An Exclusive Interview With Rugby Legend Anthony "Axel" Foley

Anthony Foley (nicknamed "Axel" after the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies) is a legendary Irish rugby player who, in addition to playing in 62 international test matches for Ireland, is also one of the all-time leading scorers for Munster Rugby, an Irish province team in the European division.

In 2006 Foley captained Munster to a heroic Heineken Cup win, the Super Bowl for European rugby. I caught up with Anthony two days before he reclines on his couch to watch his former teammates from Ireland take on the USA in the Rugby World Cup down in New Zealand. 

TL: At the last Rugby World Cup in 2007, Ireland had loads of momentum going into the tournament, but ended up with a disappointing performance. Now, in 2011 Ireland enters the World Cup without that momentum, losing their previous 4 games, so how will they fair down in the mecca of international rugby?  

AF: Ah, they'll do well! Ireland has had a good run, they have had enough warm up matches, and physically their in good nick, just great shape. Now is when it really matters, now it's all about winning! I just hope their confidence is not dented by those recent losses. It's a great team, and all of Ireland knows we have good players. It's the best team set we've sent to the Rugby World Cup.  Deccy (Ireland's head coach Declan Kidney) picked sides that could win! 

TL: Where those warm up matches against Scotland, England, and France, all teams playing in the World Cup as well, similar to, say, pre-season or spring training games in American football, or baseball? 

AF: Yes, right. Look, you want to win those games against Scotland, England, and France, especially the ones at home. It's disappointing to lose, but it is all about preparation now. Preparation, and the team getting used to making decisions under game pressure. They're ready! 

TL: Ireland starts their World Cup on September 11th against the USA. Ireland is favored to beat the Americans by at least 30 points. But will playing on the 11th bring in an additional element to the game? 

AF: September 11th is a very emotional and poignant day, and the game will reflect that a bit. Recently, I heard that the most loss of life on that day was of Irish heritage, so the sympathy with America really hit home in Ireland. We know what it means for the Americans. But, in rugby, you can't play on emotion for 80 minutes. Emotion will only get you so far. I'd imagine the USA will wear a black arm band, or so, maybe the Irish too. 

TL: So how do you think the game will go down? 

AF: I expect the American's will come out very strong, going to give it good the first 30-40 minutes, but Ireland needs to get off to a good start as well and not have their confidence dented. This is a must win to start the World Cup, and worry about Australia later. They must win! 

TL: The USA's coach is Eddie O'Sullivan, the former coach of the Irish team and a man you played under who was forced out of the job 1 year into a 4 year contract. How is he preparing the Americans? 

AF: Eddie has something to prove after the poor performance in the 2007 World Cup, and based on how he left the Irish team. He is a great coach, and will motivate the Americans well. And September 11th will be a motivating factor, but as I said, in rugby, you can only play on that emotion for so long. 

TL: In Pool C it is Australia, Ireland, Italy, Russia and the USA. What are your predictions? 

AF: Australia and Ireland will go to the quarter finals. I think USA can beat Russia. It would be a big victory for America to win a game in the World Cup, and they can do it against Russia. 

TL: Lastly, America loves fast, tough, violent sports, but rugby is not even on the radar. What's it like playing the American Eagles, and will the US ever become competitive on an international scale? 

AF: The Americans are massively physical! Their let down is on the technical side. Only a handful of US players play for European teams where you must make decisions under pressure.  However, the USA will become more of a force sooner rather than later. Based on rugby 7's coming to the Olympics, and if the USA invests in the universities to promote rugby it won't take them too long to become competitive. The Americans are physically dominant and the stock of available US athletes is frightening. 

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THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: What If Google Made Android Proprietary And Exclusive To Motorola? (GOOG)

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GOOG Up As Market Holds Tight
The markets are edging higher despite new home sales hitting a 5-month low and persistent fears that the economy is taking a double dip dive. Shares of GOOG are up stronger than the rest of technology. Catalysts include continued Android momentum in the smartphone and tablet markets worldwide; Motorola acquisition approval and integration; regaining ground in China; any revival or partners for Google TV (including Motorola); the roll-out of Google Music and social network Google+; and progress in other newer initiatives (location-based services, mapping, gaming, Chromebooks, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 10.2x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to recent trading levels.

Android Still Leading Smartphone OS Platform
(The NPD Group)
Surprise, surprise. Android is still the leading U.S. smartphone platform, with 52% share in the second quarter, according to NPD Group. Of note, Motorola’s market share fell in the quarter to 9% from 12% the year prior. Motorola’s overall Android sales halved since last year from 44% to 22% in the face of Android competition from Samsung and LG. However, Google’s recent Motorola purchase will likely bring new life to the phone manufacturer.

What If Google Went The Apple Route With Motorola? (9To5Mac)
There’s a good reason why Apple’s products “just work.” But it’s been a bumpy road from the onset as competitors and critics ridiculed its vertically integrated approach to business. But what if Google actually tried the Apple model with Motorola (which today makes about one in ten Android smartphones)? According to Piper Jaffray, Android proprietary and exclusive to Motorola would add about 35% to operating income and by 2015, the phone business would add $10.5 billion in operating profit and $56 billion in revenue. There's only a few problems with that: significant share and ad revenue loss.

Samsung Could Squeeze Google In Response To Motorola Acquisition (Forbes)
Samsung’s chairman has asked the firm’s top management to strengthen its software capabilities. This could be a longer-term threat to Google. Google is the market leader in the smartphone operating system market with Samsung as the largest player in the Android ecosystem. With the help of Android software, Google mainly makes money through mobile advertising revenues as Google is the default search engine on Android smartphones. One good thing, it's also forcing Samsung to develop and innovate.

Motorola Helps Google In Two Key Areas, Both Of Which Have Been Well Discussed
(Seeking Alpha)
The deal with Motorola solves problems in two areas:

It will add 17,000 patents to Google’s patent portfolio to help defend Android and the ecosystem from Microsoft and others. The benefits should be both immediate and long lasting.The three main competitors for Android all have vertically integrated OS and smartphone manufacturing either in-house or through mutual agreement. Google will obtain a strong smartphone manufacturing partner with a checkered history.

The market sell off has negatively affected Google’s share price and August is historically known for weakness in technology stocks. Once the selling abates, Google will become very attractive.

HTC Continues To Insist The Motorola Acquisition Was Good (The Wall Street Journal)
HTC doesn't plan to ditch Google's Android or build its own rival operating system in the wake of Google's acquisition of Motorola, according to the CEO. Mr. Chou says, "we welcome the news of today's acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem". He was quick to point out that the OS is only part of the device's "ecosystem" and that HTC had the means to differentiate its phones in other ways.

Traffic From Streaming Video Expected to Grow by at Least 1300% (ReadWriteWeb)
If you think we're eating up a lot of bandwidth streaming video now, just wait. That 3.45 Tbps figure from last year will be blown out of the water within five years, according to a detailed report put together by Akamai, Harvard University and University of Massachusetts. The researchers suggest that "it is reasonable to expect that throughput requirements for some single video events will reach roughly 50 to 100 Tbps" within two to five years. The low end of that estimate represents an increase of about 1349% from 2010's peak (at least as far as Akamai's CDN is concerned). Great news for YouTube.

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