Well according to one book I recently bought on Paterson, "Waltzing Matilda" was written to fit an old Scottish tune called "Craigilee", which he apparently heard played by one of the MacPherson sisters while he was staying at their station (Dagwood?).

The incident that inspired the song concerned a dispute between the Squatter (MacPherson) and some itinerant shearers, they set fire to a shed and killed 140 lambs. The Swagman, was apparently one Samuel "Frenchie" Hoffmeister, who MacPherson and the troopers 1, 2, 3 - Senior constables Caffrey, Dyer and Doyle. Hoffmeister jumped into the billabong and they did shoot at him, no body was found because they failed to kill him, he died a few years later and his grave is up in the Diamantina (sp?)

I think it is a great song - nothing wrong with it. The inspiration for my research into it was after listening to some utter tripe about the song having a chorus that has some twaddle about carrying a water bag that Paterson the auther never wrote and about the original tune being an old Irish Air.

Back to the Rugby - Poor losers you only have to suffer for one year. The fact England won by doing what they had to that is the game it is decided by how many points you have scored at the end of the game - how you get them is immaterial. Anybody watching that game who says that it was not exciting has got to be crazy. Those drop goals were absolute peaches - if memory serves me correctly three Australian 'pundits' predicted that that was how South Africa were going to see off England in their pool match - they all thought that that was perfectly alright - what's the beef now? That England did it. My guess is that the Wallabies would have liked to have seen any other team up against them in the final.

I will definately be looking forward to watching the game next Saturday - and as a Scot, I'll be cheering for England, they've worked hard and prepared hard to get there - I sincerely hope they do it, while at the same time I would advise them to have a read of Nelson's Prayer.