KeithQuinnRugby
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12 August 2014
TUESDAY NIGHT 12 AUGUST 2014
Tapping away at Auckland International Airport here I go with what looks like a very exciting time ahead for this 'young' sports reporter.
A young reporter? Why, that's me folks! Well I must be if the good people at the Olympic Broadcasting Service have invited me again to join their commentary team for the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games.
Here I am at aged mumbly-mumble (you can work out my age from elsewhere on this website! [...but i have a Winston card!]) I am waiting to board my flight to Guangzhou then onto Nanjing in the People's Republic of China. Ahead of me is, obviously, another commentary assignment but there are many parts of this trip which will be like a journey into the unknown.
For a start I have never been to Nanjing before and I have never been to a Youth Olympic sports festival. I am sustained by my experiences at other Summer Olympics and Commonwealth Games I have been to so I am hoping that will be something I will quickly be accustomed to.
But 5000+ 'Youth' athletes competing in 28 Olympic events? I wonder how I'll go. There's little knowledge by reputation that I can see of any of the competitors - they simply haven't been around long enough in their 14-18 year sports lives to be really famous. So we'll see.
On my schedule is commentary on rugby sevens (it is making its debut into the Olympic programme in Nanjing and not quite in Rio in 2016 as everyone has been saying): I'm also down to do weightlifting and tennis; four days at each of those three sports.So anyway; here goes with my first infomation for you; below are the details of the full rugby sevens programme - but strangely there are no New Zealand boys or girls rugby team taking part; I'll find out why for you in the next few days. Stayed tuned here at www.keithquinnrugby.com
And if you're in New Zealand go to Sky TV's SkySports Channel and watch our coverage day in day out for the 16 days of competition.
And wish this old bloke good luck as he heads off with all the kids of the world
How lucky is that? Pretty fortunate I'd say!
......
HOW THE YOUTH RUGBY SEVENS WILL WORK:
The men’s and women’s rugby sevens competitions at Nanjing 2014 will be held at the city’s Youth Olympic Sports Park on 17-20 August, with 72 players taking part in each.
Both tournaments will be contested by six teams with players aged between 14-18 years of age. They will feature an initial round-robin phase, with teams playing twice a day. Games will consist of two halves of seven minutes, with a two-minute break for half-time. Three points will be awarded for a win, two for a draw and one for a defeat.
The top four teams in the group phase will go forward to the semi-finals, with the top team playing the fourth-placed side and second meeting third, while the teams finishing fifth and sixth in the group will meet in a play-off for fifth place.
The medal matches on 20 August will feature two halves of 10 minutes. The day’s programme will begin with the bronze-medal matches, followed by the women’s final and then the men’s gold medal match.
Therefore players who step onto the podium at the day’s end will take their place in Olympic history as rugby’s first medal winners of the 21st century, and some of them no doubt will be hoping to repeat the feat when the sport begins an exciting new Olympic era at Rio 2016. [with thanks to IOC website]
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A 48 test veteran Jerry Collins tragically died in a car crash in Southern France aged only 34.
GABE, RHYS
Cardiff, Llanelli and Wales
24 internationals for Wales 1901–08
At the age of 12, in 1893, Rhys Gabe walked from his home near Llanelli to watch Wales play Ireland at Stradey Park, a distance of five miles. He and his friends played with a rugby ball all the way there and back, and the game had a profound influence on young Gabe. Thereafter he only wanted to be a centre and based his play on his hero who had played that day, Sam Lee of Ireland.
Gabe made his debut for Wales in 1901 against Ireland at Swansea in a match that marked the last appearance of the great Billy Bancroft for Wales.
Gabe, as a centre capable of beating his opposites with deception and speed, was a brilliant player in the Welsh teams which won the Triple Crown in 1902, 1905 and 1908, and which enjoyed a period of success called Wales’s first ‘golden era’. He also toured New Zealand with the Great Britain team of 1904.
It was Rhys Gabe who made the run that led to Teddy Morgan’s try which enabled Wales to beat the 1905 All Blacks. He also took part in the famous ‘foggy’ game of 1908 when Wales beat England by 28–18. Gabe scored twice that day – one of the tries was not seen by the England defence because of the murky weather.
There is another story that Gabe was kicked so hard in the backside in the Wales v Scotland game in 1905 that he could not sit down for six months! Being a schoolmaster it meant he had to conduct his lessons standing on his feet. However, the records also actually show that he was fit enough to play in Wales’s next match just three weeks later!
Who was the player in the All Blacks 1991 World Cup team who played in one test (against Italy) and never played for the All Blacks at any level before or after that game?
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