Arsenal Take Down Manchester United—And Other Sports This Week in Europe

Hey readers, is it not great to see international rugby again? The Springboks got off to a solid start with a win over Wales20-15. Unfortunately Alan Roland tried his damdest to blow the Boks out of the game. His reffing was piss poor to say the least.

I am ok with a referee to have a poor game, but at least them a referee is consistently poor for both sides. However when a referee only has eyes for one team, it leaves a bitter pill in the mouths of rugby fans. What we want is consistency. Ruan Pienaar has a great half at flyhalf, our tight five was dominant, but our loose forwards let us down.

The only player in the backs that did not have a good game was Brain Habana and maybe getting dropped is what he requires. AD Jacobs and jean De Villiers scored the two tries for the Boks and Pienaar slotted the rest of the points. This weekend against the Scotts the point gap will be big and if the Scotts thought they got off lightly against the B side of New Zealand, wait until Saturday.

Australia was held to 20 all with about 20 minutes to go before they broke out against Italy to win 30-20. France beat the Argentina 12-6 in a hard but defensive game of rugby. Both sides tried their best to brake through for that elusive try, but the defensive patterns for both teams were outstanding.

England beat the Pacific Islands comfortably 39-19 and the All Blacks were just too strong for Scotland downing the Blues 32-6. Ireland thumped Canada 55-0 in a very one sided affair, go figure.

On the cricket front, Indiawrapped up the Border Gavascar Trophy 2-0 by beating Australia by 172 run in the fourth and final test. Australiahave done is again, they have found a Tim May in young JJ Krezja who took 12 wickets on debut, including eight in the first innings. If South Africa thinks they are going to have an easy time down under they must think again.

Australia will be smarting, and will be a difficult prospect. However on saying that, there will never be a better time for taking a series against them than now.

On the ODI front, Bangladesh is a joke and has been thumped for the second time. They will lose again tomorrow and go home 3-0. Our batting is positive and well done to Hash for a great ton of 140 off 135 balls.

On the Gibbs saga, it seems that Herschel did not brake his curfew but just got hammered in the team hotel. It seemed that he got to the pub at 14H00 and had to be carried out at 23H00. He was abusive to the guests and staff and team management decided enough. It seems he has a serious problem and we can only hope that he can get his life back on track.

Cricket news on the UKZN front, the first and the second side won their first games of the season against Toti. I would like to say that I think that the influence of the fourth and fifth side players played a major role in their victory. To Cassey “Jay Jennings” Chadwick, great keeping, I think Rossco is in trouble.

2-1 The Arsenal over Manchester United at the Emirates on Saturday. Yes the league is not won in November but I feel that the Red Devils and the Gunners will have to stay close to the leader. Chelsea at present is the team to beat and my favorites to take the title after another win on Sunday.

They beat Blackburn2-0 away. Liverpool beat West Brom 3-0 at home to be tied with Chelseabut are about 4 million goals behind on GD. Spurs won again beating Man City away 2-1, Pompie beat Sunderland 2-1 away, Everton beat West Ham 3-1 away, Middlesbrough beat Villa 2-1 away, Hull lost their third game in a row going down 1-0 to Bolton at home. It looks like their dream start is over. Fulham beat Newcastle 2-1 all be it with a lucky penalty award towards the end of the game. But a win is a win.

In Scotland Celtic (31) lead the championship over Rangers (29) and Dundee (19). The Dons are down in eighth place on 14 points. Again it looks like it will be a two horse race. In the Bundesliga Beyer Leverkusen and 1899 Hoffenhiem are on top with 25 points each. Bayern Munich is third on 24 points. In Italy, it is the two teams from Milanthat top the table Inter (24), AC (23) and Napoli (23) after 11 games.

For the second week in a row one of South Africa’s top golfers had to go to some obscure place to win a golf tournament. Ernie Else had to go to Rabat Moroccoto play in the King Hassan II trophy. Although he only won $150 000 the win would have done him better than the cash.

Go Ernie, you and Retief should now be set for the SA Open. Sergio Garcia went to No. 2 in the world after winning the HSBC Championship in China. All that he now needs is a Major, maybe next year will be his year.

Well until next week, enjoy the rugby and soccer

Cheers

ONETIME