Posts Tagged ‘rugby’

Season 7 Finale

Posted on in Media, Sport, TV.

I’m really not sure that the script writers for Season 7 of Rugby World Cup have done a very good job.

They’ve continued the habit from previous seasons of writing out fan favourite characters such as Tonga or Wales before the finale, and have decided that the season finale would be a rematch of the one from season one. So what have they added that’s new?

Well, in terms of character development, previous seasons have hinted towards France’s mental instability but this season the writers flirted with pushing them over the edge into insanity. But then the went and bottled it and failed to follow through on this development in the finale itself.

Deciding the make the England character the focus of multi-media spin-offs rather than a core part of the series itself was an odd way to treat a character with such a large fan base and which had been such an integral part of previous seasons.

The running gag about New Zealand fly halves is in rather poor taste and is just ripping off Spinal Tap anyway. And the gag about no one at all being able to kick straight is rather clumsy attempt on the writers’ part to counter criticism of too much kicking in previous seasons.

The finale itself was a rather scrappy affair, almost as if there wasn’t enough budget left for any spectacular special effects sequences. I can’t tell whether having the teams play in black and white was supposed to be some sort of post-modernist statement or not.

All in all not a classic season, but I kept on watching anyway so they must have done something right. I just hope the writing team has some fresh ideas for Season 8.

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Wales 8, France 9, Alain Rolland -1

Posted on in Sport.

What a sad way to leave the world cup.

That tackle was dangerous, it deserved a penalty. And it likely deserved a yellow card. But a red card? No *%!$ing way!

Wales scored the only try and ended up losing by just one point after playing three quarters of the game with only 14 men – they were the better, braver side.

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We’re all Welsh today

Posted on in Sport, The World.

Pretty much the only decision of David Cameron’s that I’m ever likely to whole heartedly support is the flying of the Welsh flag above Downing Street today.

Wales have been playing well this tournament, a close loss against South Africa and then four good wins. France have taken their customary unpredictableness to a level that somtimes approaches insanity. If we get the France that lost against Tonga then we should win easily. If we get the France that beat England then it will be a close match.

Wales have only made the semi-Finals once before and have never been in a Final. Forty minutes to go until kick off. Fingers crossed.

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Wales 20 – Italy 15

Posted on in Sport.

That was far too close for comfort. Wales made far too many errors and only two good tries saved the day.

Very True Mood: (relieved) relieved
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23-15

Posted on in Sport.

Yes. Result.

My prediction before the tournament started was that it would be scrappy with no grand slam. Scrappy it certainly is, as for the rest? We’ll see.

Very True Mood: (pleased) pleased
Very True Music: Uncle Johnny - The Killers
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Last Year

Posted on in Browsers, Doctor Who, Films, My Life, Science, Sport, The World.

365 days ago I made a post about things I was looking forward to in 2005. How did they turn out?

Obviously, getting married and the subsequent honeymoon was fabulous beyond words. (If you haven’t seen them already Lettice has stuck a whole load of photos online.) Also on a personal front I moved house and got a new job, so a very good year.

Doctor Who was incredible. Listened to some of the commentaries on the DVD box set (and is that a wastfeul piece of packaging or what?) yesterday and was thrilled all over again by the passion and dedication of the people who brought the Doctor back.

The market share of Internet Explorer did continue to fall. On the SFSFW site it fell from 77% to 67%. This is also the year that Opera became totally free. I also finally got around to learning a bit of XSLT which I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

Serenity was the best film of the year for me (yes I have middle-brow sci-fi tastes, didn’t you know?) and well worth the wait. Can we have a sequel (or two or three or…) please? Batman Begins and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse were also very good whilst The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Revenge of the Sith were better than expected (but as we expected total train wrecks that’s not actually saying much).

And finally, I was looking forward to the general election, but it turned out a bit dull. It did give us one last chance to be rude about Tim Collins before he vanished into well deserved oblivion. But for my political fix this year I’ve been watching the post-election leadership battles (Brown vs. Blair; Davies vs. Cameron; everyone vs. Kennedy) with much glee. Politicians spending so much time shafting each other means, we can but hope, that they have less time for shafting us.

Good things I didn’t predict at the start of last year included, Wales winning a Grand Slam; England winning the Ashes; London winning the Olympics; Judge Jones putting both boots into the Intelligent Design movement. :-)

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Men with odd shaped balls

Posted on in My Life, Sport.

Italy 8-38 Wales

Oh, I’m a happy bunny.

Almost happy enough to ignore the self-destructing washing machine, glass smashing incident that dragged me from my nice warm bed this morning.

And I’ve got another job interview on Wednesday. If I can get this job then I may have the money to escape from this flat and find somewhere nicer. Please.

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