Rugby world cup

Actually this is the measure of your character

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-irony-of-the-woofterball-world-cup

I will laugh muchly if France win! 🙂

Nice try boakes, Of course you were going to win the World Cup were you not?

Bum p

Nice touch from the crowd, that’s what it’s all about, appreciating good play and good players.

bump

Bum

I’ll laugh too 🙂

Still did better than any other home nations side.

http://www.irb.com/rankings/full.html

Well played Australia.

In that pic above, Jonno and Moody look really pleased to have won the championship, after getting stuffed by Ireland. Slams or nothing really.

Good game that – reuined by poor refereeing!
I mean ok, the breakdown can be hard to officiate, but offside in front of the kicker? forward pass? followed by a try? Fundamental rules that the officials should have no excuses for getting wrong.

Williams rewarded for a massive effort in that game though, I guess.

Did exceptionally well in the tournament as a whole, if you ignore the fact that they should have actually been in the final!

I will be utterly stunned if France do well on Sunday.

Wales had a great tournament and were a credit to themselves and the game of rugby throughout, both on and off the pitch. THey have some great players coming through and the team has the potential to be even greater than the sum of its parts. I was gutted when they lost the semi.

However, if you look at Wales over the previous year:

Lost at home to NZ/Aus/SA in Autumn
Lost to Fra/Eng and beat Ire in 6N

Then in the RWC:

Lost to SA/Aus
Beat Ire
Lost to France who were useless and should’ve been put away even with 14 (heroic) men.

Not too much difference is there?

Wales need to consistently beat SH teams, home and away, to be considered among the best.

Hey, I WANT to see Wales succeed. I think they’re a proper rugby-playing nation and they play the game the right way and I enjoy watching them. It’s just I think people are getting a bit carried away with it all.

The Optimism Gnome has struck. 😉

Namastebuzz +1

Buzz you got there before me. This Welsh side are promising but ultimately just short of world class , at the moment. They lack a real killer instinct to finish teams off when they are in position to do so. This, I would expect come with maturity in some key positions . Maybe the next world cup will see them aquit themselves better at the sharp end of the competition.
They have been an entertaining side right up to the semi’s though best home nation easily.
WARNING
This opinion may not reflect that of the majority of the Welsh population.

However the Welsh side has not yet peaked. I would say their potential is greater than any of the rest of the home nations. (alas)

Good point, well made. The only top 8 teams they’ve beaten in the last 2 years have been Ireland, Argentina and England (once in the WC warm-up). Hardly setting the world alight!

There is obvious improvement in the welsh team from last autumn and the 6N, if not in black and white results. Wales have gone from being `plucky loosers’, to being serious contenders. But its just that final hurdle, three times in the WC, which may have seen them now ranked second or third, which and here is the acid test, not many people would have grumbled about, considering their play. But instead, they are below a quite pathetic England. Much work still to do then, but crutially by a team with 7 under the age of 23 or something.

The encouragement is world class or near world class players in several positions.

Namastebuzz +1 and can’t work out whether WG is really that good or not. The record is too patchy for me?

what Wales need to do now is to be able to adapt their game to suit their opposition, rather than just trying to play with one strategy.
look how NZ have played in their last two games.
they can plan for and adapt to both the opposition and the way the game is being played.
.
I think this is what England try and do, but unfortunately don’t have the squad or the connected team to pull it off.

There is obvious improvement in the welsh team from last autumn and the 6N, if not in black and white results. Wales have gone from being `plucky loosers’, to being serious contenders

Agree

On to NZ, I wonder if MacAllister wishes he had spent another year in NZ…Nick Evans has almost qualified for England by now, but MacAllister isn’t that long away iirc.

Have they really though? I think they’ve gone to being a serious team without really being a serious contender for the WC which surely has to be the aim if they really do think they have young talent coming through. Unless you mean serious contender for the 6N which shouldn’t really be the limit of ambition, surely?

And that’s the difficult jump isn’t it – going to WC contender. The big three SH teams are generally around there (Choking not withstanding) but as England proved, getting there’s hard enough, actually remaining there is very difficult.

On to NZ, I wonder if MacAllister wishes he had spent another year in NZ…Nick Evans has almost qualified for England by now, but MacAllister isn’t that long away iirc.

MacAlister did. He went back this season to try and get AB selection but failed. He then committed to play NPC rugby for North Harbour as he had a NZRU contract to stay there until the end of the RWC but jumped ship to start his Toulouse deal early. Ironically, he’d probably have been called up as a replacement by now. Probably ahead of Donald and possibly ahead of Cruden so he’d, at least, be on the bench on Sunday.

AFAIK Evans can’t qualify for England as he’s already an AB 😕

Is there not a six year residency clause now?

Nice try zokes, Of course you were going to win the World Cup were you not?

I seem to recall Wales were up until 18 minutes into a game of rugby last week. Then it was all the French referee’s fault for a while before people started using their brains again.

So then to summarise:

Scotland = utter shite
England = pretty shite
Ireland = a bit shite
Wales = unlucky, but still shite

The end

Wales only beat one half decent team – Ireland. They have it all to prove.

Wales only beat one half decent team – Ireland. They have it all to prove.

I’m perfectly happy that they only got beaten by SA because Hook’s 14th minute penalty wasn’t given, who knows what would’ve happened if it had been called. They matched SA point for point in the group games. France beat 14 men by a narrow margin in a game of missed chances as happened today. If missing chances is a factor, so be it.
I’m proud of them, the way they played, they way they’ve behaved off the field and I think that this is the beginning of something big. There were signs of weak areas, but if they are built on, we will be a force to be reckoned with. Not too shabby for such a small country.
Proud to be Welsh. 😀

So then to summarise:

Scotland = utter shite
England = pretty shite
Ireland = a bit shite
Wales = unlucky, but still shite

The end

Sadly true, when the thing started I’d have taken Wales coming 4th for sure, but in the end I’m left feeling they underachieved, which I suppose in a way is a positive. 🙁

Just watched the match as only saw first 30mins or so before I had to work. How bloody good was Faletau as a 7 that was a bloody amazing performance to play that well up against Pocock when you’ve been playing 8 for all the other games is incredible, the engine he has is astonishing, when he got to Williams on the touch line just before the final try and secure that ball was brilliant.

Feel sorry for Hook, hardly ever plays 10 for at least 2 seasons and then is shoved in at 10 for a world cup semi and 3rd place match and expected to perform is a huge ask.

Oh and I think Gatland dropped a huge bollock by not playing mitchel at 3. He’d have at least kept the scrums even.

Hook couldnt make 10 at the ospreys last year. Probably shouldnt have played there in the last 2games.

Well thats the thing, I think Hook is a better 10 than Dan Bighead but putting Hook at 12 means that Sonny Parker doesnt have to play!! Hook was poor today no question, especially as he kept giving Roberts the ball behind the gainline as opposed to Priestland who was giving him the ball right in the faces of the opposition, but he has hardly played 10 for 2 years so are we expecting too much?

If missing chances is a factor, so be it.

Missing chances doesn’t win WCs. The only time a NH team won it, they took their chances when other teams didn’t, and finished on the right side of the tight scorelines.

Missing chances doesn’t win WCs. The only time a NH team won it, they took their chances when other teams didn’t, and finished on the right side of the tight scorelines.

true but England had developed that winning mentality over quite a long time and through quite a lot of missed opportunities.

Wtf is going on with the goal kicking though? If ONE of those missed kicks in each game had gone over, we’d have both been in the final AND got third place. And won our group, which would’ve meant we’d have been knocked out in the quarter finals too. Unless we’d lost by a point in that hypothetical match too, which would’ve meant.. oh never mind, you get the point.

That’s my point about missed chances, I don’t think we did too much wrong in open play.
All ifs and buts and not worth shit now. 😀

Wtf is going on with the goal kicking though?

Yeah – Jonny had a bit of a shocker didn’t he?

In fact, everyone has had a shocker with kicking. Just look at the number of kicks that hit the posts. Waaaaaay more thn would be expected.

Well Australia seemed to do ok.

Why did I think the final was today? Oops!