Play-offs Superleague: Ziek van Mickey Rourke
Posted on Monday, September 21 @ 22:33:10 CEST by nick

Dit weekeinde werd de eerste ronde gespeeld van de play-offs in de Superleague. Bij ons zijn play-offs vrij straight-forward met halve finales en finales, maar bij de RFL gaan ze altijd eerst een avondje zuipen voordat ze het schema van het naseizoen in elkaar draaien. Dit jaar lijkt het er op dat ze het schema op het hoogtepunt van het avondje dronkenmansgelal in elkaar hebben gedraaid. Vandaar een schema dat hope- en nodeloos ingewikkeld in elkaar zit, met 57% van de teams in kompetitie gekwalificeerd voor de play-offs, met herkansingen, met tussenronden en met teams die hun eigen tegenstander mogen uitkiezen in de halve finale.
Omdat rugby league zo’n schitterdend spelletje is, vind ik het wel mooi dat er wat wedstrijden meer zijn. Laten we wel zijn; moet toch schitterend zijn om in dat soort wedstrijden te spelen. Hard-harder-hardst (in hun wedstrijd tegen Leeds brak een speler van Hull KR zijn been) en naderhand drink je een biertje.
Naderhand! Zo niet Keith Mason en Scott Moore. Die besloten na de (verloren) bekerfinale (tegen Wakefield Trinity) dat het werken wel gedaan was en besloten een biertje te gaan drinken. Geen punt; een biertje na de wedstrijd, het is & blijft immers rugby.
In de bar zijn ze ene Mickey Rourke tegen gekomen die eigenlijk ook wel een rugby-speler had willen zijn (daar lijkt het mij tenminste het figuur voor). Dus logischerwijs nodigde hij zijn nieuwe vriendjes uit voor een zuipfestijntje. De jongelui waren wel te porren voor een verzetje en…
Tot zover alles nog begrijpelijk. 
Ware het niet dat ze vervolgens het lef hadden om zich ziek te melden voor training.
Kijk; we mogen allemaal graag zeggen: ‘s-avonds een vent ‘s-ochtends een vent. En als je een avondje stappen met een mislukte bookser interessanter vindt dan het spelen van play-offs voor de Superleague, dan ben je dus geen vent.
Dat vonden ze bij Huddersfield dus ook; de spelers werden fluks geschorst.
Dat hebben hun teamgenoten geweten; zonder hun prop en hooker werd spelen tegen Saint Helens (die ze in de halev finale voor de beker nog hadden verslagen) een heel zware opgave. Met dank aan de booze-brothers verloren de Huddersfield Giants hun eerste play-off wedstrijd tegen Saint Helens. Ik kan mij zo voorstellen dat de fans van Huddersfield (ik heb ooit mee mogen maken hoe ze hun enorme ander prop, de langharige Eorl Crabtree (een beer van een vent) toezongen als “A big girl”) ook nog wel een leidje hebben voor deze twee als ze weer het veld op komen.

Wigan 18-12 Castleford
St Helens 15-2 Huddersfield
Wakefield 16-25 Catalans Dragons
Leeds 44-8 Hull KR

Volgende ronde:
Huddersfield vs Catalans Dragons (vrijdag)
Hull KR vs Wigan (zaterdag)

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner:
Sep 11 2009 By Chris Roberts

TOP Giants forwards Keith Mason and Scott Moore will miss Sunday’s home Super League clash against Wigan Warriors for disciplinary reasons.
The duo have been left out of coach Nathan Brown’s 19-man squad pending an internal investigation into an alleged breach of club discipline.
Neither the club or the players will be making any statements in relation the matter, although sources suggest the action could have been taken in relation to the players’ behaviour at the civic reception following the Giants’ Challenge Cup final defeat to Warrington Wolves at Wembley on August 29.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner:
Huddersfield Giants stay tight-lipped on Mickey Rourke party ban story
Sep 19 2009 by Sam Casey

CLUB bosses have refused to deny reports two Huddersfield Giants players were suspended for partying with a Hollywood A-lister.
Keith Mason and Scott Moore sit out today’s play-off game against St Helens.
It is the second consecutive match they will have missed – after being banned from the last game of the regular season against Wigan last week.
The club have only said the pair’s suspension is over a breach of club discipline.
Now a national newspaper has claimed the pair were banned for boozing with Oscar-nominated actor Mickey Rourke.
According to the report, Mason and Moore struck up an unlikely friendship with Rourke – star of The Wrestler – at Stringfellows nightclub on the night of the Challenge Cup Final defeat to Warrington Wolves on August 29.
The trio reportedly exchanged numbers before the two players returned to Huddersfield.
After the club’s civic reception in St George’s Square – attended by more than 2,000 fans – the next day, they allegedly returned to London to hook up with Rourke at the GQ Awards at the Royal Opera House.
They were still in London at 8am the following day and angered Giants coach Nathan Brown when they then called to say they were sick.
The club is still flatly refusing to answer questions about the matter.
Yesterday media manager James Brammer: “We have said everything about the issue and there is no further comment from the club.”
After the club’s civic reception in St George’s Square – attended by more than 2,000 fans – the next day, they allegedly returned to London to hook up with Rourke at the GQ Awards at the Royal Opera House.
They were still in London at 8am the following day and angered Giants coach Nathan Brown when they then called to say they were sick.
The club is still flatly refusing to answer questions about the matter.
Yesterday media manager James Brammer: “We have said everything about the issue and there is no further comment from the club.”

Daily Mail
By SPORTSMAIL REPORTER

Huddersfield have confirmed that Keith Mason and Scott Moore will sit out Saturday’s opening play-off match at St Helens because of an internal suspension.
The pair were dropped for last Sunday’s match against Wigan, the last of the regular Super League season, pending an investigation into a breach of club discipline.
A hearing was expected to take place today but Giants coach Nathan Brown refused to elaborate on the matter other than to describe it as an ‘error in judgement’ by the players.
Banned: Keith Mason (right)

‘I’d rather not talk about it, to be honest,’ he said. ‘The reality is they won’t be playing this weekend. That’s as much as needs to be said.’
Huddersfield are still without centre Jamahl Lolesi, who has a stress fracture of the foot, and are monitoring hooker David Faiumu, who suffered a hamstring strain in the 48-16 win over the Warriors.
Stand-off Kevin Brown and back-row forwards Simon Finnigan and Danny Kirmond 
are already ruled out for the rest of the season.

The Guardian
• Moore and Mason socialised with Hollywood star
• Key pair will return for Friday’s play-off
Scott Moore will return for Huddersfield Giants after suspension. Photograph: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

Huddersfield face a “meat cleaver match” against the Catalans Dragons on Friday in the first of the Super League’s elimination semi-finals as they aim to rescue a play-off campaign that has been undermined by the magnetism of Mickey Rourke.
The Giants had so many chances in their qualifying play-off at St Helens on Saturday night that their coach, Nathan Brown, must surely have wondered what might have been had he not taken the brave decision to suspend two of his key players, Scott Moore and Keith Mason, as a direct result of the unlikely friendship they developed with Rourke after the Challenge Cup final at Wembley last month.
The players were banned for missing a training session five days after the final as they recovered from a riotous return trip to London to attend the GQ awards at the Royal Opera House with the film star, who had helped them drown their Wembley sorrows at Stringfellows after hitting it off with the Giants players in their hotel bar.
Moore and Mason have combined superbly in Huddersfield’s front-row to lay the foundations for the club’s most successful Super League season, and they were sorely missed at St Helens as a Giants team who were also without David Faiumu and Jamahl Lolesi, because of injury, went down 15-2.
All four players are expected to return for the second chance the Giants earned by finishing third in the Super League table, although they will be wary of a Catalans team who pulled off the first surprise of the play-offs with a 25-16 win at Wakefield. The Dragons sneaked into the top eight by winning their last league game of the season, at St Helens, a result that is widely thought to have saved the job of their coach, Kevin Walters, the former Brisbane Broncos and Australia stand-off.
Bernard Guasch, the Catalans chairman, who runs a meat-processing factory in Perpignan, had used the phrase “match couperet” in early August, in reference to a must-win fixture against Hull. His cleaver was hovering over Walters’ neck when he stormed into the dressing room after a home defeat by Wakefield two weeks ago to tell all the players that he was ashamed of them and they were free to leave.
Coincidentally or not, three Australians who drove the Dragons to a third-placed finish last season – Clint Greenshields, Adam Mogg and Casey McGuire – have suddenly since rediscovered their best form and their team were far too slick for a Wakefield team missing their main playmaker Danny Brough.
“I wouldn’t say we’re on a roll exactly, but we’ve had two wins in the last two weeks and I think the players have gone up a gear with their performances that were being pretty heavily criticised a couple of weeks ago,” said Walters, a knockabout character who looks as though the year working for Guasch has taken its toll.
John Kear, the Wakefield coach for whom Saturday’s performance was such a flat way to end a season of inspirational over-achievement, warned Huddersfield that the Dragons will be dangerous opponents. “If their big-name Aussies keep playing like that, and the French workhorses around them do their jobs, they’re a tough team to beat, and I’m sure they can shake one or two other cages,” said Kear.
St Helens have the luxury of a bye through next weekend which is which was especially welcome for their coach Mick Potter after two of his senior players, Matt Gidley and Keiron Cunningham, picked up injuries in Saturday’s bruising encounter, Cunningham battling through most of the second half with a suspected broken hand.
via aacrugby.com