Rugby,

 I wanted to write something about rugby, but everything I have been reading about rugby has been pissing me off so I haven't been able to bring myself to do it. That being said, if I don’t write this now I’m not going to write it and England will either be through or they won’t be through after the weekend and then everything will be different, won’t it?

Firstly, I rugby but I hate it at the moment, because Owen Farrell sucks. I realise some people have said he’s amazing and the tall trees catch the most wind but honestly, I think it’s a whole load of crap and he is a legitimate A-hole. 

It’s not just the lack of learning from his persistent bad tackling or the fact that there are others in the team that can do his job better, because there definitely are and George Ford has proved it this World Cup, but it’s everything down to the smarmy look on his face when he was talking to the ref about a decision. He’s so full of himself, but he had to have a kicking coach in literally earlier this year because he was doing so badly at HIS JOB! He might have broken the England kicking record this year, but that’s only because Wilkinson played for England for less time. If they factored in time, he would never break it. 

It’s not just him that’s annoyed me, but also Steve Borthwick because he kept backing a crap player that needed to sort himself out and he should have taken the captaincy off of him, but no, it’s his mate, so he wasn’t going to do that. He’s cut Arundell from playing because of a bust up between him and Farrell. It’s just not how to run a team at all.

Overall, last weekend was every result I did not want to see. I don’t think England really deserved to get out of the groups because of the way they were playing, and to an extent, neither did the All Blacks. I thought Wales were night and day better than they’ve been for a while and my heart broke for them losing out on the Semis, especially Dan Biggar, though I appreciate that they are a really young side and I can’t wait to see what amazing things that they do in four years time. I was gutted for France, because they played incredibly - that was the best game of rugby I have seen in a long while, and because they were probably the best placed to beat the Boks, unless it was Ireland again. 

I was crying over Ireland though. 

I love Ireland, even if they’re coached by Farrell’s dad. I love Johnny Sexton, especially getting to call him a loveable knobhead. I love Bundee Aki, and I can see that it will likely have been his last World Cup, for which I am gutted. I’m gutted for Ronan O’Gara as well, because those three and Mack Hansen, and honestly everybody on that team, they are beasts in the best possible way. They are phenomenal. They were ranked the best in the world for a reason and I am utterly gutted that they went home when they did and the way that they did. It was brutal.

The reason that the post match journalism has pissed me off so much has been a few things. There’s been so much crap at the refs, and yes, in all games there were some questionable decisions, and there is going to be some disagreement over what other people would have done. You can’t play the whole game through VAR and keep stopping and starting over every little thing and I think it’s easy to blame ref decisions for the outcome of a game. Yes, it sucks. Yes, I was livid that someone threw their hands, whether it was a slap or a punch or whatever you want to call it, at Tom Curry, especially after dragging him out of the pile by his ankles. The fact he didn’t throw a punch back, I was really proud of and he clearly let it go pretty quickly, but people are more focused on a tackle of his that he wasn’t penalised for. I think his red card earlier in the season was actually pretty harsh, but yes, he also needs to learn from his mistakes and potentially isn’t doing, and his coach needs to take some responsibility for that and so does he. There’s also been a lot of griping about the pools, but there have been some incredible matches from teams that are considered to be “Tier 2”. I’m glad that the conversations are being had about having more matches and potentially having England go to Fiji as well as others. 

I am gutted that England is the only Home National left in the Cup. I am confused that they are the only North Hemisphere team left. I don’t have a word for the fact that Argentina are the only team that could put the cat amongst the pigeons and be the first new winner of the cup since England 20 years ago, but I do fee like the All Blacks versus Springboks is goingbto be the final, and I’m not sure that the All Blacks have recovered enough to beat the Boks, sadly.