I love rugby internationals. Normal, kind’a weekly rugby is good, is certainly worth watching on those horrible rainy afternoons when you can’t walk or do anything constructive, and it aids restfulness. But in a sporty way. But internationals I get excited about. And never more than agains the All Blacks. It’s just so special.

The Hakka always gets me going. I suppose that’s the point of it. Well, to get the players going, not the old men in North London watching on tv, but I love the thing and I love even more how seriously they all take it.

But there’s also the enigma. How can a nation of 4.5 million souls (Alexa just told me) produce generation after generation of the absolute and unchallenged best rugby players in the world? It makes no statistical sense. Is it the air there? Is it just that there is nothing else to do there? Or maybe the coaching techniques? But then every national team in the world would be coached by a Kiwi. To glean their Maori-inspired, Hakka-stimulated ways.

Yesterday’s match was quite special. Very special. England came out the blocks with a mission. And scored a try within 2 minutes. Holy shit; that never happens. Then they scored some more and were soon 15-0 up. When does that happen? When do you see such a score on the screen. ‘Eng 15, NZ 0’. I remembered it for posterity. Which was just as well considering what followed.

What followed was the All Blacks suddenly playing like the All Blacks. All speed and bluster and power and wave after wave of breathtaking stuff. And they scored a try. A really great try by the smallest guy on the field. The minnow among the leviathans.

Then they scored a penalty, then a dropped goal, and then it was 15-13. And guess what? They scored another fucking penalty and it was 15-16.

Then came ‘the moment’. The could’a been, should’a been, WANTED IT SO MUCH TO HAVE BEEN! moment which re-defined the game. We scored a try. A quite brilliant, wonderfully opportunistic, rather exquisite try. Which the (fucking) referee then (fucking) disallowed after a (fucking) video (fucking) review.

Rugby is a very very technical game. I won’t bore you. Not sure I even could. But basically WE WOZ FUCKING ROBBED!!!! by the lousy, stinking, Anglophobe refs.

At least Spurs won, which is the main thing.

Happy Sunday

A xxxx