Wednesday, August 17, 2011

ITM Cup 2011

To get this blog rolling I just want to start a few discussions.
a) ITM Cup is brilliant.
Its a provincial club competition where you can watch a vast range of talent all on the same field.
We see your 'ordinary' journeymen who must hold down a job in order to play. We see the youngsters coming through all the systems such as baby blacks and 7's teams. We see the players with super 15 contracts. At times we get to see those players who have become internationals. Such a brilliantly diverse set of skill levels.
One would presume that when the internationals play they are able to turn the tide of any game. Not so in most instances.
In fact I like to judge the real effectiveness of a national player by how he can inject that little bit of magic into a game.
Players I rated at S15 level such as Fruean have not impressed as much as I would expect at provincial level.
I have watched some epic games such as the recent Bay of Plenty vs Hawkes Bay.
I have enjoyed watching lowly Tasman defy their current standings by beating mighty Auckland. After watching them battle against Canterbury and Taranaki it came as no surprise to this writer.
Tonights game Wellington vs Southland will be interesting.
Wellington have been very sub standard and this is reflected by them anchoring the top division.
Southland are one place ahead and whilst they don't let in too many tries, they also cannot score many.
The Lions must win as this is their last home game before finals. There is an outside chance they could reach finals if they can just win tonight. Southland have two more home games with the first being a Ranfurly Shield defence against Taranaki.
They have a problem. It looks like they are putting out a strong team tonight. They have a 5 day turnaround before the Ranfurly Shield defence so I've no doubt they're hoping to win both.
I'm backing Lions to finally show some mettle in front of their home crowd. Probably by 2 tries to one.
I play Superbru, so my margin will be 12. I'm currently in the top 10% so am hoping to do well.

b) What has happened to a few New Zealand rugby websites such as allblacks.com, itmcup.co.nz and nzrugby.co.nz.
Here in Houston Texas it says the servers are down. This has been going on for the last 3 days.
I miss my info.
The New Zealand Herald sucks as a source of info on ITM Cup.
Whats wrong with that picture?

Are you people not proud of your rugby?

c) Why can't we get ITM Cup on TV over here in USA?
I have to access internet sites to get the games.
This is a disgrace.
We have direct TV, a satellite company, that has 2 channels free for rugby. Guess what we are able to watch?
Currie Cup. (Tri Nations also, thank goodness).
Why CC but no ITM?
These are the only 2 competitions being shown on stations with 24 hrs to potentially fill with content.
Don't get me wrong, I like Currie just as much for all the same reasons.
I would argue the 'powers that be' in your RFU have done a terrible job in promoting New Zealand rugby.
Doubly so in World Cup year.
Even if they are terrible negotiators and not able to get much money for the programming, they could have given it away with perhaps an ad for New Zealand world cup thrown in as part of the deal.

d) I'm a Brit, but Northern Hemisphere rugby sucks to high heaven. So many reasons and I'd like to offer my opinions at a later date. Don't get me wrong. I'd love to be able to have some pride in my National team. Northern Hemisphere teams have just not moved into 21st century. They've had plenty of time to watch Southern Hemisphere and try to mimick.
Of course it won't happen overnight, but we're not even trying at any level.



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