The latest IRB world rankings have NZ at one, Australia at two, and South Africa in third place. England is fourth..

That's made my day!

Have a great rugby weekend. There's some good six nations games this weekend to catch while we're waiting for Super 12 to get going. Live telecast times on Foxsports are:

Italy v Wales (Sunday 12.30am)
Scotland v Ireland (Sunday 3.00am)
England v France (Monday 2.00am)

Hmmm.. looks like my weekend snooze schedule will be up all Saturday night, nap Sunday arvo, early kip Sunday night and up by 2.00 to watch the England/France clash - should be a goodie!

Cheers!

Jeepers! Say it isn't true! Foxports reports that Wallaby flanker extraordinaire George Smith's, younger brother Tyrone Smith is determined to play rugby at an international level. Nothing wrong with that, but here's the clanger, he "doesn't mind if it's rugby league or union, or with Australia or England." Say WHAT?

And the report goes on... "I could even end up playing against George for England, which would be a good experience." Errrrr... ???

I suppose it is only fair to mention that the Smith brothers' mother is Tongan, his grandparents and English and he's Australian so in likelihood he could play for a country other than Australia. In fact he has taking up a league contract to play for London and makes his first appearance this weekend. Apparently he's been playing that 'other code' since rejecting a Brumbies offer a couple of years ago as the deal was better. Fair enough I suppose.

*Sigh*

Martin Place in Sydney was packed yesterday for the Super 12 launch - great to see!

No horrifying stories of body dismemberment today. Just an interesting tidbit from the ARU website - Super 12 is in it's tenth year, and here's a list of Australian players who've been playing Super 12 since it kicked off in 1996 (well give or take injury time off) :

• Brendan Cannon
• Nathan Grey
• Nick Stiles
• Ben Tune
• George Gregan
• Stephen Larkham
• Owen Finegan
• Justin Harrison

Makes me feel old to think those boys have all been playing at an elite level for so long :( Still, there's plenty of life left in them - I hope :)

Cheers!

Good God! A Welshman cut off his balls after his team beat the poms last weekend! The UK Mirror reports that the 26 year old was so convinced that his team would lose to England that he told his mates at a local club that "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off!" And he did...... then he walked back to the club wearing his kilt and carrying his testicles in a bag. Eeeek! Apparently the fellow has a history of mental problems.. you think?? He's currently in hospital and feeling pretty crook I should imagine. Ouch!

Sydneyites can head into Martin Plaza today for the official launch of the Tooheys New Super 12. The action kicks off, so to speak, at noon and will carry on until 1.45pm. The ARU are trotting out a pile of Wallabies for the event including Chris Whitaker, Phil Waugh, Elton Flatley, Wendell Sailor, Chris Latham, Nathan Sharpe, Stirling Mortlock and one of my favourite Wallabies Stephen Larkham. Grab the kids from school and head on in :) There's going to be a sausage sizzle and some interactive games - I'm not sure what those are but I'd guess they'll look a lot like those things they had in the travelling World Cup rugby show in 2003. Hint: Try not to laugh out loud if the Welsh fan and his balls comes up in topic, especially while anyone is eating! bleh...

Wish I could be in Martin Place today. Later!

You won't want to miss THIS competition! You can win a signed Hurricanes Super 12 shirt. The catch is that you have to reside in the UK. Doh!

It may just be a media beat up, but there's some mumblings (or is that grumblings?) about John Mitchell, ex All Black coach being in the front runners to coach the Perth Super14 team. The ARU prefers home grown talent. I think we should all just calm down and wait and see. Mind you, judging by some of the comments I've heard from Kiwi mates about JM, it's little wonder the man is tempted to live on the western coast of Oz, as faaaaaaaar away from NZ as possible.. heh..

Later!

Ahhhh it does the old heart some good. The Reds thumped the Waratahs at Ballymore last night 38-0. The Reds played a great first half, and the Tahs improved their play significantly in the second. The half time score was 26-0, the Reds running in 4 tries in the first 40 minutes. The Queenslanders running in tries were McVerry, Holmes, Mitchell and Pelesasa. The second half didn't see any change to the scoreboard until the last couple of minutes when Ben Tune and Peter Hynes went over the try line. Peter Hynes was man of the match - congratz!

There was a couple of exciting Six Nations games overnight as well. The Scots were very unlucky to be beaten by France in Paris. Leading all the way until the last quarter I really thought the Scotish boys were going to be having one big shindig of a celebration post game. Sadly for them it was not to be :(

Wales beat England in a 11-9 cliff hanger at the Millenium stadium in Cardiff. Wasn't the crowd pleased about that? Yeah! I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the game :)

Foxsports is running a tipping competition for Super12 - prize is $1500 or $3000 if you have a sportsTAB account.