Funny - Royal Mail

I wonder if the UK's Royal Mail knows where New Zealand is? Today, I received an expo guide from the Quarrying Institute in Britain, promoting Hillhead 2026, a working quarry show held in Derbyshire every two years. I am a regular attendant, but did not plan on going this year. I received the guide after the show was held, 23-25 June 2026. The envelope was sellotaped together, it had broken in transit.

Normally I would receive such mail well in advance of the event. So I looked at the post mark - Sweden. The origin point was Nottingham, England; so I'm assuming this letter went from England to Sweden first. The mail system saw New Zealand, and thought, oh, Sweden (there is a Zealand in Denmark and the Netherlands, don't know about Sweden). It arrived there, and the Swedes nicely repaired the package and sent it on to the correct destination, New Zealand, on the other side of the world. 

Sweden can find New Zealand, but not the Royal Mail. Imagine the type of people they hire in mail sorting in England!

What's Wrong With the All Blacks?

Rugby Union - New Zealand's All Blacks have lost to England at Twickenham, 19-33. This has got to sting as England are starting to rack up wins a little too often. 

What has gone wrong?

New Zealand seem to lack the ability to get themselves out of a slump during games. I put this down to three main factors:

1. Coaching - the team now plays two-dimensionally, they lack innovation. Gone are the 3D chess moves of Steve Hansen and Ian Foster, the current coaches' predecessors.

2. Captaincy - the current leadership on the field is lacking; they live only in the moment and make very poor strategic on-field decisions.

3. Skill - the players commit too many basic errors, such as not being able to secure the ball or retain possession, and they lack in areas of more advanced play, such as their body position when close to the line. 

During the latest effort against England, there was a long period of time when the All Blacks failed to score, letting England get a feeling they were in the game. Previous teams were always able to keep the scoreboard ticking along, effectively shutting down the hopes of their opposition.

The only positive is that it is good to find this out now, rather than close to a World Cup. The All Blacks have a lot of work to do.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/579002/grand-slammed-what-went-wrong-for-the-all-blacks-against-england

Knife Attack England

 It does appear that England has a major problem; the fabric of its society appears torn.

Rugby World Cup 2023 Semi-Final: England v South Africa

South Africa have pipped England to advance to the final of the Rugby World Cup, where they'll face New Zealand's powerful All Blacks. I notice England fans are criticising the New Zealand referee, and claiming their side was better.

That's not how I saw the match. England lacked creativity and relied on their defense while on attack they were kicking all the time. Their defense held well, but they ended up giving away possession, so while they often held field position, they were unable to capitalise on it.

South Africa were clearly the better team, but they were their own worst enemy at times. When in possession they'd often cough the ball up, giving England the ball. Thus, when you look at the game stats, you'll see England had more possession, but South Africa made the clean breaks, and beat defenders.

Crucially, South Africa scored the only try. This came after they brought on replacements which actually improved their team performance. They got better with replacements, while England got worse with theirs.

Another factor must be fatigue. It has been a long tournament with many days between games. South Africa have had tougher games, while England have had an easier run. South Africa looked tired.

Will this matter in the final? New Zealand have an extra day's rest, and their semi-final was a stroll in the park. They should be fresher and have had the advantage of seeing what South Africa bring. Clearly, the final will be a tough encounter, but NZ must go in as favorites given they don't appear so tired.

South Africa 16 v England 15

England Lose - Sour Grapes

England lost to New Zealand in the final of the Women's Rugby World Cup and cannot seem to get over it. After going into the tournament as red-hot favourites, they came up short when it really mattered. 

After a red card offense for reckless play leading to head contact, and the injuring of the other player early in the game, England now want to change the rules. In doing so they may end up endangering players. England coach, Simon Middleton is claiming the red card for England's Lydia Thompson was unfair as it was 'accidental'. What Middleton appears to be calling for is lengthier yellow cards for such head contact.

This endangers players and must be summarily dismissed as a proposal. The effect of it would mean no real penalty for foul play. In the final played over the weekend, England went down to 14 players for the remainder of the match after a collision by Thompson with New Zealand's star player and all-time great, Portia Woodman, which led to the NZ player being put out of the game. If Thompson was to get 20 minutes in the sin bin, she could re-enter the game, England would be back to 15 players, but NZ loses its biggest talent. There is an obvious dividend received by the offending team. They would succeed in eliminating their biggest try-scoring threat.

In this case, Thompson made no attempt to avoid contact. She simply ran into Woodman, there was no tackle, it was simply reckless play. Watching the game I knew it was a red card offense but commented that it'll be a yellow due to the game being a World Cup final. When the referee conducted the mandatory video review and called the play a red card, I was gobsmacked. Finally, a rugby referee called it correctly and against England who think they own the game. Credit to the referee.

But play such as that by England must always result in a sending off. Player safety is paramount.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/nov/13/she-did-not-deserve-this-middleton-urges-rethink-after-thompson-red

England: Excess Deaths

What is causing the excess deaths being recorded in England? Note that deaths are still increasing but deaths as a result of the thing that shall not be called its name have dropped away. Hmm....what could it be? 💉

https://expose-news.com/2022/09/29/record-breaking-excess-deaths-covid-vaccine/

The Office for National Statistics has revealed that England and Wales suffered another record-breaking week of deaths in the week ending 16th September 2022, with an extra 1,009 people dying compared to the five-year average.

Excluding the Jubilee Bank Holiday in early June, this means England and Wales have now recorded significant numbers of excess deaths every week for the past 22 weeks, bringing the grand total to 25,952 since the week ending 24th April.

<snip>

However, further Office for National Statistics figures that prove 94% of all Covid-19 deaths since April have been among the triple/quadruple vaccinated, and that prove mortality rates per 100,000 are highest among the vaccinated population in all age groups, strongly suggest that the Covid-19 vaccine could be a contributing factor to why so many people are dying.

England Lose Euro 2021 Final

England overthink things when it comes to penalties. That's all I can say. They should have won the match in regulation time of course, they were up 1-0 at halftime and should have shut the game down in the second half, but failed to. Sterling should have got a penalty in the second half, but missed out. However, throughout the second half Italy looked the better team. England tried to play and came up short.

Then with penalties, England overwork it. The Rashford attempt had choke written all over it. The other two saves by the Italian goalkeeper were well done, but it was obvious from the body language of the penalty kickers which way they were sending the ball. That made things easier for the Italian goalie.

I should add, the competence of the England manager must be called into question. What was he thinking, choosing a young 19 year old player to take the final penalty kick. The player had come on as a replacement and looked overawed by the occasion. He had one or two touches but never really threatened. To then decide to put the same guy under immense pressure in front of a worldwide audience in the region of two billion, well, that's asking far too much. I doubt anyone could handle it at that age. This is coaching 101, when the chips are down and one last play is needed, you go to old heads with plenty of experience. 

England are still trying to end the drought, will this ever end? I'm a Chicago Cubs fan and know curses all too well. That took 71 years to erase and was only accomplished by having the curse transferred to another team due to one of that teams fans making a big mistake. So, England, this could go well beyond 55 years. Depressing I know.

England Euro 2021

C'mon England, do it. Win the thing. 

Being a New Zealander, people seem to think I'd want England to lose. Not so, I just don't ever want them to beat New Zealand. Against anyone else I'm happy for England to win. The reason I think they can do it this time is they've recently had success but ultimately came up short at the 2018 World Cup. Winning an important tournament often comes off going deep but failing at an earlier event. Teams learn a lot from this kind of failure and go on to win big. 

Rugby World Cup 2019 - South Africa World Cup Champions

South Africa beat England 32-12. No tries for England who were on the back foot almost the whole game. The Springboks played to their strengths and kept field position, with the English pinned in their own half. Eventually the points came. Very sensible tactics from South Africa; kick for position, defend stoutly, put pressure on set pieces, kick the goals and seal the win with tries toward the end.

For me the decisive and most telling moment was in the first half, the Springboks up 6-3. England were hard on attack, threatening to score a try. Time and again they mounted attacks only for South Africa to push them back. South Africa eventually gave away a penalty, the score then stood at 6-6 when it could have been 6-10. England looked dejected, from that point on they never looked like scoring a try. South Africa were prepared to put their bodies on the line, several players suffered game ending injuries as a result of that defensive effort, but the team didn't buckle.

As a footnote, thought has to turn to whether England peaked too early. They played the perfect game against New Zealand in their semi-final, making it very hard for them to get back up for the final a week later.

Lawrence Dallaglio Deluded

Apparently, the former captain of England's rugby team, Lawrence Dallaglio thinks if England win the 2019 World Cup final against South Africa, that it would be the greatest rugby World Cup victory of all time.

Err, newsflash, the greatest final has already been played and that was in 1995, the game was between South Africa and New Zealand's All Blacks, a game that was won by the Springboks in overtime. It's great because of the political and social significance of the result. It united a fractured country. Nelson Mandela famously wore the Springbok uniform when greeting the players.

Then in second place we have the greatest feat, New Zealand going back-to-back in 2011 and 2015. Truly remarkable. That's similar to Brazil in soccer going back-to-back, 1958 and 1962.

If England do win in 2019 it can at least be said to be a proper win. England previously won a World Cup in 2003, a soft world cup that as they didn't defeat New Zealand on the way through.

However, I don't think England are going to win in 2019. I predict that will be South Africa, for the simple reason they have more to play for. They desperately want to equal NZ's three victories, and put themselves in place to score a back-to-back and in so doing go to the top with four titles. Watching the semi-finals, England will have to get back up again after playing out of their skins, while South Africa played in a very measured and calculating way against Wales. They'll have the reserves of endurance needed to win.

RWC 2019 Semi-Final England v New Zealand

England beat New Zealand 19-7. The All Blacks were thoroughly outplayed, the score flattered them. England were completely dominant, they read the NZ game well and effectively shut down the All Blacks possession. It's hard to think of a single thing NZ did well, apart from restricting the rate of England scoring, getting lucky at times with referee decisions that went their way.

For England, it's on to the final and facing either Wales or South Africa. My pick is for South Africa to take Wales out and go on to win the tournament.

NZ will need to re-think their approach, clearly the better nations have caught up and now have them figured out.

RWC 2019 Quarter-Finals

Rugby World Cup quarter-finals have gone the way people would expect; England easily dispatched Australia 40-16 (I got this one wrong), then in a thoroughly dominant display New Zealand's All Blacks crushed Ireland 46-14. The All Blacks were simply superb and if they maintain that form, they'll be marching into the final.

New Zealand's Own Ben Stokes

I'm talking about Ameliaranne Ekenasio. She scored the winning goal that won New Zealand the Netball World Cup. She was born and raised in Australia, played netball for U-21 Australia and then moved to NZ for more playing time. She was clinical and stuck the knife in when required.

Ben Stokes was born in NZ and left for the UK at the age of 12 with his family. He started playing for England and also stuck the knife in when required. Both defeated the country in which they were born and raised. I'm kind of impressed by their professionalism.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: The Final

New Zealand played England in the Cricket World Cup final, the match ending in a tie after each had completed their 50 overs (241 runs each). The contest then went to so-called "super overs" where 6 extra balls are bowled by each team. The team scoring the most runs wins. However, the super overs also ended tied. That handed the world cup to England as they had scored the most boundaries in the match.

[ Update: NZ actually won the game, scoring 241 runs to England's 240. No need for the so-called Super Over. Turns out the umpires got it wrong on the third to last ball of the match, awarding Ben Stokes 2 runs plus 4 overthrows, a total of 6 off the ball when it should have been 5 runs scored - see this link: Ben Stokes Incident

This illustrates why I prefer baseball over cricket. Coaches and key players know their rules in baseball. I have said it many times, NZ have proven themselves to be a bunch of amateurs at this cricket biz. They should have stopped the game to have the correct score registered (this is not to criticise England, Stokes did nothing wrong and he's entitled to take everything that comes his way)]

After a day playing such a closely fought match, it's kind of hollow to decide things by count-back of boundaries (it also penalises teams that collect runs in singles and two's and who do not get bowled out accumulating their score). Why do they not play the way basketball does when the scores are tied? Keep playing extra time until a result is obtained. In cricket that would mean adding super over after super over until the result.

Many will say that NZ redeemed themselves a little after their capitulation to Australia in the final four years ago. But I'm not so generous, the reason NZ lost runs a little deeper, it goes to the culture within the team.

Leading up to the final the NZ trainings looked like a team just happy to make the final. They didn't look like a team desperate to avoid losing another final. Then during the game they could not set a worthwhile total, NZ's final 10 overs with the bat were average at best. To illustrate, consider the very last ball NZ faced. The batsman ducked out of the way and no run was scored. What he should have done is throw his bat at the ball as there wasn't another ball to face. Defending, NZ fielded well, but they too often find themselves defending a total that's too low. Thus, their results are often much closer than they need to be and this latest final was a classic example of that.

England looked like they were choking under the pressure of home town expectations. They got there - just. NZ has to learn to keep their foot on the throats of their opponents. Oh and while NZ were robbed, England did deserve the win. Why? NZ only won one of their last five matches played in the tournament.

Ben Stokes

I've been following the saga surrounding England cricketer Ben Stokes. Now he's been found not guilty of affray, by a jury no less, then why is the matter still being pursued? I heard the England coach talking about Stokes giving a public apology. Why? All that happened was a bit of biff outside a nightclub. Then the coach added something about he'll have to pull his weight (Stokes that is). What? Just let the guy get on with things. It's easy to see why England lose all the time.

World Cup 2018: England Out, Croatia Deserved Winners

The key term that comes to mind after watching the England - Croatia semi-final; it's not the size of dog in the fight, it's the size of fight in the dog.

What happened to England at half time? I'm talking about during the break itself. After the fifteen minute break England were late getting out onto the pitch and looked like stragglers walking from the dressing room. Croatia's body language spoke volumes, they were ready and looked like winners despite being down on the scoreboard.

And so from the start of the second half it just looked like Croatia finding a way to win, and never England looking to put the game beyond doubt.

I'd like to mention one other thing; even the first half looked a little disjointed and I'll tell you why. England are always too keen to give ground. The statistics here tell a lie I feel. What those statistics from the first half will show is that possession was even. But if you could find a figure that measures contests, it would show that Croatia was always prepared to fight for possession or territory. I'd wager it would look 70/30 Croatia, 30/70 England. That is, 70% Croatia showing more aggression in the contests, and 70% refusing to retreat (30% the other way around).

I believe both teams were tired, probably equally so. But cultural factors meant Croatia was going to win from the moment the second half started. And that cultural factor was England gave ground too easily, and were beaten as a result.

I'm sad about it as this was a golden opportunity for England to win a World Cup. It was the best opportunity they've had since 1966 at home. But now they can learn and move on, knowing they're good enough. Now they have to know they must always find a way to win, not just hope they'll win. There is a difference.

Argentina and Portugal out of FIFA 2018

England's chances just got a whole lot better with both Argentina and Portugal crashing out of the World Cup. Now all they need is for Mexico to beat Brazil. Dare to dream England, oh, and make sure you beat Colombia.

FIFA World Cup 2018

The top 16 has been decided and England are in the box seat for a straight run to the final. By coming second in their group, they now face much lesser opponents now that Germany has been eliminated. Had Germany topped their pool I am sure England would have fought tooth and nail to win their final group match against Belgium as they'd likely be facing Germany in the quarter-finals had they lost.

Belgium are now faced with the likely prospect of Brazil in the quarter-finals, which is what England would have come across had they won their group.

England then, must beat Colombia round of sixteen; then beat either Sweden or Switzerland (easily achievable), then they'll come up against one of Spain, Russia, Croatia and Denmark. All of these teams have looked unconvincing. So it's down to England against Brazil in the final, Or England against Uruguay. Whoever it is, being on the other side of the draw looks far more formidable.

It looks like England have their thinking caps on.

England at FIFA World Cup 2018

England beat Tunisia in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup. The victory came in spite of the refereeing which could at best be described as deplorable. Despite all the technology, the beautiful game is still blighted by the scourge of the referees.

Rugby School 2017 International Sevens Tournament

A plug here for my old school, Nelson College. On Friday March 24 & Saturday March 25 they will be competing in a Rugby Sevens tournament hosted by Rugby School in England. The tournament is part of the celebrations surrounding Rugby School's 450th year.

Check out the draw here: http://www.rugbyschoolinternational7s.co.uk/Competition.asp?TSID=3851

Twelve teams will take part. They're split into two groups, the top two in each group go through to compete for the top prize after the group round robin. Nelson College face Clifton College (England), Llandovery College (Wales), Michaelhouse (South Africa), Royal Belfast Academy (Northern Ireland) and Shawnigan Lake School (Canada).

I have no idea of the respective strengths of each school, though Rugby Union teams from England, Wales and South Africa are usually tough. The South Africans will be big and fast, all their teams are.

The Nelson College team is made up of 1st XV players from the longer version of the game. They play in the Crusader region 1st XV competition. Nelson won this competition once in 2007. The standard of Rugby played in the Crusaders region is pretty high, so Nelson will be able to compete, maybe even win in England, wouldn't that be great.

A very old Rugby competition Nelson College competes in is the annual Quadrangular tournament, played between Wanganui Collegiate, Wellington College, Nelson College and Christ's College (Christchurch). These four are the 'old school' in NZ, Wanganui and Christ's being private, while Wellington and Nelson are state schools and publicly funded.

Nelson College played the first game of Rugby Union in New Zealand, against a team from the town, Nelson Football Club. The game caught on and spread throughout NZ, becoming a passion for many. The man credited with introducing the game to NZ was Charles Monro, a former pupil of Nelson College who learnt the game in England. The story goes that he returned to Nelson to find the Nelson Football Club playing a game more akin to Australian Rules Football. He changed them over to Rugby School rules and organised that first game against his old school up the road.

If you are in England and looking to see some attractive Rugby then head along to the games next week at Rugby School. Tickets are only 5 pounds.

(How to find the school: https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/rugby-Live/assets/File/8132%20Rugby%20how%20to%20find%20us%20flyer%20update%20v1.pdf)