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.
The New Zealand All Blacks beat the South African Springboks 31 - 27 at Eden Park Auckland N this past weekend. Read on for the details.
The New Zealand All Blacks need to beat the Wallabies next Saturday to edge the Springboks out and starve them of two wins in a row.
The clash of the year between the two top rugby teams in the world, the New Zealand All Blacks and the South African Springboks produced what could be expected from such an encounter.
It was a bruising encounter, with the forwards and shallow defence dominating play.
Significant was the fact the three Springboks tries came from All Blacks mistakes -- the Boks on the other hand were torrid in defence.
The final try that sealed the victory for the All Blacks was a master stroke of forward play by their tight five. Mealamu scored after a brutal forward shove from a lineout ten metres out from the Boks try line.
The two wingers Rockococko (NZ) and Habana (Boks) were outstanding with pace and determination when the chances came their way. Kicking was the order of the day with both teams intent on playing the game in the others half.
Next week, the All Blacks will be out to take the Tri Nations trophy for 2005 with a win against the Wallabies in Auckland. The "wobblies" are crippled with injuries but still have a competitive side to run on at Eden Park with pride at stake through not wanting to make it five losses in a row.
The step back in time happened in Dunedin as these two once dominant teams in world rugby again came to the fore with a classic encounter -- many think this test will go down as one of the best and it certainly had the expectation of victory for both teams until the last five minutes.