pasta paulie sporting awards 2007

Well all the papers are doing it so I thought I’d do my own favourite sporting memories, and some not so glorious ones, of the year. So here goes:

Come on England

I’ll do a better posting tomorrow but what a day to be an Englishman, with the footie and rugby teams both winning, and also a Scotsman with that incredible result against Ukraine. McFadden eh. Does he ever score a scrappy goal? And Wales lost in a seemingly empty stadium to Cyprus. The end for that plonker Toshack? But the night belongs to the England rugby team. From playing like a bunch of used French letters a few weeks ago, tonight they doused the French passion on their home turf and emerged like erect Trojans. Magnifique. Au revoir Les Bleus. And so we make a World Cup Final again. Seems incredible doesn’t it? What was I saying about surprises? Now who do we fancy in the final – my head says Argentina because they are the romantic story and if they could defeat SA, they couldn’t possibly pull off another shock in the final could they? They must be close to getting played out. And SA, who stuffed us in the Group stages? They are very dangerous but it would be nice to reverse that defeat and the one against the Boks in ’99 in Stade de France which still hurts. Oh yes….

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ps What do you think of Will’s brilliant touchline commentary at the end? He’s the biz eh!

pps Did you hear about Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin group buying out the troubled Northern Rock bank? Sir Richard was asked if his company brand would also replace NR as the Newcastle U team sponsor in such an event. He came up with a quick reply that they could and that Virgin Rocks might make a suitable name. Very good Richard but surely Virgin on the Ridiculous would be more appropriate. Ha! (sorry Lawrie).

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yet another momentous sporting week-end

Well this is a very quick posting as I’ve been away doing my grandad stuff with my fabulous g’lads and have had no opportunity to catch up since last Friday. We listened to Eng v Australia on the car radio driving down to Brighton. What a game and result. That late Aussie (failed) kick for the win was worse on the radio I can assure you. What a time to pull a result and a performance out. Who played below par for England? Nobody; simply superb. NZ v France was equally enthralling, it has to be admitted and aren’t we glad it’s two N hemis teams in this semi? Well I am.

another fantastic weekend for sport

Well that’s a been a pretty breathtaking weekend sports-wise. Let’s start with the RWC. That match between Wales and Fiji was the key talking point I guess. For me it was the best match in RWC rugby I’ve seen since France beat NZ back in ’99. It was simply riveting. I know there’s a lot of heart-wrenching in Wales over the result and the coach has been dismissed for failing to take the team into the final stages but I believe it’ll be one of the sports’ great matches of all time and the Welsh team should be proud of the part they played.

rugby world cup; upset on the cards?

Great result for England last night and today it’s Wales’ and Scotland’s turns to qualify for the QF stages. Come on you Celts. After an indifferent start by the Home nations (make that crap in England’s case), the tournament is just brewing up nicely now. The only blemish is the form of Ireland who really do look out of sorts. Something’s not right in that camp. The match against Argentina will be really tough. If all clicks they could do it but all their key players have got to hit top from simultaneously you feel. But come on you Greens.

thank goodness for will greenwood

Well all those misgivings about facing S Africa prove to be accurate. Did you watch England’s humiliating performance last night losing 36-0 to the Boks? When was the last time a significant test team (and we are World Champions after all) failed to score a single point? We never even looked like scoring one to be honest. What a shambles. Is it just me but surely the game’s up for Farrell – did he do anything but hoof it up the pitch, conceding possession and imediately handing the initiative away? At scrum half Perry inept performance was made even starker by the brilliance of Du Preez – what a game he had. And how sad to see the only English player playing with any heart and commitment, Robinson, end the game (and probably his career) bloodied and with a torn hamstring. The only positive on the night? Surely the touchline commentary from Will Greenwood – refreshingly different, funny, insightful and pointed. An absolute natural. We’ve found one new star at least. Well done ITV for getting their team selection right. Brian Ashton to note please.

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RWC – what did you expect?

Well it’s been an interesting start to RWC 2007. Even with my limited knowledge of the finer details I can see that the southern hemisphere sides, NZ, Oz, SA and to a slightly lesser extent Arg are basically frigging awesome. Nobody amongst the the 6 Nations sides has been anywhere near as impressive. In fact they’ve been bloody average at best. The good news is that the 6 Nations sides can only get better; the bad news is that they start playing the black/gold/green buggers very soon.