Referee – Steve Walsh (
Half time – 9 / 7
Full Time – 36 / 12
Hello my friends, it is I, John-Paul… once again to inform you of what is happening to the Azzurri.
You will recall that the second game was very quickly after the first. Our Coach Senor Kirwan (perhaps you have heard of him, yes?) changes the team almost completely.
Now we have the strongest Azzurri team. This is necessary to scare the Tongans so that they are easier to beat.
This did not seem to work so well, as the Tongans arrived for the game. And the war dance that they did, this does not seem to show that they are scared very much. This is not a good sign.
Before the game begins I would like to ask who is the person who designs the Pool D? This person is colour blinds do you think?
Either that or they do not realise that there are 3 teams with Red costumes!
My wife (Mrs. Geourgeandringo) she is convinced that the Azzurri will play the same team 3 times!
My wife is very intelligent about sport, but she cannot understand rugby very well. I try to explain to her about rugby, but it is difficult when there is so much I myself do not understand.
She asks why there aren’t fewer men on the field if they keep running into each other and causing penalties? I say to her that this would be a good idea, but the scrums would become a farce and the lineouts… well they may as well just take a free kick.
But I return now to the start of the game.
The game it starts very evenly. There are some things that both teams are good at. Also the Tongan forwards are the better I think; the Azzurri backs the best.
There are some new things to see. We have a high tackle by the Tongan #7.
There is some discussion about this tackle. The Referee, he does not seem to think that it was very bad. The touch judge says the tackle was dangerous, and Mr. Walsh is required to show the yellow card to Mr. Fenukitan.
I thought the tackle is very bad. I am very happy when Mr. Fenukitan is sitting on the side-line, even if he is not yet looking scared.
The cat is also very happy when I stop shouting at the referee, and cheering at the yellow card. So is the skin on my legs!
But I am not very intelligent of the culture of
The dance at the beginning of the game was very fierce, but no Azzurri was injured during it, so maybe our standards of behaviour differ – just as our idea of good manners differ from the English.
Another new thing is filming of very poor ability of spitting by a Tongan player. I have noticed that this is shown many times in the games. I begin to wonder about the camera persons. Why do they think we want to see these behaviours?
There is not very much to say about the first half. The game is lots of kicking, most kicking is not good. The Tongans have a right footed kicker and a left footed kicker. I think it would be better if they could both kick with both feet.
Their goal kicker cannot kick easy goals, and after he converts the try from the sideline! Was he not being challenged by the first 2 kicks?
The try by
The Tongan realise that their forwards should repeat this, and they attempt again. But by the time they let their backs have the ball the Azzurri backs are ready and stop the attempt.
And so the first half ends with the very even score.
My apologies, my friends. I have not seen the second half, so I cannot comment very much about it.
Mrs. Geourgeandringo says that I must go to work. She says that the neighbours would understand if I lost my job supporting
This much I can tell to you. The Azzurri score 27 (but do not score 4 tries) and the
I think that it must have been a very good second half of Azzurri rugby.
Senor Kirwan has a very clever saying. I have heard him say: “It was a game of two halves”. It seems the very appropriate saying for this game.
Please will you excuse me… I must ask Mrs. Geourgeandringo if she is knowing why the video recording machine, it is not working.
