Posts by Tom Semmens
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Thanks, Tom, I was timing the lag from twitter to the web to wikipedia to PAS.
And what did we come in at?
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ZOMG!!! Let's break into this thread to cross to the news room!
Michael Jackson is dead!
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based on reports that three French players and two local women were seen entering the hotel, perhaps Bastareaud received teh bash for trying to mow someone elses lawn? At least that would cast at least one Frenchman as tres gallant compared to his Antipodean colleagues in the Cronulla Sharks.
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Well, I hate to say I told you so...
Bastareud is a complete "le coc sportif" all right.
I took the trouble to listen to Steve Tew's long interview on radio sport yesterday (or the day before?) it was quite illuminating. If anyone has a link to it, I would recommend a listen. I thought Tew came across as well informed, articulate, and persuasive. I also thought he is arrogant, completely out of touch, out of fresh ideas, and has no long term vision for the game of rugby in New Zealand. Tew can't seem to grasp the game is massively over-exposed and it's competitions are stale.
Arrogant because blaming and threatening the people of Christchurch because they are not so stupid as to pay almost a $100 in a recession to sit in a building yard on freezing cold night in late June to watch a stuttering All Blacks thrash an inept team ranked twelve places below them is the sort of majestic arrogance one has grown accustomed to from the monopoly that is NZRFU, but hardly acknowledges the reality of things.
Out of touch because no one seems to have told him that after twenty something years in its various incarnations New Zealanders have had enough of a stale Super Rugby & Tri-nations competition. Out of touch because he can't see the All Blacks are over exposed and their aura is suffering. More and more people are saying the players are self-serving and seem to see the All Black jersey as a way to add a zero to their European club contract. His impatient response that if you don't like it then come up with better idea is idiotic - Steve, that is YOUR job!
Out of fresh ideas because it is clearly now outside his frame of reference to take it seriously when people do ask if it is REALLY that vital to T.V. in Europe to play the likes of France and Italy at night in the South Island. And why play the Wallabies at night anyway?
No long term vision because I grew up in a era when we had much less rugby, but it seemed more interesting. Club rugby meant something, people couldn't wait for the first provincial matches (in June!!!!!!), there were Ranfurly shield games, NPC games were teams had different styles (the running Maori rugby of BOP! The fearsome rucking of Otago! The brutal outrages of Canterbury!), inbound tour matches, and tests were rare and sensational events. Yet Tew is dismissive when provincial fans reply to his demand that they sacrifice their local union on the alter of "same same but different" Rugby NZRFU style ask "Why? What is in it for us?"
Tew doesn't understand that rugby is caught in a real squeeze. Older, tribal, fans are sick of being told they don't know the big picture and to shut up by the NZRFU. Younger fans who see rugby as just another TV option increasingly prefer league. But he just can't - or won't - see it.
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I hate to interrupt the Interminable discussion of David Bain with a threadjack,
but
What the frak is this?
I know Tolley is an ignoramous with a penchant for the sauce, but she can't be serious... Can she??
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Hmmm, Bastareaud hasn't made an actual complaint, no one appears to have witnessed the assault (at least, no one has come forward) and their doesn't appear to be any CCTV footage of said assault. He didn't see his attackers properly, can't give any descriptions and has returned to France making no further comment.
I smell bullshit.
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I suppose Chris Comeskey is no worse than the lawyer who recently got his client off by using innuendo and gossip to claim one (DEAD) victim was having an incestuous affair with his daughter (another DEAD victim), therefore providing a motive for multiple murder that excused his client.
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If you were coaching a team of fourteen year old boys and we had to win the return leg of an inter-college encounter by more than 6 in order to retain the silverware, would you tell them?
Of course you would!
The All Blacks are adults, and can cope with grasping the implications of the series rules. It seems to me Graham Henry has a habit of losing his nerve under pressure and then makes self-serving decisions.
Oh and there seems to be an inordinate amount of tip-toeing through the tulips over the plain fact the Steven Donald isn't good enough. What gives? Since when have the selectors and media been so sensitive to the feelings of a good bloke who clearly should be cut?
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I was thinking about Graham Henry. I had a rant the other week about the lack of talent in the AB's and Super 14.
I am beginning to think it is maybe time for a change at the top, and a more real shake up of all our coaches.
Henry's loyalties to players like the (ex) Rocket man while better choices for speed like Zac Guilford and Rene Ranger are on the outer without it seems even being discussed makes me worry we will go into the 2011 RWC with an aging and not-the-best-available squad led by a stale coaching unit.
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Last Sunday I got a call telling me my aging mother had been rushed to Hawke's Bay hospital with renal failure and Pancreatitis. After all was stabilised the cause of it was tracked to....Gall stones. A whole marble bag full, apparently. We got her home on Thursday night, to prepare for an operation to remove them and her gall bladder in a couple of weeks. This whole episode made and continues to make my Mum very, very ill.
These stones are not beasts to be taken likely. I wish you a speedy and full recovery Mr. Brown.