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13 Oct 2007 England v France 14 Oct 2007 South Africa v Argentina The Aussies and the All Blacks have been eliminated. Maybe "VS" will show the matches live.

Calcio Storico Fiorentino: Bare Knuckle FootballBy: Bob | April 10th, 2007 Before football became the civilized and tidy sport that it is today it was Wild in the Streets in both England and in Italy. By some accounts, the early form of Italian football began in the 59 BC in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. The sport of giuoco del calcio fiorentino - a mix of soccer, rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling and bare-knuckle fighting - was played by the aristocrats on every night between Eipiphany and Lent.According to the occasionally reliable Wikipedia: The official rules of calcio were published for...

Friday December 1, 11:29 AM Fiji military chief to watch rugby before coup SUVA (Reuters) - Fiji's military chief maintained his threat on Friday to stage a coup if the government failed to meet his demands, but added he would not act until after the annual military versus police rugby game in Suva later in the day. Military Commander Frank Bainimarama gave Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase a 24-hour ultimatum on Thursday to clean up his government or face a coup, despite winning a series of concessions from the prime minister. "I maintain my demands and the deadline still stands and...

PRIME Minister John Howard said he has concerns national football finals could be terrorist targets. But Mr Howard said there was no evidence any terrorist attack could occur. The AFL Grand Final between Sydney and West Coast will be played at Melbourne's MCG tomorrow, while fans will also pack Sydney's Telstra Stadium for the NRL final between Melbourne and Brisbane on Sunday. "Like everybody else I worry about the potential (for a terrorist attack on the football finals), and I hope and pray nothing happens," Mr Howard told Southern Cross Radio today. "I don't believe it will. I know all...

Russians playing a game of amateur rugby have been arrested by police who mistook the match for a mass brawl, local media reported. "We got a call to our control room saying there was a fight involving a lot of people on some waste ground just outside town," RIA news agency quoted a police official in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don as saying. The players and supporters - nearly 100 people in total - were taken to the local police station. They were released without charge when officers realised they had been playing rugby, the news agency reported.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand rugby fans are bidding thousands of dollars for the chance to own the handbag that reduced a burly All Blacks player to tears. In one of the more bizarre off-field sporting incidents, former New Zealand captain Tana Umaga tangled with Hurricanes club team mate Chris Masoe in a nightclub after losing the prestigious Super 14 tournament final last Saturday. Masoe, who has played two tests for New Zealand, tripped over a man's feet in the Jolly Poacher bar in Christchurch early last Sunday and then hit the unidentified man in retaliation. Umaga, one of New...

Scotland tore up the form books at Murrayfield on Sunday afternoon, recording an astonishing 20-16 victory over France to get their Six Nations campaign off to the best possible start. Northampton Saints wing Sean Lamont grabbed both of his side's tries as the resurgent Scots recorded a famous victory in front of a jubilant home crowd. But it would be wrong to single out one man from what was a splendid team effort. The Scots, led by 50-cap winning skipper Jason White, believed they could shock the traditionally slow-starters, especially after giving them a scare on the opening day of...

Rugby fan can't explain self-mutilation A rugby fan who cut out his testicles with wire cutters to mark a Wales victory is at a loss to explain why he did it. Geoffrey Huish, 31, performed the impromptu self-surgery in February when his beloved Wales beat world champions England. After performing the deed, Mr Huish put his severed anatomy in a bag and took them to his local social club to show fellow fans. He collapsed with blood loss and was rushed to hospital but surgeons could not reattach his missing parts. He was put in a psychiatric ward but has...

Rohnert Park police have arrested three men for their role in a bloody May 14 melee at a girls' rugby match in which one coach was beaten unconscious, his assistant suffered three cracked ribs from being kicked and a referee was punched in the face. The violence took place during a daylong championship tournament at Rancho Cotate High School, just minutes into a match-up between the Alameda High School "Riptide" club rugby team and the Rohnert Park Girls Rugby Club team. The coach of the Rohnert Park team, Epalahame "Abe" Palu, 48, and a cousin, Uatesoni Kailiahi, 32, of Hawaii,...

IN a shift in the pecking order of Australian sport, rugby union has surpassed rugby league in national interest for the first time since the 15-a-side game turned professional 10 years ago, according to the Sweeney Sports Report. The annual survey of sporting interest and sponsorship, shows interest in rugby union has surged from 29 per cent to 44 per cent in the past four years. Rugby union is three percentage points ahead of rugby league, but still trails AFL (55 per cent) and soccer (45 per cent). While rugby union is behind AFL, it has closed the gap in...

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY - One of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andes plane crash made famous by the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read has gotten his wallet and jacket back 32 years. Eduardo Strauch, who survived 72 days in mountain snows, got the aged wallet, drivers license and other personal items Wednesday, a week after they were found in the Andes by a mountain climber. Mr. Strauch, 57, was aboard a flight with fellow rugby players, relatives and friends when their plane crashed high in the Andes on Oct. 12, 1972.

There were no winners on a youth rugby field this weekend. A Rohnert Park girls rugby coach and his brother could face criminal charges, possibly this week, for their roles in kicking Alameda girls rugby coach Craig Stewart in the head and punching stand-in referee Paul Berman in the face three times. Another Alameda assistant coach also sustained rib injuries.Seven others, possibly parents or spectators, also could face criminal charges, police said. The Northern California Rugby Football Union suspended all of the players and coaches in the Rohnert Park rugby programs, effective Monday. The victims, meanwhile, are not only gashed...

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. (AP) - Police are seeking criminal charges against several adults in a violent melee at a girls rugby match that left a coach bloodied and unconscious and a referee with a split lip. "I've never seen anything like it," said coach Craig Stewart, 55, who was knocked unconscious after he was kicked in the head by another coach and parents during a game Saturday afternoon at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, according to witnesses and police. "I never saw them coming," Stewart said. "They just started kicking me in the head and the face." The...

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- One of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andes plane crash made famous by a book and movie has gotten his wallet and jacket back 32 years after leaving them in the mountain snows. Eduardo Strauch, who survived 72 days in high mountain snows, received the aged wallet, drivers license and other personal items Wednesday, a week after they were found in the Andes by a mountain climber. Strauch, now a 57-year-old architect and father of five, was aboard a flight with fellow rugby players, relatives and friends when their plane crashed high in the Andes on...

LONDON (Reuters) - A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby, the Daily Mirror reported Tuesday. Reuters Photo Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off," the paper said. Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking. But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 yards back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had...

NO new school has been added to the Sydney GPS rugby competition since it was established more than a century ago, but Canberra powerhouse St Edmund's College is about to give it a try. The school that has produced no fewer than three Test halfbacks over the past two decades - Ricky Stuart, George Gregan and Matt Henjak, plus utility back Matt Giteau, - has virtually nowhere else to go for competition but into the GPS premiership after last Friday's astonishing decision by the Waratah Shield committee to exclude the ACT from its NSW schools competition. No explanation has been...

As they say across the Atlantic about NFL games, no matter what the odds, there's a reason they play the game. Wales proved this truism in week 1 of The Six-Nations Rugby Cup, when they took England's scalp in a hard-hitting 11-9 upset. For England, it's been a long downward spiral since they defeated Australia for The Rugby World Cup in 2003. The match stats suggest a nasty affair in which the ball was kept in maul and towards the center of the field. The sort of boring game I'd expect England to own. Except they didn't. Wales kept the...

The International Rugby world has become a predictable place. The Big Three of The Southern Hemisphere and the original 5 Nations of Europe pretty much call all the shots. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England, France, Scotland, Ireland and Wales can generally walk on to a pitch against any national team not on the above list and expect an automatic win. Ok, well maybe there's an exception or two. HEHEHEHEH! Just when France-bashing had begun to go a wee bit stale, The Argentina Pumas remind us all of why Great French Moments of Courage is a very short history book...

USA Eagles coach Tom Billups wants his team to match up against the best in the world. They've done so twice now, but unfortunately, in each case, Team USA has only managed this for one half. The USA vs. Ireland match Saturday, like the previous USA match against France, was truly a tale of two halfs. In the First Half, The Eagles played a slow, scrum-oriented match and managed to grind things out enough to keep it close match. Matt Hercus matched boots against The Great David Humpries. The only margin of difference was a try for the Home Team...

Television screens are awash with stars and stripes; placard waving supporters line American streets; and around the world, a planet not entirely at ease with allowing the choice of such an influential figure to rest entirely in the hands of the Americans, awaits the outcome of the closest US election in history. It's not an ideal choice — anyone who remembers 'Predator' or 'Conan the Barbarian' (or the Mr. Universe titles) will shed a quiet tear that Governor Arnie can't run for the top job — but it's one that has to be made. So who's it to be, then,...

[J F Kerry] distinguished himself as a soccer star. At Yale, he made the varsity squad and even scored a hat trick against Harvard. So, why isn't Kerry juggling soccer balls or practicing penalty kicks for the cameras? Mr. Kerry, why are you running from your record? One possible explanation is characterological. Four Four Two, a British soccer magazine, has investigated Kerry's soccer career. Unfortunately, it confirmed the worst stereotype about Kerry: He isn't very decisive. According to classmates, Kerry preferred dribbling around defenders, rather than using passes to advance the ball. His school team's Scottish manager would urge him...

Some rugby matches hurt just to watch. This one fell squarely into that category. New Zealand ended England's 12 game Southern Hemisphere winning streak the way Attila The Hun ended Rome's reputation for military dominance. RugbyRugby.com will tend to hyperbolize match reports. This time they ran short of superlatives and their metaphors grew fatigued long before the The All Blacks had finished brutalizing England's tight five. The stunned fans of the RWC 2003 Champions will make much ado over the fact that England went to war minus Johnnie Wilkinson, Martin Johnson and the bulk of their fire and determination. I'm...

A rugby league player had an opponent's tooth embedded in his head - and didn't even notice until after the match. Widnes Viking Shane Millard was being treated for a head wound after a match with Castleford Tigers when the tooth was found, reports The Guardian. The tough Australian hooker had sustained a head gash when he collided with the Tigers' Dean Ripley but was patched up at half-time and sent back into the fray with a headguard. It was only when he was being stitched after the game that the Castleford physiotherapist alerted Widnes to the possibility that Ripley...

All- We arrived in Durban at 1:30 PM Sunday….thought the game was at 2PM and scrambled from the hotel to find it was actually at 4 PM match against Morocco. As sent yesterday, Eddie made the starting line up. Good thing for him because he would have had to reimburse his father and grandfather for the trip expenses. We arrived at the field to much tension. Apparently the Moroccan players, staying at the same hotel as our boys, had been taunting the Americans for the previous two weeks. The Moroccans are French speaking Arabs. They had been teasing the boys...

IT WAS like being Moses, save that the sea parted more reluctantly. Not the Red Sea, but the Red and White Sea: an ocean of flag-waving humanity with a single purpose in mind. They were there to rejoice — three quarters of a million of them — and at times they flowed so thick that they brought the buses to a halt and the police horses had to march ahead and part them, so that once more the England team might go forward. This was the day the England rugby union team paraded through the West End of London, bearing...

No adverts just yet England and Leicester Tigers lock Ben Kay, who fumbled an easy pass when the tryline beckoned in the Rugby World Cup Final, has been offered four year's free pizza by restaurant chain, Pizza Hut. After the game, Kay joked of his clanger: "After I'd dropped it I was thinking Pizza Hut would be on the phone and I'd be doing adverts for the rest of my life." Kay was referring to the likes of Tony Underwood and Mike Catt who featured in an advert with All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu after he pummelled them to the...

Georgians play rugby, eat tripe and garlic for breakfast and have ousted their President after 12 years Georgia achieved independence from the old Soviet Union in 1991. It has a population of five million and average annual income is US $590 (£341) A mostly forgotten civil war has been fought in Georgia for more than a decade. The province of Abkhazia has had semi-autonomous status since 1993, but 10,000 people died in the fight for independence and the conflict continues with sporadic violence. The US and Russia are vying for influence in Georgia. The country is a thoroughfare for oil...

England's historic 20-17 victory over Australia in the Rugby World Cup final has drawn praise from all quarters of the rugby world. Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson secured the game for England with a last-gasp drop goal in extra-time, and in doing so sealed the nation's greatest sporting triumph since 1966. Skipper Martin Johnson produced one of the performances of his career to become the first player to lead a northern hemipshere side to the world title. And while the defending champions Australia fought valiantly, they were ultimately undone by the unerring accuracy of England's vice captain, who finished the match with...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- England scored with 26 seconds left in extra time to win the Rugby World Cup, beating Australia 20-17 Saturday. England became the first team from the northern hemisphere to win rugby's top event. Ranked No. 1 coming into the tournament, England had lost five games in four years since losing to South Africa in the quarterfinals of the last Cup. England lost its only previous trip to the final, and France has lost the title game twice. Jonny Wilkinson kicked a field goal from 38 yards out with 26 seconds left in extra time in windy,...

The All Blacks managed to salvage something from their disappointing 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign when they beat a sub-standard French team 40-13 at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney on Saturday - securing themselves third-place at the RWC. It was the most-often repeated statement before the game and it proved true, this useless third/fourth-place play-off contest is a game nobody wants. The French certainly looked disinterested, with the Kiwis' focus were more geared towards displaying their individual brilliance than their capabilities as a unit. But to their credit, the All Blacks were the more willing team on the day and...

Jonny Wilkinson booted England into the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, the pivot kicking five penalties and three drop-goals, two of which were on his right foot, as his country earned a 24-7 win over a disappointing French side in Sydney on Sunday. The game will not win any beauty pageants, but England demonstrated the versatility that has put them at the top of the Zurich World Rankings by reacting to the adverse weather conditions to eke out a controlled 10-man victory. Their style of play may not win them any admirers in the purist camp, but it was exactly...

South African rugby players were subjected to naked toughening-up exercises at a gruelling boot camp before the World Cup in Australia. Some South Africans doubt the wisdom of sending the Springboks to "Camp Steel Wire" in light of their 29-9 quarter-final defeat by New Zealand. South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper reports that players had to strip and pump up rugby balls in a freezing lake. The three-day "bonding" also involved crawling naked across gravel. Despite being sworn to secrecy, two players revealed some of the military-style exercises they endured at the camp - reportedly the brainchild of security consultant Adriaan...

Toutai Kefu's embarrassing outburst about English arrogance last week is just the latest in a series of extraordinary attacks by different sectors of the Australian rugby fraternity on the English and English rugby over the last few weeks. Eddie Jones has been chirping away with usual tripe, the Australian press' unique style of journalism (if you can call it that) was best represented by the Sydney Morning Herald's full page picture of Johnny Wilkinson with the caption "Is that all you have got?" and motor-mouth Stephen Larkham is a veritable rent-a-quote if anyone is looking for a few words to...

Rugby football, via television, has brought to the world an ancient and aggressive form of South Pacific dancing, not the beautiful girls in hula skirts with leis around their necks to welcome American sailors in search of rest and recreation, as Technicolor movies told the world was how dancing was done in the islands. The four Pacific Island teams at the Rugby World Cup have shown off dances of a different kind to the world, the best moments of prematch drama. It was a moment of gripping drama as the All Blacks performed their Haka, now stylised and theatrical, and...

The USA Eagles ended a 16-year drought at the Rugby World Cup when they beat the ever-willing Japanese 39-26 at Gosford's Gold Coast Stadium on Monday. It brought the curtain down on Japan's participation at the 2003 tournament, but the Eagles have an encounter with France, on Friday, to complete their involvement. While the Eagles have plenty of reason to celebrate their win, the first since they beat Japan in their opening match (21-18) at the 1987 RWC in Brisbane, it is with a touch of sadness that the organisers will be saying "Sayonara" to the 'Cherry Blossoms'. They have...

For the 2003 Rugby World Cup, a bonus points system will operate with four points for a win, two for a draw, a bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and a bonus point for losing by seven points or fewer. World Cup : Pool A Team P W D L F A Diff TB LB PTS Ireland 2 2 0 0 109 24 85 2 0 10 Australia 2 2 0 0 114 16 98 1 0 9 Argentina 2 1 0 1 75 38 37 1 0 5 Romania 2 0 0 2 25...

Winger Simon Danielli scored two first-half tries to help a stop-start Scotland subdue a battling US Eagle side by 39-15, in their Pool B clash at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. But Scotland took their time to warm to the task with their forwards having little luck in their attempt to take on a very physical US Eagle pack. It was only when the ball was spun wide - via the magical hands of fly-half Gregor Townsend and out to the likes of Chris Paterson - that Scotland's superiority became apparent. The Scots looked like they would run away with...

Huge clash in Pool C The match that launched a thousand columns is finally here, with two of the most physical sides in world rugby, England and South Africa, battling it out at the Subiaco Oval in Perth for control of Pool C. Games simply don't come much bigger than this and, despite the best intentions of both team managements to keep a lid on the massive media interest in the encounter, the accompanying hype has been enormous with journalists unable to resist the juicy narrative and its epic themes of revenge, hubris and destiny. Naturally, the stakes are very...

Four years after Australia left Cardiff clutching the William Webb Ellis trophy, the defending champions are set to host rugby's "greatest" World Cup yet. A television audience of over one billion people is expected to witness the opening of the game's fifth global showpiece at Sydney's former Olympic Stadium on Friday. The Wallabies' date with dark horses Argentina at the re-named Telstra Stadium will launch six weeks of festivities before the tournament reaches its conclusion at the same venue on 22 November. "The whole world will be watching and this is our chance to show them how great our game...

The USA departed Monday for the Rugby World Cup after a short domestic assembly focused on team building and logistics, with coach Tom Billups looking for a 'personal best' performance right from the start. The team assembled in the San Francisco Bay Area for a series of meetings and final preparations for the voyage to Brisbane. In contrast to many squads who have enjoyed lengthy training camps in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup, the part-time US squad members have been working their regular jobs since August's Pan American tournament and following individual strength and conditioning programs. On Sunday,...

Hats off to the United States. The Eagles have positioned themselves sweetly for a legitimate shot at success at next month’s Rugby World Cup. The USA came away from the recently concluded Pan-American tournament in Argentina with its best ever finish at the Pan-Ams and will be taking a winning momentum into Brisbane for its first-up RWC game against Fiji. After dropping its opening game to the world class Pumas, the USA ended up going 2-1 in Buenos Aires leaving Canada and Uruguay floundering in its wake. In total, the Eagles racked up 74 points for, while allowing 79 against,...

The US play rugby? Pull the other one, writes Gordon Waters. It is about 60 days till the opening fixture of the Rugby World Cup between Australia and Argentina. The defending champions will open their campaign with hundreds of thousands of fans pouring in from all over the world. Kylie Minogue and Thirty Odd Foot of Grunt will do a duo on Advance Australia Fair at the opening ceremony. Then a lot of rucks, mauls, line-outs and tries. Sounds perfect. Then I discover that the Americans are participating. Can this be true? Australia has this love-hate relationship with the US...

It's winter downunder. Right now in Wellington, New Zealand it's 11°C but here's a ray of sunshine as I take a drive along Aotea Quay, past what Wellingtonians affectionately call the Cake Tin - our city's stadium.

The most vile act ever! Sportal Controversial Wests Tigers winger John Hopoate has been suspended for 12 weeks after being found guilty by the NRL Judiciary of poking his fingers up the anuses of three North Queensland players. Accused of one of the most bizarre charges in the history of rugby league, or sport in general for that matter of fact, Hopoate was officially found guilty of 'unsportsmanlike interference'. NRL judiciary commissioner Jim Hall described Hopoate's case as the worst he had experienced in his 45-year involvement in rugby league. "I've never come across a more disgusting allegation than...

US President George W Bush hoped to visit Australia later this year, but no firm decision had yet been made on dates, a US embassy spokesman said today. Mr Bush is reportedly set to visit Australia after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Thailand on October 20 and 21. The long-expected visit, which would be the first by a US leader since President Bill Clinton toured in 1996, would allow President Bush to say thank you for Australia's support during the war in Iraq. A US embassy spokesman said the tour was yet to be confirmed, although...

The England camp were far from satisfied despite stretching their winning streak at Twickenham to 19 games with victory over France. Clive Woodward's men came through 25-17, but failed to build on a 13-point lead with 20 minutes remaining. "I thought when Jason went over early in the second-half that we would blast them apart like two years ago," said coach Woodward. "However, we then produced the worst 25 minutes since I took over. "To have conceded three tries is disappointing, though I think even if the game had gone on longer we would still have won as we were...

England gained revenge for last year's Paris nightmare as they launched their Six Nations campaign in style with a surprisingly comfortable victory over France at Twickenham.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Dinamo Bucharest's rugby union team has been banned by their own board from international competition for the next two years after a record 151-0 defeat by Saracens last weekend. All the players and the coach were fined for their dismal performance. The English side ran in 23 tries in the second leg of their European Challenge Cup first round match. Saracens won the first leg 87-11 in Bucharest, making for an aggregate score of 238-11, also a record. "Dinamo's board decided to ban the rugby team from taking part in any international competition for 2003 and 2004,"...

Rugby player discovers rival's tooth in his arm one month after match A rugby league player is out for the rest of the season after discovering he has the tooth of a rival player stuck in his arm Jamie Ainscough, who plays for Wigan Warriors, had no idea he had one of Martin Gleeson's teeth in his arm after he tackled the Saints player in a match in July. He only found out a month later when his arm became swollen. Ainscough now requires an operation because the bone has been infected by the tooth.