One of the joys of taking public transportation to and from my job at the VA Medical Center is that the people watching is interesting, to say the least.

One of the books that I have been able to finish in the last couple of weeks is A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier  by Ishmael Beah. 

After a wild weekend of Heineken Cup rugby, the citizens of “La Ville Rose” (The Pink City, the nickname for Toulouse because of it’s unique color of roof tiles-and leftist politics) in Toulouse owe a huge thanks to Top 14 strugglers Castres, who with nothing but pride to play for, upset former champs London Wasps 21-15 in France over the weekend. 

The upshot of Castre’s shocking win against Danny Cipriani and his mates was that it meant Osprey’s win over Leicester allowed them to qualify for the Heineken Cup Quarterfinals as one of the two best second place teams from pool play. Shane Williams and his Welsh mates earned a very tough quarterfinal match-up with the monsters from Munster, the defending champs. 

 Any hope for a wide open match in Bath were scuttled by the weather. The conditions made the pitch look like something that only a duck or a moto-cross rider would appreciate. The pitch was boggy mess with huge areas of standing water all over. The match itself was the rugby version of trench warfare. The conditions for kicking were a nightmare for both teams. Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde of Toulouse was one for five in his kicking. (Marc Lievremont has to REALLY be wondering who is going to be doing the kicking for France in the Six Nations after David Skrela’s 1-6 effort against Australia back in November) Toulouse physically dominated the first half. Their front row of Bouihlou, Dustatoir and Sowerby manhandled Bath in the frist half. Both Toulouse and Bath had chances to score tries. Towards the end of the game, Bath had 19 phases of play near the Toulouse try line, but they conceded a penalty and Toulouse was able to close out the game for a 3-3 try. Not  nearly as satisfying match as the dramatic one that Toulouse was able to snatch at the death in Languedoc. In the end, 3-3 was a fair result for a match played in deplorable conditions.

Toulouse’s reward for being the #8 seed in the Heineken Cup matches is a Quarterfinal against #1 seed Cardiff Blues.  In winning their group, Cardiff steamrolled everybody in their group-the only team to finish undefeated.  You have to wonder if the powers with Cardiff are going to sacrfice the ambiance of the Arms Park for a bigger payday and a match with Toulouse at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff should be a huge draw. Of the Quarterfinal matches, Harlequins-Leinster, Munster-Ospreys, Leicester-Bath, and Cardiff-Toulouse, there is no question that the latter is the most mouth-watering match-up of the lot. (Although for English rugby fans, Leicester-Bath amounts to a local derby) Leicester-Bath may be played in Coventry, which has a bigger stadium than the Tigers or Bath has.

One of the big changes with my new job working at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis is that I have a lot less time to check out my favorite blogs, but also time to devote to my own blog. If you figure that two hours a day are my commute time to and from work, as opposed to about 45-50 minutes for the entire day with my other job. On the bright side, I have finished two pretty good books during my commute time, a book by the comedian Louie Anderson on dealing with dysfunctional families and “The Asshole Rule”, a really good book about dealing with impossible people in  the workplace. I am currently reading the amazing autobiography by a young man who was a child soldier in the civil war in Sierra Leone, in west Africa.

My friend Barry over at http://totalflanker.blogspot.com/  has run into a similar program after he switched jobs. He still blogs, but the entries are not as frequent as before. I guess like my English friend in the blogosphere, I am going to have to go for quality entries instead of being prolific.

Toulouse looked to this writer to be in cruise control in the Heineken Cup. A home match for Toulouse against the Glasgow Warriors would have seemed to be a great way for Guy Noves’ men to all but punch their ticket to the Heineken Cup Quarterfinals. The Scottish club had nothing but pride for which to play. Well, the Warriors walked out of France with a 33-26 win.  Toulouse’s loss, coupled with Bath’s win against Welsh Side Newport Gwent, leaves Bath at 19 points and Toulouse with 18 points in group play. This means that for Toulouse to be assured of making the quarterfinals, they will have to win AT Bath-A tall order to say the least, particularly given how Toulouse had to snatch victory at the last second against the English side in Toulouse on match day one of pool play. This result is going to give Guy Noves and his players with a lot to talk about and think about before the last, winner-take-all match in England. 

Going into match day 6, we know this much: Munster, Cardiff, Leicester  and Harlequins are all through to the Quarterfinals. Leinster and London Wasps are tied at 16 in their group. To get one of the two best second place spots for a spot in the Quarterfinals, it looks like it will be between Toulouse and Bath (18 and 19 points), Ospreys at 16,whoever finishes second between London Wasps and Leinster, and Gloucester on life-support at 15.  You have to give the Scots a lot of credit, they played a couple of great matches against Bath and their win in Languedoc-Roussillion give them something to build on for the rest of the Magner’s League season and for next year. As for Toulouse, they REALLY made their life a whole lot more complicated. If they crash out, a Heineken Cup competition without a single French side is bad news, indeed for French Rugby with the 6 nations starting in just a few short weeks.

One thing that changed for a lot of my compatriots at the time gasoline (petrol) was over 4 dollars a gallon (Down to $ 1.87 now in Minneapolis), was that all of the sudden, public transportation became an option to strongly consider. I would have loved to have taken public transportation at my other job, but as most public transport goes from suburb to city, and there is no “circle” line that goes around the Twin Cities metro, public transportation was out for me.

When I took my new job with the VA Medical Center, that changed things a bit. Now, I can take the Park and Ride in Robbinsdale, get on the 14 Bus to downtown Minneapolis, and then from there, take the new Light Rail system  , which gets me from downtown to the VA in about 15-20 minutes without fighting traffic.

Of all of the rugby news in the last couple of weeks, one little item that might have flown below the radar of rugby fans was the announced retirement of former Toulouse back Xavier Garbajosa. He lifted the Heineken Cup with Toulouse back in 2003. He played as a fullback, center and wing.

Injuries proved to be too much to overcome for Garbajosa, who was playing at Bayonne this year. At the age of 32, he wore the blue of the French National Team 31 times. 

In other news from “La Ville Rose”, Toulouse set a Top 14 record by beating Dax 29-9 for it’s 11th straight win. Cedric Heymans and Jean Bouihlou are shown here in Toulouse’s historic win. Good thing that Toulouse continues to win, as Stade Francais is staying right on Toulouse’s heels.

When I was a university student in Montpellier, France back in the early 80’s, Beziers was THE powerhouse of French rugby. It’s hard to believe now, but t there was a period of time when Beziers lifted Le Bouclier de Brennus (Brennus’ Shield) 10 times over a 13 year period. Names like Palmie, Martin and Alain Esteve made “Les Chameaux” (The Camels) the team to beat in French Club rugby.

I had meant to write about my little winter mishap last week, but had not gotten around to it.

My Metropolis Rugby Club has it’s banquet tonight at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis. The big change that we will see from last year is that last year, we paid a bit more and had an open bar. Well, after having a bunch of thirsty rugby players drink everything that was not nailed down last year, the deal this year will be that a cash bar will be available-but it will NOT be all you can drink like last year.

My wife has to work today, and there is a very distinct possibility that I will need to drive down to south Minneapolis to pick her up before the fun starts at 5:30 PM. (Dinner at 7 and awards 7:30 and dancing at It will be good to see everybody-or at least those who bought a ticket. Attendance might be down a bit this year-money is very much tighter for everybody. (My daughter found this out the hard way, she got laid off her part time receptionist job yesterday)