Ugliest Player in 2007 Tri-Nations Competition Anounced

It's official, with 50% of the popular vote Chris Jack has been voted the ugliest player of the 2007 Tri-Nations competition. Well done Chris, another trophy for Southern men to be proud of. Truth be told the Southern Men have had their hands on this one since O'Halloran retired from the Hurricanes. That man surely fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Chris has an unfortunate resemblance to the banjo playing kid from Deliverance - perhaps he's the kids uncle? Runners up Akona Ndungane (also known as Anaconda reports the Sydney Morning Herald) and Anton Oliver also put in strong showings being tied for second place. Nice going lads.

Today was also noted as the final game of the Tri-Nations from Joburg took place. Imust admit it was difficult to get too excited over this game, but I did still watch it. Late at night, on a windy and wild Sydney evening. The Wallabies took on the best of South Africa in the final game of the series. The Wallabies started well and looked like they had a point to prove to All Blacks fans who think that the World Cup is in the bag.

The opening exchanges were marked by staunch African defence, and some clever play by the Wallabies back line, particularly Larkham who managed the backline play well. The rush defence was again utilised by the Africans to good effect, but it has to be said that they have improved markedly in the loose. The Africans of course dominated in the tight up front as well, Os du Randt took Rodzilla to school and showed him what scrummaging is really all about.

Steve Walsh had his usual game, lots of whislte and plenty of involvement from the ref. The Joburg crowd gave him their usual fair and unbiased appraisal of his performance at times. In spite of some promising attacking play by the African backs, stout Wallaby defence saw the game tied at half time, 3 points all. To be fair, the game was waiting for someone to do something to blow it open and break out with a scoring play. By far the best play of the first half was Jeremy Paul's dislocated finger - ouch!

An early penalty saw Africa score first after the break, and while it is always good to get points on the board early on in the second half, they would've been looking for something more. Australia answered immediately with a try to Larkham, who scored from sustained forward pressure, and a nice inside pass from Palu. Mortlock added the extra points from a relatively early kick, made from slightly wider out as Larkham was deemed to have grounded the ball wider out than he initially claimed. Good involvement of the TMO. The Wallabies then lead by 10-6.

A silly penalty from Vickerman gave the Africans the opportunity to snatch back three points, and Pretorious did not miss the easy points on offer. 10-9 in favour of the Wallabies after 8 in the second half. 5 minutes later Pretorius added another 3 from a difficult drop goal to put his side back in front, 12-10. Given their possession and the pressure they had been applying to the Wallabies, perhaps running the ball may have been a better option, but points are points, and this was looking like a close one. Two minutes later, it didn't matter one iota as du preez took a quick tap following a strong African forward drive that Chisholm pulled down, caught the Wallabies napping, and muscled over for what became a 7 pointer. Great play from the half back. 19-10 to Africa after 56 minutes. 13 unanswered points from Africa, but still only one try a piece. However, the confidence was running stong in the African side, their pride starting to swell their chests once again. Could it be that they would have two wins in two weeks after being the laughing stock of the Tri-Nations? Dare to dream was the call last week, would it be so again for Jake White's African side?

The Wallabies struck back at the 59 minute mark with a three pointer following some blatant offside play from the Africans. Mortlock elected to kick, and saw his team right by converting the penalty into points. Some poor form under the high ball from the African winger saw an offside regathering of the ball draw a penalty that Mortlock again converted into 3 much needed points for his side. The Wallabies back in the match, 19-16 to South Africa and just 3 points in it. A valuable lesson for Africa, it's an 80 minute game. Too much kicking from Pretorius robbed a rampaging confident African back line of some great attacking opportunities, and handed safe ball back to the Wallabies who were tiring in the dying stages of the match.

A great try to Paulse snatched all hope of victory from the iring Wallaby side. Even Captain Fantastic Gregan was left reeling from the attack, apparently injured in the driving play of the Africans. The initiative was wrested back with that try, and when the slow to get to his feet Paulse returned back to half way the crowd gave him a deserved cheer. Fantastic stuff, and one would have to wonder why he had been left out in the cold for so long when he had such a hand in turning this game. The missed conversion had the Africans ahead by 8 points, 24-16. Would it be enough? 75 minutes elapsed, and Knuckles showed his astute reading of the game by bringing on Smith.

Smith did managed to stomp on the feet of a prone African in the few minutes he was on, and we got a nice replay of that courtesy of the African feed we were watching. Of course, the Aussie commentators said nothing about that, talking instead of 50-50 calls not going their way. In any event, Africa held them out with some stout defence in front of the home crowd. 50-50 calls did not decide this game, good enterprising play, and the ability to apply sustained pressure won the day as usual. It was a much improved performance from Africa and they can be justly proud of having come so far. While this 24-16 victory wont erase the memories of the 49-0 thrashing in Brisbane, it will go some way to restoring confidence among the African team, and bestowing some pride in the Springbok side. Well done Springboks, it was a good game and you deserved to win scoring 2 tries to 1. Hopefully next time you will get a decent crack at the Tri-Nations with some more astute scheduling so you have a home game before it is all done and dusted, and maybe the Australian Rugby Union wont stuff you around with training venues.

That brings an end to the Tri-Nations, it's been great covering the controversey, results and speculation with you all. Keep checking back, there is a great deal of rugby to be played yet this year, not to mention the developments over next years Super 14 competition still to cover. Check back often, there'll still be plenty of posts on this site to keep you going. Thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you that voted in the polls taken on this site. They'll still be going, but may revert to montly polls for the next wee while.