My Rugby World Cup 2011!!!

All Blacks beat France 37 to 17!  Beautiful game! 19 to 3 at half time and all the Frenchies sitting around us were very humble and quiet, but then, only minutes into the second half, the French Barbarians - or whatever they're called - made a try and they were all immediately jumping up and down in their seats and crying "We are rallying! We are rallying!" only, you know, in French - but then the All Blacks made another try and another ...

 ... and they were back to humble-and-quiet and it was so sweet watching them and we were madly loving our All Blacks for so obviously toying with French emotions! GO ALL BLACKS!!!

Oooh, and I have to tell you about the very dainty and lady-like Mainland Chinese ladies sitting in the armchairs next to us in the company of very upper-crust English types who'd obviously dragged them along to watch, and who got totally swept into the game and began this excited but so dainty clapping coupled with cries of "Run away fast, All Black. Run away fast with that ball." which indeed showed they had a deep and fundamental understanding of rugby ... but that their cheering needed work!

And, as you can see, we deserted Devil's Advocate. It's where we usually go but increasingly, as we get deeper into the tournament, there's nowhere to sit in there! In fact, the entire stretch of Lockhart Road is increasingly packed with folks watching these matches so that it's virtually impossible to find space anywhere at street level, thus, in the end, we went looking below ground and discovered that not many folks have yet discovered that Canny Man has arm chairs in front of the giant screen and immediately decided that, in future, this is our World Cup venue of choice!

And the upshot? OK, I'm switching allegiances and not just because I have to now that Fiji is - deservedly - out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup!  Ooooh, they make me so cross, the stupid big ball-fumblers!

It's All Blacks for me now!  All the way!  They are amazing to watch and not just because they're such sublime players but also because - let's admit it - they're just so damned handsome.  Oh man, there are some seriously gorgeous hunks in this year's team.  I mean, look ...

Israel Dagg

... and he's not even the best looking of them.  Oh yeah, it isn't just that they all so tall and broad-shouldered and have such TDF bodies, but NEVER have you seen such chiseled faces with cheekbones up the wazoo, epic-warrior eyes and those Greek-statue lips! Major MAJOR HOT!!! And then, when their faces go all still and epic as they focus their energy before doing something spectacular and they'd be pure Greek Warrior, it's such bliss to watch them.

It's so against the stereotype, isn't it, to have rugby players with such manly beauty. The English rugger-buggers on one side of us during the game yesterday were saying "It isn't right to reach top grade rugby without damaging your face." and "How do these guys remain so handsome?" and the others were saying "Because they're too good to get injured!"

And somebody else who shall not be named refused to look at the screen because "I'm not into Neandertals!" and all I could think was "Just look up, you silly twerp!" because there was no cave man in sight on that giant screen! Israel Dagg and Sonny Boy Williams!  Mmmm mmmh!!  And then there is Mr Dan "Makes-Me-Weak-at-the-Knees" Carter.  Let me see if I can find you image so you know what I'm talking about here:

Nice, huh!!  So GO ALL BLACKS!!! I'm with you all the way! And this time it's not like, all those years ago, when I got into the Welsh 7s team because they were so good-looking, because these Kiwi boys can really really play and so you don't have to make excuses for them like I had to do with those Welshies!

Yeah, yeah! I know. I'm probably outraging the entire "Land of the Long White Cloud" because we all know that All Blacks aren't about luscious lips and epic eyes, because they've been beloved for over 130 years for their fierce warrior spirit so let's pay tribute to that before I have Kiwis throwing tuataras at me:



And see Jonah Lomu in the haka there. The big guy with the truly stupid hair? Yeah, it's old footage so, although there are several of the same faces, this team isn't quite so Swoon-Worthy as the ones in this year's World Cup!!!

And speaking of the incomparable Jonah Lomu, have you seen the film "Invictus"?  Gosh, all those years ago, back when they had the Rugby World Cup in South Africa, Keith was watching the NZ games religiously, and, despite previously hating 15s, I started watching too simply to see Jonah Lomu do his spectacular feats of strength and agility ...

...

... but within only a couple of games I was sooo cheering for All Blacks ... so it meant that I felt very guilty when I saw "Invictus" and realised how much was at stake for South Africa in those matches, and how much was actually riding on it.

We were talking about this last night - about how "Invictus" made us all feel guilty for supporting Jonah Lomu and the other All Blacks back then - and had a big laugh over it, so let's see if we can find the "Invictus" trailer to give it its due:



And my prediction for the outcome of this tournament? I'll bet you anything we'll be seeing this at the finals:



With All Blacks to win. GO ALL BLACKS!!!