Rugby - Autumn Beckons!

[Caligastia]

Ok, I'm running with it.

Unless someone else has a better suggestion...?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Caligastia
Ok, I'm running with it.

Unless someone else has a better suggestion...?

May I suggest a small alteration? The title, in itself, will be a title. Therefore the suggested title will, in fact, be wrong. Because it's a title. I'd suggest:

Rugby - Scraping The Bottom Of The Barrel For A Title. Or something along those lines. If that one's too long, perhaps:

Rugby - Running Out Of Titles.

You get my drift?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak


You lucky devil – apart form the early hours bit.

I’m granted permission to listen to Tigers then watch England but I’ll see highlights of the rest at best.

:henpecked:

I'll just have to watch it on the downstairs TV. Luckily, we have cable outlets in the bedroom upstairs and the living room downstairs. The England, Boks and All Blacks games are on cable, the Wallabies game is on Channel 7. Typically, 7 will have their commentators in the studio here in Sydney, calling the game off a monitor. They're too cheap to send the commentators on the tour. At least they were last time.

Eddie always praises opponents before the kick off – lets see what he says after the game.

No, he likes the French, particularly since they cleaned up their act. He has a lot of respect for Laport, especially for cleaning up the French act. I think Eddie appreciates some of the similarities between the French and Australian approaches to the game. He just wishes he had the French forwards.

Rugby – Tigers on Top

No?

Sorry, that would contravene the site's policy against offensive titles.

[finbar]

Just tuned in to Leicester -v- Worcester on the BBC website.

Worcester 6 lead Leicester 0 after 11 minutes.

Havak is suffering some pre-lunch indigestion.

I've hever heard a female rugby commentator before either.

[LDiCesare]

Half time France 12- 11 Australia.
The Australian try followed a blatant forward pass if anyone's interested in my opinion (even if not).

What's Cali doing? That's post 499!

Rugby - A title, quick!

[LDiCesare]

Final score: France 27 - 14 Australia.
Better performance of the French. A bit lacking in attack in the first half, although they scored 2 tries during that period. The French insisted too much on attacking in the center when they probably should have passed the ball wide to Heymans or Brusque. Very strong game by Betsen, as usual, and Marsh. Michalak scored a great try which helped his team enormously.
The Australian scrum, particularly the loosehead, had a lot of problems. The French got penalised once for pushing early, but then Gregan waited forever before introducing the ball .
All in all the Wallabies lacked in the winger department. Sure, Tuqiri is a huge player, but on the other wing, it was quite pitiful. That and the front row is not top-notch, but I may have said it already.
Thus, an entertaining game, with strong defense on both sides, which made for several penalties in the second half, where the better team prevailed.

[finbar]

I wouldn't disagree with much of that. The French were better on the night, even if the score flattered them a little. You're right about our front row. I thought our forwards competed in the first half, but the French forwards seriously exposed them in the second half. Yes, the loosehead is the biggest problem, but, unfortunately, he's the best we have available.

Our other winger is Clyde Rathbone, and I don't think his performance was his fault. I think Gregan pretty much wasted our backline. He kept either persisting up the short side - yes, it earned us a try, but it's really a low percentage option over the course of a game; or handing it to Mortlock to try to crash through the French defence. Every time Tuquiri touched the ball he looked dangerous, but he had to go and get the ball himself. Rathbone was stranded on his wing. The ball never came near him.

Great defence from both sides, I thought, even if the swarming French defence was offside for most of the match! I would also appreciate it if M'sieur Haymans were a little more careful where he puts his boots and hands.

Anyway, a very entertaining game played at full speed throughout, with the usual number of errors that occur in that context. The French were ultimately too strong in the forwards and made much better use of their backline.

Eddie has his usual amount of thinking to do.

England 127,000 -d- Canada 0

Fairly predictable, I'd've thought. Any top team is on a hiding to nothing playing an essentially amateur outfit - every mistake is glaring, every missed opportunity stands out. Beergut stilll can't throw into a lineout, England has to find a consistent goalkicker, and Henry Paul doesn't seem to know where an outside centre should position himself. It wasn't a real test of the new England outfit, nor was it ever going to be. That's all in the future.

EDIT. Oh, and I notice that Ireland rolled the Boks. I have it on tape to watch. Serves Bok coach Jake White right. Apparently he called the Irish second-rate and imposters in the lead up to the game. Stupid of him, and very unlike him. Thus far, he has been one of the more sensible international coaches. Learn from it, Jake.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Half time France 12- 11 Australia.
The Australian try followed a blatant forward pass if anyone's interested in my opinion (even if not).

Yes, I am!

But nonetheless...