Official Rugby World Cup Thread

[Davros]

Well based on that uninspiring effort by both England and South Africa (all kicking - no tries from field or set play, just one lottery of a kick charge down) the bookies would have to install the Kiwis as a clear favourite to win Bill.

Well done to the Chariot boyz though for putting down the Saffie challenge (mild though it was). Should be a good night out in the Perth pubs tonight .

[Davros]

I feel that we should pay Japan a lot of credit for their performances against Scotland and France. Judging from their two performances, here is one country that is on the move up in world rankings.

[wellard]

Now people may know that I'm not a big rugby fan, much preferring rugby league, but I am trying to watch the world cup with impartiality and a willingness to be converted. That said I have to say that the standard of games so far has been poor. Blowouts scores by ill matched teams. I'm sure that it will get better but is anyone else *read real rugby union fans* been disappointed so far?

* And no I'm not having a go or stirring.*

[Davros]

Not disappointed at all by the blow-outs. You have to grow the game in hose countries if you are going to move towards the current showpiece which is football (or soccer if you live in the US). Even in football, if the world number 1 plays the world number 36 you expect a blow out.

The games obviously get tougher when the easybeats start getting eliminated. Seeing a team like japan really put it to the French and the Scots has been really great. There I see a team that has developed from being a compete minnow back in the late 80's to one that is strating to get competitive. Based on those performances I expect them to do well against the other weaker nations in their group. Of course we cannot expect Uruguay and Georgia to be doing that at present - they are right now where the Japanese were back in eth late 80's.

You will see some more blowouts, but the games will get better - Vive le Union [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Memnoch]

After watching the SA-England game I'd have to say that SA really shot themselves in the foot - Koen had a shocker and surely must be dropped, his goalkicking deserted him and without his kicking he just doesn't have the skills and vision to spark the Bok backline - not that there's a lot to spark in the backline. Nowhere was that more in evidence than when SA did one of their very few breakouts and at the end of a backline were Matfield and Botha - where were the wingers? Don't know how much Hougaard can do better but Koen's finally been found out on the big stage for the one-dimensional player he is.

But credit to them, they went in with a gameplan to really disrupt England and it worked - it was only when the game started to get away from them with their inability to score a try through poor finishing and bad options that you could see their spirits start to drop. Thought the SA loose forwards played all over the Poms. Greenwood's against the run of play try after a chargedown meant that Koen effectively gave up a 19 point spread!! I think the Wallabies would have been heartened by that performance and the ABs would have been encouraged by it, I haven't seen the England power game neutralised to such an extent this year. Bit of pressure perhaps?? Can't remember too many linebreaks from England that actually threatened the Bok line - Cohen made one, I think that was about it. Greenwood and Tindall were pedestrian in midfield. Good on them, they used defence as their offence in scoring their try but didn't look all that impressive.

I think that SA had that game for the taking but didn't have the skills and the composure to take it out. They can count themselves very unlucky but England's professionalism and nerve held through. But I don't think that NZ or Australia would be overly impressed by what they saw of England - a bit scratchy methinks! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

As for OZ, they flogged Romania - but this was Romania after all. Anything less than a thrashing would have been unacceptable. Still not happy with every aspect of our play (I actually flew to Brisbane and watched it) but we're heading in the right direction.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by wellard: Now people may know that I'm not a big rugby fan, much preferring rugby league, but I am trying to watch the world cup with impartiality and a willingness to be converted. That said I have to say that the standard of games so far has been poor. Blowouts scores by ill matched teams. I'm sure that it will get better but is anyone else *read real rugby union fans* been disappointed so far? * And no I'm not having a go or stirring.*

I'm not convinced that the blowouts are good for world rugby. I can't see how Georgia, Romania etc are helped by getting flogged every four years (and that's the only time they play the top teams) and how they could be learning from that.

I definitely think that they should be playing in the WC, but rather than just be used as cannon fodder on opposed training runs by the top teams I would be supportive of having a second-tier Plate competition run in parallel with the WC for any team that doesn't have Top 5 status, to give them their time in the sun and be able to compete in a meaningful basis and actually have the chance to win something. This would speed up their development.

Another, more important, thing to help their development would be for top nations like Australia, NZ etc to send their second squads to tour these places (eg the Pacific Islands, Eastern Europe, North America, Japan etc), like the Australia A squad did with Japan this year. This would be much more helpful than getting smashed every four years.

[Downunda]

Originally posted by wellard: Now people may know that I'm not a big rugby fan, much preferring rugby league

*bites tongue not wanting to bring up a certain recent rugby league clash between New Zealand and Australia in an official Rugby World Cup thread... and yes, I am stirring

There has been talks among officials of something being done for the next world cup reg. the missmatch of teams but I agree with both Davros and Mario, for the lesser teams to get better they need to play against better teams. Not just at the world cup but at regular intervals; unfortunately money can be an issue here, why spend money on a b side playing Tonga when you can spend money on the All Blacks going to England for a tour that's gonna attract a much larger fan base? I could be wrong, just how I see it going down [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[D*Ranged]

I dunno...I thought Louis Koen was a reliable goal kicker...

At least I thought he was better than Carlos Spencer...good thing the ABs made Dan Carter kick instead, he's much more reliable.

[Donut]

England stood up well to a fully committed, fired up, passionate Boks team. Once we showed our ability to change our game plan on the pitch. I don't think the AB's can be looking forward to the quarter finals clash with the saffies. They may not have the experience or the capacity to absorb the punishment that the Boks dish out.

Let's put this into perspective. This was the third largest victory for England against SA.