Rugby 101 in Video

Invictus a movie worth watching

Go out and rent Invictus , the movie about the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. Starring Matt Damon as Springbok Francois Pienaar and Morgan Freeman as then-President Nelson Mandela. It is an inspirational movie along the lines of what Miracle did to magnify the accomplishments of the US Olympic Ice Hockey team in 1980. However, as Pienaar points out in this Times UK article , the Springbok team portrayed in the movie was quite different than in real life. That South African side was very capable of winning a World Cup, and though a surprise, it was not as earth shattering as the US hockey team gold medal in Lake Placid. However, politically, the Springbok victory was enormous for the emerging nation. Clint Eastwood's film does an outstanding job of highlighting Mandela's 27-year imprisonment on Robben Island, and Freeman, who always seems to play the wise man in a room of fools, expertly charts the course of unity by testing his relationship with his cabinet and ...

RO Commentary: Thoughts on Sharks-Crusaders Rugby game

Remember the date: 27 March 2011. I hope all who were watching the Sharks-Crusaders SupeRugby match from Twickenham knew what was happening: a match between the Manchester United and FC Barcelona of the Rugby Union world. It was a date that will live in history as the first SupeRugby game played in the Northern Hemisphere, which saw the Crusaders beat the Sharks 44-28 . The Durban-based Sharks and the Christchurch-based Crusaders came to Twickenham in England to play the game postponed from earlier this season because of the earthquake on South Island that affected Christchurch and the surrounding area. My uninformed thoughts and observations of this historic tilt are thus: Yes, it seems that Sonny Bill Williams is the real deal. If you don't know by now, fellow Americans think the next Jonah Lomu. OK, bad analogy for those of you that don't know Rugby. Think the next A-Rod in baseball, the next Peyton Manning in football or the next Kobe Bryant in basketball. What I liked...

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