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2011 FOUR NATIONS Round 2: Great Britain -V- New Zealand

Jesbass

First Grade
Messages
5,654
Forum 7s - 4 Nations - 2011
GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND LIONS -V- NEW ZEALAND KIWIS
british-map-100x100.jpg
-V-
logo_kiwi_NZ.jpg


Game Thread:
* This is a game thread only. Only game posts can be made here - team lists, substitutions, and articles.
* Any other posts may result in loss of points and is at the discretion of the referee.
* Only original articles, not used in previous games, will be marked by referees.​

Naming Teams:
* 3 -V- 3 (+ 2 reserves for both teams)
* No 'TBA' or changing players named
* Captains must stick with original teams named​


Kick Off: Sunday 6th November 2011 (2100AEST)
Full Time: Saturday 12th November 2011 (2100AEST)
Referee: gUt
Venue: Croke Park​

Croke-Park-Dublin.jpg
 
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LeagueNut

First Grade
Messages
6,972
Kiwis.jpg


The Kiwis charge out onto Croke Park - does that mean I have to make a lame pun about frogs?

-----------------------------------
Team:
Jesbass
byrne_rovelli_fan82
Robster

Bench:
Hallatia
LeagueNut (c)
-----------------------------------

Ringa pakia
Uma tiraha
Turi whatia
Hope whai ake
Waewae takahia kia kino


Ka mate, ka mate
Ka ora' Ka ora'
Ka mate, ka mate
Ka ora Ka ora


Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru
Nāna i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā
Upane... Upane
Upane Kaupane
Whiti te rā


Hī!

OLDPICTUREOFSHEDDINGS012.jpg


(Ribbit)
 

byrne_rovelli_fan82

First Grade
Messages
7,477
byrne_rovelli_fan for the Kiwis, runs onto the ground excited to be playing her 2nd straight game only to find the term 'sheep shagger' has taken on new meaning...

~~


Its’ never the same.

We all thought it. 2011 was meant to be the season where the Melbourne Storm started on the same level as the rest of the clubs and this time winning games for points. According to the critics it was the year of redemption for the team from the South as they fought it out to show the past is well and truly the past.

The fans wanted it and so did the players. They wanted to give the message to everyone around the NRL and especially NRL HQ that despite having everything taken from them, they still had what it takes to come out on top. Unfortunately for Melbourne and their dedicated fans they fell short at the second last hurdle as they were humbled out of the finals by their favorite bogey team in the Warriors.

So 2012 is a new dawn and once again Melbourne have the opportunity to get back in the winners’ circle come October. Still even if they manage to claim the NRL trophy doubts will continue to hang over them. Questions over the legality of their victory and just how they are keeping their quality players together will circle. The nightmare of 2010 will never fade. This has the smell of an old saying I myself have lived by:

‘Never forgive, never forget’

When traumatized by events un-expected the feelings left over is like that awful lingering stench.

League fans have long memories, and when they are witness to a situation certain to change the way they view a particular team, particular player and a particular organization they will never let it go. One only has to see the hatred directed towards the Manly Sea Eagles. Many reasons from the past are used as the defining moment that breathed the hatred from deep inside.

Now the same hatred flowing through the veins of the Manly haters also runs deep for the Melbourne haters. From the moment the salary cap rot hit news headlines across Australia fans jumped onto Internet forums and websites to vent their anger, happiness and general hate.

Last year when the Bulldogs played the Storm in Melbourne, Dogs fans taunted Storm fans using every insult to gain the upper-hand. But even the Dogs fans apparently forgot they too were not ‘so innocent’ once upon a time. When the Dogs won the competition two years later in 2004 the bitter feelings of their 2002 dramas never left; and now like the Dogs the Storm will continue to be on the short end of the stick.

Critics will be all over them and running through ever inch of their club with a magnifying glass.

Once an offence is committed the view by all parties becomes stained.

What makes Melbourne’s offence more devastating to them is, the way they had deliberately gone behind the backs of the NRL and broken the rules. Perhaps opinions would’ve been different it had only occurred in the one year but it carried on for five years.

Forever will their name be associated with the salary cap, receiving the biggest penalty handed down and deliberately deceiving, and even though they have removed the rats from the ranks it has done little to ease their grief. Those responsible are still free to find work while the club is left to wallow in the mud.

Storm fans have done well to try and recover from their shock of the revelations but it is hoped they might have learnt some valuable lessons from the disaster. Unfortunately from what is observed their attitudes still smell of rotten eggs. They have carried this anger too long and it became evident on the day of the minor premiership presentation.

While the fans want to continue to believe they are home to the best team in the league at the back of their minds they know, they are aware of the truth. There is nothing now, no longer is there the reasons for their dominance, no shiny trophy cabinet to boast and above all else. No respect from their peers.

As former All Blacks and World Cup winning coach Graham Henry said when asked about Wallaby first five, Quade Cooper following the semi final loss to New Zealand.

‘He has to earn the respect’.

This is what the likes of the Storm, Sea Eagles and Dogs must do. They have to earn their trophies and earn praise. Cheating and the likes will plunge those implicated into darkness.

~~

745 words between the '~' lines
 

Robster

Bench
Messages
3,950
Kiwis.jpg


A Little Boy Waits.

July 10th 1995, at Mt Smart stadium and I was there to cheer on Dean Bell and his Warriors against the Gold Coast Seagulls. I had my Warrior face painted on. The talented Warriors were demolishing the featherless Seagulls and I started to dream of the ultimate sporting triumph, when one day the mighty Auckland Warriors will lift the trophy every team strives to claim in recognition of being the best team in the toughest competition in the world.

A dream that seemed very possible that year with talent in the likes of Greg Alexander, Dean Bell, Phil Blake and rookie sensation Stacey Jones sparkling the field with their abundance of talent and league prowess. But a little boy dreams of what could be one day be the best experience in his life.

The Warriors winning the NRL.

It is now November 12th 2011 and I'm still that little boy 16 years on and still dreaming about premiership glory. What keeps my dream possible is the NRL doesn't have a Manchester United, winning premierships 9/10 times, so realistically any team can win the NRL Premiership based on how even the competition is and has become over the years.

Over the 16 years my support for the Auckland based side they have given me an early case of high blood pressure and frequent heart attack trials part in due to the lack of consistency.

An example of their erratic performances is characterized best when they can beat a full strength Brisbane team with Origin Stars one week and then in the next lose a ‘supposed easy game’ against an under strength Cowboys team with out 6 Maroons.

Yet I have been witness to plenty of special and spectacular moments of the Warriors, from the thrills of seeing Stacey Jones scoring outrageous solo tries, Brent Webb making line breaks and bamboozling defenders, to the likes of Francis Meli scoring 5 tries against the Bulldogs.

Unfortunately despite all their moments of brilliance in their play-making ability and rear-end passes through out the years there is still shiny bronzoe trophy to show for it.

For now, what gets me going is knowing a team like the Cronulla Sharks have been waiting for over 30 years to taste premiership glory. They too have suffered as I have and know the pain, even the Cowboys fans can relate as they too share a similar history to my team.

I also know in the English premier league some fans supporting various clubs have died not witnessing their favorite team miss out on winning any trophies and championships, even while supporting them for over 70 years.

Unlike them though I can almost guarantee I won't fall in that category, but at this point I'm sick of saying

'There is always next year"!

So with the Warriors falling short in their 2nd Grand Final I can only watch another season of unpredictability and hope.

Will next year be our year?

I’ve been asking myself this question every season and the answer is always; 'No'.

But when the answer is;
'Yes' then look out cause the little boy still dreaming won't have to dream anymore, and it will be the best day in his life seeing, the very moment Captain Mannering lifting the Telstra Premiership trophy.
 
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Cliffhanger

Coach
Messages
15,228
Cliffy for GB

692 words.


CRICKET
Time to throw some snags on a barbie (veggies snags for me thanks), cut up some mangoes, and grab a nice cold drink. Summer is just around the corner and in between the rains of biblical proportions, unbearable humidity and heatwaves there is of course, one of Australia’s oldest and favourite past times, Cricket. And when the only thing more erratic than the Australian weather is our national cricket team, you know you are in for a long, exciting and potentially devastating summer.

It is a long off season folks and for the most of it cricket will be there. What is more is Cricket is the game we can follow religiously without any shame or guilt, not only does cricket pose no legitimate threat to Rugby League but unlike some other sports it is not for wusses. In contrast to Soccer and Tennis, cricket despite not being a physical sport, cricket still requires a level of physical and mental toughness, anybody who has even touched a cricket ball has to agree. Seriously imagine one of them coming at you at 150 kilometres an hour! The only diving is done in a desperate attempt to add to your team’s total. There is nowhere to hide on a cricket oval!

I like most NRL fans, have cricket as my first choice during the off season. That tension when one of your team’s batsman is at the crease, when any ball can be the one that sends them back to the shed. Those final balls of the match, when anything can happen, that irrational fear that if you stop watching the game for even a moment that a wicket will fall – which is a big problem considering how long it is between breaks. Cricket is a crazy game, it is such a large part of national culture and identity, journalist Garrie Hutchinson explains “Cricket was Australia’s national game before there was a nation,” when it comes to choosing a footy code we have four options. If we are normal we will be drawn to the thrill, athleticism, and contest that is rugby league, if we are pretentious the complexity and silliness of union, if we are soft, then soccer attracts us and if we like ballet but are too embarrassed to attend a rendition of Swan Lake, we choose AFL. We are not faced with this decision when it comes to cricket, we did not choose cricket, it chose us. Cricket attracts all Australians; it unites the fans of all football codes through mutual hatred of cocky South African, pretentious Poms and our other enemies.

Despite being quintessentially British, cricket has always been Australia’s stomping ground. Since winning the first international test match in 1877 against Great Britain, Australia has lead the way, tasting success in all versions of the game and producing some of the greatest cricketers including the undisputed best in Sir Donald Bradman.

When Australia tasted success in the early years it was not just a victory of the Australian cricketers over the English cricketers, but it sent a message to the English that Australian society was successful. We made the British our game and played in a way only we could. The success and progress of our cricket team enabled Australia as a nation to become unique and the people to separate itself from England and form a uniquely Australian identity and later provided a stage for Australians to show off their own style and separate identities. In our earliest colonial years it was the stockman and bushranger identities that Australian aspired to, in the 1800s it became our cricketing legends. Like The stockman and bushrangers, cricketers were athletic men which represented the triumph of the underdog. Cricket embodied many of the values which Australians rated the most important. Sociologist Tony Smith explains, “Perhaps cricket persists in popular notions of Australian values because of an assumption that the game has an ethos that provides everyone with a ‘fair go’.

Even during this somewhat tough ad disheartening period of Australian cricket we still have hope, we still have our heroes. League fans everywhere, this summer your country needs you!
 

Hallatia

Referee
Messages
26,433
Hallatia - New Zealand

Golden Point
gold·en
[gohl-duhn]
Adjective
exceptionally valuable, advantageous, or fine.
point
[point]
Noun
a</SPAN>unitofcountinthescoreofagame.</SPAN>[ii]

Who would have thought that these two words &#8211; individually quite good &#8211; would spell out a concept of untold evil?

Golden point is an evil, ghastly intervention, introduced to Rugby League after the whining of this man in 2002.
758101-phil-gould.jpg"][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=

2002, the State of Origin series came down to a game three decider. The decider decided that the series had been drawn, but the shield had to go somewhere, so, Queensland retained it, having won the previous series. That man above, not happy. For those who don&#8217;t know, that man above is Phil &#8220;Gus&#8221; Gould, for some reason or other, he holds a great deal of weight in the game of Rugby League in Australia. He is a smart man when it comes to the game, but, he is also notorious for whinging and holding beliefs quite firmly despite a seeming lack of having thought them through.

Anywho, that man, Gus, was the coach of the New South Wales Blues at the time and was not happy with the result [sic] of that origin series, and he was also not happy with the result [sic] of this game, having been the coaching director of the Sydney Roosters at the time as well. He proceeded to have a well-documented whinge about draws and as a result the Australian Rugby League introduced golden point extra time to all professional levels of the game.

This golden point system works like this: if scores are level on fulltime, both teams will come back onto the field, there will even be another toss, and they will be given 2 extra interchanges for the extra time period, but, the length of time they are to spend on the field is not determined. The rule is that they can come off when someone scores (in whichever way produces points in Rugby League), if extra time lasts beyond 5 minutes, there will be a golden point half time, and teams will switch sides of the field. In regular NRL competition, the two teams can only play for ten minutes without scoring before the game is officially declared a draw. In state of origins and finals, teams will keep playing until someone scores, and they will be given extra interchanges after every ten minutes of play.

This doesn&#8217;t seem like an appropriate way to decide a rugby league match (or many other kinds of matches for that matter), but this is what has been introduced and what we have had to suffer through on the occasion of level scores after 80 minutes of play in games of professional Rugby League since 2002. I don&#8217;t see what&#8217;s wrong with a draw, I think a draw is a fair result on such occasion

Let&#8217;s take a detour through a horrible sport [sic] known (to me anyway) as soccer, even they have managed to evolve beyond this awful system, which once upon a time they had used. Now, soccer is not a sport known for its intelligence, or any other good quality, but, those in charge of that game were smart enough to realise that golden point is a terrible system which is unfair, stupid and has no place determining the winner of that sort of competition.

Extra time does remain a system used in soccer for determining the results of some games, but they have learnt the errors of such a silly system and put in place a much better extra time system. A fairer system, which maintains the same type of competition that takes play during regular time, by pre-determining the amount of time to be played each way and giving the teams fair opportunity to play on and challenge for the match. What&#8217;s best about this system is that it is used very sparingly, only in cases where games need a winner.

Yes, a draw means that neither side has won (or lost for that matter), but it is a result and the result of the actual match, which rewards the efforts of both teams in achieving it.

The only games which absolutely need a victor are finals games. Other games, where a definite victor is not required, ought to have results which reflect the game that has been played. A Rugby League competition where we see several ties a season reflects a strong state of our competition.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=6047#_ednref1http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/golden

[ii]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/point
 

LeagueNut

First Grade
Messages
6,972
And the 2011 award for the closest post to fulltime goes to ........ Hallatia!!

*wild applause, a streaker appears*
 

Hallatia

Referee
Messages
26,433
And the 2011 award for the closest post to fulltime goes to ........ Hallatia!!

*wild applause, a streaker appears*
:D thanks. Such a huge achievement! It wasn't easy and my formatting took a hit, but I did it! I'd like to thank everyone that helped get me here. This is as much my achievement as everybody else in the team's *wipes tear*
 

LeagueNut

First Grade
Messages
6,972
May I gently enquire as to the whereabouts of our referee for this one?

Edit: If he's worried about the streaker then don't be, he's long since sobered up.
 

gUt

Coach
Messages
16,876
New Zealand Kiwis

byrne_rovelli_fan - Its' Never the Same

Another article about what the Storm (and other clubs) and its fans have to cope with in public and in their hearts when there&#8217;s bad news. At its core the author is writing about the value of respect over and above the value of a full trophy cabinet. The author swung between some nice, lyrical touches and a couple of basic grammatical errors. One trick I find useful is to read back what I&#8217;ve written aloud &#8211; you&#8217;d be amazed what mistakes you catch this way.

Score - 80

Robster - A Little Boy Waits.

To me, this article read like a conversation in a pub, as if the author was asked, &#8220;who do you support and why?&#8221;, and this was the response. It flowed easily enough but in its written form one or two tiny errors distracted me from the narrative. The author was skilful enough to keep a little boy&#8217;s sense of anticipation and frustration alive throughout the piece &#8211; a good use of &#8220;voice&#8221;. I also applaud your sympathy for other clubs&#8217; fans&#8217; suffering &#8211; because personally I enjoy seeing them squirm (heh-heh).

Score - 83

Hallatia - Golden Point

A forcefully-put opinion piece about the ghastly spectre (to some) of golden point extra time. Written with equal measures of humour and bitter resentment, this piece did not quite do enough to sway my neutral, fence-sitting position on the concept of G.P. If that isn&#8217;t the intention of an article like this, then I believe it should be, otherwise it&#8217;s either an objective analysis (clearly not in this case), or it&#8217;s just a whinge &#8211; and we know how the author feels about whingers! However, the strengths of the article outweigh the overall lack of a convincing argument and it made me smile more than once.

Score - 84

Great Britain and Ireland Lions

Cliffhanger - Cricket

A rallying call to arms that resonated with this league and cricket fan! Well written and full of pertinent diversions and asides. I had to mark it down a little because the links to rugby league were somewhat tenuous although in any other arena apart from a rugby league writing comp they wouldn&#8217;t detract at all. I enjoyed this piece and if this were a cricket writing comp you&#8217;d be hard to beat.

Score - 83

Poor Cliffhanger was left alone to face the haka and could do nothing to avoid being swamped by the rampaging Kiwis. The black-clad ones took this match 247 - 83.

POTM - Hallatia
 

Hallatia

Referee
Messages
26,433
Thanks ref, wow! Player of the match, I think this is a first for me. Not bad for an unfinished piece, which I only remembered to submit whilst I was hopping into the shower moments before full time.
 

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