Gilbert's Virtuoso ball grabs early Cup headlines: No complaints from Baikeinuku as he kicks eight from nine

ALL IN THE SCRUM:A world cup miscellany  

THE 2011 Rugby World Cup is barely under way and already some of the headlines have been commandeered by the Gilbert rugby ball used at the tournament and capricious winds in some stadiums.

The official match ball, the Virtuoso, was launched last April in Auckland amid the traditional hoopla and hyperbole and “by July every RWC 2011 participating union will have played and/or trained with the ball for extended periods”, according to an official release.

Gilbert claims that the Virtuoso features exciting new performance developments, including innovative valve and bladder designs that will deliver superior shape retention and spin rate over previous Gilbert match balls.

Publicly those players who have struggled a little with the ball over the opening weekend of the World Cup have blamed themselves rather than the product. England outhalf Jonny Wilkinson and Pumas fullback Martin Rodriguez both suffered horribly, while Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton had a tough evening, albeit he was kicking in wind and rain and not under a closed roof.

Several of the teams used more than one place-kicker during a match but there were a number of exceptional performances with the placed ball.

South Africa’s Morne Steyn kicked two conversions and a penalty but arguably the best performance of the opening weekend of the tournament was from Fiji’s Seremaia Baikeinuku, who kicked eight from nine attempts. He might be a little more familiar to followers of Heineken Cup rugby, using his abbreviated name, Seremaia Bai. He’s played his rugby for quite some time now with a variety of clubs including Clermont Auvergne and Castres Olympique.

French scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili completes the top three with a strike rate of seven from nine attempts during France’s victory over Japan.

PLACE-KICKING SO FAR

100%: South Africa (3/3)

88.9%: Fiji (8/9)

77.8%: France (7/9)

71.4%: Australia (5/7), New Zealand (5/7)

66.7%: USA (2/3), Italy (2/3), Tonga (2/3), Wales (4/6), Japan (4/6).

62.5%: Romania (5/8)

55.6%: Scotland (5/9)

40%: Namibia (2/5)

37.5%: Ireland (3/8), England (3/8)

33.3%: Argentina (3/9)

RECORD BREAKER

FIJIAN WING Vereniki Goneva recorded the fastest four tries in a Rugby World Cup match. He needed only 35 minutes from his first to his fourth score in the 49-25 win over Namibia, beating the previous record by about 60 seconds. Chris Latham (AUS) and Marc Ellis (NZL) needed 36 minutes to score four times.

Lo Cicero: May set sail

THE OLD cliché about sailing off into the sunset could prove a very apposite metaphor for Italian prop Andrea Lo Cicero if he decides to honour his intention to retire next year and take up another sport. The 88 times capped, 35-year-old prop forward, who is playing in his fourth World Cup, has already begun training to represent his country in sailing at the Olympics. This is not a whim although he’ll probably look at shedding a few of his 116kgs so as not to capsize his ambitions prematurely.

He admitted: “I’ve always liked sport and I like sailing. I’ve started training in the Olympic Star class and want to eventually get to the Games – not in 2012, but 2016.”

No, it’s unlikely to be plain sailing, which brings a merciful end to any more nautical references.

Merry dance: Ioane loses out in amusement arcade

AUSTRALIAN WING and try scorer in the match against Italy Digby Ioane has a reputation for dancing after scoring – he didn’t against the Azzurri – but he received an unusual challenge in the week of the match as he was strolling through downtown Auckland.

He elaborated: “It’s crazy. Im walking down Queen Street and everyone is telling me to dance. It’s pretty funny but it’s all part of rugby. This guy wanted to go dance with me (on an amusement arcade dance machine) so I did, and I lost to him.”

On the issue of potential try celebrations he admitted: “I’m really pumped and ready to dance.” He said he has a few new moves “up his sleeve.”