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Rugby World Cup, anyone?


mint
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England/Australia - Good game but England the better team. Worth the price of a ticket.

New Zeeland/Ireland - Any team could have looked good against Ireland yesterday. It was almost like they didn't turn up.

France/Wales - Seen school teams play better. Both were pretty terrible it's just France was a bit more terrible than Wales. So many dropped balls, so many bad tackles. It should have been two red cards by the way, one a piece.

RSA/Japan - Two things can happen. Japan gets slaughtered or there will be an excellent game and Japan gets through. With over 200 days of practice together as a team it shows and I wouldn't bet on them one way or the other. Fickle game is rugby.

I do not think England needs to be scared of the All Blacks, worried yes but if they put their mind to it they can win. The current team is about the best one England has had for many a year.

Wales - Can't see them going much further than the semi's.

Mind you anything can happen.
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France really surprised themselves by getting ahead, but in the end bungled it by serious indiscipline and poor game management. They’re leading by 6 pts 10 mins or so from full time and have a scrum close to the Welsh line - should have gone for a drop goal by Lopez (who is a drop specialist). Messed it up.

Wales were worse than at any time in recent years - very lucky to get away with it.

RSA just ground Japan down in the end. The 1st half was entertaining, but the rest had an air of inevitability about it.

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Don’t know WB.

However, I see that the ref from yesterday’s Wales vs France match has been photographed with a bunch of Wales supporters. Mock elbows in the face stuff, simulating the assault which led to him sending off the French lock.

World Rugby are ‘investigating’ and the French RFU are (understandably) less than amused.

That’s the end of his international refereeing career I’d say. No loss IMO - he was awful yesterday.

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I think that both matches are pretty hard to call.

First, us Eng vs NZ. Normally, you’d say that the All Blacks would win 9 times out of 10, but I’d say that the gap has narrowed. Obviously, I really want us to win - Jones certainly isn’t daft and he’ll have been planning for this match ever since the draw was made. My head says NZ and my heart England. Sorry - fence sitting.

RSA vs Wales? I just feel that the Springboks are going to be a bit too strong for a Welsh side that has lost players through injury and has a few who are on the edge of fitness. There won’t be much in it though.

What I really want though is two cracking semi finals (sadly, semis rarely are though) where, whatever the result you can say that the better team won. No lucky final score or contentious scores.

That plonker of a ref (Jacob Peyper) has been stood down for the semis and its hard to imagine that he’ll play any further part.

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I have just spoken on the phone to someone who is off to Japan tomorrow for the semis and the final.

Like you, he thinks both matches can be won by either team.  I don't have his confidence in the Welsh though we both think NZ should beat England.

I agree about the contentious scores and lucky last minute scores, like Wales against France.  TBH, I thought that overall the French played better and I blame the idiot who was sent off only a few minutes into the second half!  What a blithering idiot!

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Apart from England feeling sorry for the All Blacks and letting them have a very easy try it was a good game. I don't think it matters who wins tomorrow based on what we saw today because England have basically already won the cup.

I know somebody who paid 300 Euros for a ticket to that game and they just sent me a text saying it was the best money they have ever spent (on a sport).
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The All Blacks were never in it, were they?

Apart from the soft try that we conceded, they never looked like scoring. No kickable penalties given away by us. Underhill & Itoje were superb.

Before the match, I read in the paper that you could get 9/4 for an England win - those odds were far too long !

Hope that we’re injury-free.

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[quote user="Cathar Tours"] I don't think it matters who wins tomorrow based on what we saw today because England have basically already won the cup.

.[/quote]

Today’s result showed that until two teams face each other on the pitch on the day of the match all the hype and predictions in the world are irrelevant. England have beaten Australia and New Zealand on the way to their World Cup final but until the final has actually started their form in different matches counts for very little. If Wales face them in the final Wales will expect to win, if it’s South Africa I’m sure that they won’t just be there to make up numbers either.
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After the final whistle today it was great to see the respect that the two teams have for each other being displayed. The All Blacks must have been far more than disappointed but they understood that they hadn’t been beaten by the weather, by bad refereeing or by unlucky bounces, on the day they had been beaten by a better team and respected that. England respected that their victory meant so much because of who they had beaten. Sportsmanship at its best.
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If you mean football then it's South Africa v Wales because the ball has spent more time in the air. If you mean rugby then I don't think anyone has. Like I said with the standard of play today it will be a walk over for England.

I don't understand when you look at the stats during the game why Wales does not have at least two tries on SA.
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I am no international rugby expert but to me it was two teams who were frightened to death of losing rather than winning and there is a massive difference.

If SA turn up next weekend with the same mentality then England will be over them like a rash and I expect a big English score. Could be our best world cup win ever.
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[quote user="Cathar Tours"]If you mean football then it's South Africa v Wales because the ball has spent more time in the air. If you mean rugby then I don't think anyone has. Like I said with the standard of play today it will be a walk over for England.

I don't understand when you look at the stats during the game why Wales does not have at least two tries on SA.[/quote]

You really don’t have much of a clue do you. Today’s match was played on the pitch not in the air, a hard physical game between two teams who had a very good chance of winning right up to the 78th minute. A very different match to yesterday’s but that’s what happens.

It’s all set up for a fascinating final.
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"hard physical game"

That's the difference, England played a quick running game which SA and Wales don't seem to be able to play. Jones has done a fantastic job in the lead up to the World Cup. Some will ask how come Wales beat them in 6N, simple he was still experimenting.

The game against NZ showed a fast game wins. Also NZ were not prepared for being pushed over the line when in possession. This is schoolboy rugby, if you can't get the guy down push him sideways over the line with the ball but players seem to grow out of this as they mature.

NZ players were waving their arms around when England did this, called it un sports man like but England played to win within the rules and anything goes within the rules.

Another advantage of playing quick rugby is you can gain penalties. Bigger players commit to a tackle but being slower end up tackling the player after the ball has been passed.

We will see next weekend and the best team will of course win.

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Seems I was totally wrong , England didn't turn up mentally for the game.

Wilkinson said just before the game that its all in the head and your mental preparations are most important. It seemed to me that SA turned up wanting to win and England turned up frightened of losing. If it were not for that the score would have, should have, been the other way round.

There was no fast ball like there was against NZ and to give 8 penalties away (one was missed but made little difference) shows how England paid little attention to the coaches. You do not want to scrummage with SA, they nearly always get a penalty from them. WE have seen this time after time and it is what they do best.

I don't care much for de Klerk, I think he is an arrogant little "Richard" head but he is an excellent player. He was always there and his kicking when required is pretty good as well.

I feel sorry for Jones on his "last day". He has done a lot for English international rugby but even he can't make miracles happen.

SA are justly celebrating but once they sober up they might like to consider there is little kudos in beating a team that looked like a Sunday morning pub team on the day.
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So disappointing.

You wouldn’t have said that it was the same team that won so convincingly last Saturday, but we were frankly never in it. I think that reflects great credit on the Springboks, who just strangled us out of it.

There wasn’t one England player who you could say had a good game. Gatland was right when he said that teams who have a good semi final often leave that form behind in the final.

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