RWC 2015

[Hunky Dory]

I thought Billy V didn't drink?

[TheExcession]

Derek Smith said:

I thought Italy might do it, Got to love 'em for the effort.

I never really saw Italy doing it tonight, what doesn't worry me more is that we're seeing the 'tiny' teams causing what could be classed as chaos against the 'big nations'.

Japan v South Africa
Wales v England -
Argentina v Tonga

The little fellas aren't quite so little.

Italy should have 'almost' beaten Ireland tonight.

It really has been a phenomenal tournament so far, loads of surprises, just the way it should be.

In my mind it is about playing Rugby, watching great Rugby and so not necessarily worrying about who is winning.

[phil_cardiff]

Hunky Dory said:

I thought Billy V didn't drink?

He grew up in Gwent, I'd be surprised if he didn't!

[Derek Smith]

TheExcession said:

I never really saw Italy doing it tonight, what doesn't worry me more is that we're seeing the 'tiny' teams causing what could be classed as chaos against the 'big nations'.

Japan v South Africa
Wales v England -
Argentina v Tonga

The little fellas aren't quite so little.

Italy should have 'almost' beaten Ireland tonight.

It really has been a phenomenal tournament so far, loads of surprises, just the way it should be.

In my mind it is about playing Rugby, watching great Rugby and so not necessarily worrying about who is winning.

I agree. The rugby's been great. These wins by the emerging nations can only be good for the sport.

[Joey Ramone]

el stovey said:

Wales are still in the RWC and England aren't. Wales not only survived England's group of death but beat England to get there. Sounds like if anyone has the right to gloat at England getting knocked out, it's the Welsh. All this with England having home advantage and being the first hosts ever to not progress to the next round.

Gloating about winning the World Cup in 2003 seems to be clutching at straws a bit really.

bks. Wales beat a young, inexperienced and st England team suffering from hugely divisive selection issues, a non-captain and a malfunctioning senior leadership team. Hooray, pat yourselves on the back. Want to gob off about our record in the world cup? One it once, twice finalists, once semi-finalists, twice quarter finalists. Beat that, then gloat. And if you win this one, I'll be the first to congratulate any Welshman or Welsh-woman for it. 6 nations are great, but unless it's got the big three SH nations in it, then it doesn't really count.

[hornetrider]

Oh dear lads this is all a bit unseemly. It's a rugby thread not football

[Dr Banjo]

I have a feeling that the whole debacle is going to get worse before it gets any better, oh and I'm not talking about this tread

We could all see what was coming but hopefully some good can come from this, but it probably will not.

Robshaw and his gormless hangdog expression.. at least I don't have to see that for a while (Probably a top bloke but to make him captain was totally unfair as the raw material was never present.)

[photosnob]

Joey Ramone said:

bks. Wales beat a young, inexperienced and st England team suffering from hugely divisive selection issues, a non-captain and a malfunctioning senior leadership team. Hooray, pat yourselves on the back. Want to gob off about our record in the world cup? One it once, twice finalists, once semi-finalists, twice quarter finalists. Beat that, then gloat. And if you win this one, I'll be the first to congratulate any Welshman or Welsh-woman for it. 6 nations are great, but unless it's got the big three SH nations in it, then it doesn't really count.

Wales were the better team on the day.

England could have selected an older more experienced team. The coaches selected the team they though presented the best chance of winning... And they are not the young either. Please look up the average age of the squad and compare it to others. The age and experience of the squad is an excuse. Nothing more - nothing less.

Congratulations to Wales. Congratulations to Aus.

There is still come brilliant rugby to be played during the WC. Can't we just enjoy and celebrate that - rather than engage in petty arguing over who has the biggest dick. England are presented the biggest tournament in Rugby. I still was proud watching the Olympics in London even when Bolt was dominating the sprinting. I was proud that my country was putting on something fantastic. And I feel the same about the rugby. So let's get behind the tournament now.

[Kaj91]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

As an Irishman, though not necessarily a rugby fan, I found it very hard to take any joy in England's defeat last night, well maybe a wee bit. Maybe it was the opposition, or maybe as a nation we have matured, but no one I spoke to today would have been triumphalist at all. Most of us would prefer to see the Aussies take a beating. In fact your world cup victory in 2003 was made all the more bearable because of your opponents.

[Digger]

I haven't watched all 80mins of all the matches, but is it my imagination, or is "crossing" now just accepted as part of the game. There seems to be "crossing" on almost every single backs move.

[Derek Smith]

Digger said:

I haven't watched all 80mins of all the matches, but is it my imagination, or is "crossing" now just accepted as part of the game. There seems to be "crossing" on almost every single backs move.

Watching one match with my son, we counted the number of times crossing would have been penalised at 'our' level.

I wouldn't say every backs move, but I got the feeling that much of it was deliberate.

And to those who posted that the rugby has been great and that cheering defeats is not rugby: keep pushing for good sense.

So far this has been the best RWC I can remember. It is just a game. Enjoy it when you play or watch and don't give in to the temptation of nationalistic idiocy. In any case, there's not one team that's made up of a single nationality.

[irocfan]

Derek Smith said:

In any case, there's not one team that's made up of a single nationality.

not the 'big' teams - or indeed many of the "tier 2" nations... however what about Fiji, Tonga, Uruguay or the Argies?

[irocfan]

el stovey said:

TheExcession said:

Really enjoying this series.

(Perhaps we can have a different thread for 'how to fix English rugby' so that we can keep this one on topic for the remaining matches )

Too right.

try this one...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Joey Ramone]

photosnob said:

Wales were the better team on the day.

England could have selected an older more experienced team. The coaches selected the team they though presented the best chance of winning... And they are not the young either. Please look up the average age of the squad and compare it to others. The age and experience of the squad is an excuse. Nothing more - nothing less.

Congratulations to Wales. Congratulations to Aus.

There is still come brilliant rugby to be played during the WC. Can't we just enjoy and celebrate that - rather than engage in petty arguing over who has the biggest dick. England are presented the biggest tournament in Rugby. I still was proud watching the Olympics in London even when Bolt was dominating the sprinting. I was proud that my country was putting on something fantastic. And I feel the same about the rugby. So let's get behind the tournament now.

I was originally responding to Welshbeef's earlier moronic comments. And while I'm not denigrating the quality of this tournament, which blows the 2011 World Cup out of the water, I'm not going to 'celebrate' English rugby's self destruction at the hands of Lancaster and elements of the RFU. I don't care if England produce the best team possible, and then get beat. That happened in 2007; that's sport. But that's not what happened this time round. England sabotaged themselves, and I would bet a pound to a pinch of pigst that some really rotten stuff is going to come out of the England camp over the next few weeks. And experience does matter, whether you like it or not. This was the 18th (18th!) effing 10-12-13 combination, the 15th 12-13 combination. Then there was the dropping of Ford, the fastracking of Burgess, the selection of a slow 12 (Barritt) at 13 for the Wales game, the refusal to consider Armitage, the selection of an obviously out of form Morgan, the requirement for Tuilangi and Dylan Hartley to prove their sainthood and then dropping them when they couldn't, the constant selection of a good club 6 as an international 7 and captain, and the persistence with a hooker who wants to be a centre and can't/won't actually hook. You would actually have to form a committee comprised entirely of Scotsmen to create an England team with such shortcomings.

Read through all my earlier posts. I never believed that England would go anywhere in this tournament for a variety of reasons, mainly due to crass indiscipline and a lack of imagination and creativity (Ford, Joseph and Watson aside). But, as above. I truly believe that such elements have actually been engendered by the present coaching regime and a weak captain.

It is a genuine concern, and something to really worry about if the RFU truly believe that Lancaster, Farrell Sr etc have a right to stay. This is a disaster and could have a really negative knock on effect for the sport in this country

And my main team is Italy, so I'm doubly grumpy today. Pissflaps.

[anonymous-user]

Joey Ramone said:

el stovey said:

Wales are still in the RWC and England aren't. Wales not only survived England's group of death but beat England to get there. Sounds like if anyone has the right to gloat at England getting knocked out, it's the Welsh. All this with England having home advantage and being the first hosts ever to not progress to the next round.

Gloating about winning the World Cup in 2003 seems to be clutching at straws a bit really.

bks. Wales beat a young, inexperienced and st England team suffering from hugely divisive selection issues, a non-captain and a malfunctioning senior leadership team. Hooray, pat yourselves on the back. Want to gob off about our record in the world cup? One it once, twice finalists, once semi-finalists, twice quarter finalists. Beat that, then gloat. And if you win this one, I'll be the first to congratulate any Welshman or Welsh-woman for it. 6 nations are great, but unless it's got the big three SH nations in it, then it doesn't really count.

Eh? I'm not even Welsh. I'm just pointing out the oddness of you complaining about the Welsh and going on about the 2003 World Cup (or any other World Cup) when England have just been knocked out in the group stage of this one.

There's a great World Cup Just getting started, time for you to stop being bitter about it and move on.

[irocfan]

Joey Ramone said:

... a hooker who wants to be a centre and can't/won't actually hook...

to be fair there are not many these days that actually do hook (I note the Japanese as honourable exceptions!!)

[anonymous-user]

I prefer this rugby points system to the old six nations one. But it does leave odd situations like group B where the top three teams all have 2 wins and one defeat but all have different points.



Is it time the six nations went this way and adopted the bonus point?

[dai1983]

el stovey said:

I prefer this rugby points system to the old six nations one. But it does leave odd situations like group B where the top three teams all have 2 wins and one defeat but all have different points.



Is it time the six nations went this way and adopted the bonus point?

A team could have a Grand Slam and end up not winning the 6n

[Leins]

irocfan said:

Joey Ramone said:

... a hooker who wants to be a centre and can't/won't actually hook...

to be fair there are not many these days that actually do hook (I note the Japanese as honourable exceptions!!)

What happened to the clamping down on scrum-halves putting the ball in at the second-row? I think it was two seasons ago the refs all pinged for it - I remember one Ulster match had the put-in to the same scrum alternated between the teams three times until one of the scrum-halves got the message and fed it in straight. Since then though you may as well just operate your front-row with three props, as I've not seen a single ref enforce it

[Tam_Mullen]

Not using a quote cause I'm on the st mobile site but,

Tonker you can't spout the 'bigoted Scotland fan and ABE' quote after two seperate posters have also said they support anyone but us.

Really there are extreme anti-supporters against every country within every country, as has been pointed out England aren't exactly popular in the eyes of the Welsh, Irish and us Scots (blame the media for that!) or even the French.