Rugby World Cup: great blogs and links

The ruckosphere of blogging is a wonderful thing. You just need to trawl through the message boards and fanzine sites to check out the plethora of news and information – some articles balanced with informative debate, statistics and facts; at the other end of the scale -the meatheads of the ‘my team’s better than your team’ variety, screeching away to fanatical proportions. Sexist drivel; good old fashioned humour; anger; statistics, and mourning. It’s all there. Want to be an unofficial citing official? Trawl YouTube. Want to release a Rugby World Cup hit song? Then MySpace is the answer.

This week with a little over two weeks to go and the Rugby World Cup has captured the hearts and minds of hundreds of different bloggers. Each with their own take on what makes rugby, erm, well… rugby. Worried about the beer on tap in France – check out Matt at Green and Gold Rugby. You want to debate the finer points of the bottom tier nations and who might come away with the most wins? Then nursedude is your man - delving into the finer points of US and Portuguese rugby stamina. MirimarMike always has a great summation (with links) of what is going on in the weird and wonderful world of the egg shaped ball. Total Flanker isn't a great fan of the haka, but what can you say? He is a true blue English gentleman with rugby in his loosie soul. For a touch of the liberal rugger bloke in New Zealand, then the Dropkicks are your answer. And for a female take on rugby? Then check out my sisters blogging at kiwirugby and blondie. As you will be able to tell, these witty writers and seething scribes put the local print media to shame. The ruckosphere is alive, and prodigiously punting.

And if you’ve got a link you think I might be interested in – please do let me know….