http://twf.com.au/blog.php Western Force, Perth Spirit and WA Rugby Supporters Site and Rugby Forum en Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:43:51 GMT vBulletin 60 http://twf.com.au/images/misc/rss.jpg http://twf.com.au/blog.php http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=31 Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:07:13 GMT I was always worried about how I would cope on Christmas Day. For someone who's depression manifests itself in loneliness. It wasn't shaping up to be a great day.

I woke up early - So I went back on to the projects I was working on from the night before. I have been trying to set myself little projects, or goals - jobs that need doing, or things I would like to do for me or someone else.

So back in to the computer room - my little home within my home - I am safe in here and it has everything I want within arms or 2 steps reach.

So I was putting together my little brothers Christmas present and phone rang about 8.30 it was my daughter Zoe inviting me over.

9.00 I arrive and my mother-in-laws house to find them trying to put together one of Zoe's toys, badly. Zoe is pleased to see me which always makes my day and I give her, her presents from me and my mum. My future ex-wife and future ex-mother-in-law had already given Zoe her presents. That didn't make a lot of sense to me but not a lot of this day did.

After I had given Zoe her presents and helped put together all the ones that needed putting together. The Future Ex-Mother-in-Law announces that she is off to visit a friend. And invites Zoe to go with her. Zoe is 7 and loves being the centre of attention so any invite to go do something else would be answered yes.

TO bad if I would have liked some more time with my daughter. So by 9.40 I was back home alone and that would pretty much be my interaction with other people for the day.

I had some phone calls, txt messages and pms from friends from TWF, you guys were there for me and its something that I will never forget

After some more tidying up - I had a nap. and then a friend of mine Tim and his wife Bea came and picked me up. some snacks, and drinks at I survived.

Later today - I fly to Perth to spend some time with my dad. We have already had a small fight earlier this week about money.

It is going to be a very safe bet that it will continue once I get to Perth

So - keep and eye out - I may need a bed from someone. You may get a call or a txt from me saying that I am in desperate need of someone.

thanks again for all the support.

Take care

X ]]> Exile http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=31 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=30 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:47:17 GMT I would like to tell you all that I have had a pretty cool week this week. But its been rough. Where do I start. With the involvement of work – I have stepped up my treatment in a number of different ways in a hope to manage or cure my depression. My Psychiatrist has done this by changing... I would like to tell you all that I have had a pretty cool week this week. But its been rough.

Where do I start.

With the involvement of work – I have stepped up my treatment in a number of different ways in a hope to manage or cure my depression.

My Psychiatrist has done this by changing my medication. I have for the last 5 months been on a medication called Effexor XR. The dosage is quite high, 300mg. With a change of medication it is not as simple as stopping one and then starting the other. So, for the last 4 weeks I have been reducing my Effexor to enable the start of the new medication.

Reducing a medication is hard – there are side effects. Constant drowsiness, mood swings. I am not a pleasant person to be around, and my new boss just doesn’t get it or understand me. Fortunately my Senior Manager does understand, he had to step in a couple of days ago to prevent a misunderstanding escalating to a very bad conclusion.

Sometimes it is very difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning. It doesn’t matter whether I have had 3 hours sleep or 13 hours. Its hard to face the day. Once I do get out of bed the rest of the day is ok – well, apart from the drowsiness and the mood swings. I would rather not go to work, but I cant afford not to do that – from both a salary and a disciplinary reason.

So I have now got to a stage of my medication change process that I have started the new medication Allegron. Whether this medication works better then the Effexor, we won’t know for about 3 months. It may not work at all – the sad thing is that there isn’t a test that can be taken to know that Anti-Depressant XYZ will work best for this person but Anti-Depressant RTE works better. Its all about the luck of the draw.

Christmas is just around the corner – I am not looking forward to Christmas day at all. Apart from a short visit from my daughter in the morning the rest of the day I am alone.

Let me tell you a little story – this same story I have told twice before, once as a Eulogy for my grandmother who passed away 14 months ago, and the second time last week for my Psychologist. That time I burst in to tears, and I don’t know why.

In 1992 I was in the Air Force and based at Tindal in the Northern Territory. I put in a phone call to my Nan. I told her that I wasn’t able to come home for Christmas. And that for me to be happy I would need for Nan to make me some of my favorite Custard Kisses cookies. A week later my Nan mailed to me a tin full of Custard Kisses Cookies. I cracked open the tin, and they were all smashed up. My Nan’s Custard Kisses cookies are very delicate, I wasn’t surprised that they were broken. They tasted amazing as always. I ate them all with a spoon.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy 2009. Thank you all for your kind wishes and support. I hope to catch up with as many of you as I can while I am in Perth.

Take care,

Exile ]]> Exile http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=30 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=29 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:07:01 GMT Hello all me again with another self indulgent outpouring of me.

sorry

Today has been a very good day. Its been a pretty awesome week. That dirty big black dog called depression isn't quite on the chain, but the Obedience classes are starting to pay off.

This week was always going to be a big week for me. I had appointments all week with people trying to help me - culminating in a visit to a Mortgage Broker on Friday afternoon to let me start looking at moving out of the beer garden and in to a place I can call my very own. The longer i stayed in the beer garden the more I wanted to move out of it - it represented the past for me and I so desperately needed to move on.

But to start this weeks update - we have to go back to last weekend. As you may remember I encouraged my girlfriend at the time - Renee - to split up with me and I then asked her to come back. This probably wasn't such a good idea. But by last weekend it came to a head and Renee said that this wasn't working and I agreed. I apologised and told her that I need to get better and look after me before I can go in to a relationship to look after us. She agreed. So we agreed to be good friends and I had one less thing to worry about.

Which brings us to Tuesday and my first appointment with my new Psychiatrist. What a great guy - very enthusiastic, and encouraging and cant wait to start working with me to get me well again - after an hour of talking and coming up with a plan of new medications (yay) and a new diet (boo) I left his office with an appointment to see him again next week with a spring in my step.

Wednesday was an appoinment with my Councilor, John - John and I have been working on my depression for over a year now - we get along great tho we probably spend more time talking about Rugby than we do about my problems - but he is always a great guy to tell me when I have done the right - or the wrong thing.

Thursday was my first appoinment with my Psychologist. Janet - with a silent t - was lovely. she had me sobbing like a school girl after 35 minutes and I really think with this team - I am on the way to recovery. I cant tell you guys how great a feeling it is to see a little dot of light to show that there is an end to this tunnel of darkness.

And now for the cool bit:

The mortgage broker and I sat down for about an hour - we went thru the loan and what was needed and what was required. At the end of it I asked him when I could put an offer on the unit I wanted. he said now - just dont sign anything yet. I called the real estate agent - to cut a long story short - 5 phone calls in 90 minutes and we agreed to the price of $219,000. I am so happy I could just smile - and thats a big thing for me.








And to put Icing on the cake - I sorted things out with my Dad. It was ugly - there was yelling and shouting and harsh words were spoken, but we are talking again.

Also - I will be in Perth from Boxing day to New Years day - I hope we can catch up for beers or Magners or Rumbos.

Take care all

thanks for support - it really means a lot to me.

Simon ]]> Exile http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=29 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=28 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:04:21 GMT Hello all- yes its me again. Please forgive what some might consider a very self indulgent act of yet another thread all about me. I am sorry but it is therapeutic. Also, my apologies for an overly dramatic title. But the last couple of weeks have been hectic. First up let’s get the good news... Hello all- yes its me again. Please forgive what some might consider a very self indulgent act of yet another thread all about me. I am sorry but it is therapeutic.

Also, my apologies for an overly dramatic title. But the last couple of weeks have been hectic.

First up let’s get the good news out of the way. I have sold the house and beer garden. Sort of. The Future Ex-Mrs Exile has offered to purchase the property from me. She is taking over the whole mortgage and I am receiving $22,000. This should allow me to purchase a unit close by.

I believe that this is the perfect solution and I am very happy. Zoe has a great house to grow up in and I no longer have to worry about doing that mad panic cleaning effort prior to the open house every Saturday.

Now lets cover the bad stuff.

As most of you know I am employed in the tax office. about 13 months ago I got a promotion and escaped the call centre and got to work with Superannuation Audit team. The work involved is precise and intricate and something I have continued to struggle with. Consequently, my boss arranged for an evaluation by a Psychiatrist to evaluate my abilities and perhaps identify what could be done to assist me in becoming a fully effective worker.

Around the same time I started considering that perhaps I needed a complete change of career direction. I even considered a return to WA and perhaps seek employment within the mining industry.

This news, along with my adamant proclamation of never wanting to have anymore children. Ever. Had my new girlfriend seething and she then declared she no longer wanted anything to do with me.

Then I had a fight with my 2 best friends. This couple are my Ex’s brother Tony and sister-in-law Rhiannon. Since my marriage split Tony has been very distant with me, considering my marriage breakdown was an amicable split and there was no “misbehaviour” on either part, this didn’t make a lot of sense. But, Tony was still more then happy to borrow my vehicle to get to and from work each day. So one afternoon heated words were said and I demanded the return of my car.

That same week I had a visit from Perth of my dad and his 3rd wife. Dad was unusually quiet. After his visit and when he was safely at home in Perth, my Dad took great pleasure in unloading on me telling me how disgusted and disappointed in me he was. Not wanting to put up with his crap – I hung up on him.

October was not a great month. To say I am feeling alone and sorry for myself would be an understatement.

But November is a new month, and I have been working on getting some relationships patched up. I extended an olive branch to my girlfriend that was gratefully accepted and another to Tony and Rhiannon that is being considered. As far as my father is concerned – he can wait.

That will do for now. I am sorry for unloading on you guys. But you are all family and friends to me – and as you can see – I don’t have a lot left at the moment. ]]> Exile http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=28 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=27 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:00:38 GMT Folks I dont know why I am doing this, but you guys are like family so I while I am telling everyone else, I may as well tell you guys too. Mrs Exile announced that she no longer wants to be Mrs Exile anymore. after 8 years of marriage and over 12 years together I guess she cant be bothered... Folks I dont know why I am doing this, but you guys are like family so I while I am telling everyone else, I may as well tell you guys too.

Mrs Exile announced that she no longer wants to be Mrs Exile anymore.

after 8 years of marriage and over 12 years together I guess she cant be bothered putting up with my crap anymore. Who can blame her. Some of you may be aware of my ongoing battle with depression, while no one battles harder then the partners of those who are suffering from this condition. It must be said that We are not fighting or arguing. Mrs Exile just needs a change - who knows what may happen in the future.

So there may be some changes in the future.

My annual trip to Perth to watch the First Force game of the year is in doubt. I am trying to ensure that I retain ownership of the Beer Garden. Jodie (Mrs Exile) wants to move out, she is taking our daughter Zoe with her.

I may be looking for a room mate - and negotiations with Chook are continuing to see if he is worthy for the role. If I do get a room mate at a fair price - the likelyhood of me retaining ownership of the house and Beer Garden improves.

The most important thing i am concentrating on is ensuring that Zoe isnt disrupted to much.

I will do the best I can. ]]> Exile http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=27 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=26 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:33:51 GMT Ok, as everyone knows I have recently sat my exams, and I think I did well :) I got : 67.5% on my top-level maths exam (as in uni is level 8 and my maths exam was level 6-7) and the average was 49%. Woowhaahh! 60% on my science, which my teacher said was a good mark. Physics killed me. ARGH!... Ok, as everyone knows I have recently sat my exams, and I think I did well :)

I got :
67.5% on my top-level maths exam (as in uni is level 8 and my maths exam was level 6-7) and the average was 49%. Woowhaahh!

60% on my science, which my teacher said was a good mark. Physics killed me. ARGH! I got 12.5/30 for physics hehe and I studied for 4 weeks for it! Dad wants me to get a physics tutor, but I'm free from physics for the rest of my life :D I didn't look at a human bio book coz I was so busy studying and I got 21/30, which was REALLY good. So it all balanced out.

65% on my SOSE exam. Not good. Not bad, but nothing good. Just boring average average. I'm not happy with myself bout it. I only got 6/10 for writing about whales HEHE!!

Haven't got my english results back yet, but I think that was really good :) More to follow... My teacher said Friday at the latest I think.

Thanks for your good wishes everyone, I think I did alright! :D And I spent ages on TWF, so I'm happy hehe ]]> http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=26 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=25 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:18:08 GMT Beige
03/09/2008

It is the subject of countless bragging contests amongst rugby fans: which country is the most 'rugby crazy' in the world? There are many contenders but only one can lay claim to this distinction – and it does so by a significant margin. It is not Wales or New Zealand. It is not the usual suspects of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga either. The Cook Islands and, surprisingly, the Cayman Islands are right up there too but still can't match the country that sits atop this list. So which country is it? Niue, take a bow.

This might be a surprise to many – Niue is not a world power in and but it is not even a country that enters the consciousness of most rugby fans. And it has never come close to qualifying for the Rugby World Cup. Despite this, the statistics tell the story. With 420 registered players in a country whose population only numbers at an estimated 1600 (the figures vary), an incredible 26% of Niue's population actually plays rugby. To put that figure in to some kind of perspective, if Australia had the same kind of rugby fervour, there would be over 5.6 million players in this country! The world game would have certainly taken on a whole different complexion if that was the case. Of course, the Niue's small population made it a lot easier for a single sport to take hold in such a strong fashion.

Indeed, when the national team plays at home, the entire nation could theoretically turn up to watch the match. The 26% of the population that plays rugby is spread across just 8 rugby clubs. Impressively, more than 20% of these registered players are girls or women – there are about 90 of them compared to 330 male players. There is a healthy mix of junior and senior players in both cases. And a statistic that some rugby fans may find amusing – there are only 9 referees in the entire country! So why did rugby take hold and not another team sport? (Netball, softball and soccer are all played on the island in some organised form.)

A look at Niue's history provides a large clue to the answer. Prior to Niue officially becoming a nation in 1974, it had spent 73 years as a territory of New Zealand. With the early twentieth century being a time where football codes around the world were consolidating there dominance in various countries, it is no surprise that a New Zealand-governed island would take up rugby (even today, Niue remains a New Zealand dependency and still uses a New Zealand-based education system). This is an addition to the fact that Niue was another Pacific island where Christianisation took hold. The game of rugby was a favourite tool used by Christian missionaries to 'pacify' the native populations that Europeans viewed as savages (Captain Cook originally named Niue “Savage Island” after receiving a less-than-warm welcome upon his arrival in 1774). By and large, these island nations were quite happy to take up the sport. With the history of Niue only dating back to 1974, their international rugby history is also very new.

While a Niue team had contested matches since the 1950s, it was not until 1999 that the country finally became a full member of the International Rugby Board. Since then, while the country has competed against other minor Pacific rugby nations such as the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea, it is in the seven-a-side version of the game that they have made themselves known to the rest of the world. Within 2 years of officially entering the IRB fold, Niuean rugby was given its first opportunity to enter the big time when it was invited to the Wellington leg of the IRB Sevens Series (now known as the IRB Sevens World Series). While playing in front of a stadium packed with 35 000 screaming fans – with the games being beamed home to Niue – was a great experience for the players, they proved to be out of their depth at this level of competition. Still, they did manage to score a place at the 2002 Commonwealth Games tournament in Manchester, which was played in front of sell-out crowds of more than 40 000. In 2003, Niue sent shockwaves through the Wellington Sevens tournament when it managed to defeat both the USA and Japan – nations with 160 times and 2976 times the playing population respectively. However, Niuean rugby was soon to suffer a tragic setback.

In 2004, Niue was torn apart when Cyclone Heta hit the country. Large parts of the capital Alofi were completely flattened by the cyclone's onslaught and two people lost their lives as a result of the storm. The damage to Niue's infrastructure and economy was devastating and it required years of rebuilding and tens of millions of dollars in aid – mostly from New Zealand – to achieve this. With the country still reeling from the cyclone's impact, Niue's achievements at the following year's Wellington Sevens were quite remarkable. While they did not progress from the pool stage to the knockout stages of the main Cup competition, they did regroup to beat Japan in the final of the consolation Shield competition. Unfortunately, they proved to be their own worst enemies the following year when political in-fighting resulted in several players, and head coach Rick Tagelagi, not making the trip to Melbourne for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Their performances suffered accordingly. The team suffered a further setback in 2007 when it was not invited to take part in the Wellington Sevens tournament (there was a suggestion that the previous year's debacle may have contributed to this). Fortunately, the team returned for the 2008 tournament. So what kind of future is on the cards for Niue in the international game?

Unfortunately, it’s not a promising one. A major problem facing Niue is the 2% negative population growth that the country is currently facing. The population is at its lowest point in the 34 years that the country has existed. In fact, 22 000 Niueans – more than 13 times the nation's population – live in New Zealand (Samoa and New Zealand rugby great Frank Bunce actually has Niuean ancestry). Since all Niueans hold New Zealand citizenship, the move is not a difficult one. A large number of students and public servants also study or train in that country. While Niue likes to market itself as “Unspoilt Polynesia”, the economy can not sustain such a trend continuing. The Niuean government views it as such a threat that they have actually negotiated with the low-lying island nation of Tuvalu to take some of its 10 000 citizens in the case that global warming causes rising sea levels to swamp its islands. However, climate change poses its own problems for Niue. In the aftermath of Cyclone Heta, the viability of Niue as a nation was openly questioned in some quarters. If the frequency of such storms was to rise in the future, then Niue itself could be in big trouble.

While Niue will never be more than a blip on the radar of the global game, it would be a shame if the world’s most rugby-mad country was to disappear forever. ]]> beige http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=25 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=23 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:53:40 GMT Beige
26/08/2008

Well another Olympics has come and gone and, as usual, it has brought its share of memorable moments. (These are some of mine – I'd love to hear some of yours.) Some have been uplifting: Michael Phelps' 7 – I mean – 8 gold medals; 33 year old Zhang Ning's emotional badminton victory; Usain Bolt's superhuman world records; Matthew Mitcham's surprise diving win. Some have been deflating: that angelic little girl's voice at the opening ceremony turning out to be someone else's; Liu Xiang's injury implosion; Jamaican and USA superstars blowing it in both the individual and relay sprints; the Opals falling short again in the basketball. Memorable all the same.

And hopefully these games can provide a lasting positive legacy for all Chinese people.

For a rugby fan, especially with John Eales being there as part of the Australian support team, Beijing drove home just how much rugby is missing out by not being included in the games. Hopefully the International Rugby Board does not screw up its bid for rugby sevens' entry in to the 2016 games like it did for the 2012 games. The IRB does seem to be doing its homework this time around; rugby sevens is now at both the Asian and Pan-American games, and next year's Rugby World Cup Sevens will include both a men's and women's tournament. It can only be hoped that the IRB has the necessary skills and resources to impress the International Olympics Committee enough to overcome its politics and the raft of other sports that will also be bidding for entry (baseball, softball, karate, golf, squash and – erm – rollersports; at the inevitable expense of an existing sport it should be noted).

And for Australian fans, the Olympics brought back that old favourite – the “per capita” medal tally. The concept is fairly obvious – if all countries had the same-sized populations to draw from, what would the medal count look like? The thinking in this country is always that Australia would be at the top of the ladder. Which it was – until New Zealand and Jamaica overtook us. To be honest, it is a flawed and patronising list. If it was to be truly fair, how about factoring the wealth of a country in to the equation? Surely Ethiopia and Kenya would have finished a lot higher in that case. And the nature of calculating such a list means that it is virtually impossible for a large country to win it (Australia only had to win one gold medal to finish ahead of China this year). After all, it’s not like teams can get infinitely better the more people they have – there is a limit on what people are capable of.

In the spirit of this arrogant and unscientific approach, here is the “Per Capita” Rugby World Cup 2007!

Pool A:
At this early stage, Pool A already looked it might provide the 2 finalists for the tournament. Tonga stormed in to the quarterfinals, dealing out 4 consecutive hammerings to its pool rivals. Their form had been easily the most impressive of the 20 teams at the tournament. It was perhaps unfortunate then that Samoa ended up in the same pool; aside from the pasting they took at the hands of Tonga, they have recorded similarly dominating victories over the remaining teams in Pool A and looked to be Tonga's biggest threat for the title. South Africa won a tight match against England to claim third place with 2 victories, while England defeated the USA to salvage some pride from their campaign.

Pool B:
The biggest threat from outside of Pool A looked to be from the Fijians. While not displaying the crushing superiority of its Pacific neighbours it had barely raised a sweat in completing the pool stage undefeated. While Wales could not trouble Fiji, it still managed to record convincing victories over its remaining pool rivals to coast in to the quarterfinals. Indeed, Australia's defeat to Wales proved to be its undoing, as Canada and Japan proved to be no match. However, Canada did beat Japan to record its lone victory for the tournament.

Pool C:
While New Zealand emerged from Pool C undefeated, it did not have everything its own way as Scotland proved to be a formidable opponent in the match to decide first place. Romania and Italy never really threatened the 2 big teams in the pool but produced a thriller to decide third place, with Romania taking the spoils. Portugal failed to win a match in its tournament debut but did not disgrace itself.

Pool D:
Pool D was regarded as the “pool of death” going in to the tournament and this was certainly how it panned out. Ireland, Georgia and Argentina all battled it out for the 2 quarterfinal places and it was a battle that went right down to the wire; ultimately, Ireland and Georgia won out. The match between these 2 teams proved to be a hard fought affair with Ireland coming out on top. Argentina can consider itself unlucky after only narrowly missing out on a quarterfinal spot. France ultimately fell by the wayside, recording its only victory over the winless Namibia.

Quarterfinals:
Tonga sent out another ominous warning to its rivals after what can only be described as the complete destruction of Wales in its quarterfinal. Wales was never in the match. Fiji was perhaps the unluckiest team in the quarterfinals, the unfortunate draw seeing them play Samoa despite finishing top of its pool. This match proved to be the best of the tournament – a pulsating encounter with physical, high quality rugby that saw Samoa escape with the victory by the skin of its teeth. It was unfortunate that one of the best teams in the tournament bowed out at what it would consider to be an early stage. In the other quarterfinals, New Zealand ground out a victory over Ireland while Scotland eased past Georgia.

Semi-finals:
The semi-finals could barely be called contests. Samoa crushed New Zealand while Tonga was simply frightening in its annihilation of Scotland.

Third-place playoff:
New Zealand had some consolation from its semi-final defeat, recording another victory over a plucky Scotland.

Final:
If the semi-finals provided fans hope that the final would be a battle, they were quickly shown otherwise. Tonga simply wiped the floor with Samoa. Indeed Tonga's complete supremacy over the entire “Per Capita” Rugby World Cup 2007 competition has been jaw-dropping.

- Brought to you by the power of spreadsheets.- ]]> beige http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=23 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=21 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:39:41 GMT Beige 19/08/2008 When the Japanese rugby team won the inaugural Asian Five Nations tournament this year, it demonstrated the gulf in class between the Brave Blossoms and the other national teams on the continent. However, a similar gulf in class exists between Japan and the top nations in world... Beige
19/08/2008

When the Japanese rugby team won the inaugural Asian Five Nations tournament this year, it demonstrated the gulf in class between the Brave Blossoms and the other national teams on the continent. However, a similar gulf in class exists between Japan and the top nations in world rugby. While this may not viewed as a big issue, the fact is Japan should be a far more prominent rugby country than it is now. Over 126 000 registered players make Japan the fourth-largest rugby country in the world, and the large corporations that own the teams in their domestic competitions mean that they have tremendous financial muscle. However, Japanese rugby's history is one of unfulfilled potential.

Hopes were raised in 2003 when the Top League replaced Japan's previous 3-league system as the nation's highest tier of domestic competition. This saw the top 12 (now 14) teams from the East Japan, Kansai and Kyushu leagues grouped together in to a single competition. While all 3 regions were represented, the idea was simply to have the top 12 teams in the country playing in the same competition. As such, the make-up of the new league was dominated by teams from the strong East Japan league – covering, as it does, the Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki metropolitan areas. The 2003 season kicked off with Suntory Sungoliath defeating the Kobe Kobelco Steelers in front of 35 000 fans at the National Stadium. Comparisons to the 1993 launch of Japanese football's enormously successful J-League were inevitable.

Perhaps it was the flashy new brand names that led to these comparisons but the similarities were largely superficial; the Top League was not the huge leap forward in professionalism that the J-League was, as it did not change the essential setup of how the game was run. As such, many of the same problems that existed before 2003 still exist now. The Japanese experiences of the Western Force's 2008 recruit Tamaiti Horua are illuminating in this regard. In 2006, personal tragedy saw Horua leave Australia to join the Nagoya-based Toyota Verblitz. In an interview with Inside Rugby in early 2008, Horua provided some interesting insights in to what he saw as the problems with the setup of the game in Japan. “Essentially it's an amateur competition. And the structure of the Rugby calendar is very odd,” he said. “You only play 12 (actually 13) competition games but you have this six month pre-season of friendlies beforehand. About 18 games. It's a very strange system and I'm not sure it's really the best way of doing things... Over the last two years I've worked extra hard on my fitness and conditioning as I know if I ever have the chance (to return to Australia) I need to be ready. I need to do work over and above what I do with the team.” His comments provide some clue to the national team's lack of success.

It can be easy to blame Japan's lack of success on the relatively small stature of its players. But while this probably will keep the national team from ever becoming a leading world power like the Australian team, the fact that Japan has been the best nation after the USA at the last 2 American Football World Cups makes a bit of a mockery of the size argument. The Brave Blossoms' coach John Kirwan has acknowledged that it is overused. However, 2 major problems with the domestic structure can be identified that do severely hamper the national team's performance.

The first is the fact that the Top League is not a genuinely professional competition. It is well known that the enormous cash at the disposal of the corporate teams has allowed them to attract some big names in recent years – names that include the likes of Troy Flavell, Reuben Thorne, Toutai Kefu, George Gregan and Stephen Larkham. However, while these players have been able to earn some huge contracts, the local Japanese players are not so fortunate. While they are on the payrolls of the same corporations as the foreign stars, they are not on anywhere near the money that the imports are making. In addition to this, while the imported players are effectively paid to be rugby players, the Japanese players are still treated as employees of the corporations. Basically, this means that they must fit rugby around their work. It is hard to imagine the Japanese players appreciating this much – especially when the rule restricting the number of non-Asian players on the field to 2 means that many of these imports are being paid largely to sit on the bench. It is also no surprise when the likes of Horua and Tony Brown shoulder a disproportionate amount of the workload during matches. This strange, 2-tiered, system is compounded by the abbreviated nature of the Top League season. Essentially, the nation's top domestic competition consists of 3 months of semi-professional rugby, with 1 or 2 extra games (along with up to 4 post-season “All Japan Rugby Championship” games) for the finalists. Clearly, some genuine restructuring is needed for Japanese rugby to move forward in the future.

Unfortunately, while positive noises have flown out of JRFU headquarters over the last year, the lack of genuine detail provided to the media (or at least the Western media) makes it hard to ascertain just what steps are being taken to bring the game to the next level. However, an interview given by Top League Chief Operating Officer Junichi Inagaki to the Daily Yomiuri earlier this month – in which he noted the JRFU's past failings and acknowledged that a lot of work needed to be done over the next few years in order for the Top League to become a world standard competition – were encouraging. And there are some promising signs; last year, nearly 500 000 spectators (an average of 5400 per match) attended regular season matches – an increase of 125% on the previous season. Also, the fact that Japanese winger Kosuke Endo has been allowed to miss the opening part of the 2008/2009 season to play for Canterbury in the Air New Zealand Cup (something that players were previously barred from doing) indicates that the JRFU has finally recognised that the Top League is not yet of a high enough standard to produce world-class players. Hopefully the international community can give the Japanese game a helpful boost.

The potential economic bonanza that a strong game in Japan would provide is something that other countries have not been able to ignore. While Europe has talked about playing matches and tournaments in Japan, it is the Southern Hemisphere's SANZAR nations that see tapping the Japanese market as a way to bring in the extra money sorely needed to fight off the cash-heavy European clubs. Australia and New Zealand have already taken their first tentative steps in to Asia with the staging of a Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong later this year. This match is expected to generate A$5 million for both Australia and New Zealand. Staging a similar match in Tokyo in the future is something that has already been mooted and the JRFU seems sympathetic to such a proposal. Indeed, the JRFU may hope that it gives Japanese rugby a similar promotional boost to the one that the Toyota Cup provided Japanese football in the 1980s. However, the wildcard in all of this has been the potential entry of a Japanese franchise in to an expanded Super 14 competition.

From the point of view of the Super 14, the entry of a Japanese franchise could open up a huge new market – and provide a handy tool for S14 bankrollers News Corporation's attempts to crack the pay-television-hostile Japanese market. Additionally, Japan is perhaps the location with the most genuine potential to provide a large support base and raise the A$12 million a season for the first 3 seasons that SANZAR expects will be needed to run a franchise outside of its current borders. While competitiveness is an issue, such a franchise would raise Japan's players to a genuinely new level of professionalism. In addition, the country's ability to attract star players is likely to work heavily in its favour (especially as both Australia and New Zealand have indicated that players could still be eligible for their respective national teams if they played in Japan) – although how good this would be for Japan itself is another matter. Indeed, comments by John O'Neill, Kirwan and Inagaki in the media have suggested that the JRFU may not be as keen to head down this route as outsiders might think. Indeed, if the JRFU genuinely sees the Top League becoming a world-class competition in the future, they might not want to risk it playing second-fiddle to an expanded S14. Again, the secrecy of the discussions have made it impossible to tell what direction they are heading in. However reports continue to appear in the media, and negotiations appear to still be open. Decisions will hopefully be made soon. Regardless of how things turn out, there is one way in which the international rugby community could provide a genuine boost to the growth of Japanese rugby.

The controversy of New Zealand being awarded the hosting rights for Rugby World Cup 2011, and the clandestine voting system that led to the decision, has been well documented. However, the JRFU has regrouped and will bid to host either the 2015 or 2019 tournament. There is some confusion as to whether the bidding system – where both tournament hosts will be decided at the same time, with an astronomical up-front hosting fee of more than A$200 million – will work for Japan or against it. It is something that remains to be seen. One thing that is clear is that, if Japan was to host a RWC tournament, mediocrity would no longer be an option for Japanese rugby. The boost in profile that such a decision would give to the game in the country would see the Japanese public, media and corporate sponsors shining an intense spotlight on the Japanese game in a way that has never been done before. Being popular losers will no longer be good enough. ]]> beige http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=21 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=20 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:58:17 GMT Beige 12/08/2008 As the SANZAR unions of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa continue to talk to each other (and to outside unions) about the future direction of its competitions, it is looking increasingly likely that an expansion of the Super 14 competition will be given the go ahead... Beige
12/08/2008

As the SANZAR unions of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa continue to talk to each other (and to outside unions) about the future direction of its competitions, it is looking increasingly likely that an expansion of the Super 14 competition will be given the go ahead before the end of the year. The fear of losing players to the big money in Europe has seen these discussions reach a new level of urgency in recent months, and what started off as fanciful ideas are now coming very close to fruition. If an expansion was to happen, it would almost certainly involve a conference system of some sort. Regardless of how things turn out, it would not be the first time that rugby has flirted with the concept.

While conference systems exist in various sporting leagues around the world, it is in North America that the conference system is truly entrenched, with every major professional league employing some variation of it. Therefore, it is no surprise that rugby has followed suit. Cultural considerations aside, the reason for North American rugby adopting conferences is quite pragmatic; without the large income streams of its professional cousins, it is simply far more economical to divide their competitions in to geographical zones. The USA's premier rugby competition, the Rugby Super League, started in 1997 with 14 teams that were divided roughly in to western and eastern conferences – with the winners of each conference at the end of the home-and-away season playing off for the title. The format subsequently changed several times over the years – including the ditching of conferences for 3 seasons – but, for the 2007 season, the RSL adopted its current format when it expanded to 18 teams and changed from 2 conferences to 3. The current system basically operates in the same way as the previous system, with the new Red, White and Blue Conferences representing western, central and eastern zones. In addition, an expanded playoff series sees the top 2 teams from each conference, and the 2 best of the remaining teams overall, progress to the quarterfinals. North of the border, Canadian rugby also adopted a scaled-down conference system for its national competition.

The Rugby Canada Super League adopted an east and west format when it was first played in 1998, and Rugby Canada has kept the basic format since then. Unlike its US counterpart, the Canadian competition is played between provincial unions rather than clubs. Due to limited resources, this competition is far more abbreviated than its US counterpart – lasting only 7 weeks – with the teams within each division only playing each other once before the championship playoff. Also, various problems have meant that the Western Division now only contains 5 teams compared to 7 in the Eastern Division, creating an unwelcome asymmetry in the competition's format. But while North American rugby has embraced conferences, it would be inaccurate to dismiss them as a phenomenon purely from that part of the world.

In 2005, South Africa's Currie Cup unveiled a conference system of its own. This system involved the competition being played over 2 separate stages before semi-finals and a final. The Qualifying Round involved all 14 South African provinces being divided in to Sections X and Y, with the allocations based on ladder positions from the 2004 Currie Cup. The teams within each section played each other once, before the top 4 teams from each section were combined in to an 8 team Premier Division. Meanwhile, the remaining 6 teams played in the second-tier Shield competition (competition points did not carry over in either case). Unfortunately, it was at this stage that things became rather convoluted. The 8 teams in the Premier Division played home-and-away matches against the 4 teams from the section opposite to them – but played no matches against those from their own section, whom they had only played once in the Qualifying Round. A similar format also applied to the Shield competition. The top 4 teams in each competition then proceeded to their respective semi-finals. Whether it was the competition's convoluted nature, the vagaries of the draw that saw 4 of the 5 big provinces miss out on a money-spinning home game against one of the other big teams, or simply the number of enormous mismatches that the Qualifying stage resulted in, this format only lasted one season before the concept was abandoned in favour of the simple two-tier format that is essentially still in use today. But while South Africa ditched the format after just one season, another major governing body thought that it was a great idea.

Bizarrely, the New Zealand Rugby Union decided that the unpopular format was perfect for the inaugural season of its Air New Zealand Cup, which replaced the National Provincial Championship in 2006. Indeed, they would take the concept to even more horrifyingly complex heights. Aside from some differing nomenclature (Sections X and Y were replaced by Pools A and B), Round One operated in exactly the same way as the Qualifying Group from the previous year's Currie Cup. However, in the ANZC's case, only the top 3 teams in each pool progressed to a Top Six group in Round Two. And, while the same format of games against teams from the opposite pool was put in place, the teams would only play each other once – with the 2 pool winners, and the better performed of the two runners up, receiving 2 home games. Unlike the Currie Cup, this second stage was only to decide rankings for the quarter finals – no one would miss out on the knockout stages. There was another major difference in that these teams would carry over the competition points that they earned in the first stage of the competition. In the mean time, the bottom 4 teams from each pool played each other again in Repechage 1 and Repechage 2. Similarly to the Top Six, the top 2 teams heading in to each repechage group received 2 home games. However, the repechage teams would not carry their competition points over from Round One. The top team from each repechage group then joined the Top Six teams in the quarter finals. Unsurprisingly, this format proved to be a disaster and in 2007 the ANZC reverted to the slightly-less-nonsensical format that is being used for a second (and final) time in 2008. While other major rugby competitions have not jumped on to the conference bandwagon, it still indirectly manifests itself all the same.

In 2003, the Celtic League (now known as the Magners League) became the sole professional rugby competition for Ireland, Scotland and Wales – superseding their respective domestic competitions. Despite this, qualification for the Heineken Cup – Europe's top club rugby competition – is still separated out between the 3 countries. Ireland is automatically allocated 3 places, Wales 3 and Scotland 2 (with another Magners League team possibly qualifying after a playoff). This caused issues in the 2003-2004 season when Ireland’s Connacht had finished ahead of Scotland’s Edinburgh but, due to the qualification system, Edinburgh qualified for the following season’s Heineken Cup with Connacht missing out. In this regard, it could be argued that the Magners League does in fact employ a de-facto conference system. Meanwhile, Japan is another country where 3 regions have combined to form one competition.

Historically, Japanese rugby has been based around 3 separate domestic leagues – East Japan, Kansai and Kyushu. In 2003, the introduction of the Top League brought the top 12 (now 14) corporate teams in to a single domestic competition. However, below the Top League, the 3 league system has remained. This complicates matters because promotion and relegation are still in place. While relegation is based purely on who finishes at the bottom of the Top League table (that's almost an oxymoron), the 3 regions play a large part in who actually gets promoted. Through a complicated system of tournaments, 2 of the 3 regional champions are automatically promoted each year, with further playoffs determining whether the third regional champion, and possibly one of the 3 regional runners-up, is promoted with them. Fortunately, while conference systems can become quite complicated, the options on the Super 14 table seem to be reasonably straightforward.

Aside from any prior increase of the finals series from 4 teams to 6, if expansion does get the green light the most likely initial format will see a 3 conference system put in place. This format would still see every team play each other once, but would then feature return legs within each of the 3 countries (facilitated by a fifteenth franchise being grouped with the 4 existing Australian teams). The purpose of this particular conference format would not be to break up the competition but to extend it and create more 'derby' matches; the ultimate effect would be to extend the season to 23 weeks and push the Tri Nations competition to a late August / early September start. However, it has already been stated that any additional expansion (further down the track) would probably require splitting the competition in to separate geographical zones due the burden of travel and time constraints.

Regardless of what future the Super 14 holds, history has shown that conferences can be both good and bad when it comes to organising top-level rugby competitions. Hopefully, for the sanity of rugby supporters everywhere, SANZAR remembers to keep things simple. ]]> beige http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=20 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=19 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:17:47 GMT :iconrofl: rice bubbles!!!!!!!! :iconrofl: :iconrofl: rice bubbles!!!!!!!! :iconrofl: ]]> Lonzy http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=19 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=18 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:47:32 GMT Beige 05/08/2008 No, that title is not just a gratuitous grab to get people to read this piece (OK, maybe a little bit). It is actually the slogan for an exciting new rugby competition that made its debut in South Africa this year. The Varsity Cup provided a welcome ray of light amidst the... Beige
05/08/2008

No, that title is not just a gratuitous grab to get people to read this piece (OK, maybe a little bit). It is actually the slogan for an exciting new rugby competition that made its debut in South Africa this year. The Varsity Cup provided a welcome ray of light amidst the negative publicity that South African rugby seemed to be a magnet for earlier this year.

Recently the mood has somewhat improved concerning rugby in the Republic, with star players returning home from stints in Europe and the Springboks’ remarkable victory in Dunedin last month. However that was not the case in early 2008. For a team that had just won the Rugby World Cup for a second time, bad news seemed to be the order of the day for South African rugby. Stories of shady backroom deals, controversies over racial quotas, players flooding to Europe and struggling Super 14 franchises very quickly dampened the good mood generated by the national team’s triumph in Paris last October. With this in mind, the Varsity Cup gave followers renewed optimism for the future of the game in the country.

The competition was the brainchild of 1995 World Cup winning captain, Francois Pienaar. He had come up with the idea as part of his role as Head of Sponsorships at South Africa’s First National Bank. FNB had already started to sponsor schools and university rugby in the years prior to Pienaar’s appointment –the most visible example of which was the company’s sponsorship of the Classic Clashes programme. This programme had seen the company provide support for the resumption, or continuation, of many traditional rivalries between various schools and universities, and had been met with some remarkable success. A case in point was a Paarl Boys High vs Paarl Gymnasium “Classic Clash” that drew a crowd of 18 000 spectators. Pienaar’s role upon joining FNB in 2007 was to try to maximise the business potential of the company’s various sponsorship programmes, with a particular eye to their sponsorship of schools and university rugby.

It was Pienaar himself that officially launched the Varsity Cup on January 31 in Cape Town earlier this year. The concept itself was fairly simple; the top 8 universities in the country would play each other once in a round-robin series, with semi-finals and a final at the end of it. A Super 14-style bonus point system would also be in place for the competition. These university teams were drawn from the various top club competitions around South Africa. In addition, a ninth university would be selected to play the bottom-placed Varsity Cup team for a chance to compete in the following year’s competition. One innovation that was used in the competition was the “white card” that allowed each team one official challenge to a referee’s decision in each half of a match (and was actually employed in the final for the first time). However, it was another concept borrowed from American football that would prove to be a key to the tournament’s popularity.

Monday night games were to be the cornerstone matches of this new competition. Pienaar had leveraged his new position at FNB - along with his considerable status within South African sport – to negotiate a television deal for these marquee matches, with SuperSport televising the Monday night games across the nation. The reasoning behind the timing of these matches was quite logical; by playing the games on Monday night, the competition would be able to tap into the large student populations present at the top universities during the week, and who would be able to attend the matches after finishing their classes for the day. As Pienaar stated at the University of Cape Town media launch, “Imagine seeing 20 000 students packed into the Danie Craven Stadium on Monday nights?"

Pienaar’s vision proved to not be too far off the mark. The Varsity Cup kicked off on February 18, with the University of Stellenbosch’s “Maties” hosting the University of Pretoria’s “Tuks” in front of a 17 000 crowd at the Danie Craven Stadium. This match was a true heavyweight encounter, pitting against each other the two teams that contested the 2007 National Club Championship final. The game itself would prove to live up to the occasion, with Tuks scoring 21 points in the final 8 minutes to snatch an incredible 31-all draw. This large crowd figure was not isolated, with the televised game between North West University’s “NWU-Pukke” and Maties two weeks later drawing a crowd of 15 000.

While not all games in the tournament would draw such large crowds – with some non-televised games drawing crowds of a few hundred – the Varsity Cup would retain its popularity during the 7 weeks that it ran for. This culminated in the near 20 000 crowd that saw Maties defeat the University of Cape Town’s “Ikeys” 16-10, with a late converted try, to claim the R250 000 first prize and add the 2008 Varsity Cup to its 2007 National Club Championship and Western Province Super League A titles.

To put these crowd figures in perspective, they compare very favourably to this year’s Vodacom Cup, which actually overlapped with the Varsity Cup by about 6 weeks. (The Vodacom Cup is the provincial competition that pits all 14 South African Provinces against each other prior to the start of the Currie Cup season, and runs parallel to the Super 14). May’s final, which pitted the Blue Bulls against Free State, attracted a crowd of only 7670. Indeed some people have stated that the Varsity Cup could end up superseding the Vodacom Cup as South Africa’s premier talent-development competition.

Pienaar hopes that the Varsity Cup will bridge the gap between schools rugby and provincial rugby – and even help stem the flow of talented young players to other countries. "Too many players are lost in the system when they leave school. The Varsity Cup will give players the opportunity to showcase their talents to a wider audience," he said.

What effect the Varsity Cup has on the development of young players in the future will be interesting to see. However, if the popularity of the inaugural competition is anything to go by, it will prove to be a very valuable addition to the South African rugby calendar. ]]> beige http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=18 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=17 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:59:26 GMT I've been re-reading the Stadium Taskforce report recently, so I was already somewhat staggered by some of the assumptions underlying why the MPS was such a standout option amongst the others considered by the taskforce (will probably blog on these tonight, or at least rant about the bits I highlighted for a while). Then this.....

The government's annoucement today, while demolishing the previous Commonwealth Games venues at Perry Lakes that it is interested again in bidding for the 2018 games, with the new Albino Pachyderm Stadium as the jewel in the infrastructure crown has, as far as I am concerned, revealed just how little thought seems to be going into these pronoucements and an almost fanatical obsession with making the stupid ediface make look a good idea.

Denying this was policy-on-the-run, Carpenter assured reporters the idea had been on the drawing board for some time, and a team had been examining it's feasbility. Evidently nobody bothered checking that the International Athtetics Federation require that a warm-up facility for track and field events be available within easy walking distance (for instance, the warm up facility at Sydney Olympic Park is across the road) to host such a competition.

I have no quarrel with plans to host such an event in Perth, it would be good exposure for the city, bring in business and tourists, blah blah blah- I'm just astounded by the short-sightedness of annoucements like this. Was this always part of the plan? Then why not mention it in at least ONE SENTANCE of the report (it's not THAT old yet)??? How far along is design of the MPS? Could the gear required to include an athletics track/field be included, or is it a retrofit (so to speak?)
FWIW, as many others here have asked- where are we going to play sevens????? The WACA, that according to the report should be sold off and demolished??? Mercifully, the WACA have found private partnership and told the government where they can shove it...with the Twenty20 format, cricket will be pushing for inclusion again (since the 50-over experiment didn't work so well, can't remember if it's in or out at the moment), then what????

Our dear leaders, I beseech you, ENGAGE YOUR BLOODY BRAINS FOR 2 SECONDS BEFORE SPOUTING CRAP LIKE THIS- IT'S EMBARASSING ]]> Swee_82 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=17 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=16 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:27:38 GMT Blogs are for Emos to let a bunch of other Emos know how much of an Emo they are. Here is an idea, if you come across any really funny emo blogs post them here for a good laugh. Blogs are for Emos to let a bunch of other Emos know how much of an Emo they are.

Here is an idea, if you come across any really funny emo blogs post them here for a good laugh. ]]> Badger http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=16 http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=15 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:27:20 GMT Blogs are stupid Blogs are stupid ]]> Badger http://twf.com.au/blog.php?b=15