by Bronwen & Richard at level C1

FRANCE : 2010 SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP & GRAND SLAM WINNERS

Even before the game had begun
We already knew that France had won
So this was surely the English plan:
Stop the French from winning “The Grand Slam”.
But with our Jonny on the bench
How on earth could we hope to beat the French?

The weather was dreadful, a deluge from heaven
And at half time France were winning 12 to 7.
France kept on attacking the great white wall
Determined to break through with the slippery ball.
Harinordoquy off, face covered in blood
Ball passed to Easter to Foden to Ashton to Flood.

Off went Bastereau, on came Chabal,
Dimitri Szarzewski came on as well.
Then a golden chance for England as Foden passed to Care
A brilliant kick forward but he just couldn’t get there.
At the top of their game, France could do no wrong,
Finally a chance as Saint Jonny came on.

The game was nearly over, the rain stopped and then…
A long kick from Jonny and the score was 12 – 10.
But although the whites had most of the possession
They just couldn’t get a try & conversion.
The whistle blew, France had won
They are the well deserved champions.

But in this game, as far as I could tell
England played a good game. Yes, England played well.

Wales v Italy

Wales kept hammering away at a tired Italian team who were dropping like flies in the first half and who eventually got completely worn down and ran out of steam.
The relief in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff was palpable, as overall this tournament has been frustrating for the Welsh. However, this result will give them the confidence they need as they prepare for their next matches, which will be against South Africa and New Zealand.
Wales 33 Italy 10

Ireland v Scotland

This was the best of the three matches this weekend. Here we had two teams who really did want to play rugby and they had a lot to play for. Scotland were playing for points to avoid being awarded the Wooden Spoon*, and Ireland were playing for the Triple Crown* – the trophy which is awarded to England, Ireland, Wales or Scotland if they are able to beat all three of their opponents. The Scottish tactics of Parks kicking with his right foot & Southwell kicking with his left foot seemed to bamboozle the Irish. With the score at 20 all, Scotland were awarded a penalty and from an unbelievably acute angle, man of the match Dan Parks kept his concentration despite the unsporting boos from the Irish supporters and slottedthe ball between the posts.
Ireland 20 Scotland 23

A FINAL BIT OF RUGBY HISTORY:

THE TRIPLE CROWN TROPHY
This was called “the invisible cup” for many years as although teams have been considered as “Triple Crown” winners since 1883, there was in fact no trophy until 2006 when the Royal Bank of Scotland, the principle sponsors of the Six Nations Championship, commissioned a trophy in the form of a large silver plate.

THE WOODEN SPOON

The wooden spoon goes to Italy this year.
This originated as a booby prize which was awarded to the Cambridge student who got the lowest marks in his exams yet still managed to be awarded a degree. It seemed to transfer to the game of rugby at the end of the 1800s when many ex- Cambridge students ended up playing in the national team and it now goes to the team who are bottom of the league table. It was first mentioned in a newspaper in 1894, but it should be made clear that no physical wooden spoon actually exists. Even so, no team wants the ignominy of being awarded it.

BTW: CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ENGLAND WOMEN’S TEAM WHO BEAT THE FRENCH WOMEN’S TEAM IN RENNES TO BECOME THE 2010 SIX NATIONS WOMEN’S RUGBY CHAMPIONS!

By Bronwen (the history bit) and Richard (the match report bit) at B2/C1

Rugby – a little bit of history

Rugby is in fact a market town with a population of about 62,000 people in the county of Warwickshire, which is in the West Midlands in the UK.
The town is home to a rather splendid public school (which isn’t public at all – it’s a private and jolly expensive school) called, … well…, Rugby School.

And the school is famous for, … yes you’ve guessed it…, the glorious game of rugby.

The story goes like this: In 1823, a certain William Webb-Ellis picked up a ball during a game of football and ran with it, thus inventing the game of rugby football.

In 1848, the first rules of the game were written by pupils at the school.

The game increased in popularity and rugby football started being played in the USA. By the end of the 1800s, the Americans had introduced the forward pass and adapted the rules, thereby inventing their own game of American football, which is why the shape of a rugby ball & an American football is basically the same.

ROUND 4 MATCH REPORTS

Ireland v Wales 27-12

The weekend kicked off with Ireland taking on Wales. The first few minutes were very even and it looked like it was going to be a tight encounter. The match turned, like so many others in this tournament, on a sin binning. This time it was Wales’ Lee Byrne in the 24th minute with the score 6-3 in Ireland’s favour. By the time he returned to the field it was 16-3 and although Wales briefly threatened a comeback, Ireland won comfortably 27-12.

Scotland v England 15 - 15

Next up, it was Scotland against England for the Calcutta cup*. After Scotland’s defeat by Italy in Rome two weeks ago, it ought to have been a reasonably straightforward England victory, or so we Englishmen thought! Somehow England managed to play some of the most inept rugby so far and were lucky to escape with a draw 15-15.
At least we kept the Calcutta cup as we were the holders from last year!

France V Italy 46 - 20

Finally, the last match was in Paris, and I use the term "match" loosely!
France put the Italians under pressure from the start so that they were unable to settle into any kind of rhythm. It didn’t take long for France to assert their authority and it reminded me of watching a training match, with the French team going through their set plays.

Although Italy had done well in conceding only 3 tries in the rest of the championship, they managed to concede 3 tries in the first 26 minutes of this game. France were quite simply walking all over them.

Despite a late flurry from the Italians, the French team were rampant with the little Napoleon (Parra) making a nuisance of himself all over the pitch, and Harinordoquy leaping like a salmon at every line out.

Due to the pitiful performance by the English, France have all but won the Six Nations Trophy. The question now is, can England stop them from getting the Grand Slam?

England face a daunting task next week, and even though we are well known for our bulldog spirit it will take divine intervention on the part of Saint George to stop the French from giving us a bloody nose.

Come on England!! "Play up, play up and play the game!"

A bit more rugby history...

THE CALCUTTA CUP

The Calcutta Rugby Club

In 1878, for various reasons, the Calcutta (in India) rugby club closed. They withdrew their funds from the bank in silver rupee coins which were melted down & turned into a trophy. They then presented the trophy to the English rugby football union & asked them to use the trophy however they wished. As,at that time, there were only three international teams: England, Scotland & Ireland, and Ireland were particularly poor at rugby and never scored a point, it was decided that Calcutta cup would be presented to the winner every time England played Scotland.

Match report by Richard at level B2

Wales v France 20 – 26

Friday night saw Wales entertain France in the first Six Nations night time match. There was a very large French presence and a fantastic atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. This was a match of two very different halves. In the first half, France totally dominated a lacklustre Welsh team who weren’t really playing rugby and the half time score was a disastrous 0 - 20!
Quite what happened in the dressing room, we will never know! Maybe the French team all had a “Ricard” and were already celebrating their victory, maybe the Welsh team were given a thorough dressing down by their New Zealand coach, but whatever happened, with only 17 minutes to go, Wales had managed to come back into the game, the score was 13-20 and France were down to 14 men. Wales were dominating and the French game had gone to pieces. It seemed only a matter of time before Wales would take the lead, but then, with 10 minutes to go, Michalak scored a penalty and the come- back was halted. Although Wales continued to press on, and did in fact score another try, France held on to win 26 -20. This was an exciting, nail biting match for all the supporters.

Italy v Scotland 16-12

Saturday afternoon saw Italy entertain Scotland in Rome. Italy won 16-12. This was only their second Six Nations win. Their first Six Nations win was also against Scotland two years ago. In fact, the Italian national team has only won 7 times in 10 years, so it was a fabulous victory for the Italians, but the match itself was full of mistakes & not a very good level of international rugby. By the way, Italy’s coach is Nick Mallet, a South African who made his reputation as coach of Stade Français. Scotland only have themselves to blame, however, as they had numerous chances to score a try and they also had the “man of the match” Dan Parks. Scotland invaded the Italian zone 22 times and didn’t score one try. Italy managed to get into the Scottish 22 metres only once but were rewarded with a try and its conversion.

England v Ireland 16 – 20

The final match this weekend was between England and Ireland at Twickenham. Ireland narrowly defeated England 16-20.
Although England dominated territory and possession of the ball, they lacked the killer instinct to score tries, and unusually for him, Jonny Wilkinson missed 3 shots at goal. Despite this, a Wilkinson drop goal with only 8 minutes left gave England a 16 -13 lead & it looked as though England would go on to win. But with only 4 minutes remaining, the Irish showed England how to do it, ran through the England defence and scored a match winning try. The game was mostly uninteresting as the two sides cancelled each other out and the combination of a dull match, freezing temperatures & torrential rain made the crowd very quiet.

We now look forward to 13th & 14th March, and the next match report will be written at level C1. See you then!

Vocabulary
lacklustre – dull, boring, not making an effort
(to be given) a dressing down – to be told off
to go to pieces – to be out of control, disorganized
nail biting (adj) - worrying

Winter Olympics 2010 by Richard (written at level B1)

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics? I used to enjoy it, but I haven’t watched it much this year.
Great Britain doesn’t normally do very well in winter sports, which is hardly surprising as we only have two small mountains, so it’s difficult to practice.
In fact, we haven’t won a Gold Medal for 30 years and we have only won 9 Gold Medals in the last 100 years, mostly in Ice Dance and in a rather strange sport called Curling.

However, yesterday we won the Gold Medal in a sport that I had never seen before: The Women’s Skeleton.
If, like me, you haven’t heard about this sport – let me try to explain it to you.

It consists of throwing yourself down an icy chute on a small sled, HEADFIRST, with your arms behind you.
Our girl, Amy Williams, reached speeds of nearly 130Km an hour with her chin only a few centimeters from the ice. And she won!

************ *************************

Both the USA and Canada have registered a complaint about Amy’s helmet, saying that it does not comply with the rules of the sport.
(Ha! With our reputation they probably thought a Brit couldn’t possibly win without cheating.)

But the Olympic committee has rejected the complaint and Amy will receive her Gold Medal today.

Well done Amy! Britain is proud of you.

Grammar:
Find 1 example of the Present Perfect Continuous
Find 6 examples of the Present Perfect Simple
Find 3 examples of the Simple Past
Find 1 example of the Past Perfect

******************************************************************************************************
HAVE YOU FOUND THEM? Here they are:-

Pres Perf Cont: Have you been watching?
Pres Perf Simp: Haven’t watched/Haven’t heard/Have won/ Haven’t won/ Have registered/Has rejected
Simp Past: We won/ reached speeds/they probably thought
Past Perf: Had never seen

Round 2 Match reports by Richard (written at level B1)

Wales 31 Scotland 24 (played in Cardiff).

For seventy-nine minutes Scotland were the better team by far and were winning 24-21, but then Scotland’s moment of madness resulted in two men being sent into the “sin-bin”. Wales equalized with a penalty in the 79th minute. At this point, Scotland were playing with only thirteen men and were obviously tired. Wales took this opportunity to score a try in the 81st minute to win the match.
What an injustice! Scotland should have won!

There were also some nasty injuries in this match. Tom Evans broke his neck & was immediately taken to hospital for surgery. Chris Patterson, on his 100th appearance for Scotland suffered kidney damage and is also in hospital.

PS : Wales must have had a very good celebration in a hotel, because on Sunday morning at 6am, Andy Powell & a friend were arrested at a service station for (allegedly) drink-driving and taking a golf buggy from the hotel and driving it on a motorway!

France v Ireland (played in Paris)

For the first fifteen minutes, Ireland played as well as France but in the 16th minute they were unlucky and missed the chance of scoring a try when the ball bounced badly. From then on, France took control of the game. They were leading 17 -3 at half time and in the second half France outclassed Ireland completely to win the match 33 -10.

Italy v England (played in Rome)

This was the worst match of the weekend. The level of rugby was very poor. There were a lot of mistakes made by both teams. England scored the only try of the match, but kicked the ball far too often when they should have run! COME ON ENGLAND we want to see you play better than this!

With a few minutes remaining, it looked like Italy were about to get their very first victory over England, but fortunately Saint Jonny Wilkinson, the English rugby hero (and Toulon fly-half) scored a drop goal. The final score was 17-12 to England.

After this weekend, France look like they are the best team and must be the favourites to win. They have beaten Scotland & Ireland and they will certainly beat Italy, but can Wales hold back the Blues? We shall see!

The next round of matches will be on Friday 26th Feb : Wales v France; Saturday 27th England v Ireland & Italy v Scotland.

Match Report 1 : niveau A2 by Richard

Do you like rugby?

If you do, I’m sure you know the Six Nations Tournament started on Saturday.

The first match was Ireland v Italy, which was not a very good match in my opinion. The Irish played quite well, but the Italians were really bad. It was a very one sided match and wasn’t very exciting. Ireland won 29 – 11

The next match, England v Wales, was the complete opposite. There was very little difference between the teams and it was an even game. The game changed when a Welsh player tripped an England player and he was sent to the ‘sin bin’ for 10 minutes. England scored 17 points in that time. Wales played a very good match and the scores came very close near the end, but England scored a try in the 74th minute to win the match 30- 17.

At the beginning of the Scotland v France match I thought it was going to be a very even contest as Scotland took the lead with a penalty and had several opportunities to score a try. But once the man of the match – Bastareaud – scored the first of his two tries, France were always in control of the match and won comfortably, 18 – 9

Next weekend France are playing the favourites (and holders of the Six Nations Trophy) Ireland in Paris.
England are playing Italy in Rome, and Wales are playing Scotland in Cardiff.

So, there will be more Rugby news next week!

PS: "V" = versus = against (contre) eg: England v Italy