Blood and Mud

Handbags: Lions vs Australia, 1989

You've gotta love this. The two smallest blokes on the field, Jones and Farr-Jones manage to unleash 30-man all-in pasty session.  Note the way Robert is standing on Nick's foot to kick it all off.  Genius.

Tom May gets on his bike for charity

I've always liked Tom May.  For a little while a few years ago it looked like he could have been an inside-centre for England, alongside his club and England Schoolboys colleague Jonny Wilkinson; but it was not to be. 

However, the Newcastle winger has proved his all-round decent bloke credentials, by deciding that he'll cycle around every Guinness Premiership ground between Newcastle and Twickenham to raise money for children's charity Just For Kids!  The idea came to him while visiting a children's cancer ward,  "I couldn't believe how brave these young people with cancer were.... it made me realise how lucky I am, particularly with my sporting career."

You can sponsor Tom on his 541-mile, seven-day trek by clicking onto his JustGiving page.  Go on, you know it makes sense.

Let joy be unconfined - Martin Johnson names his first England squad and Iain Balshaw is not in it.

142 stone former England frankenstein Martin Johnson has named his squad for the forthcoming tour of New Zealand.  This, remember, is a tour that he is not actually going on and will have little influence over as he is staying at home and putting Rob "250k a year" Andrew in charge.

On the up side, Balshaw and Big Les are out (hooray!), but there is no place for Shane Geraghty, Nick Abendanon or Tom Varndell (boo!).  Of those coming in, I hope that Danny Care gets a run at scrum-half even if it is off the bench and Mike Brown should start at full-back. 

New Zealand are in a funny situation at the minute; the 2008 Super 14 variety has not proved to be a great vintage, and the collective hangover from the World Cup capitulation has not had enough Alka-Seltzer to dull its effects completely.  Still, they should win at home against an England team that is in transistion and has a four-eyed midget of questionable management credentials in temporary charge.

The autumn is the test, when the two-eyed giant of questionable management credentials is in permanent charge.   Full squad after the jump...

Continue reading "Let joy be unconfined - Martin Johnson names his first England squad and Iain Balshaw is not in it."

Gloucester continue their quest to own every centre in world rugby

Lock up your midfields!  With the purchase of film-star monikered Matthew J Watkins yesterday it seems the Kingsholm outfit will not stop until every centre on the planet is on their books.  The Wales man joins in the same summer as Olly "Wedding Crasher" Barkley, and adds his name to a list that already contains Mike Tindall and Anthony Allen, among others.

Rumour has it that the IRB have called a special meeting to stop super-villain Dean Ryan taking possession of every inside-threequarter on earth.  They have heard he plans to form a massive army of slightly stocky blokes, which he will then command to take over the country with a series of cleverly-angled runs, scissor moves and miss-passes.

Classic 6 Nations: O'Driscoll's hat-trick vs France, 2000

Well, that was the weekend that was.  Let's look ahead to this weekend and the lacklustre Irish will be heading to Paris to take on the newly-swashbuckling French.  Here is a look at Brian O'Driscoll, when he used to be good.

6 Nations 2008: Ireland 16 - 11 Italy highlights

Skip to the two minute mark, as there is a lot of fluff at the beginning.

6 Nations video: England 19 - 26 Wales highlights

It was all going as I predicted until half time, then it all went slightly tits-up, to use a technical term.