Rucking Hell!: Wounded Wallabies

The poor Wallabies have just been thrashed 22-0 by the All Blacks, capping off a miserable week for Australian coach Robbie Deans. During the build-up to the game, former Australian coach Alan Jones declared that Deans was not up to the job; saying "our team is badly coached, there's no other way of putting it". Saturday's result will have done nothing to silence the growing number of vultures circling around the Australian dressing room.

But, as I said in our 'controversial' podcast, I have always felt a great deal of sympathy towards the New Zealand born coach. There is no doubt that Australia are currently struggling for both performances and results. Their impressive series win over Wales merely papered over the growing cracks. Whilst many people are willing to throw their hat into the ring and blame the head coach, the scrum or the players; the most obvious reason for Australia's current situation is their abundance of injuries to essential players - and horrible lack of depth.

Whilst it's incredibly easy to blame injuries for a team's bad performance, poor Robbie Deans is constantly being battered by shattering injury blows. When Deans has a healthy squad to choose from, he produces good performances, and more importantly, good results. In 2010, Australia won the Bledisloe Cup, becoming the only team to beat New Zealand all year. They backed this up with a third place finish at the Rugby World Cup -  a marked improvement from their disappointing 2007 World Cup quarter final defeat to England.

Deans has also been responsible for the development of players such as Quade Cooper, James O'Connor, David Pocock and James Horwill; from talented youngsters to World Class international superstars - the problem is, they're all injured. (Cooper may as well be after today's no-show)

The difficulty Deans faces is now obvious. Yes, the Australian scrum is still a shambles and yes, they kick too much. But, in a country like Australia where Union is the third/fourth sport and depth in squad is negligible, he simply cannot afford to lose so many world class players.

It is becoming increasingly likely that this will be Robbie Deans' first and last Rugby Championship as Australian head coach. Whilst the ARU have always pledged their support, their is a growing  restlessness surrounding the current squad and performances. Whilst this is understandable, if Robbie Deans is sacked, he will be left asking be asking himself - "what could I have done differently?".

Short of wrapping his most important players in cotton wool - not a lot.

LiveStrong

Like every other child growing up, I learnt the hard way not to believe everything I was told; the very people and institutions that children hold so dear are eventually taken away from them in the process universally referred to as ‘growing up’.  Santa, the Tooth Fairy and Disney for Jewish kids are eventually revealed as frauds; forcing children to reassess their views about the once simple world they inhabited and start forming their own cynical opinions.

This is a process that all children go through. But, what are you meant to do when, as an adult, it happens again?

After St. Nick was revealed as a fraud, I was forced to reassess what it was I could trust - and two things have always stuck with me. The first was that man landed on the moon and the second was that Lance Armstrong defeated cancer and then repeatedly won the Tour de France throughout my young life.

On the 24^th August 2012 it was announced that Lance Armstrong would no longer fight doping charges and would be stripped of all seven Tour titles and banned (in retirement) from ever cycling again. Despite having never tested positive, it is now almost universally believed that Armstrong not only cheated the system (interesting article here about how) but was also the ‘ring-leader’ amongst the cycling-doping-community. Assuming Armstrong loses his titles, there will ensue a ridiculous process of finding someone to take them who hasn’t already been banned/accused of doping.

But, another childhood idol has fallen and once more I am forced to reassess the things I was so sure of. If (arguably) the greatest athlete of my lifetime was a cheat then the cynical world view that we're forced to adopt as children is once more, shoved into our faces like a clown in a really depressing circus.

That leaves just one childhood conviction left: that man did in fact land on the moon. Having never believed in the conspiracy theories, I have never had reason to doubt that Neil Armstrong did make that giant leap for mankind. In a saddening and twisted turn of fait, just one day after his namesake gave up his battle, Neil Armstrong passed away. With him, he took the truth about the moon.

But, whilst there is cause to now disbelieve what we considered fact, to revel in Lance’s downfall is to forget what the Armstrong’s have achieved. He did defeat cancer and did achieve incredible things. Neil Armstrong has inspired, and will continue to inspire generations of people who look to the sky and realise that their existence and their possibilities are endless.

You're so Cool - Tony Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012)

A small tribute to the awesome Tony Scott.

True Romance (1993)

Watch Out!! This is brutal - but an incredible film

Man on Fire (2004)

Indian Summers and Dark Nights

Okay, we made our predictions and we even made a podcast. And we got it wrong, really wrong.

We thought we were the heroes Gotham needed, but we weren’t, so we went underground and re-gathered our thoughts.

Along with the feeling of embarrassment inflicted by Mike Harris’ last minute conversion against Wales and Ireland’s close call in the second test against the All Blacks, I was further frustrated and baffled by my complete lack of computing skills. The podcast, the source of TCI’s embarrassment, insisted on playing every time the website was loaded, meaning that any unsuspecting visitor was rudely subjected to our (inaccurate) opinions. But we’re slowly getting back on the proverbial horse.

The Summer Internationals were a wake up call for us and for Wales. Whether it was cowardice or inexperience, the whitewash was horribly disappointing. England battled as hard as ever in the final test against South Africa and were rewarded with a great draw and Ireland were never really at the races. Their close call in Christchurch against the All Blacks was admirable but due to the All Blacks’ sloppiness and inaccuracy rather than latent Irish ability (see the third test for more details).

With a rugby season coming to a close in the South and starting again in the North, we (hope) to stick with it this time and keep our ill-informed and inaccurate opinions flowing. But, if rugby has taught me anything it is that there is far more to life than slating Berrick Barnes (sorry).

I went to India. I’ve been told that people go there to find themselves: spiritually, romantically, intensely. Indeed, TCI found itself new life in the most unexpected of places - its very own Indian Summer. Lying in an air-conditioned bedroom, rendered useless by unforgiving dysentery, I watched Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and was giddy with excitement after Gordon’s final speech. So, braving the liquid excrement I dragged myself to the local shopping mall to watch the last instalment of Nolan's trilogy. Needless to say, Batman comes back and kicksass, so that’s what we’re doing. The Dark Knights of amateur blogging.

Disagree with us, slate us and hunt us ('cos we can take it), but most of all, just keep reading us. That way, one day, we might make some money. Like JC, Bruce Wayne and Eminem, we’re back with a brand new rap.