Top 14 Rugby Final: ASM Clermont Auvergne vs Stade Toulousain

One of the greatest rivalries in French sports might well be the one between ASM Clermont Auvergne and Stade Toulousian. Clermont-Ferrand, a small town in the Auvergne region has never won one national championship in the club history and to make matters worse they have lost a lot of finals against their arch rivals from Toulouse. They have reached the finals eight times and I was lucky enough to be in Clermont in 2001 when they played their semifinal match. At that time my sister was studying in the town and me and my mother were visiting her. While we were walking through in inner city in the evening after dinner we were wondering why all the streets were deserted. My sister explained then, that everybody was watching the semifinal. When the match ended the whole town erupted into one huge party and people were running around in yellow and blue, the club's colours.
Now, while they haven't won a national championship ASM Clermont Auvergne have made a name for themselves in European club competition, winning the European Challenge Cup twice (1999, 2007). Stade Toulousain meanwhile represent the top class of French rugby. Along with Stade Français they dominated the French Top 14 League.
So tonight's final saw Clermont and Toulouse face each other once again and with the ongoing professionalism in rugby that match featured a lot of top class players. Clermont had French international winger Aurelian Rougerie, Napolioni Vonowale Nalaga from Fiji or World Cup John Smit from South Africa, although the latter sat on the bench at the start of the game. Toulouse featured Cédric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion, Jean-Baptiste Élissalde from the French national squad, Tongan No.8 Finau Maka or All Black Byron Kelleher. All that class put on some brilliant passing performances on the pitch as well as some tight defending. The first half ended in a draw (10-10) and after the restart both teams had huge chances, but it was Toulouse who broke open the tie with a penalty and a try after almost one hour (10-20). Clermont desperately tried to claw their way back into the game and after a penalty they were in stricking distance once again (13-20), but some poor defending led to yet another Toulouse penalty (10-23) and this buried Clermont's dreams of the title once and for all again. Their quest will continue and so will Toulouse remain their nemesis for another year. The final score was 20-26 after another penalty converted by Toulouse in the final minute and a try by Clermont with the final whistle. It was those two penalties that cost them.

It has to be noted that All Black Daniel Carter, who probably is the world's best fly-half at the moment, will transfer to France for the next season where he will play for USA Perpignan. This alone will make the club a contender for the title.

Rugby Overkill: Six Nations and Super 14

Well, well, well, this was a packed weekend with lots of rugby and I took the chance and watched a little bit of the action. Interestingly enough I was able to compare southern and northern hemisphere rugby with the Super 14 championship applying some of the new set of rules, the so called ELV (Experimental Law Variations). No I don't really understand all of those new rules, but it seems that combined with the speed and creativity of southern hemisphere rugby this looks simply amazing. While I was watching Bulls vs Crusaders (19-54) or Lions vs Blues (10-55) I was thrilled to see wonderful passing and running. And it was also great to watch all those players I had only seen on their respective national teams before. The Crusaders victory was brilliant with All Blacks fly half Daniel Carter setting the pace and executing a wonderful kicking game. In the end he also scored a try and completely fooled some Bulls forwards when he was clearing the ball with a kick in his own end zone.
This was completely different from what the European national sides were showing at the Six Nations. I know there always is a difference between club sides and national teams, but while I was watching Ireland vs Scotland (34-13) - although this was intense and exciting - this match didn't have the dynamics and the flow that the Super 14 matches had. I have no idea if this is due to the use of the ELV or if it's just the difference in approaching the game.
The top match was somewhat of a surprise though with England beating France in Paris 13-24. France were looking very good in their first two matches although they were struggling in their game against Ireland in the closing minutes. They were playing with a very young pair on the half positions, François Trinh-Duc at fly half and an extraordinary performance of 19-year-old Morgan Parra at scrum half. It had the same feeling was the semifinal in last year's World Cup but this time England were playing with a lot more offensive effort than back in October, I thought. This was exciting to watch, although a lot of running plays were cut short by a formidable defense on both sides. Still England has to look for a better player at full back. After being hammered for his performance against Wales full back Balshaw didn't look very convincing to me.
With the results of this weekend only Wales (who beat Italy with a convincing 47-8) is still undefeated. Trailing are England, France and Ireland with records of two wins and one loss. This is promising to be a very eciting final to this year's competition.

Rugby Six Nations: France top Scotland

Scotland vs France 6-27
That was an interesting game. I don't know that much about French rugby but I was a bit surprised when a lot of names that were on the team during the World Cup last year disappeared for the Six Nations competition. Players like Michalak, Domenici, Chabal and others were missing. But as the German commentator explained it seems that the Frnech coach is trying to build up a team for 2011 so most of the squad are very young. Still this young Frnech team was all over the Scots during their match at Murrayfield last Sunday. Although they were making some mistakes in their play it always seems they outclassed the Scottish side a little bit. There were hilarious mistakes by the Scottish back players, especially one which gave the French a try. But the match had a lot more intensity than the opening game of Ireland and Italy on Saturday.

What also struck me was that they only played the first verse of "Flower Of Scotland" and then the whole audience at the stadium was singing the second verse on their own. Great stuff.

This looked very convincing for France so I am really looking forward to their match against Ireland next week.

Rugby Six Nations: Ireland and Wales back on track

I think I mentioned before that it is very hard to follow the action in world rugby in germany since there is no tradition whatsoever. And because of that there are no matches shown on TV. But this seems to change a little bit for the better because a German sports station (DSF)is covering the Six Nations this year after they seemed to have some success with their World Cup broadcasts last year. I have to admit that compared to their normal program - especially their football coverage - the rugby matches are very well commentated and the commentator is very well prepared. Andreas Renner is able to give enough explanations for newcomers who are watching their first rugby match, but his knowledge of the game itself is so good that he can also give facts to the team and the players on the pitch which makes it interesting for people who are into rugby as well. There is a colour commentator as well, usually a German national team player or a coach, sometimes the Sevens national coach. I am very happy that the Six Nations get coverage on German TV and I still hope they will do the same when the time comes for the Tri Nations.

Ireland vs Italy 16-11
The first match of this years competition wasn't that much of a thriller, Ireland was pretty much in charge during most of the game. The best phase for Italy came when they were reduced to 14 when one of them got a yellow card only 10 minutes from half time. The scoreline looks closer than the match really was and Ireland secured the win very safely.

England vs Wales 19-26
It was a competely different story for the second game of the day. When I tuned in England were already up 9-3 and they looked very convincing. Especially Toby Flood was everywhere. Wales didn't seem to be able to cope with the fierce English attack and especially the English wingers were very threatening during most of the time. But in the last 20 minutes England somehow lost control of the game and Wales came back with two tries after putting the English backline under a lot of pressure.

Since this is my first Six Nations I'm not really sure what to make of those results. Considering that the Welsh and the Irish performances during the 2007 World Cup were disappointing (if you believe in what the newspapers were writing back then) their victories today must have been a step towards the right direction. England on the other hand came in as the runner-up in the World Cup and lost. So this must be seen as a setback, I suppose. I wasn't expecting too much from Italy although they only missed the World Cup quarterfinals because of a narrow loss against Scotland.

RWC 2007: The champions wear green

Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch last night's final, but from what one can read in the newspapers it wasn't a beautiful game so I guess I didn't miss much. Still I think it's okay that South Africa won the Cup since they have been the team who have been playing most consistently over the past few weeks. True, they had their moment in the pool match against England and after that they kind of lost their momentum a little bit. But their style of Rugby looked by far more convincing than the brutal will England forced upon their opponents. With the other two southern hemisphere giants out of the tournament it was only natural that the Springboks took home the trophy. England may have had the chance, but in all of their matches they came through because of their sheer determination which just doesn't seem to be enough against South Africa.

It is rather disappointing that such a great tournament had its highlight with a final that didn't feature one try. Having said this I don't know anything about the ratings for the German TV coverage, but it seems that the interest in rugby has risen slightly over the course of the World Cup. Usually newspapers would only print small reports of only a few words, but nowadasy there's long reports about the teams and their stars. Players like Wilkinson, Habana, Chabal or Carter were portrayed in the German media, which is progress for a sport which is still considered to be way too brutal to be played over here. Maybe things will change over the next four yaers, but wat it needs to keep rugby in the spotlight is coverage in the media, especially on TV. Because of that I hope that some station might broadcast the Six Nations or the Tri Nations matches.

RWC: The final is set. South Africa vs England

There we have it, the teams to play the final next Saturday are determined and we will see a rematch of the pool game in which the Springboks crushed England 36-0. England went through against a very strong French team who were leading until the end of the 2nd half. That was when Jonny Wilkinson finally got into his rhythm, scoring a penalty and a drop goal and by doing so beating Les Bleues 14-9. It was a very tense and close game and it was even harder to get a place to watch this match. Me and some friends tried our luck at an Irish pub in the old part of Cologne, but that place was so packed they wouldn't even let anyone in anymore. So we took a taxi to some other Irish pub in the inner city only to find the same picture. So we ended up watching the game from the outside trying to get at least a glimpse of the screen inside the bar. And it wasn't only us, there were lots of French and English people waiting for the match. The atmosphere was way more relaxed than any football match I'd seen before.
The next day I preferred to watch the second semifinal at home. I wasn't sure what to expect since the Springboks were struggling against Fiji, although the scoreline was rather distracting (37-20). The Pumas on the other hand came through against Scotland and played some pretty impressive rugby in their pool matches. But yesterday they were simply making way too many mistakes. Which is why it was too easy for South Africa to score. They quickly went up with a try and Argentina was never able to bounce back from that. The Boks on easily 37-13 and will now face an English side who didn't play very beautiful rugby but who look very threatening when they face their opponents. Thsi will be something to look forward to. The best World Cup so far. England have the chance to make history by becoming the first team to win back to back championships. Something noone expected before the start of the tournament.

RWC 2007 Quarterfinals: A big surprise and a huge upset

England have done it again. They beat Australia. Though this it wasn't the final and they weren't going to extra time. Still it needed all Johnny Wilkinson had to offer as he booted all 12 of England's points. Australia never looked like they were going anywhere with their defense. They had a little glimpse of hope shortly before the interval when Tuqiri scored his try (6:10), but after the change it was all England. "Swing low, sweet chariot" was thundering through the Stade Velodrome in Marseille and the English lines were never ever looking like they were crumbling. Wilkinson put England back on top and from there on the game was done. Mortlock missed a crucial kick shortly before the final whistle and that was it. The Wallabies will now look for fresh faces with players like Mortlock, Gregan or Larkham surely thinking of retiring.

But that was absolutely nothing compared to what happened in Cardiff this evening. France completely upset the All Blacks beating them 20:18. A thrilling match between two teams who really met on level grounds. Although this didn't look like it at the end of the first half. New Zealand were storming through the French lines and were quickly up 10:0 with France struggling to organize their offense. The result at halftime was 13:3 and Les Bleues were lucky to not having to concede more points. It all changed after the interval. They had a penalty and slowly crept into All Blacks territory. A really stupid yellow card to McAllister then gave them the chance to equalize with a try by Dusautoir (13:13). There was a quick response by New Zealand (Try: So'oialo), but McAllister missed the kick. Maybe that was the key to the All Black's loss. They had to replace Carter in the 2nd half and Kelleher also had to come off the pitch. To replace your fly half and your scrum half must hurt any team. With Michalak on the field things turned around pretty quickly. Jauzion drove forward, passed to Michalak who gained a lot of ground with his running effort, then back to Jauzion - try for France! With the conversion t was 20:18 and there were 10 minutes to go. Unfortunately even Les Bleues will admit that the pass from Jauzion to Michalak was a forward pass.
But that didn't stop the thriller in Cardiff. The All Blacks were rolling wave after wave on the French defensive lines and the lost the ball only inches away from the line a couple of times.
This is the 2nd time New Zealand lost to France in a World Cup knock out match and it's the worst campaign the All Blacks ever had in World Cup history. Still France really earned this victory and they have every right to be proud of what they achieved tonight. They will now face England, and, oh boy, after today I won't even try to guess what the outcome might be. I'm just looking forward to another day of great rugby!

RWC 2007: The minnows close the gap

When I watched a rugby match for the first time the year was 1995 and the World Cup was taking place in South Africa. I didn't have any idea about what the game was about, I didn't know the rules, but I had a lot of fun watching the match on my telly. I can't even remember what game it was, but a lot of points were scored and one team was dominating their opponents.
When I watched the RWC in 1999 I had a little idea about the game and the different levels of play on the world stage. There were very good teams, good teams and teams who just can't keep up with the rest. I saw crushing defeats for smaller nations and close games between the top teams. So I noticed the huge gap between the first and the second row of rugby teams.
Then in 2003 the RWC was shown on German TV, at least some matches, and I was still able to see 100+ point matches of the big names against smaller teams.

Now it's 2007 and I am thrilled about the perfomance by the minnow teams. I was watching the Wallabies play the Brave Blossoms and I really liked the Japanese way of playing. I watched the Canucks carry a half time lead against the Welsh Dragons. I watched the American Eagles play really well against England. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see the close matches of South Africa against Tonga, of Wales against Fiji, of Scotland against Italy or Japan against Fiji. But all those matches seem to have been really great, close and exciting. And that's something a World Cup needs. Sure there's a difference in waht teams can do, but it's always nice to see when smaller nations can give a hard time to the big names. And maybe we will see an upset in a shroter time than we all expect right now.

So Wales are out of the tournament and Fiji have earned their place in the quarterfinals. I'm really looking forward to the knock out stages.

Rugby World Cup: The gap might be getting a little smaller

So the first round of games was done over the weekend and tonight saw the start of the 2nd day of playing in the Rugby World Cup and so far there have been a few surprises along the way. It seems as if Rugby nowadays is a little bit like football on a world cup level 20 years back from now. The smaller nations seem to be able to keep up with the big names for the most of the first half. but after the change they seem to crumble because of the lack of fitness and strength. Wales was struggling against Canada who were carrying a lead to half time only to be shelled 42-17 by the final whistle. The "Eagles" of the USA were playing very well against England only to give in during the 2nd half. Samoa was holding firm against South Africa over a long time only to have their necks broken by the end. So the smaller nations seemed to have made some progress and maybe it will only be a matter of time until a few of them will break into the line of the big teams.
Tonight Georgia did well for most of the time against the "Pumas" tying them for most of the first half. They conceded a penalty shortly before the break to give Argentina a 6-3 lead. But their effort was brave and there was a sequence in the middle of the first half when Argentina was desperately trying to score a try only to be pushed back by the awesome "Georgian tractor". The players in red thrust themselves in the rucks and packs to prevent the Argentinians from scoring. It's this intesity which makes the sport of Rugby so interesting to me. The constant dynamics that keep the game moving and exciting. In the end Georgia lost 3-33, a result which might give Argentina the extra point they need to advance to the knock out stages in a group that also features Ireland and France. The strange regulations of extra points for a certain number of tries scored in a game might be the deciding factor in this pool.

Tomorrow it's USA vs Tonga, Japan vs Fiji and Italy vs Romania. Normally I'd say that Tonga, Fiji and Italy shouldn't have any problems. But with what happened over the past days nothing is certain. And that's great.

Rugby World Cup: The favourites take action

After yesterday's upsetting result in the opening match when France lost to Argentina the top favourites of New Zealand played their first game against Italy. Now taly have recently been enjoying some success in the Six Nations tournament although I guess you could still label them a 2nd rate team. The All Blacks had no problems with them whatsoever crushing them 76-14. The 2nd half of the game saw the Italians get a little grip on the ball though with the All Blacks looking as though they were trying just to hold up their lead. Man of the match was Doug Howlett who scored three of the total 11 tries.
Next up were the Wallabies against the "Cherry Blossoms" from Japan and anything but a convincing victory by Australia would have been a surprise. So you have to give credit to the Japanese team when they held the Australians in check over the first few minutes. But then they gave in and lost terribly 3-91. This leaves Australia as one of the top prospects for the trophy. I was surprised they still have Gregan, Larkham and Mortlock in the squad but their performance was really good so although they might be a little older they still seem to have the skill to control the game. The best player in this game was Rocky Elsom who scored a hattrick, the fastest in World Cup history.
The toughest match came third today when England played the Eagles from the States. England are the defending champions and they had quite some problems with a very compact and fierce American team. It was only shortly before half time when England scored a couple of tries and got ahead of the USA. The 2nd half was much closer with the Eagles even scoring a try themselves in the end of the game. The final result was 28-10 which shows how close a game this was. England might have found a replacemnt for their injured super star player Johnny Wilkinson who almost single-handedly won the title during the last World Cup with his kicking skills. His replacement Olly Barkley had quite a few nice scenes in today's match.

Tomorrow will see the last of the big five, South Africa, start their campaign. The Springboks will be up against Samoa. The other games will be the Welsh Dragons against Canada, Scotland will face Portugal and Ireland will take on Namibia.

And now for something completely different: Rugby World Cup 2007

The Rugby World Cup kicked off in Paris today with the opening game between hosts France and Argentina. A highly anticipated match between two teams who are both in so so called "Death" Pool A along with Ireland. With only the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals there will be at least one big name out of the competition after the group stages. And also will the 2nd place team face the winner of Pool B which most likely will be the All Blacks from New Zealand who were on fire for the past few years and are the ones to beat in this competition.
The expectations were high in France and their team, "Les Bleues" could not live up to that. The "Pumas" from Argetina held the in check for most of the time. Only for the minutes after half time was France advancing and looking for a try. But the Argentinian defense stood firm and prevented the strong French offense from scoring a try. In the first half Argentina controlled the game at will and was able to score a try after a huge error from France when "Les Bleues" were on the attack. So the World Cup has its first surprise on the opening day. Although it wasn't really surprising that the "Pumas" won, since they did so in four of the last five games against France. Maybe "Les Bleues" would have done better had they only played with their star player Sébastien Chabal right from the start. (France 12 Argentina 17).
Tomorrow will see the All Blacks (against the "Gli Azzuri" from Italy), the Wallabies (against the "Cherry Blossoms" from Japan) and the English (against the "Eagles" from the USA) take action in their pools. With one contender already struggling it will be interesting to see how they will do.