Official Rugby Thread

[Molehill]

I'm starting to think that whichever way the QF's work out in Groups A & B that France and NZ will win them. That should then mean a France/NZ Final given the general rubbish in Groups C & D (perhaps only England could spring a surprise given their previous for doing so).

 

[Ali TT]

Caught the last fifteen minutes of the AusArg matchup on repeat. That was wild.

Chuckled at the Aussie commentator who called the Argentinians "giant-killers". Wrong on a couple of counts there, mate

 

[ripper868]

Well...a decent first 35mins...BAU for the rest.

Just send NZ, RSA, France and Ireland to the WC, everyone else just there for a jolly.

 

[social]

Wallabies have been one of the most undisciplined teams in the world for a couple of decades and nothing has changed

Opposition just needs to wait for them to do something stupid and capitalise on the inevitable yellow cards

4 tries so far tonight against 14 men

 

[James]

Real shame the Wallabies couldn't sustain that for 80 minutes. I thought they were superb in the first half.

 

[social]

The Wallabies have lost 15 of their last 20 games and were recently flogged by South Africa B

They simply aren’t good enough to be competitive for any more than about 20 minutes

 

[ashley bach]

Wallies the All Blacks bashing bunnies.

 

[ripper868]

Real shame the Wallabies couldn't sustain that for 80 minutes. I thought they were superb in the first half.

I'd say for 35 minutes of the first half - the 2 tries just before and bang on half time really hurt.

Ardies turnover was the big moment for me, if wallabies score there, it's only a 7 point game and maybe they go on...they probably don't but that was a huge moment for me.

Hope Tupou's injury isn't huge. AAA looks set for 12 months out though.

I think only 4 guys are nailed ons for starting XV at the rwc:
Bell
Koro
Nawaqantansananasvcaase
Kerevi
Maybe Valetini.

The rest could be any of 2 options that bring about the same thing.

 

[ashley bach]

Bell had a hell of a good game tonight.

 

[Burgey]

What a great result for world rugby!

 

[Flem274*]

Was at the game. Hell of an atmosphere, but it's not smart rugby to put the game in West New Zealand. We outnumbered the home fans and had at least 4 big "All Blacks" chants going.

****in great weekend though. Grant Fox and another man who I recognise but couldn't place were on my plane home and they spent our wait at customs chatting rugby.

 

[ripper868]

I played taxi for Grant Fox in my past life working in rugby - he needed a quick escape to the airport after a lunch event and I was happy to oblige, genuine good guy.

 

[social]

Was at the game. Hell of an atmosphere, but it's not smart rugby to put the game in West New Zealand. We outnumbered the home fans and had at least 4 big "All Blacks" chants going.

****in great weekend though. Grant Fox and another man who I recognise but couldn't place were on my plane home and they spent our wait at customs chatting rugby.

Kiwis generally outnumber Australians at BC matches in Australia and it’s been that way for years

I went to a game at Suncorp in 1996 & it must have been at least 70% AB fans

 

[Molehill]

Well...a decent first 35mins...BAU for the rest.

Just send NZ, RSA, France and Ireland to the WC, everyone else just there for a jolly.

Well 2 teams outside those 4 will have to make the semis, at the moment, looking like England and Argentina, but who knows?

 

[ripper868]

Kiwis generally outnumber Australians at BC matches in Australia and it’s been that way for years

I went to a game at Suncorp in 1996 & it must have been at least 70% AB fans

Same happens whenever the Crusaders play in Brisbane as well, even the reds Final in 2011 would have been close to 40% Crusader fans.

 

[ashley bach]

Argentina walked circles around the boks in the 2nd half and were unlucky to come up with a 1 point loss. In the last year they have picked off
NZ(christchurch) England(Twickenham) Australia(brisbane) and put in two good performances in South Africa.
Anyone who thinks facing them in a knock out match at the world cup is going to be peaches and cream is dreaming.

 

[andruid]

Why does it feel like a fever dream to suggest that the All Blacks were 'in crisis' this time last year, or thereabouts?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Why does it feel like a fever dream to suggest that the All Blacks were 'in crisis' this time last year, or thereabouts?

Ha, an AB "crisis" usually involves a string of results most other nations would happily give up a bollock for.

 

[Molehill]

I guess the one question is what have NZ beaten? SA look like they're saving themselves for the World Cup, Australia are clearly rubbish and I'm not sure how good Argentina are. They were in 'crisis' because they'd just been well beaten by Ireland. I don't think they've played anyone of that calibre since and I suspect the French are going to be even better too.

Argentina walked circles around the boks in the 2nd half and were unlucky to come up with a 1 point loss. In the last year they have picked off
NZ(christchurch) England(Twickenham) Australia(brisbane) and put in two good performances in South Africa.
Anyone who thinks facing them in a knock out match at the world cup is going to be peaches and cream is dreaming.

Argentina are an intriguing E/W bet. I'm still not sure how good they are, but I can definitely see them making the semi finals. Whilst they wouldn't be favourites in that game, it'll be interesting to see what the Big 4 (plus a decent Scotland side) from Pools A & B have left having had to play so much hard rugby against each other.

 

[ashley bach]

Why does it feel like a fever dream to suggest that the All Blacks were 'in crisis' this time last year, or thereabouts?

Ha, an AB "crisis" usually involves a string of results most other nations would happily give up a bollock for.

The truth be told about this time a year ago the AB's were in about the biggest crisis that I can ever recall.
They had lost their first ever home series to Ireland. Then they lost their first ever game at home to Los Pumas.
On top of these results they had their worst ever loss to the Springboks, and only just managed to beat the Wallabies thanks to the French referee
having an absolute brain snap. The public pressure is always tough after a loss so you can imagine how things were sitting after this string of mediocre results. Coach Foster's blood was being called for and basically everything was a shambles.
However a year is a long time in Union, and with Foster's job secure until after the world cup, they have been able to slowly turn things around.
In a way it was good all these shenanigans occurred the year before the cup, because if they were in that position this year winning the world cup
would have been an almost impossible task.