Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodness me what a game that was. I can only say that on Sunday afternoon after watching it twice at home. I went to the clubhouse to watch it, of course, but naturally couldn't remember much about the actual game itself by the time I got home. But the emotion, the passion, the excitement, that I remember from last night. What a game!

The clubhouse was once again packed, this time with English and Aussies and the atmosphere was great. There were even a few Japanese there, surprisingly enough, all of whom seemed to be supporting Australia, for some reason. I'm sure their natto didn't taste too good this morning. And what about Australia, my didn't they play well. Considering they only had about 42% territory and possesion, they seemed very tenacious, dragging the game to 100 minutes. But still, we won! It would have been a lot quicker, I suspect, if Ben Kay had held onto the ball when 5 yards from the line, but oh well. And Jonny and Jonno...what guys. Hearts of oak. And the whole team. Robinson's try, how pumped was he after scoring? Magnificent stuff.

Most amused that every time Australia took a penalty kick, the English half of the pub erupted in chants of 'Boring boring Aussies!'. Also, because we're all post-modern ironists out here, we did the same when England took a shot at goal as well, just to be fair, you realise. Managed to shout myself hoarse throught the game, so post match analysis was at a premium. However, I think most of it was fairly simple stuff like 'yeeeesss' or, in more lucid and thoughtful moments 'fuuucking yeeeesss'. As I said, I had to watch the game again this morning to find out what actually happened in the match. This wold be a useful skill to acquire with my post match telephone conversations. I usually speak with parentals after big rugby matches and, in most cases, I have little or no recollection of what was said. I suspect that more post-match analysis was aired, probably along similar lines as above, and Minako reminded me this morning that apparently a card we posted on Thursday has already arrived. But anything else, can't really remember, so apologies if I promised to do anything but haven't yet, if I did, best drop me a line to remind me.

Think I may have left a message on Chard's answerphone as well....

So it's all over for another 4 years. Roll on the 6 Nations in February. Should some of the team retire? I think some of them should, like Back, Dally, maybe Hill and Leonard probably should give it up after 113caps, but I don't know. Jonno should stick around for a bit, just to let the new guys get established before he goes - surely 2007 is too far away for him? And a new captain, please don't make Wilkinson the skipper, too much on his plate already.

So nice try Australia, but Rugby is coming home. Well done England.

(oh, and a note to 'Mat' from New Zealand, you are the bitterest, sourest poorest excuse for a rugby fan I have ever heard. For those who haven't seen, 'Mat's' insightful comment on the match on the planet-rugbywebsite was something like 'this is the death of world rugby, thank you Wilkinson'. Guess he's forgotten about Andrew Merhtens, Grant Fox etc. Tosser)

Non-rugby related stuff

.......


...erm...

.......


Minako's well.....

Plants are sort of OK but throttling back for winter...(except the olive tree, which is still shooting up (in the sense of growing quickly, not mainlining extravagant quantities of Class A's))

Off to watch the Matrix tomorrow after studying...


.....


ah, to hell with it, yyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssss!