Rugby 2023-24 World Cup Year!

Yeah, Sinckler really doesn’t seem strong enough compared to the other international props.

He is / was.  He’s very broken and has been for some time also have a Pec injury right before the training camp, but still capable of competing against the best.  You seemed to have missed that Genge caused two of the four pens.  It was in commentary, Sinkler actually drove Ox Nche twice,  but the bad look and overall driving iof the Boks who’d won the ref meant Genge got pinged on the other side .   Plus, that’s the biggest, heaviest and best front row in the world, they’ve beaten more and better than Sinckler.

Having said that with perhaps 20 mins of international play left in him and plays with more strapping than kit, he’s probably another to retire after next week.

Sinkler is only 30 reaching his peak in prop terms

Dan Cole got a mullering in the 2019 final but stood strong yesterday both in scrums and loose – although the style of the game suited him

You seemed to have missed that Genge caused two of the four pens.

But when Sinckler is weak,  the opposite side moves with George as the pivot.

That’s a what an ex prop told me at my lads rugby club last night.

He also schooled me a few weeks ago when I was ridiculing Cole as a selection. I always thought he looked like he’d wandered in from a Vets match.

He told me to watch him closely, his strength is undoubted, his technique is flawless and he rarely gets pens against him as he just knows his trade, inside out.

I’ve gained respect for Cole over this WC, I shouldn’t have judged him so.

I await any context for Sinckler.

Allegation of a racial slur..

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/22/tom-curry-accuses-south-africa-hooker-bongi-mbonambi-of-using-racial-slur?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Also this from La Roux. : https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/new-england-v-south-africa-27959117.

It was noticable that the England scrum stopped being dominant when O’Keefe asked them to step up to the mark which meant SA front row wasn’t long in the leg.

Also this from La Roux. :

FFS Itoje celebrates knock ons more than that 😄😄😄😄😄

Courtney Lawes announces his international retirement after the Argentina game.    Well done that man. 👏👏👏👏

Still cannot help but think he was wasted playing all those games at 6. A proper top quality 5. Him and Itoje would have made a big strong and dynamic  pairing in the row.

England now blame the 2019 loss to SA for Sinckler having to be replaced by Cole and the 2023 one for Cole being  replaced by Sinckler. I do have some sympathy having seen a “dominant” but illegal Irish scrum penalized 3 times against  New Zeeland for very similar to what SA seemed to be rewarded for. Maybe we should hope for BOK as a ref going forward.

I know it’s a semantics of the scrum thing, but when Genge drops to his knee in that fateful scrum BOK penalises him and calls the knee and then says SA weren’t driving straight. How much did the angle of engagement by SA cause the twisting of Genge? I’ve seen a video justifying that the penalty was against England because of the knee, but the video clearly shows the SA prop engaging and driving at an angle

SA seemed to get away with driving at all sorts of weird and beneficial angles and only got resets and didn’t ever seem to get a warning from BOK*. On the rare occasions that SA drove straight it was a much more even affair in the scrum.

*He may have done, I was in a loud room watching it so couldn’t always hear what was being said

A seemed to get away with driving at all sorts of weird and beneficial angles

Yeah, seemed obvious. I know from my reffing, particularly with the mismatched sizes you get in the age-grade stuff – if a prop doesn’t push straight the scrum will collapse. Always make sure at the bind that they are as straight as they can be. But I’m far from a prem/WC ref and they get the big bucks.

England (Marler in particular) have gotten away with not pushing straight for years. Cole got away with taking a step back on engaging a few times in the first half too. Stuff happens. On balance the SA scrum was stronger in the SH.

If anything, the refereeing that helped SA was stopping the watch every scrum after a bit of time wasting earlier on. With Farell’s trademark dhead bevhaviour to the referee, he was also luck to not be marched back 10 more often.

England played their only game plan possible. Be absolute dheads to annoy SA, kick all possession and score in 3’s. They just did it better in the first half.

SA got their team selection wrong but rectified it with subs early. They would have struggled with an injury in the backs but did what was needed. England by contrast had 3 unused subs and when Vunipola came on for Curry’s HIA, he didn’t look like who knew where he was.

There seems a lot of optimism around England but I don’t see a lot of depth or hope of change. It was good to see Itoje turn up for once and Lawes is the one bloke a neutral could really wish the very best for. Martin had a good game too, even more so given his age. Mitchell did what was asked of him really well too.

I do have some sympathy having seen a “dominant” but illegal Irish scrum penalized 3 times against  New Zeeland

Porter has been on borrowed time for years, he never scrums straight. Sad state of affairs when something has been obvious for years but then only seems to be noticed in a world cup knock out game though.

Porter has been on borrowed time for years, he never scrums straight. Sad state of affairs when something has been obvious for years but then only seems to be noticed in a world cup knock out game though.

Porter is a converted tighthead, he moved across to loose because Leinster and Ireland thought the had sufficient cover at TH. He still wants to try to push with both shoulders. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move back given decline of Furlong.

It’s already being suggested Porter will likely move back across as Ireland have a lot of young talent coming through in the loosehead position, and not as much in tighthead at the moment.

That was Englands for the taking and a pity the way it ended but fair play for getting that far, they got further than most people expected. 

I can’t help but think Farrel needs to go, he kicked well on Saturday but his shouting and ranting was like an angry toddler. When your own player needs to pull you away from an argument with the ref after he’s already given yards is unforgivable for an international captain. It also goes against everything rugby tries to teach young players. Those points were the difference between a place in the final or not.  

As one of the pundits said after the game, you need to score tries to win matches and England didn’t. 

Hard to bet against the kiwis after the last few matches. Let’s hope it’s a good game to watch either way. 

Apparently “wit kant” is Africans for “white side”, indicating a ruck was lost by RSA and Curry may have been mistaken about what was being said.

Discuss.

Discuss

My first thought is it’s incredibly thin skinned for Curry to even give a shit enough for it to register. It seems like the increasing footballisation with play acting to get people carded and now faux offence taken is creeping into rugby. It was better when you could just smack someone in the face who was giving off, guess we don’t want that though……..

There’s a video online that apparently you can hear  him shouting wit kant, I couldn’t hear a thing though, I’ll see if I can find it.

Discuss.

Not much to discuss really, is there?  No one knows anything and those who do aren’t talking.

Why, what are you fishing for?

As one of the pundits said after the game, you need to score tries to win matches and England didn’t.

They didn’t score a try against Argentina 😉

Curry did the right thing for me. Highlighted it to the ref, and didn’t expand on it to the press. Leave it to the right channels to sort it out. If it’s a mistake then fine, if it’s more, they should deal with it in the correct way.

Fortunately the Afrikaans for black is Swart so there can’t be any confusion at the weekend.

My first thought is it’s incredibly thin skinned for Curry to even give a shit enough for it to register. 

That’s how I felt about Marler tweaking AWJ’s nob, if one of his team mates had grabbed his meat and two veg in the changing rooms or bar or slapped his arse, they’d all be laughing about it. I saw it called sexual assault when it happened though!

That’s how I felt about Marler tweaking AWJ’s nob

Really, how bizarre. If I was walking down the street and someone called me a white **** I’d think it a bit odd. If someone grabbed my bollocks it would be a very different matter. It’s much more akin to Marlers “gypsy boy” comment to Samson Lee, as I recall Lee never ran off to tell the ref about it

, if one of his team mates had grabbed his meat and two veg in the changing rooms or bar

Presumably in this bizarre line of thought his. teamates wouldn’t be doing it in an effort to get him to react and get him sent off.
Tell you what, next time you see AWJ in a bar grab his knob and report back on how you get on.

‘Wyd kant’ or ‘wit kant’, I reckon it’s one of those two. (White/wide side).

It could be a trigger call on defence and Bongi Mbonambi shouts it more than once.

This is best audio of the incident I’ve seen/heard.

? @CapeSaakie#RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/tZLNqzXpaP

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) October 23, 2023

Edit: I’m just saying stuff cos I’m bored.

New world rugby tournament – 24 teams – 2 leagues of 12. Promotion and relegation.  Every 3 years.  Should help to give the smaller teams more competitive games and something to play for

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/24/world-rugby-nations-league-24-team-world-cup-calendar

Promotion and relegation.

from 2030….

1/2p retires from International rugby.

101 caps for Wales,  801 points, four Tests for the Lions.

A fantastic player who never gave less than everything.

Keeping on the rugby world cup: love Jo Marker’s new advert for chaff free pants.

England go with the newer boys v Argentina.   A pity Lawes doesn’t get to run out onto the pitch, he apparently has a calf injury.  

Arundell, Smith, Stuart, Dan, Rodd and Underhill all get to play, god knows why Ben Young’s is selected though – why have the attack with a slow kicking SH?  

god knows why Ben Young’s is selected though

Probably because he’s Englands most capped mens player and will be anouncing his international retirement after this WC.

I know some people like to hate him, but he’s played 126 times for England, 302 times for Tigers, twice for the lions (would have been more had he not opted to stay at home and support his brother when his wife was sick with cancer), and he’s won 5 premieship titles since he made his debut in 2007. You don’t get a record like that without being good at what you do, plenty of different coaches seem to agree. He might not be what he once was, but I honestly can’t say i’ve ever seen him let a team down that hes been playing for.

I reckon he deserves one more run out.

Can also see Cole and Care retiring after this as well.

I was right. Ben Youngs to retire from test rugby after Fridays match. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67214279

The England backrow starts to look a bit underpowered when Laws isn’t in it.

England: Smith; Steward, Marchant, Tuilagi, Arundell; Farrell (capt), Youngs; Genge, Dan, Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Curry, Underhill, Earl.

Replacements: George, Rodd, Cole, Ribbans, Ludlam, Care, Ford, Lawrence.

All Hail Squidge, who once again brings clarity to the beer selling armchair supporters.   So it turns out – the scrappy unordained England play wasn’t an accident, much like Eddie Jones 2019 All Black beating strategy, it was a SA beating strategy setup by Borthwick that’d look crazy against any other team…

ITV coverage up to its usual standards, who are Englandshire playing?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/27/rfu-bans-former-council-member-for-using-racial-slur-to-black-volunteerFound myself wondering if the somewhat dramatic RFU reaction to last week’s Tom Currie drama might have been influenced by the impending news about this disciplinary case back home. It does feel as if they were playing the ‘victim’ card pretty hard given the circumstances.

who are Englandshire playing?

Dunno but they decided to wear their sexy shirts