Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | yesterday
The Midweek Madness clip for you today is a short piece of footage from a long time ago. To be perfectly frank, we don't know anything about it, except that it looked pretty painful for the guy on the receiving end. Older footage is always great in that it lets us see elements of the game as it was played way back when. This clip is by no means a great example of that, but we figured we'd show it...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | yesterday
Bath came within seconds of pulling off a famous away victory over Toulouse on Sunday, but were denied at the end by a late David Skrela penalty kick. The match itself was a classic European encounter, memorable for more than a handful of stand out incidents. Bath wing Matt Banahan put in another impressive performance, and it's two pieces of action from him that we've chosen to show you today. We've...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/14/2008
Leinster got their Heineken Cup campaign off to a successful start on Saturday afternoon as they notched up a 27-16 bonus point win over Edinburgh at Murrayfield. Australian Rocky Elsom, who was playing in his first ever Heineken Cup match, picked up the Heineken Man of the Match award, in part due to his fine solo try. Beating the tackles was the first step, but the speed he showed to pull away and...
Hail Pelicus (Free subscription) | 10/14/2008
HAIL, PELICUS! WHO SAID TOURNAMENTS ARE DEAD? Some folks have been lamenting the lack of ‘big’ rugby tournaments on the West Coast since the days of OMBAC, Santa Barbara, Golden Gate and Pebble Beach. For those of our readers too young in referee years to know of what we speak, now is your chance to find out what refereeing a top-flight fifteens tournament is like. The Wild West Rugby Fest had a heyday...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/14/2008
The much talked about Danny Cipriani Josh Lewsey training ground bust up finally has some closure as this weekend the two made it clear that they’ve buried the hatchet by showing a piece of on field theatre that probably took longer to rehearse than it took Cipriani to say "Shut up or be shut up" . It was only about a week ago that Wasps were in the middle of an intensive tackle session when according...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/13/2008
Scarlets hooker Matthew Rees was given his marching orders against Harlequins on the weekend for a tackle that, according to the officials, was without the ball and possibly dangerous. It was to be the last Heineken Cup clash at the old Stradey Park, and the Scarlets were looking to give the home faithful the send off they deserved. After ten minutes, it looked like they were on route to achieving...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/13/2008
The Sale Sharks put in perhaps the most impressive performance of the Heineken Cup weekend as they produced some fantastic rugby to beat Clermont Auvergne 32-15 on Saturday. It was a tight game that still could have gone either way with ten minutes left, but a few excellently taken tries proved to be the difference in this entertaining match. All Black Luke McAllister once again showed what a fantastically...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/12/2008
The Northampton Saints got their European Challenge Cup campaign off to a fantastic start on Thursday night in the south of France as they put 50 points on an understrength Toulon side that were simply never in the match. The seven try victory announced their return to European action in a big way as they picked up a bonus point win, and a huge confidence boost going into their next round match against...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/10/2008
The Heineken Cup kicks off today as we'll get to see the top clubs around Europe do battle for the next few months. Champions Munster will be determined to defend the title they so famously claimed against Toulouse earlier in the year, but the challengers will be strong. With talent spread far and wide across Europe at the moment, there are a number of teams that have a genuine chance of making it...
Put me in Coach! (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
I've heard two pretty interesting and very different statements over my career from two VERY successful coaches. "Sometimes you just have to play defense long enough to figure out how to win". "I don't coach defense, I coach turning over the ball, and offense." What do you think? How much of your time is spent during any given session, week, or season on defense?
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
Danny Cipriani is all over the headlines these days. Whether it's his romance with Kelly Brook, his recent training ground bust up with Josh Lewsey, or more importantly, his miraculous comeback from injury, Cipriani's name is plastered all over the place. Yes, Danny is back, and his timing couldn't have been better. Barely 24 hours after Jonny Wilkinson picked up another unfortunate injury, Cipriani...
Against the Head (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
Partially because I had an irritable night afterwards...ach well I'm letting myself get annoyed lately. Focus on school...rugby is secondary (heh...like I could ever pull that one off). So the official match scores are up on Hail Pelicus apparently the ABs beat the Mudhens a while back 102-0. Last Saturday the All Blues took out the Valkyries 53-14 in a bruising match. There weren't a whole lot of...
Hail Pelicus (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
HAIL, PELICUS! REFS NEEDED SOONER AND LATER Please respond if you can work any of these tournaments: This Saturday, October 11: Harlotfest Davis Double Decker Tournament Both of these are one-pitch tournaments, so they need 2-3 refs each. October 18: Slugfest at UC Santa Cruz Wild West Rugby Fest in Reno – twenty teams expected These are two one-day tournaments which are always a lot of fun, and perfect...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
Henry Tuilagi introduced Toulon’s new recruit Joe Van Niekerk to the Top 14 recently in a way that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from the huge Samoan number eight. Van Niekerk has only just started playing for Toulon since arriving from the Lions in South Africa, but got to feel the warm, friendly welcome of human wrecking ball Tuilagi in full flight. Unfortunately the Perpignan backrower went...
Rugbydump.com (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
Thanks to a user submission, we've come across this amusing try from the last Commonwealth Games' Sevens Tournament, held in Melbourne in 2006. With all the recent talk of bringing Rugby Sevens back into the Olympics , the Commonwealth Games would be the ideal tournament to look back on and acknowledge that Sevens certainly does have a place on the world stage, in an event like this, or more significantly,...
