O'Sullivan walks away, Ashton stays put (for now)

As the Six Nations came to a dramatic end, there was no real surprise to see some managerial casualties. After falling two years short of his remaining contract, Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan packs his bags and waved goodbye to the ten-time Six nation champions

This week, the BBC offered a "team of the six nations", where youthful talent David Strettle was the only English player to make it into the side. This really shows the poor tournament England had. Yes, "poor" is the best way to describe an England team that struggled to find any confidence and determination. Now not to be pessimistic, Brian Ashton, has done a great job. He picked up a team which has many retiring stars and turned them into a world cup finalist outfit. This is something people forget. However, his decision to replace England's starlet Jonny Wilkinson with young superstar Danny Cipriani caused the most controversy

The Rugby Blog gave a good view to this, of which many people have commented. It seems that the overall standing is that Ashton made the right choice. Cipriani looks like a player who was made for the top level. Rallying his troops at the start of the Ireland game proved how focused this young man is.

The Guardian published a great post, although back in August, discussing whether a Six Nations team can win the world cup. Now everyone is thinking "what about England", but this argument between Gavin Hastings and Michael Lynagh proves a good read

So Ashton's job looks safe for now, but if England are going to mount a serious challenge for any other major trophies, they will have to start building as soon as possible

What the Blog are you on about?

picture courtesy of robinhamman

As promised, this weeks blog is devoted to....blogs. Now when the word "rubgy blog" is typed into a search engine such as google or dogpile, the links are endless. So these blogs have been picked out as some of the most factual, interactive and accessible to the user

The first link that is most likely to appear is the RugbyBlog, this is an official site set up for the public to offer their views about all that's going on in the rugby world. This website seems well produced, as well as offering tickets, clips and photos from the fans.

Blogging is a great way to get involved with media consumption. Although the target audience may not be reading your enthusiastic update to Rugby Union and/or League, it is available for the world to take a quick glance

Now the dropkicks blog is a great example of how Blogs can become interactive. It has various videos, subject to availability with shockwave of flash media players. This means a comment which is published can be backed up by images, rather than just the word of mouth which is a rather easy form of spreading news.

Times are changing and it won't be too long before most, if not all, blogs have a numerous ammount of videos, pictures and audio quality available

Blood and Mud is another site which is simple and easy to access. A key character to this one however, is its "Blog of the week", which this week went to http://ruggerblogger.blogspot.com/, similar to this format, also on blogspot

So the world of blogging is here: quick, easy and simple to navigate, anyone can get involved. Finallly, a player for the Austin Valkyries manages to spare some of her time to write a blog. It offers a better view to Rugby over in America, especially with womens involvement over there


Thanks for reading

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Can Rugby League conquer America?

This weeks post will be devoted to the "other side" of rugby, which is Rugby League. Often divided by the north and south in England, Rugby League was a game created in the north of England and set out a few different rules and point system for those who were sick of the scrums and lineouts found in the Rugby Union game

Now Rugby League has hit America, and with some force. http://www.amnrl.com/ is a great site which gives a good insight into the way Rugby League has been taken under the wing by the Yanks. A-list Actors such as Russel Crowe are getting involved with exhibitions matches, increasing the awareness of the sport itself

However, being compared to American Football is far too early, the patriotic fans of "football" will take more time to embrace a new sport altogether. But it will be interesting to see what journalists in USA think of England's invasion.

This Guardian Blog gives the reaction of an English Journalist who has his own views of the way Rugby League will impact over in America. He describes it as "cold and bitter"...the weather that is.

Other sites that caught the attention this week were http://www.rl1908.com/rugby-league-web-sites.htm. This gave history to the rugby league and gave numerous helpful links for anybody interested in Rugby League

Also the Rugby League review made sure a fan of Rugby League would not miss out on the action whether it was in England, America or even Russia!


Next weeks blog will look deeper at the blogs posted by journalists and the public, yourself.

Thanks for reading

Picture courtesy of "rugbypics"

From Avenham Park to Foster Building

This is a brief video explaining how to get from Avenham park to the University's Foster building in Preston




Now you will know exactly where to go!!

Rugby available on the world wide web

Rugby is a sport loved by a large part of the population, however, it has never been able to come close to the global interest that is football

BBC sport (www.bbc.co.uk/sport) is an easy site to recognise this favourtism of football. The 39th premier league game has caused a lot of controversy, but has the public forgotton about the six nations? It appears that it only attracts attention from journalists when it comes round to the weekend of play. http://www.thisisrugby.info/ is a popular site which offers a similar, yet not so publicised, layout to the BBC and sky sports

But other useful sites such as: http://www.scrumbag.tv offer a more light-heared approach to the game. It doesn't just offer statistics and manager reports, it delves into the fans views and gets a perspective from people who really make the game what it is

The fans can also get their opinions across through blogs which have continued to get more attention even in the top sites such as www.skysports.com. Blogs make comments available and offer a colourful perspective which a journalist is unable to create most of the time

This can also be illustrated in: http://www.lasttackle.com/index.php, one which allows blogs to be more dominant. Journalists are realising this and therefore have increased their online audience. The revolution of the internet for Rugby Union and League discusions has only just begun through the eyes of the world

Now it appears Rugby League is taking America, something I will discuss on my next post

Photo courtesy of "Brisbane Blog Is Against Censorship's photo"

Introduction

This is a blog devoted to both Rugby Union and Rugby League. If you have an interest in either of these topics then this blog will be right for you

It will attempt to cover

• Different ways in which Rugby is written about on the web
• How Blogs are written on the web and their advantages
• Rugby's interaction with the public
  
• The journalistic process for writing about Rugby on the web