Think the ABs still have issues.

Their scrum was poor again and they still handled poorly (for them). I’ve never seen Kieran Read drop so many balls as he has in this RWC.

I think Naholo was a poor selection. Electric though he was in Super Rugby he only played 50 minutes on his debut against Argentina where all he did was drop the ball a couple of times then get injured. His leg was magically healed by Fijian leaves or normal recovery time (depending which version you believe) and he;s been rushed back and is now dropping the ball again despite a superb try against Georgia.

With another inexperienced wing in Milner-Skudder (who’s playing well) they might have taken Piutau, Jane or Dagg for a safer pair of hands and a cool head.

Did NZ start their Haka before the end of the Tongan Sipi Tau? Is that a lack of respect, or an acceptable response?

If the latter, then surely anyone else can do whatever they want during the Haka! 🙂

Yeah, but when you are as slow as you obviously are, the point is moot.

If you’re running forward at 10 m/s you have to throw the ball with a backwards velocity of 10 m/s to even get it to stay still. Given the fact that most players line up at an angle of 10 to 20 degrees then the speed they would have to throw the ball in order to even make it stay lin line would be…

Anyone got a scientific calculator?

The answer is, faster than any human being is capable of throwing a ball. Players would need to slow down drastically or line up much closer to each other and much deeper so that the passing player is throwing the ball almost straight backwards.

It is not possible to make the ball travel backwards when running with any kind of pace.

63.9 m/s

I couldn’t sleep without working it out.

Apologies to all the Celtic contributors (whose teams are still in the RWC) but I was looking at England’s position in the pool A table.

They have 6pts and Wales have 13. Now, if England had just had the slightest chance to possibly snatch a draw in the dying minutes against Wales then they would have 8pts and Wales 11. That would have meant that if England put 50 odd points on Uruguay and picked up 5pts to move to 13 then Wales would’ve had to beat Australia to qualify. Even a draw or losing with 2 bonus pts wouldn’t be enough as they’d be tied and it would go to points difference.

Who’d have thought it?

I’m guessing “stute” probably must have been a word at some point in the history of the English language because “astute” would have developed to mean the opposite of stute.

With that in mind, you might describe Chris-nice-but-dim Robshaw as extremely “stute”. 😉

We can’t – Fiji are below us in the table and have no more games to play.

@dd I see you are following the @aa school of public pessimism. Ireland should best France, whoever wins this game tomorrow has a great chance of going to the final. Both teams will be well aware of that. Toulon’s notHenekin ( 🙂 ) wins have been primarily due to the contribution of their non-French players, JW, Giteau etc. Drew Mitchell is another beneficiary of the rule change too. Michelak has been third choice 10 for Toulon for a while and if Cirpriani is going there it’s further evidence of how the coaches feel about him, the games I’ve seen him play for Toulon he’s been terrible.

@aa Sale director of rugby says you can buy England Uraguay tickets online for £2.50 :)) I’ll not be bothering to watch the game but probably wouldn’t have watched anyway even if we where going to the QFs. Wales v Australia should be a good game to watch. I thought Genia was excellent when he came on.

Payne out for rest of RWC. 😐

I’m guessing Trimble will get the call to join squad for the New Zealand QF?

What England did in those final 5 minutes was inexcusable imo. As others have pointed out a draw for them was okay. Poorpre-match scenario planning and on pitch decision making.

Still I couldn’t care it was a great Welsh win.

All Blacks still not convincing be interesting when the meet a decent team. They are definitely beatable.

Samoa great and crazy at the same time. Could be fun to watch this.

This is not good for my blood pressure!

Ooof! Some proper Islander tackling!

Why are we not catching kick offs? Oh,and FFS Denton!

Love the way the Samoans run so directly – awesome to watch

Scotland are lucky the samoan kicker is missing a few,might be crucial at the end.

Fair enough for Wilson,but not unprovoked,how exactly are you meant to get the player off you? Wait till he feels like letting you go?

What a game.

Yes!

Edit: no.

!!!!

Weak yellow, no harm in giving someone a little reminder to let go. ABs have done it for years!

I hope the rolling obstruction gets gets addressed one day.