Huge performance, no result
When the Mole is wrong, boy is he wrong. The Welsh tore into the South African pack from early on in the game until about the hour mark, and were the dominant team for much of the match. Continue reading
If you’d backed the underdog on the handicap so far in this tournament, you’d have done well. There are generally few surprising results in RWC games but a gradual levelling of standards has led to closer games. Japan were only four points down at one stage in the second half and got the crowd right behind them. France pulled away towards the end but failed to convince for long periods of the game. Continue reading
Zen master points automaton Jonny Wilkinson had a hard to believe off day with his place kicking. Fortunately for the White Orcs, temporarily decked in black, so did Dr Phil and full back Rodriguez. Argentina missed most of their kicks before England did and it is difficult to see how England would have come back from a 12 point second half deficit. There have been a lot of missed kicks so far in this tournament and it will be interesting to see if kickers get more used to the new Gilbert ball as the games progress. Continue reading
In what was a classic example of a game of two halves, New Zealand lurched past an overawed Tongan team 41-10 in Eden Park, Auckland. Continue reading
Ireland are in trouble. Despite the four point margin of defeat, this game was not close, and if the final score was in doubt until the last kick of the game, the winner was decided with half an hour left on the clock.
With eight minutes left to play in Lansdowne Road, an almost entirely full strength Irish team was losing to a half-strength French side by eighteen points. The French, playing their second and last of two warm-up games, and with their world cup squad announced more than three months ago, were more interested in getting out of Lansdowne Road uninjured than the cosmetics of the scoreline, and allowed Ireland two late, late tries to soothe the frustration of the home fans. Continue reading
While it was never going to amount to anything much more than a disjointed trial match, there were some fine examples of openfield running, some well-taken tries and some contentious hits in tonight’s Ireland Select XV vs Connacht in Donnybrook.
For those selected on the Irish XV, it was a last shot to impress Declan Kidney before the final warm-up game against England; for Connacht, the first tentative steps of their biggest season to date, the prize of Heineken Cup rugby upping the ante from the last number of years spent contesting the Parker Pen and Amlin Cup.
Digging Like a Demented Mole 