Rugby World Cup

mtb-idle

poor performance form England but we scraped through.

Really felt for Wales though, thought it was all over after the Boks early try but they came back in it and should have won.

cjcp

Greg66 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

So close.

Brilliant performance. Priestland doesn't deserve any criticism for the drop goal; he did everything else brilliantly and made it look so simple. Shows why the Boks are always in with a shout, though: if their attack isn't firing on all cylinders, their defence is excellent.

That was a brilliant performance from Wales. Stunning. Incredible urgency to their game, as if they were in the knock out stages, which is more than can be said for any of the supposed top five.

What are the likely routes for no 1 and no 2 in that group through the 1/4s and semis.

*IF* we win our remaining games, we're likely to face the Aussies in the QFs, then England or France in the SFs.

That was only Priestland's fifth cap, I think. Future looks bright for him. He could be first-choice fly half for the Lions' tour to Oz, with Warbuton as captain.

tailwindhome

Watched the second half of the Ireland match this morning.

Had no idea what was happening. We seem to have won.

jamesco

Greg66 wrote:

That was a brilliant performance from Wales. Stunning. Incredible urgency to their game, as if they were in the knock out stages, which is more than can be said for any of the supposed top five.

Not to take anything away from the Welsh, who I thought played really well and were going to win, but how does this make sense? Wales were "stunning", even though they lost? SA weren't "incredible", despite winning at the end?

You're damning Wales with low expectations - a close loss to South Africa is not as good as a win, which this side is well and truly capable of.

pst88

Lots of missed opportunities by Wales. If a few more of those kicks went over it would've been a comfortable win. So what was the problem? Is there really something wrong with the ball? The wind? Or was Hook just having a bad day?

Keith1983

There does seem to have been a mighty high number of usually dpendable kickers having trouble?

benno68

Keith1983 wrote:

There does seem to have been a mighty high number of usually dpendable kickers having trouble?

Yes I agree, I heard one of the commentators mention that the ball is designed to hold shape better and that the players have had a year to get used to them. Maybe it's the atmosphere down under making a difference to the ball in flight?

I was pleased with the performance of Wales although disappointed with the result. The pack were amazing and Priestland had a great game in my opinion.

Wales have certainly got the ability to beat the top sides, I just hope that they gain more self belief after the SA game and learn from it.

What's the verdict on the Hook penalty? I thought it was over!

pst88

I could've sworn that was over too. Maybe they need to get goal line technology to remove any doubt.

hmbadger

pst88 wrote:

I could've sworn that was over too. Maybe they need to get goal line technology to remove any doubt.

It's only Rugby for goodness sake, nothing important.

benno68

pst88 wrote:

I could've sworn that was over too. Maybe they need to get goal line technology to remove any doubt.

Or a ref with the nouse to use the he TMO.

I'll ignore the post following yours pst88

Flyingbogey

Isn't he the same ref who short changed Wales over a late Penalty in the 6 Nations a few years back. AWJ asked if there was time to go for a lineout he said yes but meant no!

sketchley

Benno68 wrote:

pst88 wrote:

I could've sworn that was over too. Maybe they need to get goal line technology to remove any doubt.

Or a ref with the nouse to use the he TMO.

I'll ignore the post following yours pst88

I believe the ref told the wales captain that as neither assistant referee had a problem with the decision he was not going to refer it. Which is correct call. The assistant ref had told him the ball went over the post which is not a sucessful kick. If either assistant ref had told the ref it they were not sure then it would have gone to TMO. In this case I think the referee was right to not refer it to the TMO even though the conculsion reached by the assistant referee looks incorrect. If you want to blame anyone blame the assistant referee for calling it wrong or not having the balls to say he didn't know.

sketchley

Flyingbogey wrote:

Isn't he the same ref who short changed Wales over a late Penalty in the 6 Nations a few years back. AWJ asked if there was time to go for a lineout he said yes but meant no!

That was Chris White. The ref on Sunday was Wayne Barnes.

Waynes Barnes was the ref that missed that forward pass (if you are a Kiwi) in 2007 that meant france knocked NZ out of the world cup. He also had a shocker at Quins vs Tigers in the premiership last year. However, he is one of the best referees around as he is very very consistant in his decision making and will ping both teams for the same offence consistantly throughout the match, you know what you are getting with him.

London_Falcon

Hook's kick "looked" like it bent through the posts at the last minute but from the TV angle (and from Hook's position) it's impossible to actually know if the ball curved before or after the posts.

The best place to judge this is exactly where the assistant referees are so if they're saying it missed I'd go with that too.

walkingbootweather

Did anyone else notice that the assistant refs all had stiffy.......


...... flag that is.

benno68

Sketchley wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

pst88 wrote:

I could've sworn that was over too. Maybe they need to get goal line technology to remove any doubt.

Or a ref with the nouse to use the he TMO.

I'll ignore the post following yours pst88

I believe the ref told the wales captain that as neither assistant referee had a problem with the decision he was not going to refer it. Which is correct call. The assistant ref had told him the ball went over the post which is not a sucessful kick. If either assistant ref had told the ref it they were not sure then it would have gone to TMO. In this case I think the referee was right to not refer it to the TMO even though the conculsion reached by the assistant referee looks incorrect. If you want to blame anyone blame the assistant referee for calling it wrong or not having the balls to say he didn't know.

Fair comment Sketchley - the Welsh team don't seam to be making that much of it anyway. Onwards and upwards as they say.

benno68

walkingbootweather wrote:

Did anyone else notice that the assistant refs all had stiffy.......

I think most of the Welsh male population did too....

until the 65 minute when it all went a bit limp

cjcp

The due who just scored for Canada looks like Clever Pun. Nice try, CP.

Thought Barnes had a good game. He let it flow very nicely.

Clever Pun

cjcp wrote:

The due who just scored for Canada looks like Clever Pun. Nice try, CP.

Thought Barnes had a good game. He let it flow very nicely.

pretty pleased with it, todays commute was a bitch though

greg66_tri_v2.0

Is it my imagination, or do NZ routinely get Japan in their pool to allow them to kick seven shades of sh!t out of a team early on?

rick_chasey

Quick question - if rugby is to take itself seriously as a professional sport, why are England's finest going out getting sh!tfaced?

I'm not the biggest Cavendish fan, but he won't drink any booze, save the odd celebratory glass of wine (one) or champagne, for the entire season. Most pro cyclists seem to do the same. Haussler saw a marked impovement (from loser, to winner) when he lay off the booze.

I could name a host of other athletes and professional sports men who avoid the booze.

You'd think this lot could at least rein it in for a month or two.

Also - is this just limited to England? Or do the NZ team also go out and get smashed mid-competition?

tailwindhome

Rick Chasey wrote:

Quick question - if rugby is to take itself seriously as a professional sport, why are England's finest going out getting sh!tfaced?

I'm not the biggest Cavendish fan, but he won't drink any booze, save the odd celebratory glass of wine (one) or champagne, for the entire season. Most pro cyclists seem to do the same. Haussler saw a marked impovement (from loser, to winner) when he lay off the booze.

I could name a host of other athletes and professional sports men who avoid the booze.

You'd think this lot could at least rein it in for a month or two.

Also - is this just limited to England? Or do the NZ team also go out and get smashed mid-competition?

Boonen?

rick_chasey

TailWindHome wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Quick question - if rugby is to take itself seriously as a professional sport, why are England's finest going out getting sh!tfaced?

I'm not the biggest Cavendish fan, but he won't drink any booze, save the odd celebratory glass of wine (one) or champagne, for the entire season. Most pro cyclists seem to do the same. Haussler saw a marked impovement (from loser, to winner) when he lay off the booze.

I could name a host of other athletes and professional sports men who avoid the booze.

You'd think this lot could at least rein it in for a month or two.

Also - is this just limited to England? Or do the NZ team also go out and get smashed mid-competition?

Boonen?

Yeah, and he's been rubbish (relatively) since.

Flyingbogey

One of the Frenchmen got drunk on a tour of NZ fairly recently and claimed he had been robbed to cover his behaviour. He confessed in the end and it was all squared up. The best advert for pro rugby players cutting out the booze must be Jason Robinson but then he was awesome even when he was a lush.

walkingbootweather

Great performance by the Irish to beat the Aussies 15-6. Not always pretty but the most compelling match so far?

cjcp

Really good performance. Good news for the northern hemisphere, too, because it makes it more likely we'll have a team in the final.

I preferred the Wales/SA match, but I'm biased.

Fireblade96

Oh yeah ! 15-6 !
That wasn't pretty, and Ireland wasted several good scoring opportunities, but what a result !

I think the neighbours, indeed probably the whole street heard me shouting encouragement.



(I hope they remember to put in a good performance against Italy)

greg66_tri_v2.0

Amazing performance from the Irish. Really well deserved victory.

So if the remaining pool matches go to plan, the draw is North v South.

Just heard Lynagh calling the South half of the draw the harder side. Not so sure about that. The Southern teams so far have looked a bit underdone to me. Austrailia can't scrum, NZ look jittery (and Tonga showed their scrum is also wobbly) and SA just look a bit blunt. And none of them look like they have any real hunger. So far...

walkingbootweather

cjcp wrote:

I preferred the Wales/SA match, but I'm biased.

Yeah, you are probably right. If the score had been reversed you would definitely have been right Think the Irish have earned a Guinness this evening though.

SmellTheGlove

Great win Ireland - I'm a neutral but have always been a massive O'Driscoll fan, thought he had a good game, also Ferris and Healy MOM of course
Still, God help anyone who lets the Aussies play like the running machine that they so obviously are.
Had to chuckle when Cooper threw that pass in the dying moments which could have paid off so spectacularly - at either end!