Top 10 Sportsmanship Moments of 2011 Romanian captain, Cristian Petre, who after suffering a 67-3 loss to England, was asked by a reporter about the game and replied “I play rugby for happiness.” More. The French rugby team won the toss to choose who wears their own home jerseys in the Rugby World Cup Final [...]
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I had a dream
I have often wondered whether I would live to see Ireland beat the All Blacks. The famous team from New Zealand are the best in the world(despite only winning one World Cup). Something unreal happened……. Although Munster, a province of Ireland, beat them way back in 1978, Ireland never managed to beat the Kiwis in [...]
Kiwis coming to play or to cheat?
So here’s the question I put to the 2005 twin spear tackling duo, Tana Umaga and Kevin Mealamu (the latter has just been banned), and to the infamous 1978 diver (former World Rugby Cup ambassador), Andy Haden – would you want your child to behave similarly? Would it make you proud of your children? That [...]
A Maori Prayer for Donal Caniffe’s Dad
I recently learned something wonderful about the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team from 31 years ago. It was kindly sent to me by former Ireland and Lions sensational wing forward, Fergus Slattery whom I met in South Africa during the Lions tour this summer. Munster made history when they beat the mighty All Blacks [...]
The mighty All Blacks march as Snow White’s dwarfs
As rugby is very much on my mind with the 6 Nations in full motion and, Ireland looking for their first Grand Slam since 1948, a magical moment of sportsmanship was revealed only two weeks ago from a a match that was played over 30 years ago. I was in Cork visiting Marian Ormond the widow of Dennis to whom [...]
Silence was broken by a dog barking outside the packed stadium
“This was one of those sporting occasions which transcends a game and makes bolder statements about humanity……………….during one of Donald’s earlier, and also crucial, kicks, the silence was broken only by the barking of a dog from outside the stadium.” This is an excerpt from an extraordinarily well written piece by a Kiwi, Martin Moodie, [...]
