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Posts Tagged ‘Teams’

Before the Rugby season ends it’s time for a big treat for every Rugby fan in and around UK. It’s the end of season Rugby tour that everyone has been waiting for and the venue is Bournemouth, a beautiful coastal town in UK. The Rugby tour is held alongside the end of season Netball tour so it’s fun time for both men and women.

The Bournemouth Rugby event is a perfect send-off to a great Rugby season. The event assembles the best teams from the world who compete with each other in quick Rugby sevens matches. That’s why the end of season Rugby tour is the most excitement time for any Rugby fan. And if you’re into Netball, there’s reason for cheer too. The end of season Netball tour has some of the best Netball action of the season.

The event is held in May, when the weather is warm and pleasant and great for outdoor sports. It’s not really the world championship so the focus is not so much on tough competition but fun. The sevens format of the end of season Rugby tour too emphasizes the spirit of excitement. Netball has always been about fun and frolic, so the end of season Netball season too isn’t any lacking in the fun quotient.

Unlike a regular Rugby match that can go on for a long time, a sevens Rugby match lasts only for 7-10 minutes. Only seven players are playing from each team, so there’s more room to run, and to tumble. With quick results and quicker action, the end of season Rugby tour is a treat for the Rugby fans. The side action at the end of season Netball tour is no lesser exciting for the other members of the family who may not be motivated by Rugby.

Because of multiple events, the end of season Rugby tour and the end of season Netball tour event is a great place to visit with your entire family. While you spend time at the Rugby matches, your family can enjoy the end of season Netball tour, or if they’re not interested in sports at all, they can relax at the beautiful beaches of Bournemouth. There’s even a music festival to be held alongside the sporting events, so good times are ensured for everybody.

This is the first time that the end of season Rugby tour will be organized at Bournemouth, but the event will become an annual feature. Many visitors will be there to take advantage of the great opportunity to be a part of a new tradition. The end of season Netball tour too will attract visitors for the same reason.

Bournemouth has great Rugby history. With an excellent Rugby club, many teams and Rugby matches at all levels, the place is filled with Rugby maniacs, but during the end of season Rugby tour, you can expect Rugby fans from not only Bournemouth, but entire England to converge in this quite little town. For an entire weekend, the town will be the hottest Rugby spot in Europe and of course the end of season Netball tour will make it the happening spot for Netball too.

So if you haven’t booked your passage to the end of season Rugby tour yet, it’s time to find out the details and mark your diary now. If you’re a true Rugby fan, you can’t afford to miss this event, and yeah, if you’ve ever enjoyed Netball, you can’t afford to miss the end of season Netball tour either.

For more resources about End of Season Rugby Tour or even about End of Season Netball Tour please review this page http://www.bournemouthsevens.com

The Honda Racing F1 Team is looking forward to their second home race of the season with the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji International Speedway, Round 15 of the FIA Formula One World Championship. The event will mark the team’s welcome return to Japan next week.

The Honda team has always managed to perform well in every Japanese Grand Prix. Button said, “The Japanese Grand Prix is always a very special weekend for the whole Honda Racing F1 Team as it is one of our two home races of the year. I have had fantastic support as a Honda driver at the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit in the past few years and the Japanese fans always create such a special atmosphere over the race weekend.”

However, this year would be more challenging as the race moved from its traditional Honda-owned home of Suzuka towards the newly re-opened Fuji International Speedway. Button said, “This year will be a new challenge for both myself and the team as the race returns to the Fuji International Speedway.”

While Barrichello said, “I am really looking forward to returning to Japan in my second year with Honda for our home race. The Japanese Grand Prix has always been a favourite of mine and the Suzuka circuit holds some very special memories as I won there from pole position in 2003. My experience last year driving with Honda for the first time was fantastic. The fans are so enthusiastic and really supported us throughout the weekend.”

Before moving to Fuji, the Honda Racing F1 Team is planning to stop in Odaiba. They would be attending to the annual Tokyo Motorsports Festival. In the event, Jenson Button and James Rossiter will demonstrate the thrills of Formula One to a crowd of fans through running the RA107 car in the streets of the city. Button said, “On the Monday before the race, I will be taking part in the Tokyo Motorsports Festival once again. This is a fantastic event and I had a great time last year driving our F1 car right in the heart of Tokyo in front of all the Honda fans so I am really looking forward to arriving in Japan this weekend and getting the fun started.”

According to Senior Technical Director Shuhei Nakamoto, “This will be the first time that Formula One has visited the new Fuji International Speedway.” In relation to that, they opt to give importance with the little time left for them to practice, as he added, “We have limited date on the circuit which makes the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday even more important.” While Barrichello said, “This year Formula One is returning to the Fuji International Speedyway for the first time since 1977. I last raced at Fuji in 1991 in Formula 3 but the circuit has been totally modernized since those days. It will be very exciting to race on the new layout and I am sure that the organizers will have done an excellent job with improving the existing circuit.”

Nakamoto also said, “The downforce levels required will be very similar to the last race at Spa-Francorchamps so we are prepared for a challenging weekend. Following the three-day test in Jerez this week, we have confirmed our car set-up and earo package for the race. We would like to put on the best possible performance for the Honda fans at our home race in Japan and achieve a satisfactory result,” holding on with the belief that their team have enough experience and preparation to get their race car, with sophisticated Honda spoiler, through the redesigned Fuji International Speedway circuit and obtain good results.

“The Fuji circuit is an unknown quantity so I will be studying the circuit layout with our engineers in advance of the race but we will only find out its true characteristics during our track walk on Thursday and the first few laps of practice on Friday. The re-designed circuit is another Herman Tilke special, and after the fantastic job that he did with Istanbul Park, it will be interesting to see how this circuit matches up. There is a long 1.5km start-finish straight which should allow for some overtaking combined with some exciting looking twists and turns,” Button said.

Button, together with Barrichello, is expected to give the best performance in the race despite having a quite crucial race this year. He said, “We are the first to admit that Honda have had a tough season this year, however we approach the final races of the season with continued motivation and will not stop pushing to take the maximum possible performance for the thousands of Honda fans who will be cheering us on from the stands.” And, Barrichello said, “Our car and performance this year has not been at the level we hoped for at the beginning of the season, however a lot of hard work is still going on back at the factory to improve our situation. We will all keep working very hard right to the end of the season and I hope to see further small improvements in our performance which will help us this season and in 2008.”

Based on their history, performance record and current form, following are the top 3 college football teams.

Florida Gators College Football Team

University of Florida is represented by Florida Gators football team in the Eastern Division of Southeastern Conference. The home games are hosted on Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium also commonly known as “The Swamp”. 2009 will the 5th season for the team under the coach Urban Meyer.

The University of Florida shifted from Lake City to Gainesville in 1905. James Forsythe coached them for 3 winning seasons. In 1909 the team was coached by G.E. Pyle. In 1910 for the first time, Gators came face to face with most of their current rivals. They for the first time faced South Carolina in 1911 and Auburn and then Georgia in 1915. They became member of Southern Conference in 1922. Gators later became members of Southeastern conferences in 1932. Gators tasted their first long-term success in the 1960′s under Coach Ray Greaves. The 1984 team which was famously known as “The Great Wall of Florida” is considered one of the best teams in Gators’ history. Glen Hall was the successful coach of the team from 1984 to 1989. The 1990s were the golden years in the history of Gators. They finished in the SEC for the 3rd time in 1990. They won SEC championship in 1991 for the first time. Then they won SEC championship games for four years from1993 to 1996. They again won the championship in 2000. Urban Meyer was appointed the head coach in 2005. They again won the SEC title in 2006. They also won the 2009 BCS National Championship Game in January, 2009. The main rivals of Gators are Florida State, Georgia, and Miami.

Texas Longhorns College Football Team

The Texas Longhorn football team represents the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. In 2008 they became the second team when they achieved 832 wins passing Notre Dame’s 831 wins. They ranked no. 2 among the seven, who have won 800 or more than 800 games. They ranked third with winning percentage of 71.8%, no. 2 in bowl game appearances and no. 8 for the number of games played. Four Division-1A national championships have been won by Longhorns in 1963, 1969, 1970 and 2005. In 2008, Longhorns have been ranked seventh among the college football programs since 1936 by ESPN. Home games for Longhorns are hosted at Darrell K. Royals ? Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. Mack Brown is their current head coach.

USC Trojans Football Team

The USC Trojans football program was started in 1888 and is the member of NCCA Division 1A and Pac-10. Pete Carroll is their head coach currently. Trojans ranked no. 5 consistently in AP and BCS polls in recent years. UCA has bagged eleven national championship titles and won most numbers NCCA’s men’s team and individual title than anyone else and is ranked 3rd in co-ed team titles. Their main rivals are Notre Dame, UCLA, Stanford and California. USC Trojans play their home games at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the largest stadiums in United States.

If you are crazy football fan, either you have to be an obsessive fan of the team of Auburn University or the team of University of Alabama. Definitely you have to take sides and there is no chance for neutrality with these two teams. Michigan and Ohio may come together; Navy and Army may go hand in hand. However, when we talk about the football rivalry, there is no match for Auburn and Alabama.

Alabama is well known for its rich heritage on college football. But one exact day of a year, when there is a game between Auburn vs. Alabama – Iron Bowl, even the families and friends split up to take sides for a single team on the Iron Bowl day. For about over a century, Iron Bowl tears Alabama into two. The hatred keeps growing between these two teams. Further, the fans of each team hate one another. Alabama – Auburn rivalry is really a whole year through obsession.

Initiation of rivalry

In the year, 1893, February 22nd, Auburn and Alabama teams met for the first time in Birmingham. Auburn team won with 32-22. yet, both the teams ended up with a great spat, whether the match should be taken for counting towards the year 1892s season or for the year 1893. This rivalry kept growing and continued in every year, that it leads to the momentary suspension during the series during the teams’ 1907 meeting, where the match ended in tie of 6-6. Until 1948, Auburn and Alabama were not given the chance to meet. The state government took efforts to make the decision to be strictly practiced.

During 1947 December, the representatives of the Alabama team House passed good resolution to encourage both the schools to come together, overcoming the differences to meet in the match. Dr. Ralph B Draughon the Auburn president and Dr. John Gallalee, the Alabama president agreed upon to resume the series for the next year. The game was held in Birmigham, naming it “The Iron Bowl”, as the city is near huge iron deposits.

For many decades, the Alabama university team enjoyed the higher profile when compared to their rival, among the matches held both within the state and even in the international sports meet. Although Auburn had a share of success, they were considered as number two team, within their state. But later in 1980, the waves of Auburn team started to crawl in every match, with the start at Jordan-Hare Stadium. In the year 1987, Auburn requested official that Iron Bowl has to be played at the same stadium, every year. In 1989, December 2, the tigers of Auburn knocked off the big brothers of Alabama in Iron Bowl, with 30-20.

Through 2006, it is Alabama team that leads in Iron Bowl, yet, Auburn has succeeded every of the last 5 Iron Bowls. And every year, the fans look forward for the meet of Iron Bowl, especially for the Auburn vs. Alabama Football game, with the same rivalry, which seems to be growing for a century.

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

It is not often when the coaches and the media agree on their opinion of who should be in the preseason Top 25 college football polls, but this year at least their Top 5 picks are mirror images—Florida (1), Texas (2), Oklahoma (3), Southern California (4) and Alabama (5).

Of a possible 60 first-place votes in the media’s AP Top 25 Poll, Florida collected 58 votes and Texas 2, setting a record (96+%) for the most first-place votes since the poll was first started in 1950, long before there were ever Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games.

Florida is such an overwhelming favorite that one might think there is no need to play the games this year, since the Gators will probably run the table (go unbeaten). This, of course, is sheer nonsense.

Florida won the National Championship for the 2006 and 2008 seasons and, if it repeats during 2009, the Gators would become only the second team to do so since Nebraska won the National Championship 3 out of 4 years, winning the title outright in 1994 and 1995, and splitting the title in 1997.

However, going unbeaten to do so is entirely another matter. It is tough to go undefeated in a major conference, and then win the national title.

For openers, only one team (Utah at 13-0) went undefeated last season, and that happened because Utah does not play in a major conference. It the Utes played in the SEC, Pacific 10, Big 12 or Big Ten Conferences, there is no way they would be undefeated.

Florida, Southern Cal and Texas all lost a game last season. Oklahoma and Alabama were beaten twice.

You may be interested to know that the best team in the nation statistically last year was not Florida, which won the National Championship by beating Oklahoma 24-14, but rather Southern Cal. That’s right, USC. Maybe that is why Florida won; they were playing Oklahoma and not Southern Cal for the title.

Oklahoma had a great offensive team—ranking 1st nationally in scoring (51+ points), 3rd in passing offense (349+ yards per game) and 3rd in total offense (547+), but the Sooner defense was nothing to get excited about. They were 99th in pass defense, 68th in total defense and 58th scoring defense. There are only 119 BCS (Division 1-A) teams.

Florida’s pass defense was ranked 20th, and the Gators held Oklahoma to only 14 points, despite Oklahoma having the No. 1 scoring offense in the country. Shoot, the Sooners scored 51 points a game but gave up 24 a game, exactly what Florida scored to win the title. The Gators were ranked 4th in scoring defense, giving up only 13 (12.93) points a game. That shows you how accurate averaged statistics can be over the course of a season.

Texas was horrific in passing defense, ranking 104th of 119 teams. You may recall that Texas Tech beat Texas last year 39-33 on a pass play by NFL first-round pick Michael Crabtree. Texas A&M got swamped by Texas last year 49-9, in part because Texas A&M’s passing defense was ranked 95th, only slightly better than Texas, which had the 7th best passing offense.

Alabama was 7th in scoring offense last year, but its passing offense was 97th (yikes) and its total offense was only 63rd. The Crimson Tide defense won most of their games, ranking 2nd in rushing defense, 3rd in total defense and 7th in scoring defense. Sounds a whole lot like their coach Nick Seban.

So what is the big deal with Southern Cal? Well, its offense was pretty balanced, ranking 22nd in rushing, passing and scoring. The defense was the best in the nation, ranking 1st in passing defense and 1st in scoring defense, 2nd in total defense, and 5th in rushing defense.

Think about it, leading the nation in 2 defensive categories and being among the top 5 in rushing and passing defense, total defense and scoring defense. USC’s one loss came on the road at Oregon State, 27-21.

Was USC unfairly penalized by the pollsters when selecting the BCS title game participants? I think so. Heck, Alabama lost 31-20 to Florida on the road, so the Gators deserved a shot.

But Oklahoma? Get real. The Sooners lost to Texas at home, 45-35. Just the score of the game itself makes you shiver, 80 points between them, as opposed to 48 points between USC and Oregon State, and USC was on the road. If Oklahoma thinks Oregon State (9-4 last year) was a pushover, they should play the Beavers at home, where they were 5-1, losing only to Oregon.

So what does it all mean? Well, Oklahoma was the best offensive team in the country last year, and Southern Cal was the best defensive team; there is no argument when you look at the statistics.

Despite being the best offensive team in the country, Oklahoma could not beat Florida, losing 24-14. Southern Cal, which dispatched No. 6 Penn State 31-16, in the BCS Rose Bowl Game, might well have held Florida to fewer than 24 points. We will never know.

What we do know is that Southern Cal had a better passing offense, a more balanced offense, and a much better passing defense than Florida.

There is a reason why the Sagarin College Football Ratings show Southern Cal, not Florida, as the top team in its 2009 preseason poll. That reason is because the ratings are based on last year’s actual statistics and results, not opinion.

As I see it, Florida was fortunate that it faced Oklahoma, which has lost 4 of its last 5 BCS games. In other words, lame like Ohio State, which has lost two straight BCS National Championship Games to Florida and LSU in 2006 and 2007, and then lost again to Texas in its BCS game last year.

Let’s just say it—the East Coast bias among coaches and media is really bad. Two factors drive this inequity. One is population as 58% of the people (approximately 175 of 300 million) live on the East Coast. The second is the time difference as the West Coast is 3 hours behind the East Coast.

When media types get done watching football games Saturday around 10:30 p.m. EST, key games are just beginning on the West Coast and are never seen by poll voters. They are overwhelmed with watching East Coast football, and remain a servant slave to it.

If the powers to be had any size grapefruits at all, when Florida got rid of Oklahoma, their next assignment for the national title should have been Southern Cal, and then we would have seen the rubber hit the road.