Rugby - The Game They Play In Heaven II

[Havak]

Well the French do express their emotions more than the English tend to I suppose?

[LDiCesare]

What a pity.
A dreadful French side.
A dreadful referee too (I'd like to teach him something about feeding in the scrum), but the French showed once more they were unable to play together. Each of the few times a player crossed the line, he was unable to find a partner despite there being one nearby. We're heading for a nice defeat next week.

[kittenOFchaos]

Go Tonga!

Pity about the losing bonus point...NZ could have let Canada through

The French can't genuinely be this poor, its a trap!

[kittenOFchaos]

I really enjoyed that game, a massive battle that just slipped out of our grasp - predictably.

I had money on Scotland to win the 1st half and England to win at 6-1.

The Scottish forwards have been tremendous and in the 1st half England were in total disarray. We're just not there yet, particularly in the scrum as when chunk went off our scrum went to pieces. As I've said before Dan Cole sucks. He got destroyed in the scrum, penalised all over the place and how Johnson hasn't recognised how much of a liability he is...well.

For Scotland, it wouldn't have taken much to have won. Just too keen to kick the ball away on the attack rather than re-build and go through the phases abit more. Also too many of the attacks tried to go around the outside with too little pace or space to score - more needs to be worked in the center of the pitch by attacking the center with multiple attackers and unloading in the tackle, a la NZ.

It is the best result as an Anglo-Scot. Scotland were good, but had they won they'd probably have ended up against NZ - game over. This way England is against France and you'd have to back England, especially if they consign Cole to the dustbin to avoid countless penalties which are the bane of England's first half games.

Edit: Another point of pride. All the Scottish players gave it their all, no-one can fault their effort.

[finbar]

Wallabies lose another back to injury. Drew Mitchell, having recovered manfully from his broken leg, pulls a hammy. So they ended up with an 8/backrower on one wing, a 9 on the other. Meaningless match. The first half was just a parade of Wallaby training paddock drills. The second half saw the Wallaby bench emptied, pouring rain, the Wallabies switch off, and a lot of Russian adventure and endeavour. And Drew Mitchell out of the WC.

Hard to know what to say about France. The usual suspects tried their hardest - Clerc, etc - but they were just out-enthused. Tonga, in that frame of mind, are very hard for anyone to play against. Still, if Parra isn't a 10, he's a darn sight better 9 than than Yachvilli, but when Trinh-Duc finally appears, he gets the ball in an attacking phase and pointlessly kicks it away. There's clearly, obviously, unrest in the camp.

If Scotland had an ounce of penetration in their backs they would have won. And deserved it. They don't, so the result was always inevitable. Ashton or someone else or knows how to score a try was going to get the ball eventually, even accidentally. England plodded to survival. Youngs was poor, his temperament under pressure really is questionable. Wilko defended well but contributed little. I've never been convinced by Stevens at Test level and he was minced by the religious guy. And when he wasn't being minced, he continually bored in illegally. So, England by default.

And Dan Carter apparently did his groin at training. Interesting times ahead.

[Havak]

If heart and commitment won games you would be world champions kOc. Your problem is you are probably the most toothless side in the top 12. You just don’t trouble well organised defences with anything other than kicks behind them. Seeing Kellock holding back tears as Bayfield interviewed him I defy all but the most callous of souls not to have felt for him.

I feel for LDiCesare too - France almost look to me as if they weren’t interested?

England? As normal Finbar has pinged much of it but for my tuppance I would ask when will they learn not to play into opponents hands? Stupid kicking game – should have worked phases and played territory taking the kicks and drops only when no other options were there. No pace, no Rhythm, no intensity at the breakdown and no clue at all until the last 15 mins. By then the subs had made that difference – Palmer gave some gusto at the breakdown, Wiggy reverted to basic rugby where Ben had been forcing bad options too often and Flood brought a control to proceedings in offence that Jonny had simply lacked. Scotland contained Manu well but he continued to work hard and was at the heart of what little we did well.

And playing Stevens out of position is stupid – the lad is a good tighty but a penalty leaking machine at loosey.
A lot therefore to work on. And we won’t take France lightly – surely they will turn up soon? We are not however afraid of them either.

Some tasty QFs are in sight now – I guess I am assuming Georgia can’t upset the apple cart. To win would be remarkable, to win by 8 is into the realms of the miraculous?

And sorry to hear about Mitchell.

[kittenOFchaos]

Georgia are going to get smacked around. Argentina, unlike Scotland know how to score tries in the backs.

NZ vs Argentina will be a far better game than NZ Vs Scotland. In fact, I think it'll be very interesting given that NZ have neither been tested and may be missing some important players.

[Havak]

It will be interesting indeed - but even without Carter I think NZ just have a little bit too much in the tank and skillset for the Pumas to handle. My QF of choice is the likely meeting twixt the remaining Celts.

[kittenOFchaos]

At least Leceister will soon have Alesana Tuilagi to bolster their ranks. Have Leciester ever started this badly?

Given that Leceister are missing so many players for various reasons (21 apparently) they're coming close to beating teams not hit nearly as hard due to the RWC callup.

[kittenOFchaos]

Argentina Vs Georgia

Weird game so far. Allain Rolland is being abit too generous to the Argentinians in terms of penalties - particularly in terms of 'letting the player get on his feet' as the Argentine takes an age to do so after a promising kick through. Georgia would be in trouble (20 minutes in) had Argentina not missed 2 kicks at goal from easy positions and if Argentina had not passed behind the man nearly 5-6 times already.

It also appears to be a smaller pitch than the one Scotland and England have been playing on. What range of pitch sizes are tolerated at International level? It seems daft if there is any variation given a narrower pitch or longer in-goal could have a significant impact. If Argentina have less width to work with, it certainly works to Georgia's advantage.

So, about 22 minutes in and still 0-0. Argentina with the better chances of scoring, but Georgia have had opportunities to put Argentina under pressure...who knows, maybe Georgia can do us a favour? I have made no bets on this game


Edit 1: A Georgian attack just fell to pieces...but some very strong running. They just seem alittle bit hestitant, then remember that they can just run into people, charge forward and make abit of ground. 27 minutes in, still 0-0!

Edit 2: First blood to Argentina. 5-0 after yet another miss.

[kittenOFchaos]

Georgia with a TRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Georgia leading 7 points to 5

Half-time now.

Thom Evans and Sean Fitzpatrick have also picked up on Allain Rolland being abit generous to Argentina - good to see that I'm not being too one-eyed.

[kittenOFchaos]

10 minutes to go and it isn't looking good. 18 points to 7. Georgia have given it a good go, but have conceded far too many penalties - it is amazing that a yellow hasn't been shown given the disparity.

Edit: Eugh, rugby is a nasty game as Argentina make the scoreline abit more respectable with a last minute try and conversion.

Full-time Argentina 25 - Georgia 7 so Scotland have a flight to catch.

In other news:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5717524/Agony-for-All-Blacks-as-McCaw-Carter-out

Daniel Carter is out of the RWC. Abit harsh that Donald wasn't considered at all as a replacement (and that being made public).

Can't see Argentina particularly troubling NZ given what I've watched tonight and that they only got past Scotland because Wayne Barnes and his officials were blind to Argentina being offside (yes I'm going there).

Think I'll stay up to see the start of the NZ Vs Canada game, before some sleep ahead of Ireland Vs Italy.

[Snotty]

The all blacks won their group with 4 wins, 4 bonus points and a points difference of +191. I know the all blacks are the perennial under achievers but its looking pretty good so far. Heres hoping for England - New Zealand in the final!

[kittenOFchaos]

The all blacks won their group with 4 wins, 4 bonus points and a points difference of +191. I know the all blacks are the perennial under achievers but its looking pretty good so far. Heres hoping for England - New Zealand in the final!

Eugh, fell asleep on my sofa in the 2nd half of NZ Vs Canada. Woke briefly during Wales - Fiji and have woken for Ireland Vs Italy though missed the opportunity to bet - boo!


As for NZ. Yes, they look good but they had the easiest group particularly as France did not come out to play. This has been a problem for them in a number of RWC as it means they aren't properly tested until the business end of the competition.

The French have forgotten how to tackle and managed to lose to Tonga who are a very weak team that even Japan managed to beat recently. Japan, whilst improving are a team 1st tier nations expect to thrash and Canada, whilst highly entertaining regularly get mauled by the English Saxons.

It was exhibition rugby last night against Canada whose defence was paper thin, partly due to their frentic approach which did help them get points the board. Everytime NZ got the ball, they looked like scoring from all over the park. Hell, I got carried away and forgot for a moment just how bad Tonga, Japan and Canada are and had NZ to win only by 30-40 points at 10-1. It was soon apparent that this was a bet I couldn't win.

NZ will be concerned about Slade. He was gifting interceptions and his place kicking was pretty average too. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some excellent rugby from him, but he is no Dan Carter and that will show against the top tier nations like SA. I think NZ should have made use of Nick Evans or Donald Duck as more experienced replacements.

[kittenOFchaos]

Jeez, I am blessed with a wife who not only can sit down and enjoy watching rugby at least once a weekend, doesn't fuss that I've watched pretty much every game of this RWC. Yay for me

Italy getting hammered, Ireland Vs Wales...can't wait. Citing commisioner should dispatch a few Italians after this game.