Rugby World Cup

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: jamesm

Farewell England!

warspite1

Farewell indeed. A few moments of madness against Wales and our dream went up in smoke......[:(]

Come on you Kiwis! [:)]

[JeffroK]

I love the compilation of pre game English newspaper headlines they had on the BBC website, even the psychic meerkats got it wrong!!

[Eambar]

Great win by the Wallabies, built on a solid set piece, doing the basics right and understanding the game plan. Three areas England did not do well. The sight of an English scrum going backwards was something I didn't expect - but the Wallabies had been building up to that performance all season.

Best game for Foley in the gold jumper and of course Pocock and Hooper were immense. Hopefully they will keep their feet on the ground for Wales and repeat the performance. I'm sure Gatland and Co. are trying to work out how they can beat Australia at the breakdown. We've shown the opposition the blueprint, it will be up to them to react.

In other games, the All Blacks were terrible, one of their worst performances in recent times. If they played like that against any of the Tier 1 nations they would have been soundly beaten. They've been off the pace in each of their games so far, but they're good enough to bounce back. A possible quarter final against France/Ireland will have them worried - they will be short of a solid run and the French/Irish are well capable of beating them.

I was at the Samoa v Japan game - the Japanese continue their remarkable run and played very well. Samoa were awful, but I'll be cheering for them to beat Scotland and give Japan a shot at a Quarter Final.

Ireland were lucky vs Italy, that could have gone either way but the Irish class showed through in the end.

Three pools are still undecided as to the final positions going into the final week, so that must be pleasing for the organisers. However, the pool allocation system needs to be seriously overhauled to ensure the real top 8 countries are evenly distributed across all pools - you can't do an allocation three years before the event!

Cheers

[Eambar]

Last week of the pool matches and three pools are still up for grabs with regards to the final standings. My view on each:

Pool A: After what we saw last week, Australia should be too strong for Wales. However, Wales have also included 2 fetchers in the back row in an attempt to negate Pocock. If they can get over Macmahon and win the battle at the breakdown, they are in with a chance. They have a large centre partnership although North is out of position. The good thing for Wales is that he might see more ball. A close one.

Pool B: Scotland should be too strong for Samoa, who have been disappointing so far and maybe saved their best for last. If the Samoans win, and the Japanese beat the USA, Japan will make the quarters for the first time.

Pool C: Wrapped up by NZ who should have no issues with Tonga, and Argentina should beat Namibia.

Pool D: France and Ireland battle it out for this pool. I thought Ireland were tracking well, until they almost slipped up against Italy, but they will be back on track this week, and be too good for the French. However, France is well capable of beating Ireland, but with a date with NZ for the loser, neither will want to slip up.

So the pools should end like this (1 & 2):

A: Australia, Wales
B: South Africa, Scotland
C: NZ, Argentina
D: Ireland, France

I'm going to the Australia v Wales game so looking forward to a great weekend of rugby.

Cheers,

[STEF78]

I'm clearly not an English support but I felt sad for the british last saturday...

Your pool was really hard but you never should have lost against Wales... 28/25 and playing for the try was crazy...

Australia is far too strong, I think they will play the final.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: STEF78

I'm clearly not an English support but I felt sad for the british last saturday...

Your pool was really hard but you never should have lost against Wales... 28/25 and playing for the try was crazy...

Australia is far too strong, I think they will play the final.

warspite1

To be fair, and as has been said above, the way the groups were drawn - and the timing - was ridiculous. Guaranteed to have one of the top 8 nations missing from the quarter final....

That said, England were totally to blame for surrendering a 10 point lead to Wales so good luck to the Welsh.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: STEF78

I'm clearly not an English support but I felt sad for the british last saturday...

Your pool was really hard but you never should have lost against Wales... 28/25 and playing for the try was crazy...

Australia is far too strong, I think they will play the final.

warspite1

To be fair, and as has been said above, the way the groups were drawn - and the timing - was ridiculous. Guaranteed to have one of the top 8 nations missing from the quarter final....

That said, England were totally to blame for surrendering a 10 point lead to Wales so good luck to the Welsh.

We (the french) have a very poor coach.... I'm very pessimistic for the quaterfinal against the Blacks.

The best teams that I've seen so far are New Zealand and Australia

[Plodder]

ORIGINAL: STEF78

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: STEF78

I'm clearly not an English support but I felt sad for the british last saturday...

Your pool was really hard but you never should have lost against Wales... 28/25 and playing for the try was crazy...

Australia is far too strong, I think they will play the final.

warspite1

To be fair, and as has been said above, the way the groups were drawn - and the timing - was ridiculous. Guaranteed to have one of the top 8 nations missing from the quarter final....

That said, England were totally to blame for surrendering a 10 point lead to Wales so good luck to the Welsh.

We (the french) have a very poor coach.... I'm very pessimistic for the quaterfinal against the Blacks.

The best teams that I've seen so far are New Zealand and Australia

We (NZ) never, ever discount the French. Too much history (especially at the World Cup). [:D]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: The Plodder

ORIGINAL: STEF78

ORIGINAL: warspite1


warspite1

To be fair, and as has been said above, the way the groups were drawn - and the timing - was ridiculous. Guaranteed to have one of the top 8 nations missing from the quarter final....

That said, England were totally to blame for surrendering a 10 point lead to Wales so good luck to the Welsh.

We (the french) have a very poor coach.... I'm very pessimistic for the quaterfinal against the Blacks.

The best teams that I've seen so far are New Zealand and Australia

We (NZ) never, ever discount the French. Too much history (especially at the World Cup). [:D]

warspite1

With no disrespect to STEF78

C'mon you All Blacks!!!!

[Orm]

To expensive to watch this tournament. [:(]

[STEF78]

As scheduled, the Blacks were better... [:(]

But one very good news for the french team, it's the end for Philippe St André![:)]

[warspite1]

Looks like an all-Southern hemisphere semi-finals.

Wales fall agonisingly short yet again and Ireland dumped out by Argentina!

And with no chance of Scotland springing a surprise this afternoon (its just a question of how much the Aussies win by) there are no Europeans left.

[ironduke1955]

Don't count the Scots out yet after all look what they did to King Edwards army, mind you they havn't won anything since.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: ironduke1955

Don't count the Scots out yet after all look what they did to King Edwards army, mind you they havn't won anything since.

warspite1

I'll have whatever you are smokin'........[:D]

[cuthbo2001]

Warspite as a Scotsman I agree . However scots rugby in particular is often at its best when the team is written off . Remember Murrayfield 1990 a scots team that were supposed to turn up and keep the score down. Here is a thought Scotland are making the best with what they have Can all the home nations say the same?
Game is about top start so lets see[:)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: cuthbo2001

Warspite as a Scotsman I agree . However scots rugby in particular is often at its best when the team is written off . Remember Murrayfield 1990 a scots team that were supposed to turn up and keep the score down. Here is a thought Scotland are making the best with what they have Can all the home nations say the same?
Game is about top start so lets see[:)]

warspite1

Are they all making the best with what they have?

Well England clearly not and Wales could have won that game but have been unlucky with injuries so probably did about as well as they were going to.

We are talking sport here so yes it is possible Scotland could win (and I certainly hope they do) but I will run down the street naked if they get within 10 points of Australia - i.e. it ain't gonna happen.

[Orm]

C'mon Scotland!

Please, Mrs Warspite1, could you be ready with the camera?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: cuthbo2001

Warspite as a Scotsman I agree . However scots rugby in particular is often at its best when the team is written off . Remember Murrayfield 1990 a scots team that were supposed to turn up and keep the score down. Here is a thought Scotland are making the best with what they have Can all the home nations say the same?
Game is about top start so lets see[:)]

warspite1

Are they all making the best with what they have?

Well England clearly not and Wales could have won that game but have been unlucky with injuries so probably did about as well as they were going to.

We are talking sport here so yes it is possible Scotland could win (and I certainly hope they do) but I will run down the street naked if they get within 10 points of Australia - i.e. it ain't gonna happen.

well ok, we are losing .. and the referee isn't helping but it looks like W-1s run is on.

Now I note he hasn't specified the street, I nominate Janefield St, Glasgow G40 ... any other ideas?

edit: oh god, why can't Scotland just go and lose easily ... this is awful to watch/hear (& I don't really like rugby)

edit2: looks like the run maybe off ...

edit3: looks like more than Ws run is back on, all we need to do is to kick the ball where it needs to go [;)]

edit4: which it doesn't [&:]

edit5: looks like the run may be off again ...

edit6 ... and due to the rain we only go and take the lead ... with 5 mins to go

edit7 ... oh no

edit8 ... and we go back behind with 30 seconds left [:(]

[cuthbo2001]

Hey Warspite tell the truth, were you stripped down to your socks in preparation?

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

We are talking sport here so yes it is possible Scotland could win (and I certainly hope they do) but I will run down the street naked if they get within 10 points of Australia - i.e. it ain't gonna happen.

Ho Ho Ho Ho. 35-34 to Australia. I hope it's not too chilly [:'(]

Seriously though, Scotland played very well and we were sloppy. We were lucky to get away with that and will have to be much better against Argentina. It might all be academic considering how good the All Blacks look.

Cheers, Neilster