European Sports Rundown: Cricket, Rugby, Tour de France

For the first time in 30 test matches, the All Blacks have gone down.

What a great result, and yes, it is a sign of things to come for New Zealand rugby. Yes, they will always be a dangerous team to play, and yes, they will win more than what they will lose, but the pendulum is now swinging away from them and towards teams like the Springboks and Wallabies.

The southern hemisphere will dominate World Rugby again for the next five to seven years, and I think maybe then the English or French may step up with a team worthy of winning a Rugby World Cup…Not!

I did not see the game, but after countless remarks from people that did, it sounded like a battle royale. The Kiwi radio commentator had one of the guys tickled pink, “Sorry Ross”, when Dan Carter smacked a snap drop goal and something like, “He kicked the ball like a wounded duck, but it went straight between the uprights.”

Mind you, after three or four beers on the way down to Kokstad, it had to be funny.

But once again, the referees and the SANZAR disciplinary commission is a joke. Brian Habana almost loses his face with a stiff arm tackle and nothing happens to the Kiwi, but Victor Mattfield tackles over-under and gets a yellow card.

Joke of the weekend: Bismarck gets a 3 week suspension for rubbing his fist on the face of an All Black, shame, but Spear Tackle a Bok and we will only suspend you for a week.

Bottom line, Springboks 30–New Zealand 28!

In Currie Cup, the Sharks are back on top with 14 points after beating the Valke 28-10, scoring 4 tries.

The Griquas beat Western Problems 21-20—what a great result. The Lions seemed to hit their straps at Ellis Park, sorry, Coca-Cola Park, what a joke with a 57-17 win over Boland. In the last game of the evening, besides a seven meter forward pass that Marius Jonker and his two assistant referees both missed, the Bulls beat Free State convincingly 31-23.

This also meant that we will not see Liefling again, as he has signed a three-year contract with Leister. Just what English rugby needs—another kicking fly half.

Varsity finished off their league season with two great wins on Saturday in a very cold Kokstad. It was not much warmer than nine, and got colder as the afternoon went on.

The second team ended their bottom-five section unbeaten, only losing three games throughout the season.

Yours truly even made a first half comeback in the 15-12 victory. The first team only lost one game to the Warathas, with the game blown nine minutes short. They dispatched of Kokstad 23-18 in a hard game, with some players having played two games.

At Lord’s, Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bowl—what an idiot. Looking back at the last six tests played at Lord’s, they have all been draws. Surely your best chance of wining is posting a total and then try and bowl England out twice. Well, we did not even get it right once.

After being forced to follow on, Oros Man, McKenzie, and Amla scored second innings tons. Price scored 100 in the first innings.

The quote of the test match was when Ian Bell was on 199 and the English commentator said, “No English batsmen has ever been dismissed on 199!” Polly who was co commentating turned around and said, ‘I think you have just put the commentators curse on him.”

The very next ball, Bell smacked one back into the hands of Paul Harris. Polly then turned to him and said, “I guess you are in a bit of trouble now!”

Casey Stoner won in a very wet Germany on Sunday. It is amazing how guys on GP bikes can travel at over 200kph in such wet weather, wonderful how talented these guys are.

Rossi is still leading the GP, but Stoner has blown the whole season open. It's still anybody’s championship for the taking.

Entries have closed for next year's Dakar race, over 550 for next year's Dakar Argentinean-Chile race. Yes it is not going to be held in Africa, but in South America. But as soon as Mad Max gets his house in order, he will have more information for us.

The Open Championship starts this week, and with no Kenny Perry or Tiger Woods, will it be the turn of El Nino? I would like that to happen but we will have to see if the Spaniard has got the BMT for it.

The Tour de France is now in the mountains, and this, I was told yesterday, becomes the place where the winner is found.