Rugby World Cup 2007

I've been studying old RWC photos as part of my (temporary) job, so my mood is definitely switched-on as regards the great winter sport.

I hope Portugal win.

I hope Portugal win.

;_;

Haha, not really. I was merely shocked to discover they were there in the first place!

I'd find it very very very amusing if Australia won something like 15-10 in a final against the All Blacks, with an unparalleled display of dour, defensive, gritty rugby the like of which we've only seen before, ooh, about 3000 times.

I don't think Australia will go that well. Especially if they get a couple of injuries.
For example if Mortlock gets injured we'll get destroyed.

Anyway, the final everyone wants to see is France - South Africa. Possibly. Maybe France - NZ, although that fixture's already seen its zenith.

Really France-South Africa?

Them dirty-playing springboks??

i wonder if grouchy fred nerk follows the rugby

Is that the broken yahoo dude?

That guy's sassy.

Them dirty-playing Springboks getting overturned by the dazzling French would be quite something.

Grouchy Fred Nerk has probably abandoned ILX after the jhoshea I Love Cricket debacle. Actually, I've tried to turn jh onto cricket, with few visible signs of success. I doubt I'd succeed any more convincingly with rugby.

bump?

Australia doesn't care about Rugby Union except for a few homosexual public school boys from Sydney.

But despite that, I was there at the last World Cup when Australia beat Nambia 156-0 at the Adelaide Oval and I was all like "LOL".

I hope Georgia win.

Also, who the fuck let the United States in on all this?

I hope France wins too. I also wish i had tickets to see some of the games, but none of my friends managed to get an extra ticket for me :( Maybe i should take my uncle's place, he's been invited on a boat trip along the Seine all the way to the Stade de France, then the game against Argentina.

Australia to win, after glorious victories over Eng-er-land in the quarters, the Bro's in the Semi and a maering of the 'boks in the Final. At least that's how it went after several ales last night...

"maering" = mauling

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30E17FC3A580C758DDDA10894DF404482 (no idea if that link will work)

"Most Americans, myself included, have a vague impression of rugby as squads of 15 beefy brutes, many of them with master's degrees, clanging their heads together until blood streams down their ridged brows, performing unspeakable acts of violence down in the pile. Which turns out to be the case."

^exaggeration

Australia doesn't care about Rugby Union except for a few homosexual public school boys from Sydney.

lol

wallabies - they have the best colors, makes my hat look cool (sea green with yellow strap and logo)

Are you Australian, Cap'n??

Come on, the All Blacks will win.

They're always going to win, aren't they? Yet they've only held "Bill" once.

I hate the nickname "Bill", but i will continue to use it.

It seems in the spirit of the tournament.

FRANCE FTW GUISE

By "always going to win" I'm sure you mean "will choke again".

Yeah, that is what I meant.

Le Coq v Pumas. Let's roll!

lol france

Merde!

OMG WALES

WTF was wrong with Ireland last night? Shocking performance :(

I know! Namibia! FFS.

I was happy for Namibia though, they played really well. I like the way that both teams got a illegal try. That said, fuck a bonus point, we should have been in the 60s at the least!

The pattern so far appears to be six nations teams struggle against plucky minnows. Tri nations teams destroy plucky minnows with chilling, ruthless efficiency. And Argentina beat France. The funniest result in the world cup since, um, the last one.

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/11/13/thumb/d022dh01.jpg

Player of the tournament so far, is Mario Ledesma, the Argentinian hooker. Looks about 55 yrs old, runs around like a 21 year-old, never screws-up a line-out, tackles like a madman, scrummages like a beer truck stuck in first gear and can even manage a deft chip and chase.

The man is a God, and possibly my favourite player ever.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41687000/jpg/_41687782_marioledesma203.jpg

More Mario.

His loose-head colleague, Rodrigo Roncero was also superhumanly great on Friday

http://www.stade.fr/dbimages/Image/joueur/normal/Rodrigo_Roncero_fleur.jpg

See here modelling the ridiculous Stade Francais kit.

And Argentina beat France. The funniest result in the world cup since, um, the last one.

The funniest part of this, for me, was listening to the sports journalists on Irish radio this morning saying that this would be a disaster for Ireland because the organizers were going to have to do everything they could to keep France in the competition. "They can't afford to let France go out at the group stage", they claimed.

Are they suggesting that the organizers are going to get the refs to cheat to keep France in?

The England score was the biggest surprise, I think, and quite funny.

I was quite surprised how strongly Wales came back - them going 3 tries to 0 behind, wasn't surprising such is the poor state of Welsh rugby right now. Being outmuscled for two close-range tries by the Canadian forwards is pretty poor and leads me to expect some big humpings by the better teams unless they can tighten up in the forwards. They appeared to have learned nothing from the debacle in 'friendly' against England.

Another hero : Canadian tight-head Jon Thiel. He had open-heart surgery last year!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40734000/jpg/_40734915_jonthiel203.jpg

Are they suggesting that the organizers are going to get the refs to cheat to keep France in?

South Korea, FIFA World Cup 2002.

Hmm. Well, it's possible. It's more likely the commentators are just looking for someone to blame ALREADY for the fact that Ireland are going to embarrass themselves.

but the Rugby World Cup doesn't employ incompetent referees from countries who suck at the game, do they?

I've just written a profile of Guus Hiddink, in which I stated that the reason for the inexplicable decisions against Italy and Spain is probably that of crowd influence rather than actual bribery.

I also wrote an article before the weekend about the highest-ever points totals in RWC games. I mentioned New Zealand's 1999 win over Italy, to the tune of 101-3, mentioning that "Italy are the most-improved team in world rugby" and "such a thrashing would never befall the current side".

Erm...

I don't think they have any Russian linesmen.

xpost

O HAI!

i was wondering if there were any rugby ppl round here :)

chabal looked gorgeous on friday, but was entirely useless.

supporting argentina was odd though...

in which I stated that the reason for the inexplicable decisions against Italy and Spain is probably that of crowd influence rather than actual bribery.

it was just pure woefully inexperienced (at that level) referees used to making decisions in the Bermudan or Egyptian leagues. should've used top UEFA refs for these games.

but we drag this thread down with such talk, apologies

Chabal is pretty crap really. Looks great to the casual supporter because he always makes a few easy big tackles and carries the ball forward with pumping legs, flowing hair etc. But he's kind of shit at the heavy duty forward's work and has crap body positioning in contact (hence losing the ball in the tackle like he did 4 million times on Friday).

He also gets really tired really fast which is a good thing for opposing teams. I wouldn't go so far as to call him crap though just in case he googles himself, tracks me down and beats me up

he was awesome for like one match in the six nations, but yeah, a bit limited perhaps.

He looks great when France are on top - not so useful when it's a slugging match between the packs. I thought the French had some good options in the back-row before the tournament, but this result makes you think. Remy Martin is rather like Lewis Moody - lots of energy but brainless, and Harinordiquay was a bit ineffectual. I tend to think Laporte will go for Bonnaire at blindside, Betsen at openside and Chabal or Hari at 8 for the next game. Bonnaire is limited but not afraid of the grunt work.

Another picture of Ledesma before I go.

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2005/11/05/thumb/t086dh01.jpg

http://www.rugbyfun.com.ar/content/news/files/fargo-Ledesma3-490.jpg

Scelzo, Ledesma, Roncero.

What a front row should look like.

Chabal is pretty crap really. Looks great to the casual supporter because he always makes a few easy big tackles and carries the ball forward with pumping legs, flowing hair etc. But he's kind of shit at the heavy duty forward's work and has crap body positioning in contact (hence losing the ball in the tackle like he did 4 million times on Friday).

I guess so..But that's the job description for a lot of big loose forwards. ie seagull and make big hits.

Has he been playing second row or back row in the world cup? I haven't been watching..

More whinging Aussie action

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/news/connollys-grounds-to-complain/2007/09/10/1189276635124.html

I guess so..But that's the job description for a lot of big loose forwards. ie seagull and make big hits

Fine when you're winning. He played 2nd row on Friday - came on for Pelous for the last 20.

Haha Connelly's got a point, but it sounds poor to be complaining.

Wales will have have to play better than they've played since the grand-slam to stand a chance at the weekend. S.Jones to come in at 10, Gareth Thomas at 12, possibly Horsman at tight-head. I'd bring in Charvis at blind-side and Phillips at scrum-half too, but the shit-for-brains coach will do neither.

Oh, so Wales is a suburb of France now? Please.

Wait, waht?

in order to get wales to vote for them, france said they could have some of the games from their world cup, where's the problem? OK, yes i SEE where the problem is rly...

Ah, cheers Steve.

Wilkinson possibly on bench. Sackey, Corry, Easter in. Dallaglio out of the 22 - couldn't happen to a nicer cunt bloke.

Worsley also out of 22.

They'll get a shoeing from S.A. anyway.

http://www.la16.com.ar/plantel/partidos_2003/menores_de_22/ledesma1.JPG

Today's Mario Ledesma pic.

"Dr. C and Ledesma sittin' in a tree..."

Vickery banned for 2 games. Stevens in. But is Barkley out? Will Wilkinsone be back? They are in the shit if the answers are yes and no respectively. Alternatives for 10 would be Catt or Farrell, OR send for Flood. But, if I understand the rules correctly, they'd have to rule someone out for the tournament to get Flood sent for.

Solid win for the Argies last night.

I thought Georgia played a great match! A pity Argentina got the bonus point in the end.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/rugbyworldcup2007/story/0,,2167815,00.html#article_continue

England short of props, no fly-half, no goalkicker...

Wales, meanwhile pick Charvis in his correct position shocka - the back row of Charvis, JT and Williams gives me hope for a decent shot at the Aussies.

Last night, Italy scraped home v Romania.

So now all we have to do is beat Scotland (which we won't) before getting a pasting against whoever we play in the next round. Still, at least Italy are IN this tournament - not sure Euro 2008 will be so blessed.

Everyone has a chance against Scotland. AND you beat them in the 6-Nations this year, right? They have improved since then, mind-you, but it's not out of the question.

They have improved, they have lots of national pride right now and we're RUBBISH. So yeah, Scotland it is I expect.

Well, I would expect so, but we'll see...

They have improved, they have lots of national pride right now

Scottish football fans/players + Scottish rugby fans/players = never the twain shall meet

Ireland will still win this. I believe!

Sweet, some good games coming up this wend :D:D

But the whining game is not solely a northern hemisphere characteristic. The Wallabies have protested far too much about having to go to Cardiff to play, arguing that it's unfair Wales get home advantage when the tournament is based in France.

But the Wallabies have known for years they would face Wales in Cardiff, and it's time to get over it. After all, their trip from Montpellier to Cardiff will take just under two hours in a chartered jet - Sydney to Brisbane stuff.

This whinge is as silly as the lament of some Wallabies officials who have gone on about the 2007 team having to face the toughest draw of any Australian side involved in a World Cup. We can only hope they had clown suits on when they said that - compared with England, South Africa, Samoa, Argentina, Ireland and France, Australia have a very comfortable draw.

TRU

A tough draw for Australia = vs New Zealand. Anything else is a walk in the park. Isn't it?

Australia should stop whinging, but to say that their draw should be as tough as Samoa, Argentina or Ireland is crazy. There is no way they are on the same level.

Yes, Ireland is better than Australia. Silly Southerners...

Actually, no. They're not.

I call bullshit on Cardiff hosting matches. I'm OK with Murrayfield if only they play up the Auld Alliance.

Tonight's game is going to be surreal - England going in with a 35-year old fly-half who hasn't played there in years and a goalkicker who hasn't kicked in internationals before. And no reserve kicker.

I, for one, am looking forwards to it.

Sadly, like the six nations, France will know exactly what it needs to do to win our group. Ireland will again be playing in a vacuum. Plus we screwed up our really big points earner by sucking :(

Wales - Australia tomorrow. For some reason I am quitely confident.

Of a loss? Good man. No point in building up false hope.

Tonight's game is going to be surreal

I believe the word you're searching for is 'chastening'. Nothing points to a heroic against-the-odds win. Nothing at all. If England pull this one out I'll...I'll eat a pair of socks.

Agreed - SA by 15 points.

kv_nol : of a WIN! We drew last year 29-29 at Cardiff and beat them 24-22 in 2005.

Yes - we've been crap for a year, but even on the summer tour in June, we only lost the first test down under to a last minute Aussie try.

Their front row is the weakest of the top 10 international nations and their pack as a whole isn't all that. We can win it up-front, but if we kick away posession like last week, we'll get reamed by the Australian backs.

Wales by 5.

I'll see that bet and agree. Wales are a strong team coming from an underdog position. Australia are cocky. I can see this being Wales this evening.

LOL FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH IS YES.

Wales game is tomorrow.

I NO

my stomach (and socks) are safe as fucking houses

Awful, just awful.

Yet another long dark night of failure for English sport. Across two continents, no less.

the women footballers did good

OUR GALS

I haven't enjoyed a rugby match so much in years.

I have to say I watched it with a mate and really enjoyed it too. There was so much to discuss - it was a masterclass in how to play rugby vs how not to play rugby. And the fact that England's only standout player ended his career during the match just added injury to insult.

dear wales yr gettin pwned by wallabies

Wallabies up 25-3 at the half. Wallaby machine in full effect led by Captain invincible S Mortlock. Welsh crowd songless.

Bread of Heaven gone all moldy already.

STILL THEY'VE SCORED MORE THAN ENGLAND

Welsh wuss takes a dive and the referee falls for it.

OH COME ON

Welsh match unfortunate, English match terrible, Irish match just woejus.

dere england rugby team

i am now officially namibian.

saw the first 25 mins of portugal new zealand and the portuguese were GREAT. ok they eventually got their asses served to them, but they were really trying.

There's always been a georgian element to my englishness.

I think england will still make it to the next round though. Two muddled and ugly games v Samoa and Tonga followed by getting horribly pwned by the aussies.

Noon going home is a blessing in disguise though. Flood should have gone to france in the first place.

Dunning 'world class prop'

ppFFFFFFFFFFFFFFtt

France v Ireland I will watch.

RSA v Tonga might also be worth watching.

Wales solid enough vs Japan. France will tonk Ireland by 15 points - should be a good game though.

x-post That Dunning article is hilarious - he's crap, although probably no worse than some of the props Aus have fielded in the last few years - Holmes, Baxter, Fitter spring to mind. Better loose-heads than Dunning in this world cup : Woodock, Milloud, Du Randt, Roncero, Jenkins, Duncan Jones, even bloody Sheridan!

There has been some improvement in the front-row for Aus though, Shepherdson looks passable at tight-head and I think they've found half-decent hooker in Moore.

Interesting selection by France : Chabal at lock, Dusatoir on the flank and Marty ahead of Jauzion at centre.

The inside pass from the Irish that led to the ref getting cleaned up will be a highlight from this tournament.

Both the pass AND the cleaning up.

http://fr.rugbyworldcup.com/mm/photo/tournament/0/gyi0050749601%5f2738%5fsq%5ffull-lnd.jpg

Scotland in the black and blue and New Zealand in the...uh...blue and black?

Ireland all but out. England maybe have enough to beat Tonga, but could be close.

I thought Scotland B didn't embarrass themselves v NZ. Some very poor mistakes by the All Blacks - some players have probably played themselves out of the 22 for the big games - e.g. Masoe, and expect Rococoko to replace Sivivatu. That sequence of scrums early in the second half honestly made me fear for the safety of the two Scotland props. Woodcock and Hayman were taking it in turns to utterly paste them, and I really thought we could see either Smith or Dickinson paralysed. Really frightening stuff - I wonder how close the ref was to stepping in for the safety of the players.

Dammit, I am missing all the games. Is there *anywhere* I can watch them online? That one awesome bloke who was putting All Blacks games on YouTube in 10-minute sections earlier this year has obviously been got to by The Man.

We're a bit screwed on Sunday... Poor Best though, tough break.

Also current email doing the rounds:

This is the story coming out of Old Wesley (ex-international apparently)

The team are pissed off with O'Sullivan en masse for being too
conservative and there is dissention in the ranks about players not
being given time on the pitch. Apparently they have been for while .

O'Gara & Stringer have not spoken "properly" for a few yrs..

O'Driscoll is running the show out there now and insisted that Reddan be
started and should have been in the team for the past 12 months

O'Gara was caught in bed with his wifes sister and not for the first
time

She was taking him to the cleaners but JP McManus has stepped in to stop
it going public and is looking after her financially - no mention of
Rog's gambling debts

O'Sullivan hates Geordan Murphy period and was forced to bring him

Trimble is in ahead of GM because of Ulster representation with Best out

Hickie had to declare his retirement pre world cup due to some venture
post world cup

:-/

O'Sullivan is a cock. Those O'Gara rumours have been doing the rounds for a bit, apparently he's a real piece of work off the pitch. But I didn't know the thing about having to have an Ulsterman in the team - that's funny. G.Murphy is an overrated pile of tosh.

Come on TONGA tonight.

You want the England purge now rather than next week, then. :D

Actually, there's the possibility that by getting through against Tonga and putting up a gallant if futile fight against Australia, England might succeed in partially masking the deep malaise that engulfs the set-up and side. I'm not sure if this would be for the best.

I still want us to win, on the 10-1 shot (those would be my odds) that we'll somehow turn the Aussies over.

Tonga haka v England = best evah.

Oh whoops - I keep forgetting Dr. C is Welsh.

I've remembered now, funnily enough.

Erm...unlucky? :D

What a horrible match! At least we'll see France slaughtered by All Blacks. Argentina will have an easy enough time against Scotland (Italy was robbed!).

Fukk yeah, I'm going to get rly pissed on Sat night and watch the wobblies destroy ing ger lend...actually maybe I'll watch that one english prop hospitalize Dunning again, that would be funny.

But yeah, English front row to dominate wallabies front row??

Ive got a feeling England might get up for this one! Wilkinson vs Barnes at flyhalf might be enough to get the poms home if they can slow the game down into a set piece and kicking duel

Yeah, I also have a bad feeling about the game :/

My tips (winners in caps):

AUSTRALIA v England - Aussies don't need to be shown the way to Marseille.

NEW ZEALAND v France - The French have been ordinary so far; no reason to expect this to change.

SOUTH AFRICA v Fiji - You want Fiji to win this one so, so much, but in the real world, it just won't happen. Sadly.

ARGENTINA v Scotland - Pumas will continue their excellent tour and account for the canny Scots.

And that'll wrap it up for all of the northern hemisphere teams....

stuck your neck out for those!

england about to heroically fail.

This match is great television!

What does "Sheridan has started dropping some gravel on the Australians" mean?

argh i really should be watching this, but i've just got back from cheering on my college in a 24-22 defeat to the old boys...i don't think anything could live up to that.

COME ON!

BBC news page says England 129-10 Australia

blimey

YEEEAAHAHHSSS

fuck me!

wow ok that was pretty epic.

holy fuckin shit

Banjo Patterson! Phar Lap! John Winston Howard! Gough Whitlam! Anthony Mundine! Delta Goodrem! Dame Edna - can you hear me, Germaine Greer! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Your boys took one hell of a beating!’

(stolen from Foxsports Australia, bizzarely enough)

Great game. England won by being the least gash.

balls, bloody minority sport taking even more airtime away from proper sports.

Please tell me England won't get to the final again.

I love how close the French are standing in the face of the haka, right on the centre line

holy fuckin shit

-- Roberto Spiralli, Saturday, October 6, 2007 3:23 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

COME ON!

-- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Saturday, October 6, 2007 2:19 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

son of a...

wow ok that was pretty epic.

-- Just got offed, Saturday, 6 October 2007 14:54 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Anyone else want to join me down the Walkabout?

Noooooooooooooo! :(

would if I could! college bar will have to do.

seen 3 games of rugby today, all 3 finished with a 2-point winning margin : - O

I didn't actually mean it, I just wanted to see those tanned blonde smug cunts silent and miserable for a change BIG WINKY SMILE ;))))

i've actually been to the walkabout. saw the twenty20 final there, along with england's thrashing of wales in a RWC warm-up. bet it's a barrel of laughs tonight.

in fact, given that it appears to be a converted church (take a look at the roof!), perhaps solemn reflection will be somehow appropriate.

England won by being the least gash.

this is cobblers, by the way. England drew up and executed their game plan perfectly, and that's the reason why Australia seemed "gash". a team with that much talent doesn't just not turn up - you have to disrupt them and play to your strengths, which England did supremely well.

All Blacks out. Happens at about this stage every world cup.

this is the first time NZ haven't made the semis in the history of the tournament.

whoa... is nz now out? if so, i'm scared to leave the house today... there will be rabid kiwis everywhere!

All Blacks are such bottlers. Knew once they went behind they were finished. Such soft tries too, they are a far better team to France, just less fit and had no real strategy.

Yeah, you're right Roberto: I just meant that the usual hype (favorites this time!) swells with every world cup, only to see them crashing down in the actual competitive rounds. They also suffer from facing underdogs: every time it seems they look like they expect to coast, when they're just not that good.

And yeah, stay inside, Rubyredd: if there's one thing that'll cause a riot in NZ, it's this. Lucky for the time difference.

jesus. we're out of the world cup. that's crazy. i don't even watch rugby or have any interest in it, but it's such a HUGE thing here that i can't avoid the fallout.

England/Scotland final!

I wonder what the writers of the acres of newsprint devoted to the how northern hemisphere is light years behind the southern feel now?

Though SA for the win, prob. Annoyingly. Charmless fuckers. I dearly hope Fiji stitch them tomorrow, they won't, but then again, australia were always going to win today, weren't they?

Perhaps I should've stuck my neck out...go Fiji!

go Fiji!

"balls, bloody minority sport taking even more airtime away from proper sports."

Well, if you're comparing it to footie then everything is a minority sport (even cricket, no?).

Haven't followed this WC at all (didn't even see Eng-Aus) but NZ-FRance really had some intense moments. Like them to win it now.

come on Fiji

Bah.

Still, it was nice that it was Jaque "I don't think we should respect Fiji" Fourie's attempted tackle which was smashed through for the 2nd try. I don't think we should respect Jaque Fourie.

Hmm. Fiji did well, but SA would always be too strong at set-plays and mauls. Fiji also benefitted from some questionable refereeing. Fantastic effort, though!

This is a really exciting WC btw. A lot of the matches are genuinely thrilling.

This is a really exciting WC btw.

georgemichael.jpg

brilliant WC, indeed

Damn

Damn all right, I cant say I saw that coming.We were beyond awful but you have to hand it to the French- they seem to find something special for the All Blacks.

Expectations were higher than they had ever been, 1987 is a generation ago and the media build up to this cup has been unreal,the All Blacks brand is everwhere, to escape the "we" difficult. The AMerican and lesser extent Australian heart on your sleeve type of patriotism isnt very NZ at all but the silver ferns flags have been flying like the 4th of July,such over confidence;the reaction predictably severe.

Id love France to go all the way now.

wow, what a weekend of RRRaa.

I still hope France win. And the Wallabies...what a pack of jokers. :/

The veteran All Black hooker Anton Oliver aptly summed it up. "The feeling in the [New Zealand] shed is like no man's land. There's a sort of desolate decay and the smell of death," he said.

^^^^a bit much.

rugby, more than any other, is the sport of hyperbole

Maybe but Oliver is forever the pompous twit, banging on about reading and poetry.The big shaved chimp should concentrate on the rugby.

Damn all right

yeah but I'm scottish hehe

As the All Blacks fans left Millennium Stadium in Cardiff after their fifth successive failed World Cup campaign, a Scottish spectator called out: "Belts and shoelaces, please."

:)

xpost

comiserations pfunk, on the result of course, heres your southern alter ego I was thinking of http://www.theatretoursinternational.com/PastShows/PSInternational/PSSF.htm

haha awesome.

there was some serious misery amongst the customers at my restaurant last night - it was very very quiet. we had some big thunderstorms, which of course formed the basis of some obvious god-jokes about the all blacks' performance.

the belts and shoelaces quip was pretty damn funny, i must admit.

Wow @ France. I was amazed at how well they defended: Sacrificed the least amount of men to a ruck, kept a 27 phase "pick and go" charge back at the end. Well deserved.

I thought Australia were rubbish. Unable to string a play together at all. England deserved the win.

The other matches were fairly predictable.

what, even when fiji scored two tries in two minutes with 14 men?

Yes.

oh shit - you should have heard the boys last night:

"that fucking ref GAVE the game to france!!"

Sounds pretty normal for any losing team's fans really.

Boring boring Scotland. Not good enough.

LOL @ Australia

LOL even more @ New Zealand

Vive la France!!!!

every Antipodean on sporting messageboards today: "Who'll play France in the final, SA or Argentina?"

lol

It's a strange sport indeed where Englishmen can actively support France and Argentina.

And Scotsmen can be not overly troubled about England beating Australia.... mind you, not watching and reading the media coverage opf it might have something to do with that

... however, the prospect of an England v. Sarf Ifriker final *shudder*

i was surprised how played down/muted it all seemed actually xp

I think that's what made it bearable. See, if only they could do that all the time.

France v S Africa final. LOL

Anyway, the final everyone wants to see is France - South Africa. Possibly. Maybe France - NZ, although that fixture's already seen its zenith.

-- Just got offed, Monday, 27 August 2007 23:07 (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

*bows*

we also got a F-NZ slight return. :D

but have i spoken to soon?

Yaow.

YAOW

That was amazing - my 10 year old son - who has had a bit of a crappy week at school - has just gone to bed with the hugest smile on his face.

Will greenwood's reaction at the end was v. sweet. So england win again, and there will doubtless be carping over the nature of the victory, but that somehow makes it seem only more satisfying. Again, it was the forwards who won it. The kicking from hand was woeful.

France played badly, of course, but the quarters have seen all the teams playing badly. France were dreadful against NZ, but NZ were worse. SA were rubbish against Fiji, Australia abysmal against England, and yet all these games have been massively entertaining. Weird.

England V France: The team that made the least mistakes won. Shocking match, rather boring.

South Africa on the other hand, well they were on fire!

Admittedly France only made one big mistake, the opening try, but what a mistake that was.

*unbows*

I disagree, I thought that France were tired from the off and fairly dazed at how things were going. There was a lot of hitting rucks from the side and desperate grabs leading to dodged tackles. That try couldn't have helped though, awful thing to have happened!

Yes, yes, I agree with you on that. They just looked a bit uninvolved and uninspired. I guess a bit like NZ against France.

Ha ha sadly OTM!

feel sad for the argentinians though, just a match too far for them last night, they looked knackered from the start, making ridiculous handling errors they hadn't in the other matches...

These fisticuffs in the Argentina - France game are boring, like hockey fights. Someone needs to get a punch off.

lol France

Pumas are 'the big winners' from this tournament.

I want them in the Six Nations, playing a home game a year in Buenos Aires. That is a good holiday.

This is another potentially great match being marred by the tedious kicking game.

even as a scot who wants england beat, that was a try im sure.

I like these commentators, they just said "lets not dwell on it, mistakes happen and forget about it and just try and win".
Great attitude.

Okay so I win a fiver and I don't have to spend the next six months avoiding 5 Live for fear of chinless twunts calling for the canonisation of Wilkinson. Excellent.

And that's coming from an englishman!!

who won?

England scored one try in three finals. Hmmmm....

I don't care about England RU Kerr, it's a class thang for me.

That and the fact that they play boring, shitty rugby.

Thank fuck for that.

Just seen the replay again and his foot touched the line, it wasn't a try. Even Martin Johnson says it wasn't a try now.
Could've went either way but it was a good decision in the end.

Hamilton's path to SPOTY now totally unhindered. Go that man!

Dom and NV are right in that we've just been spared quite considerable quantities of lionising pap. That said, I was still supporting England.

The best team won.

My favourite is when phone-in wankers go "AND THEY ARE PROPER ROLE-MODELS NOT LIKE THESE SO-CALLED FOOTBALLERS WITH THEIR HAIR AND THE GAY SEXING AND BEING OIKS"

and jonny wilkinson wont get his knighthood just yet.

I am impressed he made it thru a whole tournament without one of his legs falling off.

Given that these things tend to happen for me in weekends, then

-Charlton losing to Wolves
-Worcestershire signing basket-case Simon Jones
-England losing the RWC final

will be followed by a Hamilton cock-up tomorrow.

Just sayin'.

I have to say I think Hamilton has bottler written all over him.

I don't, although if he crashes out of his last two races having needed 6 points from both combined, and having not crashed out once in the preceding season, I may come around to your view.

I'll tell you what Hamilton does have. An almost total lack of arrogance, a professional attitude, a genuine intelligence, and a pleasant demeanour. I'm completely rooting for him. Sure, you can also root for the total bastards, but it's the dull majority in the middle who fail to inspire my backing.

Not a big McLaren fan. And I thought he sounded a bit petulant when he threatened to quit.

Well, fuck, if you'd been through all that, you'd feel pretty fed up too! Admittedly, he himself hasn't been particularly affected (touch wood), but the way McLaren's season has gone to shit is going to have inspired doubts, surely?

We'll see. Obviously there are lots of reasons it would be good for him to win. Anyway, time to get back to lol England.

lol England. Two stupid, stupid penalties to calm SA down at the start. Kicking game needed variation once it was obvious just how dominant SA were at the lineout. Tait was immense (stupid penalty #1 notwithstanding), Corry had a good game on the quiet. I dunno, if you'd offered me semi-finalist before the tournament I'd have takebn it, they've done well to get as far as they have.

Before the next six nations (which really should be seven, caek otm) there'll be a major overhaul anyway, it's the end of the line for a lot of this team. I would imagone a young, mobile side getting horribly gubbed for a year or so and then winding up more than half decent, and hopefully possessing the attacking edge england currently lack.

I'm not sure I agree with the comments about england's style being boring, in attack, absolutely, but the defence has at times been exhlerating (witness Sackey's tackle on Mortlock in the QF). Much has been made of England's lack of try scoring ability, less trumpeted is the fact that they've only conceded one in three games. As for boring, SA outyawned england comprehensively. Best team won on the night maybe, certainly not the best team in the tournament though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/mihirbose/2007/10/post_3.html

check the 1st user comment after you've read the article.

Oh for fuck's sake.

This is specious nonsense, obviously. Has the commenter been to any rugby league matches? Would he like to suggest to the average St Helens or Warrington fan that he's middle class? When was the last time you heard of crowd trouble at a League international?

Furthermore, the fallacy that Union is a middle class sport is disproved by a visit to any rugby ground south and west of Birmingham. Union is the pre-eminent sport in the South West (outside of the cities), ad as such is the sport also of the "working class" for want of a better label.