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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And the Richie McCaw led, and Graham Henry coached, 2011 All Blacks begin their campaign by beating Tonga 41-10 on Eden Park
GALLAGHER, JOHN
Wellington and New Zealand
18 internationals for N. Zealand 1987–89
One of the rugby union world's most brilliant attacking fullbacks of the 1980s but who at the peak of his rugby union powers, was lost to rugby league.
John Gallagher was a young fullback living in London who decided to accept an offer of a rugby-playing holiday in Wellington, New Zealand in 1984. By 1986 his life had changed. He had decided to stay in New Zealand, he had embarked on a career with the police force, and late in the year he was included with the New Zealand All Blacks for their tour to France. He was very much a second-stringer on that tour, playing twice at centre.
It was a different matter in 1987. Given the confidence of being chosen as the number one fullback for the first Rugby World Cup, Gallagher’s speed and brilliant intrusions from fullback became a powerful weapon in the All Black armoury.
In his second test match, against Fiji at Christchurch, Gallagher scorched in for four tries (equalling the then New Zealand record for one test match) and helped make many more as the All Blacks raced out to a 74–13 win.
Gallagher played five of the All Blacks’ games at the World Cup, including the final, and was seen as one of the tournament’s most brilliant players. That kind of form followed him through 1988 and 1989, on four other All Black tours.
In May 1990, Gallagher, by then firmly ensconced as one of the country’s most popular sporting heroes, suddenly announced that he was heading for rugby league. The news sent shock waves through New Zealand rugby circles. There was at first disbelief and a little scorn from some, although soon emotions quietened and sensible Kiwis wished him luck in his new career.
The departure of Gallagher to rugby league, along with fellow All Blacks Frano Botica, John Schuster and Matthew Ridge, awakened New Zealanders to the realisation that their national game was not the only one on the sporting horizon. The departure of ‘Kipper’ Gallagher also left an extremely hard-to-fill gap in the All Black backline. No player would be quite like the flying redhead from the Oriental-Rongotai club in Wellington.
Gallagher signed with the Leeds rugby league club after 18 tests for the All Blacks. He scored 13 tries in tests, and in one game, in Japan in 1987, he scored 30 points. His signing fee was reported to be $NZ1.3 million (at the time about £420,000), well in excess of the previous reported world record fee.
Which nation came third in the 1987 Rugby World Cup played in New Zealand?
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