Official Rugby Thread

[weeman27bob]

I'm watching the sky sports feed and the English commentary has been horrid.

If you've got Phil Kearns etc on the aussie feed though, they are turgid.

England deserved that win tbf. Critical moment for me was the not straight lineout throw call on England 5m, where they subsequently went 90m and put 3 points up to make ot 25-17. If Faingaa gets that throw right, Aus maul, acore, take 2 point lead. But on such margins international matches are won.

2-0 NH so far. Reverse sweep of last week?

It was actually this that made me post this. It was so clearly not straight and the commentators were painting it as a harsh decision.

Having reflected on it a little bit, I wonder if the England commentary bias is more around the view that England are generally better than their opposition, whereas what irked me about the Australian commentary was more their views on individual decisions.

 

[ripper868]

Think that makes Ireland only the fifth* national side to win a test in NZ after the Boks, the Wobblies, Les Bleus & Albion.

Kudos.

*Excluding multi-national test teams like the Lions & the World XV, obvz.

They've hosted the world cup twice, many different countries have had a victory in NZ

On the Aus v Eng game, I did think the ref and TMO got some calls wrong, but refs do that, in my moment on the couch I was every bit biased shouty aussie, but also know that it's part of the game now and there's little point in giving it too much air time. But for the heck of it as the Wales/Bok game is turgid at the moment:
- Scrums are often a lottery and will always be whichever shade of glasses you wear, think both sides got dudded a couple times each today.
- I think yellow cards for genuine intercept attempts needs review, sure its a low chance to catch, but there was a chance (Perese). Hill also knocked on his attempt, should that be a card if its the outcome rather than the intent being refereed? Smiths knockdown is the one where a pen is warranted, a card probably harsh.
- Genge perhaps should of had 10 in the bin for the elbow to back of Whites head, I think cynical off ball stuff like that is more deserving of a seat than a botched intercept attempt.
- White's 50/22 kick being rubbed out...did the ball cross the 50m line and go back? I thought not, but again could be my golden glasses.

So a ref whinge is within me, but it all has a way of evening out, and we've been on the right side of them before and will be on the wrong side of them again - Kerevi Red card vs Wales at RWC probably the worst of the lot imo.

Oh yeah, bring back rucking.

 

[weeman27bob]

The ref also seemed to get in the way a lot.

 

[ripper868]

It was actually this that made me post this. It was so clearly not straight and the commentators were painting it as a harsh decision.

Having reflected on it a little bit, I wonder if the England commentary bias is more around the view that England are generally better than their opposition, whereas what irked me about the Australian commentary was more their views on individual decisions.

I honestly think the Aus comms are only behind the Welsh comms in terms of bias tbh.

The English comms I had today fit basically what you described, the English are the golden standard and everyone else is cheating kinda vibe.

 

[ripper868]

As a side, Genge running over Hooper in minute 1 really set a tone, England were very, very good in that opening 20 minutes

 

[ripper868]

Some conversion from Anscombe there.

Edit: 3-0 NH...over to Scotland then (no I'm not counting France/Japan ?

 

[StephenZA]

Well done Wales.

 

[BoyBrumby]

They've hosted the world cup twice, many different countries have had a victory in NZ

Ha, well played.

Oh yeah, bring back rucking.

I think that ship has sailed, and I hate to be all "when I were a lad", but a couple of stripes down one's back from some no-necked fat **** of a prop definitely discouraged one from lying over the ball.

Rucks were pretty much self policing back in the day.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Well done Wales. The next RWC is going to be very interesting.

Just wondering, but has Italy been playing any matches in July? They had that amazing win over Wales in the 6N, so it would be good for them to be able to kick on from that.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Ha, well played.



I think that ship has sailed, and I hate to be all "when I were a lad", but a couple of stripes down one's back from some no-necked fat **** of a prop definitely discouraged one from lying over the ball.

Rucks were pretty much self policing back in the day.

Definitely. We used to compare war wounds from being rucked after matches, but players moved and there was good ball for backs.

 

[Smudge]

Well played Ireland - dominant in all areas. As John Kirwan said, Ireland were favourites leading into this series so this isn't really surprising. When was the last time a touring team were favourites on NZ soil? Probably not since the Todd Blackadder days.

I mean, they weren't favourites, but OK.

 

[weeman27bob]

I don't know when rucking was taken out of the game, but this doesn't look like quick ball to me from the 1995 world cup

 

[Howe_zat]

Just wondering, but has Italy been playing any matches in July? They had that amazing win over Wales in the 6N, so it would be good for them to be able to kick on from that.

They've been on a European tour, beating Portugal and Romania so far and will play Georgia tomorrow.

The matches haven't recieved much attention, presumably to aid people who will go on to claim Italy should be replaced with Georgia during the next six nations.

So Italy are currently on a 3-match winning run which is their best since 2012. If they make it to 4 in a row by beating Georgia it'll be their best run since 1999 when they last had to play a full size world cup qualifying campaign.

 

[BoyBrumby]

2-0 NH so far. Reverse sweep of last week?

Looking like it from here; Sweaties have unexpectedly given los Pumas a bit of a touch up. 29-6 ahead (and 4 tries to zip) with the clock in the red.

Given Ireland and Wales had literally never won in NZ or RSA respectively I'm going to go ahead and such a turnaround is unprecedented.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

They've been on a European tour, beating Portugal and Romania so far and will play Georgia tomorrow.

The matches haven't recieved much attention, presumably to aid people who will go on to claim Italy should be replaced with Georgia during the next six nations.

So Italy are currently on a 3-match winning run which is their best since 2012. If they make it to 4 in a row by beating Georgia it'll be their best run since 1999 when they last had to play a full size world cup qualifying campaign.

Shame the Italians are in a pool with us and France in the RWC. I'd really like them to make the 1/4s at some stage.

Now they'll probably beat Foster's ABs at the RWC the way we're playing!

 

[James]

I mean, they weren't favourites, but OK.

I could see why Kirwan would say that off the back of Ireland in the 6 Nations, ABs performances recently against Ireland, and the fact that we have been poor for 2 years now.

 

[Smudge]

That's all well and good. But they weren't favourites. From memory, the odds on Ireland to win the series was around $4.50 before the series started (I was strongly considering a bet). You may argue the merits/pricing but Sir JK is in his only little world in his punditry and the only tangible measure says he's wrong on this.

 

[James]

In regard to the weekly rugby show on Sky (also posted on YouTube), I value JK and his willingness to say what is on his mind and what he thinks. Regardless of whether he's right or wrong in some cases, at least he's open with his thoughts. Especially when compared to Jeff Wilson and Mills Muliaina who seem to want to toe the party line and not upset the NZRU.

 

[social]

It's honestly a massive blight on Australian rugby and it feeds a whole culture of it among the fans and even people who should know better like the coaches. You used to be able to see Michael Chieka responding to literally every penalty conceded by Australia with outrage at the referee. There are plenty of Australians who seem to think they've never lost a fair game, especially against England.

Pretty sure social or someone will be in here shortly to explain why the referee was horribly biased in this game too, like all the refs were for the 8 games in a row they lost against England. Ripper is an absolute saint for rising above itbt

~

Edit: For a comparison with Sky commentary, the bias is there but I think it's different. It's usually taking the form of either overrating English players or just never talking about the opposition because they don't know who they are. They (looking at you, Stuart Barnes, but others are guilty as well) also have a bad habit of trying to badly wax poetic and start trying to show off instead of focusing on the actual game. It's dire but I don't mind that so much, as penalty whinging is the thing that really gets me.

lol no

The problem with rugby is that the laws are open to individual interpretation and it’s entirely possible to call infringements on virtually any play

As for these 2 teams, the English generally play a more technical, forward based game than the Wallabies and are likely to end up on the right side of the penalty count more often than not

 

[James]

Did anyone watch the Chile/USA game? Talk about crazy conditions - a superb try from the Chile fly-half being the highlight! Should be a pretty good second leg next weekend.