Rugby league, not rugby union, that is. Overall, it was a great tournament, but unfortunately the final just so happened to be the most boring game of the entire seven weeks.
I could just imagine all those bandwagon jumpers watching the match in their fresh-out-of-the-packet England jerseys and going, “hang on, I thought the object of the match was to score tries?”
Speaking of tries… on first viewing, I agreed with all the pundits and thought it was a try. But then I went online and saw this screenshot, and whaddya know, it wasn’t a try after all.
However, I think in a situation that tight, and when all the replays (and holy crap, there were a lot) are inconclusive, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacking player. So the try should have stood.
But even then, I think South Africa were the worthy winners. Over the seven weeks, they played the best all-round rugby, even though they were on the receiving end of the best try of the tournament.
England played well too, of course, and did much better than expected. But they weren’t exactly fun for the neutrals to watch. In fact, Wales scored 50 more points in 4 games than England did in 7. But hey, it got them to the final while Wales were knocked out in the pool, so go with whatever works.
The cycling season ends tomorrow with the Giro di Lombardia, aka the most beautiful race in the calendar, and I thought I’d make a list of the five most spectacular crashes of the year.
At first, I thought it was possibly in bad taste, but then I saw the Times’ list of the 50 worst sporting injuries (via Sportsfilter) and thought that’s way more tasteless. Check out number 15 — broken teeth, concussion, shredded nutsack, all in the same match!
Anyway, I figure most of us watch sport partially waiting for a Bad Thing to happen. Fisticuffs in a rugby match, drivers spinning off in motor racing, bad tackles in football, crashes in cycling. It all adds to the excitement and provides a good talking point. As long as no-one gets seriously hurt (unlike some of the people in that Times articles), then I figure it’s fine to revel in a sportsman’s misfortune. And so on to the crashes…
5. Burghardt vs. Dog
Dogs. The arch enemy of cyclists everywhere. Although this old labrador looks seriously unfazed after getting clattered by Marcus Burghardt during the Tour de France. Check out the guy at 42 seconds in the black shirt trying to look all casual after he had obviously just called the dog from the other side of the road. “Dog, what dog?”
Also, bad PR for carbon fibre wheels. Either they’re really weak or that dog is really strong.
4. Uran gets wet
One of the more unusual crashes of the year, Colombian rider Rigoberto Uran decides to take the scenic route off the Riedbergpass mountain in the Deutschland Tour, overshooting a bend and flying into a stream. As the German commentator so eloquently puts it, oy oy oy oy oy.
3. Chute massive!
Big one from the Tour of Poland a month ago. Made all the more delicious because two of the main crashees were Graeme Brown and René Haselbacher, two riders unequivocally hated for their tendency to cause crashes. And as most cyclists and cycling fans know, the one who causes the crash is never the one peeling himself of the pavement a few seconds later. Justice!
Stay tuned until halfway through the clip and you’ll see Jimmy Casper literally flying through the air and over the finish line. If only points were awarded for style!
2. Sprinters on Ice
Note to race organisers: It does not help riders go faster if you cover the finishing straight in soapy water. Seriously. Alessandro Petacchi took his fifth asthma-powered victory of the Giro d’Italia, the rest of the peloton crosses the line on their arses.
If you prefer to watch the crash from some Italian guy’s balcony, click here, it’s a pretty good view actually.
1. “I landed on a fat sprinter”
As if Belgium is not awesome enough already — I mean, Tin Tin, Jean-Claude Van Damme, beer… — I now find they dub their cycling highlights with cheesy euro-disco. I’m moving there!
Stage 2 of the Tour de France into Ghent, and a massive pile-up blocks the road from kerb to kerb. This crash is cool for a number of reasons: Firstly, it involves the yellow jersey, which always ups the excitement factor. Secondly, the ensuing confusion meant that Tom Boonen celebrated too early and ended up being out-sprinted by his lead-out man Gert Steegmans. Boonen later claimed that he had deliberately let Steegmans win. Number of people that believed him? 0.
Finally, it resulted in this quote from cocky Welshman Geraint Thomas: “I fell soft; I landed on a fat sprinter.” Thomas is a first year pro and was the youngest rider in this year’s race. Great way to make friends, Gez!
Alright, maybe the Scotland-Argentina error-fest wasn’t exactly a classic, but the other three RWC quarter-finals were incredible.
Earlier this afternoon, a decidedly shaky looking South Africa just scraped past Fiji in an absolute corker of a match. When Fiji start running with the ball in their hands, there is no team in the world better to watch. Some of their tackling, though… yikes.
And yesterday? What a day. It’s not the done thing to say this aloud here in Wales, but I was actually very pleased to see England stick one over on the Aussies.
Australia had to have been the most over-rated team of the tournament by far — a woeful pack and an average-at-best back line. Lote Tuqiri thought England only have one world-class back in Jason Robinson, but someone remind me how many tries Tuqiri scored in this World Cup? Oh yeah, zero.
I don’t mean to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I did have a tenner on France at 8/1 to win the whole tournament before it started. I wasn’t very confident after the opening match against Argentina, obviously, and France are still one of the least consistent sides in the world, but now I’m feeling slightly better. Allez les Bleus and all that.
And New Zealand? They’re still the best team in the world, but that don’t mean crap if you also hold the title of the biggest chokers in the world. Four more years, boys.
The blog is back up and running after a brief spell offline. I hit my bandwidth limit rather early last month and it was down for just over a week. How annoying.
But now it’s back, and so am I after spending a couple of days down in Cornwall. Luckily, it just so happens the weather in the first week October was better than it was was throughout the whole of the summer.
Despite only going for three days, we packed quite a lot in, and spent the first afternoon at the Eden Project. Now, I’m not exactly into gardening, so I didn’t really know what to expect before I arrived, but I was pleasantly surprised.
There’s lots to see and learn about in the two large biomes (big greenhouses, pictured), one representing the Mediterranean and one representing the tropical jungle. The time of year meant that the crowds weren’t too big and we just spent a good four or five hours wandering around exploring.
Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day in Padstow, aka Ricksteinville. To say that Stein dominates Padstow would probably be the understatement of the century. As well as three restaurants (his main one is undergoing a major extension by the look of it), he also operates a bistro, a café, a deli, a patisserie, a gift shop and a cookery school.
I mean, sheesh, he’s a good cook and all, and is probably responsible for a large chunk of the local economy, but his sheer omnipresence in every street makes it easier to understand why some of the locals may not like him. And by the way, £17.50 for a plate of cod and chips? I know cod is endangered, but for that price, I’d want the last cod in the entire world.
Padstow was also home to the world’s worst tourist attraction: the National Lobster Hatchery. Now, I know the name should have given me a clue, but it was right there, so we went in. Basically it’s a room smaller than my living room. And it has some lobsters in it. Maybe three, if I had to guess. And you could look through this window and see some baby lobsters. The whole lobstery experience took about thirty seconds and cost 3 quid. Underwhelming.
The next day, we went to the Charlestown Shipwreck & Heritage Centre, a museum dedicated to the many shipwrecks scattered around the Cornish coast (and elsewhere).
Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty ill that morning, so I wasn’t exactly in the mood for history. But when I wasn’t on the verge of throwing up, it did look quite interesting.
Finally, we went to the fishing village of Mevagissey, which I must admit I had never heard of. By that time, I was feeling slightly better, and the glorious sunshine meant I had a nice afternoon rooting through the old curiosity shops and watching the fishermen working in the harbour. And as you can see, it was an extremely picturesque harbour. The ice cream was rather good, too.
All in all, it was a pretty good few days, made better by the unseasonably warm weather. Kinda made up for the summer we never had!
For reference, I’ve included a picture of my coin jar. Although the observant amongst you may have noticed it’s not exactly a jar, per se — more like a big fuck-off coin bottle.
It’s actually a 4.5 litre bottle of Bell’s Old Scotch Whisky, and it’s been the family change repository for as long as I can remember.
If it was a champagne bottle, it would be a Rehoboam, but obviously we’re not posh enough to have one of those, and I’m not entirely sure the names apply to whisky bottles.
It probably takes two or three years to fill, and we generally don’t empty it until it gets right to the top. One good thing is that if we ever get burgled, the burglar would probably get a hernia trying to carry it away, because it weighs an absolute ton when full.
And as you can imagine, the job of counting it all and bagging it up is not exactly very fun! Not unless you like the smell of copper on your fingers for days afterwards, anyway.
Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t have a change jar? Rhys, over at 