Opening Ceremony
Fans of all allegencies turned up for the opening ceremony and first game of the tournament. The French were, of course, in the majority, but I saw lots of English, a few Irish, a significant number of Argentines and the odd Aussie & Kiwi wandering about outside the ground. All getting on famously, and the French riot police in attendance had little to do except strut around in their body armour looking menacing, as only the Gendarmes know how.

The French seemed very keen to dress up, and I caught this bloke [left] wearing a chicken on his head and still grinning madly!! (The French team’s emblem is a Cockerel, but I’m not convinced it should have been blue and furry).

Once inside, the atmosphere was building as the minutes ticked by. The opening do was a bit pants, to be honest – lots of tumblers cavorting around in brightly coloured suits, but I think the analogy was lost on most people, it certainly was on me.

I was glad the exuberant flag-waver above wasn’t sitting directly in front of me, or I wouldn’t have got many pictures!

The Game
France vs Argentina was always going to be an entertaining show, and how it turned out to be! Not the result the French would have liked, but most of the English supporters I could see seemed to be shouting for Argentina!

[The Pumas win their lineout]

The French just didn’t live up to the promise of recent games. Cedric Heymans kept dropping stuff and suffered from wayward kicking. The rest of the team didn’t seem to be able to intercept or pass very well. On the Pumas’ side, Juan Martin Hernandez [right] had a great game, his first playing at Fly Half. He ran all over the place and kicked accurately. His Fullback Ignacio Corleta seemed to chase every high ball, and scored the only try of the game.

At the set pieces, the Argentine pack seemed to be doing well in the scrum – perhaps their lineouts weren’t as good as they could have been, but they certainly didn’t get pushed about too much. The French were certainly surprised to go in at the break on the wrong end of a 17-6 scoreline. I can only imagine the Gallic ranting of M. Laporte in the dressing room at half time.

The dressing-down must have had some effect, as I thought the French were going to score just after the break. They were camped in Argentine territory, about 5m from the line, for over a dozen phases of play. But the Argies put up some immense defence, and eventually only gave away 3 points for an infringement.

David Skrela [left] had a shocking game, and never really looked comfortable. He missed a straightforward penalty on 55 minutes, and didn’t link well with Pierre Mignoni at Scrum Half. Skrela limped off in the last quarter, to be replaced by Freddie Michalak who didn’t fare much better, missing a morale-boosting penalty on 70 minutes. Mignoni was subbed for Elissalde with 8 minutes left. Too little too late.

One player who did make an immediate impact as a replacement was the scary figure of Sebastien “Sea bass” Chabal, who stole a lineout almost as soon as he stepped on the field. He didn’t get it all his own way, as the Argentines weren’t afraid to go after him with the ball:

[Sea Bass Chabal gets attention of the Argentine defence]

France kept plugging away in the last minutes of the game, with amazing defence from their opponents. Argentina thought they had cleared but France got the ball back and managed to kick a final penalty, but still went in at the end down by 12-17.

All in all, a fantastic game, tremendous atmosphere and a great way to kick off the 2007 tournament. Bring on the next games!

There were all sorts of events going on during the afternoon, such as Meet the Players to get autographs, training sessions for kids with the team, face painting, competitions etc. It’s great to be interested in a sport where the players are so accessible – I can’t see it happening with the England football team any time soon! I did feel a bit sorry for Jonny Wilkinson [left], who was inevitably the centre of attention – he needed about 5 minders to keep the groupies away! He seemed to be bearing it with remarkable good grace, however.

Other players who I saw pottering about included the midfielders Jamie Noon, Matthew Tait, and Andy Farrell (who also seemed popular with the autograph hunters).

Prop Matt Stevens and second row Steve Borthwick [right] were putting the kids through their paces at rucking practice. A tad unfair since they could probably both have lifted up the kids with one hand, and were trying to get them to lever 110Kg of Forward off the ball!

Entertainment was provided by a marching band, looking splendid in their Dress Reds and enormous Busbies. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the Gospel Choir, mind you. Although they were much better than the crowd at singing Swing Low!

At least the Sign For England bus was a success – a double-decker where you could sign your message of support to the boys, all over the outside:

[my contribution on the side of the Sign For England bus]

The finale was a little bit of a letdown – the team were paraded onto the pitch and stood under the posts whilst Austin Healey quizzed Brian Ashton and Phil Vickery. Then they sang Swing Low and fired a load of streamers at the team:

[the England boys attempt to unravel themselves from the red and white streamers]

Would have been nice if they’d let them have a final lap round the pitch to wave to the spectators, but they were ushered off again quite quickly. Oh, well – I’ll see them on Saturday in Lens! Can’t believe my RWC trip has come round so quickly. You can see the rest of my photos from this year’s Scrum In The Park.

Bath Rugby vs ASM Clermont-Auvergne, ECC Final, 19th May

[Joe Maddock is tackled by Jamie Cudmore]

The game was a close-run thing, with a late kickoff, but it was a lovely summer evening for rugby. The light was really nice, and I was pleased with my photos from the game. Unfortunately, Bath couldn’t quite beat the Frenchmen, with Peter Short just losing control of the ball before it was grounded, and Clermont were 22-16 winners to lift the trophy [see below]

See more photos of the team and fans celebrating. It seems that Danny Grewcock couldn’t keep his temper in check during the game, and now faces a six week ban for striking an opponent. This rules him out of the World Cup warm-up matches on 4th and 11th August, and the start of the actual World Cup campaign, so I can’t really see him figuring very highly in Brian Ashton’s plans for the tournament.

Churchill Cup Finals Day, Twickenham, 2nd June

The first game with a morning kickoff, was the Bowl Final, seeing Canada take on the USA. Canada were very much in the driving seat, and ran away with the game, winning 52-10! Nothing much I saw worries me about England meeting the USA in the first RWC pool match in September, I’m afraid!

[Above, Canadian Flanker Adam Kleeberger is tackled by the USA's Chris Wyles]

Next up was the Plate Final, contested by Ireland A vs Scotland A. This was a very entertaining game, much closer than the try-fest of the first one, with the Irish eventually triumphing by a measly point, 22-21.

[Locks Andrew Farley and Mark Rennie engage in a bit of synchronised jumping]

The final proper was between England Saxons vs New Zealand Maori. Of course, this started with the obligatory pre-match Haka:

[The NZ Maori perform their own Haka, which is different to the one the Allblacks perform]

Another entertaining game, again close, but the Saxons managed to retain the upper hand and won 17-13. Good going, lads!

[The two packs prepare to hit in the middle]

So, that’s about it for the summer. I’m happy to say I have a ticket for the England vs France World Cup warmup game on 11th August, and will be back at Twickenham a week later for the more traditional start of season Middlesex Sevens Tournamet.

I might find a few things to post in the meantime, but don’t be surprised if it all goes a bit quiet for a few weeks!

They didn’t have any sort of shape, and a couple of silly mistakes gifted the Blues scoring oppourtunities. All very frustrating.

Still, my pictures weren’t too bad. Here’s the Blues’ Captain Xavier Rush doing his stuff, with Andy Farrell on as a substitute for Sarries.

This Week:
Sarries ran riot against Bath, scoring SIX TRIES (yes, that’s Six), and ending up on the right end of a 55-23 scoreline! How did they do that? Dunno, but I don’t half wish they would do it more often!

Bath’s forwards are usually noted for their grunt, (left, three of the Big Bruisers line up for a scrum – Andy Beattie, Danny Grewcock and Peter Short) but this time round, they were being pushed all over the park. We had tries from Wingers, Centres, a rumbled-over drive by the forwards, and a great display of putting the opposition under pressure. Glen Jackson (man o’ the match) scored 23 points on his own via the boot. Everyone looked cohesive and the Neil de Kock/Jackson combo seemed to work really well. Seymour was sniping round the fringes again and our lineout was solid.

It means that, as of today, we’re now 6th in the table (see below), but have scored the most points in the Premiership – 157 so far. Bristol (still top of the table) have scored just 136. However, they’ve only conceded 76 points, whereas Sarries have 111 against them. So it looks like we need to get working on our defence, since it’s obvious we can score tries!

Great stuff guys, let’s see more of the same next week! We’re hosting Glasgow Warriors for the first European Challenge Cup pool match this Sunday. It will be great if they can keep the momentum going.

Finally, here’s a couple of pictures from the Members’ Bar after yesterday’s match – former Saracen/England Scrum Half Kyran Bracken presents the Man of the Match Champers to Glen Jackson.

You can also see more photos from the game at rugbypix.com – there are a shameless number of a certain Bath No 5 – I don’t care! He doesn’t play against Sarries very often, as he’s usually away on England duty when the Saracens/Bath fixtures are scheduled. So I made the most of it

And there they will remain for a couple of weeks while the clubs have a fortnight of Anglo-Welsh Cup hiatus during the next two weekends.

Saracens, meanwhile, are floating in 9th place, (a familiar position from last season), after their loss to the Sharks on Friday evening.

They are away to London Irish this coming weekend, then host Cardiff Blues at Vicarage Road on 8th October. I plan to be at both matches, so there should be some new images on rugbypix.com in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, here’s a photo from Saracens’ home game against Bristol from last season, a bit of a muddy affair from memory.

Andy Gomarsall has also been on the move again, signing with Quins until the end of the season, after being unceremoniously dropped by Worcester, one year into a 3-year contract.

Here’s a photo of him at the 2005 Scrum In The Park England training session, with Sevens coach Mike Friday.

And I forgot to add them earlier, but a small selection of my photos from the London Double Header are now on Flickr.

This morning, it occurred to me that we haven’t heard about a similar event for 2006, which is a great shame. Despite torrential showers last time, the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great to meet some of the players afterwards. Danny Grewcock signed my shirt for me – and I was still wearing it

There is an email address given on their website, so I thought I would ask if there are any plans for this year. A few minutes after sending it, I got a bounce – no such address as scrum@o2.com. Oh well.

Here’s Danny after last year’s training session, looking a little sweaty. No comment.

Last night I was fortunate enough to witness a recording of the real thing – as audience for the BBC’s A Question of Sport. In 15 years of working for the BBC, I’d never been to a show recording (it doesn’t really count when you’re working on a live broadcast, you don’t have time to watch very much!). The warm up comic was pretty terrible; some bloke from Canvey Island called Jeff. Wish we could have done without him, but once the show got going, it was very entertaining to watch.

Team captains were the usual Ally McCoist and Matt Dawson. Thought I’d throw in a gratuitous picture of Daws at this point. You can see him squaring up with three of his England pack, Andrew Sheridan, Phil Vickery and Danny Grewcock (not mentioned him in a while so thought I’d name drop again). Dawson seems to be saying “I’m as big as them!”

Anyway, I digress. Dawson’s guests were Phil Tufnell and Martin “Chariots” Ofiah. They were both pretty funny; Tuffers was terribly silly at times. Ally’s team offered us reigning World Snooker Champion – a painfully thin Scot with a weedy voice whose name I completely failed to remember. Plus Jason White, Scotland’s Rugby Union captain and Flanker for Sale Sharks. My, he’s a big lad, close-to! Hey presto, I’ve got a picture of him as well, seen here battling it out in the lineout with Ben Skirving during the Sarries vs Sharks match on 25th September 2005.

So it ended up a good-natured England vs Scotland competition. I won’t tell you who won, that would spoil the surprise. But watch out soon for transmission, I have a feeling it might be Friday 2nd June. You might even spot me in the audience if you know who you’re looking for!

Bit of a pity Saracens XV trailed so far behind, but it was an entertaining game to watch, all the same. And lots of tries! Well done to Academy sub number 22 Richard Gill, who scored a try for Saracens a few minutes after coming on the pitch. He aslo made a very decent tackle on old stager Carlos Spencer, obviously a youth not afraid to get stuck into icons of the game. And just like seeing Captain Hugh Vyvyan dropping a goal a few months back, I also witnessed something I was never expecting – Saracens prop Ben Broster converting a try with a very decent hoof from the touchline – move over “Glenda” Jackson!

There were some great rugby names on both sides, notably David Flatman and Tony Diprose – former Sarries who returned to pull on the black jersey for the afternoon – and as well as King Carlos, the World XV boasted the likes of internationals Justin Marshall, Matt Burke, Joe Roff, Xavier Rush and Raphael Ibanez. They were captained by the inimitable Lawrence Dallaglio. You can see a bunch of the boys getting stuck into each other in the attached photo.

Just an ego-massaging exercise? Perhaps. But let’s face it, if you don’t blow your own trumpet, no-one else will. And since FakeBob has already made the first tentative steps towards a career in New Media (by finally resigning from the 9-5 drudgery after months of threatening), and I’m seriously thinking about it too, a bit of self-promotion was just what the doctor ordered.

Not only did I show some of my more general photography, such as landscapes, flower closeups and architecture, but I also had a selection of four fine rugby images, which seemed to go down well (not only with the ladies!). They were: Owen Takes A Lineout, Barkley Wrapped Up, Kick On The 22 and The Green Giant

After the event, about a dozen of us toddled off to a great Vietnamese restaurant in Old Street, Cay Tre. Excellent grub and very reasonable! A lovely way to round off the day.

The Saracens’ Supporters Association (SSA) held a joint “do” with the Club at their Hatfield training centre. Two teams of three Saracens players went head to head in a Question of Sarries evening, hosted by the lovely Kyran “Sue Barker” Bracken (see right). He really got into the part, dressed in drag!
Although he didn’t go as far as Gavin Henson and shave his legs. Probably a relief all round.

There were plenty of rounds of silliness, ranging from Mystery Guest (Richard Hill cooking beans on toast in his kitchen), rugby quotes and odd one out (the best reason for picking Hugh Vyvyan as an odd one out was apparently, “he’s a ginger“!). A mad time was had by all. We did miss the Feel The Sportsman round this time, which was greatly enjoyed when they held the first QofS event. Never mind, maybe they will do it again … although Rupert swore once was enough, he’s now run it twice. Give him time to come round to the idea!