Springbok Tired - Cricket Underway
A quick look at the current happenings in the world of Rugby Union and Cricket.
The All Blacks are dominating world rugby and the Tri Nations, meanwhile the South African Springboks are dog-tired, and thankfully the Cricket goes ahead!
Rugby Update
The latest word coming out of Newcastle and English rugby is that England's injury prone World Cup sensation, Johnny Wilkinson is returning to his best form after a three year injury plague. Wilkinson who is famous for his complete obsession for training has had to cut down on his workload and believes that he will soon be in the form of his life!
New Zealand continued their complete dominance in the 2006 Tri Nations by thumping the Springboks 45-26 at Loftus in Pretoria, South Africa. A notoriously and usually happy hunting ground for the Bok's, the All Blacks reigned supreme. This win extends the All Black winning streak to 14 matches and they will have a crack at 15 this coming weekend at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
All Black coach Graham Henry has made 10 changes to his starting fifteen in what is fast becoming known as the most successful game of musical chairs in history. Rarely can a side afford to make an average of 8 changes a week and maintain such a high win rate. This proves the enormous depth that the Kiwi's have at their disposal.
Meanwhile Springbok coach Jake White has complained that his team is 'running on empty', and is suffering from fatigue and are exhausted from a rugby over load. With the South Africans staring at potentially the worst losing streak since the 1960's, if White can't turn around this line of poor results he may lose his job.
Unfortunately in South Africa, the administration likes to fire countless numbers of coaches when poor results run rife, instead of getting to the actual route of the problem.
The Wallabies leave for South Africa on Friday to begin preparing for their final game of the 2006 Tri Nations, however they will be with out Matty Rogers who sustained a knee injury in his last match against the All Blacks. Whilst his presence will be missed, the Wallabies will certainly be looking forward to playing the fatigued South Africans.
Cricket Update
After a disappointing end to the test series between England and Pakistan the one day series was in jeopardy. Thankfully common sense prevailed and today see's the start of the 'one dayer's' in Cardiff, Wales.
Shoaib Akhtar is arguably the most ferociously fast bowler on the planet and he has issued a stern warning to the English batsmen that he intends stepping up the pace of his bowling for this series.
England who has won just three of their last sixteen one day Internationals will be looking for some considerable improvement as they look to set up some kind of sustained momentum for next years cricket World Cup.
They currently find themselves ranked last out of the established cricket nations on the official World Rankings.
