So: England not in the cup this year? Who are you supporting? Me - find out after the jump!
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Oh. My. God.

I lost a bit of interest in the Rugby World Cup after Wales got untimely kicked by Fiji. I can’t blame Fiji - they won on penalties which meant it was essentially Wales’ fault but still, they were looking good and distinctly better than the averaging England, whose arses I was expecting to get arses resoundingly kicked by Australia in today’s quarter final.

But no! Johnny Wilkinson single footedly thrashed the Wallabies, converting 4 penalties against the Ozzies converted try and penalty.

As of this writing, the All Blacks are 10-0 up against Les Bleus. I don’t see the New Zealanders having too much trouble of putting the French back in their box and stepping forward to do the same to England next weekend.

Tomorrow I shall be routing for Scotland against Argentina. It would be nice if our northern cousins got through to the semis as well.

SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE: Oh. My. God. France beat the Kiwis! I definitely did not see that coming. France vs England in the semi finals then. Delightfully unexpected! Suddenly, England retaining their title seems a vague possibility!

In a recent “Pick your winners” type event, I successfully predicted that France would score 12 points or less in their match against Argentina. Go me. Unfortunately, I failed to predict that Argentina would rock the boat this early on by scoring more than France in the first match of this years Rugby World Cup.

That’s what I love about this event and the game in general - there are always surprises. My money - like everybody else’s - is on New Zealand to win again. Over the last year they have outplayed everyone and have been the most consistent of all the teams. Australia may well challenge again though - they have a habit of coming good when necessary. England are right out. I think they’ll perform better than people expect (and certainly better under Billy Ashcroft than they ever would have done under Andy Robinson) but getting to the final is a long shot.

Wales, as usual, is where my loyalty lies (but I’m not from North wales - if England do get the final then I will be cheering them. Unless it’s against the dragons army of course!) but while I think they will easily come second in their group (behind Australia and providing they beat Fiji) I very much doubt that they’ll get past the first round playing either England or South Africa.

But as we’ve seen tonight, with the host nation getting beaten - nay, humiliated (laughing? moi?) - in the opening match by Argentina, anything could happen!

Last weekend, most people seemed preoccupied with some football match or other. No idea what all that was about. Instead I was delighted - nay, overjoyed that Wasps secured victory in the Heineken Cup Final and are European club champions once again.

I didn’t get to see the match, unfortunately. Plans to go to Twickenham were put on hold because of family commitments and there didn’t seem to be any pub that had the capability of both showing the rugby and accomodating families with young children. Still, as it seemed apparent that Leicester were going to win, considering their indomitable performance of late and I wasn’t going to be too disheartened at not watching Wasps lose.

One game, 2 tries and 25 points to 9 later, Lawrence Dallaglio raises the cup. Leicester manage to score 9 points in the first half thanks to three penalties scored by “Fat” Andy Goode. Wasps rub salt in the wounds by having tries scored by scrum half Eoin Reddan and (this still makes me laugh) Raphael Ibanez, the Wasps hooker. Yes, the hooker. The short, fat man in the middle of the scrum scores a try in the European Cup final.

It can’t get better than that.*

*Well, it could have done if they’d come higher than fifth in the premiership and hadn’t been knocked out of the EDF Energy Cup in the the group rounds.

Two years ago, headCleaner() resurfaced again. The first post was about the historic (can I call it that? I think I can) victory by Wales over Ireland to claim their first six nations win in over 20 years. Two years later and they’re first in line for the wooden spoon without a single win on their score card.

Still, if you’re only going to get one win in a tournament, a 27-18 victory over England on the last weekend of the championships is probably the one to go for. I just can’t help but wonder what the score line would have been if Wales had fielded a full team rather than the James Hook one man floor show.

So Andy Robinson’s gone and Brian Ashton is the new England coach eh? About bloody time they got rid of that no good waste of space. I’m honestly surprised that Robinson lasted as long as he did because I think it was apparent to everyone from very early on that the only new era of English rugby he was ushering in was one where they were the laughing stock of the rugby world.

I know this is now old news but the reason I mention it is that while watching Rugby Club on Sky Sports in some seedy Dublin bar last night, I suddenly realised why Ashton looked so familiar: 20 years ago he was my history teacher.

On a side note, nice to see Wawp tight-head Phil Vickery appointed as captain. Don’t know if he’ll be any good but, hey, he’s a Wawp man so can’t be that bad.

Okay, so I admit. I’m a bit of a six nations whore when it comes down to it. I’ll get in bed with anyone and saturday found me rooting for Scotland. The boys in blue held the ground in Fortress Murrayfield with some of the best defensive play I’ve seen in many years. (The Sunday Times gave the stats as follows: Scotland made 112 tackles and missed 6. England made 35 tackles and missed 5.) They’re tactic was totally different from the aggressive forward play that they used to subjugate France and this, along with their tenacity and determination, gave them the upperhand against the visitors.

But why was I rooting for Scotland? Am I really that fickle? Well, no. You see, if England had won, they would have been on course for a Grand Slam. If Scotland won then it would have put England, France, Scotland and Wales in contention for the trophy and it would be game on for the last two matches of championship.

Did I say Wales? Yes, I did. They would have been in the running for retaining the six nations ground providing they beat Ireland at Lansdowne Road yesterday.

They lost.

I’m not happy.

Can’t say it suprised me at all given all the hoohaa surrounding Mike Ruddock’s controversial departure and another injury set back with captain Gareth Thomas being out for the rest of the season but after the opening 10 minutes I thought the boys in red would do the job. Ireland, however, showed that despite recent outings, they really can play a good game of rugby and demolished Wales in the second half.

So the chances of us retaining the six nations crown are looking very slim.

On the up side, Wawp beat premiership leaders Sale this weekend with a 26-16 victory at home. They face Leicester in the Powergen Cup semi-final this coming Saturday while Bath play Llanelli Scarlets. Could we be looking at a Bath v Wawp Cup final? That would be something to get tickets for! However, Leicester stand in the way and it’s not going to be easy. The last encounter resulted in a 29 all draw and although the time before that Wawp won (in the Premiership final last year) they lost twice against Leicester prior to that again.

Time to get the hatchling a Wawp babygro I think.

What an interesting weekend! I didn’t expect Wales to do well this year with the amount of suspensions and injuries they have but at the end of the first half against England, I felt that they’d shown some tremendous spirit and great play and that they could be in with a chance. England came back to dominate though and the old warhorses were brought back into put Wales firmly into place. A shame really but I’m not going to write Wales off yet. They could still win the series!

However, despite some exceptional play, that match wasn’t even the highlight of the weekend. What about Scotland? They beat France for heaven’s sake. I think most people have written Scotland off and although I don’t think we’re about to see a resurgence of Scottish rugby this year, it would be nice if they shook off the whipping boy tag they’ve adopted in the last few years.

And what about Italy? Although Ireland would have my preference in most matches, the way Italy played, I was almost rooting for them to upset the home team at Landsdowne road. Great match but Ireland have got a lot of work to do if they’re going to challenge for the top spot.

So lots of suprises and after the first weekend of the six nations, all bets are off about who’s going to take the title. I get the impression that there may not be a grand slam this year though.

I spent most of yesterday trying to work out what the hell was happening on the 14th May. It didn’t help that I had misplaced my mental notepad. So I decided that I’d finally get around to booking a holiday with outbound flights on that particular Saturday.

This morning I remember that it’s the Zurich Premiership final and that my to do list for this week (which was scribbled on the aforementioned errant mental notepad) had a list of three items:

1. Book Holiday
2. Enquire about renting allotments
3. Book tickets for Premiership final

The plus side is that at least I won’t have a hangover when I fly after spending a day at Twickenham.

This year at least looks like Wawp might finish at the top of the league. For those of you who are unaware, the Rugby League isn’t won by the team that finishs top but by the one that wins the final match between the top two placed teams. Although this means that Wawp have won for the last two years, this is the first time (assuming they beat Leicester on April 30th) that they will finish top. Of course, considering the appalling start to their season (and being knocked out of the Heineken and Powergen cups far too early) I didn’t think they’d claw their way back to the top of the board so am quite chuffed that they have.

Sod’s law, however, dictates that having finished at the top of the league for the first time in the last three years, they’ll get beaten in the final like they beat the top finishers before. Either way I won’t be there to see it as I shall be winging my way to foreign parts.

We only gone and done it, boyos! 27 years of six nations pain leading to a climactic showdown against Ireland in the Millenium Stadium. The first time we’ve finished in the top three since Italy joined the championship and the five nations became six.

Despite an opening penalty score from Ireland, the boys in red dominated from the outset and punished their celtic counterparts severely for any of the mistakes they made and a marvellous opening try by prop Gethin Jenkins led to Wales notching up point after point (including a superb penalty from Gavin Henson from 52m - inside the Welsh half). Ireland pulled their act together in the second half but found the Welsh defence virtually inpenetrable and, despite a couple of well deserved tries, couldn’t impinge on the Welsh lead. Final score: 32-20 and the first Welsh Grand Slam since 1978. Cymru am byth!