Official Rugby World Cup Thread

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  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    Not long now then. There seems to be alot of exictement around. More so that last time out, I think thats because this time its so unexpected. Come on boys, it would be a hollywood ending to this world cup.
  • I watched the group encounter with South Africa at a Scottish Youth Hostel whilst doing my LeJog trip. That time I was in the company of an Aussie and half a dozen Sarf Effricans (humiliating or what ). Tonight I shall be on English soil, in a pub with my eldest daughter and my son (and a couple or three other like minded drinkers)
    I am anticipating the atmousphere to be slightly more electric.
    Two wheels good,four wheels bad
  • Bloody hell ! There was the most obnoxious South african chap in the pub. Where the F... did he comefrom ? Unlike my previous encounter with very sporting South Africans, this bloke seemed to epitomise the mentally that created the racist apartheid regime.

    That aside, it was a very exciting match that probably hinged on the Cueto try that was never was. Watching the TV playbacks I am sure that technically it was legal and should have been awarded. A photo on the BBC website would show Cueato's foot touching the line, therefore no try. Who said the camera never lies ?

    Still, we did well to be there at all considering our build up and early games in the tournament. Overall South Africa probably dererved to be World champions - except the pratt of a person who was their representative in my pub.
    Two wheels good,four wheels bad
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    Ah well. SA seemed to do the same as they did to us in the pool stages really. They didn't really seem to play alot. Just let us make mistakes and kicked the pens. Played the England way I suppose :roll: . We did make some silly errors too so made it fairly easy for them.

    Shame the fairytale ending wasn't there but I'm not too dissapointed. We got to the final which never seemed to be on the cards in the early stages.
  • mtb.boy
    mtb.boy Posts: 208
    FUCK

    We lost.

    Arse.
    The first rule of cycling is - Tell everyone how great cycling is.

    The second rule of cycling is - Tell everyone how great cycling is !!!!
  • Poo. Too many mistakes. Too many line outs lost, a scrum turned over. We could have won. We had some good defense at SA attempts to run it over the line but so did they.

    Surely you mean league (to union) converts? In which case I agree - Farrell is showing the same lack of experience as Iestyn Harris who was of almost wilkinson stature in league.

    and what about Jonathan Deveraux who went at the same time? Scott Quinell didnt do too bad either, in fact wales won the 5 nations champs in 1994 just as quinell upped and offed to league, as did scott gibbs (oh did I mention him)... :D.

    Without trying to hijack the thread I agree with all of that. League has been signing union players for a long long time. The clubs know what they're looking for in which skills transfer well, training the new recruits and giving them experience before throwing them in at the deep end. They also know where any potential signings would slot into a league side. We seem to have done well with more players than I can list. Union teams and the RFU are expecting big things too quickly. Jason Robinson was a no-brainer. Quick off the mark, eludes tackles and can handle himself in defence. He was still picked far too early for the national team. Farrell's been injured for too long and hasn't got enough experience. Add the that he was picked to play in a pivotal 10 or 12 shirt where you need to understand the game thoroughly. He's never been a back and has had sections of the media on his back since the RFU shelled out so much of it's money on bringing him in. Whether you agree with the RFU decision or not I wouldn't blame Farrell for being offered the money. Would any player have turned down that amount of money at that stage in their career?

    Back to the world cup. It's a shame. It was a real tough call on the try. We need to get the young blood through now. There's plenty of talent out there and they need to be playing internationals to get the experience.
  • Try or No try, I'm still not sure, even Martin Johnson, was unsure when the reply
    was shown again at the end of the match. :?:

    We still need to score tries, and we did not. I really feel that the Dad's Army need to
    pensioned off. Time for the likes of James Simpson-Daniel, Shane Geraghty,
    Anthony Allen, to name but a few...... perhaps a spring clean in time for the 6
    Nations.

    Despite all the post mortemns that I'm sure are being carried out this morning, we
    should salute the whole team, for making us proud to be an England Ruby
    Supporter again. :D:D

    One final note...... One Rugby World Cup Final = No Anti Social Behaviour, Football
    ARE YOU WATCHING.....Look & Learn.


    " And Don't call me Shirley..........."
  • What a great tournament. I dont really care that much that we didn't win. It was a brilliant occasion and there are so many highlights to look back on.

    The attitude of our team at full time was superb and the footballers could learn a lot from them.

    Jonny thanked the fans for their support in his tv interview and I would like to thank him and his team-mates back for the roller coaster ride they took us on.

    Well played England.
  • And let's be honest, Argentina third place??!!!

    It really has been the most open and unpredictable WC yet.
  • clanton
    clanton Posts: 1,289
    And a well deserved third too! I've had to eat my words - I said it would be predictable and dull with only SA and Aus offering any resistance to NZ who would walk it! Glad I was wrong, it was a far better tournament than I'd expected.

  • Nope, he's a first class twunt and always will be.

    I wondered when I read this if he's eyeing up a job for himself. Stranger things have happened at sea!

    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • I agree with him. It seems that at that famous meeting, the players told ashton how they were going to play. The main point in his favour is that he was man enough to take it on board. i would go for Warren Gatland without any doubt. Best coach in world rugby. Got us to an unimaginble height from which eddie o sullivan has only slowly (but surely) managed to drag us down. And that was before he went to wasps.
    Dan
  • amircp
    amircp Posts: 132
    Surprise that Argentina were third? Not really - they were fourth ranked going into the tournament, having beaten most of the northern hemisphere sides in recent years, including the French on several occasions. If they had met England in the semis rather than South Africa perhaps they would have been 2nd?? :D
  • One more comment re Argentina, the 3rd place play off match last Friday, was an
    absolute cracker, one of the games of the Tournament. Bernard Laport's expression
    was a picture.

    IRB are you watching, give them a shot at the Tri Nations, the Argentinians could
    show the All Blacks the benefits of the Drop Goal!


    "Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish Bath....."
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    IRB are you watching, give them a shot at the Tri Nations, the Argentinians could show the All Blacks the benefits of the Drop Goal!

    Unfortunately it's not the Choice of the IRB, its upto the SANZAR nations to agree to let them, which they don't want to do because of travelling distances and loss of TV revenue. All the IRB can do is encourage them to let the Argies in.
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  • IRB are you watching, give them a shot at the Tri Nations, the Argentinians could show the All Blacks the benefits of the Drop Goal!

    Unfortunately it's not the Choice of the IRB, its upto the SANZAR nations to agree to let them, which they don't want to do because of travelling distances and loss of TV revenue. All the IRB can do is encourage them to let the Argies in.

    Why is the Tri Nations the best place for the Argentinians to play? Because it's in the Southern Hemisphere? Well yes, the country is .... the players aren't though. Virtually all the Argentinians play in the France. Do you think the NH clubs will let them go? Of course they won't they pay their wages!

    Geographically it's a nightmare as well - SA on one side of the SH, Argentina on the other. It's a logistical nightmate.

    I agree wholeheartedly that they should be in a major international competition, practically though, the 6N makes more sense. Of course there are logistical problems there to, but are they worse? Probably not - probably easier in fact.

    Incidently, the Finance Manager of the NZRFU is my fiance's cousin. She told us that previous they had looked at bringing in Argentina to the 3N but the Argentinian Union couldn't afford the costs that go along with being part of the tournament. I'm sure this could somehow be overcome, but the other barriers like where the players clubs are and who pays their wages probably can't.

    Vive les All Blacks!!! [:D]