Right Pulse

Well I never thought it would happen, but it looks like the ALP has said no to John Howard being the Chairman of the NRL Commission:

The Herald can reveal that Mr Albanese was instrumental behind the scenes in lobbying the NRL against giving the former prime minster a role on the code’s new independent commission…

The minister rang the NRL chief executive, David Gallop, as well as other league officials to tell them it was ”a stupid idea”. Mr Albanese also marshalled officials from the Rabbitohs, of which he was once a board member, to help kill off the idea.

”Nobody I spoke to thought it was a good idea,” Mr Albanese said.

We now know who really runs the NRL. Seems they can’t keep politics out of the sport. Well, Rugby League is a dieing sport, especially since the rugger buggers won themselves a place in the Olympics. I don’t see where the attraction for Rugby League will come in the future – maybe ex-convicts looking for a good time.

The Wallabies scored 2 tries to 1, their discipline let them down along with a terrible refereeing effort. It seemed every time the Springboks won the ball they were off their feet. The Boks never looked like scoring a try out of their own initiative. The Australian:

How pathetic, incidentally, that the Springboks, 20-10 ahead, chose to go for goal yet again when Brown was sent to join Giteau in the sin bin late in the first half, rather than kick into the corner and back their ability to score against a 13-man Australian defence.

But then the Boks would have played, at most, seven minutes of rugby in the entire match. In fact, if the stats are correct, the Wallabies only attempted 52 tackles – they made 42 of them – in the whole match, so rare was it for the South Africans to actually run with the ball.

The rest of the time the Springboks were either defending – badly, making only 52 of 77 attempted tackles – or putting up bombs and waiting for the Wallabies and/or Rolland to do the rest for them. Both Australia and the referee obliged.

This, apparently, is the way the International Rugby Board wants Tests to be decided, on penalty kicks. As if any other outcome was possible once the ELVs were abandoned.

They could teach Rudd some lessons on how to deal with Chinese under handed skullduggery:

China won the Asian under-19s championship match 2-1, holding on for victory despite a late appeal for a penalty from the Australians, who were aghast to see the referee award a free kick outside the box.

Australia’s Jessica Seaman was dismissed on full-time and a bench-clearing brawl ensued, with the Wuhan crowd joining in by pelting the visitors with water bottles as they left the pitch.

From an NRL groupie – “Confessions of football groupie Charmyne Palavi”:

I am old enough and wise enough to know these encounters are nothing more than what they were at the time - mostly consensual, one-on-one sex, on my terms.

Mostly consensual – so the others were rape? This seems to of been missed by the Daily Telegraph sub-editor.

A little late in reporting, Australia’s women’s rugby side won the Dubai 7s. Wales won the men’s tournament. Apparently the tournament was an incredible success and bodes well for Rugby’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympics:

Speaking after Wales upset the form book to defeat Argentina 19-12 in the final on Saturday, Bernard Lapasset, the chairman of the International Rugby Board, said: “This was a tremendous tournament. I think it’s a very important moment for sevens. We had some delegates from the IOC here and I am sure they were appreciative of what we have done.”

Rugby, in its 15-man form, last featured in the Paris Olympics in 1924 when the United States beat France for the gold medal. It is competing with baseball, softball, golf, squash, karate and roller-sports for two spaces in the 2016 Olympics. The IRB will make a final pitch to the IOC in June before the decision is taken at a meeting in Copenhagen in October.

Everyday was a sell out with some major upsets – like Kenya defeating Fiji. My picks for Olympic inclusion are rugby and karate.

And I’ll make this bold prediction. If Rugby is included in the Olympics, Rugby League will seek reconciliation with Rugby Union within five years. I fail to see how Rugby League could survive as a fully professional sport with players lured to Rugby money and the Olympics. The quality of players and standard of play would degrade, along with financial backing. At some point players would have to take a major pay cut to keep NRL clubs viable, further club consolidation would eventuate, market share would be lost and the sport would die a slow death as a semi-professional part-time competition.

Fox Sports has published an article designed to paint Sri Lankan vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara as mean spirited. The implication being that if Sri Lanka had not toured Pakistan, the recent terrorist attack would never had happened.

Six Pakistani policemen were killed in the Lahore gunfire. Six Sri Lanka cricket players were injured. But national vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara has no regrets.

Are you suitably outraged? But wait there’s more.

“I don’t regret coming here to play cricket because that’s what we have been doing all our lives. That is our profession.

No Sangakkara, how dare you try and make a living. Don’t you know in the mind of the media that terrorists are always right. However:

“But I regret this incident, what has happened and the situation that we have had to go through.

So much for no regrets.

In one corner Shannon Taylor, boxer and part-time statistician, had the following to say about the guy in the other corner, wannabe polygamist, boxer Anthony Mundine:

“He talks crap. He talks crap all the time. That’s why 95 per cent of the country hate him,” he said.

“And not just that. Little old ladies usually stay out of it. Little old ladies usually keep their mouth quiet.”

“You know what? They don’t like him. They don’t like him at all and when little old ladies don’t like you, you must be doing something wrong.”

Indeed. That’s 95 per cent, not 94.9 per cent or 95.1 per cent, but 95 per cent. I actually totally agree. I just wanna know who are the 5 per cent that like Mundine. Maybe his extended family?

I don’t cover sport much, but the prospect of a game between the Kangaroos and Wallabies is interesting, mostly because the ARU stands to make millions from it – when it is struggling financially. Apart from the financial incentive, I can’t really see how the two codes can come up with rules that would not not overly favour one side. But apparently that is being sorted:

Promoter Phil Franks plans to include some of the greatest intellects from both codes on his rules committee to devise a plan that will give fans exactly that.

Yes indeedeee…the likes of Phil Gould and Blocker Roach having an intellectual discussion would be something to behold. But as far as i can tell, the rules would likely favour Rugby League over Rugby Union. Simply because any attempt to dumb down the rules to accommodate the Kangaroos would obviously place the more specialised players of the Wallabies at a disadvantage. Some of the rules identified in the press so far might include the following: Twelve man teams with only a five-man scrum, no line-out lifting and with rucks and mauls only to be played in the opposition’s half. It is not surprising that the following statement is given by the journalist in the same article:

Fewer players on the paddock will lend itself towards a style of football that relies less on technical superiority and more on playing ability.

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