Who's hot….and who's not!
With the Rugby World Cup now just days away, we take a look at who needs a cold beer and who should be shopping for a new pullover!
With the Rugby World Cup now just days away, we take a check on who needs a cold beer and who should head to the shops for a new jumper!
They're smooooookin!
Aviva Premiership: What a first round that was?! We had Exeter stunning Leicester at Welford Road, Worcester announcing their return to the top flight with a victory, Wasps upsetting the reigning champions at Twickenham and then Northampton and Gloucester playing out an epic 80 minutes at Franklin's Gardens. Stand-out performances came from 19-year-old Saints debutant Ben Nutley and Cherry and Whites centre Jonny May, who showed he has the pace to worry many an Aviva Premiership rival in 2011/12.
Taylor Paris: 18-year-old Canada wing Taylor Paris is set to make history as the youngest ever player to appear at a Rugby World Cup. Paris could break the record of Thretton Palamo of the USA, who was 19 years and eight days old when he came on as a substitute in a pool game against South Africa in 2007. Paris will turn 19 on October 6 and Canada play all four of their Pool A clashes with Tonga, France, Japan and New Zealand before then.
World Cup fans: Rugby supporters came out in their hundreds – thousands in some cases – to welcome their favourite team to New Zealand for this year's World Cup. Tonga brought in the biggest crowd when over 7,000 fans created gridlock around Auckland Airport for their arrival, compared to just a couple of hundred Aussie supporters who greeted the Wallabies.
Tonga's passionate welcoming committee even dwarfed the official All Blacks welcome at Aotea Square, with a comparatively low 3,000 fans attending. Samoa sits high on the 'welcoming leader-board' with a reported 2,000 flag waving fans at Auckland Airport. Fiji might sit just below them after they too attracted impressive crowds, and in Wellington, hundreds of rowdy fans cheered for South Africa.
Canterbury: For winning the ITM Cup title not once, not twice, nor even three times in a row… but four, after grinding out a tough 12-3 win against Waikato in the final. Canterbury are just the second team to achieve four titles in a row since the birth of the National Provincial Championship after Auckland managed it with their sides from 1987-90 and 1993-96.
Put the kettle on…these guys need to warm up!
Highlanders jersey: Widespread uproar throughout the Highlanders' region has forced the southerners to revert back to the traditional blue, gold and maroon from the controversial lime green strip, which is to be used as their official away playing jersey instead next year.
Catalin Fercu: Romania's Rugby World Cup plans were rocked by the late withdrawal of their star wing because he couldn't face the 40-hour trip to New Zealand due to fear of flying. Er, has he heard of a boat?
Leinster: Depleted or not, the Heineken Cup holders' capitulation against the Ospreys at Liberty Stadium on Friday must have been a concern for boss Joe Schmidt. 27-3 was the scoreline which made for painful reading for debutant Mat Berquist who, along with Luke Fitzgerald, Isa Nacewa, Kevin McLaughlin et al will be looking to bounce back immediately against the Dragons in their second fixture of the new season, at the RDS this Friday.
Lewis Moody: More have now jumped on the bandwagon that unfit players should not be included in 30-man World Cup squads following the announcement that Lewis Moody is not fit enough to face Argentina in England's tournament opener. The 33-year-old first injured his knee ligaments playing for Bath in January and missed the Six Nations as a result. What adds fuel to the fire is the strong performance of Phil Dowson on Sunday. Your thoughts?
Compiled by Dave Morris and Adam Kyriacou