Exciting eh! I now have, well I’ve yet to pay for them so I now have the opportunity to have  tickets to three of four group games, and have been advised that there is a second raffle(?gotta love the kiwis) in November where I have a chance to apply for the Australia game and the knockout rounds. Class.

Only problem being that New Zealand isn’t in walking distance from my flat.  Or is it? According to the wonder that is the Internet, New Plymouth is 11585 miles away from Cardiff, where my flat is,  sounds like a lot doesn’t it.

But, its not impossible surely, is it? Bearing in mind I had to cheat at GCSE maths to get a C, these numbers may not get me an investment in the Dragons Den yet gotta be worth thinking about all the same.

• Somewhere in the back of my mind I have it that your average person can walk 4 miles an hour. Agreed?
• So say I walked for 8 hours a day, that would make 32 miles a day, yes? (Incredible how 4mph sounds do-able, yet 32 miles in a day sounds like total lunacy)
• I’ve never tried it though, and am a big fan of not knocking things till I have, by my calculations it would take 2896 hours to walk it or alternatively 362 days.

Undeniably, it wouldn’t be easy, but does that make it impossible? I’m really not sure? Hmmmm….

An all too familiar sight

Just to get things straight, I’m a Hooker. I should say I was a Hooker really but the feeling never leaves you. So officially I’m a believer but I’m just bored of scrums. 

Scotland Vs England on the weekend was admittedly a total horse tranquiliser of a game. I dozed off for about ten minutes of the second  half and wished I’d slept through the lot, well at least the scrums.

• The idea of any sort of Hooking contest is long gone.
• They eat up valuable game time.
• You can win the Heineken Cup and Grand Slam with a rubbish one.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think we should head down the league route with a flaccid leaning formality. In principle, scrums work. In fact last weekend showed as much, four tries were scored direct from scrums, at their best they tie in the forwards and allow for the flashy strike moves, bonza!

All to often though, they are the dullest of affairs. Six men barely managing to control the force of ten others all under the control of one other who in the main, baffles.

Arguably the scrum of the weekend was Ireland taking one against Wales having been camped on their own line for several minutes. Inspiring stuff undoubtedly. The scrum ended up in a heap, Heaslip picks up, Mr Joubert waves play on.  So if the side with the upper hand in the scrum has the ball and uses it the Ref waves play on. Seems perfectly acceptable but it isn’t like that all the time, hardly ever, never in fact.

I vote for radical change. A new kind of restart. I’m open to suggestions on what this could be. Rugby was a sport born out of another sport, so it couldn’t hurt to look around for a few suggestions, how about:

The Bastareaud Williams match up would be classic

One to launch strike moves from

We've already got the headguards

Any other suggestions more than welcome

Good man Johnno, it seems he has the ability to manage the press off the field like he did the Ref on it. I’ve just read the bbc’s report on the squad and am left a little empty to say the least. Don’t get me wrong,  I will be as happy as anyone to watch England falter and struggle their way through another campaign. I’d love it, truth be known, its just I think to call it an announcement is a bit extreme. The BBC tells us that he has named his EPS (I won’t even start) consisting of  32 players, and a Saxons squad of the same number. So he has selected 64 players, tough job. 

In the rules the Guinness Premiership says you can field up to 2 foreign players for the full duration of the game. For arguments sake lets ignore (because I can’t be bothered to work out the figure) the reams of EU based players in the league to give us a figure of 156 players. So the legend has used all of that World Cup and Lions experience to whittle the field down to just under half. Like I said, tough job.

Wales have their star back and their pop star back on the bench for the France game. Thankfully Gatland hasn’t gone for Henson to start and so hopefully the hero worship of a win  won’t be entirely placed upon his shoulders. Ireland have stuck with the team that have got them to the top of the table. France look to be having a nightmare with injuries particularly losing Beauxis, the only fly half in the squad. As everyone is so fond of saying you can’t write off the French and the replacement Trinh-Duc has previously kept Beauxis out of the side so the change shouldn’t be that catastrophic. That said, as the occasion draws nearer little things seem to be moving in favour of Wales. I did think the nighttime kick off would play a part in unsettling Wales but feel that any effect it may have had is seriously diminished by the bruising encounters of last weekend, as all the home nations enjoyed a weekend off. Lièvremont is not happy and rightly so, hardly seems fair. 

Ireland have no such worries and have stuck with the team that have got them to the top of the table. Given the state of Paddy Wallace on the sidelines in Italy, thats a fairly impressive feat, also Darcy has been playing well and is the established partner for O’Driscoll but fair play to Kidney in that Wallace earned his place and now deserves to keep it. Bar that the only thing to deal with is the opposition, as Kidney himself said a fortnight ago “Confident of Ireland beating England? Never”. Most Irish fans would agree with the sentiment, we have a good recent record without doubt, but in much the same way you never know when a French side will turn around and win a game, the same could be said for Ireland and losing them. England shouldn’t win the game, I wouldn’t like to tempt fate and say they won’t

Ireland: R Kearney; T Bowe, B O’Driscoll (capt), P Wallace, L Fitzgerald; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, S Ferris, D Wallace, J Heaslip.
Replacements: R Best, T Court, M O’Driscoll, D Leamy, P Stringer, G D’Arcy, G Murphy. 

Wales: Lee Byrne; Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams; Stephen Jones, Michael Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones (capt), Martyn Williams, Andy Powell.
Replacements: Huw Bennett, John Yapp, Luke Charteris, Dafydd Jones, Dwayne Peel, James Hook, Gavin Henson.

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This years Six Nations at the halfway stage. Good to see Ireland in pole position heading towards the biggest weekend of the tournament. Genuinely Ireland, although shaky at points against Italy, looked their best for seasons in closing out a great French side. O’Driscoll is looking his sharpest for seasons and O’Connell seems to be much more instrumental in the leadership of the side, good sign for the Lions and O’Driscoll is clearly benefiting from the assistance. Kearney is full of confidence, O’Callaghans last two games have been his best for Ireland. Wallace has found his back row colleagues raising their game to match his. O’Gara needs to find some form but he is still a quality player and is distributing well enough so it would be hard to call him a weak link. The front rows work around the field is admirable but still fail to inspire confidence at the scrummage. The real worry is eyes start drifting towards the big decider at the Millennium, it would be oh so England of England to come to Dublin and upset the party. They have found some players this tournament, even if they are a long way from being a cohesive unit, with a bit more confidence and a captain they could have gone in front against Wales and turned the game around. If Martin Johnson can find a bit of belief and admit to himself and the rest of the world that selecting Andy Goode maybe a safety first policy, but an incredibly negative policy all the same, and leave him out from the start they could be a real problem.

For me though, the real problem of next weekend is for Wales. I can’t help but feel the Friday evening kick off will be just enough to have them start out of sorts, allowing the French to get the crowd on their side and get to their unpredictable best. I get the feeling Gatland may opt to start Henson which could be, drunken shenanigans aside,  a selection disaster waiting to happen.