Somewhere in the past week, Rupert Murdoch has become a rugby union fan. While I don’t follow his Twitter feed religiously — there is food to be digested after all — I’ve never known him to tweet about sport. Yet since Monday, there have been three in a row about rugby. Including one sticking the…
Tag: Rugby World Cup
Flying Dutchman crashes to earth
He scored one of the goals of last year’s FIFA World Cup, a leaping horizontal header that earned him the nickname The Flying Dutchman and many a social media meme. This week, the Netherlands found themselves inexplicably struggling to qualify for next year’s European Championships. Two goals down against the Czech Republic and needing every…
Would the last person to leave FIFA please turn out the light?
Here’s a picture of FIFA’s executive boardroom. Yes, it would probably be right at home on a Star Trek set. But the point is, it’s empty. You see, after a night of the long knives wielded by FIFA’s ethics committee (sorry, that phrase still cracks me up), there’s no one left to run the joint….
What Ashes?
How big a plonker is Danny Cipriani feeling at the moment? He’s the English rugby player who said not one Wallaby would make it into England’s World Cup side. Coming from a bloke who didn’t make it into the England side. “England’s players know what they can do,” said Danny boy in the lead-up to…
All’s fair in love and rugby
When the Rugby world Cup comes around, it’s always good to make fun of the All Blacks when you can. Which turns out to be pretty easy when they’re playing away from home. The All Blacks have only claimed the Webb Ellis Cup when the tournament’s been played on their turf. And Japan’s shock win…
A weekend for the Aussie toilers
Eddie Jones may not have had an epic record in the four years he coached the Wallabies but he’s just become the talk of the Rugby World Cup. The boy from Burnie presided over the feel-good story of the year — for everyone not going for South Africa, that is, which would be most of…
Kiwis fans play the wimp card
The Rugby World Cup is here. And if the All Blacks are anything like their fans, they’ll crumble like a chicken stock cube. In the land of the long white band of cotton wool, a petition is doing the rounds calling for a 10am start to the working day because of all the early morning…
Welcome to New York, Mr Trump
While the algal tide that is Donald Trump continues to sweep America, we can take comfort that there’s one place at least that’s not rolling out the red carpet. In his home town of New York, they hate his guts, if his reception at the US Open is any indication. Familiarity breeds contempt, it seems….