Random World Cup Observations and a couple of milestones...

England are not happy. “Sloppy” fumes Johnno. “Not acceptable”  moans  Haskell. An air of doom and gloom now pervades the English campaign. Jeez fellas – just chillax. Six tries, bonus point secured, job done. Have a beer or two, chuck a few dwarves about and move on to the next match.

Meanwhile Samoan centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has accused the IRB of unfairness in their scheduling of matches and in particular the 3 day turnaround Samoa had before facing Wales. While his claims of Samoa’s treatment being “like slavery, like the holocaust, like apartheid” were crass and inappropriate, the principle behind the argument is sound enough. If, in order to have a 20 team tournament, it is necessary that some teams have to play twice in a week, then surely it is the better resourced Tier 1 countries who should bear the brunt?

Not to be outdone in the controversy stakes, the All Blacks are obviously so insecure that, in the absence of any scandal, they have felt compelled to invent one. Poor Zac Guildford has therefore donned the sackcloth and been paraded in front of the media by New Zealand’s management . His offence? He had a couple of drinks too many in the privacy of the team hotel after New Zealand's Tri-Nations defeat by Australia in Brisbane last month. Seriously.

And finally, I can’t let this moment pass without mention of the fact that this is my 1000th post on this blog. Yes, I’ve managed to find very little of interest to say 1000 times! Nevertheless, this weekend also saw the blog receive its 200,000th visitor. So I may well be blogging a load of old bollocks, but quite a few of you still seem to be reading it! J

A question of eligilbility

This week those nasty men at the IRB have resisted calls for eligibility rules for Pacific Island players to be watered down.

To be fair, it’s pretty clear that you can’t have one set rules for Pacific Islanders and another set of rules for everyone else.

In fact, overall I’d say that eligibility rules need tightening up if anything. The 'one grandparent' rule is utterly ridiculous, for instance, as is the rule only requiring 3 years of residency.

There may, however, be a solution. If a player was always allowed to play for the country of his birth, whether or not he had previously played for a different country, then surely (providing only one “switch” was permitted) that’s the problem more or less solved.

Could it be that easy?

Masterstroke

As far as managing expectations go, Australia coach Robbie Deans has pulled off something of a masterstroke.

Anyone getting carried away with the Queensland Reds winning the Super-Duper 15 was swiftly brought back down to earth after the Wallabies' 32-23 defeat to Samoa on Sunday.

All Deans has to do now is ensure his team capitulates to the Boks and the All Blacks in the coming weeks to ensure that the Wallabies are firmly established as underdogs for the World Cup and thus put into operation his fiendish masterplan.

Meanwhile, no one in Samoa is getting carried away with their victory. No one, that is, apart from Samoan Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi who, in true bandwagon-jumping-politician style, makes the perfectly rational claim that Samoa can now win the World Cup.

Shorts

A round-up of the weekend's international action in 4 headlines:

1. Mighty Fiji held to draw by Wales (more here);

2. Another new dawn as Scotland win in the rain;

3. England discover Samoa can tackle (who'd have thought?)

4. Ireland force All Blacks to engage 2nd gear (occasionally).