Grim Reading

I forgot to mention it earlier, but as a paid-up member of the England Rugby Supporters' Club (ERSC), amongst other benefits, I get the Official RFU England Rugby Yearbook sent to me. It plopped through the letterbox the other morning. Sadly, it makes grim reading, the 2005/06 season not being what any of us would have hoped for in the year before a World Cup! Still, the pictures were nice.

And talking of which, here's an image I took at one of the matches England managed to win this season, against Wales in the opening Six Nations match at Twickenham. The Two Number 10's, Stephen Jones and Charlie Hodgson go head to head. You can see more images from that game and others on my dedicated site, rugbypix.com.

Oh, and I've just noticed this little gem on the BBC Rugby Union site, where Jonny Wilkinson states the bleedin' obvious.

A War Of Words

As there's not much rugby news about, I did promise to spout about other subjects during the summer, and so I thought a quick mention of last night's cracking season finale for Dr Who was needed. Daleks and Cybermen in the same episode! Marvellous! It was pretty good action-wise, but still retained a sense of humour.

For starers, there was one exchange, when the Cybermen first meet the Daleks, and they have a lengthy exchange which runs along the lines of "Identify Yourself!", "No You Must Identify Yourself First!!. This goes on for several rounds when all of a sudden the Dalek says "Daleks Do Not Take Orders!!" and the Cyberman looks smugly at it and says "You have identified as Dalek". You can see the Dalek's rubber sink plunger quivering with rage at itself for having been so stupid. It reminded me of the classic moment from Dad's Army when the Home Guard have been captured by Germans and are being quizzed for their names. Captain Mainwaring, fearing that the young, foolish one will give the game away utters the immortal line "Don't tell them, Pike!"

My favourite bit of dialogue from last night occurred between the two leaders of the Daleks and Cybers, viz:

Cyberman [apoplectic after a Dalek has just shot one of his mates]: "You have declared War on the Cybermen!!"

Dalek [in equally apoplectic metal tones]: "This isn't war, it's just Pest Control!!!!"

Classic!

Handbags - Remix

Further to my posting about the All Blacks and their handbag antics, it would seem the Aussie media have gone and done more or less what I suggested and made a video showing the AB's wielding handbags during the Haka, in a promo for the start of their upcoming Tri-Nations match against New Zealand. The All Blacks management seem to think it's disrespectful to Maori and the All Blacks - something which obviously didn't occur to Chris Masoe when he swung his fist at a member of the public back in May. Strikes me it's just a sense of humour failure ;-)

Fijians Get Feisty

Five Fijian Internationals are in hot water for getting bladdered after a game and fighting with each other. Tut tut.


Thankfully, Sarries' two Fijian boys, Simon Raiwalui and Mosese Rauluni, were not involved. Here you can see Simon warming up with the other Saracens players before their game against Worcester Warriors in May 2005 (he's the big bloke in the front row with Kevin Yates, Thomas Castaignede, and Matt Cairns.

Gomars Gets The Elbow

I see that Worcester have ditched England scrum-half Andy Gomarsall after only one year of a three year contract. Seems a bit harsh - 32 and he's not considered good enough to even get on their bench!

He's now looking for a new club, wonder where he'll end up?

In the meantime, here's a photo I took of him from the Sarries/Worcester game of 26th March 2006.