Pot-Pourri

First up, a bit of humour.

Fraser has the video of a job interviewee (not cabbie Fraser) being mistaken for an IT expert and interviewed live on BBC. The look on his face when he's introduced as "Guy Kewnet, IT expert" is priceless. Hope he got the job, as he got through the interview very well considering he probably didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

Those who like fishing tales should have a read of this fishing trip in Samoa at Sportsfreak.

Now, onto slightly more serious things:

I note some apologists are coming out in support of Wendell Sailor (who, if you have been on Mars the past week, has tested positive for Cocaine) with the old "why do we expect higher standards of behaviour from our sportspeople" line. It's got nothing to do with behaviour. Assuming Mr Sailor can read (yes, a dangerous assumption but I'll go with it), he will have a contract with his employer stating something along the lines of "take any drug, including recreational drugs, and you are caught, expect two years on the sidelines".

Professional sportspeople are a little different from the rest of us in that their "job" requires the use of exceptional physical talent rather than what is usual for the rest of us, a brain (and in Sailor's case, he is lucky he doesn't have to find a job that requires use of a brain as I think he'd have trouble finding one - a job that is, although finding a brain should perhaps also be one of his things on his to-do list)

Now sports don't like their highly-paid employees taking recreational drugs as there is a suspicion it can have an impact on sporting performance, which is what they are paid for. Nothing to do with behaviour at all.

Anyway, Sailor should be thankful he doesn't live in China. In the paper today is the story of Chen Qi, an Olympic Table Tennis Champion who after a bout of "bad behaviour" was fined, had to make a public apology on TV and then spent a week in a poor village in the middle of nowhere for "re-education", which consisted of levelling dirt, weeding and plucking cucumbers. His crime? Throwing a ping-pong ball onto the ground and kicking a chair after losing the Asia Cup final to a team-mate. Boy, are the Chinese in for a surprise when the world visits in 2008.

Finally, the Aussie media are obviously worried about their beloved Waratahs as they are already having a go at the referee for the upcoming semifinal. This article makes reference to the Win/Loss record under Kaplan for the Waratahs and is a candidate for the most misleading use of statistics award.

Apparently, the Waratah's Super 12/14 record is 67 wins from 126 matches (53%) and their record when Kaplan has been the whistler is 1 win from 14 matches (7%). This conspiracy theorist probably also thinks the Stormers-Bulls game was fixed in the weekend as well.

Well here's the thing dufus. Due to the way the reffing appointments are done in the Super 12/14, Kaplan can only referee the Waratahs when they are playing a New Zealand team, and their record against NZ teams is significantly worse than 53% - this year they won 2 from 5 and that is one of their better efforts.

And I have to laugh when I read in the article that "winless away record under Kaplan includes the Super 12 final last year, the loss to the Crusaders in round nine this year, the 96-19 defeat to the Crusaders in 2002 and many other disappointing performances"

So there's 3 games already out of the 14 that involved playing the Crusaders in Christchurch, including THAT 96-19 drubbing in 2002. Of course, it was all down to the referee that the Crusaders won those games. Parlease - someone get this journo a shotgun before he makes a real dick of himself.

Actually, I hope they continue to bag Kaplan before the game. He has a nasty habit of reffing one side who gets up his nose. He's the only ref I've seen march the Brumbies 10 metres for George Gregan backchat. I am a little worried about the ability of the Hurricanes to back up after last week's sterling effort, but it will be easier if it's 16 against 15 :-)