Official Rugby World Cup 2011 thread

[anubis38]

Andreas nice profile pic I was reading the posts and I just see this cheek shaking and I was like wt F lol
And down with the Aussies I think they are to arrogant?

 

[dollabill87]

Wow I'm pretty excited to see  a WRC thread on NT!  Go the AB's! It's been exciting how close most of the matches have been, I think the gaps are very slowly closing in international rugby. All I can I say is I'm glad the times are sweet over here in NZ, makes a change .

 . Can't wait for the next few weeks to go to some of the games.

 

[danzinreallife]

Hai Benjammin!!

I agree, the ranks are closing!

Upon further inspection of the un-awarded penalty, if the posts are extended up the ball would have actually rebounded off and most likely come forward.

Barnes could have asked the TMO but they would have come back inconclusive and the decision would be Barnes'. At the end of the day the assistant refs were right underneath it, their judgement is more accurate than ours is from what we see. And Wales missed the last penalty kick, Barnes can't be held accountable like he was for the forward pass in the French - NZ game in '07

 

[mourf83]

Yeh Digby with a fractured thumb, hopefully he ll be back for the quarter finals ( staff seems hopefull at least ) Botha our future player ( for Toulon 

 ) is also out for next game and might miss the whole tournament, big blow for the Boks. Concerning Hook's penalty, its the sideline ref mistakes even though barnes could have asked the TMO. still mistakes like that happen all the time. On a sidenote I watched Toulouse-Racing and Idk how Henry could have left MCallister out of this squad. Kiwis better pray Carter stay healthy cuz your backup lack experience.

 

[dollabill87]

Originally Posted by DanzInRealLife

Hai Benjammin!!

I agree, the ranks are closing!

Upon further inspection of the un-awarded penalty, if the posts are extended up the ball would have actually rebounded off and most likely come forward.

Barnes could have asked the TMO but they would have come back inconclusive and the decision would be Barnes'. At the end of the day the assistant refs were right underneath it, their judgement is more accurate than ours is from what we see. And Wales missed the last penalty kick, Barnes can't be held accountable like he was for the forward pass in the French - NZ game in '07

Wassup Danz? It's been to long. Concerning Wales, gutting loss for them but two missed kicks towards the end of the game were even more crucial than the suspect call earlier on. Mourf I kinda agree on Macallister he is a good player, and I actually thought he might get selected on his Super Rugby form, but there is a muddy history between him and Ted so maybe he was never really in contention?

  

 

[danzinreallife]

Gah I know! I'm hoping to get up to Welly after the WC sometime... I will be coming through just before New Years though

There's a lot of politics all round, don't be surprised if Hansen automatically steps into the Head Coach role after the WC. Apparently as long as Steve Tew is heading the NZRU Deans will never coach. Bad blood between them

Ehhh McAllister doesn't seem to keep his form at a constant. I think that's why he's always overlooked. Don't get me wrong, he can be a great player, but he's not consistent.


Mourf, I think that goes for a lot of teams, if you take out Wilkinson, who do England have? Australia, O'Connor for the long kicks, Quade for the short ones? You're discounting the fact that Weepu can kick too, as well as Slade and I'm sure Dagg will be getting in some practice.



Can't wait for Read to be back in the squad, he's sorely missed. Vito is good, but he's not Read. As for Thomson, well he can go eat a d

 

[mourf83]

Yeh you re right, Australia has no one behind Cooper either ( barnes barely played this year and he s better playing inside center i think ) Same goes for us, we saw how weak Skrela was against Japan, and other than Trin Dhuc we dont have a real fly half ( traille, estebanez and Parra can play there but we cant have ambitions with those as starters ) Wilko is not as irreplaceable as he once was. Excited to see Tonga and Samoa play tomorow hopefully they both win. 

 

[andreasbabz]

Originally Posted by Anubis38

Andreas nice profile pic I was reading the posts and I just see this cheek shaking and I was like wt F lol
And down with the Aussies I think they are to arrogant?

I like the Aussies cause I live here lol.  
The All Blacks have to win, if they lose another semi-final to France I think there will be a riot. 

For some balance the Wallabies forwards practising -

 

[mourf83]

 Im so pissed i just missed the 1st half of the Samoa game I though the game was starting in 10 mn instead of an hour ago, had a lot to study for i couldnt even re check, well I hope we ll see more tries in the 2nd half. Samoa is one of my favorite team and is so rare to see them play, gotta make sure I wont miss a second of Tonga-Canada

 

[DeadsetAce]

@ the pics

 

[danzinreallife]

Tonga - Canada game was

very tightly contested, I'm glad Canada won. Kleeberger

dude is a work horse!!!

Scotland - Georgia is on right now. Scotland are up 9 - 3. They've missed quite a few penalties. Georgia got an insane one early in the first half. Had the commentators like

!



Random fact: Argentina have only played 18 games between world cups. I really do hope they take SANZAR's offer of joining in the Tri-Nations to form a Four Nations comp starting from 2012. The potential for them to improve tenfold is insane.

 

[dollabill87]

I can't believe Tonga have never beaten Canada in a WC. The tens of thousands of Tongan fans here in Auckland are pretty quiet right now! Yup Danz I'm in Aucks now Just opened the new Loaded in Newmarket. The AB's injuries for tommorows game are worrying, lucky we are only playing Japan.

 

[danzinreallife]

Haha I can imagine! Whaaaa?! You're in Aux?!! Woah! When did that happen? Congrats!!!


I think Ted is sneakily doing the rotation system

apparently Japan named a B side, hence the changes in our team. Oh well, still excited for it!

 

[mourf83]

USA-Russia was the 1st game of this world cup I didnt watch, well doesnt seem like i missed much. Definitely watching the All Blacks game tonight, let's see how the Japanese do this time and if a real Japanese actually score some points. Guilford the real left winger of this squad has yet to appear on the bench, interesting to see kahui on the left wing this time. Dagg> Mils 
Canada-Tonga was a close contest, well deserved by the Canucks and teaching Tonga for doing some weird choice like playing Moa for the 1st time ever at fly half, resting Lilo and the 1st row. 

 

[kdawg]

Japan are going to get absolutely annihalated tonight - even a weak NZ team will do that to them.

 

[flasheightzero]

please be the hot fashion for 2012

 

[danzinreallife]

Originally Posted by kdawg

Japan are going to get absolutely annihilated tonight - even a weak NZ team will do that to them.

83 - 7

Was actually a tightly contested match in regards to territory, possession, breakdown turnovers and penalties. We just finished if off properly.

Japan play with so much heart, for me, as a person from Christchurch, it was an honour to play them, to have it be such an exciting match and have the moment silence to remember those who died in the 22 Feb Christchurch earthquakes and the 11 March Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami.


Smh they've got a breakdown panel on right now, this English guy totally ripped Slade to shreds. Yes he missed four kicks and caused the sole Japanese try, but he also had a hand in many of the Nonu breaks that led to tries, throwing giant cut out passes with awesome precision and the wee pass to get SBW his first try. They focused solely on the bad points and failed to shed light on the finer points of his game.

Dagg is still young though, he has the potential to really screw up under pressure, Mils has the experience. I'd rather see Mils on with a calm head than Dagg, who was useless in the Super 15 competition this year.

 

[dollabill87]

Originally Posted by DanzInRealLife






 I'd rather see Mils on with a calm head than Dagg, who was useless in the Super 15 competition this year.

  

Useless or hampered by injury?

 It was a nice moment when respects were payed for the victims of the quakes, nice to see Mr. Key lined up too. I'm amped for this evenings games
both South Africa vs Fiji and Australia vs Ireland are going too be doozy's! We've been in the big smoke for about a month now Danz, loving the lifestyle so much Going on. I'm heading to the Pub with Conor tonight tp watch the games.

 

[danzinreallife]

Biggest upset of the tournament so far!!!


Ireland you %#%+@$# good %#%+@$#!!! 15 - 6!

My throat hurts from yelling so much!!!

 

[kdawg]

Originally Posted by DanzInRealLife

Originally Posted by kdawg

Japan are going to get absolutely annihilated tonight - even a weak NZ team will do that to them.

83 - 7

Was actually a tightly contested match in regards to territory, possession, breakdown turnovers and penalties. We just finished if off properly.

Japan play with so much heart, for me, as a person from Christchurch, it was an honour to play them, to have it be such an exciting match and have the moment silence to remember those who died in the 22 Feb Christchurch earthquakes and the 11 March Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami.


Smh they've got a breakdown panel on right now, this English guy totally ripped Slade to shreds. Yes he missed four kicks and caused the sole Japanese try, but he also had a hand in many of the Nonu breaks that led to tries, throwing giant cut out passes with awesome precision and the wee pass to get SBW his first try. They focused solely on the bad points and failed to shed light on the finer points of his game.

Dagg is still young though, he has the potential to really screw up under pressure, Mils has the experience. I'd rather see Mils on with a calm head than Dagg, who was useless in the Super 15 competition this year.

I've heard that a lot of kickers don't like the new ball - it seems to do funny things in the air. I saw that this morning in the Australia game - the kick looks good and then seems to curve away - and you can see the flags behind going the other way.

Might just be swirling wind in the stadium but the kicking percentages are worse than usual.

 

[mourf83]

Players have been practicing with these ball for almost a year now (I know is saw a documentary with wilko showing practicing with that same ball over 6 months ago) 
Australia 

 could not beat the team we beat twice right before the world cup oh and looks like Australia NZ and SA will be in the same bracket for the knockout round we can tank next week 

 

[kdawg]

So far the All Blacks are a step above everyone else - the other big teams look fine - SA, England, Australia sort of - but they have all had close games that shouldn't have been. Even the France Canada game was tighter than the score suggested.

So far I don't see anyone else beating them.

 

[danzinreallife]

I think one problem with the stadium in Dunedin is that it's fully closed. Usually there is some sort of force on the ball when it's kicked so the players compensate to get it through the sticks. In that stadium there isn't anything, and it's almost as if they're overcompensating to get it over. Just a wee theory

Regardless, the kicking stats for the overall tournament are appalling.

This weekend will be the biggest test for us. The frogs. I wasn't overtly impressed by them last night, in all honesty I really wanted Canada to win. But the difference is game time between world cups has become very apparent. Could you imagine if all teams got roughly the same amount of game time? The world cup would be so much more exciting and tightly contested!

I don't know what it's like in other countries, but here in NZ rugby is pretty much a year round sport.

England was incredibly lucky that Kaplan was being so lenient. Too lenient. Like the commentators were saying, if it was Georgia who were consistently being penalised in the breakdown (six times in thirteen minutes for England) they would have had a yellow card far sooner. Kaplan is usually a pretty good ref but his handling of the constant infringements left a lot to be desired.

 

[mourf83]

Yeh weird composition by Lievremont, if the ABs are smart they gonna go at Traille, he s not a fullback he sucks under high balls. Parra at 10 not really convinced either but 
it might be a good way to motivate Trinh Duc who has been disapointing so far. Ducalcon is a weird choice at prop as well. Hopefully there wont be rain or wind 

 we still gonna get 

smashed i presume.

 

[i3]

So we're through to the Quarters?

I think we'll face Australia potentially since they lost against Ireland lol

Im heading back to Welly soon, so definitely getting amongst it all. Argentine supporters anyone?