Harley Quin Looks At The Second Test

By Harley Quin
July 2 2005

Last week I said Gavin Henson was a "cocky, preening, over-hyped glamour-puss", well I'll take this opportunity to apologise to genuine "cocky, preening, over-hyped glamour-puss's" everywhere as this bloke isn't as good as that! Biggest game of his career and he goes missing for the whole match.

The one time he had a chance to do something right, the tackle on Carter so he couldn't make ground to set up Umunga for his try, and he's handed off with the ease of a fly being swatted. What a nancy-boy. After all the hooing and hollering about being left out in the First Test, Henson proved Woodward right all along. Concentrate on your hair, fashion and dopey girlfriend mate because you can't play top class rugby!

Another mistake was including Shane Williams. The lad may be able to run with the ball and twist and turn like a ballerina. But this is the All Blacks he's against not the Royal Ballet. He couldn't tackle the washing-up let alone the All Blacks and is only any good with ball in hand. In effect, having Williams in the side puts the defence down to 14 men. Put Henson and Williams in to the team and the defence is down to 13 men.

After a fantastic start to the game with a great try by Thomas the Lions, through Paul O'Connell, threw away their advantage and with it the rest of the game. Part of being a world class player in the very top matches is about controlled aggression and too many of the Lions didn't have that. The All Blacks must have loved the fighting as all this did was disrupt the visitors' game.

This All Blacks team won't be great in my mind until they cut out the cheap shots. Seeing their amazing back row late tackling and putting in the shoulder off the ball does them a great disservice and I'd like to see Graham Henry tell them to play fairly or clear off. They don't need to play like this as they are clearly streets ahead of all other teams around the world.

What price 3-0?

The Rec - I see the debate is building up in the Chronicle and one of the "Friend's of the Rec" supporters, DG Drew, wants a referendum for Bathonians only to say what should happen. Fine mate, but whilst those of us who live in BANES but outside of Bath are coughing up to keep Bathonians in the luxury they enjoy I too would expect a say in this matter!

Music - I've been enjoying the new Ben Folds album, Songs for Silverman, and believe this guy is the genius of this era. I admire anyone who has a band called the Ben Folds Five which contains just three people. Great songs, great words, great tunes: shame his voice is a bit weak and reedy.

This got me thinking about past genius' who themselves wrote great songs but couldn't sing. The likes of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart (though this is an acquired taste) and of course Bob Dylan. Hendrix and Clapton was/is guitarists who happen to sing. McCartney's voice lacks any sort of power. Dear old Vince Ferrnier , in the guise of Alice Cooper, inspired many of today's rock stars and his voice is another acquired taste.

Interestingly, I was reading a biography of Led Zeppelin recently and discovered that after the first album and first tour Jimmy Page was thinking of replacing Robert Plant because he didn't rate Plant's voice - amazing!

See you soon.