Good morning! Spare a thought for Matt Giteau leading into tomorrow night's Bledisloe Cup. With his debut in Stephen Larkham's flyhalf postion there's got to be more than just a little bit of pressure on him. I guess that's par for the course, and I believe he's up for the challenge - he's got big boots to fill. I'd put money on the All Blacks trying to belt the daylights out of him from the kickoff. He's a tough little cookie though - here's hoping he wears his kicking boots tomorrow night and makes it through the game intact :)

Are you a Graham Henry fan? Ouch!


Later

I just read the ARU's 'Everything you need to know about the Bledisloe game in Sydney' page... about now I get to the sulk stage because I won't BE there.... and MY team has a bye on Saturday.... ARGH! It's interesting to read about scalper tickets being cancelled. This is the Lions/NZ tour revisited - punish the people who pay big money for the scalped tickets. Too hard to nab the scalpers? Check out the Sydney papers....they even give their phone numbers...

Okay.. so the All Blacks/Blecks/Bads team is as follows:-

All Blacks:

1. Tony Woodcock
2. Keven Mealamu
3. Carl Hayman
4. Chris Jack
5. Ali Williams
6. Jerry Collins
7. Richie McCaw
8. Rodney So’oialo
9. Piri Weepu
10. Dan Carter
11. Joe Rokocoko
12. Aaron Mauger
13. Tana Umaga / Conrad Smith
14. Rico Gear
15. Mils Muliaina

Reserves:

16. Derren Witcombe
17. Greg Somerville
18. James Ryan
19. Marty Holah
20. Kevin Senio
21. Luke McAlister
22. Leon MacDonald

No surprises really.. Umaga is {bracketed}. If he's not cleared medically then Conrad Smith will take his place. Rokocoko is off the bench and back on the wing, Weepu is on for Kelleher, Muliaina is the full back, and Leon McDonald is on the bench.

The Wallabies :-

1. Bill Young
2. Jeremy Paul
3. Al Baxter
4. Dan Vickerman
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. John Roe
7. George Smith
8. David Lyons
9. George Gregan (c)
10. Matt Giteau
11. Lote Tuqiri
12. Morgan Turiniu
13. Stirling Mortlock
14. Mark Gerrard
15. Drew Mitchell

Reserves:

16. Brendan Cannon
17. Matt Dunning
18. Mark Chisholm
19. Phil Waugh
20. Chris Whitaker
21. Elton Flatley
22. Clyde Rathbone


Yeah yeah.... Latham and Larkam are out.... there's a couple I'd swap off the bench with the run on side - but it could be worse :) I'd take 'em!! Good luck boys :))

Later

The usual hype is building up over this Saturday's Bledisloe Cup game in Sydney. The build up to the game is half the fun really - there's a swag of Kiwis living here on the Gold Coast and don't they ALL like to let you know that they're Enzeders. I wonder how many realise that their bad accents gave them away right off the bat :) Anyway, the All Blacks have a couple of injury woes. Byron Kelleher is out after South African lock Victor Matfield smashed him in a tackle last weekend, and Tana Umaga is in doubt.

The Wallabies of course have suffered a huge loss with Stephen Larkham out due to needing a shoulder reconstruction, but hopefully Matt Giteau will get the nod for the Aussies at five eighth - not a bad replacement huh? That young man just keeps getting better and better as a player - what a talent. Chris Latham is also in doubt after suffering a hamstring injury.

Bring on Saturday :)

Well I've been caught up in the local rugby scene for the last few weeks but like everybody else I've been watching the test games on Fox.

South Africans must be feeling a bit like Ground Hog day with their 22-16 win over the Kiwis last night in a tough encounter at Cape Town. That's two out of two for the men in Green. Both sides scored just one try a piece - Jean de Villiers for the Boks and Rico Gear for the All Blacks. The game was played very much through the forwards with the Bok locks being stand outs.

Devastating news for Stephen Larkham - he needs a shoulder reconstruction and is out for the rest of 2005. Bernie has been one of the few Wallabies playing well of late. :(

Elton Flatley must be a happy chappy this morning - his club team Brothers posted a thumping 104-5 win over the Sunshine Coast yesterday. Ouch! Put him back in the Wallaby jersey :)

Victor Matfield... reckons that the Boks and the All Blacks are the "only genuine rugby nations in the Tri-Nations series." It's all cyclical - it wasn't THAT long ago that the South African population and press were sticking it to the Springboks..

Later