Weekend Roundup and Team of the Week

Here we go with the weekend round up and team of the week award.

Rugby Union starts us off because my team of the week is the England Rugby team. Fresh on the heels of last weeks success over Wales, England managed to triumph again in Rome. The result was a 31-16 victory. I have to give credit where it is due. The Italians are proving themselves very difficult to beat and are probably going to be the most improved side of this years' six nations. It looks like England are going to be the team to beat this year as they start to get back to their world cup winning form of 3 years ago. Andy Robinson has them playing well enough, so I am expecting back to back six nation trophies and going out of the world cup next year with a whimper.

The Northampton Saints took on London Wasps on Sunday and ended up with a commendable 19-19 draw. This is a great result as the Saints season has been one of major disappointment. When they announced the signing of Carlos Spencer everyone expected them to be able to put in a push for the premiership title. However they have spent the larger part of the season at the wrong end of the table. Recent weeks have seen an upturn in their fortunes and this result is showing they are heading in the right direction. Roll on next season.

Football. I make no apologies that I will rant more and more about Cambridge United than any other team I follow. I am a long time season ticket holder and suffering fan and will use this blog to vent my frustrations at every opportunity.

Our away day blues continue. Altrincham 2 -1 Cambridge United. Despite describing them as the worst team we have seen this season at the Abbey (Cambridge's home stadium) we still canot buy a win away from home. In the last 4 seasons we have only managed 4 away wins. That's pathetic. Even without the suspended Fola Onibuje and Dan Gleeson we should have won this game at a canter. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of Rob Newman, our manager, it's just that he cannot break the hoodoo and with more new debutants in the side it is getting to the stage where they have to introduce themselves to each other before the kick off.

On the positive side there was another goal from David Bridges, and next year a good goal scoring midfielder will be invaluable. If we are starting to build for next years campaign now, then we need to look to players like this as the future. We can right this season off, as we won't go down and neither will we make the play offs. The time is now to separate the wheat from the chaff and but the basis of our team for a play off assault next year. You can expect a bigger rant on this next week after I will have suffered 90 minutes of the mediocrity they are currently serving.

Rugby League Warrington Wolves opened up their campaign against the Salford Reds. This could be a make or break season for the Wolves. After a strong showing last term, many expected them to do well in the premiership play-offs especially after signing Andrew Johns. However defeat to Hull was still a respectable showing. There have been a number of comings and goings in the off-season and I am going to stick my neck on the line and predict a finish of 4th.

Bugger! I wrote this prior to the game. Warrington were humiliated 6 -24 by Salford. Coach Cullen had this to say:
"We were completely outplayed from start to finish by a far more enthusiastic Salford side.
I'm bitterly disappointed by our effort. Handling errors and lack of completion were the reasons we lost. Salford were far more efficient and far more professional and applied their game-plan far more religiously than we did."

too bloody right you were, you've got a couple of weeks to get things sorted out or I'm going back to being pessimistic all over again.
Basketball. 2 games for the Warriors this weekend - one win and one loss.
Friday Indiana 107 Warriors 95 Top scorer Mikael Pietrus 23
Saturday Warriors 99 Cavaliers 91 Top scorer Jason Richardson 31

I follow the Warriors as that was where I saw my only NBA match, and they won. Little did I know at the time that they were not going to be the best of teams to follow. They are currently standing 4th in their division 10 games off the league, and if they could start to win some more home games that will get better. This is by far the best season they have had so far since I started to follow them.

Great effort from Jason Richards on Saturday to only be outscored by 2 points by LeBron James, and excellent scoring from the bench. I'd like to see more consistency over the next few weeks, as currently sitting just 2 games back from a playoff position is starting to give me hope