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redfiona99http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article6955240.ece
Today was numbers 100 - 80, here are some that I have opinions on:
Great Britain’s chances of regaining rugby league’s Ashes after 33 years were gone in a dozen seconds. That is how long it took for Morley, the second-row forward who played his club rugby in Australia at the time, to charge upfield and swing his right arm into the windpipe of Robbie Kearns. Steve Ganson, the referee, had no option but to send Morley for the earliest of early baths. With a man down, Britain played brilliantly to stay with the Kangaroos in the opening match of the three-game series in Wigan, but Australia won 22-18 and the Ashes were heading back Down Under.
I remember this. The best part of it was that, at his disciplinary hearing, Robbie Kearns, the victim of the GBH in question, stood up for him, saying that he'd played on the same team as Morley for years and he has no malice in him. I <3 Robbie Kearns.
The machine was human after all. Followers of Formula One can only recall Schumacher showing emotion on two occasions. One was in 1994, when he learnt of the death of Ayrton Senna, his hero. Six years later, he wept openly when he realised that with victory in the Italian Grand Prix, he had matched Senna’s tally of 41 grand-prix wins. “I’m just happy and exhausted,” the German said after the race. “Yes, it does mean a lot ...” And then he could go no farther. He lowered his head and tears flowed. That arrogant image flowed away with them.
The thing that a lot of the British press don't get is that Schumacher is a man who knows his history, and he's very gracious when he wants to be. I also <3 Schumacher.
No wonder the crowds loved him. “Super Fred” — the man who smashes bats. England were seven wickets down in the second Test match against South Africa and needed almost 200 to avoid an innings defeat when Flintoff hit Makhaya Ntini for two sixes and a four in the space of four balls. His bat was probably feeling fragile when he went for another big swing, because it splintered in half on impact with the ball. Flintoff simply called for a new bat and carried on as before. He was last out, for 142 off 146 balls, having hit 18 fours and five sixes.
In keeping with previous comments, I also <3 Flintoff, and have for years. He was such a great buccaneer.
It had been a long, long time in coming. Ireland’s only previous grand slam was in 1948 and it had been 24 years since they last won the Five Nations Championship, but a new head coach in Declan Kidney and an inspirational captain in Brian O’Driscoll gave them life. Two teams almost beat them: England lost 14-13 in Dublin and Wales led 15-14 with two minutes remaining in the final game. Ronan O’Gara dropped a goal to give Ireland the lead, but Wales had a penalty on the halfway line in the final seconds. To Ireland’s relief, the kick sailed wide.
Oddly enough I just found one of my newspaper stashes about this on Friday night. Wonderful, wasn't it!
An admission of dirty tricks or just a bit of grit in his eye? England v Portugal in the quarter-finals of the World Cup and Wayne Rooney, in an aggressive attempt to win the ball from Ricardo Carvalho, appeared to stamp on the defender’s groin. Up ran Ronaldo, Rooney’s team-mate at Manchester United, and harangued the referee as a red card was produced. As he trotted back, Ronaldo incensed the England players and supporters by winking at his coach. Portugal won a penalty shoot-out, but on the plus side for Rooney, Ronaldo took the heat off him for his reckless tackle.
I've known footballers be disliked, I've known them to be hated, but I've never seen anything like the white hot rage that a large, and somewhat alarming number of people (which, being honest, includes me sometimes), get on the topic of C. Ronaldo. And it's things like this that are the reason why.
Also, Portugal in general are a team of cheats.
What was Clément Poitrenaud, the Toulouse full back, thinking as he let a speculative grubber-kick from Howley, the London Wasps scrum half, bobble around in his in-goal area late in their European final? His dithering about whether to touch the ball down or let it go dead meant that he failed to notice Howley scampering up the left touchline. It proved costly. Howley dived in and tapped the ball down himself for a try that broke the 20-20 deadlock. Mark van Gisbergen’s conversion went over off the top of the crossbar and there was no time left for Toulouse to reply.
Rob Howley is one of the players who gets nothing like the respect he deserves for his greatness. A quick, clever player who, and this comes from a league girl, was a pleasure to watch. It pleases me to find this here.
Today was numbers 100 - 80, here are some that I have opinions on:
Great Britain’s chances of regaining rugby league’s Ashes after 33 years were gone in a dozen seconds. That is how long it took for Morley, the second-row forward who played his club rugby in Australia at the time, to charge upfield and swing his right arm into the windpipe of Robbie Kearns. Steve Ganson, the referee, had no option but to send Morley for the earliest of early baths. With a man down, Britain played brilliantly to stay with the Kangaroos in the opening match of the three-game series in Wigan, but Australia won 22-18 and the Ashes were heading back Down Under.
I remember this. The best part of it was that, at his disciplinary hearing, Robbie Kearns, the victim of the GBH in question, stood up for him, saying that he'd played on the same team as Morley for years and he has no malice in him. I <3 Robbie Kearns.
The machine was human after all. Followers of Formula One can only recall Schumacher showing emotion on two occasions. One was in 1994, when he learnt of the death of Ayrton Senna, his hero. Six years later, he wept openly when he realised that with victory in the Italian Grand Prix, he had matched Senna’s tally of 41 grand-prix wins. “I’m just happy and exhausted,” the German said after the race. “Yes, it does mean a lot ...” And then he could go no farther. He lowered his head and tears flowed. That arrogant image flowed away with them.
The thing that a lot of the British press don't get is that Schumacher is a man who knows his history, and he's very gracious when he wants to be. I also <3 Schumacher.
No wonder the crowds loved him. “Super Fred” — the man who smashes bats. England were seven wickets down in the second Test match against South Africa and needed almost 200 to avoid an innings defeat when Flintoff hit Makhaya Ntini for two sixes and a four in the space of four balls. His bat was probably feeling fragile when he went for another big swing, because it splintered in half on impact with the ball. Flintoff simply called for a new bat and carried on as before. He was last out, for 142 off 146 balls, having hit 18 fours and five sixes.
In keeping with previous comments, I also <3 Flintoff, and have for years. He was such a great buccaneer.
It had been a long, long time in coming. Ireland’s only previous grand slam was in 1948 and it had been 24 years since they last won the Five Nations Championship, but a new head coach in Declan Kidney and an inspirational captain in Brian O’Driscoll gave them life. Two teams almost beat them: England lost 14-13 in Dublin and Wales led 15-14 with two minutes remaining in the final game. Ronan O’Gara dropped a goal to give Ireland the lead, but Wales had a penalty on the halfway line in the final seconds. To Ireland’s relief, the kick sailed wide.
Oddly enough I just found one of my newspaper stashes about this on Friday night. Wonderful, wasn't it!
An admission of dirty tricks or just a bit of grit in his eye? England v Portugal in the quarter-finals of the World Cup and Wayne Rooney, in an aggressive attempt to win the ball from Ricardo Carvalho, appeared to stamp on the defender’s groin. Up ran Ronaldo, Rooney’s team-mate at Manchester United, and harangued the referee as a red card was produced. As he trotted back, Ronaldo incensed the England players and supporters by winking at his coach. Portugal won a penalty shoot-out, but on the plus side for Rooney, Ronaldo took the heat off him for his reckless tackle.
I've known footballers be disliked, I've known them to be hated, but I've never seen anything like the white hot rage that a large, and somewhat alarming number of people (which, being honest, includes me sometimes), get on the topic of C. Ronaldo. And it's things like this that are the reason why.
Also, Portugal in general are a team of cheats.
What was Clément Poitrenaud, the Toulouse full back, thinking as he let a speculative grubber-kick from Howley, the London Wasps scrum half, bobble around in his in-goal area late in their European final? His dithering about whether to touch the ball down or let it go dead meant that he failed to notice Howley scampering up the left touchline. It proved costly. Howley dived in and tapped the ball down himself for a try that broke the 20-20 deadlock. Mark van Gisbergen’s conversion went over off the top of the crossbar and there was no time left for Toulouse to reply.
Rob Howley is one of the players who gets nothing like the respect he deserves for his greatness. A quick, clever player who, and this comes from a league girl, was a pleasure to watch. It pleases me to find this here.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 07:53 pm (UTC)To make yourself that hated despite being that good? That's impressive.
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Date: 2009-12-15 07:53 pm (UTC)