Feeling patriotic this Spring!

This was a good weekend to be English and an even better one to be a rugby fan. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon, and I am disappointed to have not witnessed live what was undisputedly a fantastic advert for the game.

I was trying to think back to the last time there were so many choruses of swing low at HQ, there certainly weren’t during the autumn, and although the 2011 Six Nations resulted in a victory for England, there was always the shadow of the World Cup and the underlying feeling that we didn’t have enough to go all the way in New Zealand.

Seeing Ian Ritchie sitting in the stands at Twickenham for some reason brought a real patriotic lump in the throat, similar to that moment in early July when the BBC coverage pans out to reveal thousands of waving spectators on Henman Hill (not Murray Mound). I would hope that the new CEO at the RFU would have had a similar reaction after his first official home game as top dog.

Perhaps the most positive part of the afternoon came after the final whistle where the exhausted England side applauded the home support, who rather than rushing off to the West Car Park, took to their feet, rested their pints down and showed their appreciation. Let’s hope that this will prove that rugby fans are more savvy and not as fickle as perhaps old regimes have given them credit for. The conversations I have had since the final whistle have been less about the TMO and more about the fantastic shift that the team put in.

It is not only the England Elite side that made me feel proud this weekend, as the Women’s side were disappointed with a 33-0 victory over Wales, feeling that they could have done more! The team are not only unbeaten but have only conceded 3 point in the 4 hours of rugby thus far. The U20’s are also yet to concede a try and have put on 99 points in their first two games.

Take all these positives alongside the number of quality performances being displayed weekly in the Aviva Premiership by some great young English players and the sour taste left in English mouths after RWC 2011 is starting to dissipate. A couple of good performances in Paris and South West London as we head into March will cleanse the palate completely.

Would you change anything for the game in Paris? Here is Jonny putting in that hit on Ntamack, if this doesn't whet your appetite and make you feel proud to be English, well nothing will...

Until next week,

Andy

Netball Down Under - a player's perspective

Netball is growing massively at our festivals - so much so that we have set up our new brand NetballRocks! We have been chatting to England Netball and West Coast Fever star Eboni Beckford-Chambers finding out about her life down under - here is her guest blog:


"It has been just over 5 weeks since I arrived in Perth and I can safely say that I have fully embraced the Aussie lifestyle! The time has really flown by since I left my family and friends standing at the airport to embark on an 18 hour flight to what I deemed the relatively unknown. I was filled with mixed emotions i.e. excitement at joining a new franchise and playing semi professional Netball in a league that harbours the best players in the world; apprehensive about moving a million miles away from my home/ familiarity; sad as I was leaving my mum, BF, family/ friends behind. However, in hindsight I had nothing to worry about!

Eboni in action for England

The girls and staff at the West Coast Fever have really looked after me and aided my transition into Perth life! I've had to adjust quickly to the heat as we have been through a 42 degree heatwave, embrace the Aussie patriotism on Australia Day, devour kangaroo, explore and surf the picturesque beaches, conduct the beep test with a gas mask and get used to the intense daily training regime.

Caitlin Bassett and Nikala Smith, the two girls that I am living with are fantastic. They have really welcomed me into their home which has really put me at ease. Caitlin even came to my rescue when I screwed the wrong parts of my IKEA bed together even though I was 'following the manual' which caused great bouts of laughter. So all in all I have learned that there are no deadly snakes, kangaroos or spiders in the immediate vicinity and that Perth is easy living, 'it'll get done when it gets done' ;-) (very similar attitude to that of the Jamaicans - so I think I'll fit in nicely!).

The 'buzz', confidence and pure enthusiasm within the team definitely makes me feel like that we are going to have a really competitive season! The training is very physical, mentally and emotionally enduring. The style of netball is much more intense than in England. There is a lot of focus on accuracy and precision of key basic skills accompanied by a mentality that nothing short of being the best is good enough. But I can feel myself getting quicker, faster and fitter each week. Our coach, Norma Plummer, for whom I was initially awestruck hasn't earned her the title of being 'The Best Coach in the World' by being a pushover :-).

The support that I have had from my closest family, friends has been immense! In addition the media coverage that I have received has been really positive! The media is very much involved in the 'Netball World' in Australia and it is very much widespread from the newspapers, radio stations, local/ national news broadcasts, social media etc. The West Australian media in particular have really got behind the team and are generating further support and promoting the game as we move towards the ANZ Championship season. I have also received several messages on Facebook and Twitter (@EboniBChambers) from netball lovers who are really looking forward to seeing what this season holds especially for the Fever! I am loving every minute that I am in Perth and I am fully embracing what I consider to be an opportunity of a life time! With 6 weeks to go until the start of the ANZ competition I am hoping the experience will get even better!"


We will be following Eboni's progress with much interest over the next few month's and wish her all the best!

Until next week,

Andy

Who has the most ‘klout’ in Rugby?

Our @rugbyrocks7s account recently passed the 1,500 follower mark on Twitter, #humblebrag, which sparked a bit of debate in the office about who our favourite rugby Tweeters are and also who are the most influential.

So I had a look at ‘Klout’ - www.klout.com – a site which was founded to help "measure and leverage your influence" within social media channels and rates "your ability to drive action within social networks".

The score is out of 100, with the average score being 20. As it stands our @rugbyrocks7s account is sitting at 48, which isn't bad!

When it comes to 'Rugby' the top influencers are currently:

1. Jeremy Guscott - @JeremyGuscott
2. Lote Tuqiri - @LoteTuquiri
3. Tom Fordyce - @tomfordyce
4. Gareth Thomas - @GarethThomas14
5. Rugby World Cup - @rugbyworldcup
6. David Campese - @Davidcampese11
7. Brian O'Driscoll - @BrianODriscoll
8. Will Carling - @WillCarling
9. James Haskell - @Jameshaskell
10. Victor Matfield - @VictorMatfield

But as with any metrics, these do not necessarily tell the whole story as to who is influencing others in rugby, where is @andipeters for instance, he is always interacting with high profile rugby players every day through social media, or the @Official_RFU for that matter?

Other accounts that are always worth a follow in the rugby world include @UgoMonye and @DannyCare who tend to tweet at each other as much as at anyone else...#bromance. @Davidflatman provides light hearted views and some very interesting thoughts and @Lukenarraway's profile pics are always worth a view...

Who are your favourite rugby related tweeters? Who should all rugby fans be following during the Six Nations?

Until next time,

Andy

Six Nations Opening Weekend – My review -

France V Italy

The opening game of the six nations went pretty much as expected, with France looking relatively threatening and running in a few tries against a poor Italian side. The French passing was not slick enough to cause too much concern, although they did show the ability to score tries, which other teams seemed to struggle with. We are more likely to see how god they really are against Ireland at the weekend.

Italy will undoubtedly struggle to get any results in this year’s championship as they didn’t seem to have much direction. Their only real go forward was, just for a change, Parisse who showed his class.

Scotland V England

It doesn’t take a rugby guru to analyse this one. Scotland weren’t clinical and England’s discipline was fantastic – first penalty wasn’t until almost 20 minutes and that was for overpowering the Scots in the scrum.

It was extremely refreshing to watch the ball being turned over through errors rather than cynical offences. England sides of old would have killed the ball and given away 6 or 7 kickable penalties, dramatically changing the outlook of the tie.

The English defence was robust, Barritt and Farrell were impenetrable, and all players tackled looked to hit their men and put them down. I would have liked to have seen Dowson and Croft getting over the gain line more, and thought that Ben Morgan impressed albeit with a cameo role – be keen to see more of him against Italy.

With the ball in hand, the Saracens combinations looked the most threatening, with Barritt making some good hard yards running off Hodgson. Hopefully a few more weeks in camp will see the whole side gelling more and the back three being brought into the attack more as we saw in the Wales and Ireland backlines.

Scotland need to score tries and they will be a quality side. Denton and co. carried superbly and with some real pace and skill out wide, if they can just link up the play more in midfield they could well unlock less organised defences. I would like to see Ruardiah Jackson brought in for the tie at the Millenium Stadium.

Ireland V Wales

This game got me excited about the Lions tour in 2013, mainly because George North will be on our side! Also, I have always been a massive believer that scoring off first phase should not be so hard.

Without a doubt North was the best player on the pitch on Sunday. Mike Phillips took the man of the match award, but the impact that North had was as good as I have seen a winger have in a long time. He smashed through Fergus McFadden for the Jonathan Davies try as if he wasn’t there and scored his own try. Solid in defence and soft hands, if North stays on this kind of form and the Welsh pack can sort out their lineout, I think we will be seeing a Welsh Grand Slam come March 17^th.

The Irish pack played well, with Rory Best standing out for me. Without Brian O’Driscoll marshalling the backline, the Irish lacked the cutting edge in attack. Rob Kearney was their best back and was great as ever under the high ball, and looked good with ball in hand as well.

The unfortunate talking point is once again the ‘spear’ tackles… I will leave you to discuss those…

Predictions for this weekend:

Italy V England – England by 12

France V Ireland – France by 9

Wales V Scotland – Wales by 18

Enjoy another weekend of 6 nations rugby…

Andy