Rugby World Cup

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Mint Condition said:
Read the article I posted a few pages above about rugby in Sri Lanka. Even in a country where it's popular they just don't produce enough of the bigger body types to ever be able to compete up front. Same story throughout Asia. Rugby sevens getting into the olympics is big though and that's where you'll get growth. China for example are investing money in rugby and their sevens team is now one of the better Asian teams. By 2016 they'll be competitive in sevens you'd think. Eventually they might have a decent 15's team as well because of that.
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Chinese men dont want to be big, cant find wife that way :(
 
I do like how these insignificant games with not much at stake between smaller rugby nations are pushed into the background

As a result of not expecting much, theres been some cracking matches such as the Japan V Canada draw this afternoon

This is how the Cricket world Cup should do their scheduling
 

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The tournament doesnt really begin until the last 8

Theres been no real surprises in the tournament though

except theres been no 100 point beltings against the lesser teams
 
No surprises? Ireland beating Australia was a massive upset. Canada beating Tonga was a smaller upset. Fiji being so terrible has been surprising. Other surprises were Romania leading Scotland with less than 10 minutes on the clock, Wales outplaying South Africa (and while losing, putting themselves up as contenders). The general level of teams like Canada and USA has been surprisingly good. The Argentina/Scotland/England matches have been hugely important (with the last coming up this weekend). In fact the only team that's guaranteed a quarter final berth at this point is New Zealand. There's some massive games this weekend: Samoa vs South Africa, England vs Scotland, Italy vs Ireland, Fiji vs Wales - all will determine quarter final positions.
 
Mint Condition said:
No surprises? Ireland beating Australia was a massive upset. Canada beating Tonga was a smaller upset. Fiji being so terrible has been surprising. Other surprises were Romania leading Scotland with less than 10 minutes on the clock, Wales outplaying South Africa (and while losing, putting themselves up as contenders). The general level of teams like Canada and USA has been surprisingly good. The Argentina/Scotland/England matches have been hugely important (with the last coming up this weekend). In fact the only team that's guaranteed a quarter final berth at this point is New Zealand. There's some massive games this weekend: Samoa vs South Africa, England vs Scotland, Italy vs Ireland, Fiji vs Wales - all will determine quarter final positions.
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Definitely agree with that. Been very worrying and depressing seeing what is normally such a purely brilliant rugby side playing such disjointed, confusing rugby against the Boks and Samoa. It looked against Samoa like these guys had never been on the field together before. Just had nothing going on and made some very, very ordinary mistakes.

Can't wait for Boks-Samoa and Scotland-England. If Samoa could pull off an upset over SA and Scotland could beat the Poms that would be just brilliant for the tournament and myself.
 
This idiot in charge of the South Africa v Samoa game is ruining it because he has something against Samoa. That decision to penalise the Samoan runner for getting back up after being tackled was rubbish. The tackler had brought him to ground but his tackle was broken as he hit the ground and he was not held so he got back up. Seemed a very harsh decision to me.

Letter of the law, maybe correct. But very easily could have been play on as well. Many decisions have gone against Samoa as well.
 
You're right, TS. Very harsh call in my mind. A few other really touchy decisions given against both sides by Owens. He's not a bad ref but he tries to take way too much control of the game. Plus he treats the players like they're children. Don't like that in a ref.

But other than that, absolutely cracking contest particularly in the 2nd half, which Samoa dominated. Really worked out how best to beat the Boks. The little wrap around move from the 10 and 12 to get it out wide to exploit a quickly rushing Fourie worked a treat often for the Samoans.

Loved the niggle in it too. Both sides getting into it and the Samoans really were probably the physical aggressors in the 2nd half.

Game of the tournament for me so far.
 
Dipper said:
Ah the anti England stuff has started up, took a few weeks which is the only surprise.

England will smash Scotland into a million pieces.
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Dipper said:
I know it's fashionable to underplay any kind of positive English influence these days but I think you safely assume that Argentina's adoption of rugby owes more to a general English-British influence than anything specifically Welsh.
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Yeah mate we know, the world is against England. You need to let it go, you'll get an ulcer.
 
South Africa will be pretty disappointed in their display really. Samoa was able to show everyone that if you throw it around a bit that SA can get a bit mixed up in defence. With a bit more polish on the final ball, Samoa could have had three or four tries. SA will have to be a lot better to beat the Wallabies.

Great game though all round.
 

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Yeah great game. The most crucial decision that went against Samoa was the penalty against the winger for not releasing when he was probably not held. The try was on big time in the next phase and Samoa needed those decisions to go their way to win. Samoa had more chances than South Africa they just maybe lacked a little bit of composure in those moments. That's now 2 games South Africa were probably lucky to get through. Could have very easily been knocked out in that pool. I reckon we would have been if we were in that pool in their place. Experience, defence and a bit of luck got them the two wins against Wales and Samoa.

I like our chances against South Africa though so I'm not too unhappy with the way things have turned out. I think we match up well with them (not to write off Italy's chances of upsetting Ireland on Sunday).
 
As it has been for a long time now, if you take it up physically to the Boks in close and are really clean outside, you can trouble them. It must take a huge amount of effort and grunt as their forwards are monstrous, but the Wallabies have the cattle to do it (as seen this year, we've knocked them off twice).

If the Boks can have ascendancy like they did in the 1st half, they are nigh on impossible to beat. But anything less and they are very, very beatable. Plus the Samoans seemed to really tire towards the end (signified by the amount of pilfers taken by the Boks due to not enough Samoan forward getting to the breakdown later in the game). Wallabies are as fit a side as there is on the other hand.
 
Wahooti Fandango said:
Horrible performance by Owens. SA did not look that good. Samoan dominated possession and territory.
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I don't think it's really fair to blame him. I think he's one of the better refs. Yes he can be a little patronising, but I think he plays a good advantage and has good game management.

The only really bad decision IMO was when he said the winger was held and didn't release.
 
Actually there was another bad one. I thought JP Pietersen was off his feet when he slapped the ball out of the Samoan player's hands as they were attacking the line in the 2nd half. Was ruled a knock on. But Owens went upstairs to check if there was a try and the video ref would have seen this and I guess because of what happened in South Africa during the tri nations was too afraid to say anything about it.

These are not completely terrible decisions though. On balance they should have gone Samoa's way but you see them go the way they did a lot as well. South Africa got the better of the big calls.
 
Tonga leading France 13-6 at half time. If they can score 3 more tries in the 2nd half and beat France by 8 or more they'll knock them out.

And Dan Carter has a groin injury. Rumour is it's bad and he may be out of the tournament.
 
Mint Condition said:
Actually there was another bad one. I thought JP Pietersen was off his feet when he slapped the ball out of the Samoan player's hands as they were attacking the line in the 2nd half. Was ruled a knock on. But Owens went upstairs to check if there was a try and the video ref would have seen this and I guess because of what happened in South Africa during the tri nations was too afraid to say anything about it.
These are not completely terrible decisions though. On balance they should have gone Samoa's way but you see them go the way they did a lot as well. South Africa got the better of the big calls.
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My understanding is that the TMO is only able to comment on the question of try or not- he is not allowed to report on things that he sees in the play. Souynds silly, but that seems to be his job- is it a try or not- no explanation.
 
They can also comment on what the restart should be. It's a bit blurry though, so I'm not sure if they'd be able to say "the guy forced a knock on by diving through the ruck off his feet, should be a penalty."

Great win by Tonga. I did predict Tonga could beat France in the world cup upsets thread! Wish they'd gone for the 4 tries though. They bombed a couple and kept going for penalty goals to ensure the win when they could have kicked for a 5m lineout or had an attacking scrum. Obviously the win is massive irregardless but I really think they had a huge chance to score the 4 tries and thus make the quarter finals, they were all over France for pretty much the entire match. The loss to Canada has really come back to bite them I guess.
 
And it's been confirmed, Dan Carter out of the tournament! Cruden brought in as a replacement.

Fortunately they get to play Argentina in the quarters (provided Georgia don't provide a miracle today) - a team that has even more of their best players injured. But the Wallabies and Boks will now fancy their chances.
 
Ohhhhhh s**t. Would love to be wandering around a street in Auckland or Christchurch right about now.

Really puts the cat amongst the pigeons now. Carter is still the best player in the world for me and is the most important player to his side in my mind. NZ can still win the comp but it has become a lot more difficult now with either Cruden or Slade to be the one to lead them to the final.

Georgia playing out of their skins atm and Argentina playing quite poorly to be down atm. Georgia leading 7-5 early in the 2nd half.
 
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