Sunday, September 30, 2007

Big weekends

We squeezed a lot in this weekend. Our friends Helen & Andy popped up to visit on Friday night and we went to a beer festival at Liverpool Cricket Club and had a thoroughly good time. It was put on by The Beer Festival Company and was really well organised, definitely recomend it. All that fun meant I missed the England/Tonga game but WAP phones meant we kept in touch with the score and so soothed my nerves.

Saturday had us popping down to Blundellsands for our first Waterloo game of the season. Great to be back, Waterloo played fairly well and were creative throughout but they were so sloppy it was untrue and a game they should have won at a canter turned into a nail-biter. We scored some great tries but time and time again knocked-on or gave away penalties or tried quixotic grubber kicks in the last few minutes when going to ground and getting some slow ball would have been just what we needed. Anyway can't moan too much 'cause a win is a win (including bonus point).

Crosby Herald review
Nuneaton review

Straight into the clubhouse for more Deuchars andthe end of the Wales/Fiji game. I don't really bear the Welsh any ill will ("As long as we beat the English" aside) but it was great to see a nation like Fiji having their moment of glory (there was a huge cheer as the ball came out on the Fijian side of that final ruck). It stinks when it's you on the recieving end but in the grand scheme of things it's great to think of places like Suva, Nadi, Lautoka and Ovalau going ballistic as the final whistle goes.

Sunday saw us off to Everton, it was "Ladies Day" which sounds very twee but it meant the club were promoting Breast Cancer Awareness Month and giving a fair bit of cash to Cancer Research so well done for that...another win but still not a particularly satisfiying one. Everton took advantage of dodgy marking to take the lead early on (Yet another goal from Super Joleon Lescott) but could have been 4-1 down at half time.




Boro wasted loads of chances and in the end a comfortable 2-0 win flattered us a bit. Great performance from McFadden and Arteta was back as was the old Tony Hibbert (which was great to see). We were the only game that day so MotD2 contained a shedload of eulogising about Everton's under-rated players which was nice.





The Sheff Wed & Boro results will have restored some confidence going into the game on Thursday in the Ukraine. Really hope we can nip in with an early goal. Habemus Arteta & anything is possible.

BBC Match Report

As we waited to get out of the Upper Gwladys there was one last bit of sporting business to attend to...Argentina had beaten Ireland and so were through to face Scotland in quarter final. Whereas Fiji was a small nation having their day in the sun you feel Argentina really are coming of age in this tournament. Apparently interest in the game down there is massive and the players are being lauded as national heroes. Great to see. So far the tournament has been full of great stories with the big nations being the least interesting among them. For me this World Cup is all about Tonga, Fiji, Gerogia and Argentina. I suppose we are getting to the business end now and the big crunch games will just be the icing on the cake.

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