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About Spiro Zavos
About Spiro Zavos
Spiro Zavos is recognised as one of the world’s most influential rugby writers. His column on Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald during the rugby season has run for more than twenty years. His trenchant analysis, especially on rugby matters, has made his columns must-read institutions all over the world. Zavos has written ten books, several of them award-winners, on politics, fiction and rugby, including How To Watch A Game of Rugby, which has been reprinted twice since its publication in 2005.
Deans raises Australia's IQ
FROM where I was on Saturday, high up in the stands at ANZ Stadium and at the other end of the field, it looked to me that the French player was onside when he intercepted a pass from Luke Burgess and raced away for a certain try. Certain, that is, until English referee Dave Pearson ruled an offside allowing Matt Giteau to kick an easy penalty.
Visitors will give us a taste of the Lions
ALL the hype about Australia's bid to host the football World Cup in 2018 or 2022 glosses over the fact that the next huge football occasion in this country will be the tour of the British and Irish Lions in 2013.
Deans one step ahead of Henry in adjusting to whole new maul game
AS Rex Mossop might have said, it was deja vu all over again for the All Blacks against France on Saturday night. Just as they did at Cardiff in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final, France made more tackles (153 to 87), had only 40 per cent of the territory, lost the lineouts, and managed to win only 38 rucks to the All Blacks' 98. But when the final whistle blew, the All Blacks were trying to snatch a victory with their final play.
Sonny could be something under a canny Kiwi coach
THE great occasion of the first Barbarians-Wallabies match played
in Australia revealed several games within the main contest, which
was won convincingly by the home side, 55-7.
South Africa is a dangerous place for Lions dependent on mauling
THE Super 14 final at Pretoria, with the home side destroying the visitors 61-17, was a case of too many Bulls and not enough Chiefs. South Africa now has a second Super championship.
Full ELVs deserve a fitting farewell
THE Super 14 final at Pretoria next Saturday night between the Bulls and the Chiefs will, unfortunately, be the last major match to be played under the full ELVs. Unfortunately, because the two semi-finals were matches that reflected the best of the rugby code, with sweeping attacks and hard-shouldered defence in contrast to the intense, but dour, slog (lifted from time to time by Rocky Elsom's ferocious charges) of the European Heineken Cup final.
Hickey tops poor coaching class with a C
One of the consequences of rugby becoming professional in 1995 is that coaching has become a professional occupation.
Tahs more likely to win finals than make them
HERE is the irony. The Waratahs are a good chance to win the Super 14 - if they make the finals.
Why South Africa are shooting at shadows
ROUND 12 of the Super 14 provided exciting matches. Along with the
Heineken Cup, Europe's version of Super Rugby, the tournament is
the strongest provincial competition in the world. Why would South
Africa want to kill it?
Campo has solution for Waratahs' trying times
BEFORE the Waratahs' match against the Western Force, I ran into
David Campese, rugby union's Benji Marshall but very much better
over a long career. We chatted about the mediocre back play of the
Waratahs. "Give me two weeks with them," Campese told me, "and I
can fix up their problems."
O'Connor tops the class as other wonder boys go backwards
JAMES O'CONNOR, a scrawny, brilliant kind of a player, chased after the loose ball, grabbed it and then booted it into the stands. It was fitting that the best player on the field closed out a well-deserved victory for the enterprising Western Force over the lacklustre Waratahs.
Waratahs are playing without intellect
ON MY way out of the Sydney Football Stadium after the Waratahs' lacklustre loss to the Bulls, I heard a couple talking about the game. "At least now," the husband said to his wife, "we won't have to worry about buying tickets for the semi-finals."
If the Tahs want to succeed, try scoring tries
THE NSW Waratahs look certain to be finalists in the Super 14. That
is the good news. The bad news is that they are unlikely to go very
far in the finals until they get into the habit of scoring tries.
Beale's best position may be outside Halangahu
THE thing about hoodoos, like the Waratahs never winning a Super rugby match against the Blues in Auckland, is that they end sooner or later. And end it did with a well-deserved victory on Friday.
Tahs backs need to be realigned to stop wheels falling off
THE train carriage I was in coming back from the enthralling
Waratahs-Crusaders contest at ANZ Stadium at Homebush Bay was quiet
until a good old boy dressed in the Waratahs colours came in. "Cash
in on the Waratahs demolition sale," he spruiked. "Waratahs caps
for $5. They might win next week."
Irishman and Waratahs don't realise spontaneity takes practice
The failed former coach of Ireland, Eddie O'Sullivan, has been
getting a lot of attention for his attack on the ELVs and Super 14
rugby as a dud spectacle. This is nonsense.
Waratahs' dumb luck can't last forever
THE Waratahs are playing dumb rugby, rather than boring rugby. Sooner or later - probably sooner, with a difficult match coming up on Friday night against the Brumbies at Canberra - they will have to wise up if they are to be considered genuine title contenders.
Flitting between franchises dilutes origin idea
JOHN CONNOLLY, the doughty and successful coach of Queensland in
their glory days of the "it's great to be an Australian, and even
better to be a Queenslander" attitude, has proposed a rugby union
state of origin match.
Merit panel in strife as fans focus on refs' nationalities
IN AN email exchange with the journalist D.D. McNicoll, the
retiring High Court judge Michael Kirby revealed that when he was a
student at Fort Street High School he'd been a rugby union referee:
"I refereed many games and could not sympathise with the advantage
rule."
Don't judge Deans by silver standard
FOR the chief executive of the ARU, John O'Neill, it's all about
winning trophies.
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