The Northern Hemisphere Strikes Back!

Amazing. I apologize for my poor english vocabulary. Amazing. The only adjective I can find to characterize yesterday's games. Help me to find some more! Magic? Not really. There's no simple trick to defeat Australia or New Zealand in quarterfinals of a Rugby World Cup. Surrealistic? Rather... hyperrealistic.

England is France's best ennemy. Any sensible frenchman will always support a team that play against the Rose. Actually, there's only one case in which this does not happen, and this is when England play vs. one of the great southern-hemisphere nations: New Zealand, Australia, South Africa. This happened yesterday, in Marseilles. England vs. Australia. The Remake. To those of you that are not (yet?) that much into this sport, may I recall that England became the first nation of the northen-hemisphere to win the Rugby World Cup, after a final successful drop by Jonny Wilkinson (pic) in the last minute of the game. Against Australia. Soon after, Jonny W. got injuried and England had never played that well ever since. Yesterday England defeated the Wallabies, 12-10, Wilkinson scoring all the twelve points. At that time of the day I was pretty happy for them, for him, yet I must say I did not care that much. I was still waiting.



Waiting for THE game. In Cardiff. France was going to face the All Blacks. Surprisingly I had planned a very nice dinner somewhere in Geneva with some friends on Saturday night. After all, I thought the Kiwis were likely to defeat France, in which case why not spending time with friends rather than soring in my couch in front of my TV. And if France had the crazy idea to win that game (sic), then I would have another opportunity to see them in the semis. For the record I had told my great Irish friend James that I would give France a 15%-chance to win. Roll a dice. If you get 6, France win. You know the story, after an unforgettable haka (below), France won this game after being led 13-0 and 18-13...



I don't know that much about Rugby. The complicated rules make it a not-so-easy sport to watch. But today it's simply the best of sports. Jeez I'm being too much chauvinistic. But it's not only that. It's also about likeliness. France had lost the last 10 games vs. the Blacks. Over the last few years, New Zealand has been by far the best team in the world, even way better than Oz and SA. They had never lost before the semis. Yesterday they did.

Today I am 8 years younger. Remembering Twickenham, 1999. Merci les Bleus!