A vey decent weekend after all!
Ireland destroyed England at Croke Park – recording a 43-13 win in Dublin. If memory serves me correct this is the biggest victory by Ireland over England and could also be the first time that someone has put 40+ points past England in the Five/Six Nations Championship.
One thing that did amuse me a lot came in the form of a photo that appeared in the Telegraph today. There was a small protest organised by the splinter group Republican Sinn Fein to highlight the ‘unacceptable normalisation’ of relations between Ireland and England, and the fact that a so-called “foreign sport” (foreign sport = football or rugby) was allowed to be played in Croke Park.
Anyway – this is said photo – just look closely:
Yes – you are seeing that correctly – a protester giving his two cent on “No Foreign Games” to be played in Croke Park – whilst wearing a tracksuit and jersey of Glasgow Celtic FC – a non-Irish team which plays one of the so-called “foreign sports” this fella is so dead set against.
The irony oozes from every pore there…
Anyway – back to this weekend just gone – the wedding reception I went to straight after the game was well-attended and a good time was had by all – good luck with it all Andy and Heather – I’m sure you’ll make a great success of this.
Sunday morning saw me out on the local parks pitches in Worcester – where I handled a local city league Division 2 match. The head wasn’t as sore as it may have been – the pitch was bloody awful – a real mudbath in the centre, stones down both flanks and one corner under just enough mud and a small amount of water meaning that any attempt to take a corner was impossible – however we managed to sort a solution for that out.
Ended up with 4 cautions and a penalty – the majority of which were accepted in the right spirit – both teams played a good hard-fought competitive match – and again – in the right spirit – which added up to a thoroughly enjoyable morning. The final result being the home team ran out 4-1 winners.
I’m in the middle on a County Youth match on Monday night between Worcestershire and Leicestershire up at the RSC in Worcester. Good news is that I get two neutral Assistant Referees – meaning I can concentrate more on what’s going on in the middle rather than worrying about offsides.
Finally – next weekend sees the start of the new Refereeing Promotion Season here in England – decided to give it a bash this season after a year out of it – so the hard work commences next Sunday!
No excuse for this picture, this guy and his cronies did celtic fans everywhere a huge dis-service with this stupidity. To say that rugby or soccer are foreign games in this day and age is to live in the past. I think this guy was probably just a bit thick to be honest.
I am a Glasgow Celtic fan of Irish descent, I know full well the political connotations that go hand in hand with the club and its fans. Given the club’s origins and the political/religious landscape of the west of Scotland its inevitable that there be an anti-establishment republican sentiment among the supporters. To use the jersey as a political flag however is grossly misplaced and trite.