

But what about the organ music? You don't like organ music? Hot dogs? Heat stroke? Big men on steroids?

paula