Rugby World Cup 2019 Japan The hunt for Webb Ellis

Rockbeast2

Probably the worst game to watch in WC so far IMO.

Just worried now about England making -34 handicap!

I expect USA will get 5/7 points in second half and England mightn't be too bothered once they secure bonus point.

Rockbeast2

WTF?!

kilns

Have the US been the worst team so far at this world cup

Rockbeast2

^ USA the worst, yes.

George Lada the worst 10. It's like he's trying the ruin my bet! LOL

jr86

Deleted User wrote: »

Expect England to open up in the 2nd half. Still nothing overly impressive from them, they have a savagely dominant maul and are using it to good effect but nothing else so far.

I think you're mad to be reading too much into these games tbh.

sydthebeat

kilns wrote: »

Have the US been the worst team so far at this world cup

canada are pi$$ poor

FrancieBrady

sydthebeat wrote: »

canada are pi$$ poor

I think US are worse on this showing. Nothing to offer at all.

Not surprising that a straight red is given to a minnow team.

jammiedodgers

Finally a ref makes a right call on these dangerous stupid tackles

FrancieBrady

As clear a red as you'll get.

testtech05

That was very stupid and dangerous by Quill definite red all day.

Interesting to hear the change in reaction from the ITV commentators compared to Hodge's citing.
Cant wait to hear what Woodward reckons.......

razorblunt

Absolute farce that gets the TMO involved but not Francis’

endabob1

FrancieBrady wrote: »

As clear a red as you'll get.

Agreed 100%, cheap and lazy, red, all day every day

ebbsy

Certainly was not expecting USA to win, but they are dog**** of the highest order.

Oops!

endabob1 wrote: »

Agreed 100%, cheap and lazy, red, all day every day

He couldn't have made it anymore obvious.... Pure stupid.

jr86

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

What is the point in these games? As a casual rugby fan, this is what annoys me about the sport. You get results like Senegal beating World Champions France in soccer world cup, but a minnow just can't possibly beat a big team(except for that total freak Japan SA result). There's just too much disparity.

The 8 QFists were decided on day 2 when France beat Argentina!!

Rockbeast2

Hard to watch game.

USA are diabolical.

George started off as a Ford, became a Lada, and now he's a Porsche!

Thanks for beating the spread, England! LOL

FrancieBrady

ebbsy wrote: »

Certainly was not expecting USA to win, but they are dog**** of the highest order.

Useless in every department of the pitch. The maul, breakdown, scrum, the tackle...bleak for them and a total mismatch.

England romp home hardly breaking sweat tbh.

Canada deserved a score for at least having a go, these guys deserve the duck egg.

errlloyd

Cracking end though. Canteen was in ructions.

Well that was sh1te of the smelliest order.

America lacking in every aspect of play and, honestly, would struggle in AIL 1A.
OK; so it was a red all day long but it's a bit galling that certain other tackles (even in this match) were not even looked at and the no consequence team gets the first red.

endabob1

Rockbeast2 wrote: »

Hard to watch game.

USA are diabolical.

George started off as a Ford, became a Lada, and now he's a Porsche!

Thanks for beating the spread, England! LOL

Only just in the end

Rockbeast2

I'm pretty sure that Cork Con or Clontarf could beat USA.

Rockbeast2

"Only just in the end"

I like to live dangerously! :-)

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

What is the point in these games? As a casual rugby fan, this is what annoys me about the sport. You get results like Senegal beating World Champions France in soccer world cup, but a minnow just can't possibly beat a big team(except for that total freak Japan SA result). There's just too much disparity.

That's the nature of a low scoring game versus a higher scoring game. There's more variance when there's less scores.

blackwhite

I wonder if Farrell was thinking to himself - so that’s what that feels like?

Rockbeast2

^ 'Twas a Farrell-esque tackle, but I'd be surprised if Farrell got even a Yellow for doing the same...

Rockbeast2

Rockbeast2 wrote: »

^ 'Twas a Farrell-esque tackle, but I'd be surprised if Farrell got even a Yellow for doing the same...

And he had the nerve to look annoyed at it.

Rockbeast2

I'll say it here, now.

I'm going to back Argentina to beat England.

razorblunt

A poster said earlier if Hooley had stayed down the Francis’ tackle might have been looked out. Farrell did. You can easily see how simulation has crept into the game.

razorblunt

razorblunt wrote: »

A poster said earlier if Hooley had stayed down the Francis’ tackle might have been looked out. Farrell did. You can easily see how simulation has crept into the game.

It should not matter, the TMO is there for a reason and NEEDS to be bringing tackles like that to the attention of the Ref, no matter if the player gets up or not.

That is what they are there for, no?

razorblunt

Deleted User wrote: »

It should not matter, the TMO is there for a reason and NEEDS to be bringing tackles like that to the attention of the Ref, no matter if the player gets up or not. The

That is what they are there for, no?

Exactly! It’s clear as day. NBCSN showed the Francis tackle as a highlight FFS.

Tommybojangles

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

What is the point in these games? As a casual rugby fan, this is what annoys me about the sport. You get results like Senegal beating World Champions France in soccer world cup, but a minnow just can't possibly beat a big team(except for that total freak Japan SA result). There's just too much disparity.

Bit ironic to take an example from 2002 to show how 'common' those results are in soccer? rugby generally has upsets.
2015 had japan
2011 had Tonga lose to Canada then beat france
2007 had fiji knock out wales and ourselves very nearly implode against Georgia.

As stated above the only difference is that in rugby the imbalance is highlighted because of higher scores. Whereas in soccer you might sit through some obscure team hold Germany to a 1-0 thanks to an unwatchable style of play

Rockbeast2

"What is the point in these games?"

Uruguay vs Fiji

* I may have gotten dust in my eyes when Uruguay won.

** I admit that more could be done to bring on teams such as Uruguay or Russia. The tier 1 nations should have the shorter turnaround to next game IMO.

thomond2006

The pool stages as they are aren't great.
Three of the pools are essentially two mini-pools of a battle for first place and a battle for third place.

With MLR in place, the US and Canada are the teams you'd hope would rise in standard over the next 5-10 years. The US has an insane number of athletes competing as unpaid professionals at collegiate level. The potential talent pool is there.

The Pacific Island nations are a tricky one. Their talent pool is already in place between local and granny rule players but finances and legitimate governance (see Samoa in 2011 as an example) will always be an issue.

With the recent improvement in Bennetton (and their head coach signed until 2022), Italy should be making progress. However they have big names to replace over the next RWC cycle.

Right now there are nine teams that are relevant at a RWC quarter-final standard. Increasing that to 12/13 would make a massive difference to the tournament.

Rockbeast2

^ Russia. Georgia in NH need to be helped by WR

I believe Arg are helping Uruguay.

Feck paying nz a million for a test, russia and georgia have earned games in autumn internationals IMO

sydthebeat

thomond2006 wrote: »

With MLR in place, the US and Canada are the team's you'd hope would rise in standard over the next 5-10 years. The US has an insane number of athletes competing as unpaid professionals at collegiate level. The potential talent pool is there.

The Pacific Island nations are a tricky one. Their talent pool is already in place between local and granny rule players but finances and legitimate governance (see Samoa in 2011 as an example) will always be an issue.

With the recent improvement in Bennetton (and their head coach signed until 2022), Italy should be making progress. However they gave big names to replace over the next RWC cycle.

Right now there are nine teams that are relevant at a RWC quarter-final standard. Increasing that to 12/13 would make a massive difference to the tournament.

the biggest helper for the pacific islands would be an allowance to move back from a tier 1 country to tier 2 after a set amount of time, say 2 years.......

do this, and find someway to put manners on clubs enforcing retirement for better contracts.. and their stock would rise sharply in world rugby.

20% of the worlds professional players are from the pacific islands......

jr86

2007 was the best year I can remember. Every group ended up being quite close between 2nd and 3rd. Ireland and wales both knocked out before the quarters. Italy close to eliminating Scotland and Tonga were a bounce of the ball away from a massive scalp against South Africa if I remember correctly

D.Q

sydthebeat wrote: »

the biggest helper for the pacific islands would be an allowance to move back from a tier 1 country to tier 2 after a set amount of time, say 2 years.......

do this, and find someway to put manners on clubs enforcing retirement for better contracts.. and their stock would rise sharply in world rugby.

20% of the worlds professional players are from the pacific islands......

I see you listen to the same podcasts as me

sydthebeat

D.Q wrote: »

I see you listen to the same podcasts as me

theres not many i dont listen to

Gamb!t

I wonder can Italy get out of the group and cause an upset?

Gamb!t

Gamb!t wrote: »

I wonder can Italy get out of the group and cause an upset?

They are building some momentum putting in big performances against the weaker teams. They don't have a game now until next Friday and it just so happens to be South Africa.

South Africa will play on Saturday so two less days turnaround - not hugely significant but some advantage Italy.

I think they could give South Africa a game but I fail to see how they do anything other than keep it two within two scores. South Africa would have to suffer a significant dip in recent form for it to be any tighter than that.

Rockbeast2

^ TBH Italy looked like they had another gear in reserve.

I don't always agree with COS, but he is a whip-smart guy.

I'd bet any money that Italy are targeting South Africa as a game they can win.

... and if Polledri plays as well as he did today, then who knows...

Rockbeast2

* Also, as awesome as Parisse is/was, and as super-awesome as his wife looks, isn't it good to watch Italy play when the go-to move is not "Give the ball to Parisse!"?

errlloyd

Rockbeast2 wrote: »

... and if Polledri plays as well as he did today, then who knows...

Yesterday the 1014 made a big deal about ALB beating 8 defenders. The most an All Black has beaten in any world cup since Lomu.

Today Jake Polledri beat 8 defenders in the first 14 minutes. Before beating 6 more by the end of the match. He notched 3 Clean Breaks, 3 effective offloads. He was off the bench in round 1 and so far he's beaten 20 defenders off 22 runs.

I think we might be seeing the dramatic international debut of something special.

Rockbeast2

It was wonderful to watch.

* Gadzhiev at 7 for Russia is my player of the tournament so far. Hard and brave. I hope a French club offers him a huge contract.

ClanofLams

South Africa are over rated. They’re nothing special. NZ don’t focus on rugby championship in World Cup years. They didn’t win tri nations or rugby championship in ‘11 or ‘15.

Would still expect them to have enough to beat Italy but think Ireland will deal with them fairly comfortably in quarter finals.

Likewise not seeing fuss with England. Wales beat them in 6N, they threw away a 30 point lead against Scotland at home. They have some very powerful runners but haven’t displayed the type of consistency required to win a World Cup in two and a half years. Expect they will still top group but Australia/Wales will give them a right match and if they overcome it, NZ will deal with them without being over extended.

Loafing Oaf

errlloyd wrote: »

Yesterday the 1014 made a big deal about ALB beating 8 defenders. The most an All Black has beaten in any world cup since Lomu.

Today Jake Polledri beat 8 defenders in the first 14 minutes. Before beating 6 more by the end of the match. He notched 3 Clean Breaks, 3 effective offloads. He was off the bench in round 1 and so far he's beaten 20 defenders off 22 runs.

I think we might be seeing the dramatic international debut of something special.

Are Italy ever going to produce a top player who is entirely home-grown?

Jump_In_Jack

sydthebeat wrote: »

the biggest helper for the pacific islands would be an allowance to move back from a tier 1 country to tier 2 after a set amount of time, say 2 years.......

do this, and find someway to put manners on clubs enforcing retirement for better contracts.. and their stock would rise sharply in world rugby.

20% of the worlds professional players are from the pacific islands......

This is not a satisfactory solution.

We need a system that promotes players representing their Pacific Island nation above rich nations, not a system that allows the rich nations to borrow their players.

The only way to encourage players to play for their own Pacific Island nation is to make it as profitable as playing for one of the rich nations.

It's a much more complicated problem than simply allowing players declare for a rich nation and then go back to their own national team after a while.

Rockbeast2

* I never played 7, but I'd be interested in reading the thoughts of those that have...

Lot of talk about the "fast ground" before this WC. Is it a 7's world cup? Lots of 7s making a great impression.

Polledri reminded me of Prime David Wallace a couple times today.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/simonrug/status/1177243920419475457?s=19