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Yes, you guessed it! The Springboks have completed a miraculous return-to-form in the first half of the international season, beating the world's top 2 teams to take the Tri-Nations crown!

Jake White has done a sterling job to take the players involved in previously dismal performances to ne heights as arguably the best team in the world at the moment.

The Springboks beat Australia 23-19 in a thriller in Durban on Saturday. Man, it was one of those games. Nervewracking for the first half and then super-exciting and sheer domination in the second. The Aussies, of course tried and tried until the bitter end, but the determination of this very young Springbok team was just too much for them. The will to win just too damn much!

The crowd was superb, 52 000 people screaming and willing the Boks on, and they didn't disappoint.

Of course, the Stormers and Western Province players were superb, but the man-of-the-match, Victor Matfield was at his best, and in my eyes, and many others, he is the best lock in world rugby. In combination with Bakkies Botha, they make a potent combination.

Well, it's still taking time to sink in, but we're the tri-nations champions, and the big test will be the end of year tour to the North and Argentina.

C'mon the Boks!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:08 PM | Permalink

Have you ever wondered how you can re-arrange the buttons on your taskbar? There was a utility for Windows before XP, but since then, there has been nothing.

It is very frustrating sometimes when you want certain applications located in certain positions on the taskbar, especially when you have many applications open, and there is no way to do this.

The only option Windows XP gives you is to group the same applications into a single dropdown button, but this is very irritating and is actually more trouble than it's worth.

I found an application that allows you to re-arrange these buttons. It's a very raw program and has quite an ugly interface, but so far it seems to be the only one that seems to do the job.

Here's the link: TaskBar Commander

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is just getting too exciting. It's do or die for the Springboks. In the last test of the Tri-Nations 2004, the Boks face the Aussies. It's going to be a cracker I think. If the Boks win, they win the tournament, if they lose, they get the wooden spoon again!

After emphatically beating the Kiwis at Ellis Park on Saturday 14th, the Springboks are well on their way to becoming Tri-Nations champions for the first time since 1998. Back then under Nick Mallett, the Boks were unstoppable, and now, they seem to be returning to that form that has been missing for over five years!

The win over the All Blacks was great. 40-26 is not just a scrape-home, it is a domination against what is arguably the best team in the world at the moment. Well, for the time being at least! The Boks also outscored the All Blacks 5 tries to 2 and gained a valuable bonus point, and denied the All Blacks a point by winning by such a big margin.

So, to Durban (King's Park), the most exciting annual rugby tournament moves and like I said, I think it's going to be a cracker!

C'mon the Boks!!!!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:19 PM | Permalink

Man, I love the Olympics. It's the ultimate event for a sport-crazed individual like me. I watch it with such anticipation, waiting for those big names you read about inbetween Games to dominate the headlines and produce world records. But, this time it wasn't the favourites, it was those good old Saffas that dominated!

The mens 4x100m freestyle relay team blew the opposition away, and, if their faces weren't wet, surely they were crying big crocodile tears. None more so, than the great Michael Phelps who claimed that he would break Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold's at a single games! What's the moral of the story, Michael? Never write off a determined bunch of South Africans!

But, the great thing was that the South African's didn't just win gold, they beat the opposition by at least a body length and also smashed the world record, held by those world-class Aussies who could only manage 6th place in the race. Ian Thorpe and friends were just nowhere to be seen.

So, it's a good start to the games, and for South Africa to already have one gold is great.

Tribute to the relay team: Ryk Neethling, Roeland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend - well done guys!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The tri-nations 2004 has got underway. It is building up to be one of the most exciting yet! With South Africa a completely rejuvinated side and New Zealand and Australia easily seeing off the World Champions, England, who knows what will happen?

The first game was for the Beldisloe Cup. New Zealand beat Australia in a thriller! It was cold and wet and the conditions were shocking, but nonetheless, a very exciting test match!

Then it was The All Blacks to take on the Springboks - who knew what would happen. And, the result was a big surprise for both sides. New Zealand won 23-21. But, the surprise was that the winning try was scored by Doug Howlett in the last minute - devastating! But, the Springboks showed that they are a completely different side and cannot again be discounted!

Then it was off to Australia to take on the Wallabies. The game was a cliffhanger, and again showed why the Trin-Nations is probably the most exciting annual tournament in the world! The Aussies took the win, in another close game, winning 30-26. Another devastating result.

But, considering last year the Springboks were practically a write-off, these results are more than promising! Now for the home games! We can do it!!!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:21 PM | Permalink