England the adrenaline junkies
The big news at Rugby World Cup 2011 on Monday was the citing of England lock Courtney Lawes – the first censure at the seventh-ever RWC tournament. England, it seems, have been busy toeing the line both on and off the field.
Lawes will go before Independent Judicial Officer Terry Willis at a hearing in Auckland on Tuesday after kneeing Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma in the head when making a touchline tackle in Saturday’s Pool B tussle.
But his citing aside, Lawes’s teammates have been pretty busy off the pitch in Queenstown after their hard-fought – and fortuitous 13-9 win over the Pumas.
Situated in the Southern Lakes district in New Zealand’s south island, and with a mountain range boasting Ben Lomond, whose summit stands at more than 5,000 feet (1,700 metres), Queenstown calls itself the ‘Adventure Capital of the World’.
Among the activities on offer are white-water rafting, skiing, snowboarding and paragliding.
The England management had been coy Sunday on whether players would be allowed to go bungee-jumping days before their second World Cup match against Georgia.
But despite the possibility of injury, wing Chris Ashton and flanker James Haskell were among several England players who took the plunge, while others just chose to meet up with their partners.
Haskell was also involved in a spot of speed-boating, whilst Ashton and No.8 Nick Easter (both of whom also bungee-jumped) also enjoyed a bit of river-rafting – as one does. When in Rome, you know…
Ashton – I believe I can fly!
The need for speed:
Nothing like a few rapids to calm the nerves:
Fluffing his lines:
We touched on Chris Paterson’s fluffed conversion attempt on Saturday against Romania, the 800-odd point veteran missing a conversion from right in front as the ball fell off the kicking tee…
To his credit, Paterson saw the funny side of things by having a chuckle on his way back to the halfway line.
We also had a chuckle… loudly.
See for yourselves – in case you missed it on Saturday:
“I’m speechless… I think.”
On the topic of goalkicking, it wasn’t the best weekend for world rugby’s best marksmen – in particular 2003 World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson who landed just three from eight kicks at goal against England.
Kiwi commentator Justin Marshall remarked after yet another – surprising – Wilko miss: “I don’t know how I can say I’m speechless without actually not speaking. If you don’t hear anything from me – you’ll know what I mean!”
Justin Marshall quiet? Now there’s a rarity…
Man love in the All Blacks team?
Poster-boy Sonny Bill Williams, the darling of female rugby fans for exposing his chest to replace a ripped jersey when the All Blacks played Tonga, is to auction the shirt for charity.
He hopes to raise more than NZ$22,800 (US$18,000) for the Violet Foundation which promotes meningococcal awareness, which would top the successful bid for the handbag used by legendary All Black Tana Umaga in a bar-room stoush.
All Blacks doctor Deb Robinson says she’s been told she is the envy of every woman because she helped put the replacement jersey on, but Williams said he copped plenty of flack from the team for his topless cameo.
“More so from Benny Franks. I think he’s little jealous. He thinks I’m all show no go,” Sonny Bill quipped during a press conference.
Burly prop Franks, sitting next to Williams responded: “Now, he rings me up every morning to go in and help put his jersey on.”
Braaiday, braaiday, braaiday:
Not many people enjoyed young Rebecca Black’s chants of “Friday, Friday, Friday… ” in her internet-based music video hit a few months ago.
However, comedy duo ‘Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues’ recorded and shot a music video to parody the viral sensation that was “Friday”.
Of course, with all the World Cup Rugby action in store for us over the next few weeks – and with SA’s love for a braai/bbq at the best of times, this song has extra special meaning at present.
Grab your tongs, folks; it’s Braaiday!
This IS a family show, folks:
A parade of topless, motorcycle-riding strippers scheduled to take place in Auckland this month has been cancelled to preserve the Rugby World Cup’s family atmosphere, tournament organisers revealed on Monday.
Sex industry entrepreneur Steve Crow has organised ‘Boobs on Bikes’ parades, featuring topless strippers and porn stars riding pillion on motorcycles, in cities across New Zealand for the past eight years.
The next event was scheduled for Auckland on September 24, coinciding with a crunch pool match pitting the All Blacks against France at Eden Park in New Zealand’s largest city.
Crow planned to have 20 topless women, each featuring bodypaint in the colours of a World Cup team, ride through the city centre ahead of the match.
But the businessman announced on Monday that he was cancelling the parade, saying there had been a public backlash against the idea of linking nudity to the World Cup, the largest event ever staged in New Zealand.
“For the first time in the history of boobs on bikes, the tide of public opinion is most definitely against us holding this event at the date and time proposed due to the ‘family nature’ of the big rugby thingy that is happening all over NZ at this time,” he said in a statement.
Crow cited an online poll which showed 68 percent of respondents did not want the parade to proceed during the World Cup.
“So, and in keeping with our long-standing belief in democracy, as much as it pains us to do so, we are cancelling,” he said.
Hang on a tick… Did anybody bother to ask us if we objected to a ‘Boobs on Bikes’ parade?!
