Rugby World Cup

I'm choosing to regard it as our Samoan incident. You guys do remember Samoa, right?

Good to get the bad one out of the way before things become kill or be killed.

A lot of those holes in midfield wouldn't normally exist. Aaron Mauger is obviously way off being match fit and missed quite a few tackles. Unlike him. The loose forwards looked lethargic tho' which is a worry.

They won't play that badly again.

All we ever hear about over here are the woes of Welsh rugby...on that performance I'd say there's definitely promise there. They won't beat England though...maybe next World Cup.

red

...anyways - the time for talk is over and past performances count for nothing - it's all irrellevant now. We are down to the final 8! England, SA, NZ, Aust, Wales, France, Scotland and Ireland. The traditional top 8 that one might expect!

I might actually start watching some of these games live - now that they actually mean something! The tournament has been a friggin bore up until now (and I'm a rugby fan!) - too many meaningless games against teams making up the numbers or second string teams knowing they are unlikely to win and therefore protecting their top players for games that matter.

All remaining teams will only be as good as their next performance. We will soon learn whether this great English side is to become an all-time great side, or whether the AB's backs can make up for our lack of forward fire-power, or whether the French or Aussies or even SA (or even Wales or Ireland) will make NZ and/or England look silly. On form, France look to be the best side in the tournament to date. Scotland would seem to be the only side in the final 8 that have no real prospect of progressing to the semis. Anyone disagree?

Now at last its sudden death and the tournament proper actually begins - Bring it on!

Richie T

Richie, lovely to see you here

Beats discussing bloody hifi eh?

I feel you are bang on about Scotland. Pretty dire indeed


red

Although Scotland look to be out of it based on the last few matches, you can never write them off. They occasionally pull out a big performance. That said, I don't see them going any further either.

quote:

---

Originally posted by redeye:
I feel you are bang on about Scotland. Pretty dire indeed

---

Agreed. Scotland got as far as was reasonable but I'd be very surprised if any further progress is made. I did enjoy the Fiji game though.

Regards
Steve

I'm choosing to regard it as our Samoan incident. You guys do remember Samoa, right?

Of course, that was the game where England conceded one try against an exciting team playing fantastic running rugby. Conceding four against the reserves of probably the 5th best team in the Northern hemisphere is a totally different matter.
John

I know it isn't a great response John, but we did score 8 tries ourselves however - and I'm pretty sure Wales (like Samoa) played out of their skins that game.

I guess one can look at the Wales game two ways: 1. A sign that the ABs are well off the pace and about to come unstuck in the big games;or 2. A timely "wake-up call" which will get us back on track after all the easy games. I hope it is the latter!! This weekend we will find out - can't wait (but feeling nervous).

Richie T

Who would've guessed it'd be this easy winding up England rugby supporters?

Seriously Chaps, I think you have a wonderful team there. Simply wonderful

Clive Woodward is God etc etc..


red

Of course Wales did play well, and the ABs look good (really good) with the ball in their backline's hands, but what must be worrying you redeye, is the ease with which Wales ran through the ABs defence. Goodness only knows what Cohen, Robinson, Lewsey, Greenwood, Tindall, Wilkinson & Dawson will do if you defend that badly.

Even the French might fancy their chances

Looking forward to the next stages, I think it could be tense, really tense .... for all of us!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Patrick Dixon:


Even the French might fancy their chances

QUOTE]


"Even the French"??

I actually have a nasty feeling those guys might ruin everybodys party. They've looked very slick at times and very few pundits are actually picking them. Watch out!


red

quote:

---

Who would've guessed it'd be this easy winding up England rugby supporters?

---

redeye
and.... your point is? well? WELL?
I'm only jealous 'cos your mob has won it and we ain't yet!

xx

Knock-out time is almost here!!! Time this thread got back to the top!

I would just like to pass on my genuine and heart-felt best wishes to all the NZ, Welsh, Irish, Australian, Scottish, English and French forum members out there for their teams' prospects in this weekend's Quarter Finals!!

Bit of a shame that 2 of the "Big 5" have to meet at this point - but mathematically impossible to avoid (more of a shame that NZ meets one of them!). So NZ and Sth Africa have the toughest semi for sure. Lucky Old Aussie (getting Scotland) certainly have the "easiest" Quarter final. England and France should get through comfortably enough - although both Wales and Ireland are capable of an upset. Unlikely though.

So - Richie's picks to make the semi finals:

NZ (please)
England
Australia
France

Richie T

Well,
Richard Hill being doubtful v Wales is no doubt a blow, but England should see them off ok.
They will have to play as well as they did in the 2nd half against SA the whole game v France to beat the French tho....

My predictions.

Scotland embarrassed.

NZ stretched but SA do not have the back line wit to turn pressure into enough points.

Ireland to beat France by raining high balls on a dodgy defence. May be best game of the quarters, lots of points scored?

England stifle Wales with low scoring win.

Bruce

It still worries me that we have no Tana in midfield, South Africa must be delighted with that. Pound for pound our best player no question.

This could be a real nail-biter


red

NZ 29, RSA 9

I hate to say "I told you so" because I didn't, so I won't.

Yeeeeehaaaaaaa !!!!!!!!

Hmm, well results going to 'form' then, but England will have to play a lot better than that to beat France.

So long as the Northern Hemisphere wins it, I'll be happy.

Mmm not convincing - but England still won... grinding it back in the 2nd half.
The sweat continues...

quote:

---

Mmm not convincing - but England still won... grinding it back in the 2nd half.
The sweat continues...

---

You can only beat what is put in front of you. I'm not as confident of success as I was before the tournament, but so far England have done just enough to win, I'll be happy enough if they can do that for another two games

I guess from the quarter finals you could say that France and NZ look to be the teams in form. But as Two-Sheds says - you can only beat what is put in front of you. England have risen to beat everyone recently - so they may well do so again this weekend.

My picks for the semi finals (based on form in the quarter finals):

NZ to beat Australia
France to beat England

But both matches could go either way and you are only as good as your next match - not your last.

In particular the England v France match is very hard to pick. I certainly wouldn't be suprised if England win - but a France win wouldn't suprise me either. Personally I want England to win because I want NZ to play them in the final.

On form, NZ should beat Australia quite comfortably - but if we play badly and Australia play well then anything could happen. Australia have killed us off in the semi finals before and cannot be taken lightly at all.

So a fascinating weekend ahead - edge of the seat stuff - very stressful for proud supporters. I found the NZ v Sth Africa game nerve-wracking to watch because although NZ dominated from the start to finish we struggled to convert our clear advantage into points - and it really wasn't until well into the final quarter of the match that we could relax. In my view the scoreline flattered SA and NZ could have (should have) scored 40 or even 50 points had we converted our early try-scoring opportunties and kicked some goals.

So the weekend gone was Big. The weekend coming is Huge. Bring it on!

Richie T

Its kinda starting to look like a NZ v France final isn't it?

Thought the French loose forwards were brilliant at times. This side seems very focused compared to a lot of the French teams in the past. I'll pick them to beat England.

AB's should put the Wallabies away without too many dramas. No disrespect to the Aussies but apart from a couple of huge wins against very weak opposition they've been pretty poor. Some of their standout players of the past simply aren't performing and the league recruits aren't quite up to this level (yet).

I'm with Richie on wanting a NZ/Eng final though, simply because at the moment I think we stand a better chance of beating Eng than France.

What a difference a month can make.

red

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
My predictions.

Scotland embarrassed.

---

Beaten - YES
Embarrassed - NO

There's no disgrace losing to a better team !

Well, the performance today does not leave me with a great deal of confidence for the game against France. If France are on song I have a horrible feeling England will be on a plane back home.

Back to today's game - I thought Mike Catt's second half appearance was somewhat timely. I am concerned though that the indiscipline cannot be reigned in. Shaky stuff.

The Welsh can return with their heads held high - I didn't think I would be saying that before the tournament.

Regards

Mike

The only person embarrassed in the Scotland game was the referee, who was awful! Frankly neither side looked very inspired. So many errors by Austrlia it is hard to see them putting one over NZ, even if they continue to get away with their usual tactics of feigned injuries and deliberate obstruction. Scotland won enough ball to have won if only they had some wit and invention out wide. Townsend was totally invisible (again).

France were on fire. France/NZ final must be the neutrals choice and unless it all 'clicks' England will not change that. At least they started to use Robinson better, he gets more room and opportunities at full back and should stay there IMHO.


Bruce

quote:

---

The only person embarrassed in the Scotland game was the referee, who was awful!

---

Yes, he was awful. He had no idea about the offside rule. Australia were running blockers all the time, it was more like grid-iron than proper rugby. Incidentally he's the same guy that got banned for the England (v Samoa) after-match fracas. So much for neutral officials.

Oh yes, he's from New Zealand!!!

I think (hope) the winner will come from France/England. I think New Zealand will be very good in the future, but they're not quite there yet. Australia (at home) won't be pushovers either.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.