French National Team rugby coach Marc Lievremont has had a pretty stressful 6 Nations season. France is 1-1 after losing to co-favorite Ireland and beating Scotland the weekend before last at Le Stade de France. France’s Stade Français fly-half Lionel Beauxis injured his calf, and not only missed Stade’s weekend clash against Toulon, but he also stands to not be able to play for France in this eagerly anticipated match against defending 6 Nations Grand Slam champs Wales. He has missed training with Stade all the past week. An MRI showed Beauxis to have blood on his calf, which would indicate damaged muscle fibers, according to team doctors. 

Beauxis has been one French player who has had a good tournament so far. He played well in both of France’s game, and his kicking has been decent enough to forget about some lackluster kicking from French fly and scrumhalfs.  Toulouse’s David Skrela would be the most likely choice for Lievremont to bring in as an understudy. You can look at it either as a lot of pressure for Skrela, or a chance to redeem himself from some poor performances in the fall internationals for France.

For the Catalan rugby fan in Perpignan, the big Euro signing of All Black Fly Half Daniel Carter had visions of Le Bouclier de Brennus (Brennus’ Shield) coming back there for the first time in over 50 years went up in smoke when Carter blew out his Achilles Tendon in the closing minutes of Perpignan’s match with Stade Francais on January 29th.  

Carter had surgery to repair his torn Achilles at the Sauvegarde Clinic in Lyon by Dr David DeJour.  He was told by the good doctor that he will be out of action for at least 6 months. This means that not only will Carter miss the rest of the year with Perpignan, he will miss the All Black’s June friendly matches, as well as a good chunk of the Tri-Nations series. 

In the United States, there are at least 3 states where Ice Hockey is really huge: Massachusetts, Michigan and my native state of Minnesota. Almost everybody in this state either played the game, has a friend or family member who has played it, or follows either their local high school team, college team or the professional Minnesota Wild of the NHL. http://wild.nhl.com/

The Wild have been a huge success at the gate. They play at the ExCel Energy Center in St. Paul, one of the nicest arenas in the NHL. It’s a tough ticket to get. In the past few years, I have seen NHL games while on business trips in Buffalo (Sabres-Coyetes) and Columbus (Blue Jakets-Kings), but I have not been able to see the Wild play at the Ex.

I found out that my daughter Rachel has always wanted to see a professional hockey game, so thanks to Andrea, I was able to get tickets for us to go see the Wild play the Calgary Flames tonight.
We will go to Shamrocks, the bar where Andrea works at, to grab dinner before the game, and then we can take a shuttle bus from Shamrocks to the Ex to be able to see the game.

It’s been kind of a tough, up and down year for the Wild, they are a couple of points out of the last playoff position in the Western Conference, and our one star, Marian Gaborik is entering possible free agency, but is out of the year with an injury. http://wild.nhl.com/team/app?page=PlayerDetail&playerId=8468483&service=page Without their main offensive threat, goals have been a tough thing to come by.

Still, it will be fun to see some hockey. I have not been even able to see any high school hockey this winter, and they are starting sectional playoffs pretty soon. That’s the one down side of being busy and starting a new job, I guess. I know I will be beat for work tomorrow because it will be a late night, but it will be a lot of fun.

POST-SCRIPT written Friday, the day after the game:

Rachel and I had just a great time. I think Rachel is hooked on Professonal Ice Hockey now. Unfortunately, the Wild lost in overtime 3-2 to the Calgary Flames. http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/39881577.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

It was a tight game where the Wild were down 1-0, then up 2-1- one of them a really sweet short-handed goal by Dan Fritsche. My daughter Rachel has a new heart throb with the player who scored the Wild’s second goal, Colton Gillies. “He’s HOT!” she remarked. ” I gotta get a jersey with his name on it!” It was a nice atmosphere at the game, and the seats Andrea helped score for us were just great-lower deck, section 126-we had a great view of all but one of the goals scored in the game-including AuCoin’s goal in overtime to win it for the Flames. 

The Wild really miss Gaborik-they just miss an x-factor that can create an individual moment of brilliance.

All in all a fun time was had by all, in spite of the loss.

I spent my day off yesterday at my brother Bill’s new gym. He opened up a Snap Fitness Center in Plymouth, just a few minutes from our house. http://www.snapfitness.com/plymouthrockford169/

OK, I admit, it’s a shameless plug-but he is my brother.

After I worked out there in the morning yesterday, I went back in the afternoon. It was his opening day yesterday, and he had quite a few people coming in to check the club out-so many that it was beyond what he and his wife Tami were able to take care of alone, so I took people around to give them a tour of the facility and to show how some of the different weight-machines and aerobic machines worked.

My brother has been able to have more than a little success at his other club that he has in Montrose, Colorado-where my mom lives.  http://www.snapfitness.com/montroseco/

I am just thrilled no end that my brother has been able to open his new club. #1 Bill and his wife Tammi have put in just an outrageous amount of blood, sweat and tears to get this club up and running. It’s going to be great to have a nice place to work out that is even closer to our house than the other place I had been working out at-to be honest, it had gotten really kind of drab, and tacky. I gave my brother my heavy boxing bag, a curling bar and I leant him my kettlebells so that his clients could use them. Part of it was to help my brother, but with my grandson about to be VERY mobile in the basement, the stand for the boxing bag and the kettlebells http://www.russiankettlebells.com/ just screamed injury risk for Duncan should he have had a fall.

At any rate, I wish my brother all of the luck in the world. And I hope to try to help him out so that it can be a success for him.

There certainly was no shortage of rugby this weekend: The IRB Seven’s were in San Diego (Where the USA made it to the rare air of the Cup Semi-Finals, where they lost to eventual champion Argentina), the 6 Nations finished a second week, with no huge surprises(although England really played Wales tough in losing 23-15 in Cardiff), and it was the opening weekend in the Super 14 season in the southern hemisphere. 

The reason for my keen interest, is that the Lions (Ne` “The Cats”, name changed to Lions in 2007) in the off season signed USA Eagles  Flanker Todd Clever to come and play with the Lions. This made Clever the first Yank to play Super 14 rugby-a watershed moment for American Rugby, as we look to try to improve-and getting American players into the top levels of the professional game is the main way that is going to happen. 

Not all is bad this Friday the 13th. My daughter Rachel, AKA “The Girly-Girl”, turned 18 today. That means that my wife and I have now shepherded a second child to adulthood. That’s right: my daughter can now vote, get married without my permission, get a tatoo(not likely, as she is scared to death of needles), sign a legal contract, enlist in the military, buy tabacco, gamble, almost anything her little heart desires… EXCEPT she cannot buy alcohol in this country (Go figure, you can die for your country but you cannot buy a drink).

I was able to enlist my dad to bring Rachel some Godiva Chocolates and a bouquet of roses to give her at her school today-I would have loved to have seen the expression on her face, but with my training into my new hospital job, I could not make the delivery myself- but my dad said she was very surprised and very pleased.

We are going to take her out to Buca Italian Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis tonight.

It’s hard to believe that the little blonde girl I read Dr. Seus to as a young child, who would read equine vet books for fun, is now officially a woman-and a horse-owner, to boot. People have asked me how I feel about that. To be honest, I am ambivilant. I am proud of the confident, smart, independent woman she is. I think the responsibilities of being a horse owner the last few years have helped mature her…but I tell people that in parenting, it’s not the final destination, it’s the journey along the way in which you have to take a moment, take it in and enjoy it, because childhood is  a fleeting thing… 18 years sure went by in a hurry.

Having an infant grandson in the house takes a bit of the sting out of having my kids growing up. I can honestly say about both of my kids that even if I was not their father, I would still enjoy being around them and talking with them and sharing a laugh.  

When I think of parents who have really been through the grindstone with their kids during tough, tough times during their teenaged years going through things like anorexia, bulimia, drug addiction, mental illness, wearing Goth clothing, I realize just how lucky my wife and I have been-yeah, we created some of our good luck with loving discipline, but sometimes even in the best of homes, things just sometimes don’t turn out right, and the kid ends up being a pain in the ass- so I really am appreciative of the smart, kind-hearted, mature people both of my kids became.

Happy Birthday, Rachel. Mom and I love you and are very proud to call you our daughter.

Oh yeah, sorry we can’t take Maverick with us to Buca-something about health codes and lack of a place where we can tie a horse up.

A fair warning for my rugby friends on the blogosphere, this article has to do with soccer/football. I don’t write about it often here, and it’s true that I don’t watch the game as much as I used to, but I usually try to catch almost any Liverpool game, and I never miss the United States against Mexico.

People who know me know that I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Mexico. I lived in San Antionio, Texas for 4 years back in the mid ’80’s, and at that time, the only place where I could catch any soccer on TV was on Univision, the Spanish Language channel. I have a great deal of respect for the culture, the language and the food, to say nothing of their soccer. On the flip side, I do get irritated with people who immigrate to the US and make no attempt to learn English or try assimilate in any way, shaper or form. Don’t take that to mean that I am against Mexican immigration-far from it, I am humbled by the courage and work ethic of people who come from so far away to do work that people here in the USA don’t want to do.

Add to this volitile mix is that for most of my life, Mexico was the big hombre on the block when it came to el futbol. During the 1990’s, the US Men’s National team started to catch up to el Tri, the Mexican National team. Since 2000 the US owned Mexico in soccer. In 2002, the US beat Mexico 2-0 in the FIFA World Cup round of 16. The US also beat El Tri las year in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final in Chicago.

The thing that kills Mexican soccer fans is that even now, the average American does not care much about soccer/football. To the average Mexican, they would give their left nut if Mexico could ever lift the FIFA World Cup. Mexico even hired the Swede, Sven Goran-Eriksson to coach El Tri, to get them back to being the dominant force in this end of the Americas.

Last night in a very blustery game-on and off the pitch-the US beat Mexico (again) 2-0 on two goals from Mike Bradley, the first, a garbage goal off a goal mouth scramble, and the second, a 28 yard swerving effort that found it’s way under the Mexican goalkeeper in second half stoppage time. 

Mike,whose proud papa Bob Bradley, the USA National coach, must have been quietly busting his buttons on the sideline.

The game got a bit chippy in the second half, with Mexican Captain Marquez getting red carded for a nasty, studs-up cheap shot on American Goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Interestingly after the sending off, the US seemed to lose a bit of their edge. Howard limped around most of the rest of the game. The Mexican’s had a couple of very sold chances to score, but could not cash in on them.

In the end, a 2-0 result against Sven’s men meant Mission Accomplished for the USA, with a potentially very tough road trip to El Salvador to follow in March.

No doubt that the Mexican media will be turing up the heat on Sven after last night’s loss in Columbus.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=618387&sec=worldcup2010&cc=3888

In the end, ANY win against Mexico in soccer is a good win. Their misery, is my joy.

My youngest sister, Amy, was born when I was just shy of 12 years of age. I can’t speak for everybody, but I sure enjoyed having a “kid sister”. My mom made liberal use of my brother Bill and me to change diapers and feed her. In some ways, I often wonder if it was not Amy’s fault that I became a nurse in the first place. I used to enjoy dressing her up and taking her for walks where lived just outside of Chicago, when she was born. When she was a toddler, she figured out what to do if she needed a diaper change: she would grab a diaper, and then walk up to either me or my brother Bill and hold the Diaper out as the sign that she needed a change. She had raven-black hair as a baby and youngster, and I remember that when she would get mad, Amy’s face would turn crimson.

My brother Bill and I had a more unique relationship with our little sister compared to most brothers, because her dad was a total non-factor in her growing up. When my brother and I were in high school, we really doted on her. The downside of being having such a role, was that at times our tasks would overlap into the almost parental area.

When Amy married her husband Mike a few years ago, Amy asked my brother and I if we would walk her down the aisle to give her away on her wedding day. When I was looking at the picture the other day, two things struck me about the picture: How proud my brother and I were to have the honor of escorting Amy, and how happy she looked on her wedding day.

My sister has wanted to have kids for as long as I can remember. It has been an at-times maddening last few years for her and her husband, Mike. Well, last week, the wait was over. My sister and her husband brought Zoe May Plouff into the world last Friday-all 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches of her. In looking at he pictures, Zoe has a full head of raven-black hair that made me flash back to when my mom brought Amy home as a newborn.

Amy lived in the basement of our house in New Hope for about a year. When she lived with us, she established herself as the favorite auntie for my kids, Ian and Rachel. She used to read for them, and was a really good influence on them. (There is a classic picture where she is reading to Ian in bed and both of them have night-time mud masks on) There was never any doubt in my mind that my sister would make a great mother.

Well li’l sis…As a 21 year member with two almost adult aged kids(Rachel turns 18 on Friday the 13th)I would like to welcome you to the parent club. As the saying goes:

Be Careful What You Wish For….

And to borrow an old phrase from an Army recruiting campaign:

It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love.

Ireland hosted France on Saturday at Croke Park, the stadium best known for  sports like Hurling and Gallic Football that are unique to the Emerald Island. I did not feel like paying the extra 20 bucks to watch it live, so I Tivo’d it, and watched it with my friend Jean from Perpignan on Sunday.  

France has been Ireland’s boogie man for the past few years. They have beaten Brian O’Driscoll and company 7 matches in a row, from close matches like the one that France stole in the last few seconds at Croke Park two years ago, and then gotten blown out by France in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. For Ireland to challenge Wales for this year’s Six Nations title, the Irish had a monkey on their back that had become as gorilla-sized as French second row Sebastien Chabal.

It ended up being a very fun match to watch. Harinordoquy opened the scoring for France, who looked very dangerous on the counter in the first half. France looked like their old selves running with ball in hand with great confidence. Chabal, in Particular had a very good first half with some hard running and some line breaks On one memorable run, the Sale Sharks second row held the ball one-handed like a loaf of bread(Do you realize just HOW big your hands have to be to hold a rugby ball like THAT?). France dominated for stretches in the first half, but Tommy Bowe had a break out of a line-out that set up the 8 man, Jamie Heaslip for a try for the Irish.  France’s #10 Beauxis scored on a nice drop goal at the end of a very entertaining first half. 

The Irish captain, Brian O’Driscoll scored a very nice try for Ireland-it’s second off a line-out, when he left Beauxis in his dust.  More than a few people are wondering if the end is getting near for O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara. This match should show that tales of their no longer wearing the green jersey of Ireland are premature-they both played very well against the French. 

France answered back with a nice try from wing Maxime Medard, that was set up off a nice quick ball from the new scrum half, Sebastien Tillous-Borde and a nice chip kick from Beauxis, that Medard touched down for the try. After a second drop goal from Beauxis, Ireland seized the game, with a try from wing Gordon D’Arcy, who took advantage of quick ball out to him, and made a nice cut to beat a couple of French forwards to the try line to touch it down to make it 27-21. With time running out, Irish pressure on the French deep in their territory forced Welsh referee Nigell Owen to blow his whistle to penalize the French for not releasing the ball. O’Gara calmly buried the penalty, and Ireland had a 30-21 win over France.  

To France’s credit, I thought they could take a lot of positive’s out of this game. I don’t think Marc Lievremont should tinker too much with his squad for the next game at Le Stade de France against Italy. In spite of being left for road kill on O’Driscoll’s try, Beauxis had a very strong game, in my opinion. I think Tillous-Borde provided nice quick ball and good service of the ball in this game. I think he deserves another shot at starting. It will be interesting to see if Chabal will be healthy enough to play next week, as he got dinged up pretty good and had to be pulled from the game. If Marc Lievremont’s men in blue can play like they did at Croke Park against England and Wales, without having a serious let down against the Scots or the Italians, I think France can be a force in this tournament.

Ireland, with this gutsy win, also has to like their chances of taking this tournament for the first time since 1985, when it was still the 5 Nations Tournament.

For those of you who may know, or not know, I am in the process of getting back into hospital nursing after being away from in-hospital patient care for over 12 years. There are times over the past month, where I have felt like a new graduate-but at least I have had SOME experience working as a nurse in the hospital setting.

Italy coach Nick Mallet was between the proverbial rock and a hard place: He had no healthy first choice to play scrum half  in Italy’s opening 6 Nations match against England at Twickenham yesterday. He has a player, Mauro Bergamasco, a great flanker who plays for Stade Français. Mallet rolled the dice and tried to have Bergamasco play scrummie for the very first time in his life in a competitive match.

To throw a player out at scrum half-even a great athlete like Bergamasco-to learn a difficult position in a rugby version of on the job training was too much to ask of the flanker. He had a miserable first half, with errors on his part leading to 3 England tries. Credit to England for being able to punish the Italians and convert those scrum half gaff’s into points. (Ellis and Goode both scored a couple of nice individual efforts)  You had to feel bad for Bergamasco. Scrum half is just a position you don’t just suddenly pick up without experience.

Nick Mallet mercifully pulled Bergamasco, and put Toniolatti into the scrum half position in the second half.  It made a difference in the quality of ball that the Italians were able to get, but after giving up over 20 points in the first half, this game was essentially over, and all England had to do was put it into cruise control during the second half. A good, if not great win for England. (Was it just me who thought it was strange to see somebody not named Cipriani or Wilkinson wearing the #10 jersey for England?)

 For  Nick Mallet and Mauro Bergamasco, this experiment was a failure on the level of New Coke back in the 1980’s. It’s back to the drawing board for the Italians. (Not all was negative for the Bergamasco family, his brother Mirco scored a try in the second half) For England, they avoided potential red-faces in their first 6 Nations match after a poor performance in the fall internationals.