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The Holy Hooker

Listed below are comments made by The Holy Hooker between Monday, 4th August 2008 and Thursday, 2nd July 2009.

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Your questions for Martyn Williams 10:48am on 02 Jul 2009 Hi Martyn,

Congrats to the whole squad on an immense performance to date - we're all very proud of you.

My question - how difficult is it for the players to find motivation for Saturday's last test? Dead rubber, thoughts of home, end of a long season - it's not difficult to think of distractions. What works for you personally?

All the best - you're already heroes, but it'd be great to put one over them on Saturday.
Lions ratings 7:50pm on 20 Jun 2009 Invidious to compare starters' peformances with those of replacements who came on after SA took off their stars.

For example Adam Jones had a much easier ride against the Boks' replacement loosehead than Phil Vickery did against the Beast.

What the Lions did collectively better in the last third of the game was to play what was in front of them and react on the hoof.
Naughty England fail to learn lessons 10:08am on 02 Mar 2009 Fair comment.

This is not a recent phenomenon - in the 2003 RWC final, it took the introduction of old sweat Jason Leonard to bring some common sense to the way our props were packing down and binding.

Left to their own devices, Vickery and Woodman would arguably have continued to concede penalties despite Andre Watson's clear instructions, and potentially have lost us the game and the RWC.

There is no excuse for Vickery - too experienced and too skilled - but unfortunately no obvious alternative as an England tighthead either.
Blood, guts and old-fashioned Six Nations thunder 5:27pm on 15 Feb 2009 Good blog.

Congrats Wales - you deserved to win - just.

For shame Mr Kapland - you had a shocker, and are fast becoming as dreaded as the appalling Mr Dickenson.

For shame too the Millenium crowd and their booing and jeering of the English kickers - one of rugby's core values is respect - lose that and we're no better than football(God forbid).

I find the idea of a international league of probability to receive yellow cards intriguing; for an identical offense, which country would be most or least likely to receive a sin-binning?

As we know, black and yellow don't go, so the ABs are the least likely and will continue to get away with murder. England would be somewhere near the most likely, but what of the others?

Anyway - well done you Whites - stuffed all those predications of cricket scores down a few throats and scared the bejazus out of 'em.

Bottom line? Surprisingly, both Wales and England are still works-in-progress, and this year's 6N probably still has a few twists to provide. What odds on France to be the 2009 champions?
Hugely respected, much admired... but loved? 2:36pm on 13 Jan 2009 Agree 100%

If you're true fan of a sport you have to admire and respect the great achievers - and this we accord to Hayden.

What we give only to a chosen few is our affection - and that's usually sparked by charisma in the sportsperson themselves.

Hayden is many things, and probably a really nice bloke off the cricket field, but charismatic? Naaaaaah........
Harmison and Anderson shine for KP 8:01pm on 07 Aug 2008 welch19

"a great sense of enery"

That'd be the great smell of Brut then - rub it on all over??
Harmison and Anderson shine for KP 7:58pm on 07 Aug 2008 A good performance in the Final Test at the Oval in a dead rubber.

Now, where have we seen that before?

I seem to remember this happening every summer in the 90s, and every time we success-starved England fans would hail a new beginning - which always fizzled out in the winter tour.

The bowling attack looks much better, but I still don't see a new Hoggster or Simon Jones to keep the batting side under constant pressure.
Harmison and Anderson shine for KP 7:22pm on 07 Aug 2008 So far so good.

A much more balanced look to the England selection - with more bowling options yielding dividends.

I was even impressed with KP's thinking... So - not an oxymoron after all :-)

Maybe the responsibility of the captaincy will be a new maturity in his shot selection when he bats... we can dream :-)
Pietersen revels in his coronation 10:29pm on 04 Aug 2008 Not convinced - the same character flaws which prevent KP from becoming the pre-eminent batsman of his generation will hinder him as a captain - the ego writing cheques which even his prodigious talent can't cash, and the resultant clouded judgement - as witness his shameful dismissal in the England 2nd innings at Edgbaston.

I fear KP will prove another Beefy - huge physical abilities unmatched by intellectual nous. Wait for the Red Top stings as the media turns on him this winter.

KP - great NCO, but not officer material. End of......

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