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Sport Talk - by Scott 5

6 Nations Tournament Week 3

March 11th 2010 01:07
It was a tense round of 6-Nations Rugby with the wooden spoon battle, another attempted Welsh comeback and a match which showed English coach Martin Johnson, that his team, really is average at best.

The round kicked off though with the match between Wales and France from the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. I dunno what the Wales coach said at the start but the first 40 minutes were insipid from the Welsh as the French ran riot with tries from Alexis Palisson and François Trinh-Duc and a couple of penalties to lead 20-0 at half-time. At half-time, Wales copped another pasting from their coach and the comeback was on as a couple of Jones penalties and a try from Leigh Halfpenny to bring the margin to 1 converted try with plenty of time left. Sadly it wasn't to be as another couple of French penalties followed and then a late try from Welsh player Shane Williams completed the scoring with Wales 20 losing to France 26.


The Stadio Flamino saw the mandatory wooden spoon battle between Italy and Scotland and my, what a battle it was. The game for the first 65 minutes was the battle of the kickers as Scotland's Dan Parks and Italy's Mirco Bergamasco went head to head with a combination of penalty kicks and drop goals. It was 6-6 at half-time and with 15 minute remaining, Scotland led 12-9. In the 68th minute Pablo Canavosio scored a try for Italy and it was converted by Bergamasco and this proved to be the last score of the game as the final 10 minutes were dominated by Scotland looking for the try that would win them the game. Some wonderful Italian defense prevented this and at the end of the game, it was Italy 16 defeating Scotland 12.

In the Match of the Round between the English and the Irish from Twickenham, it was a thriller the whole game. England got off to the worst possible start conceding a try to Ireland's Tommy Bowe in the 4th minute. The rest of the half were penalty goals which saw the Irish go into half-time with an 8-6 lead. Ireland extended the lead to 13-6 through a try from Keith Earls only to see England level the scores with a try from Dan Cole. Ireland then had captain Brian O'Driscoll stretchered off after copping an accidental knee from a teammate and England then went in front following a Wilkinson drop goal. Sadly it crumbled for the English as Bowe scored a 2nd try and then the Irish were able to hold on in desperation with England 16 losing to Ireland 20.


The ladder at the end of Round 3 is:

France 6 38
England 4 14
Ireland 4 -1
Wales 2 -12
Italy 2 -19
Scotland 0 -20

The 4th round could sort out the championship with the following matches taking place

Ireland vs Wales
Scotland vs England
France vs Italy

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Lara Bingle and the sportsworld

March 10th 2010 23:42
There has been only one thing that has been the topic of great discussion around water coolers all over Australia over the past few days. I of course refer to the scandal surrounding the Lara Bingle/Michael Clarke relationship.

Everyone knows that Lara Bingle likes her famous people. She's been linked with AFL star Brendan Fevola, an unnamed NRL star, surfer Taj Burrow and King's Cross identity John Ibrahim. Currently she's been dating cricketer Michael Clarke and up until recently, they were happily in love and in fact had been engaged for 2 years.

Sadly, things have crumbled recently for "Australia's Golden Couple." Pictures of them appeared in the Daily Telegraph apparantly arguing at the SCG recently but the past 2 weeks have been nothing short of horrendous. Women's Day published a photo that had been doing the rounds among AFL players and Cricketers of Bingle in the shower. The photo in question was alledgedly taken by Fevola.

Bingle then subsequently hired celebrity agent Max Markson and decided to sue Fevola. It got even strager when she sold her side of the story to Women's Day for a reported $200,000. Michael Clarke quit the tour of New Zealand to come home and deal with this crisis with rumours now growing that the relationship is over.

Now let's have a look at a couple of aspects of this, that are just frankly unusual.

FACT: Lara Bingle was 19 years old when that photo was takent.

FACT: At that time she was having an affair with Brendan Fevola after meeting him on the set of The Footy Show

FACT: Brendan Fevola was married to wife Alex at the time and yet he still saw fit to dally around with Bingle

FACT: Brendan Fevola should never have taken the photo as anyone is entitled to privacy in the shower and looking at her face, you know the photo isn't consensual.

FACT: Fevola should never have distributed that photo and his behaviour in this instance is reprehensible.

Looking at the above facts, you could say that Bingle might've been a bit naive at 19 but Fevola should know better. In fact, I'd take it one step further and say that Brendan Fevola is to blame for this whole scandal. Distributing a photo is a disgraceful effort, let alone taking one of a girl when she's having a shower. I could speculate and say that photo may have caused Bingle and Fevola to break up but without knowing the facts there, it's not really relevant.

Having said that though, the media need to be held to account for a couple of things as well.

1. What are they doing publishing photos of people in the shower?
2. What is the obsession with celebrities and couples?
3. Do these people get kicks out of relationship turmoil?
4. Why are we still hearing about it 2 weeks later?

As for Bingle, well I had sympathy for her because this is something no-one should ever have to go through but my sympathy ran out the moment she decided to "sell" her side of the story for $200,000. It's a nice cash grab but what would endear her to people is if she donated it to a women's cause (i.e. breast cancer research). Unfortunately she has a reputation for being a homewrecker and she's not liked but $200,000 has made a lot of people pissed off.

I guess, to finish on a sporting note of sorts, the big questions that should be occupying the minds of people at the present moment is; How will this scandal affect Michael Clarke's cricketing career? Is his mind in the right place at present to be playing cricket? Could this scandal destroy Clarke's captaincy ambitions?
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It was an extraordinary Saturday night (AEST) in the English Premier League and the match that I was worried about was the big match between Chelsea and Manchester City or more appropriately John Terry vs Wayne Bridge.

It has been well documented the hatred that exists between the 2 following allegations that Terry slept with Bridge's girlfriend and even knocked her up.

Last week was a traumatic week with Wayne Bridge announcing his decision to withdraw from the England squad for the World Cup because he can't stomach spending a month with John Terry. Sport Talk applauds the selflessness of Bridge and his desire to ensure that England can compete without any distractions. Some would say that the wrong person has withdrawn from the team but Capello wants his best players in the team, of which Terry is one.

The big question during the week was "Will they shake hands or won't they?"

All that and more was answered on Saturday night in the Match of the Round.

Both teams walked out and I was pretty anxious to see the reaction and naturally they didn't shake hands, an act which resulted in booing from the Chelsea fans.

Sadly I didn't watch much further than the opening 15 minutes because of fatigue, though I will sit down in days to come and have a look at it.

What I was able to see is that Chelsea fans showed absolutely no class whatsoever by booing a guy for withdrawing from the national team/having his girlfriend sleep with John Terry/not shaking Terry's hand (pick one). Fair dinkum, Bridge is the victim here.

Lampard put Chelsea in front late in the first half before Tevez equalised in injury time after defensive mishaps. Bellamy put City in front in the 50th minute before Carvalho was sent off for Chelsea after conceding a penalty by knocking Gareth Barry over in the box. Tevez made it 3-1 City and then Ballack also went after a second bookable offence. Bellamy made it 4-1 only to see Chelsea reduce it to 4-2 with a penalty from Lampard.

This was a day of animosity and it was an emotional day. Chelsea's uncharacteristic performance has kept the EPL a battle of 3 teams and it's not often I say this, but thank you Man City.

In terms of Bridge vs Terry, it is a relief that they have gotten the toughest part of this whole saga out of the way (playing against each other on the same field). There's no way that this will bring closure to the issue because as long as they both keep playing, it will be always in the minds of everyone, what John Terry did.

As for Terry, he's struggling and making mistakes and I wouldn't put it past him to be the potential liability that could cost Chelsea the title
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Jose Mourinho at war in Italy

February 23rd 2010 07:13
Sport Talk has recently had a field day reading all about Inter Milan coach, Jose Mourinho and people constantly attacking him for comments he made or rumours about his future, etc. You can't deny that he's extremely provocative and and does spark a lot of debate and controversy. Who could ever forget his famous celebration down the touchline at Old Trafford after Porto equalised in the 89th minute? Who could forget his time in England where he made enemies of a lot of people but also how his time ended at Chelsea? He's a bastard, but a bloody entertaining one.

Unfortunately Mourinho has recently lost the plot in Italy. Linked to a never-ending number of clubs (including Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid etc) the pressure is starting to get to Mourinho as he's locked horns recently with a good many people


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So anyway there have been some strange and ultimately bizarre stories in England over the past couple of days and I thought I'd take the opportunity to highlight a few of them

Manchester United and Liverpool fans unite????
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Sport Talk is today departing from the normal trend of discussing sports stories and results and instead is focusing on something that is sorta related to sport (soccer being the most obvious) but also related to society. I am of course referring to the tackle from behind.

Now the tackle from behind is a very interesting one. It's referred to as someone attacking someone from behind and the most common examples refer to being tackled around the body and slammed into the ground from behind but also refers to a soccer player clipping someone or clattering into them when they frankly have no hope of getting the ball


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A medal night in Australia

February 16th 2010 06:48
Last night was an unusually good night for sports lovers of Australia with the awarding of the Allan Border Medal (Cricket) and the Johnny Warren Medal (soccer). The girls came out and it was a good evening with some very interesting results

The Allan Border Medal
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So I read today about a radical proposal to liven up the EPL with a plan to run a playoff for teams that finish 4th-7th for the last UEFA Champions League spot.

This would have to be the most extraordinary thing, I have ever come across. Let's look at it this way. The EPL already play 38 rounds of matches and have TV Rights in excess of $1Billion. Also there is a requirement that every league has to be finished by a certain date (especially in World Cup year). Running a playoff is good in theory but that would mean that there would be more midweek rounds and then you add the UEFA Champions League and Europa League into the equation and you suddenly have English clubs dealing with ridiculous fixture congestion


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Well Sport Talk is finally back in action. Suffering from a motivation problem and knowing
I've still several blogs to type concerning events of January or early Feb, it's going to
be hard work to catch up with everything. Anyway, today I'd like to blog about the start


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Clive Palmer vs the FFA

February 10th 2010 13:28
Sport Talk has recently become increasingly angered and bitter towards the owner of Gold Coast United, Clive Palmer.

Palmer is a Liberal Party member who also runs a multi-billion dollar company dealing with coal and iron ore etc. Sadly it seems that a combination of being the richest man in Queensland, not to mention owning Gold Coast United, has given him a license to cause controversy


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