Internationals
AUSTRALIA will defend their southern hemisphere title next year in an expanded competition called The Rugby Championship – and will meet new boys Argentina on the Gold Coast.
Australia’s long injury list from the Rugby World Cup has opened the door for three new Wallaby caps in the Australian rugby squad which will play two matches in Wales and England in late November and December.
The appearance of the World Cup-winning All Black team in Soweto and the process to appoint a new Springbok coach appear to be the main bullet points on the agenda this week.
Martin Johnson looks set to continue as England Rugby coach but he will have to agree to remove some of his back room staff after England exited the Rugby World Cup early.
New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup winning coach Graham Henry has indicated that he would be interested in working with the RFU in England in the future.
Rugby World Cup winning coach Graham Henry and his assistant Steve Hansen have accepted invitations to coach the Barbarians against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday 26 November.
International Rugby Board chairman Bernard Lapasset says that Wales cannot be certain of hosting Rugby World Cup matches when the tournament moves to England in 2015.
The concept of the X-factor actually comes from racehorses, specifically from a horse called Eclipse. An extremely large heart is a trait that occasionally occurs in Thoroughbreds, linked to a genetic condition passed down via the dam line, known as the “x-factor”.
Eclipse, the horse, was necropsied after his death in 1789. Because Eclipse’s heart appeared to be much larger than other horses, it was weighed, and found to be 14 pounds (6.4 kg), almost twice the normal weight. Eclipse is believed to have passed the trait on via his daughters, and pedigree research verified that arguably the best racehorse ever, namely Secretariat can trace in his dam line to a daughter of Eclipse.
In the 20th century, the heart of Phar Lap was weighed and also documented to be 6.35 kilograms (14.0 lb), or essentially the same size as that of Eclipse.
Now you might ask what this has got to do with the All Blacks and the Rugby World Cup final.
Former All Black coach Laurie Mains has not been happy with the standard of refereeing at the Rugby World Cup.
“I’ve been appalled by the refereeing, especially how they have decided games with scrum penalties,” Mains said.
“Games have been won and lost from scrum penalties when the wrong decision was made. You should not have a situation in rugby where games are won and lost by the referee’s guess,” he said. Continue reading
While Australia and Wales arrived at the Rugby World Cup with different goals but have ended up with the same intention: To go home with something tangible to show.