ARS 5 - 0 SHU and What Happened to Rugby?

 First, some bits and bobs as they say in Merrie Olde England.  Notts County suffered a disappointing home loss to Wrexham.  Juventus won and now sit atop Serie A until the Milan clubs play tomorrow.  Wellington Phoenix won.  

The Gunners thoroughly dominated the Blades, as to be fair pretty much everyone does.  (They have one point in ten games.)  We rested Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Odegaard, and it was the former's stand-in Eddie Nketieh who was man of the match with a fine hat trick before the hour mark:  a super turn and finish, a smash into the upper right after the Sheffield GK's fumble, and a blast from 22 yards into the upper left corner.  A Vieira PK and a Tomiyasu hit off a corner gave a late gloss to proceedings.  We go to West Ham for a League Cup match mid-week, followed by a trip to Newcastle and a home game against Sevilla.  We're going to need Jesus and Odegaard in top form this season, so I hope whatever ails them isn't serious.  The emergence of Tomiyasu and Kiwior as solid defenders is great news.  As long as Rice stays healthy we will do well.

South Africa defeated New Zealand 12-11 in a drab game (don't believe the hype about a "thriller") dominated by refereeing decisions.  The clock was off for long periods as the officials conferred on real and imagined offenses.  There were four yellow cards, one of which was turned into a red, meaning the All Blacks had one fewer player most of the game.  They scored the only try of the game (their first was waved off for what looked like a BS reason to me) but missed the extra points that would have won the game.  The rest of the scoring was from penalties.  It was an awful game to watch, especially for a living room full of Kiwis (citizens and wannabes).  Rugby, in a noble attempt to make this quintessentially brutal game less brutal, has outlawed what would seem to fans of American football perfectly fine tackles.  Add video reviews that catch marginal violations of arcane rules about which direction the ball goes after every incidental touch and it becomes a barely watchable shadow of what it used to be.  I don't intend seeing another minute of rugby, ever.