blogging it real

With State of Origin barely 36 hours away rugby league fans are eagerly awaiting those first few dislocating hits, the fiery blow-ups, and hopefully props throwing a few wild round-houses.

Seldom now do league fans witness all-in-brawls or even decent dust-ups (especially now Monty Betham has left our shores) which is what makes State of Origin so good.

But never fear, for fans who mourn the hard old attitudes of rugby league players I give you Tb Tevita Latu.

Latu has brought back the biff in a big way, I sure didn't see it coming......and neither did the lady he decked.

CRONULLA's firebrand hooker Tevita Latu has been suspended pending an investigation into an allegedly unprovoked assault involving a woman in the early hours of Monday morning.
Latu, 24, allegedly struck the woman, believed to be aged around 20, while she was waiting for a taxi with a group of people outside a service station along the Kingsway, Cronulla, after frequenting a local nightclub.
It is understood the incident was witnessed by several people and was "out of the blue". "She didn't see it coming," said a source.

Queensland were paying $2.15 and New South Wales $1.65 as bloggingitreal went to print but stories in the Sydney Herald suggest the NSW camp is in dissaray.

In other completely unrelated news - the NZ Herald had a story yesterday about a woman injured when her car was hit by another vehicle fleeing the cops.

As usual, the crash happened only seconds after the pursuit began, according to Inspector Ian Brooker, who says police, "have to take into account speed, weather and other traffic and decide whether the need to stop the car outweighs the risks to the public, the occupants of the fleeing car and police themselves".

The next paragraph of the story suggests perhaps the police aren't particularly good at weighing these factors up.

Police say there were 6026 pursuits between January 2000 and November 2005, with 222 ending with an injury and 17 ending in fatalities.

Perhaps a good follow up story could be, is it acceptable for nearly four per cent of police pursuits to end with people being injured?

If that many pursuits end in injuries how many more end in non-injury accidents?

But wait there's more:

Saturday's crash is one of three involving police cars in which people have been injured in recent days. An unmarked police car was one of three vehicles involved in a crash at Kumeu, west of Auckland, yesterday. St John Ambulance said one person was taken to North Shore Hospital with moderate injuries.

And a final example of why cowboys shouldn't be given Holdens:

On Thursday, a police officer lost control of his car during a pursuit in west Auckland and ploughed down 20m of a concrete boundary. The officer escaped with minor injuries after his vehicle failed to take a bend on Te Atatu Rd and crashed through the concrete wall.

How can you fail to take a bend on Te Atatu Road?

It's dead straight.