Rugby - A thug's game played by gentlemen

I'm hoping Argentina continue their upward trajectory. They have been a great addition to the Rugby Championship and with the forthcoming addition to the Super competition they just get a bit more chance to strut their stuff on the bigger stage.

Refs don't seem to be going to their pocket to deal with team penalty issues any more. Sure players go to the bin for individual acts, but it seems like a team can give away a stream of penalties without any sanction when previously the third one in a row for a team would see someone having spell on the pine (or more likely plastic). I think both the All Blacks and Wallabies were beneficiaries of this mindset in the semi finals.

EDIT - Maybe we will in the final with this guy in charge.
https://www.facebook.com/BBCWalesSpo...

Oh yes, the Cricket World Cup semi-final had one of those moments as well. IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/AZkj3X5.jpg)

Hell yeah, All Blacks back to back!
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/CgmFNyk.jpg)

Well done! Fully deserved! Hopefully we (SA) can muster more of a challenge for you guys in the next few years.

Lots of legends in both teams are now retiring/retired. Exciting times ahead!

That win was pretty much as expected, the margin though was not. Well done to the Kiwis.

One thing about the union world cup before I talk about proper rugby, Sonny Bill Williams - nicest guy ever for giving that kid his medal.

Anyway on to the opening game of the England New Zealand test today

YESSSSSSSSS, we managed to beat them and are 1-0 up and hopefully will go on to seal the series from here. We had a terrible start and were really clinging on in there but we totally bossed the second half. With Burgess (Tom) smashing it up. It wasn't pretty but we will take it.

Also it's always good to see the Haka performanced in front of a respectful crowd instead of of been met with slave songs and boos.

onewild wrote:

proper rugby

Lol....

Sam Burgess talk - Leeds have confirmed their interest, we have close connections with Souths so could see a deal where if Souths can't get him under the cap this year, we have him for one year till they can.

I'd accept him just coming back to any Rugby League team full stop, nothing short of shameful the way that the union lot on a whole have scapegoated for England been terrible at the world cup.

Not a surprise, really, is it - nor to see the usual backseat drivers like Stuart Barnes putting the game to rights afterwards and opining as usual that Union has nothing to learn from League. For someone who's never coached any professional team in his life, Barnes certainly seems to know a lot about it ; much like him talking about top level international rugby, I guess.

Equally amusing was Mike Ford's statement that Burgess 'lacked the stomach for the fight'. How odd that he failed to inculcate that into Burgess during his time at Bath. Also as predictable was George Ford stepping up to have a go at his team-mate, well daddy's little soldier has got to get in on the act sometime I suppose.

Anyway

IMAGE(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/512/amz/vivo/live/images/2015/11/14/41d37014-af4c-4c01-bde5-5cbe16bb7bab.jpg)

Loved the lacking the fight statement - yeah a guy who played a whole Grand Final with a broken cheekbone lacks fight. So much bitterness from Bath and RFU press. Also they wouldn't let him explain himself to his Bath team mates.

Also as for the picture - get in, England RFL and the international game as a whole needed England to win this series

Read an interesting piece about Burgess and how nobody really knew how to utilize him, with his club and England switching him between centre and flank. How can someone be expected to play like that?

I think the difference was between Bath (who wanted to play him at no 6) and England (who wanted to play him at 12, which I believe was Burgess' preference as well). I guess it depends if you think that Burgess had it in mind that this was only going to be a short term thing...playing at 6 would take longer to get to grips with as it involves lineouts and mauls, as well as scrummaging - so all of the elements with which Burgess would have no familiarity whatsoever coming from RL. If you think he was only ever in it for the short term, then playing at 12 would make sense to him.

Well, Jonah Lomu died at age 40, RIP big guy.

Yeah, woke up to this. Sad to see such a physically imposing person go through what he has in such a short life.

RIP

So proud of my team. South Africa absolutely dominated that final! Just awesome!

Seeing Siya Kolisi lift that trophy brought tears to my eyes. Special

Their first ever cup final try was a thing of beauty for sure! Great game!

Congrats!

Congrats to South Africa!! That was well done indeed.

Edit: oh, I was looking at the thread title and thinking that I was somewhat ashamed of my team's final match in the RWC. France did NOT play like gentlemen... It was a thug's game played by thugs, what a disgrace.

Yes, I'm still bitter about it. *cries*

Wow, 8 days till the 10th Anniversary of this thread! Nice necro.

I honestly didn't give us a chance. The way England out muscled NZ vs the way we sputtered against Wales left me a bit short in confidence. Not even as a knock on the team, it's a young group with a bright future, but I figured their eyes would be on 2023. You simply don't build a WC winning side in 18 months.

Luckily I don't mind being wrong.

One thing I was 100% right about though was there would be potentially serious injuries with those two defensive systems against each other. A concussion scare before 3 minutes on the clock and losing a lock and hooker before the first half was over speaks to that.

I'm bummed Rassie is stepping back as direct coach, but hopefully whoever steps in keeps up the development he's started. We don't need reinventing the wheel. Classic Bok rugby executed well is a joy to watch.

mwdowns wrote:

Their first ever cup final try was a thing of beauty for sure! Great game!

It was many things the final, brutal for one, but great it was not. SA game plan is basically to bore you into submission, and they do it very very well and fully deserved to win but it's 80mins of my life I will never get back.

In other rugby news, on the same day, Tonga basically turned the world upside down by beating the Aussies to complete a clean sweep of the big 3.

onewild wrote:
mwdowns wrote:

Their first ever cup final try was a thing of beauty for sure! Great game!

It was many things the final, brutal for one, but great it was not. SA game plan is basically to bore you into submission, and they do it very very well and fully deserved to win but it's 80mins of my life I will never get back.

In other rugby news, on the same day, Tonga basically turned the world upside down by beating the Aussies to complete a clean sweep of the big 3.

Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree... I think that was a great game. It had all the basic hallmarks of a good test match. Epic forward battles, strong defence and fantastic tries when the opportunities presented themselves.

To me it looked like Rassie had everyone fooled (including us South Africans) about our strategy for the game, ie. kick the living snot of the ball. When the boks started running from the first minute, it looked like England did not know how to deal with this change in tack and, coupled with a dominant scrum, were always on the backfoot.

We did still kick, but only when it was the correct option. The boks basically brought out the Rugby Championship gameplan we used over the past 2 years to ever increasing effect.

Loved it!

Don't take it personally, onewild has been wrong about the merits of Rugby Union in this thread since day one. Being a league fan, he just doesn't know any better. Union is chess, not hopscotch.

*Edit*

I read back through this thread this morning and I found it genuinely funny how consistent the discussions have been for nearly 10 years.

In the time since this thread started though, I have helped set up an inclusive rugby union club though. I like it a bit more now, I mean League is still miles better in all respects. So I was coming from this as a more educated person on union (look I don't even call it yawnion). Just this game was dull. Lots of mistakes from England (how many times did they threw it into touch? or to ground? It was the Super Bowl LIII of World Cups.

Although it did have more tries in it then the last League World Cup final, still not as good of a game though

Any still watching these days? Specifically the Six Nations? Because I have to say, the French kinda dropped the ball (pun intended) on this one.
Currently sitting down to watch the England - Wales match, and it's going to be a good one, I can tell!

Six Nations is on now? I will watch. Would like to watch more rugby, but I never know when stuff is on or what leagues are playing.

I kind of stopped following when Super Rugby imploded. I barely even follow local matches. I'm interested to see what happens with SA teams joining the European PRO14 competition and the Lions Tour.

FWIW, I'm happy to screen share (when I can, the next matches are two weeks from now, and I'll be chasing the kids) with anyone who wants to watch, but the commentary will be in French.

Matches are here. We're about halfway through the tourney. France-Scotland that was supposed to be tomorrow got cancelled though, or postponed, rather.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I kind of stopped following when Super Rugby imploded. I barely even follow local matches. I'm interested to see what happens with SA teams joining the European PRO14 competition and the Lions Tour.

In exactly the same boat. Haven’t watched any games really since covid started. Hope that the European venture works out and that we actually get to see the boks play this year...

Looks like ESPN+ has PRO14 games. I think I’m going to cheer from the Connacht team.

Six Nations starting up again! Anyone else watching?