Oh, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie. Why must it be this way? A week ago I was lamenting the lack of public recognition of our in-form captain and now I am lamenting the silly penalty he gave away when a bonus point seemed so close. We all knew that Canterbury would try to kill the flow of play. It is natural to them. It is the only natural thing about them. I have little sympathy for the barnyard animal-buggerer who stuck his fat head in the way of our clean ruck ball, but with the scrum coming our way anyway it was a silly thing to have done. Especially after we'd managed to trundle 25 metres up the field to put Evans within comfy droppie range. Why not just give his in-bred mug a bit of a bitch-slap instead?

There must be something in the water in Massey. Troy Flavell had his head nearly ripped off four times in the process of stealing Norm Maxwell's line-out ball four times, and not so much as a punch thrown from the big man. How he managed to control himself is a mystery. Maxwell versus Flavell. Bring back the biff. Cor, didja see that, mate? But, no, Flav decided to focus on playing the game, so instead it was Cribb who went apeshit and hurt people illegally. Pity.

We lost this game in the first ten minutes of the second half, partly through the referee's liberal interpretation of on-side and mainly through our inability to turn our inspired forward play and some woeful Canterbury kicking to our advantage. You could feel our hopes get tossed away with Rawlinson's 25-yard quarterback throw over their goalline when all he needed to do was fall on the ball. Thankfully, the season is now over so we need not spend next weekend wetting our pants while we watch the results of others to see if we can sneak into the semis. Although I may just wet my pants simply for the warm enjoyment it affords me.

On another matter, it is nice to see that Wellington are to appeal our penalty for fielding an ineligible player. With the NZRFU based in Wellington, the decision-makers largely Wellingtonian and the media infested with pseudo-journalists from Wellington, I foresee a fair and reasonable administration of justice. Wellington are on the cusp of becoming the sad-sacks of division one - the kiddies who took their ball home because they were too shit to win through skill. They have, with their pettiness, breathed fresh life into my previously-withering organs of hatred.