WEEKLY SPORTS REVIEW – Warriors shine

RUGBY – Basically an average weekend for all New Zealand teams in the Super 14. Apart from the Highlanders winnning on Friday evening it was pretty much doom and gloom without the consistency of the Crusaders to balance NZ rugby. The Chiefs lost against the Brumbies and the Hurricanes had a brain explosion to lose to the Sharks at home. Even I, with my only rugby experience coming at U15B level for Nelson College, know that playing running rugby in the final ten minutes in your own half is suicide. And if that wasn’t bad enough a look at the points  table is furhter sad reading for New Zealand rugby. Three of the top 6 are Aussie sides and two are South African. For me the real problems are with our number 10’s. Take away Carter and we have nobody able to control a game in NZ.  SUPER 14 WEBSITE

LEAGUE Warriors! Warriors! Performance of the season for the boys from Auckland. Brisbane in Brisbane is one of the toughest assignments in sport and the Warriors were brilliant. After missing the first half I settled in and watched vintage Warriors play – offloads and razzle dazzle from their own try line. The final score was an emphatic 48-16. My concern is where do the Warriors go from here. It will be tough to beat a performnace like that over the remaining season. Have they peaked to early. NRL WEBSITE.

FOOTBALL Chelsea were the big winners this week with a 7-1 thrashing of the usually solid Villa. At the top end of the table Man Utd stay top with a 4-0 while Chelsea’s result pushes them to 2 place. Liverpools win keeps them in the hunt with Torres scoring goal of the season. Arsenal slipped up at the solid Birmingham with a draw and Spurs cruised to a 2-0 victory against Pomey to hold 4th place. At the other end of the table Hull recorded a 2-0 home win against Fulham and with West Ham losing it is starting to congest at the bottom of the table. I think you’ve still got 7 teams all capable of dropping points and therefore going down. PREMIER LEAGUE WEBSITE

CRICKET Highlight of the weekend was Ross Taylor’s demolition of the Aussie attack to record the quickest 100 by a Black Caps. Despite this fantatsic personal achievement it was business as usual with the Black Caps batters unable to bat for a day and ram home the advantage developed by the bowlers. Australia then controlled day 3 to seat in the box seat. Another highlight for me was Hauritz going for 25 of one over, a new Australian record for the most runs conceeded. CRIC INFO WEBSITE

We also had the IPL competition contiued without much interest from me. At the wrong time and too many Indian players I have never heard of. IPL WEBSITE

OTHER EVENTS

New Zealand cycling finished the World Champs in style with their biggest medal haul and world record to boot. link

Valari Villi and coach of 11 years part. link Rumours that her coach started to argue about Vili’s decision, then backed off as Vili towered over her have not been verified.

Ryan Nelson almost back for Balckburn and hopefully the All Whites. link Even with our captain we will probably get a hiding but we need him more than the AB’s need Carter and McCaw

Fans to decide MOTM at Football World Cup. link Excellent idea. As a country we should all join together and choose one New Zealand player to vote for. While this may secure 4 million votes for Ryan Nelson it might not be enough to beat those big Asian nations with internet cafe’s on every corner.

Finally defending champion Jenson Button clinched his first victory of 2010 – and his first for McLaren – in Australia on Sunday. An excellent call on tyre strategy, wehile Hamilton was to worried about a recent speeding fine, meant it was all to easy for the Brit. link

CLASSIC YOU TUBE VIDEO

Ross Taylors bating reminded me alittle of Nathan Astle’s brillian 222 v England. Remember this day like it was yesterday. Was driving my car listening on the radio and had to pull over I was so excited.

http://www.youtube.com/v/EVL4210_FsY

Valari Vili split with coach gives us time to look back on Vili winning the World Champs a few years back. After looking at this video who cares about Heyman going to France to play rugby. Lets just get Vili in our front row!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/CnD1LoMU_OA