Rugby World Cup

[FrediKanoute]

Preliminary rounds (Group stages) are all but done and aside from a couple of shocks (Japan beating Sth Africa; Scotland playing well; England crashing out of their own tournament), the final 8 are largely as expected - Australia and Wales from Group A; Sth Africa & Scotland from Group B; New Zealand and Argentina from Group C; Ireland and France from Group D.

Next weekend starts the knock outs and there are some really good games coming up. Australia by virtue of their win last night meet Scotland in the quarter finals on Sunday (Monday morning for those not in the UK) which means if they win they will meet either Ireland or Argentina in the Semi-final.

I was at the game last night at Twickers and it was one of the best defensive performances I have seen the Wallabies produce. For a 7 minute period they defended astutely in their last 10 yard area when down to 13 men.....brutal and tough rugby which was all made all the more impressive because 3 times Wales crossed the try line only for the ball to held up. Wallabies of prior years would never have coped with that sort of pressure.

[GVGjr]

Re: Rugby World Cup

I got up early to watch it, couldn't believe that we could hold it together when we lost the 2nd guy. Great game considering there was no tries

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Agreed. Too often Union becomes a kicking game with no ambition. Last night the game was better for it. I saw a stat which said that Australia laid something like 15 ackles in a 2 minute period to deny Wales. That is astounding. Australia made something like120 tackles for the game and missed 15.....effectively 9 in 10 tackles stuck!

[westdog54]

Re: Rugby World Cup

I still haven't gotten over how dominant the Australian scrum was against the Poms.

Watching David Pocock sniffung around the rucks for a turnover has been a thing of beauty.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Love Pocock. Gun player and at the moment the best breakdown player in the world.

Watched on TV the Ireland France game yesterday. Good win for Ireland, but a costly one. Sexton and O'Connell both taken off with injuries, and O'Brien (their number 7) will be sited for punching a French guy. Good it, but not legal.

[Bornadog]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Lucky penalty in dying minutes and Australia home by 1 point over Scotland.

Semi finals next against Argentina who beat Ireland in an upset.

[GVGjr]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Lucky penalty in dying minutes and Australia home by 1 point over Scotland.

Semi finals next against Argentina who beat Ireland in an upset.

It was unbelievable, we would have to lift 2 levels to even have a chance against the All Blacks.

[Bornadog]

Re: Rugby World Cup

It was unbelievable, we would have to lift 2 levels to even have a chance against the All Blacks.

All Blacks have South Africa next. Although they will be favourites, anything can happen.

[jazzadogs]

Re: Rugby World Cup

I was lucky enough to be at Twickenham, and still can't believe we managed to steal a win. And that's exactly what we did, we stole it and didn't really deserve it. After we scored the early try, the Wallabies seemed to think it was just gonna be easy and the Scots slammed on 15 points in 20min.

Pocock back in next week is massive. I'm not sure what the thought is with Folau?

NZ would have to do a lot wrong to get beaten at any stage. It's their WC to lose.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Completely agree its he AB's world cup to lose.

The Wallabies yesterday were a lot like England v Wales. We controlled the game, ran in tries almost at will, but just couldn't shake them. All three Scottish tries came from Wallaby errors. Foley was putrid though he redeemed himself with that last penalty.

Historically we always struggle against the Scots, even when they were at their worst. As Cheika said, the most important thing is that we got through....

Its been a tough WC for the Wallabies having essentially been paying knockout games for the last 3 weeks. Poecock, Folau will be back next week that will help. On the downside it looks like we have lost Sio in the Loosehead Prop role - major, major blow.

We should make the final (though Argentina will be touch to beat), but no one can stop the AB's

[Bornadog]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Now for the Kiwis. Going to be a tough ask, but finals are always different.

[boydogs]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Now for the Kiwis. Going to be a tough ask, but finals are always different.

They only just got over South Africa which should give us hope

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Rugby World Cup

Awesome weekend of Rugby. The Southern hemisphere sides really stepped it up. Both the AB's and the Wallabies had to work hard. Was privileged to go to the semi-final yesterday and our boys were great. From the word go they were on, not letting the Puma settle and piling on points early. The Pumas ball movement is great, they flick the pill around as well as the AB's, with good dummy runs and inventive forward play. The Wallabies were again great defensively, scrambling where an Argentinian player got through the first line-up of defence. Tellingly, the Pumas couldn't cross the try line, whilst we ran in 4, 3 to Adam Ashley-Cooper.

Next week will be tough, but we are there. The AB's will start deserved favourites, but they are there for the taking. Defensively in the first half they were horrible, giving away 5 or 6 penalties. In the second they played a wonderful controlled game, denying the Bokkes, possession, and hitting the scoreboard themselves. I think they will find the Wallabies a little more rounded, and hopefully Scotty Sio, is back for us as our scrum disintegrated.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Rugby World Cup

And so the dream ended last night (yesterday afternoon). What can you say about the All Blacks that hasn't already beenm said they were superb. No disgrace that we came up short. We needed everything to go right on the night and sadly it didn't. Losing Kane Douglas to injury early; having to sub Giteau due to concusion and then a couple of missed decisions that cost points. None individually robbed the Wallabies, but they collectively made a tough job even harder.

Full credit to the players for fighting back. When Nonu ran over to make the score 21-3 at the 45th minute it looked like a repeat of the AB v France game, but full credit to the wallabies they fought back well and got to within 4 points. It proved too much. On the positive side, many of the guys who played last night will still be around in 4 years, whilst for the AB's they bid farewell to 4 or 5 greats. Good final, but the best side won.

[Twodogs]

Re: Rugby World Cup

The best side did win. Well done to the All Blacks, they must be one of the best sporting teams in the World at the moment.

It was a bitter pill to lose that final but given the state the Wallabies were in only 12 months ago getting out of the group stage would have seemed improbable. To not only make the final but put themselves in positions where they were a real threat at times during the game is a fine effort.

All in all that was a very enjoyable World Cup. Australia did much better than expected but the best team won. It made staying up until or getting up at stupid times worthwhile.