Man runs over man

Rugby is all about numbers, 15 men play 15 men. They go about there task of playing the game and scoring tries is what us Islanders do best. The great coaches will always encourage the ball beats man approach. So run a good line and make 2 opponents come at you; while they are in doubt of who is or is not going to tackle you easily slip a pass to your un- marked team mate and he runs away. There are variations of this and the Pacific has a specialty, man runs over man and un-loads or runs further.

Easy as this game is in theory, especially from the sideline and even easier in front of a Tv. Reality is that it is fast, furious and bruising these days. Fitness levels are amazing and slacking off will see your team punished, sometimes this pain comes after 80 minutes or even 87 minutes depending on injury time.

The Pacific Rugby Cup has been a very close competition, as it is a numbers game I will highlight it for you so far.

30       games have been played
0         teams have gone un beaten
59       tries have been scored
32       conversions went over
24       yellow cards have been handed out
3         red card marching orders have been dished out
0         drop goals have been made
45       penalties were kicked
38       is the leading points scorer so far and he is Roger Warren

Now all of these numbers boil down to the number one. That is the amount of games left and that is the final that kicks off in Apia at 5PM Friday. All past numbers mean nothing now, the fact that Upolu Samoa easily beat Tautahi Gold last week is fish and chip paper wrapping now, it all comes down to number 1.