Rollo Manning has been a rugby tragic all his life since being named after a Wallaby winger and educated at a private boarding school in Sydney, Australia. Manning has been working in publicity and public relations for 40 years, and during that time has commented on the "game they play in heaven" through radio, magazines and newspaper coverage.
As a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, he has broadcast in magazine style programs and live coverage of games. He is currently a regular contributor to www.scrum.com and radio shows in his hometown of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Manning has been contributing to eSports for six years and relishes the opportunity to express his views on the first of the two rugbies. He is currently completing work on a study of the inter play between rugby league and rugby union over the past 100 years, when league was formed as the professional arm of an otherwise purely amateur game.
Since 1995, both have become professional and the drift of players is going back from league to union. Where will it end? That is the question Manning is now asking himself.
In a convincing 35-25 scoreline, they pulped the Waratahs into a series of errors that were only overcome in the final 13 minutes of play when the visiting Waratahs put on 19 points from three tries and two conversions to make the final score look respectable.
The Tahs game plan had been to kick for territory and not to kick away possession, but that is what they did for 67 minutes. Aimless kicking into the Crusaders half of the field simply gave the counter attacking brilliance of the home side to dominate play. The turnovers of ball achieved by the Crusaders was another major factor as they effectively turned defence into attack and all the Waratahs could do was to watch the score mount against them.
Finally, when the Waratahs did use their full backline in those final 13 minutes play began to go their way but all too late.
Lions arrive in New Zealand
The British Lions touring party has arrived in New Zealand with its 44 players and 29 support staff and a balmy army likely to swamp the country with a membership upwards to 10,000.
In Auckland, planning is well under way to "blacken" the city in the first week of July when the tour winds up with a game against Auckland and the final test of the three test series. Shopkeepers are being asked to call for kits of wrapping and balloons and the shops will open late every night to make the most of the red shirted Army?s final shopping spree.
The tour kicks off on 4th June with a game against the Bay of Plenty in Rotorua and eSports will be there to report all the action as the tour progresses. That city (Rotorua) is busy working out how to accommodate the 750 camper vans expected to descend on the tourist city of population 65,000. With on average of six people per campervan this alone will swell the number of people to feed by 3,000.
Here is the full itinerary for the Lions tour.
* Saturday, June 4, 2005: Versus Bay of Plenty at Rotorua International Stadium
* Wednesday, June 8, 2005: Versus Taranaki at Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth
* Saturday, June 11, 2005: Versus N.Z. Maori at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
* Wednesday, June 15, 2005: Versus Wellington at Westpac Stadium, Wellington
* Saturday, June 18, 2005: Versus Otago at Carisbrook, Dunedin
* Tuesday, June 21, 2005: Versus Southland at Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill
* Saturday, June 25, 2005: First test versus the All Blacks at Jade Stadium, Christchurch
* Tuesday, June 28, 2005: Versus Manawatu at Arena Manawatu, Palmerston North
* Saturday, July 2, 2005: Second test versus the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium, Wellington
* Tuesday, July 5, 2005: Versus Auckland at Eden Park, Auckland
* Saturday, July 9, 2005: Third test versus the All Blacks at Eden Park, Auckland