A day to remember

Tuesday was an historic day in the rugby world, and the sleepy town of Nelson was at the centre of all the 2011 World Cup action. We take a look at how history was made and remembered in our daily wrap.

Nelson hosted its first game of the Rugby World Cup on Tuesday when Russia squared up to Italy at Trafalgar Park. The Azzurri were clearly too powerful for the game Russian Bears and romped home, racking up their half-century in the process.

However, there was something to celebrate for the Russians as they scored their first, second and third tries in World Cup rugby. Granted, they let Italy score nine and did not take any log points from the match but they delivered a spirited performance against their more highly fancied rivals.

The player who perhaps personified their fighting spirit the most was reserve scrumhalf Alexander Yanyushkin who was the man to get over for their historic first try. The diminuitive 1.65m tall halfback wriggled past 1.91m Italian prop Lorenzo Cittadini to strike a punishing blow for little big people, or big little people (we are not quite sure) everywhere.

It is quite a stroke of luck that Russia will not be facing England anytime soon, as we all know what Mike Tindall and the boys like to do with the vertically challenged.

Dressed for success?

Another interesting occurence during the game was Italian flank Mauro Bergamasco’s brief absence from the field of play due to a wardrobe malfunction. Bergamasco was sporting the logo of the Paris-based clothing line that he and his brother Mirco are involved with on his pants.

He had tried to tape it over but the tape came loose during the course of the game and he was ordered from the field to change his pants in what has to be the first incident of its kind in world rugby.

It does beg the question of how much say sponsors actually have, for example do all the Springboks have to use their official deoderant? How would that be enforced, would there be someone who regularly sniffs the players armpits just to make sure?

Bergamasco was not the only guy to have to leave the field and find some extra clothing:

Old school rugger:

There was another notable rugby match held in Nelson on Tuesday, although this one was considerably more ‘old school’. Nelson is recognised as the birthplace of rugby in New Zealand rugby as the first game was played there after Charles Monro returned south from studying in England with a love of the game, some oval-shaped balls and a rule book in 1870.

A re-enactment of the first game was held at the original site of the encounter – the Nelson Botanical Gardens – between Nelson College and Nelson Rugby Football Club. Both sides turned out in Victorian jerseys, knickerbockers and caps to replay the match held on 14 May 1870, however there were a few slight adjustments made.

The game was slightly different back then, there was definitely no TMO, and it included the important skill of hacking. In short, hacking was the practice of kicking your opponents in the shins, sometimeswith steel caps on the end of your boots known as ‘navvies’. This could be done only if your opponent was not being held and he was facing you, but it was an important part of the game back then.

Passing and handling were frowned upon in the 1870s (yes even in New Zealand), so it was mainly a kicking game, and the re-enactment featured the original 18-a-side format with rudimentary scrums, line-outs, rucks and mauls.

The original game was witnessed by just 200 hundred spectators, while Tuesday’s ‘replay’ attracted a crowd of over 10 000, however one important point of similarity was that the football club emerged victorious in both matches.

The Nelson College team in their knickerbockers

With thanks to RNS

Two scrummies better than one?

France coach Marc Lievremont remained true to form when he announced his team to take on the All Blacks by springing a baffling selection surprise.

The flamboyant French mentor decided that the best player to go head-to-head with Dan Carter would be scrumhalf Morgan Parra who has a grand total of 35 minutes experience playing at flyhalf for France.

Lievremont explained that the incumbent Francois Trinh-Duc, one of the few players he has selected regularly in his tenure, should be discarded as his form is not up to scratch. This would seem like a fair enough reason if for example he had someone like David Skrela to call on, but alas he does not and the wide-eyed Parra would appear to be something of a lamb to the slaughter.

The situation was made even more farcical when Parra himself admitted that he would struggle given his severe lack of experience, but he could at least take some consolation from Trinh-Duc’s pledge to “help Morgan” at training.

At least someone has got the poor guy’s back.