Official Rugby Thread

[Smudge]

Dunno. Depends how you define "thrashing"; you beat us by 30-16 in the 99 WC & by 25-8 in 97 too. Think the latter may've been at the Citadel of Evil rather than headquarters tho.

Our tight five is ok bur we really lack a 7 to win us the ball; Moody's ok, but he's more of a 6.

That 25-8 win was at the Citadel of Evil (which I assume is Old Trafford) and no, I don't consider 14 points a thrashing.

 

[Perm]

A thrashing is really anything by more than 20 points in my books, with some experimentaion from the All Blacks for this test I think you English fans should be feeling confident you can trouble us, in the end I think our class with prevail. *sarcasm on* Of course the "moral victory" will go to England *sarcasm off*

 

[BoyBrumby]

With Carter in for Evans, you're probably only 3 or 4 players short of full-strength, I'd say. Collins & So'oialo, obv, probably Oliver & Nonu wouldn't make my AB XV either.

Some of the odds on offer over here are quite enligthening. Best offer for NZ is 1/6 from Premier Bet, but you can get 6/1 on us from Sporting Odds. Link:

http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/...nternationalmatches/odds/3187649x/sid/1078513

You can also get us to win with 15.5 point start @ 6/7 & NZ to win conceding the same margin at 6/7 too:

http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/...nternationalmatches/odds/3187702x/sid/1078513

 

[Matteh]

Hope Wales get destroyed later. Will give me huge pleasure to see the chavs so unhappy.

 

[KennyD]

Yeah, well I'm hoping too, particulary after our "A" team went down humiliatingly to a depleted Ospreys lineup.

 

[Matteh]

Oddschecker seems to have Wales down as the very very slight favourite. What i've read seems to say that Australia are using it as a chance to test people in other positions, partly due to the fact they got destroyed in the scrum last autumn.

 

[Perm]

It was great to see Ospreys beat Australia, if only because Justin Marshall now plays for them. Gave me great pleasure to be honest.

 

[Smudge]

probably Oliver & Nonu wouldn't make my AB XV either.

Good thing Oliver isn't in the team for this game anyway...

 

[Craig]

Yeah, that's true.


To be honest, I'd like to see the South African teams in the Super 14 replaced by other nations state teams.

The way it'd work, is say, one year the top 4/5 state/provincial teams from places like Argentina, France, England, Canada and South Africa come and play in our Super 14. Instead of our teams travelling half way around the world, they'll get based in some of the capital cities.

Probably too complicated and may clash with their own schedules, but it'd make a nice change. This way we'd be able to see more of the other nations rugby than jsut the occasional international that happens now and then (apart from the world cup)

My ignorance is showing here but wouldn't a Pacific Islands team be better then the other franchise SA got?

 

[PY]

What's this call of racism against Twickenham crowd receiving lots of press in NZ? Can't find much about it in a lazy search.

Supposedly against the Pacific Island-NZ players, is it something, like what you Volts went off at, about 'ringers' (I use this word lightly with no judgment) playing for NZ? i.e. the Twickenham crowd know about it and make comments and that's a form of racism?

I'm just trying to figure it out because I've not heard anything about it before.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Kiwis do have a bit of a sense of humour failure about this.

I think the perception down there is that anyone who isn't white is seen as a "ringer" up here.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Wow. A half of two halves in Wales-Oz. For the first half-hour I thought yer crims were looking at a cricket score; but you have to credit the Taffs, really come back into it. Shanklin has been a big miss for them, all class that boy (dozing off for Giteau's try notwithstanding).

Wonder if Giteau's penalty shanks will bite Oz in the bum later?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Great game to start the autumn with. Oz should probably have won (4 tries to 2), but credit to the Welsh for hanging in there. Hook kicked his goals; Giteau didn't.

& how good is Chris Latham? Looks like a throw-back to the old amateur days with his slight belly & his splindly legs, but the man can play. He was everywhere today.

 

[Perm]

Chris Latham is awesome, you don't realise how good he is until he comes up with a big play. Disappointing that only the All Blacks games get television coverage in NZ, I really like watching some of the other games.

 

[Craig]

Chris Latham is awesome, you don't realise how good he is until he comes up with a big play. Disappointing that only the All Blacks games get television coverage in NZ, I really like watching some of the other games.

Sad to hear

Over here we get coverage of the South African Currie Cup and the Air New Zealand Cup (what ever it is called now) in New Zealand, plus we get all of their's, South Africa's internationals and the Six Nations and not to forget the domestic stuff in the UK and Ireland.

 

[Perm]

Our channels are all taken up by Italian and Spanish soccer aswell as Nascar and all this other crap that very few people care about, ESPN have been getting a couple of Heineken Cup games a week though so that has been an improvement. You have to pay an extra $15 a month to get the Rugby Channel which has all the internationals aswell as old games and replays right through the week.

 

[Burpey]

& how good is Chris Latham? Looks like a throw-back to the old amateur days with his slight belly & his splindly legs, but the man can play. He was everywhere today.

I'll never respect him until the day he decides to pull his socks up.

 

[Craig]

Our channels are all taken up by Italian and Spanish soccer aswell as Nascar and all this other crap that very few people care about, ESPN have been getting a couple of Heineken Cup games a week though so that has been an improvement. You have to pay an extra $15 a month to get the Rugby Channel which has all the internationals aswell as old games and replays right through the week.

We have that on Fox Sports. ESPN has the Spanish and Italian football (soccer). Their cricket coverage isn't bad either. I mean they have decided to show a Test series between West Indies and South Africa in 2001 when it wasn't scheluded in either.

 

[Smudge]

Kiwis do have a bit of a sense of humour failure about this.

I think the perception down there is that anyone who isn't white is seen as a "ringer" up here.

Well, when PY uses the word "ringer" to describe the players with Pacific Island heritage, can you see why we have a sense of humour failure about it?

I've had to correct so many Englishmen about our Pacific Islanders in the past, I'm not going to do it again. For God's sake, one of the English papers claimed Mealamu was poached from a small town in Samoa called Tokoroa.

Tokoroa, for the uninitiated, is a sawmilling town about two hours south of Hamilton in the North Island of New Zealand.

And that's all I'm saying on the matter.








Probably.

 

[Craig]

It is a bit hypocritical when the English cricket team goes and picks those of South African birth. Surely they hand out English passports at birth over there just like they give out Italian passports in Brazil and Argentina?