Read a Fiji player’s young son has died and he’s going to miss the funeral to play the final group game. We all grieve in our own way and I’m sure 99.9% of people would go home to be there but that’s incredible dedication to his teammates. Hope the poor bloke wins.
I’ve been to Fiji, it’s a seriously odd place. This doesn’t really surprise me, the Fijians are nuts and semi stoned a lot of the time on kava. The commitment to the culture, to the group, is huge. Kava’s quite fun though. Come on Scotland.
It’s a real shame. At some stage rugby and cricket are going to have to confront the fact that the pool of nations that take it seriously and can compete internationally is very small. Union is only the 7th best attended sport in Australia, they continually over achieve, given number of participants/players. We like to crow when they fail, but it’s really not that important to them. I had to explain the rules to an Aussie colleague when I was working there during the 2011 World Cup and we watched the 2 of the quarter finals in a bar in Darling Harbour. He was a huge League and cricket fan, but had never really watched Union before. Come on Scotland.
There were quite a few Fijians in the Paras when I was there, some seriously deep dudes who couldn't quite grasp the culture that we'd all go out and get wasted then be up at 6am and go for a 10mile run in full kit and be perfectly ok...ahhh, those were the days when my knees didn't feel like they belonged to someone else!
A few guys and girls I know have gone over for the game - delusional I think, as although I follow next to nothing about egg-chasing I gather.the Irish are pretty good
Ditto. Rugby league is the standout but is shrinking from youngster at grassroots level starting /moving over to either AFL or football ( soccer ). AFL is nearly as big as league, more so because they have teams in most states. Professional union here in Oz has gone backwards, playing pool has dropped, crowds are down bigtime.
Are England guaranteed to finish top of their group already? I admit that I do find it difficult to work out all the permutations.
Wales have gone quietly about their business. They were in an awful state only 6 months ago both on and off the pitch. Really poor at times in the 6N. But…what an inspired decision to bring back Gatland. He’s a Wiley old dog
The difference between Gats and Pivac is like ‘chalk and cheese’. He’s improved fitness immeasurably compared to Pivac, he knows how to set his teams up, and plans accordingly. He also knows how to improve and get the best out of players - just look at Gareth Davies: he was terrible under Pivac. As for the last Six Nations, Gats used it to get to assess the players available - fitness, ability. For once, the results were ‘unimportant’ - his objective, and the benchmark against which he was going to be judged, was to get out of the RWC group and qualify for the QFs.
