Knockout Stages

[Pup Clarke]

Didn't know Mauger could play at fly half...

 

[Piper]

Yeah. Dan Carter was his understudy. Them they moved Mauger to centre.. I think so anyway.. Unless I'm getting my wires crossed

 

[Perm]

I don't think he should have played to be honest. I know that he is NZ's 'ace' player but they shouldn't have played with any hint of an injury. Nick Evans has proved that he is a really good Number 10 and should have started.. But then he got injured when he came on. I don't think NZ were meant to win

Evans has cashed in against some of the weaker nations though, that's why people rate him as a good player as they see him playing well but usually fail to take into consideration the quality of the opposition. A half-fit Carter is still better than Evans, especially with somebody like Luke McAlister playing at inside centre.

I agree. New Zealand had one bad game in four years worth. You can't sack someone because one game went bad. I think Henry has been a good coach and I think if NZ had won the World Cup everyone else would have said the same thing.

Exactly, however I feel Henry, Smith and Hansen should take some of the flack for their failed rest and rotation policy. In the end it's up to the players to perform, and you can't hold the coaches responsible for what their players fail to do.

I think McAlister is a good player but I do think that Aaron Mauger should have played, for his experience if nothing else. I do think that Mauger is underrated as a player. If Carter hadn't come onto the scene, I think that Mauger would still be fly-half.

Nah, Mauger wasn't good enough at fly-half. He wasn't able to direct traffic as effectively and his defensive game was weak. At inside centre he is perfect though, he organises the backline, provides a right footed kicking option, and works between two solid defenders. Easily our best in the 12 jersey.

 

[Perm]

Didn't know Mauger could play at fly half...

He can, just not very well.

 

[Perm]

Yeah. Dan Carter was his understudy. Them they moved Mauger to centre.. I think so anyway.. Unless I'm getting my wires crossed

Well, back in the day at the Crusaders it was Merhtens who played at flyhalf with Mauger and Carter dueling for the inside centre jersey. Since Carter was more versatile he was also tried at centre and fullback, before settling into flyhalf once Merhtens went to England.

 

[vogue]

From the BBC.....

...... All Blacks axe hovers over Henry
All Blacks legend Colin Meads leads the calls for coach Graham Henry to be sacked after the favourites crash out of the World Cup.

 

[Perm]

From the BBC.....

...... All Blacks axe hovers over Henry
All Blacks legend Colin Meads leads the calls for coach Graham Henry to be sacked after the favourites crash out of the World Cup.

Big surprise. Can't wait to read the paper tomorrow to see what the media has to say.

 

[JASON]

Absolutely Gutted by the ABs loss....The Refereeing was the worst blatant one sided refereeing I have ever seen....and it was equally bad in the Wallabies v England game as well.

This is what the Best Event in World Rugby ends up .....as a poor display of refereeing...

 

[BoyBrumby]

As for the Aussies, I said their scrum wasn't good enough and it wasn't. The English were lucky enough to get a ref who called them on it. England play ugly rugby, though. My God.

Always have done. We have to play to our strengths, the major one being our, well, strength. The only other nation to have a better tight 5 is NZ & we now won't have to worry about you blokes.

As you say, a large vote of thanks for our victory should go to Rolland who reffed the scrums superbly. Didn't allow himself to be hoodwinked by Australia's ****house front row like Watson was in the 2003 final.

haha i find it funny that you think England have got a good scrum. Just cos you beat aussie up front.... Lets be honest the Aussie tight five is the worst out of the top nations.

In saying that, England def deserved their win, and i was cheering for them, but i think france will prob put 30 on them

We do. Or the tight five anyway. We actually won the scrum against the yarps too; it was our break-downs that were rank in that game. The most impressive feature of yesterday's game from an English pespective was the way we ruled the break-downs. Moody & Easter were immense; George Smith (who I rate very highly) was nullified.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Absolutely Gutted by the ABs loss....The Refereeing was the worst blatant one sided refereeing I have ever seen....and it was equally bad in the Wallabies v England game as well.

This is what the Best Event in World Rugby ends up .....as a poor display of refereeing...

Cobblers. All Rolland did was make the scrums a competition. He didn't allow Gregan to delay the ball or Dunning to take it down the second he feels an iota of pressure.

Let's be frank: Australia were poo but still came within a penalty (and were awarded a kickable, if difficult one by the ever-so-one sided ref with 3 minutes to go) of winning.

 

[Perm]

Absolutely Gutted by the ABs loss....The Refereeing was the worst blatant one sided refereeing I have ever seen....and it was equally bad in the Wallabies v England game as well.

This is what the Best Event in World Rugby ends up .....as a poor display of refereeing...

You always have to complain about the officials don't you.

 

[Johnners]

The officials in the Aust. v England game weren't all that bad. IMO the only really dire decision was to penalise Vickerman for flipping the Jonas Bjorkman look-a-like when he was tackling Vicks without the ball.

We lost purely and simply because as Brumby said, we were poo.

 

[Goughy]

The nature of Union is that the Refs will always get a hard time from the losing team.

Its a cluttered sport where infractions are missed and an individual refs interpretations are important.

With so much going on around the rucks, things are obviously missed and its a game thats nearly impossible to officiate flawlessly.

 

[simmy]

What a day yesterday was...!

Don't think I have ever watched the England side so proudly in any sport. Such a gutsy performance.

I honestly think we could beat France who we competed well with in the game preceeding the WC.

RSA and Arg to go through today though unscathed.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Think some Kiwi scamps have been editing Wayne Barnes's wiki entry (Linky).

Wayne Barnes is a **** (born 20 April 1979) died in 2007 following the second shocking upheaval of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Lynched by a mob of people with 20/20 vision who actually read the ****ing rulebook, his corpse was pelted with rugby PASSES, in a BACKWARD direction during the last stages of his life. Urination and defacement of the corpse then followed.He became a professional referee in April 2005, giving up a career in law to do so, because he couldn't read any ****ing law books either!

 

[steds]

Hahaha.

He suffers from a vision-related disease which results in him being unable to see forward passes.

 

[howardj]

I've always maintained that the current bunch of Wallabies are the most hyped, pampered and overpaid group of sportsmen that Australia has seen in a long time. Anyone in the first choice Australian rugby league backline Hunt, Inglis, Hodges, Gasnier, Hayne, Lockyer and Thurston, could stroll into that Wallabies team - even though none of them have ever played Rugby before. Furthermore, the Wallaby front row have man boobs and big tummies.

All hype, high wages and luxury - but no performance.

 

[PY]

Dear me, they have gone to town on that haven't they?

Fair amount of 'graphic literature' by the end.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I've always maintained that the current bunch of Wallabies are the most hyped, pampered and overpaid group of sportsmen that Australia has seen in a long time. Anyone in the first choice Australian rugby league backline Hunt, Inglis, Hodges, Gasnier, Hayne, Lockyer and Thurston, could stroll into that Wallabies team - even though none of them have ever played Rugby before. Furthermore, the Wallaby front row have man boobs and big tummies.

All hype, high wages and luxury - but no performance.

Quite agree; the fact that Barnes went from a Broncs reserve to Wallaby starting 5/8th in one year shows that.

 

[vogue]

good for Fiji......yesss...!!!


Fiji 20- RSA 20