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[medrew]

The All Blacks are not the Dream Team of the 90’s. Do not underestimate Australia and especially South Africa.

The All Blacks have won 42 out of their 47 games under Graham Henry. You'd fail to find a team anywhere in the world with a similar strike rate (and it's not all soft competition as those include 4 tri-nations campaigns, the British and Irish Lions and 15 games in the Northern Hempishere, where they are unbeaten).
Granted their 5 losses have been against Australia and South Africa, although all those loses were away from home which is a significant fact as Oz and SA have appalling away records. Australia until this WC had lost ten of their last eleven games away from home.

While I don't think anyone is 'underestimating' SA and Oz you have to factor in past results under their regimes and its not being disingenuous at all to suggest they are far from favourites and NZ has been the dominant force for the last four years.

The jerseys were a shambles. The toss was done before Scotland had shown off their new kit with all the grey on it, but it should have been rectified.
But the ABs were trying to be too cute in their play and forcing the passes and looked like they have their minds on the 1/'8's already.

 

[speedpop]

Yeah there is no denying the absolute power of the All Blacks under Graham Henry. South Africa are the true dark horses at the moment I think.

Australia played ok against Fiji, defense wasn't good for awhile, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Well ... the All Blacks are not known for being the brightest on the pitch. :lol

err, yes they are...

 

[spoon!]

I still can't get over the fact that a country of 4 million dominates a sport so much as this one.

Well to be fair, we've not won a world cup for 20 years. Having said that NZ traditionally tries to win everything we can, rather than focusing all efforts into winning one tournament, like say England.

 

[master15]

Well to be fair, we've not won a world cup for 20 years. Having said that NZ traditionally tries to win everything we can, rather than focusing all efforts into winning one tournament, like say England.

Also Rugby is pretty much the only world-wide sport we truly excel in. Cricket? Far to inconsistence, football, never qualified for the world cup in years ect ect.

 

[spoon!]

Does netball count?

 

[Conrad Link]

Go All Blacks!

 

[master15]

Does netball count?

My mistake I've been living in London for 2 odd years, but yes we're pretty awesome at Netball.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

we are pretty good at sailing when you look at budgets each team gets as well.

 

[speedpop]

Well group stage is finally over.. thank christ. I don't mean that in an insulting light as it's good to see other nations try their best at topping the big guns but I dislike the term "world" in this cup due to the lopsided games.

Australia vs England
New Zealand vs France

South Africa vs Fiji
Argentina vs Scotland


If there's any time for Argentina to get into the Final and achieve some glory it is now due to their victory over Ireland earlier today. At worst they have to face off against the dark horse South Africa in the semi who only beat Tonga by 5 points so don't rule Fiji out anytime soon guys.

Some of the media down here in Australia have already called for Wilkinson's head and are disgusted with England's one-man golden boot tactic :lol Going to be interesting to see if Wallabies get through and have to face off against the All Blacks in the semi - will New Zealand choke again like the last World Cup semi-final or will they put all the bad shit behind them and give Australia's new-found defense a test? In my opinion this will be New Zealand's hardest road to the Final.. they've flown downhill on their bike with the easy group and now face a steep mountain via France and maybe Australia (damn you Wilkinson!).

 

[Osorio]

So Ireland didn't make it to the quarterfinals. Ouch considering many considered them the best Northern Hemisphere side.

 

[Thraktor]

So Ireland didn't make it to the quarterfinals. Ouch considering many considered them the best Northern Hemisphere side.

We played very poorly, especially in the first two games that we should have won comfortably. There's huge disappointment about our performance, but to be fair we lost to two better teams, although it highlights the problems in a system that groups 3 out of the top 6 teams in the world in the same qualifying group, while Scotland and Fiji get through to the last eight.

It's been a very poor World Cup for northern hemisphere sides, though, with France losing the opening match to Argentina, Wales getting knocked out to Fiji, England only marginally improving from the lows of recent years, us not making the knock-out stages, etc. etc. It's looking very much like (bar an upset between France and New Zealand) it'll be the four main southern-hemisphere sides in the semis, which says quite a lot.

I'll be rooting for Argentina for the rest of the tournament, though, as they've got a very tough position in international rugby, not being in either the Six Nations or the Tri-Nations, and having to qualify (and hence being in very tough groups) for the last few World Cups. They're an underdog worth supporting.

 

[Osorio]

I'll be rooting for Argentina for the rest of the tournament, though, as they've got a very tough position in international rugby, not being in either the Six Nations or the Tri-Nations, and having to qualify (and hence being in very tough groups) for the last few World Cups. They're an underdog worth supporting.

I've been rooting for em since the anthem in their game against France. Plus my Argentinian soccer buddies are rooting for 'em.

Vamos los Pumas carajo!

 

[Poody]

Yup, Go All Blacks!

 

[master15]

The Pumas looked like a sharp unit, really impressive.

Okay this Saturday looks juicy. Australia v England (Chance for revenge by the Wallabies). And then France v All Blacks (Time for NZ to bury one of their WC ghosts once and for all).

Who are you guys picking? Smart money is on Australia and New Zealand to go through but as we've already seen, this WC has already seen some upsets

 

[$1148 Jack]

I'm hoping for all southern hemisphere semi-finals!

Seriously Argentina do not play in any tournaments besides the world cup every four years. This obviously has to change. They should be allowed to enter the Tri-Nations to make it a four team southern hemisphere tournament. When they come over here to play Australia I would definately go out to watch them. Fix this now SANZAR/IRB.

 

[snaildog]

Seriously Argentina do not play in any tournaments besides the world cup every four years. This obviously has to change. They should be allowed to enter the Tri-Nations to make it a four team southern hemisphere tournament. When they come over here to play Australia I would definately go out to watch them. Fix this now SANZAR/IRB.

There's not much SANZA can do about the Argentinian players all being contracted to French clubs during the Tri-Nations.

 

[medrew]

Well group stage is finally over.. thank christ. I don't mean that in an insulting light as it's good to see other nations try their best at topping the big guns but I dislike the term "world" in this cup due to the lopsided games.

Every 'World' championship/cup is loopsided. Even going into the Soccer World Cup there's only four or five teams that have a realistic chance of taking out the Cup.

I see a potential lose on the cards for South Africa against Samoa.

Simiarly I think Fiji can get a win against Wales. The worry with the Fijians though is in if they can get their shit sorted out off the field.

Agrentina will beat Ireland.

2 of my 3 predictions come true before this thing got underway.
Not too surprising since Fiji should have been in the Quarters back in '99 if it had not been for one of the worst reffing displays in history.

 

[Osorio]

Every 'World' championship/cup is loopsided. Even going into the Soccer World Cup there's only four or five teams that have a realistic chance of taking out the Cup.

There's not nearly as many lopsided games though.

 

[BigGreenMat]

Well group stage is finally over.. thank christ. I don't mean that in an insulting light as it's good to see other nations try their best at topping the big guns but I dislike the term "world" in this cup due to the lopsided games.

At worst they have to face off against the dark horse South Africa in the semi who only beat Tonga by 5 points so don't rule Fiji out anytime soon guys.

Those 2 statements do not compute? You say you dislike the term world and then use South Africa beating Tonga (who weren't even necessarily favored to win a single game) by 5 as a point!!

Needless to say the smaller teams provided some of the best games if not the best games this world cup.

There's not nearly as many lopsided games though.

Nature of the game. Soccer is almost never lopsided because despite the vast superiority of one team over another goals are just tough to come by. Whereas a dominant rugby team will be able to control all aspects of a game.

 

[medrew]

I'm more worried about the second tier teams playing their dirty-dirties against the top teams. That's been one of the biggest aspect in terms of blow-outs. Fiji and Japan both put their second stringers out, Scotland did it against the AB's and so forth.

I think there's room for the minnows. Georgia and Namibia both pushed Ireland to the wire, Canada were leading Wales until the 60th min. Tonga was a bounce of a ball win away from South Africa and so forth.
One of the best ways for improvement of the international game is for some of these lower ranked teams to have their players playing in front of crowds. I'd venture a fair few of them will now get contracts in Europe which can only improve their countries' game through exposure.

A lot of the blow-outs could have been mitigated if the IRB didn't rank the seeds based on the last world cup and went with their recent ranking system to determine pools.

As an example of what the draw would've looked like had it been like this, this is it: (according to IRB rankings on the 23 July 2007)
Pool A: New Zealand, Wales, Italy, Romania, Georgia
Pool B: Australia, England, Samoa, USA, Japan
Pool C: France, Argentina, Scotland, Tonga, Portugal
Pool D: South Africa, Ireland, Fiji, Canada, Namibia

It would have created a fair more even contest. Well except for pool A.

But hell, even the NRL final was one-sided in a competition that is dead-even in terms of competition based on how it set up. Simiarly the AFL final was a disaster.
Contact sport will always be a divide between the have and have not.

Beside that there was talks before the WC kicked off that it will be relegated to a 16 team comp for 2011. I'm fairly neutral about it either way.

I'll be rooting for Argentina for the rest of the tournament, though, as they've got a very tough position in international rugby, not being in either the Six Nations or the Tri-Nations, and having to qualify (and hence being in very tough groups) for the last few World Cups. They're an underdog worth supporting.

They've changed the ruling on qualification for future cups. The top three teams from each pool will now qualify (Ireland and Wales must be happy). It was very silly for a team like Argentina to have to go through qualifying, in particular since the players' clubs wouldn't like releasing them for nothing games.
Pretty sure after '99 WC they only got around to changing it from the top 3 or something automatically qualifying.

 

[Osorio]

Nature of the game. Soccer is almost never lopsided because despite the vast superiority of one team over another goals are just tough to come by. Whereas a dominant rugby team will be able to control all aspects of a game.

I'm not talking about scores. I'm not sure if you're a soccer fan but you know just because a game ended 1-0 or 2-0 doesn't mean one team wasn't dominated. There's rarely a lopsided game in the FIFA world cup in the way that both teams have some control on the game.

 

[AdventureRacing]

There is so much potential for rugby in Argentina. I think this should be the country we put the most effort into developing cause i think it could easily end up being one of the powerhouses in rugby.

Also GO PUMAS!!!!!

 

[speedpop]

Those 2 statements do not compute? You say you dislike the term world and then use South Africa beating Tonga (who weren't even necessarily favored to win a single game) by 5 as a point!!

Needless to say the smaller teams provided some of the best games if not the best games this world cup.

I meant more like teams involved like Japan (who are hit & miss though), Namibia, USA, or even Canada. The south pacific islands have always put up a good challenge and England are lucky they were able to beat Tonga otherwise we'd be seeing two small island nations in the QTR Finals rather than just Fiji.

 

[HolyCheck]

god i hate watching this.

 

[medrew]

Johny Gone Potty


Please win England, please. I know you won't. But at least do something good in my lifetime.

 

[Osorio]

England is really frustrating to watch. They keep dropping critical passes.

 

[Osorio]

England should be scoring tries from these chances not penalties.

 

[speedpop]

Johny Gone Potty


Please win England, please. I know you won't. But at least do something good in my lifetime.

Nervous about an Australia vs New Zealand semi? :lol

Ah well Australia playing like ass. England getting saved by Wilkinson's boot, again. If the English go through I'll have to become a Kiwi fan for a few weeks.

 

[Ghost]

13-12 Last minute drop goal anyone?

 

[Osorio]

If England lose they only have themselves to blame. Their play by the try line is annoying to put it simply.

 

[medrew]

England are being niggling, cheating little shits at the breakdown and Australia are just standing around with their hands on their hips. Good on them.

I'm still expecting an Australia try to finish this match off.

 

[speedpop]

Fucking Mortlock. Should've gone for a try instead of the kick - you know your captain doesn't think your team can carry the ball 50m to score a try when England are being annoying at the phase scrums.

 

[speedpop]

Why the fuck have we got a slow forward on our wing.

WHY!?

 

[Ghost]

holy shit.

 

[speedpop]

Game over. Australia are out, only got themselves to blame.

*waves a New Zealand flag~*

 

[hadareud]

first time in my life that a rugby game excited me

great stuff.

maybe I should add that it's maybe the 3rd game I watched.

 

[medrew]

So it's going to be an England France semi-final on this side.

 

[Osorio]

Very entertaining match. Time for New Zealand - France.

 

[speedpop]

Don't jinx yourself. New Zealand will flog them.

 

[celestial body]

England - New Zealand, surely you jest.

Anyway England win again with forward play ie completely boredom inducing.

 

[alistairw]

Buhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Nice one, Australia.

 

[medrew]

Anyway England win again with forward play ie completely boredom inducing.

I found it brilliant! Australians get shown up for being limp-wristed pansies and letting some Pommy fools push them around. It was poetic.

Four more years Australia. Four more fucking years.

 

[celestial body]

Is there a big Allblack - Australia rivalry? I know the proximity of the countries would suggest it but I never thought it was that strong.

PS Crush the French tonight pls.

 

[speedpop]

Four more years Australia. Four more fucking years.

I don't know what's worse. Having to wait four more years for another shot after some pretty shitty lead-up games... or having to wait 20 years till you might lift the cup once again.

Is there a big Allblack - Australia rivalry? I know the proximity of the countries would suggest it but I never thought it was that strong.

Yeah it's quite strong, especially when it's got rugby union involved. Bit similar to Japan vs South Korea, or England vs France.

 

[medrew]

Never forget
http://youtube.com/watch?v=65xd81cj7pA

Sorry Gregs, you're not getting another chance to break my heart again

 

[speedpop]

:lol Bloody Gregan. Thank fuck he will be forced to retire upon the next World Cup.

 

[spoon!]

\o/

 

[BigGreenMat]

Shocking... absolutely shocking....

 

[seanoff]

Looking at that scoreline I know why i take little interest in Ra-ra

If i want to see people kick goals, the AFL is infinitely more spectacular and in soocer its the point of the game.

Scoring tries, league seems to have that covered as does the NFL with touchdowns.

Rugby seems to be the worst fusion of the footballs, arcane rules not even the referees understand, kicking only to get in position to score from a kick, stoppages out the wazoo ugh. Peter Fitzsimons published a study in his SMH column that stated that in top level rugby the ball was actually in play for a little over 40 mins. The other 40 mins was taken up with setting scrums, lineouts, penalty kicks, timewasting etc. He thought the rules needed changing.

typical rugby game. Kickoff, maul, pass it back kick, pause, lineout, arcane infringement, kick, pause lineout, maul, kick, pause, lineout, error, pause scrum, pass, kick, maul, pass, mall, kick, pause, lineout, rinse repeat. UGGHHHHH

* sorry about the rant, I went to a very established Rugby school in Brisbane, Australian captains and all, but the game needs to be changed so that it is more accessable.