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Re: becoming a literary character.

Love it, John. I want more!!!

You, Claire, deserve something better-written. I'd been flicking through the Crucible (which I now think I'll re-read at some point), so I was tempted to continue and have you narrowly escaping a lynching. The locals just don't like that double punctuation.

I've just realised I'm missing the South Africa vs Fiji game, but I'll definitely be viewing the Argentina vs Scotland game tonight. I can see the England France game being a must-watch, not least because of the traditional rivalry.

These two point margin games are great, as you sit there rapt, knowing it could swing with just a quick drop goal or a carelessly conceded penalty. More please! I shall be clearing my schedule for the 13th October... [cue fairy dust and magic unicorns] and it's clear!

Edit: corrected semi-final date.

We heard about the England game here on the BBC world service. No ITV though so could not watch the game. Damn Never mind though it looked tense on the highlights - that last kick from Australia could have ended it all. Phew.

Also heard about the Scotland match bummer for them, bummer for NZ too. They should have some good matches in the Quarter Finals. Will be missing them though, never mind, hope we do well.

mre liked your playlet very entertaining. Sorry for punctuation the spanish keyboard is set up very strangly and nothing is in the right place as they are using an english version.

The whole of this weekend's rugby has been terrific. Totally enjoyed beating the Aussies...even if my next door neighbour now thinks I'm a weirdo for screaming at the tv for 80 minutes! Bring on the cheese eating surrender monkeys on Saturday!

Mike wrote:mre liked your playlet very entertaining. Sorry for punctuation the spanish keyboard is set up very strangly and nothing is in the right place as they are using an english version.

...and nothing to do with strong mojitos then?

OMG. What a tense match. 14-9 to England. I am sat in the Presidente Hotel in Havana in my England shirt. Muy Bueno, Ingleterra. Adios Amigos! :D

Hahahahahahaha!

And...relax. I'm glad I don't have heart problems, or these games would have me in trouble. Not as close as the quarters, but then you have a team like France near the England twenty-two yard line on the last phase of play with only a five point margin, forgive me for getting a little tense.

"Not the prettiest game", to paraphrase Jason Robinson (I think it was him), but it certainly got the job done, thanks to the boot of Mr. Wilkinson and a well-taken opportunity that saw Lewsey over for a try in the first minute or two. England will need to go away and work on some aspects, as there were one or two "omg defence! defence!" moments, and the fact we gave away two penalties to give France the lead back within twenty minutes was a little concerning.

Yet again, I now feel obliged to watch the other game. Part of me wants it to be an England vs Argentina final, just to see which newspaper comes up with a Falklands/ 1986 World Cup/ Diego Maradona reference first.

Edit: And who can forget the classic post-match analysis from Will Greenwood: "Come on the lads!". Twat. It about summarises the general professionalism of the commentary, so still no discernible improvement there.

I am currently in dream land. Part of me wants the Boks because they are going to be so freaked out by our performances and we are going to want to avenge the 36-0 defeat.

My only concern is this. If South Africa get through will they be fitter and less mentally drained? Think about it. They will have played Fiji and Argentina who are lesser rugby nations whilst have battled past Australia (top 2) and France (3rd or 4th best) in their own back yard.

Aren't Argentina actually ranked quite highly at the moment? I think it's maybe a bit unfair to class them as a "lesser rugby nation", seeing as they are currently ranked above Australia. I understand your point about it being a slightly easier run overall though.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Last night's game was A-MAZING!!!!!!!!

Mike, I totally missed your post the first time around, must've been typing mine up at the same time. Good to see you found somewhere to watch the game!

Well, looks like it's going to be an England vs South Africa final. Should be interesting, as South Africa looked pretty solid all the way through in their semi-final.

Argentina made too many errors, and an intercepted pass gave South Africa a try to seal it with less than ten minutes to go. Habana is scarily fast and Percy Montgomery's spot-kicking is scarily accurate as well. The commentary, except for the guest turns from the ex-internationals, was still not so good: I've not been able to get over it since it was pointed out to me. Oh for blissful ignorance again!

mr_e wrote:Habana is scarily fast and Percy Montgomery's spot-kicking is scarily accurate as well.

I totally agree with you there.

My comment regarding Argentina as a ''lesser rugby nation'' was due to their history - which is fairly weak apart from the last 5 years, the fact that they don't have an established league, the fact 3 of their squad players are part-timers and their history in the Rugby World Cup which, until this year, was poor. I also expected them to choke badly but I didn't expect Contemponi and Hernandez to make such shocking errors.

Argentina are now down to sixth place in the IRB World Rankings. Incidentally, I'm pretty impressed with the research they appear to have done for the rankings model. It looks thorough, if nothing else.

I never realised Argentina had no professional league, so they basically all play abroad. It makes their achievement all the more encouraging, and might explain why they choked a bit as well.

Their system, from what I can gather, is quite similar to ours / worlds about 25 years ago until Will Carling did his infamous speech about the English Rugby Union's commissioners when he called them ''57 old farts'' because they had handled the game so badly. (incidentally this happened 3 weeks before the World Cup of 1995 and he was sacked as captain! He was reinstated 72 hours later when he apologised). The reason Carling did it was because he became a pro rugby player in the days when the sport was considered to be of an amateur level. (I think he turned his back on a fairly lucrative career in the army for the chance to do what he wanted).

Anyway, because of this, the game was forced to be analysed and a much more professional outlook to the shambles of a league was given whilst also providing more emphasis on help being given to the international setup. Of the top of my head, the majority of English players in the 80s and early 90s were part-timers, one of my favourites was Brian Moore who, if I recollect correctly, was a solicitor in his day job.

Cynically, you could say that another reason for the more professional outlook to the game being given was our previous history in World Cups - Final in 1991 and semi final in 1995. Perhaps the government wanted to promote a decent English team to provide a feel-good factor in the nation similar to the one that is currently happening? I personally feel that this is the wrong view and that it was something that was destined to happen because Rugby Union is a sport loved by many and often watched by people (like myself) when it is on the TV even though they don't have a favourite Guinness Premiership team.

Argentina Vs France - that was a vicious fight for third and fourth place and well done to the Puma's for getting 5 tries away against the France squad. It was obviously well fought and the French were obviously suffering from a massive mental issues. btw did you see chabal's eye? that looked sore man.

gutted