Software Development Methodologies Make Late Dash for Olympic Inclusion

Phew, it’s an energetic business this software development!  With the growing lexicon of sporting phrases entering the lingua franca, software developers have never needed to be fitter.  We’ve got ’daily scrums‘, ‘sprints‘ and an ever-increasing need to be ‘agile‘.  So with just under two years to go until the opening ceremony, surely it’s not too late to include software development methodologies as a new Olympic Sport at London 2010?    

North Berwick Minis end another Season on a High

A strange feeling of deja vu - another mini-rugby season ends, with another North Berwick win at the Preston Lodge mini rugby tournament.

North Berwick P6 win at Preston Lodge Tournament

The boys won all 5 of their games – against Musselburgh, Preston Lodge, Watsons, Haddington and Portobello – and played some lovely rugby in the process.  Well done boys!

Haha! Call that a Haka?

With the Six Nations in full swing, with all its pumped up aggression, raw power and pure adrenaline, I’m reminded that it wasn’t always thus. 

Witness New Zealand’s Haka – supposedly an intimidating war dance – delivered ahead of their clash with the Barbarians at Cardiff Arms Park in 1973:

Yeah, yeah – I know that the All Blacks aren’t involved in the Six Nations.  I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to post the most effete haka you’re ever likely to see.

Here’s how it should be done:

The 1973 game also saw the infamous try by Gareth Edwards which is celebrated by many as the best ever scored:

In much the same way as you don’t see mincing Hakas anymore, you just don’t see side-steps like Phil Bennett’s.   You’re more likely to see the risk-averse/percentage game played with a volley of aimless ‘tactical’ kicking from one end of the pitch to another in today’s game, rather than the last line of defence picking up the ball and running it back.  And you don’t get away with neck-high tackles like the one on JPR Williams.  Play on!

One in the Eye for the Murdochs, as Ashes fall from the Sky

Some well-trailed, but nonetheless fantastic news from the Department of Culture, Media & Sport today - its review panel has recommended that England’s home Ashes cricket test matches should return to terrestrial TV from 2017.

From Sky’s perspective, the timing won’t have gone un-noticed.  Gordon Brown will no doubt have been more than a little miffed by The Sun’s shift of allegiance away from the Labour Party, and what better way to retaliate against News Corporation?

Gordon Brown

Rupert Murdoch

It’s just as shame that we’ll have to wait until 2017, and that it will be fans of rugby union who will miss out.  The recommendation is that the 6 Nations matches which feature the home nations will cease to be protected under the secondary list, which will now be scrapped. 

Unless you live in Wales that is, where rugby is evidently far more important than it is in the rest of UK.

North Berwick Minis End Rugby Season on High

We’ve reached the end of a long season.  But it ended on a high!  The North Berwick P5 Rugby team won the trophy at the Preston Lodge Tournament.

The sun shone, and the boys played some lovely open rugby, entertaining the watching spectators by running in no less than 47 tries in their 5 games. It was the kind of performance which makes those cold November mornings at North Berwick Rec all worthwhile!

Particularly gratifying for us weather-beaten old coaches was the way in which the boys worked as a team and played “heads-up rugby”,  looking to offload the ball to a support runner before the tackle.  We’ve been working on it for the last five years, and it’s really beginning to come together now!

And here they are with their well-deserved trophy.  Well done boys!

North Berwick P5s

The rest of the season’s match reports are available on the North Berwick RFC website.