Heh. And popular wisdom has it that the North-South divide in Wales is equally acrimonious, and they actually hate each other more than they hate the English, which is saying a mouthful.
Netball is just women playing a schoolgirls’ game, though I admit I’ve no idea what they do when they lose. My money would be on a typical netball dressing room being one of those environments where you count the faces and divide by two. 
Netball is a kids game in Britain. That is why the World Cup is always between NZ and Aus, you lot can’t play for nuts.
More blokes should watch netball. It is a fast game, a high scoring game and a game that involves 14 women wearing very short skirts. 
Oh and NO hate burns like the hate that South Islanders have for Aucklanders. It is a very special kind of hate. It makes the Scottish and English look like best friends…
You missed out the full stop after your fifth word. We’re uninterested in competing in a World Cup for that very reason. Let the sheep-sh…earers have at it, we say. You wanna play Basketball Lite, don’t let us discourage you.
Interestingly, I’d be quite keen to watch women’s rugby and women’s cricket, and not for the sake of seeing fit young women in tight clothing. Unfortunately when it gets onto our screens, which is seldom, the coverage mostly consists of a lot of blowing hard about how difficult it is to be a woman playing a traditionally male sport, and maybe thirty seconds of actual coverage from the play, usually shot from bad angles.
Then we had that dire soap Playing the Field, supposedly a drama about a women’s football team, actually more of the usual who’s-shagging-whom, who’s-got-a-skeleton-in-the-cupboard chicktainment. It might as well have been about a women’s tiddlywinks team for all the sporting relevance. :rolleyes:
The Scottish and English are best of friends. Well, I say “friends”, it’s more of a master and servant type thing. Rename Frodo’s companion to Sam McGamgee and you’ve got it exactly 
Any newspapers in NZ believe the injury to O’Driscoll was caused deliberately?
I don’t know, but the general feeling at least on the radio is: no way.
It was certainly reckless, and maybe the citing commissioner was too quick to dismiss it. But I still take have to take a big issue with the accusation that Umaga deliberately targetted O’Driscoll with the intention of removing him from the match. If he did and it was proven it would be certain to result in a big suspension, and the All Blacks wouldnt exactly be chuffed at the prospect of their captain being out of the last two test matches either.
And Umaga - I’m sorry - but he really just isn’t that sort of player. If it was Richard Loe or Troy Flavell then maybe, but (as I said before) Umaga is a guy universally respected as one of the fairest guys in world rugby
Besides, as good as O’Driscoll is, do you seriously think that in sub-zero temperatures with the rain coming in sideways, the All Blacks would have decided that an outside centre was really the man most likely to stand between them and victory?
I respect your fortitude in backing down from your previous position that the citing commissioner knew much more than we did, and his word should be treated as final. But no, it wasn’t “reckless”. Hoisting someone up and dropping him head-first isn’t “reckless”. “Clearing him out of a ruck”, to use Graham Henry’s own words, after the ball has long since departed from the ruck, isn’t “reckless”. It’s plain straightforward “foul play” within the meaning of the laws, and it’s done with no intent other than to hurt the guy, even if not deliberately to break his neck. There are legal ways enough to test someone’s courage, fitness and strength without resorting to cheapos.
That’d sort of even things up a little, wouldn’t it? BOD got one minute on the field of play as Lions captain. Sorry, you plainly hold Tana in high regard, and I sympathise with that, but this makes as much sense as the hairybacks complaining a couple of years ago that sending off Labuschagne for trying to smash Wilko out of the game ruined the match as a contest. You can’t do the time, you don’t do the crime; not that it’s going to happen.
If my dog bites you, we need to see the tooth marks and the dental records. It’s not a bit of good my claiming that the dog isn’t a biter.
If you’re of a cynical enough turn of mind, you’ll figure that they’ll take whatever they can get. :dubious:
Ohhhh Roger!
Were the AB’s mean and horrible this time?
Can’t speak for roger thornhill, but I’ve only hear the scoreline, from which it seems as though we got given a fucking good hiding. No complaints about that - but your taunt comes over as mean-spirited, calm kiwi, implying that we were only upset about O’Driscoll because we lost. And that’s a shame, because up to now I didn’t have you pegged as mean-spirited, but handsome is as handsome does and also vice versa. :dubious:
All Blacks: 48
Lions: 18
For all the money spent and the vast array of players and support personnel, was this the best Clive Woodward could put together? All too easy, really.
Opps. On rereading it DOES sound like that. That is not how it was meant. It was a very bad “joke”. A bit of Pommy-Kiwi ribbing that went wrong.
Shit I don’t even like rugby but as a Kiwi I had to say something!
I said the mean, bad, wrong thing.
I apologise.
calm_kiwi, next time someone is in need of an example of how to have the balls to apologize wholeheartedly, I swear I’ll point them at your post above. I’ll now revert to my previous evaluation of you as class on legs. 
(If I had a pound for every funny remark I’d ever made that went completely pear-shaped, I’d be living my dream of stooging around the South Pacific on a flying-boat.)
:: hugs ck ::
I watched the second test in Macau and for some reason there was no commentary, just the crowd (and especially the referee) noise, so I didn’t hyperventilate over any Mextedisms. Nonetheless, I got a funny look from the wife when she came back from swimming and I was talking to the TV set. “Thought you had a guest,” she said pithily.
After I realised the Lions were going to lose (i.e. five minutes into the second half) I was able to enjoy the game. Carter played wonderfully well - closely followed, for me, by Kelleher and good old Tana.
The third test should be a cracker!
PS Calm Kiwi, I didn’t take offence at all. I got your spirit.
Lions: 17
Auckland: 13
Jesus, the halcyon days of the late 80’s when Auckland could have beaten any international team you cared to field are long gone {sniff}: the Blues are also-rans in the Super 12, and you damn near lose to them? OK, a win’s a a win, but is that the best you can do?
A word of advice: next time, don’t bring Tony Blair’s ex-spin doctor in your entourage. He may know politics, but publically goading Tana Umaga is not the way to weaken All Black resolve. It might just cause a few more injuries.
Agreed. Alastair Campbell’s a wanker of the first order. But, be honest, New Zealanders would still hate Clive Woodward if he brought a squad of 30 players, one forwards’ coach, one backs’ coach, and a massage man. It’s their way of saying “You won the World Cup mate”.
I did the “lunching with ladies” thing, in Devonport today (Devonport being a suburb of Auck popular with tourists). It was a cold and pissing down day but SHIT it was cool to see the Lions lot out in their masses…All decked out in the supporters kit.
I really hope the Lions win on Saturday, a better bunch of visitors would be hard to find! If the Lions go home having lost the series, they can be happy knowing their supporters are EXCELLENT ambassadors.
Fuck it is good having such enthusiatic, good sports and enthusiastic people around!
Malacandra Thank you and I will be wishing the best for the Lions this weekend.
It is very cool seeing all the Red…even inspires wearing the Black
I seriously do hope the Lions win this weekend. Though if they do we Dorklanders (JAFA’s) will answer for it!
One of the best aspects of the Test series, indeed, the whole tour, has been the rapport and repartee between the two sets of fans. It gives me a warm feeling when the camera pans on the crowd and there are Lions fans and AB fans seated together. A real carnival atmosphere. What sport should be about.
But the Blacks will still crush the Lions on Saturday.
Appreciated, but…
Fat chance of that. 
I’m inclined to think the Lions are a bit of an anachronism these days.
All Blacks: 38
Lions: 19
I’m frankly disappointed, after three in a row: tests are supposed to be, well, testing. I suppose there’s a certain morbid pleasure in watching the opposition get hammered, but this tour was so one-sided it wasn’t even funny. If I were a Lions supporter, I’d be pretty hacked off at how lacklustre their performance was, especially after all the hype and build-up.
I ain’t gonna argue with that. Best just to reflect on 2003 when we beat everyone, and get on with rebuilding.
Looks like the Six Nations this year was a reflection on how poor England have become, not on the extent to which the Celts are improving.
It’s pleasing that the IRB is likely to come closer to agreeing on the total unacceptability of spear tackles after next month’s International Rugby Board referees convention on foul play and safety.
Video footage taken by an Irish fan at the match in Christchurch is to feature prominently at the convention, raising hopes that the IRB will move on to long needed changes in the (interpretation of the) laws. The video’s already been viewed by a congress of surgeons and sports doctors in Ireland, and an IRB spokesman has now confirmed that it will be used to illustrate the keynote presentation next week.
The international referees gathered near London will also view footage of another spear tackle, by the Lions centre Gordon d’Arcy on centre Rua Tipoki in the match against New Zealand Maori in Hamilton. The Ireland centre later apologised for committing the tackle.