Sport miscellaneous

Thought we could have a topic where general aspects of sport in general could be posted GAA and Soccer not being the only sports people are interested in, and this would give them a home.


Rugby

Have any of you been following the news about Tendai Mtawarira "The Beast"?
Appears that he does not have South African citizenship. Born in Zimbabwe and does not appear to have the correct working visa. SA immigration are kicking up.
BUT he does meet the requirements of not having played International Test Rugby for any other country, and been resident for 36 months - Same conditions that allowed Rikki Flutey to play for England (boy do they miss him) before buggering off to play in France.


Edited by finno

Well done to Ireland today!!! Very exciting game.

Have to agree. I think O'Driscoll should have got it. Great to beat the world champions so well but looks like Sexton has two broken fingers and will be out for some time. ( No wonder ROG was smiling )

Saw a fair bit of the All Blacks against the french. Didn't watch the Ireland game

Do the All Blacks really need the best of Fiji, Samoa etc? Have they not got enough of their own? Is their winger Fijian, and in the past they had Tongans and all sorts thrown in - Michael Jones, Graham Bachop, Tingamala etc etc.

How the hell have they thrown away so many World Cups - they look so good in between years. The old six inches between the ears I suppose..

Rugby union played well (I watch bits and pieces and would never claim to be a real fan) is as good a game as there is. Lovely mixture of raw physical confrontation allied to great skill. Like the Gah though, if it's played badly it's terrible old rubbish to watch....

Good program on RTE last night ,about the road to Irelands Grand slam,was very well put together..Great to see hurling your first choice Gary 

whippersnapper wrote: Saw a fair bit of the All Blacks against the french. Didn't watch the Ireland game Do the All Blacks really need the best of Fiji, Samoa etc? Have they not got enough of their own? Is their winger Fijian, and in the past they had Tongans and all sorts thrown in - Michael Jones, Graham Bachop, Tingamala etc etc. How the hell have they thrown away so many World Cups - they look so good in between years. The old six inches between the ears I suppose.. Rugby union played well (I watch bits and pieces and would never claim to be a real fan) is as good a game as there is. Lovely mixture of raw physical confrontation allied to great skill. Like the Gah though, if it's played badly it's terrible old rubbish to watch....

Yes they do need the best of the fijiians, But so do Australia.

The Islander Rugby Associations are kept poor deliberately so that their best young talent are enticed away to NZ and to AU.
Nz and AU play tests from time to time BUT only on home soil as sop as then they do not becomes decent sources of revenue which might enable them to keep their best young players.. Its just so cynical.


 

From Irish Times
JOHN O'SULLIVAN Reports

RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP: THE IRFU has expressed its disappointment with the way that South Africa went about seeking to have Ireland number eight Jamie Heaslip cited for eye gouging – an allegation that was subsequently found to be groundless – following Saturday’s international at Croke Park.

The South Africans petitioned the match commissioner, Scotland’s Douglas Hunter, to examine footage of the game to substantiate their claim that Heaslip had made contact with the eye area of flanker Heinrich Brussow.

The Boks weren’t able to specify exactly when the incident was alleged to have taken place other than to suggest that it was in the second half. Hunter examined the tapes in detail and found that Heaslip had absolutely no case to answer.

The Irish Times understands that the background to the whole process angered the IRFU as not alone did the Springboks allow the name of the player to become public – the story appeared on a website and certainly wasn’t Irish led – but they also asked for three Irish players to be investigated. One hour after that request they had reduced that number to two and then half an hour later it became one.

The IRFU released a statement last night outlining their concern. It read: “The Six Nations has confirmed to the Irish Rugby Football Union that none of a number of referrals made by South Africa against Ireland players has been upheld by the independent citing commissioner that was present at the game between Ireland and South Africa in Croke Park on Saturday, November 28th.

“The Ireland management is, however, very disappointed that the name of an Ireland player was subsequently associated with eye gouging in the media as a result of one of these unsubstantiated referrals.

“The Ireland management fully support and believe in the integrity of the citing process in place but believe that any referrals in this process should be made only when they are material and substantial. The Ireland management will be making no further comment and consider the matter closed.”

It’s particularly unfair on Heaslip going forward to have his name linked with such an incident, even though the accusations were groundless.

These latest shenanigans will do little to improve relations between the two teams fuelled by comments made by South African captain John Smit is his recent autobiography and also the eye gouging incident involving Schalk Burger and Ireland’s Luke Fitzgerald during the second Test of the Lions tour this summer.

In fairness to Burger he was one of the few South Africans who stayed around shaking hands at the final whistle last Saturday as most of the Springboks ignored the post-match pitch ritual of clapping their opponents off, instead heading for the dressing room without any preamble.

joey the lips wrote: Good program on RTE last night ,about the road to Irelands Grand slam,was very well put together..Great to see hurling your first choice Gary

Saw that programme as well Joey was really good seeing how they  interacted with one another.

The Home of the Tiddliwinks ,,I thought i would never find it