G'Day From Downunder

Get the kettle on for a cup of tea and let's talk about football and a few other things that are happening in your world and mine.

I was talking on the phone to my young nephew in Ireland and he was telling me that he and a group of his friends had a party to celebrate France's World Cup exit.

Everyone in Ireland felt justice had been done for what happened in the now infamous hand ball incident against the cheating French.

I on the other hand had a party to celebrate the exit from the World Cup of the Italians who cheated on the Australians four years ago. The Italians are always whinging anyway; even when they win they are still complaining. To be honest France and Italy did not bring any spark of excitement or talent to the tournament anyway!

I was trying to hold back on the sad news but I suppose you can't really call it sad news, because not a lot was expected of the USA and New Zealand.

The USA where very unfortunate not to progress further. They showed they could compete with the best and no doubt won a lot of admirers. They also proved they were not there just to make up the numbers and they are a team to be taken very seriously.

New Zealand is a country of millions of sheep and wildly known for having the best of the best rugby teams. The All Whites (NZ Soccer), in contrast to the All Blacks (NZ Rugby Union) are virtually an unknown football team.

Soccer is as popular in New Zealand as church going is in Ireland these days. You would have to read the tiny print on the bottom of the last page of the local paper with a magnifying glass to find where a soccer match is being played. You are more likely to see headlines on the local dog barking contest than a soccer match.

Rugby, of course, is bigger than everything in New Zealand in fact it is everything and everywhere. So you can imagine, when their virtually unknown All Whites qualified for the finals the country was in shock along with the rest of the world.

Well if you think that was amazing, now consider, not only did they show quality in their three Group F games but they didn't lose a game. Not even the might of world champions Italy could beat them.

Furthermore, they also drew with Paraguay and Slovakia both of whom moved on to the second round and finished above Italy. It was an amazing effort from such a small nation with a very small pool of players to pick from.

Australia went to the event with lots of promises and nothing else and suffered from fool's glory returning with their Socceroos tails between their legs.

England limped, hobbled and squeezed its way into the last 16 with a shoe horn; however, in the elimination clash with their old enemy, Germany, they were taught a lesson. Their shameful 4:1 defeat made Australia's 4:0 defeat by the same foe look quite respectable.

While the world down under was squinty eyed from watching late night and all night soccer on TV along with the world record breaking marathon tennis matches from Wimbledon, right under our very own noses history was being made and we were too sleep-deprived to see it happen.

Australia has its first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard and she is a Celt of some sort, she was born in Wales. The change was brought about by a coup in the Australian Labour Party.

Kevin Rudd, the outgoing PM of less than three years, was only the second PM in history not to run a second term (or even a full first term). He reluctantly stepped down after the right faction of Labour shifted their support to Julia who is a left winger and it became obvious that if the matter were put to the vote by the parliamentary party he would have been ousted.

The party was in panic mode as Kevin Rudd's popularity dropped from a record high when he was elected to a record low recently and so Australia now has its first female Prime Minister (albeit not elected by the people).

It proves there is no loyalty in politics when a party can dump its elected Prime Minister. It also shows the selfishness of how left and right can come together to save their own seats in Parliament and not necessary for the better of the country.

Sadly this is not the most dignified way to make history. The King is dead long live the Queen! I suppose from rugby prospective you could say Kevin was 'sin binned' for his bad performance.

We Irish haven't had much to crow about down here recently as we tried to pump up the touring Irish rugby team.

Yes, I probably got that line right touring is probably more accurate rather than playing.

The New Zealanders shamed them off the park with a record score. Then the Maoris rubbed salt into their battered wounds in their next game and just as the Irish got up off their knees to fight another day the Australian Wallabies finished them off with a lesson in how to win in Brisbane.

I hope the Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll who is getting married about now has much more success in his new married life than the Irish rugby team had Downunder. Maybe he'll score on his honeymoon!

I can assure you it was no honeymoon for the Irish it was also very disappointing for me having travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane - which is about twelve hundred miles - to see them put up a very mediocre performance. They will have to up their work rate quite a few notches if they are to do any good in the Six Nations and Triple Crown. Still I suppose we Irish have to take some comfort out of the fact The Pumas (Argentina) gave the French a kick up in the rear end in their encounter and that doesn't make the Irish performance look so bad considering they were playing a much better side than the Argies.

I know our editor Grahame is waiting with baited breath to gloat about England's performance in the 20/20 cricket series (what's cricket?). I just hope he hasn't forgotten the bet he made with me about The Ashes.

That's enough about balls and politics for a while. Until I talk to you again soon, be good to those who love you and I hope your team does well. Slainte from Downunder!!