Rugby

“Judgement Day” proves ironic

By Dave Snowden  ·  March 30, 2013  ·  Rugby

Enterprising marketing by the WRU today with a double header match involving all four Welsh regions in the Millennium Stadium.  They all turned out to be close matches and the overall audience was around twice what it would have been if the two matches had been held in the home stadiums.  More could have been done to make it a bigger day out and the merchandise was limited.  There was still a feel good factor from the defeat of the English two weeks ago and some residual traces of the atmosphere.  Unfortunately the train service had...

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Of the spear tackle

By Dave Snowden  ·  March 24, 2013  ·  Rugby

I've been going to the Hong Kong Sevens for many years now.  I missed one when Cardiff were progressing through the Heineken Cup but I'm normally there.   Working with Les Hales of CIO Connect during the days before and/or after and then from Friday night to Sunday watching Rugby from a box near the half way line trying to restrain my drinking.  From a business point of view this was one of the best visits and have demonstrated the value of patience!   More on that as some of the projects emerge.

I love the evening view over the...

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Socks - the new holy relic

By Dave Snowden  ·  March 16, 2013  ·  Rugby

Well you didn't expect me not to mention it did you?  After a whole month or so of the so called national press acting as a cheer leader for the inevitability of an English Grand Slam it was a real pleasure to be in the Millennium Stadium today.  Funnily enough there as a pretty solid confidence level in Wales.  I forecast a 12 point margin in our favour.  My reasoning was that England had struggled against Ireland, France and Italy while we had grown in capability and confidence ever since around 50 minutes into the match against...

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Not a WAG in site

By Dave Snowden  ·  March 9, 2013  ·  Great places, Rugby

It's a bit of a blurry photograph, the iPhone is good at many things but telephoto shots are problematic!  It's at the end of the Scottish match (one reason for my trip to Edinburgh) and the Welsh Team are doing a lap, not on honour, but to thank their supporters.   As they reached a corner of the stadium, some of the worst seats in the house they saw friends and relatives.  The picture shows Leigh Halfpenny with them.  A minute before Sam Wharburton had thrown his man-of-the-match award to one of the group.

Rugby players in Wales...

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A rugby interlude

By Dave Snowden  ·  August 26, 2012  ·  Rugby

A busy but brief visit to Melbourne came to and end today with a morning flight to Auckland.  Even then we managed to fit in a breakfast meeting with a student before grabbing a taxi to the airport.  I had forgotten to warn Michael that Air New Zealand, while very nice are sticklers for the rules so he didn't have a print of his ticket to prove he was not planning to illegally settle there.  But we got through that, with good humour however.   

Now it occurred to me after (honestly it was after) the schedule for this trip was...

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