Rugby world cup - great weekends worth of rugby

[h0ughy]

Well i just caught some of the opening ceremony and now (rather delayed) the game between Tonga and New Zealand....... and there are 48 matches to see over the next few weeks......

[wavelandscott]

Although the time zone is a killer, I am very excited to get the RWC started...

I hope the Aussie Team does well. My whole family is wearing green and gold today in tribute...

The USA is gunning for win #4 in the RWC and may have actually a chance to find it...I sure wish I was there!

[Saturn%5]

World cup should be great to watch, also the nrl finals, at last decent screening times down here in Tas, and dare i say it go Knights :P

[ngcles]

Hi Scott,



Well Scott, who are you going to cheer for when the Wallabies play the USA on the 23rd of September ?? Win 4 for the USA will probably come against Russia in the pool matches on 15th September -- won't that be a war and a half!

I am looking forward to the rugby-fest too. The Kiwi's start deserved favorites as they have consistently been the best team in world rugby for the last several years at least. But, the Wallabies have shown that they are beatable. Will the All-Blacks get their traditional world-cup wobbles? One thing I think this world cup will highlight will the the gap between northern and southern hemisphere rugby.


Best,

Les D

[AstralTraveller]

Carn the Wallabies.




It might also highlight the difference between northern and southern referees - something of which Australia could fall foul.


BTW Test cricket's not such a bad game either, is it Susy. :poke:

[h0ughy]

gee i think the all blacks need to be renamed the wobblys - pretty average against Tonga

[wavelandscott]

On the 23rd it will be the green and gold and a hope no one is injured...on the 15th it is all red white and blue...

[FJA]

England are appallingly bad, 3-9 down against Argentina and Jonny Wilkinson has missed three penalty kicks. This is as bad as I've seen England who look like the All Blacks in their changed strip but aren't playing like them. Architects of their own downfall... :mad2:

[FJA]

That was close, but England have GOT to improve for the rest of the tournament.

A streaker in the early second half was more entertaining than the dross served up in the game.

[h0ughy]

bugger i was hoping for argentina to win - they deserved it

[FJA]

They did, but England finally got their act together in the last quarter.

That. Was. Dross.

*If I heard (or read) an Aussie ever saying they hoped England would win, I would be calling a doctor. ;) :lol:

[ngcles]

Hi All



Yes it was a very ordinary diplay by the Poms (that's an understatement) and the black jerseys are just all wrong for them -- very shallow attempt by the poms to garner some support playing in NZ. They were fortunate to get away with a narrow victory. Both teams played very negative rugby riddled with errors (despite the good conditions) and nobody seemed to be able to kick goals. Big alarm-bells ringing in the England camp this morning I'd think.

The other thing that annoyed me was that it was replayed so late in the night and consequently Ch 9 shoved 10 gazillion ads in there. Surely it could have had a much earlier slot and/or live on GEM or GO.

Very nice new all-weather stadium at Dunedin but its kinda sad that Carisbrook (aka "the house of pain") is now gone as a venue.


Best,

Les D

[Gem]

Despite being of Scottish descent, and usually having Scotland as my secondary team - I couldn't help but barrack for Romania as they NEARLY did it to the Scots. 24-21 up with ten minutes to go! Go the underdog!!! :)

[AstralTraveller]

Much as I hate to side with the Kiwis, Poms in black is just wrong. What where they thinking? Sorry but there is only one team with the right to wear black and that's the chokers across the ditch.

As for the game, staying up was a waste of sleep. Neither team looked like they know what a try-line is and played with the all urgency of a Sunday siesta. The pumas battered away at 9-man rugby. England did try to run on occasions but they were less inventive than a schoolyard insult. Simply passing along the backline with no decoys or change of angle won't scare professional teams. Yet last year England played good inventive rugby that made Aust look flat - what happened?? Is it the return of the goal-kicking robot? Both teams also need to learn this century's the breakdown rules. How many penalties were conceded by tacklers hanging on, players not releasing the ball, entering from the side or playing the ball while on the ground?

So, having shot my mouth off about other teams shortcomings I hope the Wallabies don't embarrass me. :rolleyes:

[andrew2008]

Wobs 6 - 6 Italy at half time.

Bit worried there hasnt been an upset after a couple of close calls so far and really hope this isnt the first. Not watching it but from the commentary on the official app it looks like our discipline has been terrible and there defence very solid.

[Gem]

Solid perforance. Perfect hit out to start up with. Enjoying this World Cup already!! :)

[mithrandir]

It must have been me turning on the TV just after half time that turned 6-6 into 32-6.

[FJA]

All the 'bigger teams' have struggled so far - nerves? SA struggled against Wales this morning (evening) and scraped a win, although Wales are no mugs. Even Wallabies were up against it into the second half.

As for our team in black, I agree, it looks wrong. If you're going to look like the ABs, at least try and play like them! I also hope that England haven't reverted to the boring kicking game, just trying to win penalties. Please, England, white kit for the next game...

[Ric]

There has been some great rugby from what I have seen so far.

No real surprises as yet but there may be a few to come though.

[AstralTraveller]

I thought the Aust Ilaty game was a good hit out for us. Italy are a good looking team and I'm surprised they haven't won more matches in the Six Nations. Perhaps they did overuse the box kick but then Aust kept dropping it so why wouldn't you? At times they showed some attacking flair and they could easily have had the first try - and then who knows what could have happened?

The ref blew the pea out of his whistle for the first 15 minutes. I understand they are trying to set a standard and that is fair enough but there was no continuity in the play. In the second quarter Aust got their pick and drive game going forward and started to look good, even though they didn't crack Italy until the second half. If they can keep control and string phases together they'll worry every team.

Quade Cooper has a bit of the Campo about him. Inventive, sometimes brilliant but also prone to goosing up. It cost us 3 points this time in a match that wasn't close. I just hope he doesn't gift any points to any of the major teams latter in the tournament, it could really cost us. As far as I know theree were no injuries so we will be at full strength next week against Ireland. I reckon O'Connor will be back in the starting 15.

[h0ughy]

the only thing i really hate at the moment is the lack of support to show matched live by nine australia!!!! you dont get to see the other pool matches and the ones that they do are so late..... SBS would have done it better!
be great if scotland get through and argentina LOL and england fail to qualify - teach them for wearing all black

[andrew2008]

Very glad i have Foxtel here houghy. Massive rugby tragic so i couldn't be without it for the Test seasons here and abroad as well as the Super Rugby. Nine also have the rights to show a Super Rugby hightlights show that i never saw advertised after it was on after midnight the first week. Hopefully some success will change this.

Great first round of games. Feel for the Welsh and Argentina who should have won. Looks like this will be a much better tournament than France 2007.

[ngcles]

Hi David & All,



Yes the ref did give the whistle a good workout but he was a northern hemisphere ref so what's new? Let's hope that when we get down to the business end of the tournament, that they will be over the whistle blowing fetish but more importantly be able to see through Ricthie McCaw's "cloak of invisibility" as I read in an article in the Herald the other day:

http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/a-word-on-the-all-blacks-play-cheats-20110831-1jl9l.html

and I agree with it certainly so far as McCaw is concerned (the word cheating is a bit strong here though I think). It seems everyone else in the world (including the T.V cameras) can see Richie McCaw standing off-side at the breakdown almost all the time, loitering around the finges of the ruck a metre or two ahead of where he is allowed, stifling the attack if not deliberately interfering with the passage of the ball and his opponents and slowing the play down. He doesn't do it sometimes, it is frequent and I wish the refs would somehow de-cloak him -- everyone else can for goodness sake! Walter Mattfield (S.A) is also good at doing this but McCaw has turned it into an art-form.

Re Quade Cooper -- yep David agree. He is very much one of those sorts of players like Campo who can either win or loose you a game in a twinkling. All the same I'd much rather have him in the side than out. An experiment I'd like to see the Wallabies try against one of the lesser nations (USA, Russia) in a fortnight is to play Cooper at inside centre outside of O'Connor at fly-half. I think it would give him a bit of extra room to move and O'Connor has a great eye for the game. Personally, I think O'Connor is destined to play fly-half after Cooper moves on to play rugby league (which somewhow I think won't work out for him -- but he seems to have his heart set on it).

Looking forward to the game -v- Ireland.


Best,

Les D

[FJA]

It's only the change strip, it'll probably be white again next match. The ABs wear white as their change strip.

[Gem]

Give me Campo over Cooper!

[wavelandscott]

Woo Hoo the USA won a match!!!

[FJA]

Well done Ireland.

England are in action again tomorrow, I'm hoping for a better effort against Georgia than they made against Argentina.

[h0ughy]

thats a spioler as nine here is aus are not showing the match yet, may start in 5 min

[FJA]

Oops, sorry H0ughy, I didn't think it wouldn't be shown live over there. That's surprising. :shrug:

[ngcles]

Hi All,

The Irishmen were very good and deserved their win. We were very, very ordinary. Not the end of the section by any means, just makes things a bit harder. Well done to the Irish!


Best,

Les D

[mithrandir]

It was live, as long as you pay for cable/satellite. Rather a spoiler seeing it live at the pizza shop getting take-away then going home where it wasn't on for another 2 hours. It appears the national rugby league semi-finals are more important than the rugby (union) world cup.

[gbeal]

It's similar/the same here. If you want live, you pay, simple as that. I wait. There are a few games on "Maori Television" which are live, the Ireland/Australia one last night was one of them. Good game, ordinary footy from you fellows, but we all know how you can bounce back. I just hope the "choker" moniker that was used in relation to the All Blacks at the start of this thread is equally applied with respect to this game.
Gary

[h0ughy]

more than that Gary - it was shameful. There was no order or conviction with the Aussies and their set plays are so readable now that the Irish had them more than covered - which resulted in a no try game. Well done to the Irish to keep them at bay and make the wannabees play dumb rugby:sadeyes:

[gbeal]

Agree with you Huff, but anybody that writes them off at this early stage has not followed enough Wallaby footy. They'll be back. Good to see the Irish do what they did though, everyone me included, had written them off as easy-beats. Not any more.
Gary

[dj gravelrash]

the ref was irelands 16th man ...........joke.........not happy jan

[Gem]

Need to change the title of this thread now!! :)

[Gem]

Ohh... and in my opinion: DROP COOPER!

[AstralTraveller]

The game highlighted a few points.


How valuable Stephen Moore is. For one thing he can throw straight, he's good around the park and the scrum is better with him there.
How valuable Pocock is. Our rucking didn't look nearly as good without him
How important it is to not have to change a team just before the game. At least some of the disjointed play was due to that.
Australia still isn't good against northern hemisphere style play. We looked all at sea against the rolling maul and we'd prefer to defend against a team that plays with ball in hand than a kick and chase style. How many bombs did we spill?
How important it is to get our pick and drive game working. Ireland mostly nullified it and so our backs didn't get any room to move.

I'm trying to find a silver lining and it may be that we are unlikely to face a northern hemisphere team in the quarter and semifinals (assuming we get that far - an upset by the USA isn't entirely out of the question). At the moment we seem to have SA covered, but of course they have just had a lot of quality players return from injury. If we have to play NZ it is probably better in the semi than in the final. They'll be bloody near unbeatable in the semi but they'd be 10 times harder to beat in the final.

I suppose I had better adopt the Irish as my second favourite team. After all there is less shame in being beaten by the team that go on to win the tournament. :rolleyes:

[BPO]

"Rugby world cup"?

What's that?

[TinyBlueDot]

A strange game where a ball rolls around in a field then all these guys jump on top of it - and onto each other - then the ball somehow comes out, and they do it all over again......sometimes they kick it over some sticks, and most of them have electrical tape wrapped around their ears........gimme AFL any time :P

[AstralTraveller]

Why doesn't someone start a thread about the AFL finals?? :shrug::shrug: Then I could dis their sport. :poke:

[BPO]

Oh...nothing to do with astronomy, then? So why would anyone care, in that case?

[wavelandscott]

Waiting for the USA v AUS broadcast here in the States...for the record, we are wearing green and gold.

Match should start soon!

[h0ughy]

wow your even more delayed than us;) enjoy the match:thumbsup:

[dj gravelrash]

Romania v Eng ---To be honest Romania were woeful lol:rofl:.

[h0ughy]

nz vs france on now - the french are a bit behind

[ballaratdragons]

its all so exciting :party2:

[wavelandscott]

Interesting match (in as much as I don't get to see much rugby here it was fun to watch a match)...I hope the skill level improves as the competition heats up. A lot of people got "dinged up" so hope they recover for the next round.

[h0ughy]

nz won agsinst the hot and cold french in an entertaining match

[h0ughy]

i am sick of no coverage by nine

[wavelandscott]

Ha, I am sick of little to no coverage from anyone!

[h0ughy]

point taken

[Octane]

At the backpackers lodge at Mount Cook, in a room full of Scottish supporters, I watched the Argentinians beat them by one point. LOL!

That room was deathly quiet except for the one French guy (Argentinian supporter) who spoke naught a word of English, cheekily laughing.

It was gold!

H

[Ric]

I know what you mean Dave, it's like its not even happening. If it wasn't for the internet I'd be getting no updates.

[gbeal]

How is the Land of the Wrong White Crowd treating you H??
Gary

[Octane]

Hi Gary,

See here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=81138

Cheers. :)

H

[h0ughy]

wel all i can say is go russia......they are playing great. pity they are 40 behind

[h0ughy]

brilliant the Welsh are through and now i see the french are putting England to the sword LOL oh i hope they finish the poms off LOL

[gbeal]

16-0 at half time, it's a bit early for that Huff.
Gary

[h0ughy]

oh come on you can hope cant you ... LOL

[gbeal]

No need to, it's over. Good result I say. Your guys turn tomorrow. Big game against them Yarpies too.
Gary

[h0ughy]

i hope we win

[gbeal]

So do I to be honest. Heck, did I say that aloud?
Gary

[bartman]

Rugby....Meh.....

[h0ughy]

WOW so you do support Australia

[gbeal]

He he, it's probably a deep down thought that whoever wins in tonights games plays each other next weekend, and the feeling I have is I'd rather see the Oz/Nz clash.

[AstralTraveller]

Frankly I think Australia will need a considerable form reversal to get up, though perhaps not of French proportions. The Boks haven't been in top shape either and both teams have had problems getting their best team on the field. I'd have had both Sharpe and Barnes starting - I hope they both get good game time. Sharpe's work in the lineout and in the open has been great and Barnes gives us much more attack while still being defensively sound.

[h0ughy]

well its 10 min into the match and even though its 0 all i think the boks have well and truely got the measure of the aussies. i think it wont be long before the flood gates are opened:sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

oh my goodness how did we get that try......

[Octane]

Is it on free-to-air?

H

[h0ughy]

it is in the hunter

[gbeal]

You guys are playing like the team of old, told you all not to write them off. Close game.

[h0ughy]

now the boks are on the way back

[h0ughy]

bugger we are now losing

[Octane]

Woohoo! 11-9!

H

[h0ughy]

WOW how did we win that one......

[AstralTraveller]

The magic formula: no ball, no territory, lineout in disarray, lotsa guts.

[gbeal]

Same old story with you Ozzies, you always seem to have a get out of jail card.
Now all we have to do is beat the Pumas.
Gary

[troypiggo]

How good was that??!!!! Awesome game to watch at pub surrounded by kiwis. Hahaha aha.

[h0ughy]

Sooooo NZ's turn

[h0ughy]

well nz got through, so mr beal will be happy

[barx1963]

Don't understand the game(much to my fathers disgust), rules are a complete mystery, but really enjoyed the match.

Malcolm

[wavelandscott]

I was pleased to awaken this morning to learn of the Austalian victory...wish I could have seen it live. I came back from a night of showing the night sky to find that the game was not being shown ecept on PPV. Bring on the All Blacks!

[gbeal]

Yep, but I'd be happier if we were playing you guys in the final.
The idea of a Southern Hemisphere/Northern Hemisphere final has little appeal to me.

[AstralTraveller]

If it's any consolation, we'll try to do the South proud in the final! :P

BTW I'd love to see Wales get through. Not that I have anything for the Welsh or against the frogs (well not much ;)) - it's just that Wales has never been in a final (nor a semi for that matter).

[h0ughy]

we when we get there i will think of the new zealand contribution:rofl:;) to us winning the finals

[h0ughy]

well all i can say is go Wales!! for tonight anyway ;)

[AndyK]

Tragic result :(

I wonder if there's a charitable institution somewhere for blind referees. There must be room for one more inmate surely?
OK, that tackle may have deserved a penalty ... but a red card? ... never!

[h0ughy]

yes indeed.

[AstralTraveller]

I agree with the commentator that said the better team lost and I was barracking for Wales (see above) ... but that tackle had to be a red card. It wasn't really the refs decision. If you lift a player it's your responsibility to put him down safely and that means shoulders above the hips. You can't get him base above apex and then drop him. I'm sure the refs have had clear instructions about that and the ref followed them. It's a real pity that a rush of blood had such consequences. That's two one point loses Wales suffered in the tournament. If it's any consolation the player involved is quite young and so is the team in general and I reckon that they have a bright future.

[h0ughy]

well only mintues to go for what i will call the big one....... ;) lets hope for an Aussie victory, and NZ choke LOL

[h0ughy]

well there is 33 min left - congratulations NZ

[gbeal]

Righto, it appears you have indeed shot your mouth off, and the chokers were you guys.
Summary justice I reckon.
Mind you another game to go for us, but at least we won this one.
Gary

[gbeal]

Cheers Huff. Good to se us get one up, it is not as often as you think.
Gary

[h0ughy]

Well Gary you and other Temporary Australians across the ditch should be celebrating right now:thumbsup::P:rofl:

[gbeal]

I have been all day, but man oh man, lack of fingernails now. Close, and typical French, unpredictable.
I felt sorry for them actually, then thought, they are feeling what they caused us to feel 4 years ago.
Good match, and a good tournament all round I reckon. Auckland CBD is absolutely chokka full at the moment.
Gary

[multiweb]

Watched the game against wales and thought they played so bad that if they did the same against NZ that'd be a very painful experience. That game was rough but both team played some terrific rugby from the get go. All that one expected for a world cup final. Well done the blacks. By the skin of your teeth.;) And vive la France. They did well too.

[ZeroID]

My fingernails will grow back soon ... I hope. What a bloody nail biter.
Credit to the French for beleiving in themselves and playing their hearts out. Just watched the parade and hoopla in the streets today on TV and you can see the physical damge many of the team are carrying. Didn't realise they had taken so much punishment. Walking wounded most of them.
Don't know whether to be happy it's finally over or sorry to see the end of it all. Now what do we do !!