It's Time.......3N Time!!!!!!!

It is time once again for the arguably most potent tournament in world rugby today - The Tri Nations 2009.



This competition has been dominated by the All Blacks for basically it's entire duration having accumulated 9 trophies from 13 tournaments. The Springboks have 2 and the Wallabies 2. Since the springboks won it in 2004, the New Zealanders have kept a strangle hold on the 3N for the last 4 years. This year however gives the impression that their time may be up, but it is still a very close call.

Bookies have the Boks as favourites after their series win against the Lions. A series win that to me when looked at under the microscope was not too emphatic, as you can see from my opening article below, but good enough to put the Boks in a favourable position going into the 3N. NZ had a way below average start to their season with a close 1-1 draw series with France, and their their worst ever victory over Italy, in a disastrous display of uncoordinated rugby from the Kiwi's. Remember all these games were on home soil for the Kiwi's which apart from South Africa is by far the hardest place to win, especially against arguably the best team of the last 15 years.

The Aussies had a fairly promising beginning to their season with 4 straight wins in what you could call convincing fashion. the opposition left little to be desired though, as the first game was against the Barbarians, and we all know what those games are like and very rarely tell you a lot about the quality of the team. They then had 2 good wins against the Italians, but once again did not attack the metaphorical jugular when they had their opposition all but wrapped up. Same goes with the French game where they did not let in any tries but failed to really capitalise on their opportunities. Defensively they looked extremely sound having not given up their goal line for around 180 minutes of rugby. their ability to hold possesion and win ball at the break down points was also very good and they have most likely the best fly half in the tournament in Matt Giteau.

So with the Boks facing without doubt the toughest opposition in the pre 3N games (The Lions) and securing a 2-1 series (missing out on the clean sweep thanks to the clever idea of changing 10 players for the final game by our lovely coach Snor AKA Pieter De Villiers) one would have to assume they have the best chance of taking the title this year. They also have a great schedule for once with 3 home games to start with 2 of the games being against the All Blacks (meaning they only have to face them once away in NZ).

On top of this PDV has selected his best team in my opinion in his entire tenure as coach, and maybe one of the best teams in the last 10 years barring Ricky Januarie on the bench. So with all that being said I think we can look forward to a compelling series, where anything can happen and I believe that any of these three teams can take it. The Aussies are definitely my dark horse, and the All Blacks definitely don't look their usual powerful selves, and the Bok lineup on paper looks good, but they do manage to surprise us all the time. It's going to be an exciting couple of months.... Go Bokke!!!!!

2008 New Zealand
2007 New Zealand
2006 New Zealand
2005 New Zealand
2004 South Africa
2003 New Zealand
2002 New Zealand

2001 Australia
2000 Australia
1999 New Zealand
1998 South Africa
1997 New Zealand
1996 New Zealand

False Bay Pooitjie Festival - Up the Bay!!!!

Last weekend False Bay Rugby Club hosted their annual Old Crocks Rugby day with the added incentive of a pooitjie making competition. Needless to say this was indeed a recipe for disaster for anyone who knows the Bay, will automatically scream the words "Crazy Madness" in the silence of their own heads. For me the pooitjie competition began with a "strategy meeting" session on Friday evening at around 10pm, this "Strategy discussion" found it's way all around the southern burbs, incl, Tangos, The Bay, Mr B Lyles flat, Oblivion, Pirates, and back to the Bay.

Needless to say that during this time there was much consumption of alcoholic beverages ranging from castles to extremes to brandy, and all the way to Johnnie Walker blue Label!!!!!

Definitely no messing with these boys from the club I tell you. "Strategy meeting" ends roughly 4:30 am sat morning. I wake up to a missed call at 10 30 am on Saturday, feeling altogether not well, but more than likely still drunk, so proceed to the club and have my first Spike (most probably the most evil energy drink alive) and Smirnoff ice. Then came the wonderful game of half half, which was played eagerly at will by everyone. The Castles have never tasted better I tell you and i think their most recent advert says it all.....

Oh yes at this stage pooitjies had begun to brew believe it or not and their were a host of very indifferent teams including the the first team, the coaching team, (which I had the privilege of joining ;-) ) and many other. The games also got underway at about 1pm, and the Bay old crocks got off to a firing start dominating their first game, how I can remember to this point I'll never know but this is about as good as it gets - as we continued to be overdosed with tequila and half halves. Fantastic!!!!!

The games continued under somewhat wet conditions and the big screen had everyone enthralled from around the 3pm and the Currie Cup caught a bit of attention. the bar was humming and the atmosphere was incredible - just pure unadulterated fun. I did find out that my team did not win the competition but i cannot argue that point as I don't think I was much help anyways. I think it went to a very interesting fish pooitjie with lobster bisque as the gravy - somebody told me it was amazing and that I really enjoyed it - so it must have been good.

All jokes aside, it was a really great day and very well executed by all at the club (notice the rugby terminology there). All the players and their families enjoyed themselves, and I am definitely giving it another crack next year!!!! (but maybe I'll eat first next time) ;-)

Certain names to the madness have been emitted due to the sensitive nature of their involvement in the club LOL)

Who Truly was the best Joker??????

I'm sure many of you will instantaneously jump to the conclusion that Heath Ledger was by far the best Joker, but I beg to differ. You see it is not as cut and dry as you may think. Jack Nicholson - the original Joker in the first Batman - was to me absolutely superb. Barring special effects and the type of Joker you wanted to be represented, I would say his performance was actually quite stellar. Many people forget this, and I only really realised when watching the original Batman on SABC 3 on Friday night for the first time in many years.

The script that he played out was one of a more fun loving humorous Joker, as the movies made back then were not as dark and evil as they are now, yet he still managed to portray the importance of the joker as a vindictive, cunning and superior villain. In fact the joker was rated no.2 on the all time top 100 super villains over all comic genre's only just losing out to Magneto of the X-men.

The fact that he actually posseses no real super powers at all, shows you what a feat this actually is, and how important this character is to the comic book world as a whole. So there is a huge responsibilty on the actor playing this character to really represent the hidden themes of the relationship between Batman and Joker (Basically the feeling that Batman cannot survive without the Joker and vice versa, as they are connected in such a dramatic and twisted way, neither can actually kill the other - and they were both really created as a result of each other)

If you look at the more modern Batman movies - Batman begins and The Dark Knight - you will find that they take the movie to a much darker place - a more sinister representation of the Batman and the Joker - Where one must say that Heath Ledger was absolutely brilliant. He completely captured the psyche of the Joker in a way I thought was not possible. The difference is the script that he recieved allowed him the freedom to explore the darker side of the Joker whereas the script that Nicholson was handed made him move more along the lighter comical side, yet still madly psychotic at the same time.

Another comparrison to show you how hard it really is to compare is the James Bond question, Who is truly the best James bond? After Casino Royale many people were starting to have their doubts if it really was Sean Connery at the head of the list, after an awsome performance by Daniel Craig and many believed that after a few more of these roles he would take the mantel and replace Connery as the best. Bottom line is that that could never happen. Sean Connery made James Bond who he is today. If weren't for Connery there would not be Casino Royale for Daniel Craig to star in. If Connery had the budget and the script that these guys get today, he would undoubtably be the greatest James bond of all time....Undisputed.

In many ways I feel this is the same as what happened to the new Joker comparrison. Taking nothing away from Heath Ledger, as I said before he was brilliant and deserved an Oscar, but I believe that Nicholson with the same script and effects, could have produced a very similar if not better performance, not to mention the fact that his original performance basically made the original movie, without him it would have been a flop. Christian Bale has obviously been by far the best Batman, all the old batman movies were also basically flops as opposed to the new renditions, But the 2 Joker performances both demand a lot of respect and I believe the hype surrounding the modern movie itself, Ledgers personal issues and of course brilliant acting, has shadowed what to me was one of the greatest comic book performances of the last century by Jack Nicholson.

Of course that is just my personal opinion, but I recommend watching them both at the same time with an open mind as to the generation gap of movie making and the theme that is portrayed by each individual movie maker, which was incredibly contrasting to say the least, and then decide who your favourite Joker really was, or if maybe it is a tie, which is what I am giving both these great actors for their roles as one of the most influential comic book bad guys of all time!!!!