Ab's Euro tour

Once again, the All Blacks are victorious over the northern hemisphere teams. When will they ever learn eh? I'm esp. happy to see us beat the dirty French, 39-12, that is a beating of epic proportions! And once again, no team from the north managed to score a try against us, very pleasing also. Just the baba's to play and the bosy can have a break till the Super 14 starts next year.

Cheers.

Air NZ Cup.

Wk 9 just passed us all by, starting to get to the real business end of the season with about 8 teams still trying to solidify themselves at the right end of the table. Canterbury and Southland are leading the way, followed by Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty. But with only 11 points covering the next 9 teams, who knows who will be taking the top 4 into the semi's. Thankfully HB started playing some rugby, winning and scoring some tries.

Stay posted.

Rugby 'The Scrum' Bainbridge.

Air New Zealand Cup

Provincial rugby kicked off 2 weeks ago with a roar and a few upsets. Hawkes Bay finally put the smack down on Auckland and beat them by 30 odd points, the first win since 1975. Week two didn't go so well for the Bay, Wellington proving too strong but we made to many mistakes with ball in hand and of course you can't do that. It seems that the public have once again embraced the comp. and its been said this could be b/c of the misfortunes of the AB's......i'm not so sure. The "NPC" is the back bone of NZ rugby and provincial pride rules.

Round 3 to follow....

AB's 22, Oz 16

Tough game in trying conditions on Saturday night at Eden Park, and after the first 15-29 minutes i was starting to think the Aussies may have this one, especially when I see S Donald's kick charged down and a try is nearly scored.......but the men in black played tight, controlling rugby and applied pressure to the wallabies who couldn't 'handle the jandal'. AND the AB's didn't particularly play all that well for 80 minutes, so we can get better and will need too this weekend against the dirty Spring Boks!!!

1st test in Tri-Nations.

Saturday @ Eden Park, 7.35pm NZ time.

Nervous, slightly. But King Richie is there, so is Rodders & i'm also pleased that S Donald is @ 1st five as he should be.

Should/will be interesting.

Tri-Nation rugby

Just over a week out from the first tri-nation rugby game against the criminal element from OZ, nervous, slight but the king is back, & so is Rodders.

Rugger.

Glad the Blackness won against the dirty frogs, with an improved performance.... but theres still room for more improvement coming up to the tri-nations. Italy this weekend shouldn't be too difficult but i expect them to be tough up front but out wide we should have them, thats if the rocket man Joe gets his act together. Last chance for him me thinks!!?? Also, i still would've played S Donald at 1st 5 to get some more confidence and experience, b/c there won't be as much pressure on him, but this hammy made the decision for the brains trust easier.

Bugger about big Ali too.

Later The Bam Bam 'Scrum' Bainbridge

Frogs

Frogs 27, All Blacks 22. But..... i'm not too worried due to the team that was on the field, injuires to # 1 choice players and first test of the season. Now, if we loose again this Saturday then maybe I'll start getting nervous. But honestly I can't see that happening.

The Blackness.

Although the tri nations is a wee while away yet, the International season starts this Saturday for the AB's vs the always unknown, The French. Two tests, then one against the Italians, then its the big time. Hard to know what the first 2 games will be like??? The French are always so hard to pin down in how they are going to play, which team will turn up etc? What makes these 2 games even more interesting is the fact that theres a few key AB players missing from the startng line-up? Carter, McCaw, Rodders etc??!! We shall see how the untired lose trio will go eh? Plus the last time we played the Frogs, they cheated and kicked us out of the WRC!!

Rugby 'The Scrum' Bainbridge.

Super 14 Final.

The Bulls beat the Chiefs.

Super 14 round 13

Well, shes all go this weekend and they are still 7 teams that can make the semi's. Crazy stuff. Last week we lost 2 of them and this week not one team as yet can safely say they're in the last 4.

The possible last 4 could be the Bulls, Hurricanes, Chiefs and the Crusaders, in which order, no body knows????? My team, the Hurricanes are playing the Queensland Reds (who have no show) & should finish 3rd.....but it really has been a lottery picking winning teams from week to week?????? They didn't do themselves any favours last week loosing to the Chiefs & they will probably met them again in the semi's all things going to plan.

Can't wait.

G

S14

Well its round 10 of the Super 14 and after last weeks games, things have definitely closed up near the top of the table. There are now 10 teams that can make the last 4, crazy. All 5 from NZ. A couple of top teams got knocked over last weekend, which has opened the door for a few teams down the table. My team the Wellington Hurricanes, sitting on position 5 is doing it hard this year for some reason, they have the talent but are just not holding on top the ball, making silly mistakes and loosing games they should have won? They are still in the hunt but how confident i am that they'll make the last 4, not very! As long as a kiwi team win, then i'm happy.

Come the weekend it may have changed...again

Not Out!!

NZ wins the first one dayer against Aussie, but not without the usual spice, as you can see from the clip above. Wicket keeper Hadin knocks the bails with his gloves, therefore the ball becomes dead, but he neglects to tell anyone and the kiwi is out. The war of words then erupts with Hadin wanting an apology from Dan 'The Man' Vettori for questioning his integrity.

It's called a replay, watch it you whiny bitch!! From whats been coming out of the Aussie camp, no one knows how to push the replay button. Then Ponting says its interesting to get a text apology from Vettori, which hasn't happened. The poor Aussie's season is in tatters and they hav nowhere to run.

Game 2 tonight.

The cricket season so far.....

She's been a bit since my last entry. The Cricket season fully underway with SA winning the series against the Aussies, the first in Oz for 16 odd years. NZ at home couldn't put away the Indies in a 2 test series and is currently 1-1 with them in the one-dayers. just wish the rain would stop so we could enjoy a full or even a completed game. SA and Aust. will now battle it out in a 20/20 & one day series, while NZ awaits India.

But the big showdown for the summer is the Ashes series, Australia v England. England ust be quietly licking heir lips in the hint of a series win. We shall have to wait and see?

The kiwi's will have it tough against the Indians but local conditions should favour the Blackcaps.

Hats off to Graeme Smith, the SA's caption who batted at the death with a broken hand and who nearly saved the last test match for his home nation with a draw.....just 10 balls short!