Totally spoiled it? Surely not.
yes - the bottom half of the draw do not meet a top team until the semis. France, NZ, SA Ireland will have played another top team twice or three times by then and will have the injuries and exhaustion that entails.
its totally unbalanced and means we will not see all the best teams progress
I watched the England match yesterday looking out for the Billy head shot and to be honest there were a lot of shoulder tackles with no wrap.
Wales could easily lose to Fiji or even Georgia, that would be very disappointing, but the World Cup as a whole will still be great to watch.
Cannae wait 😃
Watson out of the World Cup squad with calf injury, not sure it makes a massive difference, great player but doesn't see much ball at the moment.
Dan Sheehan's injury for Ireland potentially a bigger issue, looks like he could miss group stages, Kellher is still injured, Rob Herring is a good solid alternative but doesn't have Sheehan's X Factor!
its totally unbalanced and means we will not see all the best teams progress
It isn't good I'll agree but it was a totally transparent process.
Why are England playing players in the warm up games that haven’t been selected for the wc squad? I don’t understand. They’ve got Johnny may playing agains Fiji, they played someone else against wales who hadn’t been selected.
Jonny May is Watsons replacement after Watson is out injured
Sinkler hurt now as well
This made interesting reading around the high tackle issue.
This made interesting reading around the high tackle issue
Interesting in the sense that SA have done it minimise cards. Maybe England should try it?
(It contributes nothing in the battle against CTE however.)
Watched NZ SA not sure many northern hemisphere sides could live with that. SA were in beast mode, NZ just fell apart.
Think NZ were shocked they were actually getting reffereed!!
It was noticeable that neither tackled high, everything was low.
well apart from 2 yellow cards for high tackles - but yes - the default was not upright.
PSDT yellow was hardly a high tackle in the conventional way. It was for the arm to head contact he was low bent at the hips and wrapping the arms. Barret's was for his entry to the ruck and hitting a man on the ground who was not, as the ref saw it, part of the ruck. A silly hit but neither were high tackles.
I assume Barrats red will not carry a potential ban as it was for two yellows and the first was a penalty after a team warning.
The SA yellow was to the letter though, tackler was bent trying to go low, arm up trying to wrap, ball carrier also low and another tackler involved. It was a combination of things rather that poor technique or trying to hit with shoulder.
Barret was a hit on a player on the ground that he had no chance of moving, also leading with shoulder, poor choices and I’d question his intent although that has nothing to do with the decision.
I’d question his intent
Looked a bit like a revenge cheap shot
I was looking forward to watching sa NZ today 😆😆😆
It's a pretty good match. They weren't going easy.
SA will boss everything in the way to win. Honestly they are brutal and made NZ look normal.
France could take them with flair but 80mins of that SA team ?
I think Scotland should refuse to play SA on the grounds they are far too scary.l throw the first match to save ourselves for ireland
We are doomed!
Tj - have they not got cover for Watson in the WC squad?
and the first was a penalty after a team warning
It seems somewhat iniquitous that a player can get an individual yellow card for a "team warning" and then later get a red card if he commits a yellow card offence.
Barrett didn't commit two yellow card offences yet he ended up getting a red. (Ignoring the debate whether or not his second yellow could've been a red.)
Surely it would be better to award a "team" yellow card and the captain nominates one player to go off rather than it be assigned to an individual?
Rugby seems to be continually determined to ruin games by reducing one team to 14.
Watched NZ SA not sure many northern hemisphere sides could live with that. SA were in beast mode, NZ just fell apart.
I've only seen 6 minutes of highlights, but it looked like a great game. SA look better than they were at the last world cup - with more attacking threat. The best try perhaps being the 'try that wasn't' by C Moodie - he looks like a special player. NZ try was good too.
This could well turn out to be the best world cup so far.
This could get interesting!!
https://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Actualites/Rhys-webb-biarritz-positif-a-l-hormone-de-croissance/1415831
I’ve only seen 6 minutes of highlights, but it looked like a great game
I thought it was not great. Maybe one for the purists? Just sledgehammer from SA and pressure causing errors from NZ. also not much doubt who was going to win
Less than two weeks until the first game 😃
I'd love to see people predictions for the group games. Is there a easy/manageable way for us to all give our predictions. Straight w/d/l or pts difference, or actual scores (that might be too much to display clearly).
Thoughts?
Just sledgehammer from SA
I guess that's a huge disadvantage of 6 min highlights - the drama can look like the whole game was like that
I know they hemorrhaged penalties but the NZ defence was immense. 20mins or so in their own 22 pretty impressive and against a team without the forward power they would have dominated.
SA sub scrum was almost as impressive as the starting 8.
Fiji scrum is worrying me although their lineout is almost as inept as the Welsh version.........
England v Fiji spoiled to an extent by bad weather in the first half - but the second half has been much better. Ford & Smith seems to work much better than Ford & Farrell from what I can see.
I think everyone in Wales may need to pray for rain when they play.
I thought the Fiji lineout was deliberately going long beyond the players in line.
At least we won’t go into the World Cup with any expectations 😂
Bloody well done Fiji. I keep laughing and then I remember Wales have to play them 😳😳😳😳😳
Congratulations Fiji!
I'm pretty sure everyone in Wales is having sleepless nights about playing them - this won't help!
Now to see what threat Georgia might be.
Ooof
Fiji hard running and (legal) tackling is something else. Also fit and strong enough to defend their own line without giving away pens.
Have England ever been worse, lucky for England it was raining - could have been worse.
Englands first loss to a tier 2 country apparently. Based on that they will get battered by Argentina; hell, watch out for Japan!
Should I watch Scotland v Georgia or Italy v Japan?
I fear for Scotland players getting an injury today - I cannot see what they will gain from this match.
Great start by Georgia - which team are 5th in the World? 😉
🙂
The Edinburgh Globetrotters need to get back to basics methinks!
Oof. Lets just forget that half. Maybe toonie is right in that we have become the NH all blacks 🙂
One positive - we have had the nudge at the scrum. Georgia defense has been excellent
Maybe toonie is right in that we have become the NH all blacks
Please tell me he didn't actually say that 😂
Georgia defense has been excellent
Georgia have a dynamic, well organised defence and are inventive in attack - their 9, 10, 11 & 15 look good to me.
Anything could happen in group C!
Please tell me he didn’t actually say that
I think it was more like we want to be like the ABs but after yesterdays horror show.....................
