A Heineken Please
After 7 weeks of Rugby World Cup, for which Heineken was the Official Beer and the green advertising machine was in full force, particularly in New Zealand.... Every venue city had its Official Heineken Bar, its Official Heineken Matchday Bar and the Official Heineken Shed in the various FanZones. They stopped short of having the Official Heineken Pub Crawl, the Official Heineken After-pub Doner Kebab Shop and Official Heineken Taxis - but I fully expect these in 2015... "Many a true word said in jest"
Yes if anyone was ever in any doubt, Heineken is definitely the Official beer of World Rugby.
Stepping down from the world stage to European level, and the same can be said I guess. This coming weekend, and for 5 other weekends during the Group stages, 12 grounds will stage matches in what I consider to be the best club tournament in the World. 72 Pool games and 7 knock-out games will decide who are the best club side in Europe. Why is it the best tournament in the World? I'll do my best to explain as briefly as I can, though I could wax lyrical on this for hours given the chance.
Firstly, there is a genuine evenness of level across a lot of the sides from England, France, Ireland and Wales in particular, with the Scots occasionally pulling out a good season from one of their sides and with the Italian sides improving with each passing season. Home advantage also plays a huge role, with vociferous crowds behind the home heroes, and journeying adversaries really having to earn the away points. Rarely is a quarter asked or given in these games.
Staggered game 'days' mean a feast for rugby viewers, wherever you may be. Friday night, Saturday lunchtime, afternoon and evening as well as Sunday afternoon, means a rugby addict like myself can get his regular fix.
I love the way the tournament is split into 3 two week sections. A side must maintain their form across the duration of the Group (3 months) to proceed, and a team who starts badly can build through the season and come back strongly to still qualify. Weeks 3 and 4 see the ultimate: a double header against the same opposition. Home and away, no time for fostering rivalries to dissipate. When these games are between closely-matched sides, you can almost feel the tension from the first whistle.
Travelling to foreign cities to watch rugby is a magnificent experience, and with the chances to do so with an International side quite limited, the opportunity to go to France and Italy to watch your club side is a true adventure.
Generally, the 8 best sides progress to the Quarter Finals. Having at least 1 English and 1 French side in each Pool means each Pool is "Honest" and that for a side to progress they truly have to have performed. At least 4 wins are required to win a Pool, which means at least 1 away win. Bad sides don't win 4 games out of 6 as a general rule. The Quarter FInal weekend itself is one of the sporting highlights of the year for me. 4 games over 3 days, usually closely fought between quality international players. Big, noisy crowds, cheering their sides on in a do or die game that only knockout rugby can provide.
The Final weekend is as near to a festival of rugby as we have in Europe. Fans from all competing sides congregate in one of the Continent's great rugby cities. The Final itself is usually either compelling, tense or both, with close games being somewhat de rigueur, extra time not being unknown, comebacks sizeable (ask Northampton about last year) and sensational last minute tries also occasionally on the menu.
You can probably tell I can't wait. I will be giving the Heineken a miss (a self-imposed 1 month detox after 1 month of whatever the opposite of detox is) in the early weeks of the tournament. As for Predictions, well you have to look at the usual suspects and big budgets: Leinster and Munster from Ireland, Toulouse and ASM Clermont Auvergne (or whatever they are called this year) from France, Northampton and Leicester from England. A Twickenham Final beckons for the best two this year, so get ready Europe's finest.... London Calling.
To get involved, join my Prediction Game. Go to www.sportguru.co.uk and register, then go to the Heineken Cup game and Join the Pool "The Egg Chaser" If asked for a password, it is dopebile (automatically generated, though some would say appropriate). I will do the rest. These games are great fun as demonstrated by the World Cup one and the one I currently play for the Premier League.
The Usual
This weekend saw the last chance for the sides to prepare for Europe, and also saw some big games in the Premier League. The bottom three sides all drew, starting with the bottom two on Friday night, as Worcester threw away a seemingly impervious advantage against a more durable second half Newcastle performance. In the aftermath of this game I told a non-rugby friend there would be another draw this weekend. I don't know what it is about draws, but when there's one, another seems to be round the corner. I suspected it may come at Bath or Exeter, rather than at Leicester.....
But Leicester were the third of the bottom triumvirate to draw, and they too threw away an advantage, a big one at that, at home to London Irish. They still look a vastly improved side with their big names back, and with Geoff Parling standing tall in the second row, they should still be there or thereabouts come play-off time. Elsewhere on Saturday, Harlequins continued their exemplary start away at Bath and Gloucester won at Exeter at two emotionally charged games given the M5 crash on Friday evening in the South West.
Sunday saw Saracens continue to keep the pressure on Quins at the top with a comfortable home win against Sale. A tale of two Englishmen this one: the forgotten man, in David Strettle who set the Sarries on their way, and the future in the shape of Owen Farrell, whose kicking game is fast making him a near-certainty for Martin Johnson's next squad. Meanwhile, in Wycombe, Wasps entertained a Northampton side who would have been classed as the big World Cup losers were it not for Leicester's appalling start. 2 rampaging prop tries and mostly good kicking from Ryan Lamb saw the visitors stretch to a big lead, before Wasps pulled a try back from Filippo. Too little too late though, and Northampton pulled further away from the bottom as a result.
Twickers' Own Bar-room Brawl
The fall-out has begun at the RFU, with Martyn Thomas resigning as Deputy CEO, being replaced by Stephen Brown as Deputy Deputy CEO. Attention moves down the pyramid now to Rob Andrew and Martin Johnson. The "Independent" Cotton investigation has been pulled, which leaves us a little unsure as to what will happen. Rumblings have been coming since the early departure of the England side from the World Cup. The RFU never ever make things easy and while the departure of Thomas is a good opportunity to say, forget it, let's move on, I can't help feeling that there are too many people trying to make their voices heard. As such, it wouldn't surprise me if we're still discussing it at Christmas.
The Loud Bloke At The Bar
If the RFU weren't busy enough, they hit half a dozen players with disciplinary hearings after the last round of Premier League games. Delon Armitage has been greedy and has two for two separate incidents. Little surprise as to another name on the list. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, or @Eliota_Sapolu as he likes to be known and EFS as I will call him for the sake of my fingertips, keyboard, spellchecker and sanity, has been hauled up before yet another disciplinary board for his Twitter comments. I wasn't aware that there was an official Twitter Citing Commissioner (A vacancy? Are you reading RFU?) but whether he thinks it is just or not, you really have to question the wisdom of EFS's tweets. You don't continually poke a dangerous dog with a stick until he attacks you, yet the clearly intelligent EFS seems intent on doing just that with the rugby authorities. He is entertaining to follow on Twitter, but he seems to be intent on setting himself up as a scapegoat for the world rugby authorities, and after the IRB now it is the RFU. Maybe he's playing Citing Commissioner Scrabble? Whatever, he should concentrate on what he does best, which is play rugby. He was instrumental in Gloucester's win against Exeter yesterday and it would be a shame to see him banned or leave these shores.
Thanks for reading if you got this far. Comments welcome as ever, either here, via e-mail marktheeggchaser@googlemail.com, on Facebook (The Egg Chaser) or on Twitter @theeggchaser - make sure you click to follow me there, as there are permanent pearls of wisdom throughout the week.
Time Ladies and Gents please. Oh, and mine's a Heineken
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