Bayonne makes for a handful

Brian O'Driscoll discovered the pithy side of French rugby during a warm-up match with Bayonne this Thursday. The Irish crushed the side 42-6, but came away with a number of serious injuries, including O'Driscolls harbles.

"There must have been a translation problem," O'Driscoll stated to post-match interviewers, "the Bayonne were told the play the ball, and made a right royal mess of it."

In a match marred by numerous yellow cards O'Driscoll suffered a suspected broken cheekbone and Irish officials now find themselves concerned for his inclusion in the World Cup side.

"Brian's a wee bit worried, his missus has a almighty right hook" officials allegedly stated, "She said if he came home with evidence of a close encounter in France, there'd be trouble.

"The man's balls are the size of a bunch of grapes now. She's bound to be a little suspicious."

O'Driscoll is not expected to recover from the concussion before the beginning of the Cup.

Chabal wins the day for France

Our favourite Frenchman Sebastien Chabal scores a decisive late try in France's rugby win over England (held at Twickenham) over the weekend. (Final score: 16-21)

The Dropkicks - 2007 - Episode 26

More analysis of the Air NZ Cup (NZ's provincial rugby competition); Australia's late-night pre-World Cup training; French rugby coach Laporte insinuates All Blacks and English are on drugs; Jake Brown's 30ft skateboard fall; Alex Rodriguez gets to 500 baseball homers in record time; Swede Stefan ... something ... wins the 100m freestyle in sub-48 seconds; ex All Black Ofisa Tonu'u sorts out someone suffering from air-rage; NRL player Sonny Bill Williams loses his BMW; EA Sports annoy gamers by only releasing Rugby 2007 on PS2/PC; another NRL player - Brad Morrin - gets a citing for biting; and rugby player Rico Gear abandons Tasman...

Download Episode 2007/26.

The Dropkicks - 2007 - Episode 25

The Dropkicks get into the swing of the 2007 Air NZ Cup; the Tour de France (aka Tour de Farce); Good deeds done by Curtis Martin; Iraq's win in the Asian Cup; bad 'fan' behaviour in the NRL (league) and NFL (american football); NFL player impersonations; and NRL players other than Willie Mason that the Dropkicks hate.

Download Episode 2007/25.

Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind

Following in the vein of The Mouth of the South, I thought Id throw together a 15 as well.

This is the inaugural "All Black what ever happened to .... 15" (cue stirring, reflective type music). Recent All Blacks who never quite made it, and have since faded into some type of obscurity. Maybe they fell out of favour with a particular coach. Perhaps they were groomed to take the spot of a legend but when their time finally came, someone younger and better had caught them up and passed them by. Maybe they got injured, forgotten and left our fine shores to take the money overseas. It’s an interesting list.

15 - Fullback: Ben Blair (2002)

14 - Wing: Bruce Reihana (2000)

13 - Centre: Mark Robinson (2002)

12 - Second Five-eighth: Keith Lowen (2002)

11 - Wing: Norman Berryman (1998)

10 - First Five-eighth: David Hill (2006)

9 - Halfback: Danny Lee (2002)

8 - Number Eight: Ron Cribb (2001)

7 - Openside Flanker: Sam Harding (2002)

6 - Blindside Flanker: Sam Broomhall (2002)

5 - Lock: Royce Willis (2002)

4 - Lock: Simon Maling (2004)

3 - Prop: Clarke Dermody (2006)

2 - Hooker: Mark Hammett (2003)

1 - Prop: Campbell Johnston (2005)

Halfback was the real tough one, with names such as Mark "Sharky" Robinson and Steve Devine also baring consideration. Also I took some liberties with Broomhall, who primarily played number 8 for Canterbury. We haven’t gone through many blindsiders that aren’t still in the team. It appears it was a popular spot for the captain (Randall, Thorne, Blackadder).

Man, having a look back, it appears that 2002 was a bad year for All Black careers.