To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Tag Archive for 'sport'
I have just discovered that Danny Cipriani has been dropped from the England rugby team for the match against Scotland tomorrow. The reason appears to be that he was seen leaving a nightclub last night:
Cipriani axed from England team
The incident calls to mind the pathetic antics of the England cricket team at the world cup last year - but Cipriani was not drinking, nor was he out a long time, according to his club.
I can understand Brian Ashton wanting to keep a tight ship, and to impress on his players the seriousness with which they should take playing for their country. But relaxing - albeit late at night - with your friends - especially if you aren't drinking! - does not, to me, count as 'inappropriate behaviour'.
Apart from anything, Balshaw has been shockingly bad at full-back, and Cipriani has the potential to be significantly better! I think Ashton has gone too far here - I hope we don't live to rue the decision on Saturday.
Ireland deserved to win. You won't often hear me say that.
The French were brilliant in the first half, but faded away in the second. I thought O'Gara and O'Driscoll played so well in the second half, after a few mistakes in the first, and deserved at least to get a try at the end to draw the match.
After that, I think France will get the Grand Slam - Wales were ok today, but Scotland are a poor side at the moment, and Wales made a catalogue of errors that a better side would have punished them for.
I'm looking forward to seeing England play tomorrow - I hope we can be a bit more expansive, like the games that were played today.
The new England coach, Fabio Capello, left David Beckham out of the England squad for today's friendly against Switzerland, apparently because he is not 'match fit'.
Beckham himself has admitted that this is true - however he has been training with Arsenal for a month, and he is on 99 caps. It was a great opportunity for Capello to give Beckham the honour of leading his team out as captain to earn his 100th cap - it's a friendly, and he could have taken him off after half an hour.. and who knows, he might have pulled something out of the bag.
I suspect this is Capello asserting his authority over the England team over against everyone else - especially the media, but also the players. It is his team, and his job to do however he likes.
Let's hope the team do well today, or he'll have trouble in the press..
So after my last post on rugby it seems that the 'consistently good sides' of Australia and New Zealand failed to live up to their potential. England's forwards hammered the Wallabies in spectacular fashion, and the Kiwis never really got going against Les Bleus. Northern Hemisphere rugby is perhaps not in such dire straits after all!
It did get me wondering. Australia and (especially) New Zealand each had straightforward group matches. England and France had to fight for their positions in the quarter-finals, and each were the underdog in their respective games. Did Australia and New Zealand expect their quarter-finals to be as easy as their group games? I suspect it was a combination of that, and sheer grit and determination from England and France.
So today it's the turn of Fiji and Scotland to upset the bookies!
What I want to know is, how do teams like Australia and New Zealand consistently manage to field good sides, when the likes of England and Ireland go through huge ups and downs..? Surely it isn't a population thing - New Zealand can't be much bigger than England, if at all - so what is it?
The same thing happens in cricket - Australia are always good. When we are better than them, it only ever lasts a year or two! Why can't we manage to compete (I mean really compete, with a genuine chance of winning) at the highest level?
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