Recapped

Hey guys,welcome to Recapped, a look back at the sport results around the world that happened this weekend:

• On Saturday I managed to find an empty Irish Bar (no mean feat) wherein just my wife and I could watch the All Blacks play Ireland. After predicting a 35-15 win it was looking good at 35-10 but unfortunately the AB's scored one more try with three minutes to go on to finish the game 42-10 (highlights here). It was a good start to the year for the AB's, albeit a scrappy one, scoring many of their points from turnovers and counter-attacking.
• Julian Savea on debut scored a hat-trick and looks incredibly dangerous with ball in hand. 
• Half-back debutant Aaron Smith also played well, delivering quick ball to the backline, he deserves another chance to start in the upcoming Tri Nations I beleive. 
• I also thought Carter was exceptional, converting all but one of his attempted conversions and directing play superbly. I thinks its one of his best performances since the 2005 Lions Tour when he was the best player in the world. Lets hope he carries on that form into the Tri-Nations.
• Next game vs Ireland is in Christchurch this Saturday.
• Steve Hanson, after the game, told the critics to lay off Piri Weepu. I am not sure why, to be honest because he showed nothing to suggest that he deserved to be an All Black with his performance on Saturday. He didn't play badly but he didn't stand out when he came in as a substitute, I still think Andy Ellis is the better player out of the two.  Hopefully Weepu gets a chance vs Ireland to show us why he deserves to be in the All Blacks ahead of Ellis.

• In other international rugby fixtures- the Australians bet Wales 27-19 in Brisbane after losing to Scotland the week before. They have another two tests vs the Welsh coming up. South Africa bet England 22-17 as well, in Durban. The return of three test series in international rugby is pleasing as it harps back to the days of tours where teams were on tour for 2-3 months. 

• Euro 2012 has started and all teams have played their first games. There have been  a few interesting results so far-
• Holland wasted a multitude of goal opportunities to lose to Denmark 1-0. Holland were very underwhelming and are in serious danger of not making the later stages. Van Persie and Robben were especially horrendous. They must now beat both Germany and Portugal to advance.
• Spain and Italy battled out for a one all draw. More well known for their tendency to play very defensive football the Italians played a more attacking 3-5-2 formation and played well. Spain continues to struggle to score goals but it's not for the lack of strikers with the likes of Torres, Llorente and Solgado. The way they play, with short, sharp passes around the opposition's penalty box allows the opposition to crowd the area and shut down the strikers. It could come back to haunt them later on in the tournament.
• Croatia smashed the Irish scoring their first goal in under three minutes. Shay Given, the Irish goalkeeper player who I said was the player to watch even though he doesn't score, did in fact score. However it was an own goal which led to a 3-1 defeat. Its going to be a short tournament if they play like that against Spain and Italy. After the match there was a riot in Poznan, where the game was played, resulting in 14 people being arrested. The photo at the top of the article is two Irish supporters with a sense of humour in front of a Polish police riot squad during the riots. Good to see some supporters being sensible and trying to stop the violence in creative ways.
• Finally Group D played last night,  England and France played it out for a draw and Ukraine surprised Sweden by beating them 2-1, 35 year old Shevchenko scoring both goals. This makes England's run more difficult as they will face both Sweden and Ukraine in must win situations.
• Overall the tournament is going well but there has been a noticeable amount of empty seats in the stadiums as fans are staying away. 

• The NZ Warriors beat the Penrith Panthers 30-16 yesterday, maintaining ninth place in the NRL. They are still on the hunt for a spot in the playoffs half way through the season.

• The Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics convincingly in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals to reach the NBA finals the second year in a row. The Celtics finally ran out of gas after defying the odds and being one game away from playing once again for the NBA championship. This may be the last time that we see this Celtics squad together as this team revolves around the ageing trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

• The Los Angeles Kings won their first Stanley Cup finals by beating the New Jersey Devils 6-1 in Game 6 of the NHL yesterday.

• Finally, in the 'Sport' of boxing, more controversy as another match looks like it has been rigged. Manny Pacquaio somehow lost to Timothy Bradley Jr when almost everyone could see that he had beaten him. I won't go into my theories as this article at Grantland.com sum up my suspicions really well. Boxing, I believe, has long ago lost its legitimacy as a sport due to its lack of central governance and constant match-fixing scandals. It's time something was done to eradicate this sort of practice once and for all from the sport.

Love to hear your thoughts on sport as usual.

Peace 

Photo sourced from reddit.com