England, Blighty, PommieVille... no matter what you call it, its a long long way from the Green and pleasant land of the Mighty BOP. It's a hard road keeping track of BOP's progress from the other side of the planet I can tell you. But thanks to livescoring on the mafia forum, and sky UK showing a game from the Air NZ cup every week... I am sure us poor exiles just about manage to keep up. This year they showed the Bay vs Harbour and Bay vs Taranaki. Not too sure about how many 1/4's they will show. Havent seen Counties, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Northland or Southland at all.... so I consider the sending of a horses head to the SKY head office an unmitigated success!

So what's the story this side of the planet you may well be asking..... well the season is long.... VERY long.. generally 40 odd games, and that includes a strange mix match of competitions. Generally the Heinekin starts in October and concludes in May, but only over a few select weekends so you have Heinekin cup weekends where the best club  teams from the 6 nation countries engage in a World Cup  formatted tournament...over time. Last year an Irish team beat a French team (Munster defeating Biaritz) in a game low on quality but VERY high on fervour and passion. They also have a comp called the Powergen Cup, which is a knockout type event also running on select weekends throughout the season, this is competed by English club teams and Welsh regions, last year London Wasps beat Llanelli Scarlets in the final. And at every weekend in between these you have each countries domestic comp.

In Englands case the Guiness Premiership. Sale (manchester) won this last year. As can be seen... the format is a complete mess. But thats partly from the 2 main powers in the NH (England and France) not having a single source of control.. its always a viscious and nasty tug of war between clubs and the countries ruling body. Change in this environment is extremely difficult, and the result has been a hodge podge season, with no real flow and a cluster of big finals being lumped together at the end of the year. Another side effect of this is the way Lutui had to leave mid season to make the Heinekin cup sign off. You have to be registered to play in Europe by a certain date to be eligible to compete in the HC, some SH players do it, some dont. Glen Jackson decided to play a full season with BOP and hence in his first season with Saracens they could use him in the domestic Gusiness Premiership, but not the more illustrious HC. Lutui made the deadline, so is now available for both.

As for the standard.... well I think its pretty average. The players are just so over worked. NZ players are on a picnic compared to NH players, they get worked and played into the ground and then... made to play a bit more. Its a ludicrous situation that is a prime reason for Englands poor performances in the test arena. They have some good young players coming through, but you canb be sure, that in a few years they will be broken. The workload is simply too much. The older era players that eased into rugby during the amateur era (Johnson, back etc) are fading away into rugby history and are being replaced by players that are simply not experienced enough at nursing their way through a season. At an England training camp.. 23/40 England players could not attend due to injuries. Another 5 had niggling injuries but couod still train, and 7 were fit. And this is 4 weeks into a new season!

So any NZ players heading north for a reirement fund... beware... its hard work and your body will not thank you for it. Your paid by a club that wants its pound of flesh, and by god it gets it.
On that note, 2 prominent BOP players are plying thier trade in England, Paul Tupai and Glen Jackson. Jackson is fast becoming a really valuable player for Saracens and is already nearly the top point scorer in the GP so far this year. There are already murmerings of him earning an England cap, and he has been quoted as saying that if the oppurtunity came up he would seriously look at it. Personally I doubt he will get the call up, not because he doesnt deserve it, but becuase of politics and timeframes. He isnt eleigible now, and England need to get a WC squad sorted out pronto and work with it.

As for Paul Tupai, those of us who remember him getting red carded in the vital game against Counties a few years ago in our first season back in the 1st div, will not be surprised that discipline is still an issue. He is currently sitting out a 2 week ban for picking up to many yellow cards in the first 4 weeks on the GP. When is he isnt on the sidelines with a yellow card, he is playing very well. Adding a real hard edge to the Northhampton Saints forward pack. He started off as a fringe player and is now a first choice selection week in, week out.

As for the perspective of the NZ competitions from this side of the planet, the standard of the games I have seen has been ok, certainly not deserving of the great wailing and gnashing of teeth which seems ot occur every year about standard of play. The format takes a bit of getting used to you, but is starting to make sense, and I do have a feeling that the the last 3 weeks will be very good.

As per usual I am not expecting very good Chiefs representation for the BOP lads, the naming of the current Waikato NPC coach as Chiefs assistant coach squashed any glimmer I had of impartiality in selections. It will be yet another year of 'jobs for the boys' mentality and I for one hope over the next couple of years Counties and BOP enlist the help of Thames Valley to put a rocket under the entire Chiefs franchise, starting with axeing the CEO for making such stupid statements about turning franchise partners into feeder unions. It even made the news over here on some rugby shows as a display of SH ineptitude, not the Chiefs proudest moment. So it will be another year of not selecting the best players, but selecting the players they know best.