Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Rugby World Cup coming soon to France (or words to that effect)

Although I'm not a big rugby fan I'm looking forward tot he forthcoming World Cup as any event which brings together a set of disparate nations is always interesting. It's always good to see feats of David and Goliath style giant-killing when the minor teams are pitted against the big boys - except if it's your own team on the receiving end. But with New Zealand in the same group as newcomers Portugal I don't think this will happen somehow.

The final of the last tournament in 2003 when England's Johnny Wilkinson entered into legend by scoring a last minute drop goal to beath Australia was worth watching just to see the sour look on Aussie PM John Howard's face when he was handing out the medals.

Today's Times reports that Tonga player Epi Taoine has changed hs name by deed poll to Paddy Power as part of a sponsorship deal with the Irish bookies. I wonder what the odds on him changing it back after the World Cup are. Furthermore, will Paddy Power be taking bets on it?

2 comments:

David Todd said...

No doubt someone in Oireland will open a bookies called Epi Taoine soon.

CW said...

I'm sure there's goood odds on that, Cyberscribe. I wouldn't put it past Barney Eastwood.