Sunday, November 23, 2003
It's all sports-related today, but the headliner isn't football. Or basketball. It's rugby. Now I actually don't like rugby at all, and certainly not the 15-a-side variety. Hong Kong has a big Rugby Sevens tournament, and that's quite fun to watch since it's really open, simple and short -- though I realise how insulting this probably is to a real rugby fan. If someone was to tell me that the only football they like is a 5-a-side indoor variety I'd probably think they were mad. Still, I think rugby in general has a few, erm, "balance issues" -- it really could do with more tries and fewer penalties -- but I have been taking a passing interest in the Rugby World Cup.
The Final was this Saturday, with England meeting Australia. You all probably know by now my feelings about living in the UK (I hated it), and that I don't support the England football team (I'm not AGAINST them per se, but I've always supported Italy), but I was firmly in the England camp for this game. I guess it was a bit of British nationalism stirring in me, because after all the jibes and insults and general put-downs Australia always fires England's way with justification after their continual domination of English sport in every way... well... the stage was set for revenge. And it was in Sydney to boot. What followed was an absolutely thrilling match. Every sport has their moments, those key matches which totally define the game, get you caught up in the moment and make fans out of even the hardest sceptic. The World Series of 2001 between the Yankees and Diamondbacks did that for baseball, the 2002 Superbowl between the Rams and Patriots did that for American Football (even Kavi enjoyed it), and the 2002 Ryder Cup did it for golf. The 2003 Rugby World Cup Final did that for rugby.
It was an outstanding encounter, with Australia scoring an early try, then England piling on the points for a big half-time lead. The game should have been put to bed then (England were the heavy favourites), but they got nervous, made silly mistakes, and the Aussies came back. It was one of those moments where you could almost predict what was to come when Australia knocked over a last-minute penalty to send the game into overtime. Where again, England lead, but Australia knocked over a late equaliser again... except this time they did it in the second-last minute. England then somehow drove forward and with thirty seconds to go smacked over the winning drop-goal. Wonderful drama, wonderful tension, and just overall a fantastic game to watch. And the right result, too.
One funny thing though was that I was chatting to an Aussie friend online while the match was on, and when Australia equalised to send the game into overtime I was trying to apply football logic to "predict" the outcome. In football, teams that equalise late seem to carry over their momentum to win the game -- Man United did it in 1999, France in 2000, and Liverpool in 2001. What I didn't remember until a few minutes later though was that in England's now-mythical 1966 World Cup (football!) triumph, they survived a late West German equaliser before finishing them off in extra-time. People have been comparing this 2003 rugby team to the 1966 football team, the last England team to win a major trophy, and as ludicrous as it seems (the 1966 team will always remain as legend due to football's stature -- 10 million watched the rugby final, whereas 26 million watched England get knocked out by Argentina in the SECOND ROUND in 1998), there is one similarity at least.
Anyway, the only football news to report is Liverpool's 0-0 draw with Boro. We need wins, damnit. The other point of note is that for the fourth game in a row, Florent Sinama-Pongolle was involved in a penalty incident. He came on against Fulham and (rightfully) won a penalty, started against Blackburn and (wrongly) won a penalty, came on against Man United and (rightly) should have had a penalty, and against Boro also (rightly) should have had a penalty. It's an odd string of events and I'm worried he'll get a reputation for diving -- even though three out of the four incidents were fouls.
Either way, if we were winning I'd probably shut up.
Posted at 11:22 PM
