Depressingly NZ looking too strong again IMO. Long way to go, but I get the feeling the rest of us are just wasting time.
Rugby World Cup 2019 aka Squishy McSquish goes into a meltdown thread
- Thread starter utdalltheway
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Haven't New Zealand been the dominant rugby union team since pretty much the sports inception? Yet they 'only' had one 1 WC till 2011?
Anything can happen in the knock outs.
Cheika's press conference will be fascinating.
Yip, I don't think there is any other sport in the world where one team has just been head and shoulders above everyone since the sport's inception.
Having said that, they used to be considered perennial chokers prior to 2011 (thanks France for that win in 2007). The problem is they seemed to have overcome that choking, shown by winning two world cups in a row.
You are right to an extent though, they do get quite nervous when the knockouts come around. Maybe I'm just trying to not get my hopes up - I would definitely rather anyone but NZ win the world cup.
what on earth?
That’s some top drawer bollocks you’ve spouted there, fair play.
Anyway, epic game and what a huge win for Wales.
Wales knocked England out of their own World Cup!?
Also, every nation wants win the 6 nations, the thought that England don’t and don’t care about celebrating it is nonsense.
I’m not even going to bother replying to Wales ‘epic bottle job’ against France
Great win Wales!
Superb performance in the first half and great fight in the second. I fecking hate Australia the dirty, cheating bastards so it was nice to beat them. George North still isn't involved enough for me though. He's such a great player when he has the ball, but he's invisible most of the time. He's a potent weapon for Wales and they really need him to get involved.
As for that poster in here going on about Wales bottling it in 2011 and England barely celebrating when they win a Grand Slam, have a day off son.
Superb performance in the first half and great fight in the second. I fecking hate Australia the dirty, cheating bastards so it was nice to beat them. George North still isn't involved enough for me though. He's such a great player when he has the ball, but he's invisible most of the time. He's a potent weapon for Wales and they really need him to get involved.
As for that poster in here going on about Wales bottling it in 2011 and England barely celebrating when they win a Grand Slam, have a day off son.
I'll shock you all and reveal that Michael Cheika was far from a happy chap post game. He said he was embarrassed about the penalty against Kerevi just before half time and questioned if Australia's allowed to scrum well.
Woohoo!
First game that kickstarted the morning was Georgia vs Uruguay. Was hoping Uruguay would kick on from their big victory against Fiji a couple of days ago but it wasn’t to be. Georgia claiming a bonus point victory.
Australia vs Wales was a fantastic game. Real edge of the seat stuff. Wales were brilliant and deservedly won that close game. The Wallabies played really well in the 2nd half but a disappointing 1st half cost them.
Now, tomorrow it’s Scotland vs Samoa. Hoping we win but God knows what lies in store! Let’s see what happens!
Australia vs Wales was a fantastic game. Real edge of the seat stuff. Wales were brilliant and deservedly won that close game. The Wallabies played really well in the 2nd half but a disappointing 1st half cost them.
Now, tomorrow it’s Scotland vs Samoa. Hoping we win but God knows what lies in store! Let’s see what happens!
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Yeah massive game after the Japan result, this group is wide open. Looking forward to it and hope the Scots can pull it off.
God I am nervous about our game this morning.
Scotland looking good at HT. Bonus point win could be on
Buzzing with that win.
Well thank God for that!
Waking up this morning, I felt we were going to win but not get that crucial bonus point which would have felt like a defeat. First 30 mins, despite leading 3-0, was very scrappy with both teams making a number of handling errors and us failing to make our superior possession count. Our first try was a superb cross-field kick by Russell for Maitland to catch and dive over the try line. 2nd try came four minutes later. Great work by both Russell and the superb Jamie Ritchie sent Laidlaw through, who did really well to keep hold of possession, and score the 2nd try. From there, I felt it was just a matter of time we were going to get this bonus point as Samoa were absolutely offering nothing. Hogg scored an absolute superb drop goal to pretty much make sure of the win and from there just focus on getting that bonus point. 2nd half and again we had to be patient for that 3rd try and it eventually came via TMO after the Samoa winger was penalised and yellow carded for coming in at the side which stopping a try coming from a rolling maul. Over 20 mins to go, we started getting very desperate again and the silly errors creeped back into our game again. Kept on rushing and rushing for this try rather than doing what the Japanese did against the Irish at the weekend - don’t rush and just be patient with our play, we have over 20 mins left. Build phases which will tire out the Samoan forwards. An opening will come. Finally that 4th try did come with 6 mins remaining. Quick play from the offload sent Maitland through to score but he lost control after the same culprit, came across with pace and slid into Sean with his knees. Referee correctly awards a penalty try after consulting with the TMO and the Samoan is shown a 2nd yellow which resulted in a red.
First clean sheet of the tournament. Wasn’t a 5 star performance. A few of our errors would have been punished by a better team but I don’t care about that just now as the main thing is we got the bonus point win!
Our next game is against Russia a week on Wednesday before the big one against Japan, 4 days later. A similar scoreline like today against the Russians will set us up nicely for the Japanese game.
No rugby tomorrow. The two games on Wednesday are France vs USA and New Zealand vs Canada.
Waking up this morning, I felt we were going to win but not get that crucial bonus point which would have felt like a defeat. First 30 mins, despite leading 3-0, was very scrappy with both teams making a number of handling errors and us failing to make our superior possession count. Our first try was a superb cross-field kick by Russell for Maitland to catch and dive over the try line. 2nd try came four minutes later. Great work by both Russell and the superb Jamie Ritchie sent Laidlaw through, who did really well to keep hold of possession, and score the 2nd try. From there, I felt it was just a matter of time we were going to get this bonus point as Samoa were absolutely offering nothing. Hogg scored an absolute superb drop goal to pretty much make sure of the win and from there just focus on getting that bonus point. 2nd half and again we had to be patient for that 3rd try and it eventually came via TMO after the Samoa winger was penalised and yellow carded for coming in at the side which stopping a try coming from a rolling maul. Over 20 mins to go, we started getting very desperate again and the silly errors creeped back into our game again. Kept on rushing and rushing for this try rather than doing what the Japanese did against the Irish at the weekend - don’t rush and just be patient with our play, we have over 20 mins left. Build phases which will tire out the Samoan forwards. An opening will come. Finally that 4th try did come with 6 mins remaining. Quick play from the offload sent Maitland through to score but he lost control after the same culprit, came across with pace and slid into Sean with his knees. Referee correctly awards a penalty try after consulting with the TMO and the Samoan is shown a 2nd yellow which resulted in a red.
First clean sheet of the tournament. Wasn’t a 5 star performance. A few of our errors would have been punished by a better team but I don’t care about that just now as the main thing is we got the bonus point win!
Our next game is against Russia a week on Wednesday before the big one against Japan, 4 days later. A similar scoreline like today against the Russians will set us up nicely for the Japanese game.
No rugby tomorrow. The two games on Wednesday are France vs USA and New Zealand vs Canada.
Jesse Kriel is out of the World Cup due to a hamstring injury. Damian Willemse is his replacement.
I can't wait for our game v Japan. It's going to be an absolute humdinger.
Yes I think you're right. Both teams like to spread the ball wide and need to win. Could be a great game. Very disappointed in Ireland on Saturday (mainly cos I was out til 2 and got up to watch it!). I thought they looked sluggish and tired compared to the lively, creative Japanese players.
Score prediction for NZ tomorrow? Will they rack up 100?
Exactly, the way both teams play and the fact both will need to win could make it a brilliant encounter. I've been really impressed by Japan so far too.
Aye same, was disappointed by Ireland's showing, as I thought at same point they were going to wake up and start playing but they were really flat. They need to really up their game if they want to go far this tournament.
@Skills I don't think it will quite be that high but certainly 80 odd points, Canada have been really poor heading into the tournament if my memory serves correctly.
Just watching this WC I dont think anyone will get more that 70 points against any team. I was massively impressed with Namibia's showing considering the pool of players they have. Russia are I think the weakest team in the competition but they are organised.
21-0 after 21 minutes 
63-0, not as big as i was hoping, but i'll take it
Seemed to be a lot of issues with the slippyness of the ball. There has been loads of handling errors and knock-ons this WC, seems mad the organizers have persisted with having roofs closed for games and seems to be affecting the games now.
Not a regular Rugby watcher and I know that you need a certain number of days between games but surely this world cup is too long ? Hard to create a buzz when you have so many one sided games over 1+ month
Yeah I think the groups should be smaller. 4 teams is plenty and you should play 3 games over 14 days with a whole different 15 playing in game 2. Make it more interesting I think.
France not at their best but always have a habit of pulling off a result at a World Cup. Fancy them to sneak 2nd spot ahead of Argentina. That victory against them on MD1 was massive!
New Zealand very comfortable winners as everyone anticipated although I feel a more clinical NZ team could have hit 100 odd points easily. Some difficult handling conditions and trying to be a bit too clever at times.
Still, 63 unanswered points is pretty scary. Even against a team as poor as Canada.
Also I seen pre-match that New Zealand were 10/11 with a - 67 points handicap v Canada. Imagine taking that bet then having to suffer that Barrett fumble in injury time! Ouch!
Tomorrow it’s Georgia vs Fiji and then Ireland vs Russia.
New Zealand very comfortable winners as everyone anticipated although I feel a more clinical NZ team could have hit 100 odd points easily. Some difficult handling conditions and trying to be a bit too clever at times.
Still, 63 unanswered points is pretty scary. Even against a team as poor as Canada.
Also I seen pre-match that New Zealand were 10/11 with a - 67 points handicap v Canada. Imagine taking that bet then having to suffer that Barrett fumble in injury time! Ouch!
Tomorrow it’s Georgia vs Fiji and then Ireland vs Russia.
Another impeccable Carty dink He is ridiculously good at those. Chooses the right moment and gets possession back.
He is ridiculously good at those. Chooses the right moment and gets possession back.I'm a very casual fan of Rugby so forgive such a dumb question but why are New Zealand always so good? More money in the game there? Higher quality league? More professional teams/players? More kids getting into it? I mean, South Africa, England, Australia have far larger populations with Wales being of a similar population so why are New Zealand seemingly always better?
Rugby is by far their most popular sport, they live and breathe it. In the other countries you've mentioned, rugby is anywhere from the 2nd to 5th biggest spot.
It's like asking why are the Netherlands so good at football in comparison to China.
I'd have thought in South Africa Rugby Union was #1 too? At least among the white population of which is still bigger than New Zealand's entire population.
Georgia vs Fiji was quite an interesting match. I thought Georgia were playing not bad in the 1st half despite trailing 7-3 and looking the much better team. 2nd half, Fiji were a different animal and ripped the Georgians to shreds. Massive win for the Fijian’s to make up for the poor showing & shock result against Uruguay. Also finishing in the top 3 of your pool guarantees an automatic qualifying spot for France 2023.
Ireland vs Russia had a lot riding on it. Ireland looking to make up for that shock defeat to the Japanese and knowing a bonus point win would take them one step closer to the quarters. I didn’t see the game as was out with the Mrs but heard it was a comfortable Irish win although the performance was lethargic. End of the day, they got the win and bonus point which is all that really matters in the end.
Tomorrow, it’s South Africa vs Italy.
Ireland vs Russia had a lot riding on it. Ireland looking to make up for that shock defeat to the Japanese and knowing a bonus point win would take them one step closer to the quarters. I didn’t see the game as was out with the Mrs but heard it was a comfortable Irish win although the performance was lethargic. End of the day, they got the win and bonus point which is all that really matters in the end.
Tomorrow, it’s South Africa vs Italy.
Kolbe is made of magic dust
Was a great finish that.
Yes Rugby is no 1 amongst the white population in South Africa.
They have the best coaches and coaching systems as well. Something like 40% of the coaches at the World Cup are kiwis and from the age of 5, their kids are being coached to a level you rarely see elsewhere on the planet. Their skill levels, particularly among forwards, are night and day from what would have traditionally been expected of big guys in South Africa or the Northern Hemisphere.
Other countries are catching up, largely from having spent years copying NZ models and structures or poaching kiwi coaches, but they are a long way back. The standards set in domestic rugby over there just keeps driving standards up and they don't have the same issues other countries have with bigger sports taking playing numbers, resources and market share away from them.
Kolbe is magic
I'm reading this morning that Etzebeth might be in some legal trouble?