Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, June 6, 2011
Brumbies urged to follow Chisholm spirit
Chisholm's 102-match Super Rugby career came to a painful and devastating end in Brisbane on Saturday night as he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the Brumbies' 22-14 upset of the Queensland Reds.
The 58-Test second-rower requires a knee reconstruction, leaving his dreams of a second and final World Cup appearance in ruins.
An emotional Chisholm fought back tears in the dressing room after the spirited win, saying he knew instantly his Australian career had come to an end after being tackled by Anthony Faingaa.
A former team-mate, Faingaa had been playing on with a hamstring injury at the time and was also severely upset by the injury.
"I could hear him screaming, it was so devastating," Faingaa said.
"It was painful, I could hear it (the knee) go.
"Chis and I are really good mates and he's a fantastic bloke."
Chisholm must hope surgery this week is successful and he can be available to take up a lucrative deal with French club Bayonne at the end of the year.
"It's devastating, it's absolutely devastating," the 29-year-old told the Canberra Times.
"I'm in shock.
"The World Cup is up in smoke now. That's a disappointing way to end - especially because of the things I wanted to achieve this year."
But Rea, who had called his team a "mob without fight" when they lost to the Lions three weeks ago, said Chisholm's last match highlighted the pride left in the Brumbies jersey.
Like the Brumbies as an outfit, the Wallabies stalwart produced his best display of a disappointing season with just local derby matches against the Rebels and Waratahs to go.
"He can take that shirt off with a fair bit of honour there," said Rea, who will be replaced next month by Jake White.
"That's what you want to do and that's the challenge for everybody else now for the rest of the season - to make sure you take the shirt off having performed like that and played particularly well."
As well as Chisholm, skipper Matt Giteau (Toulon, France), Adam Ashley-Cooper (NSW), Mitch Chapman (MTT Docomo, Japan) and Pat Phibbs were all leaving Canberra and were highly impressive against the Reds.
It was just the Brumbies' third win of the year, but they celebrated like a grand final victory after Giteau slotted a post-hooter penalty goal to deny table-topping Queensland a bonus point.
"I think we probably got too carried away," Giteau admitted after winning back the Rod Macqueen Trophy.
"You don't like to carry on like that but it's been a tough year and, obviously, it was a big win for us and a bit of history we were able to hang on to."
-AAP
Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-14, australia, act, canberra-2600, brisbane-4000Thursday, May 19, 2011
Everything You Need to Know to Follow the New Rugby Union Season
Rugby Union is one of the most popular sports played in the United Kingdom. The 2008/2009 rugby season gets under way in early September and for many the kick off signals weekends spent either in front of the television or down at the local club, watching crunching tackles and the scoring of tries live.
The Guinness Premiership is the top tier Rugby Union Championship in England. It gets under way on the weekend of 6th September and will conclude in May 2009. The current Champions are London Wasps, who won a thrilling match with Leicester Tigers at Twickenham back in May, in a game that witnessed the final rugby farewell of the legendary Wasps, England and British lions, back row forward, Lawrence Dallaglio.
The Premiership is played over 22 rounds by the 12 best teams in England. The teams this year are Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, London Irish, London Wasps, Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, Saracens, Worcester Warriors.
Each team plays each other home and away throughout the season in a bid to qualify for the top four places by the end of Round 22. The top four will then play a knock out tournament, with two winning sides contesting a Twickenham Final. The team on top of the table by the end of round 22 will have home advantage in the knock out phase against the team who finish 4th, while the runners up will have home advantage against the team finishing 3rd.
During the round by round stage, points are awarded as follows:
4 points per win.
2 points per draw.
1 bonus point if losing a match by less than 7 points.
1 bonus point if scoring 4 tries or more in any match.
The enjoyment that can be had from watching Rugby Union is not confined to the sport's top division. In England alone, there are five national divisions as well as many local leagues which see players and fans descending to clubs up and down the country to appreciate the enjoyment that the sport of Rugby offers. Also, in recent years, Rugby Union betting has become increasingly popular as it has grown along with the increasing number of spectators attending matches since the sport turned professional in 1995, together with the recent successes of the England national team.
James Smith has worked in the sports industry for several years and has a wide range of experience in the field, ranging from sports marketing through to sports journalism. A regular writer of sports articles at http://www.betting-directory.com