I am tarring a lot of people with the same brush here, so apologies to the large number of worthwhile sports journalists.  However we should all be aware, by now, of my dislike for the Western Mail school of journalism (make everything a ‘shock’ and people don’t say things they ‘rap’).  And if you are wondering just how poor and formulaic the Western Mail really is check out their football reporting (not unsurprisingly they have changed it now).
But it is far from just us that have press that couldn’t find …

New Zealand vs Australia. The Teams
The teams for the Tri-Nations match between New Zealand and Australia have been named.
Interesting to see the twins have been named to start together for Oz for the first time.  I know little about them so even more interesting to see one is a hooker and one is a centre!  You can find them as part of our Twitter list.
Weepu again replaces Jimmy Cowan at scrum half for New Zealand, which should give the kiwis a bit more fluency.  Not that they need it after last weekend’s …

Australia vs New Zealand
– Was I Just Watching Wales?
Australia 28 – 49 New Zealand
The Welsh Rugby Blog hasn’t tended to bother with other nationalities in our look at rugby, but that is something that is going to change over the coming season. Whilst we are still going to keep our focus on Welsh rugby we will also be looking at rugby the world over – such as yesterdays match between Australia and New Zealand
(Remember if you want to write for the Welsh Rugby Blog get in touch!).
I Think …

Wales’ Rugby Plan Leaked
Have you seen the recent outcry after a photo of some All Blacks moves were distributed around the Aussie press?
It was a pretty low thing to do by the photographer in my opinion (and it later turns out the guy is a Kiwi anyway) – as Graham Henry says there are some unwritten rules that should be followed. And it is moments like these that force written rules to be put into place, all because someone is greedy about selling photos.
But he’s at it again (maybe). …

Ok the work starts here. Now we know for sure that ITV will be showing the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand we need to find a way of making their coverage enjoyable… which means drinking vast quantities of alcohol. So a drinking game sounds to be the perfect solution.
This is a collaboration so please do use the comments below to suggest new phrases to drink to, or new ideas, changes etc.
The Rules
Are simple, played much the same way as many other TV drinking games. Everytime …

Rugby World Cup with ITV
ITV have the broadcasting rights for both 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups. Hands up who is happy with this decision?
Ok, now hands up who not from England is happy with the decision. I should imagine that’s a big zero. Because whilst England will get plenty of coverage we will be left, yet again, pondering how Wales vs South Africa will effect England’s chances of winning the World Cup.
ITV’s coverage has been traditionally awful, so I assume that the tendering process …

So the Magners League fixtures have been announced – and yet again the Magners League underwhelms me.
This is a league that gets much derision for a number of reasons, for teams not taking it seriously, for a lack of fans, for a lack of interest. But yet again we see just how the Magners League address this issue – they do nothing and hope it works.
Now I do think the Guinness Premiership is an over rated league. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a number of things …

Just had someone contact me from Jam pimping out an up coming interview with Gavin Henson, out on Sunday. Now I am far too lazy to bother going over what they say so the email is simply quoted below. Along with a link to the, very not safe for work, promotional picture of Mr Henson
Enjoy – if you like that kind of thing!

Hi,
I’m Sammy from an advertising agency called Jam. We’re working with the News of the World, and we want to give you exclusive access to this …

It is now finalised that Andy Powell has left the Cardiff Blues and joined Wasps – not the move to rugby league that many were predicting.
This is interesting in a number of ways. Firstly that the Blues are prepared to get rid of their Lions and Welsh star despite him having two years left on his contract. Whilst they may have managed to somehow keep Xavier Rush when he looked set to join Ulster the loss of Andy Powell is a significant loss in depth at the 8 …

It may sound like your idea of hell. I know it is mine and I am very grateful it looks like the vuvuzela will be banned from the rugby world cup. But apparently this isn’t obvious to everyone.
The Scarlets haven’t decided to ban it. In fact they are so unsure they are asking the fan(s) what they think. They want to know if the fans want it.
http://www.scarlets.co.uk/eng/news/2881.php
If any of you are one of the ten Scarlets fans that go to the games please let …