Brave Namibia Cause Irish Trouble

It looked like a slaughter waiting to happen on paper, but by half time, I was actually pretty impressed with Namibia. Ireland went in 20-3, sure, but their lowly-ranked opposition had played their hearts out, defended fearlessly, and even looked like they were going to score a try!

The Nambians certainly weren't letting the Irish have their way with the catch and drive manoeuvres, their scrum wasn't too bad and midfield defence seemed to be all over the Irish pair.

With such a critical group, Argentina having put the cat amongst the pidgeons by beating France, Ireland really needed a big score. The pool could come down to points difference, and if they can't put a few decent points over the tournment's bottom team, they could find themselves in third place at the end of the pool games. The final score of Ireland 32 Namibia 17 certainly didn't flatter the men in green. The try scorers were Brian O'Driscoll [right], Andrew Trimble, Simon Easterby [left], and replacement Hooker Jerry Flannery, which secured them a bonus point, but they made heavy weather of it.

England Disappoint

What a contrast with last night's opening game. England fans who travelled to Lens for the game were disappointed with a lacklustre performance from the team. It was a slow start, and after the first quarter, it was England 3 USA 3. The Eagles had defended well and had the only chance of a try, before Phil Vickery kicked out and tripped centre Paul Emerick. Vicks has since been cited for the offence and banned for two games.

Olly Barkley was one positive - he had a good game and fully deserved his Man of the Match award. He distributed well, and went over for a try. Despite the spear tackle from Paul Emerick [right] late on, he got up and finished the game. Emerick's World Cup is over after being banned for 5 weeks for the dangerous tackle.

Mike Catt had the chance of a try around the half hour mark, but USA defended well and cleared their lines. USA's Esikia was sent to the bin around the same time, and Olly managed to kick the points. Soon after, Josh Lewsey made a good break, which ended when he tripped over his own feet! However, he managed to offload to Tom Rees, then across to Jason Robinson who crossed the line for England's 100th World Cup try. Barkley's conversion attempt floated wide.

Just before half time, Mike Hercus attempted a drop goal, which was collected by Mark Cueto, then passed off to Olly Barkley who crossed over for a morale-boosting try.

[Olly Barkley clears the ball close to his own lines]

In the second half, Tom Rees [left] darted over the line for a score with Barkley kicking the extras. However, the rest of the England team were sloppy and kept making silly mistakes. They were never really dominant in the scrum, and Mark Regan's throwing wasn't terribly accurate. George Chuter didn't do much better when he came on. Perhaps Lee Mears would have been a better bet?

The Eagles' Blake Burdette nearly got a try, but Mark Cueto saved the day. Lawrence Dallaglio was sent off at 73 minutes, for lying on the ball. He hadn't played well anyway, looking sluggish and out of form. [right, one of Dallaglio's few high points in the game]

Replacement prop Matekitonga Moeakiola made it over the line for a well-deserved score just after, with Hercus hitting the conversion. Andy Farrell made a decent break during the dying moments of the game - he looked reasonably sharp when he came on as a replacement with some of the other heavy brigade.

So, England won 28-10, but it was far from pretty. They'll have to do a lot better next Friday if they're going to get another win against South Africa. Pull your socks up, lads!

Let Battle Commence

Seems like it's ages since the last one, but the Rugby World Cup opening game has finally rolled round.

Opening Ceremony
Fans of all allegencies turned up for the opening ceremony and first game of the tournament. The French were, of course, in the majority, but I saw lots of English, a few Irish, a significant number of Argentines and the odd Aussie & Kiwi wandering about outside the ground. All getting on famously, and the French riot police in attendance had little to do except strut around in their body armour looking menacing, as only the Gendarmes know how.

The French seemed very keen to dress up, and I caught this bloke [left] wearing a chicken on his head and still grinning madly!! (The French team's emblem is a Cockerel, but I'm not convinced it should have been blue and furry).

Once inside, the atmosphere was building as the minutes ticked by. The opening do was a bit pants, to be honest - lots of tumblers cavorting around in brightly coloured suits, but I think the analogy was lost on most people, it certainly was on me.

I was glad the exuberant flag-waver above wasn't sitting directly in front of me, or I wouldn't have got many pictures!

The Game
France vs Argentina was always going to be an entertaining show, and how it turned out to be! Not the result the French would have liked, but most of the English supporters I could see seemed to be shouting for Argentina!

[The Pumas win their lineout]

The French just didn't live up to the promise of recent games. Cedric Heymans kept dropping stuff and suffered from wayward kicking. The rest of the team didn't seem to be able to intercept or pass very well. On the Pumas' side, Juan Martin Hernandez [right] had a great game, his first playing at Fly Half. He ran all over the place and kicked accurately. His Fullback Ignacio Corleta seemed to chase every high ball, and scored the only try of the game.

At the set pieces, the Argentine pack seemed to be doing well in the scrum - perhaps their lineouts weren't as good as they could have been, but they certainly didn't get pushed about too much. The French were certainly surprised to go in at the break on the wrong end of a 17-6 scoreline. I can only imagine the Gallic ranting of M. Laporte in the dressing room at half time.

The dressing-down must have had some effect, as I thought the French were going to score just after the break. They were camped in Argentine territory, about 5m from the line, for over a dozen phases of play. But the Argies put up some immense defence, and eventually only gave away 3 points for an infringement.

David Skrela [left] had a shocking game, and never really looked comfortable. He missed a straightforward penalty on 55 minutes, and didn't link well with Pierre Mignoni at Scrum Half. Skrela limped off in the last quarter, to be replaced by Freddie Michalak who didn't fare much better, missing a morale-boosting penalty on 70 minutes. Mignoni was subbed for Elissalde with 8 minutes left. Too little too late.

One player who did make an immediate impact as a replacement was the scary figure of Sebastien "Sea bass" Chabal, who stole a lineout almost as soon as he stepped on the field. He didn't get it all his own way, as the Argentines weren't afraid to go after him with the ball:

[Sea Bass Chabal gets attention of the Argentine defence]

France kept plugging away in the last minutes of the game, with amazing defence from their opponents. Argentina thought they had cleared but France got the ball back and managed to kick a final penalty, but still went in at the end down by 12-17.

All in all, a fantastic game, tremendous atmosphere and a great way to kick off the 2007 tournament. Bring on the next games!

Sendoff In The Park

It's been couple of years since I last went to the O₂ Scrum In The Park, and it was good to see another event advertised this year, so the public could meet the squad and give them a good sendoff to the Rugby World Cup.

There were all sorts of events going on during the afternoon, such as Meet the Players to get autographs, training sessions for kids with the team, face painting, competitions etc. It's great to be interested in a sport where the players are so accessible - I can't see it happening with the England football team any time soon! I did feel a bit sorry for Jonny Wilkinson [left], who was inevitably the centre of attention - he needed about 5 minders to keep the groupies away! He seemed to be bearing it with remarkable good grace, however.

Other players who I saw pottering about included the midfielders Jamie Noon, Matthew Tait, and Andy Farrell (who also seemed popular with the autograph hunters).

Prop Matt Stevens and second row Steve Borthwick [right] were putting the kids through their paces at rucking practice. A tad unfair since they could probably both have lifted up the kids with one hand, and were trying to get them to lever 110Kg of Forward off the ball!

Entertainment was provided by a marching band, looking splendid in their Dress Reds and enormous Busbies. I wasn't entirely convinced by the Gospel Choir, mind you. Although they were much better than the crowd at singing Swing Low!

At least the Sign For England bus was a success - a double-decker where you could sign your message of support to the boys, all over the outside:

[my contribution on the side of the Sign For England bus]

The finale was a little bit of a letdown - the team were paraded onto the pitch and stood under the posts whilst Austin Healey quizzed Brian Ashton and Phil Vickery. Then they sang Swing Low and fired a load of streamers at the team:

[the England boys attempt to unravel themselves from the red and white streamers]

Would have been nice if they'd let them have a final lap round the pitch to wave to the spectators, but they were ushered off again quite quickly. Oh, well - I'll see them on Saturday in Lens! Can't believe my RWC trip has come round so quickly. You can see the rest of my photos from this year's Scrum In The Park.

Summer Rolls On By

I'm not really sure where the summer went - I think most of it was rained off, to be honest. But summer, and August particularly, is usually pretty slow for rugby. There's the Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham (more of which anon), and towards the end of the month, clubs are to be found holding friendlies as pre-season fixtures. So it felt rather strange going to Twickenham last week for a test match - but that's what happens in Rugby World Cup years!

France Come Out Strong
Initially, I had high hopes for England's chances against the French - our pack seemed to be bossing things around nicely, despite veteran lock Fabien Pelous [right] managing to score in the corner within a few minutes of the opening whistle. The strength of their pack is always something to worry about with the likes of Pelous, Jerome Thion and Serge Betsen in their ranks - not to mention their front row.

England held their own for some time, with Olly Barkley slotting over four penalties with little trouble - some from quite long range. Jonny Wilkinson [left] sat out most of the match on the bench, for heaven's sake! I realised it was only the third time I'd actually photographed Jonny on the pitch - once playing for Newcastle (Dec. 2004), once for the Lions (May 2005) and lastly for 2 minutes at Twickenham! You can see more photos from the game at the usual place.

My heart sank yesterday, after watching England's display against France in Marseille on the telly. Their pack were definitely having their own way - so let's hope we can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps before the World Cup starts. Fingers crossed!

Back To Twickenham

It seems I'm beginning to live at the place - visiting two weekends running. This time it was for the aforementioned Middlesex Sevens tournament. What a contrast in the weather to a week ago! This time it was cold, drizzly and miserable, (the sun had been out in force the week before for the French visit). I really felt sorry for the players - thankfully my seat was well under cover in the West stand and I was still able to take a few photos of the matches.

After recent domination by the likes of Wasps and Gloucester, it was good to see the Final contested between Newcastle Falcons and Worcester Warriors - the Worcester boys were sporting a bright orange strip which added a bit of colour to the otherwise drab pictures. I wondered if they've just taken on new sponsorship from Lea & Perrins - the orange was exactly the same colour as the sauce label?!

[Newcastle's Ollie Phillips tries to catch Worcester's Marcel Garvey]

So, just a couple of weeks to go before World Cup Fever begins to grip the rugby-watching public - bring it on!