It's been another busy sporting weekend, and with the house (and remote control) to ourselves, we caught a fair bit of sporting action; here goes....
We've already commented on the All Blacks' loss to South Africa. Apparently the RWC squad is now finalised, although it won't be announced until 2pm tomorrow, so we'll save our speculation until then. Those who have missed selection have been told, so the body linguists wull be looking for non-verbal cues when the team arrives in Brisbane later today.
There was some terrific ITM Cup action over the weekend. Top of the list has to be second-tier team Manawatu's magnificent performance against premiership leaders (until Saturday) Waikato. In the first half hour of the match, Manawatu played sublime rugby, and the Mooloo boys were stunned. Aaron Cruden was a class above anyone else on the park as Manawatu turned on easily its best performance since the Ranfurly Shield era of the 1970's and its wins against Australia and Ireland in 1982 and 1992 respectively. Hawkes Bay were no less impressive in spanking Counties-Manakau, and the championship final between Manawatu and the Bay should be an absolute cracker. Canterbury moved to the top of the premiership beating a listless Taranaki whose thoughts were clearly on their Ranfurly Shield match with Southland on Wednesday.
The Warriors have moved into the NRL top four with a hard-fought win at Penrith. Their destiny is now in their own hands; they face the stuttering Dragons in Sydney next week before a home match against the Cowboys in the final round-robin match. Winning both matches will guarantee them a home play-off match in week one.
In other news New Zealand has a new World Champion; Lisaa Carr9ington won the K1 200m event at the world champs in Hungary. Significantly, this is an Olympic event for female kayakers. India is battling to avoid a series whitewash against England; they start the last day 162 runs behind with seven second innings wickets remaining. And it's going to be a long season for both Arsenal and Wellington Phoenix fans; what else is new?
That's all that comes to mind for the moment; feel free to add anything of the sporting ilk that we have have missed.
9 comments:
Whale's defeat?
Was that sport?
Beaten by a duck!
Left trounces Right.
Weekend highlight really.
Like the All Black loss Rob, it's already been covered, but full marks for trying!
I suppose that Rebels vs Gadaffi could be loosly described as sport too...
ETNZ winning at Cascais (I think that is the spelling) in the first event on the road to AC 2013.
Full marks to Whale for trying and having the lycra thrashed off him by Mallard.
Ouch!
That must've smarted!
When Mallard greeted Whale when
finally he rolled in, do you think he said Gotcha!
And did Slater say, as he saw Mallard whisk ahead at such speed,
"Whale oil beef hooked!"
(Cause he was!)
:-)
Cameron Slater has been gracious in defeat, and as you note Rob, deserves credit for going the distance. Sadly, some people are not quite as gracious in victory:
http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/index.php/2011/08/the-things-people-say/
I have only one comment post Whale v Duck...Trev rides a Trek, I always knew his judgement was suspect.
Rugby-wise I note that The Ferengi has dropped Flutey from his RWC squad...another Southern Hemisphere journeyman gone, but we're still stuck with the carthorse that is Hape.
JS - not only Hape. Tindall is even more so.
On the cricket India seemed to lose heart and interest in the series pretty quickly. Thier attack looks even worse than that of the Ilford second X1 and it shows what a huge factor Zaheer Khan is to the team.
@pdm - At least Tindall is a home-grown carthorse...
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