Mildly (and I mean that) funny email about the 'New RWC Rules'

I post because I am most certainly not posting the in between match news which is just to boring to think about 99.9% of the time. Usually there's a few injury reports, the odd captain with match bans and the usual rubbish from teams as they prepare for the next game - expect the same for at least 2 more weeks.

If you're at all interested you'll have noticed I'm now updating the 'who will meet in the Quarter Finals' now that every team has played at least once - it looks like this at the time of writing (1:30pm):

• QF1:  Australia v  England
• QF2:  All Blacks v  Ireland
• QF3:  South Africa v  Wales
• QF4:  Argentina v  Scotland

Enjoy this if you can be bothered (I suspect it's based on a very old soccer World Cup piece of humour):

Press Release

International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby World Cup 2007

Following complaints to the IRB about the All Blacks being allowed to motivate themselves by performing the 'Haka' before their games, other nations were asked to suggest pre-match rituals of their own. The IRB Rugby World Cup 2007 Organizing Committee has now agreed to the following pre-match displays:

1) The England team will chat about the weather, wave hankies in the air and attach bells to their ankles before moaning about how they invented the game and gave it to the world, but no one appreciates them.

2) The Scotland team will chant "You lookin' at me Jimmy?" before each of them smash a bottle of beer over their opponents' heads.

3) The Ireland team will split into two, with the Southern half performing a Riverdance, while the Northerners march the Traditional route from their dressing room to the pitch, via their opponents dressing room.

4) Unfortunately the Committee was unable to accept the Welsh proposal to form a choir and sing Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual".

5) Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own "Las In-Goals-Areas" and have to be forcibly removed by the match stewards.

6) Two members of the South African team will claim to be more important than the other 13 whom they will imprison between the posts. These two will then go about selecting the best parts of the pitch to settle on and claim that they have been there for centuries.

7) The Americans will not attend until almost full time. In future years they will amend the records to show that they were in fact the most important team in the tournament and Hollywood will make a blockbuster film called 'Saving Flanker Ryan'.

8) Five of the Canadian team will sing La Marseillaise and hold the rest of the team to ransom.

9) The Italian team will arrive in Armani gear, sexually harass the female offi cials and then prepare pasta dishes, which they will flog to the crowd for a fortune.

10) The Japanese will shock fans buy demonstrating how to capture a whale for scientifi c research buy harpooning an opposition prop.

11) The French won't have a pre-match display and will simply hide in fear in the dressing room for the whole match.

12) The Australians will have a BBQ on their side of the fi eld and invite the opposition over before the game. The food and alcohol will be in abundance and by the start of the game no-one will remember what they came to the stadium for. After some streaking, the singing of dirty songs and the occasional chunder everyone will go home thoroughly convinced it was a bloody good night.

13) The Moroccan team will quietly pray during the fi rst half and then launch suicide attacks against the opposition after the break. Unfortunately, this strategy works well for the fi rst game only, after which Morocco is forced to withdraw from the Rugby World Cup due to lack of players.

14) Samoa will prepare a huge feast in the middle of the pitch by digging a large hole and fi lling it with burning embers. They invite the opposition over by saying, "We'd like to have you for dinner". It's only when the opposition get to the pit that they realize there is no meat and that they are the dinner!

Hopefully, with these policies now in place, further problems is this area of the game should cease to exists.

Regards,

Syd Miller

IRB

ChairmanTHE INTERNATIONAL RUGBY BOARD

Huguenot House 35-38 St Stephen's Green Dublin 2 Ireland

Tel: 00 353 1 240 9200 • FAX: 00 353 1 240 9201