Referees Hate England

A scrappy win for England Rugby away at Stadio Flaminio in Rome, and one that was in the balance right up to final whistle as Italy bowed out all guns blazing.

Fair play to the Italians, they fronted up and played some great rugby. They never dropped their heads even as England were stretching away by the end of the first half. In the second half they gave it a lash.

But only because they were allowed to.

Here are some stats for the second period:
possession - Italy 68:Eng 32
territory - Italy 62:Eng 38
penalties against - Italy 3: Eng 15

Eh?

The referee is, in essence, saying that Italy were so good that England were reduced to cheating to keep them from scoring. Yet the match was not like that. Furthermore, these are Premiership players with bags of experience. They don't do it in the league so why would do they do it in the test arena?

The answer is they don't. The answer is a lot of international referees secretly hate us.

Today it was Irishman Alain Rolland's turn. A twerp with a chip on his shoulder he's got form too. For it was he that almost lost us the World Cup 2007 quarter-final against Australia when England's forwards were shitting all over the Australian pack yet we got given nothing.

This is happening too many times for it to be a coincidence. The most notable occasion of course being André Watson's almost surreal non-performance that almost cost us the World Cup in 2003. Our scrum in that match was clearly, obviously, 110% the dominant force yet he kept on not only nullifying it but actually penalising us for, in effect, bullying the poor Australian front row.

It's time someone spoke out about the celtic and antipodean bias against England. We're getting royally screwed almost every game we play. We have to play twice as well as the opposition just in order to win by a couple of points. What's the matter with these people? Did they get bullied when they were young? Do they have mental issues with the success of our fair isle? So what if they think we're arrogant? They're still supposed to play by the rules. Our arrogance or otherwise is irrelevant. I note that the refs who give England the fairest shout are the Frogs - whose own sense of arrogance is such that they're above having a chip on their shoulder.

Enough! Grow up and get over it colonials. You owe it to the game.

Skill, Class and Thuggery

Woah! What an end to the 2006 World Cup. In years to come everyone will remember where they were the night Zidane headbutted his way into world infamy.

Perusing the blogosphere immediately after the Italians had won on penalties it was interesting to see how fast images of the incident were posted on the net. There were at least three videos on youtube (one neatly overdubbing a Black Sabbath metal-rage soundtrack to repeated replays of the butt interspersed with a pictures of a bull) and several photo-montages on a number of myspace sites and other well-known blog feeds.

There were also, as may be expected, thousands and thousands of words of speculation over what caused this obvious breakdown in Zidane's mental processes. We had the usual guff about his tough upbringing on the back-streets of Marseilles, that Materazzi must have insulted his race / religion / family, that having his nipple tweaked by a pretty-boy Italian had compromised his masculinity in some undefined way etc. etc. But all these excuses missed the crucial point, which was that ZZ had behaved like a thug. And why had he behaved like a thug? Because he is one. Because, just like our own super-chav Rooney who also got sent off for thuggery, the guy has no class.

That's not to say Zidane doesn't have skill, or indeed grace. No-one denies that he is one of the best players of 'the beautiful game' ever to set foot on a pitch. But ultimately, it doesn't matter what your background is or how tough your upbringing was - you either have class or you don't. And tonight Zidane proved to the world that he doesn't.

It also proved, if further proof were needed, that the majority of pro-footballers are stupid. Whatever the provocation may be, you're a pro-sportsman trying to win a game. And getting sent-off doesn't help you win games. Certainly, France missed his skills in the penalty shoot-out (as did England miss Rooney in their quarter-final penalties) so it was a delicious irony when the Italians eventually lifted the Jules Rimet trophy having converted all 5 of their spot-kicks while The No.1 penalty-taker for 'Les Bleus' was left crying in his dressing room. Forza Italia. Bravo.

Now, compare and contrast this disgraceful behaviour with what had passed on the manicured lawns of The All England Club earlier in the day. Here, we witnessed true class as Federer notched up a 4th Wimbledon Championship and an 8th Grand Slam by the age of 24. As graceful in victory as he had been in defeat 3 weeks earlier at Roland Garros, the Swiss megastar rounded off his successful fortnight with fluent interviews in 4 languages and not so much as a scowl or even a grumble from his defeated opponent Mr Muscles Nadal who simply vowed to come back stronger next-time. Until our footballers learn to behave like the tennis masters England will not win another football trophy for another generation. Someone should show Rooney videos of Bobby Moore when he was captain of England and teach him the importance of class - 'cos if the ignorant chav doesn't learn soon he's gonna cost us another tourny.

Next up it's Pakistan in the cricket. I look forward to some classy play...