General Rugby World Cup 2015
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AB's vs Namibia and Georgia will be embarrassing for the smaller nations. Is there a mercy rule?
Tonga and Argentina will offer better competition but should also be a cake walk by the last quarter.
France scare the shit of me TBH. Never know which team you'll get. So unpredictable...
Heaps of interest in pool A.. I'm hoping Fiji and Wales advance and England and Australia get knocked out, can't see it but I hope it happens.
All Blacks pool is disastrous reminds me of 07' playing against minnows like Portugal then turn up to play France in the quarters and get a spanking.
Wouldn't write off Argentina's chances against us they've picked up heaps of experience playing in the Rugby Championship and their really good at World Cups and have upset France quite a few times that's a bit of a danger game.
Tonga will straight try and knock us out they're physically brutal. If anyone watched or can remember the 1999 pool match between Tonga and the All Blacks most say it was Tonga who softened the AB's up before France knocked them out in the semi.. Tonga absolutely ripped into them and I can see that scenario panning out again.
Namibia and Georgia will get belted by at least 60-70 points which will give our guys false hope that they can beat the bigger nations in the same fashion. Here's hoping Hansen has these guys super focused for every game.
All Blacks pool is disastrous reminds me of 07' playing against minnows like Portugal then turn up to play France in the quarters and get a spanking.
Wouldn't write off Argentina's chances against us they've picked up heaps of experience playing in the Rugby Championship and their really good at World Cups and have upset France quite a few times that's a bit of a danger game.
Tonga will straight try and knock us out they're physically brutal. If anyone watched or can remember the 1999 pool match between Tonga and the All Blacks most say it was Tonga who softened the AB's up before France knocked them out in the semi.. Tonga absolutely ripped into them and I can see that scenario panning out again.
Namibia and Georgia will get belted by at least 60-70 points which will give our guys false hope that they can beat the bigger nations in the same fashion. Here's hoping Hansen has these guys super focused for every game.
I think it is called a White flag or in Boxing its called throwing in the towel.
Judging by recent form & results the quarter finals should look something like this ...
QF1- South Africa vs Australia
QF2 - New Zealand vs France
QF3 - Ireland vs Argentina
QF4 - England vs Samoa
I too am extremely nervous about the prospect of going up against Les Bleus in a quarter final, especially as France have been fairly ordinary of late, which is when they seem to pull out their best footy against us, but I'm still backing the vast experience of the ABs to know how to deal with this
I read an interesting article by Ali Williams in which he stated that prior to the 2011 RWC the ABs had a mindset of wanting to win while still playing their natural razzle dazzle style of rugby, but in 2011 that mindset changed to winning by any means necessary, even if that meant playing a relatively boring low risk style of footy, so with Hansen, McCaw & a handful of other vastly experienced ABs still on board from previous RWC campaigns this is exactly how I expect the ABs to approach the knockout sections of this tournament
I'll also be very interested to see how Sam Burgess goes for England, they seem to want to persist with him as a second five eight, but the general consensus in English rugby is that he is much more naturally suited to the impact loose forward role, (ie: blindside flanker / No. 8) regardless of how it goes for England the pressure of expectation on them to win from the English public will be absolutely massive, so it will be very interesting to see if they rise to the occasion or fold under the pressure, personally I'm hoping they fold because I believe they are the biggest threat to the ABs going back to back ... LETS GONE SAMOA !!! lol
The dark horses of this RWC for mine are Ireland, while the Irish have lost a couple of warm up matches in recent times, most recently to England, they will still be extremely confident from their recent form (currently ranked at No.3 in the IRB rankings behind NZ & AUS) & their recent achievement of going back to back in the 6 Nations in 2014-15 & also lets not forget that they should have probably beaten the ABs for the first time in over 100 years of trying the last time we played them in Dublin in 2013, unfortunately for them & luckily for the ABs, the world renowned "luck of the Irish" deserted them that day
I'm also hoping Manu Samoa have a great tournament, as apart from their historic match against the ABs in Apia earlier this year, there really hasn't been a lot to write home about for them in recent times, mainly due to the crazy backroom politics that goes on with Samoan rugby, the only team in world rugby that really faces more of that carry on than the Samoans do is South Africa
With this tournament & the Kiwis tour of England fast approaching I'm amped up as for some late night screaming at my T.V. lol
#allblaksback2back #letsgoneallblacks
QF1- South Africa vs Australia
QF2 - New Zealand vs France
QF3 - Ireland vs Argentina
QF4 - England vs Samoa
I too am extremely nervous about the prospect of going up against Les Bleus in a quarter final, especially as France have been fairly ordinary of late, which is when they seem to pull out their best footy against us, but I'm still backing the vast experience of the ABs to know how to deal with this
I read an interesting article by Ali Williams in which he stated that prior to the 2011 RWC the ABs had a mindset of wanting to win while still playing their natural razzle dazzle style of rugby, but in 2011 that mindset changed to winning by any means necessary, even if that meant playing a relatively boring low risk style of footy, so with Hansen, McCaw & a handful of other vastly experienced ABs still on board from previous RWC campaigns this is exactly how I expect the ABs to approach the knockout sections of this tournament
I'll also be very interested to see how Sam Burgess goes for England, they seem to want to persist with him as a second five eight, but the general consensus in English rugby is that he is much more naturally suited to the impact loose forward role, (ie: blindside flanker / No. 8) regardless of how it goes for England the pressure of expectation on them to win from the English public will be absolutely massive, so it will be very interesting to see if they rise to the occasion or fold under the pressure, personally I'm hoping they fold because I believe they are the biggest threat to the ABs going back to back ... LETS GONE SAMOA !!! lol
The dark horses of this RWC for mine are Ireland, while the Irish have lost a couple of warm up matches in recent times, most recently to England, they will still be extremely confident from their recent form (currently ranked at No.3 in the IRB rankings behind NZ & AUS) & their recent achievement of going back to back in the 6 Nations in 2014-15 & also lets not forget that they should have probably beaten the ABs for the first time in over 100 years of trying the last time we played them in Dublin in 2013, unfortunately for them & luckily for the ABs, the world renowned "luck of the Irish" deserted them that day
I'm also hoping Manu Samoa have a great tournament, as apart from their historic match against the ABs in Apia earlier this year, there really hasn't been a lot to write home about for them in recent times, mainly due to the crazy backroom politics that goes on with Samoan rugby, the only team in world rugby that really faces more of that carry on than the Samoans do is South Africa
With this tournament & the Kiwis tour of England fast approaching I'm amped up as for some late night screaming at my T.V. lol
#allblaksback2back #letsgoneallblacks
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if we play France in a quarter final, it will be played in Cardiff too, TBH I would love that, we need to make things right and beating them there would hopefully help us to get over 2007 just a wee bit more
I think Irelands time in the sun is over. Im picking France to beat them and we smash Ireland.
I thought Fiji would easily cover the 26 point spread. Only just scraped in in the end.
I was hoping for the upset to make Pool A interesting - but looks like it's up to 2011's semifinalists Wales to make cause trouble.
I was hoping for the upset to make Pool A interesting - but looks like it's up to 2011's semifinalists Wales to make cause trouble.
I hope the NRL were not paying attention to the ref changing his mind after awarding a try because he watched the replay screen and saw the Fijian actually dropped it... Last thing we need is more delays and video involvement when the refs realise they fucked something up!!
Ive only lately been watching a bit of Rugby and the one thing I have enjoyed about it is the officiating. They very rarely get it wrong. Makes the game so much better...
Fair enough it wasn't a try but the thing I'm not a fan of is that the footage shown on the big screen was quite selective in what they chose to show (in England's favour) and the crowds reaction influenced the ref too much IMO.
And that was exactly Steve Hansens gripe last season,,, the home teams home broadcaster has control over what footage is shown on the big screen!
Pretty big call considering the number of rules. A couple of things with union officiating they don't hesitate to use the sin bin and from the little union I do watch you don't see players harassing the refs as much as they do in the NRL. Two things it would be good to see in the NRL.
The sin bin could help with some of the teams in league pushing the limits.
The players rushing up to the refs to argue each call isn't a good look in the NRL. It's a bit refreshing watching other codes where the refs make a call and they get on with it.
Now the union officiating might be all good now. But lets wait until later in the tournament until one of the big nations gets eliminated. Think New Zealand 2007 with Wayne Barnes and South Africa in 2011 with how they reacted to the NZ referee in their semi final. I think that NZ ref never refereed in South Africa again.
Will try catch the Tongan haka while watching the Cowboys v Sharks game. Hopefully try stay awake for the game but Georgia doesnt excite me.
Anyone catching the All Black first game? 3:45am on Monday. Im not that hearty...
Anyone catching the All Black first game? 3:45am on Monday. Im not that hearty...
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