Sporting shorts - No 16

It was a really great weekend of sport. The weekend saw the first State of Origin for women. The men’s state of origin was held on Sunday night, with other internationals being played across the weekend. Lots of other things to talk about too...

NRL

• The representative round was great. It was awesome to start the weekend with the first Women’s State of Origin. Though the teams have played before, this was the first branded as State of Origin. It was a fantastic game. I’m glad the game was a stand alone game, rather than played as a curtain raiser for the Men’s game. To my mind the women deserve to have the attention on them. 
• The representative round featured a few tests between the pacific island nations (Fiji lost to PNG, and Tonga beat Samoa) England beat NZ in Denver. 
• The weekend concluded with the second State of Origin match. As a neutral it was a wonderful game. Slater and Ponga were brilliant for Queensland, and NSW defended wonderfully well in the second half, especially when they were down to 12 men. New South Wales won the match and the series. 
• I like having the match on a Sunday. It was a great way to finish the weekend. A better break for the players turning out for games the following weekend. 

AFL

• Very glad to see the end of the bye weekends. Everyone plays next weekend, and everyone has now played 13 games. 
• Like the top eigh is a little less settled, i think Hawthron and the Giants could sneak into the eight. Losing Cameron will hurt.
• The upset of the round was the Bombers beating West Coast. The Bombers are the form team of the competition. 
• Tonight the Swans tackle Richmond, and I guess we’ll see what they are at.  Just saw, we lost by about 26.  Hopefully will improve before the end of the season...

Rugby Union

• The first international window ais over, with the All Blacks winning their series 3-0. The Wallabies lost the series against Ireland. The Super Rugby season will restart this weekend. 

World Cup

• It’s been a really great tournament. The final group games will be played tonight. Hard to pick a clear favourite. I have been most impressed by Uruguay, Croatia and Belgium. 
• The round of 16 ties so far are: Uruguay v Portugal; Spain v Russia; France v Argentina: Croatia v Denmark; Brazil v Mexico and Sweden v Switzerland.  With two more to be decided tonight. 
• On Australia, proud of the team, but think Australia can do better. The biggest need is a forward who can score goals. I’d love to see the team attack more. 
• Still hard to believe Germany is out. It’s the curse of ththe champion though, the last defending champion to make it out of the group stage was Brazil in 2006.