The News Review:
- Unbeaten Gloucester unveil Kingsholm
- Ireland’s dying light stings Reddan in hunt for late revival
- Defiant in defeat Tonga earn their right to party
Unbeaten Gloucester unveil Kingsholm
Telegraph.co.uk – Sep 29, 2007
Harlequins meanwhile take on clued-up opposition at Kingston Park in another evening match. Lee Dickson the England Saxons scrum-half makes his first Premiership start of the season for Newcastle and director of rugby John Fletcher warned: “Quins will try and slow the game down but we know what we have to do. ” As for Leicester they will be missing injured prop Julian White when they attempt to settle a score at High Wycombe tomorrow. Wasps without a win so far beat the league champions in the Heineken Cup final and sense a chance of a repeat.
Ireland’s dying light stings Reddan in hunt for late revival
Guardian Unlimited – Sep 29, 2007
There was Matt Dawson Ian McGeechan Shaun Edwards and Craig Dowd and you think ‘If I can’t pull it out here I’ve given it a good crack and I’ll go home happy. ‘ If the five or six people in that room couldn’t turn me around then nobody would. “The move paid off last season when Wasps won the Heineken Cup and Reddan scored crucial tries: two in the semi-final against Leinster and one in the final against Leicester. O’Sullivan watched both games. “They [the Irish selectors] are always watching” says Reddan. “They come to a lot of the games and they get the videos. I don’t think anyone is off the radar and if you play well they’ll know so you have to keep playing well.
Defiant in defeat Tonga earn their right to party
Guardian Unlimited – Sep 29, 2007
There were times particularly after beating the United States and then their greatest rivals Samoa – wins which guaranteed a place in New Zealand in four years’ time – when the corks could have been pulled. There has been plenty to celebrate for a side that less than four months ago could not even beat Japan. They were also thrashed 50-3 by Samoa before their Australian coach walked out in frustration after the Pacific Cup. Cash-strapped and divided politically Tonga’s new rugby board – the old one still exists but has no say in the national team – turned to Quddus Fiela a local coach with no experience of professional rugby but a book full of telephone numbers. Fiela who played 15 times for Tonga phoned around Europe Australia New Zealand and Japan contacting players such as Taione Taufa’ao Filise of Cardiff Blues Aisea Havili and Aleki Lutui of Worcester and Soane Tonga’uiha of Northampton asking them to join his squad. Finau Maka good enough to win two Heineken Cups with Toulouse but previously not prepared to accept a Tongan cap also signed up and by the time Fiela’s squad arrived in France it contained only four of the side beaten by Japan. One of them Nili Latu was their captain and inspiration last night as he has been all the way through the tournament… Cash-strapped and divided politically Tonga’s new rugby board – the old one still exists but has no say in the national team – turned to Quddus Fiela a local coach with no experience of professional rugby but a book full of telephone numbers. Fiela who played 15 times for Tonga phoned around Europe Australia New Zealand and Japan contacting players such as Taione Taufa’ao Filise of Cardiff Blues Aisea Havili and Aleki Lutui of Worcester and Soane Tonga’uiha of Northampton asking them to join his squad. Finau Maka good enough to win two Heineken Cups with Toulouse but previously not prepared to accept a Tongan cap also signed up and by the time Fiela’s squad arrived in France it contained only four of the side beaten by Japan. One of them Nili Latu was their captain and inspiration last night as he has been all the way through the tournament. He got the evening off on the right foot by turning Tonga’s version of the haka into the first installment in an evening of physical confrontation. Maka did what Maka does and bruised his way up the middle. Taione also got a decent lecture from the referee Alain Rolland before the game was a quarter old and Latu one at the start of the second half when he came dangerously close to lifting Lewis Moody’s head from his shoulders.