One week in and already the competition has been split into three categories - those who think they can win (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina), those who like to pretend they can win it (France, Ireland, Wales, England), and those who didn't think they had a chance even before they came to France (the rest).
The good news of course is that we are about to see the death of Rugby in Europe and quite frankly it's about time. For too long now the Europeans have been running around like a fat old tabby cat as if they owned the place, leaving their messy paw prints where they don't belong, vomiting up all sorts of rubbish and then demanding that the rest of the World feed them because that's the way it's always been.
Well no more. When the Southern Hemisphere takes all four finals spots and Argentina is let into the Tri-Nations, that tournament will become the true World Cup and every four years the rest of the World can play a qualifying tournament to see who will be let in to wave the token Northern Hemisphere flag. Better still, let's get a combined Europe team and flog them too.
The highlight of the week of course was the first streaker of the tournament during the Japan vs Fiji game. Much to everyone's surprise in Australia he was shown, deliberately or otherwise, in all his full-frontal glory on the World Cup broadcaster Channel 10. Such a thing hasn't been done here since about the time Kerry Packer was running World Series Cricket. The danger of course is that next time this happens the bastards that run television in this country will at best pixelate and at worst instigate a seven-second delay.
Still, even that won't be enough to prevent us from Bill Woods' banal comments or Rupert McCall's squawking. At least the Bens (Tune and Darwin) have played the game though last time I checked Woods was a motor racing commentator. According to the Channel 10 website "Woods is still an active sportsman, reader, musician, fisherman and home handyman". Well that's about half the blokes I know and we make make more intelligent Rugby World Cup observations at the pub.
The good news of course is that we are about to see the death of Rugby in Europe and quite frankly it's about time. For too long now the Europeans have been running around like a fat old tabby cat as if they owned the place, leaving their messy paw prints where they don't belong, vomiting up all sorts of rubbish and then demanding that the rest of the World feed them because that's the way it's always been.
Well no more. When the Southern Hemisphere takes all four finals spots and Argentina is let into the Tri-Nations, that tournament will become the true World Cup and every four years the rest of the World can play a qualifying tournament to see who will be let in to wave the token Northern Hemisphere flag. Better still, let's get a combined Europe team and flog them too.
The highlight of the week of course was the first streaker of the tournament during the Japan vs Fiji game. Much to everyone's surprise in Australia he was shown, deliberately or otherwise, in all his full-frontal glory on the World Cup broadcaster Channel 10. Such a thing hasn't been done here since about the time Kerry Packer was running World Series Cricket. The danger of course is that next time this happens the bastards that run television in this country will at best pixelate and at worst instigate a seven-second delay.
Still, even that won't be enough to prevent us from Bill Woods' banal comments or Rupert McCall's squawking. At least the Bens (Tune and Darwin) have played the game though last time I checked Woods was a motor racing commentator. According to the Channel 10 website "Woods is still an active sportsman, reader, musician, fisherman and home handyman". Well that's about half the blokes I know and we make make more intelligent Rugby World Cup observations at the pub.
What's Gordon Bray up to? He's been commentating Australian Rugby since before William Webb Ellis had invented the game. Rugby without Gordon Bray is like pizza without cheese - it's just not right.
And who the hell is Rupert McCall anyway? Again, Channel 10 tells us "Rupert is the author of five anthologies of verse that have collectively sold over 120,000 copies" and "he now hosts the Sports Today program on radio station 4BC and writes a blog for the Brisbane Times. In many sectors, Rupert McCall has become the poet of our generation." Bloody hell. Even I'm more qualified to commentate on Rugby than he is - now there's a thought...
Comments
He is no Henry Lawson.
Bring back Gordon Bray