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Rugby Just Gets Better


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Well deserved - IMO the Boks were  a bit lucky that it wasn't 25-10, though it didn't look like that in the 1st half.  Kearney was the proverbial 'rock'.

I see that France got stuffed by the All Blacks yesterday evening.

I liked Stephen Jones' comment in the ST this morning - "(the Wallabies, in soundly beating Wales) found a way round one of rugby's most difficult problems - how to lose to the Scots" .

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I'm over the Henry incident now. Stuff like that happens all the time in football, it was just such a high profile match that it got extra publicity. I expect to see similar things in todays Merseyside derby, particularly from a certain Steven Gerrard.

But at the end of the day, it was just one bloke who did it, and it doesn't mean every Frenchman is a cheat, just most of them [;-)]

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[quote user="UlsterRugby1999"]How good was that. Ireland 15 - South Africa 10. Best still is the demise of ROBOT O'Gara. Jonny Sexton was immense. Roll on the 6 Nations. [:D][:D][/quote]

Great performance by the Irish.  Sexton...yes, agreed, a terrific game.

The last couple of minutes I wasf out of my seat "willing" them to keep SA out through the mist.

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[quote user="DerekJ"][quote user="UlsterRugby1999"]How good was that. Ireland 15 - South Africa 10. Best still is the demise of ROBOT O'Gara. Jonny Sexton was immense. Roll on the 6 Nations. [:D][:D][/quote]

Great performance by the Irish.  Sexton...yes, agreed, a terrific game.

The last couple of minutes I wasf out of my seat "willing" them to keep SA out through the mist.
[/quote]

Sure aren't you a mighty man of yourself. I'm only getting my voice back now. Mind you, the rest of the family have enjoyed their morning of peace and quiet. [:D][;-)][:D]

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[quote user="Richard"]I'm over the Henry incident now. Stuff like that happens all the time in football, it was just such a high profile match that it got extra publicity. I expect to see similar things in todays Merseyside derby, particularly from a certain Steven Gerrard.[/quote]

Nevertheless, it's about time EUFA joined the 21st century got video footage available to the refs.

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Video refs take too much of the game away for me. Controversy is part and parcel of the game. Sure it's not perfect, but what is in life?

UEFA are trialing an extra two officials at each end of the pitch to focus on incedents in the and around the penalty area. This is being trialled in the new Europa Cup this season. I think this is a better solution personally. It should eliminate most missed incedents or poor decisions by the ref while still allowing the human element of the game.

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Most other sports have video support for the refs without any issues.  The hand ball in the France v Ireland game was a fairly major 'imperfection' which leaves neither side happy.  If France do go on to win it will be a very hollow victory and most will say they only won because they cheated.

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Disagree, if France go on to win it, it proves that they should have been there in place of Ireland anyway.

Whatever happens from now on is irrelevant to that match now. France will always have a better chance of winning it than Ireland because they have better players in every position.

It can be argued that England never deserved to win the World Cup in 66 because the third goal didn't cross the line and the fourth shoun't have counted because there were spectators on the pitch. It's all part of the beautiful game and controversy is a big and important part. It generally evens itself out anyway. Look at England's record against the Germans since! lol

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[quote user="Richard"]

France will always have a better chance of winning it than Ireland because they have better players in every position.

[/quote]

...and because they have the support of EUFA.  The teams with the bigger following (and higher advertising revenues) were bound to get preference - hence the lack of support for a rematch.

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Agreed Gardian. I went to post the same thing yesterday but decided against it. But I'm going to respond to the Henry issue quickly

Richard off side (as Keane was) and handling twice are not the same thing and while they are both ref errors, Keane didnt do anything illegal whereas Henry certainly did and twice. Each are incorrect but thats where the similarities stop. Moreover, Georgia werent put out of the competition at that stage whereas Ireland were. Finally, they are both proof that the bent game of soccer needs a bloody good clean up including a system to counter awful ref decisions.

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[quote user="dragonrouge"]Richard of course the toffees also went down the pan. Equally during the greatest years of the toffees they were of course some Welsh players in their side? I wonder whether you had forgotten that.[/quote]

Nope, not at all, Southall, one of the greatest keepers ever, Ratcliffe great centre defender along with Van Den Hauwe (although Belgian born, qualified to play for Wales through his Welsh mother I believe). Wonderful players, part of the most successful period of the club's history.

The thing is, I have Australian citizenship as well as English, so I am happy Australia beat the Welsh. [:)]

As for Everton, well, they have been very poor all season, although I was very happy with the performance yesterday where they dominated Liverpool the whole game. Was a shame they lost but they were hit by the soccer punch.

Henry did cheat, and most other players would have done the same thing. It's the ref's job to sort it at the time, those are the rules. And many other critical games have also ended with some sort of injustice. That's life. As I say, an extra two officials rather than video technology in football will be sufficient to counter 90% of poor decisions, including the Henry incident.

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I don't remember many of the home nations complaining about the 'hand of god' episode. In fact I think most people outside England probably thought it quite amusing. If Fifa didn't change 20 years ago, i'm not sure why it would change for this Henry episode.

Re the Irish rugby game, yes it was great to see the Irish win, but the lack of tries this autumn and constant kicking makes for long periods of dull ping pong. The break down is a complete disaster, what happened to the concept of going over the top not being legal. It is a complete joke.

Oh and one last thing, I havn't seen a kick off in recent times where players didn't cross the line before the fly half had kicked. Sometimes they can be 3 or 4 yards offside.

Lastly, you have to be concerned about Johnson's game plans. Too many times we are hearing the England coaches appologising for wrong tactics, and characters like Care saying it's good to be back at club rugby where he can feel free to express himself and play freely. I can't imagine comments like that coming from tri-nation teams

Moan over.

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In rugby the video ref is normally only called on when there is doubt by the ref when it comes to scoring a try. The video ref does not 'stop' the game because he see's something either the ref or touch judges didn't. Therefore the game has already stopped (and the clock has stopped) when the ref asks for the opinion of the video ref. Therefore it has not 'slowed down' the 'flow' of the game.

Now it looks like Sepp Blatter will be pushed in to using video refs with football. His claim that "it (is) time-wasting and an interruption to the free flow of the game" should it be implemented in the same way as rugby are unfounded. Likewise he also said "The laws of the game are 124 years old and the referee’s decision has always been final.". Well nobody has said to the contrary. Like in rugby the ref on the pitch is the one that makes the final decision and can quite simply overrule what the video ref has said if he wishes (although not the best of ideas). The ref on the field always has the final say and so it should be in football should this be implemented.

Now keeping that in mind lets move on to the incident with Henry, it was a clear goal. Only if there was some doubt would the ref have asked for the video refs opinion. So actually if the same system of video reffing was employed in football as it is in rugby the goal would still stand because he never saw Henry touch the ball as the prequel to the goal being scored by the other player and you would still be in the same situation as you are now.

As any rugby player/supporter will tell you there's quite a bit that goes on, much of quite illegal, that the ref (and the touch judge) never see, the odd punch, kick or stamp. The only thing that does happen is if there is a complaint after the match the video is looked at and action can be taken against the player(s) concerned. This is what I think should happen to Henry, something like a 4 international match ban.

The other thing that comes to mind when such a thing is seen by the ref and a yellow card given that it should be the same as rugby i.e. sin bin for 10 minutes.

Anyway we have to wait till tomorrow to find out what will happen long term, the extra officials at each end of the pitch that's to be implemented is only a temporary thing.

(Source of quotes etc The Times)

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[quote user="Richard"]The extra officials at the end of either end of the pitch is in force now, but only as a trial and in the Europa Cup only. Personally, I think that is the way to go and we will see at the end of the season if it has been successful or not.[/quote]

Yes, quite right, but according to The Times a vote will be held tomorrow (Wednesday 2nd Dec) by all the delegates to say yes or no to video ref's.

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