Arsenal Sign What They Actually Need in January Transfer Window

Britain may have left Europe yesterday, but Europe is still very much coming to Arsenal, in the form of Spanish central defender Pablo Mari and Portugese full back Cedric Soares.

Much was lauded over Arsenal's big summer spending, but very little of that spending was on defenders, who have been desperately needed by the Gunners for so long. To some extent, that has been rectified in the January transfer window, with the arrival of Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari.

 

Cedric Soares, a proven Premier League defender

 

Cedric Soares is a proven Premier League defender, having made more than 100 appearances since joining Southampton in 2015. He is a much needed back up to Hector Bellerin, who has suffered frequent injuries in recent times.

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, said: "He knows the league and he doesn't really need to adapt so I'm very pleased. We were short at right-back, we've had some big issues in that position before. We only have two players there and Maitland-Niles isn't really a right back and Hector [Bellerin] has had injuries so to bring in a player of that quality wasn't easy."

Pablo Mari, a 6’3" defender

Pablo Mari is a 6’3" defender, who became a hero at NAC Breda, in the Dutch Eredivise, scoring in a match against Heerenveen, which lifted his side out of the drop zone and secured three of the four points that they needed for survival. Mari captained the Dutch club in his spell there and was in the team of the month, twice, during his time in the Eredivisie. He then moved to Deportivo La Coruna, where he was ranked as the most accurate passer in their division.

At Flamengo, Pablo Mari won Brazil’s Serie A and Copa Libertadores last season. He is the first Spanish player to have won the Copa Libertadores.

Both players have been signed on loan, with an option to buy, should they prove as successful as Arsenal would hope. 

Arsenal's summer signings have not covered themselves with glory, with the notable exception of Gabriel Martinelli, who has scored 10 goals in 22 appearances, since his arrival. But Nicolas Pépé has not been able to transfer his Ligue 1 form to the Premier League, David Luiz has proven as unreliable as many expected, Kieran Tierney has been almost permanently injured and Dani Ceballos, who has had his moments, may be too slow for Arteta's style of play. 

Cedric and Pablo Mari, may not be the marquee style names that some Arsenal fans are looking for, but they they are experienced players in the positions where Arsenal need improvement most. Let's hope that they can flourish at the Gunners, under Mikel Arteta's leadership.

England Storm into Rugby World Cup Final with Win over World No. 1 Side

England 19-7 New Zealand

England dominated the mighty All Blacks to qualify for the Rugby World Cup final, in Japan today.

They played New Zealand at their own game, with a highly mobile pack who tossed the ball around between them. Lock Itoje and flankers Underhill and Curry were exceptional, but all over the park England players defended robustly and created breakthroughs.

Sam Underhill ball carrying and punishing tackling

Manu Tuilagi opened the scoring, with a try, only one minute and forty seconds after the kick off. It was the result of a fast build up and the ball moving quickly through the hands from one side of the pitch to the other. When New Zealand halted the England movement, five metres short of their line, England quickly recycled the ball and Tuilagi bulldozed through their defenders to finish a spectacular opening phase.

Manu Tuilagi opens the England account.

England managed to cross the New Zealand line twice more, once either side of half time, but both times the TMO was called upon and he disallowed both tries.

Aside from a single glaring error, when England completely messed up their own line out, on their own 5 metre line, resulting in New Zealand's only score of the match, England ruled all over the pitch.

Once again, as in the case against Australia last week, England's defence was more than impressive. But as was required against the All Blacks, England defended very high up the field and all over the ground, winning the ball at breakdowns and quickly putting an end to all New Zealand attacks.

Owen Farrell picked up an early injury. He stayed on the field, but handed spot kicking duties over to George Ford, who was up to the task. Ford converted four penalties, which proved to be the final difference in the scoreline. But this was no boring England kicking game and if the number of tries did not reflect the difference in the performance of the teams, the final scoreline nearly did.

England celebrate beating New Zealand for the first time since 2012

England have put in two superb performances in the last two weekends, against two of the southern hemisphere juggernauts. They are peaking at the right time and it really doesn't matter who they meet from the second semi-final, they will more than have their work cut out to stop England going all the way and carrying home the Webb Ellis Cup.

The Webb Ellis Cup. It's coming home, oops wrong code. England look to be carrying it home.

What is Emery's problem with Mesut Özil?

Arsenal slid to another embarrassing away defeat, to mediocre opposition, last night. In the process missing a great opportunity to put themselves in the top four of the Premier League. But, no matter what goes wrong in the midfield, Unai Emery seems determined not to play their highest paid, most decorated and arguably best player, Mesut Özil. 

Mesut Özil in action, a sight rarely seen at Arsenal these days.

Özil has frequently been out of favour with sections of Arsenal fans. His laconic style and and occasionally not delivering to his full potential and his own exceptionally high standards, is enough to have many fans decry him as useless and other similar insults. But his stats speak for themselves. A World Cup winner, who helped break Arsenal's nine year trophy drought in the first season that he arrived. His numbers, for chances created and actual goal assists, far outweigh any of his team mates at Arsenal, since his arrival, pretty much double the chances created by his next nearest colleague,

What Emery has managed to do, with his refusal to play the proven contributor, is to unite Arsenal fans behind Özil and against himself. 

 

Exactly what is his problem is with Özil? Is it because he's better than Zidane, he's Arsene Wenger's man? Well that's probably part of it, but several other theories have been suggested.

Power Struggle 

 

In an interview the Spanish online magazine The Tactic Room, before he was recruited by Arsenal, Emery said:-

“One day, Jorge Valdano [former player, coach and director at Real Madrid] made me the following reflection, 'At Barcelona the leader is [Lionel] Messi; at Madrid it is [president] Florentino Perez, and the Atletico de Madrid [leader] is [Diego] Simeone. … A player, a president and a coach. Each time, a different leader profile. I know when I'm the main person in a group and when I'm not.”

So, obviously, Emery wants to be the main person in the group at Arsenal, not a player with a higher profile and higher salary than him. He asserts this by leaving Özil out of the side, or even the match day squad, even if this means losing games and loss of creativity in the midfield.

Tactical 

 

Emery's playing system is significantly different to Arsene Wenger's, it depends on his players running, pressing and staying at it throughout every match. These are not the traits that Özil is known for. Emery's system does not use a traditional No. 10, Özil's most natural position, so he is forced to the flanks or deeper into midfield, where he is less effective. 

 

Injury and Illness

Since joining Arsenal, six years ago, Özil has missed 101 games, but has only had one major injury during that time. Illness has often been quoted as a reason for his absence, but that may be, in many cases, just a cover for him having been dropped again. 

So What Does Özil Think About the Situation

Speaking to another online magazine, The Athletic, Mesut Özil said: 

 

"When I signed the new deal (in 2018) I thought about it very carefully.

I didn't want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit and the club wanted me to do the same.

You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I'm not going to. I'm here until at least 2021.

Whenever people see me in the street I always say, 'This is my home'. I'm going nowhere."

So come on Emery, you are stuck with him. So you had better make the most of him. Otherwise it is just plain mismanagement and you will eventually be seen for that by the club owners.

Rugby World Cup Coverage Pathetic for Fans in Australia

Once again Australian sports fans have been shortchanged in the availability of a major world sporting event. The Rugby World Cup began on Friday and only 11 of the 48 games will be shown live on free to air television in Australia, despite the tournament taking place in their own timezone.

The control of major sporting events by pay TV channels is now almost complete. Fans who can not afford their monthly fees have limited, or no, access to world championships in the most popular sports, We have seen this in Soccer, Cricket and now Rugby Union.

Australia is known as a multicultural country, but if you wish to see any national team, other than Australia, take part in a major championship, your chances are very limited.

Rugby World Cup free to air TV Schedule. 

Free to air provider Channel 10 have chosen to only pick up the games in which Australia are taking part, from the pool rounds of the competition. The opening match of the tournament between Russia and the hosts, Japan, was added as a late afterthought.

It is very disappointing coverage of a major world sporting event. The All Blacks fearsome battle against South Africa was not seen by most Rugby fans in Australia. There are more than enough ex-pat Kiwis, South Africans and Brits, of all persuasions, in Australia to warrant showing all of their games live.

There are 20 national teams taking part in the Rugby World Cup in Japan. 

You will be lucky to see many of them on TV in Australia

It seems obvious that controlling bodies for these sports have little influence and even less interest in growing their sports. When they award exclusive coverage of most of the games to the pay TV channels, for a quick buck, they are ensuring that the majority of the public will not see the games and and the chances of the World Cup generating more interest in their sport is negligible.

We know that Rugby Australia has a pathetic record in growing their sport, having allowed the successful Western Force to be eliminated from the Super Rugby competition, while New Zealand, with less than a fifth of Australia's population, have more teams than anyone else. Argentina, over 12,000Kms away, field a national team and Japan, from the wrong hemisphere, has a less than adequate team taking part. 

Only Wallabies fans can be happy with free to air TV coverage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup

For the FIFA World Cup last year, the pay channel that monopolised it could not support the demand and released all of the matches to the multicultural, free to air channel SBS who did an excellent job of covering the tournament. Dare we hope for a similar change in fortune for Rugby fans in Australia?

Arsenal Paid Too Much for Their New Recruits

Arsenal paid too much for their new recruits and let go of their players for far too little, according to a formula calculated by a London-based investment company.

The data centres on the 'intrinsic value' of a player - a calculated fee based on performances for the selling club and the projected impact on the buying club, as well as taking into consideration their prime age.

It calculates that Arsenal paid almost £31 million too much for Nicolas Pepe and William Saliba.

Alex Iwobi and Laurent Koscielny were let go for £39 million less than their intrinsic value.

The one redeeming factor, in all of this bad business, is that they picked up a bargain in David Luiz, paying £27 million under his intrinsic value.

We can only watch and see whether time will tell if the formula is reliable.

Summer transfer window: Who carried out the best business?

Huge Summer Transfer Season for Arsenal

It certainly has been a big summer transfer season for Arsenal, with six major recruits joining the club and far more spent than the forty odd million pounds that was threatened to be the limited budget as the last campaign ended.

Of the six major recruits, one of them is a loan, another was immediately sent out on loan.

Dani Ceballos on loan from Real Madrid

Many Arsenal fans are over the moon at this new found and untypical splashing of the cash. While I wish all the new recruits the very best and hope that they do well for the club, I can not help but reflect that much of this spending may have been in the wrong areas, given the results of the last few seasons.

Let's bear in mind that Arsenal conceded 51 Premier League goals last season and also had some heavy defeats in the various cup competitions. At the same time, only Man City and Liverpool scored more goals than Arsenal in the Premier League and this has been true for several seasons, Arsenal being among the highest goal scorers, but concede more than any of the top five and even more than some teams that finished below them.

Armed with this information, the Arsenal management chose spend the vast bulk of their transfer budget on attacking and midfield players. They let go two goalkeepers and two right backs and never replaced any of them. They replaced one older central defender with another one, bought a young one and immediately sent him out on loan. They may have bought a decent left back, but he is injury prone and injured at the moment. It's all very well spending a lot of money and bringing in a lot of recruits, but how much change is that going to make, if they are not in the positions where the weaknesses are apparent?                    

David Luiz, older central defender

  

William Saliba, immediately sent out on loan

                           

Kieran Tierney, injury prone and injured at the moment 

               

Nicolas Pépé, record signing, a lot of money

Gabriel Martinelli, youthful forward

Let's also spare a moment to consider the departures

Alex Iwobi - Often the whipping boy for many of the unhappy fans, he was and is highly rated by football managers and other players. As evidenced by his £34 million transfer fee. He never scored an awful lot of goals for Arsenal, but he made some very significant contributions.

Laurent Koscielny - Long term captain and best of a bad bunch of central defenders in recent years. I never rated him as highly as many Arsenal fans, but there is no doubt that he made some major marks and will be missed at Arsenal. I would be interested to know what happened at the club to change his attitude so dramatically. Maybe the new regime, after Wenger, was not to his liking.

David Ospina - A more than adequate back up keeper and first choice for the Columbian national team. His departure baffles me, especially as no replacement has been recruited.

Carl Jenkinson - I don't think Carl was ever given enough opportunities to show that he was probably the best back up right back at the club, especially after his successful spell at West Ham. A talent under utilised by Arsenal and another strange departure that has not been covered with a replacement.

Krystian Bielik - Came in as potentially the next big thing at centre back, never really played at lot of games at Arsenal and apparently never developed to requirements. Left as a midfielder.

Cohen Bramall - There was a huge fanfare when he joined the club and much discussion about his rapid rise from non-league ranks. Again, never got many opportunities to shine and has now gone to a League Two team. The ups and downs of a football career pretty much defined there.

Danny Welbeck - Oh Danny! Danny, Danny Danny! So much potential, so many injuries. He did some great things for Arsenal, just nowhere near often enough. I hope he can find some success before retirement.

Aaron Ramsey - What more can we say about Aaron Ramsey? Releasing him, on a free transfer, was one of the most stupid decisions the Arsenal football club has ever made. For all the money Arsenal have spent on midfielders in this transfer window, have they really replaced the man who should have gone on to be a long serving Arsenal legend?

Petr Cech - Arrived from massive rivals Chelsea and is often accredited as one of the best ever goalkeepers in the Premier League. He was past his prime when he arrived at Arsenal, but still did very well for them, especially considering he spent much of his time behind one of the most suspect defences in the whole table.

So, while a very big transfer window for Arsenal, I can't help but have my concerns about the wisdom of many of the decisions made. But we wish all of the new recruits success and hope that they can bring Arsenal back to really competing for the top prizes in the game.

Unbelievable Finishes at Lord's and Wimbledon

What a day in sport!

Both the Cricket World Cup final and the Wimbledon Men's final going right down to the wire, at the same time, in different suburbs of London.

Congratulations to England and Novak Djokovic on your wins.

Commiserations to New Zealand and Roger Federer, who fought so hard and came so close.

In case anyone missed all of the action in London yesterday, here's a write up that describes some of the nail biting exploits, both at Lords and Wimbledon.

England win Cricket World Cup: A golden hour ends in a champagne super over 

You have to feel for the Kiwis, missing out on the Cricket World Cup. I believe under the old rules they would have won in normal time, as they lost fewer wickets in scoring their 241 runs than England did. They also would have won if the two runs that Ben Stokes scored in the final over had not turned into six when the return ball amazingly hit his bat as he was reaching for the crease and deflected to the boundary for the most incredible six ever scored in a World Cup final, if not any game of cricket, anywhere.

The ball bounces off Ben Stokes’s bat as he dives to make a second run during the Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s

Sad Day for the Arsenal Football Club

Another sad day for the Arsenal football club. Another long term player let go, another young talent that Arsenal developed into one of the club's best, one of the best in the country and by this measure the world. A British player in an English club.

Add in his goals, creativity and more, there are at least a dozen reasons he should be staying at Arsenal.
 
It just demonstrates the mismanagement of this club under Kroenke. Who is unable and unwilling to keep the best players and is happy to run a club where loyalty counts for nothing. #KroenkeOut

Aaron Ramsey

Arsenal Giving Away the Family Jewels

Another sad day for the Arsenal football club.

Jack Wilshere has spent most of his life at the club and is Arsenal through and through. Last season he was relatively injury free and played some good football. He was unlucky not to be selected for the England World Cup squad and now has been told that he will not be selected in the match day squad next season, at the club that he loves, despite accepting a financially reduced contract. For me that really stinks.

Jack Wilshire, moving to West Ham

I wasn't always Jack's biggest fan. Apart from a tendency for injuries, his short temper and petulance was always going to prevent him rising to the captaincy, that many saw him destined for. But on his day he could create openings that would change a match and he was a true Arsenal man. In these days of so many football mercenaries, god knows we need a few of those.

If this is typical of the type of decision we can expect from the new manager, Unai Emery, then maybe we have moved in the wrong direction. It may suit some sections of the fans, who believe that football is about constant change. But it is certainly not my idea of a club, which I believe is about construction and development, otherwise we'll all be Chelsea, or Man City.

In the last season and a half Arsenal have disposed of numerous long term players, as well as the coach, whose head so many were screaming for, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin, Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Tomás Rosicky and now Jack Wilshere. OK some of them had reached the end of their careers or there were other good reasons for their departures. But the "Wenger Out" crowd were very fond of saying that one man does not make a club, so how many do? At what point does the club's identity start to disappear?

In the meantime, Arsenal have signed Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen. This is another unusual decision. Is Germany's fourth choice goalkeeper, who didn't make it to the World Cup in Russia, going to be better than Colombia's number one keeper, or one of the most successful keepers in the Premier league?

Admittedly Petr Cech is probably nearing the end of his career and Leno may be coming in as his replacement. But it is going to be difficult to keep all three of them happy and give them enough games.

Jack Wilshere: Arsenal midfielder confirms departure

Baa Baas v Australia

The Barbarians and Wallabies Put in a Show for the Connoisseurs

 

The Barbarians played Australia at the weekend and it was one of those Rugby matches that only a Baa Baas fixture can be.

Baa Baas v Australia, a sensational display of Rugby

This was an amazing display of open, attacking, running rugby, that was a true celebration of the game.

The Barbarians started from the off with some innovations rarely seen in the game. An early line out saw Auckland Blues Hooker, James Parsons, throw the ball, not just over the line, but three quarters of the way across the pitch, for opposite winger Nick Cummins to run onto. Unfortunately the Honey Badger could not hold on and knocked the ball forward, otherwise it could have resulted in a spectacular try.

Shortly after this, the Barbarians kicked deep into Wallabies territory. A line out was the result and the Baa Baas opted to put 11 men in the line. Again winger Nick Cummins was involved, both in the line out and ensuing maul. This in turn gave way to a five metre penalty for the Baa Baas, not only did they opt for an old fashioned tap, the ball was launched over head and over the Wallabies line for the backs to run onto. 

Nick Cummins scores for the Baa Baas against Australia

 

The BBC produced this glowing match report

Australia started their European tour with an enthralling 40-36 victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham in new coach Michael Cheika's first game in charge.

The invitational Barbarians, coached by All Blacks great John Kirwan, produced a late rally but Australia held on.

"Our defence stood strong at the end," said Wallabies captain Matt Hodgson.

"It is a big step forward for us - we're on a five-week tour and needed to start with good momentum."

Cheika took over from Ewen McKenzie following defeat by New Zealand in the Rugby Championship last month.

They face Tests against Wales, France, Ireland and England in November.

The Wallabies had Will Genia and Quade Cooper back in half-back tandem for the first time in a year, but couldn't control a wide-open game that swung back and forth.

Sam Carter, Benn Robinson, Tevita Kuridrani, Rob Horne, Bernard Foley and Sean McMahon ran in six tries - five converted - to put Australia 40-22 ahead with just six minutes to go.

Tevita Kuridrani, scores a try for the Wallabies against the barbarians

 But late tries from Nick Cummins and replacement Marnitz Boshoff - both converted by Boshoff - ensured a thrilling finish.

Frank Halai, Adam Thomson, and Francis Saili had earlier crossed for the Barbarians, with Colin Slade adding a 45-metre penalty.

Australia coach Michael Cheika told BBC Sport:

"In attack and defence we had some good moments and some poor moments, which is exactly what I imagined would happen. All in all it wasn't a bad hit out for us.

"After half-time we kicked on and got away from them. Then I think maybe [there was] a bit of fatigue - we've had big training week, and the travel and everything probably kicked in.

"When we did good things in the new shape that we are playing we looked relatively good. We've just got to keep doing that. We need to be a bit sharper to the ball in the attacking ruck so we can get some quicker ball.

"It has been a bit of the unknown. I've never been here before at this level, so I'll learn along the way as well."

Barbarians captain Alastair Kellock told Sky Sports:

"It was an incredible game to finish like that - we were so close.

"We showed we were willing to give it all and left absolutely everything on that park.

"It was a really enjoyable game to play in - a hard, hard game of international rugby. I'm really proud to pull this jersey on.

"We blended well considering we got thrown together on Monday not knowing each other."

Barbarians: Nanai-Williams, Halai, de Jongh, Saili, Cummins, Slade, Cubelli, Stevens, Parsons, Ta'avao, Bird, Kellock, Thomson, Todd, Luatua,

Replacements: Schwalger (Parson, 50), du Toit (Stevens, 50), Adriaanse (Ta'avao 51), Brussow (Thomson 52), Alemanno, Pretorius (Cubelli 58), Tuculet (de Jongh 59), Boshoff (Slade 69).

Australia: Folau, Speight, Kuridrani, Toomua, Horne, Cooper, Genia, Robinson, Faingaa, Alexander, Carter, Horwill, Higginbotham, Hodgson, McCalman,

Replacements: Hanson (Faingaa 55), Slipper (Robinson 54), Kepu (Alexander 60), Skelton (Carter 58), McMahon (Higginbotham 21), White, Foley (Cooper 55), Lealifano (Toomua 65).

More at Australia hold on to beat the Barbarians 40-36 at Twickenham

This was an incredible game of Rugby and both sides were still trying to score a try in the 84th minute, until Toutai Kefu spoiled the party by kicking the ball into touch and ended a glorious afternoon.

The Baa Baas captain Alastair Kellock spoke very well in his post match interview and obviously enjoyed every minute of the match.

This is the reason that Rugby is the game that they play in heaven.

Australia Lose the Fourth Ashes Test

From a promising position on day four of the fourth Ashes test at Chester le Street, Durham, Australia’s batting disintegrated and succumbed to another defeat to England. This result gives England the series, having already retained the Ashes with the draw at Old Trafford, and Australia with only pride to play for at the Oval next week.

The fourth test swung both ways, with England and Australia taking the advantage at different times, much like most of the series so far. Australia established a first innings lead of 32 in a low scoring match. But it should have been more. Opener Chris Rogers picked up his maiden test century with some dogged determination and batting. Shane Watson scored 68 coming in at number six. But very few others made much contribution to the total, with three of the top five not making double figures.

Shane Watson and Chris Rogers, Australia's highest scorers

Australia’s attack once again performed better than their batsmen and dismissed England for 330 in the second innings giving Australia an achievable target of 299 and the best part of two whole days to get them. England’s total was mainly the result of another superb century from Ian Bell and some handy runs from Tim Bresnan, once again coming in as the night watchmen, and Graham Swann’s unbeaten 30 boosting the tail.

The second innings for Australia started really well with an opening partnership of 109. But things quickly fell away from there. Khawaja and Clarke both made only 21 and Stuart Broad broke the hearts of the Australian batsmen with two sensational balls to dismiss Clarke and the dangerous wicket keeper Haddin. From there the writing was on the wall. Peter Siddle contributed a gutsy 23 but he was never going to make the required 118 remaining runs with Australia’s weakened tail.

English Premier League Round 35

English Premier League Round 35

Summary of games played w/e 01/05/11 and their effect on positions

Goodbye Henry the great

Goodbye Henry the great

tribute and eulogy to a Great British sportsmen

James O’Connor to sign for Melborne Rebels?

James O’Connor to sign for Melborne Rebels?
It seriously looks like they are trying to buy the Super Rugby competition.

Premier League Round 32

Check out www.ozsportsreviews.com for the weekends results and highlights.

Autumn/Spring Internationals

The tour by the Southern Hemisphere Rugby sides of the cooler Northern climes continued this week. England started disappointingly against Samoa, after their world beating performance against Australia last week. The first half was try less, finishing 6-3 in England's favor. Although it must be said that England turned down numerous kickable penalties in favor of going for the 5 points. The second half convinced me I had underestimated Samoa's contribution to that low scoring half, when they scored the first try of the game in the first minute of the second half. It is almost a cliché to talk about the tackling of the Samoans and the TV commentators often do. But they do tackle hard and tackle often. For a small country with a small population they are relative giants in the Rugby world. They first came to notice in the 1991 World Cup when they beat Wales. At that stage they were known as Western Samoa and the English joked that Wales were beaten by half a country. But they have remained prominent in world Rugby, even through some lean times. Most of their players play in the Northern Hemisphere, or New Zealand. They have suffered because of that, with some of their clubs not releasing players to play for their country.

But there was no disgrace in this game, in many ways they gave England a harder test than Australia. After the try against them England did start to show some of the flair of the previous week. They hit back with two tries from Matt Banahan and Tom Croft and there was some Harlem Globetrotter style ball handling between those tries from England. Toby Flood's boot was safe, kicking four penalties and two conversions in total. Not to be outdone Samoa scored the final try of the match after sustained pressure on England's line to finish with the credible score line of 26-13. England will have to step up a gear when they face current world champions South Africa next week, even though they looked a shadow of themselves in their defeat by Scotland.

Now, I must level a few complaints about England Rugby and the Twickenham crowd. The first is a simple thing, I was not happy to see England turn out against Australia in that weird grey kit. It is traditional in Rugby for the home side to change colours, if there is a clash, but since when did white clash with gold and green? Never, in any of their previous encounters, that I am aware of. No, this is a lead taken from English Football in an effort to sell more replica kits. I don't like to see these traditions forsaken for commercialism.

Talking of Rugby traditions, the Twickenham crowd have now decided to forsake the tradition of honouring the Hakka and what ever the Samoan equivalent is called. They chose to drown out both traditional displays by the opposition in recent weeks. Now I know the Hakka is a challenge and everyone has to decide how to respond to that. But I believe it should be faced in silence and if you then choose to respond with a battle cry of your own that is all well and good. The Hakka and its Samoan equivalent, add to the colour and spectacle of International Rugby. But I can see them being phased out if the crowd decide to disrespect them and drown them out.

The Scotland victory over the Springboks was the shock of the week, after their awful performance against the All Blacks. I honestly thought Scotland could put a side out against no opposition and still lose. But they fought hard and secured the win off the boot of Dan Parks, who scored 6 penalties and a drop goal. South Africa scored the only try of the match from Willem Alberts and Morne Steyn kicked four penalties. The final score, 21 - 17 to Scotland.

Australia like South Africa also looked a weary side in their 32-14 victory over Italy. The score line actually looks flattering to the Wallabies as it was much closer throughout the game. It's been a long season for the Tri-nations sides, but that is no excuse for professional full time athletes. And New Zealand are showing no signs tiring with their emphatic win over Ireland. Australia's recent kicking problems seem to have been resolved with Berwick Barnes kicking 6 penalties and 2 conversions and missing only one, very long range, attempt. Unfortunately I still can not see a place for Barnes in the full strength run on side when Quade Cooper and Matt Giteau play to their full abilities.

The All Blacks remain the side to beat, dominating Ireland 38-18. Wales maintained their run of very ordinary form drawing 16-16 with Fiji. I have yet to see those two games so I reserve comment.

More fun with the tour games next week.