RWC 2011

Haakon, I'm sure he had the time to pull up once the ball went dead. I'm always suspicious when the same player always has incidents, there's a point where it's no longer believable that actions are accidental.

But as a well known rugby philosopher once said, "Rugby is a tough game, if you don't like it go buy a tutu."

As for who I support:

1: South Africa
2: Argentina
3: Australia
4: Any scrappy underdog
5: Anyone that isn't NZ or England

Steam are coming out of my ears. Well done to the US defense but we are in for a poor WC again on this form.

11 amateurs in that US side and we huffed and puffed. The Ausratlians are going to put us to the sword and we are in for a arm wrestle against Italy.

Well, well, well. Are we due the first upset. Must poke MrDeVil on Twitter. Welsh have really done well. SA don't look sharp, though. Missing some big players.

Yeah, we didn't play well. The third quarter nearly did it for Wales. All due credit to them.

Hougaard saved our asses.

The USA played really well, they defended like Trojans. A bit too static on attack though. I think Ireland didn't look too bad, most of the bigger teams have had nervous first games.

*edit*

Concerned about Devilliers and Matfield being taken off.

I think we are in serious trouble. No disrespect to the US but if you are dominating a team in the set piece to that degree you should be putting them away. You cannot just turn precision on and off and unfortunately we are coming up against an Ozzie side that will be. Now, replace the US for the Italians and consider how we would do. I'm beyond worried now, I'm fuming that the IRFU have allowed this happen for about the fourth WC.

Samoa don't look bad. With Fiji in the mix as well, Pool D is looking a little more tricky than originally suspected. The Scotland-Georgia didn't reveal much but the Tonga-Canada games wasn't half bad but one suspects that France and NZ won't be troubled too much.

So far I've been thoroughly enjoying the games. Russia/USA was entertaining. The better team won but Russia made a good account of themselves on debut.

I'm so happy with the shrinking gaps between the various teams. I don't see Japan conceding 100 points in a game again, but that theory is going to be tested tomorrow when they face New Zealand again. South Africa/Fiji is going to be a good one, a few changes have been forced by injury and will have interesting consequences.

And it seems that the citing commissioner agreed with me about Lawes' 'tackle' on Mario Ledesma.

England lock Courtney Lawes was handed a two-match suspension on Tuesday after being found guilty by an independent citing commission of striking Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma with his knee.

The punishment means Lawes will miss England's World Cup matches against Georgia and Romania in Dunedin on September 18 and 24 respectively, but will be free to play the final Pool B contest against old rivals Scotland on October 1.

The incident happened during England's 13-9 victory over the South Americans in their opening World Cup match in Dunedin on Saturday.

Ledesma initially appeared to have been knocked out cold after the 22-year-old Lawes slid into the Argentine's head after the hooker had been tackled into touch near the try-line.

However, the Pumas forward recovered quickly to resume playing after receiving treatment.

A two match suspension seems suitable.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I don't see Japan conceding 100 points in a game again, but that theory is going to be tested tomorrow when they face New Zealand again.

Ouch, not quite half time and it's 38-0. Looks like I may be very wrong. Japan is cracking.

Springboks destroyed Fiji.

Aus v Ire about to start. The highlight of the pool.

The Boks were freaking magnificent. Even our scrum was impressive and it stayed good once we had loose forwards playing at lock. Every player put his hands up.

Fiji weren't even that bad, just outplayed at every point.

Ireland and Australia looking pretty even now, and the Aussies were one of my danger teams.

Aye, pity about Fiji.

Looks like Ireland found some old school blood and guts. 6-6. I just think we have to get some precision in attack or we will just lose out eventually. Australia just to good at finding scores from anywhere.

An outhalf and winger in the midfield. Uh oh.

f*ck YOU QUADE COOPER YOU STUPID SHOWBOATING FOOL!!

God damn idiot.

Great forward pressure from the Irish all night and the Wobblies wilted.

Two word. Set piece. Can't come win games without it no matter how skillful a team you are. In fairness the Kiwis in the crowd were behind us as well. Helped our pack. That said, that made my week.

That was a turn up for the books. The Irish did very much turn up ready to play though.

Now that I've collected my thought a little, this result throws up some interesting questions. Assuming everything else goes to plan, this basically splits the competition between North and South. The question is if you're the Kiwis do you want to win against France and have to Beat Australia and South Africa to the final or do you want to play England and Ireland? The France-New Zealand game takes on a very weird significance now.

davet010 wrote:

That was a turn up for the books. The Irish did very much turn up ready to play though.

We are good at that when we are underdogs (ascribe that to our colonial past, I suppose). The problem is we can't seem to put weaker teams to the sword and for me that's the sign of a really good team. South Africa did that to Fiji today and considering Fiji aren't a bad side at all it bodes very well for the Boks. We still have to beat Italy and then Wales/Samoa to get to the business end of the competition and if we return to our standard form we could be in trouble.

What is clear is that the conditioning of players has pretty is much universal. This RWC could yet throw up a few surprises.

Axon wrote:

The problem is we can't seem to put weaker teams to the sword and for me that's the sign of a really good team. South Africa did that to Fiji today and considering Fiji aren't a bad side at all it bodes very well for the Boks.

Something I was particularly impressed by. South Africa has the tendency to take the foot off the gas against weaker sides, New Zealand is the one team that really annihilates weak teams as expected. We also tend to relax when we have a lead, but we played the full 80 today and that looks ominous for the other teams.

The Wallabies looked totally flat, the Irish played good old fashioned Union and out-muscled them. I know the Irish were considered to be out of the running before the tournament, but they are a team that plays tournament rugby well and I thought they would bounce back after a jittery first round game.

While I have a preference for Southern teams I was still pleased to see Ireland do well.

Yeah! Take that America!

Today will answer my burning question. 'With strict reffing at the breakdown can New Zealand win a game against strong opposition without cheating?'

*edit*

Jesus! 19-0 at 22 minutes.

Not as one-sided as it looked...the french had a number of chances but were particularly lax in converting them, and the Chokers had to work a bit harder than they would have liked against a team which was not at full strength.

The Frogs looked quite decent on attack, but their defence was seriously lacking. NZ could just counter at will.

Didn't watch the England Romania game, but it sounds like England managed to put together a complete performance.

With the Aussie performance yesterday the quarters look like they're going to be tough.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

The Frogs looked quite decent on attack, but their defence was seriously lacking. NZ could just counter at will.

Didn't watch the England Romania game, but it sounds like England managed to put together a complete performance.

With the Aussie performance yesterday the quarters look like they're going to be tough.

pfft - We are still crap.

While I hope you're right Bruce I'm not writing anyone off yet. The USA did help us out by breaking a number of Aussie players though.

I need a trip to the physio after watching the SA/Samoa game. It was brutal. I think samoa was lucky to escape carding earlier.

Disappointed in how we played too, still too many handling errors.

Good game for a neutral. I was pleased to see Samoa push hard in the second half, as I really enjoy watching Samoa play in a broken field.

The red card itself was something of a joke, from where I was sitting. Not a particularly fair representation by the line judge. There was at least one clear punch to the face from the Saffer to Williams, and the Samoan's was more of a open-handed push that caused a larger man to fall over. Wasn't impressed with the reffing in this game, really.

All said, though, working at home on a Friday during the World Cup for the proverbial win!

France's troubles off the pitch are going to cost them. Leivremont has proven to be a disaster. Going by the pictures he has completely lost the team.

Edit: Dusautoir booed during his interview. Madame Guillotine is warming up.

Haakon7 wrote:

The red card itself was something of a joke, from where I was sitting. Not a particularly fair representation by the line judge.

Simple rule in rugby; don't retaliate. No matter what the previous infringement, once you retaliate you're goosed. Williams was playing silly buggers with Brussow and the flanker was well within his rights to try and shake him off. If Williams didn't like getting hit then he shouldn't have done it. Once he got up and struck Brussow in the face he was really in trouble.

The french game confused the crap oit of me at the end. The Frogs could have won with 5 minutes left, but kept going for the pushover. It looked like they didn't want to win.

I've never seen a wing so depressed to score a try.

And regarding the red card yesterday, Samoa spent most of their energy trying to provoke a fight, the cards should have come out earlier, the ref finally decided to take action.

As Axon says, Brussow was within his rights to try break out of interference. Hitting someone in the face is verboten.

I was hoping for a nice upset from Scotland, was not to be though.

*edit*

Just saw the news that Francois Steyn is out of the tournament with a shoulder injury. He's been great on the field, and we'll miss the 60 metre goal kicking option.

During the Canadian game, the TV showed the half time dressing room pictures. The players were huddled away from the management going over the previous half and plotting the second half. Lievremont decided to get involved and started to walk over to the huddle. Once the players spotted him they broke up the huddle and began to scatter but this didn't deter Lievremont. He then preceded to lecture the players about something or other and none of them would even look at him. It was cringe inducing stuff.

The French players are, in my mind, manufacturing at situation where they can save some face but make Lievremonts position is untenable. I don't really blame them. I'd say Lievremont is difficult to say the least.

Roll on Ireland-Italy. Nail biter. I'm under no illusion that the neutral will be cheering for Italy and our advantage in the set piece will disappear. Australia was a bonus, this was always the key game for us.