One for sports fans here, I stumbled upon this video someone had very kindly put together of rugby legend Jonah Lomu.
As fans of the sport will know, he was a bit of a freak, hugely tall and stong, with astonishing speed and legs like pistons on a steam engine, the giant All Black was pretty much impossible to stop.
Silly named former England winger Austin Healey said in his book that you try to get low, but that doesn’t work because his legs are too big and his stride too wide, try to go high and you get sent flying into the stand.
He said the only way was to grab hold of him and wait for about eight of your team to come along and wrestle him to the ground.
Fairly early on in his career he was diagnosed with a rare and serious kidney disease, which required daily dialysis.
The treatment led to him suffering nerve damage and left him facing life in a wheelchair unless he had a transplant.
Suddenly, the giant seemed extremely human.
He did have a transplant and made a return to rugby, but faded fast and eventually retired in 2007.
An astonishing athletic talent, who had he stayed healthy would hold all sorts of try scoring records.
It’s very sad what happened to him, but he really was a wonder to watch.
I’ve just completed my second season as captain of a Sunday cricket team and while it’s great fun, being in charge of what is largely a crap local sports team is certainly an interesting experience.
Cricket is a game a lot of people just don’t understand.
They don’t get how you can play in a sport which has long periods of very little happening.
They don’t get how you can play for five days and still draw.
They don’t get how you can’t play when it’s raining.
They don’t get why a game you can’t play when it rains is played in England, in “summer”.
Despite this (and the fact most people of this few are football obsessed imbeciles) a lot of people find it a great way of spending an afternoon.
Some people play it for a living as well.
And I am now convinced my job is far harder than that of England captain Andrew Strauss.
Think about it, although we don’t come up against insane West Indians propelling a hard, red ball faster than a lot of cars go (90mph and faster), there’s a lot of nonsense Straussy doesn’t have to put up with.
For example, he has a selection committee to pick the side – I have a list which is usually wrong.
I very much doubt Strauss has had a phone call from his players saying they can’t play because they’ve got a hangover – I have.
I also very much doubt Mr Straus has had FIVE of his team pull out because England were playing Germany in the World Cup – I have.
So that’s one difference.
Next, in the unlikely event we’ve actually got a side out, the biggest difference is on the field.
Strauss has a team of athletes, all can catch, all can hurl the ball predigious distances and all can hare after the ball to stop it with a spectacular dive.
I have numerous players who can do none of the above.
I have some players who can do one of the three.
I have no players who can do all three.
So, Strauss does not have the dilemma of suddenly realising two of the “none of the above” group are standing next to each other with an enormous space behind them.
Strauss probably doesn’t find himself hoping the ball goes over the boundary for four because an aged non-thrower is trundling after it, giving the batsmen the chance to run five.
He also doesn’t have to find an umpire who vaguely knows the rules, a ball, another ball for when the first one gets whacked into a bush, he doesn’t have to find someone to make the tea, he doesn’t have to get someone who can add up to do the score, he doesn’t have members of the public wandering across the pitch, he doesn’t have to clear up dog poo/broken glass/beer cans before the game, he doesn’t make phone calls to players who say “Am I playing?”, he doesn’t have his OWN FATHER in his ear about what he should be doing, he doesn’t suddenly realise one player hasn’t batted or bowled and needs to do something, he doesn’t have to collect match fees after the game and go through the crippling mental arithmetic of trying to work out how much he needs and how much he has, he doesn’t have to find someone to keep wicket and he doesn’t suddenly realise at the start of the game the pitch hasn’t been marked and he doesn’t say during heavy downpours “It’ll blow over” before sprinting off as the heavens open.
That said, I don’t have to deal with Kevin Pietersen, for which I am eternally grateful.
Here we go again, moments that drive us all absolutely barmy, we see it, everyone in the stadium sees it, the world sees it but the idiot in the black uniform who matters the most misses it.
This is the top ten cheats
10. Rivaldo dive
This pathetic incident happened in the World Cup in 2002 in the game between Turkey and Brazil.
The Turkish player boots the ball to Rivaldo, who is waiting to take a corner.
It strikes Rivaldo gently in the leg, yet he goes down clutching his face as if he’s been on the end of a particularly good right hook.
Stupid ref then sends off Turkish player, much to the annoyance of the rest of the team, the management and the watching world.
Rivaldo was subsequently banned, on the grounds of being a twat you’d guess.
9. Neil Back
England rugby legend Back is playing for Leicester Tigers in the European Cup final.
His team were leading, but opponents Munster got a scrum not very far out, dead centre in the last minute.
Irish scrum half goes to put the ball in, as he does, the originally nicknamed “Backy” taps it with his hand back into his own side of the scrum.
For those of you not au fait with rugby, this is akin to punching the ball into the goal in football, a no no.
The ref, however, is standing on the other side, keeping an eye on one of the props, and so misses it.
8. Trevor Chappell
The least well-known of the famous Australian cricketing dynasty is probably the most notorious.
This is a clip from a one-day game against New Zealand in the 1970s.
After you’ve finished laughing at their kits, you’ll need to know New Zealand needed six of the last ball to win.
As a result, Chappell rolls it gently underarm along the ground, thus making it impossible.
The rules were changed after this.
I particularly like the way the batsman reacts.
Despite being a pro sportsman, he reacts in the way anyone else would, by giving him a look which says “you utter c**t’.
7. Tonya Harding
Ice skating is not well-known for scandal, but this is pretty unbelievable.
American Harding was embroiled in scandal after her husband hired a man to attack and injure herbiggest rival, Nancy Kerrigan.
The injury put Kerrigan out of the US figure skating championships in 1994, which Harding went on to win.
She was found guilty of helping to cover up the incident, but has always denied masterminding it.
It’s still a blatant act of cheating though, whoever is responsible, and there’s no doubt she benefited.
6.
Thierry Henry
Old Thierry is a fabulous player, but may well be remembered for a piece of handling Jonny Wilkinson would be proud of.
Running down the wing, the ball bounces up and he scoops it along with his hand before crossing it to William Gallas who whacks it in, thus winning France the game and sending poor old Republic of Ireland out of the World Cup.
Cue rage in Ireland, where there were demands for a replay.
They also conveniently forgot they won one of their earlier games thanks to an extreme dodgy penalty, but there was outcry nonetheless.
This is one of those things where you wonder how no-one saw it as it is so obvious, and anyway, who wants to see a load of Championship cloggers playing in the World Cup at the expense of messrs Henry, Anelka and Ribery.
5. Spain’s Paralympic basketball team
The sheer brass and morally wrong-ness of this is brilliant.
In the Paralympics of 2000, the Spanish team was stripped of the gold medal it had won in the intellectual disability competition after it was revealed 10 of the 12 players had nothing wrong with them.
The rules stated that to be allowed to play, players had to have an IQ of less than 70 (they could’ve asked the majority of Premiership footballers).
Spain didn’t bother to do the tests and were rightly stripped of the medals.
4. F1 Crash
I hate Formula 1 with a passion, so when I read about this I smiled.
The second most interesting thing that’s ever happened in the sport, after the tragic death of Ayrton Senna, was when Flavio Briatore, the mega-rich owner of the Renault team, instructed their driver Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help their lead driver, Fernando Alonso, win the Grand Prix in Singapore last year.
I know what I’d say if someone told me to crash while driving at 200mph but here’s the clip
3.Ronald Koeman
This is still the single moment that has enraged me most in any sporting ocassion.
This is the famous incident from the must win World Cup Qualifier in 1994.
First, Koeman hauls down David Platt when clean through on goal inside the penalty area.
Red card and a penno you must think?
No no, Koeman then convinces the ref not only was the foul outside the box, it was a mere yellow card.
As the script then suggests, the blond-haired get went and scored at the other end, meaning England didn’t qualify.
Happily, it did lead to the sacking of Graham Taylor.
A few points to make, if you look, he grabs Platt’s shirt just outside the area, however, he’s still got hold of it when he goes down very much inside the area.
He is also clearly the last man who has prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity, therefore a red card.
But the good old ref sums up why everyone hates refs by getting two massive decisions completely wrong, allowing good old Ron to stay on and score admittedly a very good free kick.
That said, have a look at who’s playing for England, Carlton Palmer, Tony Dorigo, no wonder we didn’t qualify.
Also check out the Dutch manager’s combover.
For some reason I can only find highlights in Dutch, which somehow makes it even more annoying.
And yes, David Seaman should’ve saved both, especially Bergkamp’s, which was rolling gently across the ground.
2. Ben Johnson
Somehow athletics officials failed to notice Ben Johnson’s yellow eyes and bodybuilder’s physique at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
His time of 9.79 seconds smashed the then world record and is only slightly slower than Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds record 21 years on.
Of course, he was found to have pumped himself full of steroids.
You’ll notice a young Linford Christie finishing in third, which was pushed to second when Johnson was found to have more drugs inside him than an NHS Foundation Trust.
1. Diego Maradonna
Yes, who else could it be? Another dirty cheating foreigner who cheated our heroic footballers out of World Cup glory.
We all know about the “Hand of God”, but I have a few questions, why did no-one twig that it was very unlikely that Maradonna, about 5ft 3in, would be able to outjump a 6ft plus goalkeeper stretching as high as he could for the ball?
We also have to applaud the little twat for his first goal, probably the best ever, but why didn’t any of England’s lumbering midfield do what you or I would have done and booted him up in the air?
Mind you, they probably couldn’t even get close enough to do that.
As you marvel at the nimble feet of the Argentinian genius, take stock of how incredibly slow England midfielder Peter Reid is.
Here’s his amazing goal (with some really terrible commentary), which actually made it 2-0 after the handball debacle.
Not for the faint hearted this one, but we’ve all seen something horrible happen to our heroes on the pitch.
These are the very worst sports injuries.
10. Djibril Cisse
The flamboyant Frenchman is one of the most unfortunate players around as he has not one horrific leg break but two, one on each leg, very unlucky.
However, if you look at how spindly his legs are, then you can maybe understand why they are so brittle.
Here’s leg break number 1
and number 2
9. Sid Vicious
Not the dead Sex Pistol, but a wrestler who decided to rip off the name.
It’s another leg break, watch it flapping freely.
8. Wayne Shelford
The famous All Black rugby hard man was a bit of a headcase, as proven when during a game against France in 1986.
After a particularly vigorous trampling at a ruck, “Buck” as he was known suffered a split scrotum and ended up running about with one of his testicles hanging out.
Blood, screaming, hospital you might think, but not Buck.
“Stitch it up mate” he said to the phsyio, who did as he was told, by the side of the pitch.
Five minutes later Buck was back, proving the theory that rugby is indeed played by men with funny shaped balls.
Sadly, there’s no video for this one.
7.
Owwww.
Check out this massive weightlifter whose leg simply can’t take the strain. CRACK.
There’s also some amusing ice-hockey fights here too.
6. Eye Gouge
This is in Australian rugby league, apparently, it’s not as bad as it looks, which its pretty bad.
5.
Phil de Glanville
The young Bath rugby player was playing for the South West against the All Blacks in the 1990s when he found himself on the floor in a ruck.
Next thing you know 20 odd pairs of massive boots worn by a group of mean, heavy men have pumped into his face, leaving him with blood streaming from an horrific eye wound.
There’s no pics of de Glanville sporting stitches across his eyelid but being the All Blacks they got away with it.
No pics or video of this one either sadly.
4.
Kickboxing injury
Another broken leg here, not only does it look unimaginably painful, but he’s also got his wounded pride by breaking his leg by kicking someone.
3. Eduardo
Broken ankle this time and the Brazilian Croatian’s foot is very much hanging on by a small piece of bone.
Watch how hard defender Martin Taylor gets him.
2. David Busst
The poor Coventry defender suffered the worst broken leg football has ever seen in a game against Manchester United in and has had numerous operations on his leg.
Massive United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel had to have counselling after seeing the injury close up.
1. Richard Zednik
Viewer discretion advised.
This is the horrific moment when ice hockey player Richard Sednik’s throat was cut by a flailing skate.
Horrid. It’s one of his team mates as well.
so that’s the top ten, but I’m interested in something I’ve heard about an athlete who tried to dry the sweat off his face using a crisp packet and ended up slicing off his retina.
If anyone knows about that one, please put up info, or even better a vid.
A terrible, terrible game won by two penalties and a drop goal from Jonny Wilkinson and a Matt Banahan try, but the All Blacks wait for England and will be licking their lips after watching this display.
Christ almighty that was bad - slow, ponderous, no flair, no angles, very little aggression and pointless kicking were the main highlights of this dour encounter.
England have been training together for three weeks yet gave a strong indications that they had been introduced to each other in the pub before the game.
Ugo Monye, the Harlequins wing who was such a star of the Lions tour, looked like he had no idea what to do playing at full back.
It’s a classic English selection policy, pick form players and play them out of position, they’ve done it for years.
Monye is (or was, he’s probably lost every shred of confidence now) the form wing probably in Europe, but England want the giant, overly tattooed, massively cumbersome Banahan to play so they’ve stuck poor old Monye at full back where he looks about as comfortable as a nun in a porn theatre.
It’s actually quite hard to do a report of this game as bog all happened.
Wilkinson kicked a drop goal, then Argentina kicked a penalty, then Cueto wasn’t quick enough to score a try when he got hold of a loose ball, then Argentina kicked a penalty after someone dropped it and someone picked it up in an offside position.
It was 9-9 at half time, a thriller, with Monye looking very much like he wanted to go home.
England did manage to up the tempo at the start of the second half but for 20 minutes it looked like the main aim between the two teams was to see who could be more crap and make more mistakes.
Finally, in the 69th minute just about the only backs move of the game saw Bahanan lumber over to go under the posts.
Despite England’s attempts to cock it up at the end by bringing on Andy Goode, they just held on.
New Zealand await and could probably put out their under-18 side and beat this England team.
Tactically, England do some really odd things, time and time again Wilkinson gets the ball and boots it straight down the middle of the pitch.
This is the famous-for-kicking Jonny Wilkinson, surely he can get it off the pitch.
It’s clear this is a tactic, although for the life of me I can’t work out what the aim is.
Slow, slow ball, surely they can get it out quicker than they are, someone’s telling them to try to slow it down, New Zealand will crucify them if they try this.
Back play seems to be to pass it all the way to one wing, then back to the other, if no-one drops it, which they do.
Where’s the flair? Wilkinson is supposed to be brilliant for Toulon, Geraghty looks class running things for Northampton, yet England have as much flair as a Christmas pudding.
There have been a lot of injuries and players like Simon Shaw would have made a difference here, but it’s a real chance for some players here but they were just scared to death of taking it.
The pressure is very much on team manager Martin Johnson, but he needs to be strong.
There is clearly problems with the tactics and the coaching of these players and surely a stuffing by New Zealand would mean changes HAVE to be made.
England creaked in the scrum, they were turned over, they lost lineout ball, they took about half an hour to get the ball out of the ruck, they passed it from one wing to the other without even looking like making a break.
It was clearly obvious they were absolutely terrified of losing and tried to play a game where they took absolutely no risks.
The press will be right on their backs and rightly so, this isn’t acceptable.
They’re not as good as in 2003, the players aren’t there, but they should be better than they are and it’s down to the management to sort this out.
If they don’t, then they need to be sacked and that includes the mighty Johnson.
Player ratings:
15. Ugo Monye – Looked utterly lost, don’t blame him, blame the management. If I was him and they told me to play full back in the next game I’d go on strike. 3/10
14. Mark Cueto – tidy, solid, unspectacular, reliable, but you’d hope someone more dynamic comes along. 6/10
13. Dan Hipkiss – good club player who is struggling to step up to international level, like most of England’s backs got the ball above his head or standing still. 6/10
12. Shane Geraghty – the Midfield magician, the man tasked with getting England’s backs going has spectacularly failed so far, faces the massive powerful Ma’a Nonu next week and I fully expect him to be trampled. 5/10
11. Matt Banahan - looks cumbersome unless coming in off a long run up, which you would expect for a 6ft 7in winger, easy finish for try but needs to add some sublety to his game, another who could find it tough vs the All Blacks. 6/10
10. Jonny Wilkinson - missed a lot of kicks at goal which was unusual, tackled like a trooper, kicking from hand was rubbish, passing ok. 6/10
9. Paul Hodgson – brought in for his “tempoing” skills (awful, awful word), but only on occassion could speed up the game, can’t pass very well either, not bad though. 6/10
8. James Haskell – another one out of position, some good charges and turnovers, but needs to learn how to be a number 8, also gave away a really stupid penalty. 8.10
7. Lewis Moody - lacks creativity but not effort, a fearless headcase around the pitch was again outstanding. 9/10
6. Tom Croft – a star of the Lions looks lost playing for England – 3/10
5. Steve Borthwick (c) - offers nothing in terms of ball-carrying, useful in the lineout but not an international standard lock, let alone a captain. 3/10
4. Louis Deacon – a joke of a selection, what does he offer? Not a lineout forward, not a ball carrier, offers no skill, no tackling and is invisible around the field. There are so many better locks in England. 2/10
3. Duncan Bell – Fatty was invisible around the field and pushed around in the scrums by the meaty Argentinian forwards, who all look terrifying.
2. Dylan Hartley - needs to put the effort into playing he puts into snarling at everyone and mouthing off, but had a decent game. 7/10
1. Tim Payne – it took me a while to remember who was playing. If others were fit he wouldn’t be anywhere near the team. Average at everything, in for a long afternoon next week.
Replacements:
Steve Thompson (hooker) how is bringing him on going to change the game?
Joe Worsley (flanker) how is bringing him on going to change the game?
Andy Goode (fly half) you’ve got to be kidding me, the biggest indication of how clueless the coaches are is that this long-haired clown is seen as England’s second best fly-half. Did his best to lose the game in the very short period he was on but just failed. Danny Cipriani must consider another career when he watches this joker. 1/10 (and that’s generous).
Danny Care (scrum half) – only on for a bit but I saw him wait for hours before passing it from a ruck and put a kick straight into touch. 1/10
All in all – garbage, the All Blacks will destroy next week.
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Like tackling a bus. Jonah Lomu’s finest moments
In Comment, Sport on October 10, 2010 at 11:36 amOne for sports fans here, I stumbled upon this video someone had very kindly put together of rugby legend Jonah Lomu.
As fans of the sport will know, he was a bit of a freak, hugely tall and stong, with astonishing speed and legs like pistons on a steam engine, the giant All Black was pretty much impossible to stop.
Silly named former England winger Austin Healey said in his book that you try to get low, but that doesn’t work because his legs are too big and his stride too wide, try to go high and you get sent flying into the stand.
He said the only way was to grab hold of him and wait for about eight of your team to come along and wrestle him to the ground.
Fairly early on in his career he was diagnosed with a rare and serious kidney disease, which required daily dialysis.
The treatment led to him suffering nerve damage and left him facing life in a wheelchair unless he had a transplant.
Suddenly, the giant seemed extremely human.
He did have a transplant and made a return to rugby, but faded fast and eventually retired in 2007.
An astonishing athletic talent, who had he stayed healthy would hold all sorts of try scoring records.
It’s very sad what happened to him, but he really was a wonder to watch.
Here’s the video.