favouriteflavour
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I thought the Argentines wanted in on the Australia-NZ-SA tournament?
Official Rugby World Cup Thread.
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They do, but there's a problem of there being no international calender for rugby. So given that all of their professional players ply their trade in Europe and the clubs have a worrisome amount of power when it comes to releasing players for their countries it is unfeasible. Argentina don't have a second tier of players to fall back on and the game is run by an old boys network in the country who are unwilling to bring it into the modern era.
And apparently Australia is the one really holding them back from being in it. We're find out in the next year or two where their destiny lies as that is when the broadcasting contract expires (2010) and no one is ever really sure if South Africa will stay in or take their business to Europe.
I don't think Canada will be a contender in 10 years. They play to their strengths with a largely defensive game and keep the ball in close quarters but they don't have the natural athletic stock in the backline to really be dominant against the bigger teams. They'll always get beaten in the last 20mins when holes start appearing like what happened against Wales (and when they brought on people that can exploit a gap). However they're making progress and they'll probably be flirting around 8th-10th ranked in 10 years which might encourage more people to play the game. should surpass Scotland.
Hopefully they continue with something like the Churchhill Cup and put in back in Canada instead of England. I quite like the competition.
And apparently Australia is the one really holding them back from being in it. We're find out in the next year or two where their destiny lies as that is when the broadcasting contract expires (2010) and no one is ever really sure if South Africa will stay in or take their business to Europe.
I don't think Canada will be a contender in 10 years. They play to their strengths with a largely defensive game and keep the ball in close quarters but they don't have the natural athletic stock in the backline to really be dominant against the bigger teams. They'll always get beaten in the last 20mins when holes start appearing like what happened against Wales (and when they brought on people that can exploit a gap). However they're making progress and they'll probably be flirting around 8th-10th ranked in 10 years which might encourage more people to play the game. should surpass Scotland.
Hopefully they continue with something like the Churchhill Cup and put in back in Canada instead of England. I quite like the competition.
Meatpuppet
Member
Osorio said:
That's not entirely uncommon in rugby matches to be honest. It's always awesome seeing some of these huge guys tearing up when the anthems kick in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIxe5ooQtqI
Paulokj said:Go Portugal! The Only Amauter team in the tournament,I hope now this sport can grow in portugal, and turn to be professional. Go Lobos (lobos means wolfs, is what the rugby portuguese team is called)
Yeah we can be proud they qualified for the World cup.
Can't wait to see the match versus the New Zealand ! Oh my... They will suffer.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
I keep thinking the commentators are saying J Peterman. So I'm enjoying that.
Go...England...
Go...England...
psycho_snake
I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
oh england.....
navanman said:
Now? They were fucked three years ago :lol
Perry was absolutely rubbish. I've never seen a halfback play so badly. It got to the point where England couldn't play 10 man rugby.
Their backs are shit. Their forwards are shit. They'll struggle to beat Samoa since they're so slow around the field. Any team playing rugby with width should stretch them too far so long as they do what the Boks did in this game: commit two or three players to the ruck while England commits 5 to 6. They're that bad that even with the extra numbers they're powderpuff.
Oh how the tides have turned. I eagerly await Stephen Jones' thoughts.
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Well, Wales have the players and their fitness levels are pretty good for this world cup, all they've gotta do is click as a team, which they didn't in the first half against Canada. If they perform so poorly in the first half against Australia, this'll be all over in the first 20 minutes.medrew said:
The truth is that I think Oz will put 50 on Wales. Berrick Barnes is a very promising player (moreso than Kurtley Beale who many have hyped beyond any realistic expectations), but I want to believe Wales win win. I'm even sitting here thinking to myself that they pushed Oz earlier in the year but rationality tells me they (the cowardly yellows) can't play any worse than that.
AdventureRacing
Member
I agree, pretty much since i saw Berrick Barnes in the queensland cup i thought he would be something special. Kurtley Beale on the other hands has some real flaws in his game that need to be fixed. In some areas he can be spectacular but i personally don't think his ever gonna be wallaby standard.
AdventureRacing said:
He will be, but he won't be great. I think his attitude will hold him back and he's destined to be the Ocker version of Luke McAlister: all the skill in the world but been told he's going to be great since he was a kid and not working the bit between the ears or his fellow teammates. Which could come with age and maturity of course.
xabre said:
Too early to tell. Although the only time I think we've choked was in 99. Australia was a better team in 03 (we had better players but not the mental strengthness that comes with experience) and many forget how they pushed us in the second match of the 3N and only selectively remember the thrashing we served up firstly. SA are starting to worry me a little because they're starting to shift the ball and Habana is in deadly form, plus they have Eddie Jones who despite being a useless coach for Australia and riding off of McQueen's coattails until after 03 always produced one element: a gameplan against the ABs. That seemed to be his only objective, to beat us and spend all year figuring it out.
This has turned into a romp but it was nice to see such jubilation after the Portuguese guy got a drop goal.
The Wallabies really deserved the win as, once again, Wales proved they're incapable of playing the first half of a match properly. But in fairness, they worked hard in the second half and it paid off with them closing the gap, giving Australia a comfortable win but not thrashing us. Wales just need better discipline earlier on in the game, instead of these come backs in the second half as it was proven today that won't do shit against the top sides like Australia. The more and more I look at this, I think this is going to be yet another southern hemisphere dominated World Cup.
Updated table:
Tonga beat Samoa this morning in an upset despite being down to 13 men at one stage. This has to be Michael Jones' last hurrah. Brilliant player but he brings nothing to the Samoan setup except his presence.
If either Tonga or Samoa beat England then that should be enough for them to be gone. And I really don't think it's too far fetched a preposition.
Likewise I think Fiji could upset Wales. Fiji played pretty well against Canada last night and if they can get their set pieces to improve they'll win. But if the last decade is anything to go by then they won't and will rely on trying to play 7's to win.
Tonga beat Samoa this morning in an upset despite being down to 13 men at one stage. This has to be Michael Jones' last hurrah. Brilliant player but he brings nothing to the Samoan setup except his presence.
If either Tonga or Samoa beat England then that should be enough for them to be gone. And I really don't think it's too far fetched a preposition.
Likewise I think Fiji could upset Wales. Fiji played pretty well against Canada last night and if they can get their set pieces to improve they'll win. But if the last decade is anything to go by then they won't and will rely on trying to play 7's to win.
Conrad Link
Member
Go All Blacks!
Ireland are basically out now after losing to France. They'll have to beat the Argies by something like 8 points and score four tries in the process. Not going to happen given they only managed to score 7 tries in three games thus far and Argentina are yet to concede one!
The Tonga v SA game was an absolute cracker. If only that last kick had bounced infield...
The Tonga v SA game was an absolute cracker. If only that last kick had bounced infield...
MrSardonic
The nerdiest nerd of all the nerds in nerdland
Why are the All Blacks not wearing their black kit? Really hard to see the difference between the two teams since they are playing with such similar looking kits. Stupid.
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