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JOHN O'SULLIVANdiscusses all matters sport

Junior Cup squad should go for it

F I N A L S T R A W:THE DISAPPOINTMENT for the Ireland team in the Junior World Championship in Argentina in losing their first two games of the tournament, to France and to England, is not just the defeats but the manner in which they played in those two matches.

The squad travelled with genuine ambition after winning the Under-20 Six Nations Championship. Unfortunately the Irish team have not managed to replicate that level of performance in the tournament to date.

In their two matches – they play the hosts in the final game of the pool – they seem to have fallen between trying to play field position through a kicking game and using their undoubted ability behind the scrum.

They seem to be a little inhibited, kicking away too much possession rather than backing themselves with the ball in hand. Discipline has also been an issue as they have conceded far too many penalties and the number of basic errors has been hugely destructive. They have also fallen victim to several poor refereeing decisions, notably the penalty that gave France victory in the opening match.

However, the only thing they can influence for the remainder of the tournament – they have three matches left – is to regain a positive attitude on the pitch and in doing so better represent the ability that this squad certainly possesses.

Punters puff on vulture brains to beat odds

IT’S NOT a good time to be a Cape Vulture in South Africa.

Quite apart from the traditional risks they face, like a lack of food, poisoning and electrocution, it seems the soccer World Cup has brought a new danger.

Apparently, some gamblers have taken to smoking dried vulture brains – it gives a whole new connotation to the phrase smoking your brains out – as they believe it will give them the power to predict results in the tournament and beat the bookies.

Mark Anderson of BirdLife South Africa pointed out: “The harvesting of the bird’s heads by followers of “muti” magic is an additional threat these birds can’t endure.”

The current population is estimated at just 8,000 and given they lay just one egg per year it’s a fragile regeneration process.

The word muti is derived from the Zulu expression for tree and is used widely in most indigenous African languages, as well as in South African English and Afrikaans, where it is sometimes used as a slang word for medicine in general.

Muti rituals have long been associated with soccer in the townships and beyond.

Fred Khumalo, an award-winning columnist with the South African Sunday Times spoke of his experiences while watching his father run a national second division soccer club.

“What I found intriguing was when my father and the club inyanga (traditional healer) would light a fire, sprinkle some foul-smelling powder into it, and then invite the players to jump over the flames while shouting some warlike incantation.

“Sometimes the inyanga would spray the players with intelezi, a herb historically and culturally used by warriors before venturing into battle. When the club was going to play a particularly big match, a chicken would be slaughtered and its blood mixed with some powder.

“Each player would in turn have an incision made on his wrist with a razor blade.

“The chicken blood and dark powder mixture would be rubbed into the incision, causing the player to wince. This would happen just hours before the big match.”

He went on to describe other rituals which included burying some herbs beside the opposition goalposts, hoping their goalkeeper “would be assailed by hallucinations”.

His father’s team never did manage to gain promotion to the top division.

Cover your ears, here come the vuvuzelas

SOUTH AFRICA is committed to being loud and proud in hosting the 2010 World Cup that started yesterday – literally.

Fans of the Bafana Bafana, the colloquial name for the South African national soccer team, are set to become the noisiest supporters at the tournament thanks to the vuvuzela, a three-foot long plastic trumpet.

They are even risking permanent hearing loss, according to a global hearing foundation by blowing their own trumpets.

The din created by the vuvuzelas forced Fifa to conduct their own tests for a match at Johannesburg’s 95,000-seat Soccer City Stadium to see if the trumpet noise drowned out emergency announcements.

The upshot is world soccer’s governing body will allow the vuvuzelas to be used at the World Cup.

One group who might disagree with the decision is the Hear the World Foundation, formed by Swiss firm Phonak to raise awareness of hearing loss. They conducted tests last month in a sound proof studio that revealed the vuvuzela makes a noise far louder than a chainsaw, for example.

The plastic trumpet emitted 127 decibels, more than an air horn (123.5 decibels), and appreciably louder than the Brazilian Samba drums.

A referee’s whistle came in fourth, while the cowbell measured 114.9 decibels.

Audiologist Robert Beiny explained: “To put it in perspective, when a sound is increased by 10 decibels our ears perceive it as being twice as loud, so we would consider the vuvuzela to be more than double the volume of the cowbell.”

Apparently, extended exposure to 85 decibels of noise risks permanent hearing loss. The study also found two “enthusiastic” supporters celebrating a goal on either side of a third person can generate 121.6 decibels, which far outstrips a chainsaw (100).

Fifa monolith Sepp Blatter is supporting the vuvuzela, pointing out those African traditions should be respected rather than made to conform to European aesthetics.

“When you are in Africa, there is another noise, another ambience,” Blatter said. “We have to adapt a little.”

It is certainly not a uniform view, as former Manchester United and England midfielder and current Thailand coach Bryan Robson was critical of the trumpets after he struggled to communicate with his players in a recent 4-0 defeat by South Africa.

Not everyone in the Rainbow nation embraces the instrument. Mondli Makhanya, a former editor of the Sunday Times of Johannesburg, wrote a column in the paper (May 30th) that ran the headline, “Nothing Kills the Joy of Soccer Like a Bunch of Wailing Vuvuzelas”, going on to describe the noise made by the trumpet as that of a goat on the way to slaughter.

However, South Africa’s coach, Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parriera, has described the impact of the vuvuzela as equating to a 12th man. Knowing how well sport and politics overlaps, it is perhaps not a surprise to learn that last Thursday week, a trumpet was blown in the South African parliament in anticipation of the World Cup.

Ireland supporters can only look on wistfully and wonder what impact bodhráns would have made at the World Cup.

Milla and Eto'o strike up a feud before the big kick-off

Cameroon strikers past, Roger Milla, and present, Samuel Eto’o, have clashed verbally, prompting the latter, in something of a hissy fit, to suggest he’s considering not participating in the World Cup in South Africa.

Milla, a star in the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy (he also scored in the 1994 finals), noted for his goals and quirky celebrations claimed Eto’o “still hasn’t brought anything to our national team”.

Eto’o, when informed of the accusation, rather sniffily replied: “Is it worth me going to the World Cup? I still have a few days left to think, but I will see if it’s important for me to participate because I don’t need this (criticism) in my career,” before taking a proper swipe when continuing on a Canal Plus television interview, “It’s always just before the (major) tournaments that the old geezers wake up. Whats Milla done? He hasn’t won the World Cup, they played in the quarter-finals.”

Interestingly, Milla’s 28 goals in 102 games is well below Eto’o’s 44 in 94 games for Cameroon, and the latter is also the African Cup of Nations all-time leading scorer. There is also the small matter of Champions League, Serie A and La Liga success that Eto’o helped Inter Milan and Barcelona secure compared to Milla’s more modest club achievements.

It seems the Indomitable Lions – the Cameroon soccer team’s nickname – have met its first obstacle before a ball has been kicked in South Africa.

Kidney's last visit a last-gasp schools' defeat

DECLAN KIDNEY last visited New Zealand as head coach in 1992 when in charge of the Ireland Schools’ team that took on their New Zealand counterparts, coming agonisingly close before losing 27-25 to a late Jeff Wilson penalty.

The match took place in New Plymouth, the venue for this morning’s Test match between Ireland and the All Blacks.

In the aforementioned summer of 1992, the Ireland senior team also toured New Zealand and weren’t given much of a chance because of several less than inspiring performances in the run-up to the first Test in Carisbrook, Dunedin. They came within a whisker of recording an unlikely victory before succumbing 24-21.

Five players made their Ireland debut that day, wings Ronnie Carey and Neville Furlong, flanker Kelvin Leahy and tighthead prop Paul McCarthy, while Mark McCall won a cap when coming on as a replacement for Ireland captain Philip Danaher after 36 minutes. Leahy broke his ankle – it was his only Ireland cap – and didn’t reappear, to be replaced by Brian Rigney for the second half.

Ireland’s points came through a brace of tries from centre Vinny Cunningham and another from fullback Jim Staples, with outhalf Peter Russell, who had an outstanding game, chipping in with three conversions and a penalty.

The All Blacks response was to score four tries of their own, centres Frank Bunce (two) and Eroni Clarke and flanker Paul Henderson crossing the Ireland line, with fullback Greg Cooper adding four conversions. It was to prove a bittersweet afternoon for Cooper because it marked the last of the seven caps he won for the All Blacks.

His successor, for the second Test against Ireland, in Wellington, was someone very familiar to him, his brother Matthew, who went on to win eight caps. It must have been a difficult time for Matthew, delighted to be winning his first cap, while at the same time not overjoyed in taking over from his brother, who had battled cancer as a boy to achieve his ambition.

Ireland couldn’t sustained the momentum into the second Test, losing 59-6 and in the process conceding 11 tries, with Matthew Cooper helping himself to a couple.