It was a scintillating rugby match. Unbelievable pace and energy. The Wallabies pulled off something of a coup in beating the All Blacks 43-19 (two clear tries) with less than 40% of the ball possession. Unheard of in modern rugby.
Clever kicking, self-belief, and a herculean effort in aggressive committed defense in the opposition half allowed the Wallabies to keep the All Blacks pinned back and under pressure, when this much All Black possession would normally have resulted in a rout, and a cricket score being posted against most other international sides.
The Wallabies loose forwards, Palu/Smith/Elsom (and then Waugh) were the point-of-the-sword that pilfered ball at will, and wrecked havoc on the normally invincible All Black rucking and mauling machine. The Wallabies front row Archillies heel seemed to count for little, as the All Blacks struggled to capitalise. Wave after wave of the Black tide roared and rolled in, only to smash against and be broken by an immovable green and gold rock wall.
Then there was the added factor of the fast, skillful and enterprising Wallabies back line. A flawless Giteau, with lifted performances from Barnes, Tuqiri, Hynes, and Ashley-Cooper, more than compensated for the absence of Mortlock at center. The impact of Nonu was negligible. Mills played well, but the outstanding Carter seemed like a lone voice in the Henry wilderness, shouting at the wind. A depressed missing master McCaw could only look on from the grandstand, as the on-field leadership provided by Carter was not supported, and ultimately wilted in the heat and surge of the battle.
This is now 5 wins in a row for Roo-bie Deans, (two consecutive losses for Henry) and the 5 year Australian Bledisloe Cup drought looks likely to break. The Wallabies are building up to a full hop, with the team seemly acquiring that aura, confidence and swagger of that Golden Wallabies Farr-Jones/Lynagh/Horan/Campese era.
All the pressure has to be now on Graham Henry as round 2 of the Bledisloe shifts to Auckland next week. It's a must win game for the All Blacks, else a unforgiving NZ rugby public will undoubtedly be calling for his scalp.
What a treat we are in for, this coming weekend!
Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, Oi Oi Oi !!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
...Finally some sense
After a long long time, today I got the feeling that good old common sense is starting to take hold in Fiji.
In today's papers it is reported that the FRU has appointed Serevi to the position of Coach (and only coach) of the Fiji 7's team for the 2009 season, and most importantly to defend Fiji's 7's World Cup. Hooorrrayyy!!! Good job Rugby House.. Most of the Country will, like me, be breathing a huge sigh of relief. More importantly our hopes of having at least something good in Fiji to look forward to (ie a Rugby World Cup victory) next year will give us some strength to keep moving forward under the present very depressing circumstances.
Also today the press reports that PM has revoked the Water tax ..... Hooorrayy !! Hooorrraaayy!!! Finally the powers that be have put the foot down and said "enough is enough", and a stop has been put to an ill-conceived policy that would have acted to push the economy further into recession. Hopefully the Government can build on this and right a few more policy mis-steps to bring much needed confidence back into the business community. If this happens, it will not be long before the cheque books get reopened, and green-eyed entrepreneurs rejoin the mad scramble for investments in Fiji.
Go Fiji Go !
God Bless Fiji !!
In today's papers it is reported that the FRU has appointed Serevi to the position of Coach (and only coach) of the Fiji 7's team for the 2009 season, and most importantly to defend Fiji's 7's World Cup. Hooorrrayyy!!! Good job Rugby House.. Most of the Country will, like me, be breathing a huge sigh of relief. More importantly our hopes of having at least something good in Fiji to look forward to (ie a Rugby World Cup victory) next year will give us some strength to keep moving forward under the present very depressing circumstances.
Also today the press reports that PM has revoked the Water tax ..... Hooorrayy !! Hooorrraaayy!!! Finally the powers that be have put the foot down and said "enough is enough", and a stop has been put to an ill-conceived policy that would have acted to push the economy further into recession. Hopefully the Government can build on this and right a few more policy mis-steps to bring much needed confidence back into the business community. If this happens, it will not be long before the cheque books get reopened, and green-eyed entrepreneurs rejoin the mad scramble for investments in Fiji.
Go Fiji Go !
God Bless Fiji !!
Friday, July 18, 2008
NZ Tucker
Gulia and I had the privilege of attending the NZ Trade Charity Dinner last night courtesy of Westpac Bank. Thanks Westpac! Dinner was awesome - a 7:30pm kickoff with 10 courses of food accompanied by a different NZ wine carefully selected to compliment each course (including 2 deserts!). The function was fully attended (200 seats) and needless to say, by the evening's end well after midnight all attendees were fully stuffed and inebriated. Luckily for me Gulia had volunteered to be the designated driver, saving me a taxi fare and an early morning retrival of the car from the Holiday Inn carpark. Vinaka NZ High Commission and Westpac!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Back Again!
Been a while since I last posted a blog. Much water under the bridge. Life seems to have drifted backwards in Fiji. The bright spot is however our 15's Rugby team, who continue to perform well.
This weeks IRB Pacific Nations Cup game against an "Australia A" side replete with 12 Wallabies, will be the test. After almost accounting for the Maori ABs, who had 4 fully fledged ABs in the side, in a close contest that was only won by the Maoris by 4 points, (9 points for Fiji went begging with 3 easy penalties missed by newly minted test fullback Rawaqa), there is a chance, all be it a very very slim one that an upset could be in the making this weekend.
The Australians will be a different kettle of fish however, and coach Ili Tabua and captain Moji will have to motivate the Flying Fijians to extract a level of performance equal to that of the Wales game in the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal decider, to pull off the upset.
Go Fiji Go!
This weeks IRB Pacific Nations Cup game against an "Australia A" side replete with 12 Wallabies, will be the test. After almost accounting for the Maori ABs, who had 4 fully fledged ABs in the side, in a close contest that was only won by the Maoris by 4 points, (9 points for Fiji went begging with 3 easy penalties missed by newly minted test fullback Rawaqa), there is a chance, all be it a very very slim one that an upset could be in the making this weekend.
The Australians will be a different kettle of fish however, and coach Ili Tabua and captain Moji will have to motivate the Flying Fijians to extract a level of performance equal to that of the Wales game in the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal decider, to pull off the upset.
Go Fiji Go!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Hong Kong Looms
4 days to the kickoff of the 2007 HK 7's... and what a tournament this year's promises to be.
It seems the whole of Fiji is gearing up for this weekend, with many supermarkets selling Fiji flags and various patriotic paraphernalia in preparation for the event. I have taken my Fiji Rugby jersey out of mothballs and am having it washed ready for 3 days of serious 7's immersion.
I am doing this because I am in dire need of some serious sporting distraction, having now pretty much lost hope in the Waratahs making anything of their 2007 S14 season. With the Sharks (playing at home more like minnows) going down to the Brumbies over the weekend, the Blues now are clear leaders at the top of the S14 table. I couldn't think of a worse trend developing mid-way through the season. Hopefully the Crusaders (with the All Blacks back in the squad) will firm up to make the semi's - and account for the Blues, as they are easily capable of, with Dan Carter and Richie McCaw leading the charge.
Worse, the ICC World Cup has been overshadowed by Bob Woolmer's murder, and the average sports fan (such as myself) would probably prefer to mentally move on to something a little more positive and pleasant.
So that leaves only the rest of the IRB 7's season, and the IRB Rugby World Cup in France later this year to look forward to - leaving aside the Netball World Cup of course.
In HK, Fiji will need to win to move to the top of the ladder in this year's IRB series and put itself in a commanding position to finish with a flourish, making it 2 seasons in a row. A loss in the finals will still leave Fiji in contention, but anything less than this will make it quite a testy and stressful finish for the remaining 3 or so tournaments... heaven forbid ! I think I have had quite a few sporting shocks for one year ... and this stuff was supposed to be relaxing !
Go Fiji Go !
It seems the whole of Fiji is gearing up for this weekend, with many supermarkets selling Fiji flags and various patriotic paraphernalia in preparation for the event. I have taken my Fiji Rugby jersey out of mothballs and am having it washed ready for 3 days of serious 7's immersion.
I am doing this because I am in dire need of some serious sporting distraction, having now pretty much lost hope in the Waratahs making anything of their 2007 S14 season. With the Sharks (playing at home more like minnows) going down to the Brumbies over the weekend, the Blues now are clear leaders at the top of the S14 table. I couldn't think of a worse trend developing mid-way through the season. Hopefully the Crusaders (with the All Blacks back in the squad) will firm up to make the semi's - and account for the Blues, as they are easily capable of, with Dan Carter and Richie McCaw leading the charge.
Worse, the ICC World Cup has been overshadowed by Bob Woolmer's murder, and the average sports fan (such as myself) would probably prefer to mentally move on to something a little more positive and pleasant.
So that leaves only the rest of the IRB 7's season, and the IRB Rugby World Cup in France later this year to look forward to - leaving aside the Netball World Cup of course.
In HK, Fiji will need to win to move to the top of the ladder in this year's IRB series and put itself in a commanding position to finish with a flourish, making it 2 seasons in a row. A loss in the finals will still leave Fiji in contention, but anything less than this will make it quite a testy and stressful finish for the remaining 3 or so tournaments... heaven forbid ! I think I have had quite a few sporting shocks for one year ... and this stuff was supposed to be relaxing !
Go Fiji Go !
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Miscellaneous
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and a few things have happened.
First, Just reading David's blog - he's having the time of his life down in Africa ! Great going Dave,, good on you mate !
My Super 14 tipping season is in the dog house at the moment - I've only managed to tip 7/21 or an average of 33% for the 3 rounds so far ! I am down to 15,075 / 16,630 tipsters World wide... pretty bad. I will need to start redeeming myself over the next 11 weeks or face months of ribbing until next season.
On the gadget front, I have been keeping an eye out for a replacement for my trusty i-mate Jam. This year my i-mate jam will turn 2, and although cutting edge at the time I purchased it - it's now a little dated even though it still accommodates most of my requirements. During a recent trip abroad I had an opportunity to get my hands on HTC's newer range of PDA pocket PC phones, and took a good look at the TyTn and other GPS capable phones.
I have pretty much made up my mind that I will upgrade later this year to the yet to be released HTC Kaiser. This will allow me access to "Blackberry-like" push email and 3G browsing via my new CDMA/EVDO home and mobile broadband internet subscription service, whilst simultaneously receiving cell phone calls via GSM from my cell phone service provider. This phone is possibly the ultimate work tool and frankly, I can't think of a single feature that I would want that it doesn't have. It's an amazing piece of technology for the form factor and portability it boasts. With a few 2GB Micro SD cards loaded you could almost toss out your laptop.
HTC is emerging as THE premier Global OEM manufacturer of PDA/Smartphones, and have simply an awesome lineup prepared for this year, which should stretch their market leadership position even further. Check it out.
First, Just reading David's blog - he's having the time of his life down in Africa ! Great going Dave,, good on you mate !
My Super 14 tipping season is in the dog house at the moment - I've only managed to tip 7/21 or an average of 33% for the 3 rounds so far ! I am down to 15,075 / 16,630 tipsters World wide... pretty bad. I will need to start redeeming myself over the next 11 weeks or face months of ribbing until next season.
On the gadget front, I have been keeping an eye out for a replacement for my trusty i-mate Jam. This year my i-mate jam will turn 2, and although cutting edge at the time I purchased it - it's now a little dated even though it still accommodates most of my requirements. During a recent trip abroad I had an opportunity to get my hands on HTC's newer range of PDA pocket PC phones, and took a good look at the TyTn and other GPS capable phones.
I have pretty much made up my mind that I will upgrade later this year to the yet to be released HTC Kaiser. This will allow me access to "Blackberry-like" push email and 3G browsing via my new CDMA/EVDO home and mobile broadband internet subscription service, whilst simultaneously receiving cell phone calls via GSM from my cell phone service provider. This phone is possibly the ultimate work tool and frankly, I can't think of a single feature that I would want that it doesn't have. It's an amazing piece of technology for the form factor and portability it boasts. With a few 2GB Micro SD cards loaded you could almost toss out your laptop.
HTC is emerging as THE premier Global OEM manufacturer of PDA/Smartphones, and have simply an awesome lineup prepared for this year, which should stretch their market leadership position even further. Check it out.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Stormers Post Fast !
I have just finished watching the Blues end the Crusaders 3 year domination of NZ S14 teams, and wanted to check out results and how tipsters placed on our "KeltonFiji" tipping comp at Footytips.com.au.
None of the major websites had posted the match stats or results immediately following the game, except for the Stormers (in South Africa) website .
Amazing !
Check it out.
None of the major websites had posted the match stats or results immediately following the game, except for the Stormers (in South Africa) website .
Amazing !
Check it out.
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