Well Done Bokke.

The Baby Boks en route to winning the Junior World Cup 2012.

Well done to the ‘Baby Boks’ team that took out the Under 20 World Cup over the weekend.  They deservedly won the game and outplayed New Zealand for large periods of play.  Perhaps next year the New Zealand Rugby Union won’t be so arrogant.  After having been undefeated in the tournaments history up until edition 2012 a very inexperienced team was sent over to South Africa and lost two games, one to Wales in pool play, which they avenged in the semi finals and then to the host nation in the final.  It will be an interesting twelve months to see the development of the next generation of players come through from all these young sides and to see how they shape up come this time next year.

Whilst the Junior World Cup was taking place in Cape Town there were a few other things going on over the weekend.  Internationals in South Africa, Australia, Samoa, New Zealand and Argentina, not to mention a little tournament called Euro 2012 which gloriously saw Italy send the Poms packing last night.

Having a quick look over the rugby there were definitely a few surprises over the weekend.  Not many people would have picked the Argentina – France score line or that of the Boks and Poms or the Irish registering a duck against an imposing looking All Blacks side.

The Wallabies, as they have all series, struggled their way past a valiant Welsh side who will be fuming they didn’t manage to get a single win on their three week tour.  I predicted they would win the series with a two – one ledger, shows how much I know.  The Boks battled to a 14 all draw with England.  One got the feeling that they had let their foot off the throat somewhat after a couple of very good wins against an opponent who can make life more difficult than most others.  I went with a 2–1 to the Boks and almost got my way if it wasn’t for some wayward kicking and a few poor options.  The Scots pipped the Samoans in what was another tight affair, taking it out 17-16.  The Pacific Islanders have definitely not disgraced themselves and have must have proved that they are worthy of more meaningful test matches against the major Tier One nations.

The All Blacks were almost untouchable in what has been described as one of the most complete performances ever.  This might be stretching it a bit too far as the Irish looked like they had pitched up to the match with a sizeable hangover from an amazing effort the weekend earlier and a week spent in Queenstown, just ask Mike Tindall and the English squad what a week in Queenstown does.  Perhaps New Zealand should ensure all teams stay there before every Test Match from now on.  60–0 was something that no one saw coming, least of all the Irish, it appeared that they had all but given up hope after being down 26-nil after 25 minutes with Aaron Cruden putting in a virtuoso performance until he had to leave the field with an Achilles problem.  After beating the French up last weekend the Puma’s couldn’t back it up unfortunately and went down by 49-10.  Whilst their performance in the first test was a positive step for the upcoming Four Nations, one hopes that this spanking hasn’t ruined their headspace too badly.  It certainly looks like they will be in for a pretty tough time of things come the middle of August.

So it’s back to Super Rugby they, and we, all go to count the injury toll and see what happens over an intriguing final three weeks before the playoffs begin.  Some teams will be hoping that the injuries to come out of the new International window don’t cost them as badly as it looks like it could.  Only time will tell.

Oh and by the way, it's interesting to see John Mitchell has been suspended by the Lions after complaints being laid against him by a large group of players.  It's intriguing it's taken this long for something to blowup around 'Mitch' again.  After all this is one of the major reasons he got kicked out of the NZ Rugby system, he can't relate to all of his players.  As good as his Rugby brain is, if you can't bring the people around you onboard then you're in trouble and unfortunately for Mitchell it's happened again.  Let's see if 'King Carlos' can do any better with the embattled Lions.

I have to give a mention to Euro 2012.  Being in Turkey currently Football is much easier to find than Rugby so I have kept a lazy eye on things.  I actually enjoyed the game last night between England and Italy, not just as Italy won but also because there was actually a lot of drama.  Italy owned every aspect of the game but were still held to 0-0 after a 120 minutes.  It amazed me how one team can have 25 odd shots at goal and the other about 5 and they are still tied at the end of it.  Surely this is a flaw in the game of Football.  Yes it’s great to be able to say that you can never tell who is going to win, it’s exciting blah blah blah, but surely if one team is that dominant they deserve it.  Thankfully the Penalty Gods smiled on Italy and crushed the English, AGAIN!

A quick congrats must go out to all those that are finally being confirmed to represent their country in the Olympics coming up in a months time.  Well done and I can’t wait for the games to begin, I’ll be watching those of you I know with pride, and if you know any yourselves make sure they and everyone else know that you’re behind them!

Keep your eye on the ball team.

Later.