Rugby - The Game They Play In Heaven II

[LDiCesare]

Amazing match between England and Wales. How England can lose a match while having 80% possession and teritorial control during most of the match is apalling.
Never attacking wide on their own ball, stereotyped play, slow balls... The Welsh may have played better with the referee than the English did, but one has to adapt, and the difference between the skippers was quite obvious to me. Warburton asked the referee what he could do, and played accordingly. Tindall...?

[finbar]

Good on the Taffs. Battered just about senseless, they were the only team who looked vaguely like they knew how to mount an attack. More to the point, J**** is banging on about errors costing them. Sure they made some errors but it was England's absolute inabilty to convert the possession and territory, to manufacture anything resembling a coherent attack that did them in. Grand Welsh defence, certainly, but we've been here before. Clueless beyond the muscle.

The French? Cripes, I thought life was tough being a Wallaby supporter. Should have been a mile in front at the interval. And, unlike England, they had the means to achieve it. Switch off, let Ireland back into the game, switch back on again when it really matters. Mon Dieu!

Good Wallaby effort against the most experienced ever Bok team, albeit a bit rusty. The Wallabies showed some maturity and composure at key moments instead of hurling zero percentage passes, as has been their wont. So sad to see John Smit playing a couple of seasons too many. Late in the game he moved to tighthead and the Wallaby pack splintered the Bok pack. That's how poor he has become.

Japan scared the life out of Italy with their sheer speed and some very good skills. Japan were rubbish at the set piece and it took Italy too long to realise that was what they had to exploit. Still, good to see the young, very talented 9 Gori back in action. Bunged his shoulder in the first 6N match and missed the whole series. He'll go a long way.

[LDiCesare]

Yes, France scored a try and then forgot to play, kicked the ball away and let the Irish come back. Frustrating. Mermoz did his usual match of being very good and then getting hurt. Lightly this time, but he'll definitely break something during or before the World Cup. It's a pity since when Marty plays with Mermoz, Marty actually passes the ball, turning him from a solid defender into a good centre.

[finbar]

Yes! I saw Marty pass last night. Couldn't believe my eyes! I had to rewind and watch it again to be sure. Oh, and that child who debuted at 8 looks nice and promising.

[Havak]

It was a relief actually - now we can have realistic expectations at the RWC. Limp out the group then get stuffed in the QF.

Wales - who deserved their win - probably won't get out their group at all. The Islander sides could shock the Welsh I suspect.

It baffles me how a side can lose when they have so much ball. Still unless J is a stubborn idiot (hold on...) he should have seen that those centres are not an option to pursue any further. And Wilko is now the number one fly half again.

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I'm almost ... almost ... almost but not quite tempted to feel sorry for you. It's remarkable that a coach, having watched what everyone else watched, can publicly wonder what went wrong. Of course he knows. He's not a dolt. The problem is that he has committed to a single, very predictable, monumentally limited midfield strategy leaving no other apparent options. It doesn't help either that the forwards coach seems oblivious to the role of forwards in modern rugby.

Mmmmm. Okay, fair enough. I feel sorry for you.

Robbie Deans has signed for another two years which will include the Lions tour. Fair enough. Best man for the job. Ewen McKenzie, Reds coach, will probably succeed him.

[finbar]

Danny Care out of the WC squad. For all his failings, he's a better option than the plodding, pre-programmed Wigglesworth. The 9 ranks are thin if Joe Simpson is next cab off the rank. Good skills, quick, but tiny, and with a very bad habit of being caught and thrown aside by defenders.

Robbie Deans, you marvel. Having the guts to change skippers at this late stage. In fact, Rocky shouldn't have retained the captaincy this season given his lack of rugby. Not to mention that captaincy doesn't come easily to him. It does to James Horwill. Excellent choice. No Giteau in the squad, unsurprisingly. Deans never took to him personally thanks to Giteau's long history of off-field politicking and disruptive behaviour. Playing rubbish rugby for 18 months didn't help his cause either. Apart from that, and the risk of selecting currently crocked players and hoping they're fit enough, it's a good squad. No back-up specialist 7 to give Pocock a breather is the really curly one. Apparently Deans is of the view that the fetcher role will be less important under the interpretations at this WC.

[LDiCesare]

Selecting crocked players? Ever looked at Lièvremont's team?

[finbar]

Yes, but that's to be expected of un fou furieux.

[LDiCesare]

I saw Wales-Argentina and Ireland-France.
Wales did the same thing against Argentina as they did against England: Suffer most of the time, then win. Except that happened with 2 nice tries at the end of the first half. Knoyles (?) their young 9 is quite good, and North is excellent. Argentina on the other hand is an ageing team which lacks offensive options.
Ireland started well, finished well, but the backline seems rusty. France was its usual self, beginning like they would lose 60-0, then replacing Skrela by Trinh-Duc and playing well (hint - last week, France attacked well until Skrela came in for 10 instead of Trinh-Duc), and finally letting the Irish come back when they had the game secured. The French scrum was, however, quite weak. I don't know which looseheads will make the World Cup team, and whether 2 or 3 hookers will make the trip, but there are a few issues there. Palisson was very good, which is nice since he's one of the very few young French players.

[kittenOFchaos]

The backline score 7 points...that isn't a sign that the backline did anything.

Morne Steyn has been crucial in many big victories over top quality opposition. Try your newbies against England, Ireland or Scotland, not New Zealand in New Zealand.

I haven't seen the game (still in Canada having got married here over the summer), but I recall a conversation about Morne Steyn...

South Africa (15) 18 Pens: Steyn 5 Drops: Steyn
New Zealand (5) 5 Try: Kahui

I feel vindicated...though, I do recognise that Carter and McCaw were missing...

I also notice another victory for Scotland

[finbar]

Congrats on the happy event!

Yes, they were missing Carter and McCaw but also quite a few other starters or even back ups. Adam Thomson at 7? Slade was nervous at 10, SBW was anonymous apart from a couple of nice offloads, Toeava had hands like bricks. They had no rhythm, no purpose. At best, it told Henry who he wasn't going to count on at the WC, though he probably knows anyway. The Boks strangled them in the old-fashioned Bok way. Massive defence, Brussow was just extraordinary turning over more than half a dozen balls on his own, and Steyn did what he can do well - kick the leather off the ball, turning the oppo around. They won't come from behind to take a match with the tactics but they make it mighty hard for an opposition to play.

I liked France against Ireland, though, again, they let the Irish back into the match. Heymans' try was beautiful to watch. Ireland are back where they were early in the 6N - wasted opportunity, terrible errors. It's hard to know what makes them tick.

I can't see Wales getting out of their WC group. The Argies - very rusty, increasingly sloppy - monstered them (away from the scrums) and Wales could only muster two tries, one relatively lucky from a scrappy scrum, the second a genuinely nice one running from deep.

Scotland won on the basis of a try from a charge down and Italy giving away silly kickable penalties. Castro almost singlehandedly destroyed the Scottish scrum. I don't know who the commentator was alongside Andy Nicol but he was hilarious. Every Scottish error was put down to the players deliberately only going through the motions, their priority not to get hurt before the WC. Truly bizarre.

[kittenOFchaos]

Despite that, Nikki Walker still managed to cripple himself and so miss the RWC. This isn't particularly bad news for Scotland as I think Danielli is a better option, though not without his faults.

It is such a shame we can't yet have Tim Visser playing for us - June 2012 - as he is top-notch.

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Tim Visser will be a big, big addition. Yesterday, unfortunately, Danielli was nothing short of a waste of space. In a match in which Scotland enjoyed a lot of possession, he somehow continually managed to avoid being in the right place at the right time. Robinson started him yesterday to let him show his worth. Now, with Walker's injury, I suspect he will be on the plane by default. The interesting selection poser is prop Murray. He doesn't play on Sundays, yet at least one of the pool matches is on a Sunday, as will be the QF game if they make it.

[LDiCesare]

Congrats kOC.
I didn't see much of SA/NZ, bu Slade did look limited.
To be fair to Rougerie, he defended well. Maybe he learned to defend as a centre. If so, he will make a good 13. I question the choice of bringing Barcella and Guirado however. I think Guirado isn't needed and Marconnet should have been of the trip to NZ. If France faces a strong scrum, I doubt Barcella will be in good enough shape to play, and Guirado's lineouts are still problematic. Barcella is definitely a good backup prop considering he's hurt. He should play the first match against Japan to get back in form, but I'm not sure it'll be enough.