Cracking the Code

Monday’s copy of the Sydney Morning Herald made for a somewhat disheartening read for the Welsh consumer. Granted, by no stretch the target audience, I still found it frustrating at the ease by which their first piece in the build up to today's test match between Wales and the Wallabies, dismissed - in but a paragraph, any Welsh hope of victory. Incensed, my immediate reaction was an internal blurt along the lines of ‘we got closer to the All Blacks than you did’. Yes, unfortunately this is now the barometer for the rest of the Rugby planet. I calmed, and read the rest of the piece that focused on how Ireland would pose the first real threat of derailment to Australian hopes of a first Grand Slam tour since their one and only success back in 1984. The journo’s justification for the perceived lack of threat posed to the Wallaby slam train in Cardiff had nothing to do with form, quality of player, coaching reshuffle or playing style. Instead, it pointed solely to history; Wale...

October 31 2015, Rugby World Cup Final, New Zealand (1/3 - FAV) v Australia (9/4) , Twickenham. October 22 2016, Bledisloe Cup (dead rubber), New Zealand (1/25 - FAV) v Australia (9/1), Eden Park. Cold hard facts that paint a tale of exponential growth in All Black dominance, not just over their cross Tasman rivals but also the rest of World Rugby. Patience, England, we know you fancy a pop. To think there were concerns that post the Autumnal glory at HQ, the All Black ship would find itself in choppy seas without good ol Captain McCaw and First Mate Carter to guide it home. Transition period? Not here.    The All Blacks are the World's premier rugby team. News to nobody. However, the manner in which they have extended their preeminence over Rugby Championship rivals this season, is news. Six games, six victories, six bonus points and a score differential of 178 – an average winning margin of nearly 30 points. Australia, South Africa and Argentina all finished t...

If there is a competition that highlights time and again that the divide between success and failure in sport can be beyond negligible, it is Australia’s premier rugby league competition the NRL . With time up in this year’s grand final the Cowboys of North Queensland trailed the Brisbane Broncos by 4 points, for the Broncos it was a case of one more tackle and they would be premiers. However, the Cowboys bundled up all the clichés as they threw caution to the wind, rolled the dice and held nothing back to produce the impossible to score in the corner. With the board locked at 16 each, Jonathan Thurston stepped up to win the game for his beloved Cowboys. As the kick homed in on the posts and drew back in classic Thurston fashion , the North Queensland talisman raised his arm in the air believing his kick was about to creep inside the sticks only to see it collide with the near upright. As it materialised, JT would get another opportunity, and this time he was on the money as he nudge...

As Australia and England took centre stage, at Sydney's Olympic stadium to contest the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, there was a tangible difference between the two outfits. The like of which, we would never see again at a World Cup. A difference that perhaps symbolises the final stages of the transition of elite rugby from an amateur to a professional game. If the use of the word 'outfits' hasn't already given it away, I am of course referencing the disparity between the playing jerseys of the two adversaries. In the green and gold corner, you had a Wallaby outfit in a traditional Canterbury of New Zealand cotton rugby shirt, complete with white collar. At the other end of the spectrum, were Clive Woodward's men in their light, tight fitting, sweat removing, Nike jerseys.  This new high spec number, unveiled just before the tournament, blew away one of the game's age old traditions. Rugby shirts until that point were as a rule, cotton, loose fitting with ...