The West London's RWC blog

France Cast An Eye Over New Zealand...

Les Blews - who sells the Cardiff Herald outside the Arms Park thought he was in a dream and someone had named a road after him...all he could hear was "Alley Les Blews"...

Yep. A dream. And next weekend is the dream fixture for France - playing the toughest All Blacks squad in downtown West Of England aka Wales. The French public will be impressed.
I have, however, received a spy satellite picture of the France XV casting an eye  - "jeter un coup d'oeil" - over the hunky boys of the Silver Fern...take a look!

Time For A Quote

A) England, South Africa B) Australia, Wales C) New Zealand, Italy D) France, Argentina...


This was my original speculation for the outcome of twenty four days rugby - after seeing the key teams in action.
Not bad - considering that with a little more nous Italy might have 'shaded' it over Scotland. Wales were the biggest disappointment for everyone who has seen them play I think - totally lacklustre and massively pressurised by 'lesser' teams - as were all the e;ite participants. New Zealand are the only side not to have been under the cosh for sustained periods...but. They have this inbuilt choking ability and, as a little gentle pressure has been applied, have made their own mistakes. Luckily, none of their oppo have been good enough to capitalise and further pressurise. Give Serge Betsen that opportunity and BAM!  Elissalde and Jauzion will pounce. Fiji will be ground down by a better team than Wales and I fear for a flat footed England side who look laboured in their actions. Contrast that with Berrick Barnes or rampaging Rocky for the Aussies - that looks like a hatful of trouble, without adding Gregan, Larkham, Smith etc etc  'into the mix' (learned that phrase by litening to inane 'interviews' with players from , mostly, the home nations!)
Next week - a few days of rest and reflection. Have a good reflect everyone and make sure you are tuned into 'Radio Le P' (that means here!!!) for a fun week of frolicking activity.
Salut, bonsoir and goodnight! (Unless I get a dose of insomnia and think of something stupid to write...

Day 24 - Sunday Matches

 

Big party time for the French before the serious business in Cardiff (Oh how 'international' is that piece of organisational merde?)  next week. Great.
South Africa  - the Springboshers can look forward to Fiji in Marseille
Ireland could possibly change all that Arms Park business - unless their wheels come off yet again when they meet the Argentina XV. A 30-0 win for the Greens will be good for Guinness, good for Ireland and brilliant for France. On form though, it is goodbye - see you in four years.

Wales v Fiji

Wales and Fiji actually played rugby yesterday. Fiji won - deservedly, although they nearly lost the plot after 80 minutes. A proper adventurous do-or-die game from both sides in patches. Watch out for Delasau in the next match - they'll not win but it might make for exciting rugby again! Wales, for all their investment, power and past inventiveness failed to um...'deliver' I think is the word. As they say in Fiji "Life's a beach, and then you Dai!" How much money do the Fiji RFU receive for getting this far...anyone know? Is there a prize divvy up a la golf tournament? It is rumoured that Italy were 'on' £14,000 win bonus each last night... £50 now and the rest to be collected in weekly installments from Giuseppi's Chinese Laundry allegedly...

A Big But

Apparently, rugby balls (like cricket bats being 'knocked in' I suppose), have to be 'kicked in' before being declared fit for use in matches. At least according to Neil Jenkins the Welsh kicking coach they do.

Daniel Carter, Graham Henry and Co. (Snarling hakas a speciality) are perturbed that the match balls are not flying true - unlike the 'practice' balls that are supplied (which are apparently identical?!).

Jonny meanwhile is checking each pimple on his Gilbert with a micrometer looking for discrepancies in semi-hemispherical arrays.

Meanwhile, in St Etienne, in the pissing rain, in a difficult situation under pressure, at night etc... Chris Paterson slotted six from six kicks - up to 16 consecutive I believe. Don't suppose he'll be talking balls  - for the moment anyway...

Scotland Rain Over Italy...

"Scotland The Bathe" skirled out from the pipes after this push -pull match dribbled to a conclusion. Scotland won 18-16 in a contest that was there for Italy to win. Very slack play by Italy allowed far too many penalties to be administered by 'Charlie Kaplan' (who wasn't too bad actually - he must be losing his touch...).  I'm getting really fed up with the 'pro-speak' of managers/ coaches/ trainers/ nobodies etc who talk meaninglessly about the pressure of this and that, the spirit of Wee Willie McWinkie in training...body on the line blah blah blah! The curmudgeonly Frank Hadden was caught out with a smile on his face when Bortolussi pinged the ball wide of the posts toward the end of the bathing session...but we didn't notice that Frank, okay? You can get back to being miserable, viz. - he's arranged for his squad to have a sandpaper massage this morning, before a meal of raw haggis - followed by a drop of telly, a tart an a cuppa while watching France and South Africa win.

Fiji tings...2

Wales are getting edgy. I have been typing through the start of this match due to the National Anthems being er - not very interesting. POW! Fiji are firing up now... Amazing start and a game of catch up for Wales as well as actually having to win.

Italy Thrash Scotland...

...at National Anthems that is!
Without a doubt, the Italian anthem is the most stirring evocation of World Rugby anthems. Fiery, proud, pacy and  well, just right... can't wait until tonight as another of the contenders for my top five is there (rubbish words though - which is a shame) Scotland. Without further ado (oh well, maybe a bit...) here's my top five Anthems:
1    Italy
2    France
3    New Zealand (with the proviso that they already sing it in two languages but should be a few more...)3a) Scotland
4  Portugal
5   Ireland  (surprise version!)

The Rain In Spain...

...is a bit like the rain in Bordeaux.
Stade Chaban-Delmas is the venue for today's encounter between Australia and Canada. Bit of a foregone conclusion but I am pleased to announce the winner of one aspect in this tournament: 'sans doute' the band of the pools is the mob that are blowing their lungs out and thumping the drum within this stadium...dispersing the wetness with their brand of accelerated pomp - FANTASTIC! There was a rendition of the Basque 'national anthem' before the break which was enough to dislodge my speakers  - mes enceintes - from the wall... Agent Sylvain, your task, should you choose to accept it will be to get this band, on video, on the front page of Le Parisien Rugby World Cup 2007. What an honour that would be! (Clue - Dax? Attention the Controle de dopage: if the band are found to be full of Petrus, they need to be tested or congratulated...not sure which at the moment :¬)  )

Super Saturday Matches...

Let's get the formalities over with: New Zealand - win. Australia - win. Wales - well, I sort of expect them to win but Fiji might just ignite...also 'The Big Fishes' will be playing a game of rugby IN FRANCE! and IN THE OPEN AIR! The weather is going to wreak havoc on Duncan Jones' hairdo, not to mention that of Colin Charvis, although he has been wearing an alice band (sponsored by Elastoplast) in recent games. Gareth Thomas paid a flying visit to the WWF headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut to learn how to forearm smash someone without really hurting them. Let's hope eh? Interestingly, the picture of Duncan shows him in his prop's jersey...so called because it gives the viewer exact instructions as to what the wearer needs...
And so to Scotland. My friend Stephan Freyermeuth writes elswhere that the Scottish jerseys are horrid and that they are going to lose. (I told him they were going to St Etienne but he didn't get it). Anyway, St. Etienne. Scotland are not going to be giving presents like last time Italy came out to play - who remembers that? 21 - 0 after about thirty seconds- "Happy Hogmanay Luigi,.." It will not happen today but rubbish kicking will see Scotland in trouble from the counter attack - be careful ye wee Scots. So back to St Etienne, who are a team playing in Div.1 of the French Soccer League - in eleventh place actually...and their next game is against Marseille on 6th October at ten past five local time - unluckily, it's a home fixture for 'Saints' otherwise there would have been ample time to have watched England grind another win, scoot across town and pay up for another big clash. But here I go again - 'digressement generale' - it aint gonna happen! To finish for now - I have to go and do my Mum's shopping and cleaning for a while - here's St Etienne and 'Nothing's gonna stop us now!' - for your delicatation. A nice video, decent riff - but lousy sync! Up the skirt wearers!