Weekend Round Up

I was sick over the weekend so I didn't have a chance to update this blog at all. So here is a quick recap:

Australia-20
New Zealand-15

Very exciting game as the Wallabies upset the All Blacks. Basically all 3 nations are now on even terms, which should make the 2nd leg of matches even more exciting. Australia will host South Africa this coming Saturday.

North American 4
Canada East-33
USA Falcons-22

Canada West-35
USA Hawks-7

U-20 World Cup
USA-1
S.Korea-1

South Korea completely dominated this match but the Americans somehow held on to gain a point. The USA plays Poland tomorrow. Poland shocked Brazil in the opening match in group play.

Tonight, the Copa America continues for the U.S. as they take on Paraguay, who pulled a shocker against Columbia 5-0 last Thursday. The Americans played well for about 65 minutes last Thursday before falling to the tournament favorites Argentina 4-1.

Hawks & Falcons Ready To Soar

USA Rugby announced the Hawks & Falcons squad who will take on their Canadian counterparts today in the 2007 North American 4 Series being held in Vancouver. The USA Falcons will take on Canada East at 1pm & the Hawks will play Canada West at 3pm.

Here are the U.S. line ups:

US Falcons starters: 1. Brian Olmes; 2. Owen Lentz; 3. Aaron Beuhring; 4. Latu Puloka; 5. (Capt) Luke Gross; 6. Mark Aylor; 7. Rikus Pretorius; 8. Tasi Mounga; 9. Tyson Meek; 10. Jason Kelly; 11. Takudzwa ‘Z’ Ngwenya; 12. Vaha Esekia; 13. Salesi Sika; 14. (VC) Chris Wyles; 15. Tui Osbourne

Reserves: 16. Blake Burdette; 17. Hayden Mexted; 18. Mike Mangan; 19. Travis Meidinger; 20. Michael Petri; 21. Scott Peterson; 22. Thretton Palamo

US Hawks starters: 1. Michael French; 2. Mark Crick; 3. Jon Vitale; 4. John Van Der Giessen; 5. Jake Stanfill; 6. Inaki Basauri; 7. (Capt) Dan Payne; 8. Pat Quinn; 9. David Williams; 10. Nese Malifa; 11. Scott Jones; 12. (VC) Riaan Hamilton; 13. Nathan Rogers; 14. Kevin Mongold; 15. Jone Naqica

Reserves: 16. Patrick bell; 17. Matekitonga Moeakiola; 18. Louis Stanfill; 19. Michel Laubscher; 20. Henry Bloomfield; 21. Kimball Kjar; 22. Link Wilfley

Tri Nations: Australia & New Zealand Clash Tomorrow

The two rivals meet again tomorrow at the MCG. Both squads have played tough games against South Africa with opposite results. The Springboks defeated Australia two weeks ago and lost to the All Blacks last weekend. This means the Tri Nations title is still very much up in the air, but an All Black victory this weekend would put them in the driver's seat.

Graham Henry's side has defeated the Wallabies six of the past seven times they have met, including last year's 13-9 victory in what I consider one of the best rugby matches played last year. I'm not sure it will be that close tomorrow.

I'm going to say New Zealand should win rather easily, let's say...

All Blacks-34
Wallabies-19

Here are the line ups:

Australia
15-Julian Huxley; 14-Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13-Stirling Mortlock (capt), 12-Matt Giteau, 11-Lote Tuqiri; 10-Stephen Larkham, 9-George Gregan; 8-Wycliff Palu, 7-George Smith, 6-Rocky Elsom, 5-Dan Vickerman, 4-Nathan Sharpe; 3-Guy Shepherdson, 2-Stephen Moore, 1-Matt Dunning.

Replacements: 16-Adam Freier, 17-Al Baxter, 18-Mark Chisholm, 19-Stephen Hoiles, 20-Phil Waugh, 21-Scott Staniforth, 22-Mark Gerrard.

New Zealand

15-Mils Muliaina; 14-Rico Gear, 13-Luke McAlister, 12-Aaron Mauger, 11-Joe Rokocoko; 10-Dan Carter, 9-Byron Kelleher; 8-Rodney So'oialo, 7-Richie McCaw (capt), 6-Jerry Collins, 5-Troy Flavell, 4-Chris Jack; 3-Carl Hayman, 2-Anton Oliver, 1-Tony Woodcock.

Replacements: 16-Keven Mealamu, 17-Neemia Tialata, 18-Ross Filipo, 19-Chris Masoe, 20-Piri Weepu, 21-Sitiveni Sivivatu, 22-Nick Evans.

Rugby & Soccer This Weekend

Well now that I have my internet connection 100% back, I can give you a heads up as far as weekend action goes. Should be a pretty exciting weekend. All times are listed as Eastern U.S.

FRIDAY
Currie Cup
Valke vs Free State Cheetahs- 1:00pm Setanta

Rugby League
Leeds vs Bradford- 3:00pm Setanta


SATURDAY
Tri Nations
Australia vs New Zealand-5:30 am Setanta (re-air at 5:15 pm)

Currie Cup
Griquas vs Blue Bulls- 9:00am Setanta

Lions vs Sharks- 11:00am Setanta

Rugby League
St.Helens vs Huddersfield- 1:00pm Setanta

FIFA U-20 World Cup
Korea Republic vs USA- 5:00pm ESPNU

On a side note, hats off to the USA Copa America squad for putting up an aspiring performance against Argentina last night. Yes, we lost 4-1, but for 70 minutes or so, our "C" squad hung with the #5 team in the world, as Argentina sent their top squad to play in the Copa. Eddie Johnson scored the lone U.S. goal on a penalty kick early in the first half and the U.S. finished the first half with a 1-1 draw.

Hahaha...I'm back...sorta

Having computer issues suck. Basically I've been without my office computer for nearly a week now and thus, haven't been online much. Hopefully my wife can sort through the "bug" issues and I'll be up and running soon.

BTW...Springboks vs All Blacks...great game!

Haven't Been On Alot This Week

My back has been giving me grief this week, so I haven't blogged as much as I would like to and most likely I won't be on much this weekend either. I just plan on laying around and hopefully recover. Anyways, be sure to check out the South Africa vs New Zealand Tri Nations match this weekend. I believe it comes on around 9am Eastern time on Setanta. Should be a great game.

I will see you all on Monday.

32 Years Ago Today, I was born.

Today is my 32nd birthday, although as I told my wife the other day, sometimes I feel like I'm 72...haha. Anyways, nothing special planned today other than spending time with the two most important people in my life, my wife and my son. I'm sure Dylan will make me a great gift. His father's day card was cute even though he spelled the world "even" wrong. He swears he was just in a hurry.

My wife bought me 3 gifts online that will be delivered sometime this week. No matter how hard I try, I can't get her to leak the info on the gifts. I'm terrible when it comes to suprises (got that from my dad) but she is a bit old fashioned and will make me wait until the gifts arrive before I know what I got, which is fine. She makes me laugh because she'll act like she's going to "spill the beans" and just when I think I got it out of her, she smiles and let's me know she's not telling.

I have my son this weekend, so maybe we'll all do something special at that point, I just haven't decided yet what that may be.

Italy Names RWC Training Squad

Italy has named their Rugby World Cup training squad.

Forwards: Matias Aguero, Robert Barbieri, Mauro Bergamasco, Valerio Bernabo, Marco Bortolami, Martin Castrogiovanni, Carlo Antonio Del Fava, Santiago Dellape, Paul Derbyshire, Carlo Festuccia, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Andrea Lo Cicero, Carlos Nieto, Fabio Ongaro, Silvio Orlando, Sergio Parisse, Salvatore Perugini, Josh Sole, Fabio Staibano, Maurizio Zaffiri, Alessandro Zanni.

Backs: Mirco Bergamasco, David Bortolussi, Christopher Burton, Gonzalo Canale, Pablo Canavosio, Roland De Marigny, Alessio Galante, Ezio Galon, Paul Griffen, Andrea Masi, Ludovico Nitoglia, Luciano Orquera, Enrico Patrizio, Ramiro Pez, Matteo Pratichetti, Kaine Robertson, Albert Sgarbi, Marko Stanojevic, Alessandro Troncon.

Need A Rugby Fix Prior To Next Weekend?

I'm taking this thursday off work because it's my birthday (wooo!) so I may very well tune in and if you are a fan of the sport, set your Tivo's because the match between the New Zealand U 21's & Canada will air LIVE at 3:00 am thursday morning on Setanta Sports.

For those of you without a "Tivo" or "VCR" or whatever, you can catch the re-airing of the match at 4:45 pm Eastern on Setanta.

Reuters: All Blacks Told To Relax

SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand coach Graham Henry wants his players to relax instead of hitting the training pitch ahead of this week's Tri-Nations clash with South Africa.

Saturday's match has been billed as a possible preview of this year's World Cup final but Henry has ordered his players to stay calm and rest.

The All Blacks have been told to play golf or go fishing, with Henry hoping the short break will help the players freshen up before the Durban clash.

"We don't want to overdo it otherwise we'll be worse off," Henry told the New Zealand Press Association.

"We've just got to be intelligent as to how we prepare."

Despite dominating world rugby for the past three seasons, the All Blacks have always struggled in South Africa.

They have lost one match in South Africa each of the past three years, yet have not been beaten by any other team in the world since 2003.

"It's obviously the biggest challenge that we face in rugby at the moment, which is stimulating," Henry said.