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I can't recall anything in the past from SOB. Pape was holding him sure, 1 game?
Japan! Team of the tournament so far for me, and Goromaru the player of the tournament.
So unlucky not to have got through.
????????
I thought France were pretty much the same as they were in the 6N - pish.
Good performance by Ireland to put them away anyway. Immense at the breakdown and wrecked their lineout.
Was Sexton crying when he went off? 😯
Bumfinger? Rumours abound...
I thought Ireland performance was not as good as I've seen but they still won handily which is generally a good sign. Really hope that's not the end of POC, he deserves to go out on a high. Not sure why France where so poor in the lineout, what field position they had was wasted.
As it stands it's hard to imagine anything but a NZ Australia final.
Bumfinger? Rumours abound...
Eh?
PoC torn hammy,looked worse.
Obelix comment on Scotland having few working class players is hilarious.
Even at clubs that were fps most players didn't attend those schools.
Cripes, there's hardly a paragraph in some of the stories from that site that doesn't try and troll. I thought that some of the NZ Herald stuff was laughable enough. Is all NZ sports journalism written by people handpicked from their comments on YouTube videos?
9 is pretty much spot on though 😉
Middle of the road trolling. The two man spear tackle on BOD remains NZ rugby's darkest hour and will I suspect do so for some time, surprised they mention the Lions tour
PoC torn hammy,looked worse.
'kin painful and my guess would be the end of his involvement in the RWC, I recall he was retiring from internationals too to go to Toulon, he got a fantastic reception whilst giving a wave from the "trolley" but not the way I'd have wa ted to see him bow out
POM gone for the world cup too. Shite! 😡
Just seen that DD. Terrible news, he was great yesterday. Hendo to 6 and Ryan to 5? or Murphy to 6?
Our much vaunted strength in depth is going to be tested for the game against Argentina - that's all I know for now. No news on POC yet, but surely he's out too. Arsebiscuits - seems a shame to have lost two, if not three in a game that was won quite easily in the end. Bollocking arsebiscuits indeed.
Indeed @dd, Ireland will be hoping any ban for SOB is a short one or that he gets away with a telling off - has he been officially cited ?
Agreed game was won easily in the end but for a while in the second half a French revival looked very possible. Dare I say it the dropped pass in first half kept the game a lot closer than it should have been.
Obelix comment on Scotland having few working class players is hilarious.Even at clubs that were fps most players didn't attend those schools.
I aim to please...
My experience of Scotland is admittedly more limited than England rugby, just really confined to the Uni I went to after the military (in the NE of the country, hardly a rugby stronghold).
I'd respond to the fps thing, but have no idea what that stands for.
Agreed game was won easily in the end but for a while in the second half a French revival looked very possible.
Yes, true enough, it was in the balance till around 60 mins. Poor Keet and his dropped pass - of course, there was no certainty that he'd have scored a try. It was the French (full back I think?) closing on him that probably distracted him. At least he doesn't have to sleep having nightmares about it anyway. 🙂
The French forwards were brutal and Ireland seem to weather that storm pretty well so in some respects it is even more of a shame they picked up so many injuries the way they did.
Ireland vs Argentina and France vs NZ is a great pair of matches. You'd expect Argentina to struggle a little in the pack but they have looked good recently... and you'd imagine the Argentina backs will offer 10x more than the French backline seemed to muster together as they've been rather creative and not short of speed or bulk.
One for the Irish fans, do you ever feel there are too many pre-planned moves from Ireland? Whenever I watch them I keep wishing they'd just keep it simple more often and be more selective in when to go nuts with the fancy stuff. It feels a bit forced at times IMO
Fps is Former pupils. Quite a few clubs in Scotland started as continuations of school sides.
Looking forward to the quarters. Being Scottish I will optimistic that we may pull off an upset until about 10 minutes in, when I shall become upset about our inability to play rugby for the first 40 minutes, briefly excited about a second half comeback then depressed about how it all falls apart again.
After I will be happy we made the quarters and that we have some backs who can run with the ball at last.
SA will steamroller the Welsh who will come close but never really look like winning it.
The Argies could turn the Irish over as losing POC, POM and SOB will hurt em
Quite fancy the French to give the All Blacks a scare but as neither have played at well I see NZ going through.
SA will steamroller the Welsh who will come close but never really look like winning it.
Not sure about that. True, it'll be a heck of an accomplishment to beat SA but they didn't disgrace themselves against arguably the best team in the tournament despite a mountain of injuries. SA have their own long list of injuries to contend with too, some strange squad selection, some inexperienced players, etc, etc so it'll be a good contest
Looking forward to the quarters. Being Scottish I will optimistic that we may pull off an upset until about 10 minutes in, when I shall become upset about our inability to play rugby for the first 40 minutes, briefly excited about a second half comeback then depressed about how it all falls apart again.
+1
I couldn't have put it better.
duckman - Member
Most of that's pretty spot on actually. 🙄
Its is, actually quite hard to deny any of that ^^.
Sad for Irelands injury's especially PoC legend that he is, they really do look like they could march on, and just need to up there game a little to do so.
That NZ Stuff link is pretty much bang on IMO.
With all their injuries I do worry for Ireland now against Argentina. As for France they have to buck their ideas up for the NZ game, I don't think either team are in form, so who dares wins (or more likely who makes the least unforced errors).
Robshaw was as much use as Anne Frank's big-band record collection.
😆 😆 😆
Hard to disagree with too much of that article!
The Morrison letter is pretty close to reality IMO. The comments on Woodward are bang on. England won the RWC 2003 because they had a awesome set of players. Woodward has been exposed for what he is since then.
Looking forward to the quarters. Being Scottish I will optimistic that we may pull off an upset until about 10 minutes in, when I shall become upset about our inability to play rugby for the first 40 minutes, briefly excited about a second half comeback then depressed about how it all falls apart again.
Wow - Scarily accurate view on most of my experiences watching Scotland
With all their injuries I do worry for Ireland now against Argentina
So do I, however with your previous prediction of them (and I paraphrase) "choking like they always do" not being possibly more incorrect, and me being wrong again due to my eternal inferiority complex wrt France, maybe I should feel a little more confident.
Yep fair play to Ireland I didn't expect them to win against France, but they did, well played. Albeit it came at quite a cost.
I'd rather be facing Argentina with a broken squad than NZ with a full one. 🙂 Much as the 110 year record has to come to an end sometime, it probably wasn't going to be this weekend. 🙂 And the green machine needs some adversity for the Argentina game - favourites does not sit comfortably.
SOB cited with a hearing tomorrow:
http://www.balls.ie/rugby/sean-obrien-will-face-a-disciplinary-hearing-for-striking-pascal-pape/312258?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
So, who will make the SF's?
Ireland, NZ, Aus, SA.
Aus SA final.
Aus champions.
Well, we knew it was coming. 😐
Liked this though:
O'Brien [b][i]appears[/i][/b] to strike Pape in the chest with an open-hand
😆 Indeed, it did [b][i]appear[/i][/b] that he did that, yes.
Gray and Ford
https://twitter.com/gavinc42/status/653585272748294144
Could be two citings from that Argentina Namibia clip alone couldn't there? (or are citings for potential reds only?) There's a tip tackle and no attempt to use anything other than the shoulder from the other lad. Way to go - beat up on the Namibians. 😐
The comments on Woodward are bang on
That's probably the only bit I didn't totally agree with.
Yes, he's a bit of a knob. Yes he mentions winning the RWC a bit too often. Yes, the Lions tour was a farce.
BUT
He did win the RWC. He knows how to put structures in place and manage people. He has a decent overview of what England need. He had good players but he brought the best out of them IMO.
The Bosch tip tackle is interesting. He does seem to try to control putting the player down but lose his own balance. Certainly more so than kp Petersen in the Scotland game. Where there was no citing.
Gray should be outbof the next game imo. Ford was doing the right thing but Gray lifted legs.
The bumfinger comment earlier was that there were rumours doing the rounds that Pape had popped a digit up the bum, hence the [s]open handed[/s] punch.
But, it appears that it was just a punch.
Only Hopoate is prepared to do that #stinkfinger
Gray & Ford - given the Somoan's head is already lower than his hips when they get there and it's not technically a tackle as it's clearing out at a ruck, do the rules on tip tackling apply? It's not like they picked him up, spun him round and dropped him on his head; his head was pretty much already on the ground.
Notwithstanding that what actually happened didn't look good for the Samon's neck, the ref (who had a clear view) blew for holding on. Given the Scot on the ground was holding on and the Samoan will also have been holding on, Ford and J Gray (I think it was R Gray on the deck) were always going to tip him if they tried to move him in any way.
At some point they have to let forwards get on with it in the close quarters. Blow up for safety sure, and penalise the man on the deck for holding on absolutely, but the other three are just rucking - albeit robustly.
BBC says minimum ban for a punch is 2 weeks, so whether that starts from Saturday or tomorrow at the hearing that's SOB out for QF [b]and[/b] SF ? I hope he feels it was worth it, he's actually given Pape the last laugh about the knee incident.
NZ rugby trolls are obvious, they can't bear the fact England won the RWC having started as favourites and the best team in the world at the time which is something NZ have failed to do repeatedly generally failing to even make it to the final. Hence all the relentless "choker" gags from the Aussies. The Lions tour was defined by the spear tackle, it's very difficult to gel the side in such a short time to be victorious and particularly against NZ.
Pape...last laugh? Meaningless. Anyway, is he ok? He went down awfully hard, poor fella. Never seen anyone go down that hard from a slap in the chest. Must have been a lucky shot, eh?
My guess is a 1 week ban for SOB - entry level x 0.5 for previous good record. Any more than that and they're a bit ****ed - but let's get past Argentina first.
t the other three are just rucking - albeit robustly.
You couldnt be me wrong if you tried.
Never seen anyone go down that hard from a slap in the chest. Must have been a lucky shot, eh?
OK. I was wrong.