NFL going from tackle to touch?

Troy Polamalu is a nice guy, but he's immensely popular amongst NFL fans because he LOVES to hit people. That's what he's paid for and that is why he is in the League. But now Troy is coming down hard on NFL Big-Wigs. Why? Because they are slowly taking away the one element of the game that makes it exciting...Tackling! Hitting! Layin fools out!

You don't see multi-million dollar stadiums being built and devoted to the weekend worship of flag football! So why does the NFL think that taking away vicious tackles in the game is going to fill seats on Sunday's? I agree with Troy, take away the physical nature of the sport and you're just a bunch of big guys in tights smacking each others butts.

RLeague.com Interview: Coach Jim Dymock

Tonga trained this morning at Concord Oval in Sydney's inner west as they prepare for Friday's blockbuster clash against Samoa at Penrith's CUA Stadium.

The Tongans narrowly escaped with a 22-20 victory against Ireland largely thanks to the class of Michael Jennings. The training session was in showery conditions at Concord as Tonga first worked on their defensive structures before getting into some ball work.

Rleague.com Pty. Ltd. took the opportunity to interview Tonga coach and Bulldogs assistant coach to talk about last Monday's clash against Ireland that Tonga won 22-20 in a nail biter, the big clash against Tonga, the growth of Tonga as a Rugby League nation and how the Bulldogs will shape up next year......full interview

Verbal jabs held to a minimum

Samoa and Tonga want to keep a lid on the trash-talking and prefer to let their play on the pitch do the talking.

Bledisloe Cup Update

The All Poly....Er, All Blacks will run up against what is forcasted to be a weakened Wallabies side in their historic Bledisloe Cup test in Hong Kong Saturday. Joe Rokocoko and Maa Nonu have been benched for Hosea Gear and Dan Carter respectively. Dan Carter at centre? Pretty risky even by All Black standards but apparently they need the double threat at tactical kicking.

Carrying on the tradition of professional rugby stars leaving the comforts of home and family for their career is Mils Muliaina. The sensational, trusty fullback's wife Hayley has just given birth to their first child. Congratulations Mils! Bring home the cup for momma!

The notable exception from the Wallabies side are No 8 Wycliff Palu (Herald Cup Player of the Year), Timana Tahu and wing Lote Tuqiri. Lucky for them the will still benefit from the services of their trusted flanker and two-time winner of the John Eales Medal (first ever person to win the award twice), George Smith. At just 28-years-of-age, Smith is already an 89-test veteran.

Police Blotter: Bryant Eteuati

A promising young football talent whose future has been his for the taking has found himself on the wrong side of the law. KUTV News reported that Weber State wide receiver Bryant Eteuati has been suspended indefinitely from the team for charges stemming from an altercation on October 15.

Eteuati, a Senior leader and a Big-Sky performer two seasons in a row may have played in his last game for the Wildcats' in a win against Northern Colorado on October 18th.

Tonga Survive

Tonga dispatched the Irish Wolfhounds last night in their first match of the Rugby League World Cup, but not without a bit of controversy and hard nosed footy. Five-eighth Feleti Mateo was the man of the match but the villain was quite obviously English referee Steve Ganson who spent a great deal of the match arguing with Tonga.

Tonga was expected to manhandle the Wolfhounds but the Irish put up quite a fight to the bitter end. Now Tonga will use their narrow margin of victory as inspiration as they take on Samoa in what is being billed as the match of the Cup.

Meanwhile, the Kiwi's are licking their wounds after a 30-6 dismantling by the Aussies. They will play the Kumuls of Papua New Guinea who lost their opening match to England, 32-22.

Trojans slip past Wildcats

The Arizona Wildcats and their Senior quarterback Willie Tuitama did not succeed on their bid for an upset of No. 5 USC. The game was real yawner (USC 17 - Arizona 10) if you're a fan of offensive demolitions but defensively both teams were laying down the law particularly by USC who shut down Tuitama in the second half and limited him to just 88 passing yards, well below his season average of 222 yards per game.

USC’s linebacking corps led by the omnipresent Rey Maualuga and Kaluka Maiava stifled the running game and along with the secondary forced Tuitama to make awkward passes and poor decisions all night. Fili Moala was a load in the middle of the defensive line and the Trojans clinched the game in the final minutes when FB Stanley Havili caught a 30-yard TD pass from Mark Sanchez.

Audible: When is USC going to return to its dominating ways? With that pool of talent, shouldn’t they be playing on an NFL level, or at least the way they played last year? Or is it just that defensive coordinators have finally figured out how to stop the Trojan winning machine? And when is coach Stoops going to give Tuitama the offense he needs to flourish? A pocket-passer needs more than just his running back as a big play option. Also, is it just me, or is Stanely Havili just a damn beast? That kid would run through a brick wall to win.

Call In Reinforcements!

Have we really earned this reputation? Have we digressed so far from our cultural decency and social etiquette that we can’t play a game, any game, without having a legion of police officers on hand to mediate disputes and to quell the violence? Are we still so far at odds that, centuries after the conflict was settled between your grandma and my grandma sitting by the war bonfire, we still hold grudges and are deadlocked in a pissing contest that no one is ever going to win?

Here’s the truth from where I stand. Samoans and Tongans are stuck in a sibling rivalry that is fueled by the one thing that we are most noted for – our competitiveness. Now throw into that mix a few ‘battles’ on the fields of play. Mix in a bit of off-handed media commentary about age-old rivalries, a dash of stubborn chieftains with loose lips, a squirt of gasoline to ignite the flames between the warring factions and you’ve got yourself a good old fashion backyard barbecue, complete with uncles slapping each other around and aunts wielding high heels yelling obscenities and scratching each others eyes out. Just like at Cousin Junior’s wedding last summer.

Its reminiscent of that wonderful rivalry between the Irish Catholics and their Irish Protestant neighbors. Not to be lost in the fray are the longtime pleasantries exchanged between those wonderful cousins the Pakistani’s and the Indian’s. And of course there is that matter that just can’t seem to end between Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

Okay, so its not quite as severe but you have to wonder what exactly it we’re still having disputes over after all these years. I mean, half of my very best Tongan friends are married to Samoan women and several of my Samoan cousins are married to Tongan males. Then there is the matter of my own family tree that shows a very strong Tongan bloodline on my maternal grandmother’s side. Oh yeah, my sister is also married to a guy with very strong Tongan ties and at one time my youngest sister was married to a half-Tongan kid, until they had a dispute.

Don’t get me wrong, I think rivalries in sports are healthy because it is what makes competitions exciting. But it is the bad taste in your mouth that lingers for days after players and fans take the rivalries too far. Sportsmanship is just as important as competitiveness because it allows us to show class and dignity in the face of adversity. In any game there has to be a victor and a loser and sometimes there are even losers on the winning side.

I love watching Tongan and Samoan international sides go at each other for an hour like their lives were at stake. But more than that, I enjoy watching the players congratulate each other, pat one another on the back, shake hands and walk away friends. And everyone in the bleachers should reciprocate. Let the players represent your country with vigor and leave the trash-talk and violence on ice.

Just a few days away and....

Here's where I'm having trouble: Taniela Tuiaki states that he and fellow claimant Fuifui Moimoi, "didn't know what politically the World Cup rules were and didn't know its two years before you can switch to another country."

Okay, we'll give you one point for the following: None of us can know entirely what the legal jargon is on any contract of any nature, and that most guys (or gals) would prefer that they have a legal expert scan over the details before signing the dotted line. But really, these two have each been playing professional footy for seveal years now and have been aroung the sport and its influential circles long enough to know that if you play for one country, you're going to raise a few eyebrows when you turn around and say, "Uh, I think I'm switching my allegiances this time around."

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see all of our boys play for Fiji, Tonga and Samoa first, before defecting (ala Dom Feaunati who wore Samoa's blue and is now strking a pose in England's jersey and Lesley Vainikolo who passed up Tonga to play for the Brits) but don't play the "Prodigal Son" bit when your services are no longer required on greener pastures. These guys had to have known that if they don a jersey of any other singlet than the one issued by the island nations, you're really putting it all in for the "poachers".

Tonga's neighbors and fierce rivals Samoa are really marketing themselves as the spoilers in this years Cup but do they really have the goods to contend with the power of Australia, England and New Zealand? Nigel Vagana seems to think so.

He's quoted (New Zealand Herald) as saying, "People in New Zealand will know only too well what the Islander boys are capable of. We're sometimes pretty unpredictable and this side will be no different. At the end of the day, we are going to Australia to win..."

Talking smack only works when you can back it up and I fear that the boys in blue will suffer the same fate as their brothers in Union. I hope I'm wrong, but honestly, I can't see them causing any major upsets despite what the media is feeding them.

I'm hoping for the best results possible for Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Otherwise this blog is going to get downright vulgar in a few weeks!