Rugby World Cup 2011 Thread

[Lunaful]

Well in a month or so the rugby world cup will captivate the nation that I live in and maybe the world. Seeing as Ireland is 4th best country in the world I can hypothesize that it will be a big deal.

So here are the Pools:

POOL A

New Zealand

France

Tonga

Canada

Japan

POOL B

Argentina

England

Scotland

Georgia

Romania

POOL C

Austrila

Ireland (Yay!)

Italy

Russia

USA

POOL D

South Africa

Wales

Fiji

Samoa

Namibia

So will any of you guys watch the games? I will, My dad's a massive Munster and Ireland fan. I was born in Scotland but I'm Irish so I can and will be rooting for both of them.

Americans and Canadians can spare over who's rugby team is better lol

[liljim]

At 8/3/11 07:24 PM, Lunaful wrote: So will any of you guys watch the games?

Depends on what time they're airing and on what channels. But if I'm awake, yes.

[BumFodder]

I doubt Ill be watching it. I prefer playing it a lot more than watching it, but even then I dont really get to do that.

So eeh

[Lunaful]

At 8/3/11 08:25 PM, liljim wrote:

At 8/3/11 07:24 PM, Lunaful wrote: So will any of you guys watch the games?

Depends on what time they're airing and on what channels. But if I'm awake, yes.

Cool. Are confident of England's chances and what do you think of the whole "new Black kit" debacle?

[NEVR]

I'll be watching and hoping that England doesn't make a mess of things. My best mate is South African so I'm hoping we won't give him as much reason to gloat this year as we did in 2007.

[Lunaful]

At 8/3/11 08:51 PM, NEVR wrote: I'll be watching and hoping that England doesn't make a mess of things. My best mate is South African so I'm hoping we won't give him as much reason to gloat this year as we did in 2007.

England have been trucking along but the last game defeat for the grand slam and the notorious ad that followed shook you. we all hope that the New Zealanders get stage fright.

[Lunaful]

Manu Tuilagi is back in the England set up after knocking the rhubarb out of Chris Ashton.

[liljim]

At 8/5/11 07:48 AM, Lunaful wrote: Manu Tuilagi is back in the England set up after knocking the rhubarb out of Chris Ashton.

Slow mo clip of that here.

[liljim]

At 8/5/11 09:35 AM, liljim wrote:

At 8/5/11 07:48 AM, Lunaful wrote: Manu Tuilagi is back in the England set up after knocking the rhubarb out of Chris Ashton.

Slow mo clip of that here.

Oops, wrong emoticon.

[Lunaful]

At 8/5/11 09:35 AM, liljim wrote:

At 8/5/11 07:48 AM, Lunaful wrote: Manu Tuilagi is back in the England set up after knocking the rhubarb out of Chris Ashton.

Slow mo clip of that here.

Awesome hehe but the funny thing is they are both English team mates!

[PePpEr828]

New Zealand is where it at!

[Lunaful]

At 8/5/11 10:56 AM, PePpEr828 wrote: New Zealand is where it at!

Well they delayed the elections just for the World Cup.

[Gasthecar]

Since I hate Ireland, i'm going to go for Toga.

[gamejunkie]

At 8/5/11 11:13 AM, Gasthecar wrote: Since I hate Ireland, i'm going to go for Toga.

Unfortunately, Toga didn't make the cut for this years tournament. However, Tonga did. Also I foresee an Australia vs New Zealand Final this time round.

[Lunaful]

At 8/5/11 11:32 AM, gamejunkie wrote:

At 8/5/11 11:13 AM, Gasthecar wrote: Since I hate Ireland, i'm going to go for Toga.

Unfortunately, Toga didn't make the cut for this years tournament. However, Tonga did. Also I foresee an Australia vs New Zealand Final this time round.

Didn't the Aussies pumble South Africa recently?

[Lunaful]

Its started

Copied from the guardian:

Sumptuous on occasions, scatter-brained on others, New Zealand launched another World Cup campaign with all their familiar contradictions. They looked blindingly good when their back five - the centres Ma'a Nonu and Sonny Bill Williams, wings Richard Kahui and Isaia Toeava and full-back Israel Dagg - were swinging the ball around and yet they still looked like a side that could not resist the trap of abandon. And they do not need reminding about what has happened at the last five World Cups when they have given in to temptation.

There was a door to be slammed on this game and it was left not exactly hanging on its hinges, but ajar all the same. Instead of completing the job with ruthless efficiency, the All Blacks lost concentration. And with it, the entire plot almost.

Tonga had thrown themselves into this opener with huge enthusiasm, but only in groups of one. Brilliant individual tacklers, fearless single runners, they were cut to pieces by All Black teamwork. The Tongans were nudged at the scrum, crooked at the lineout and turned over with regularity at the breakdown.

On such offerings, the All Blacks prospered, with Dan Carter opting to let his outside backs run the show. Williams slipped his signature passes away; Nonu thundered and then paused to give long, sweet passes; Toeava and Kahui ran and finished elusively. And Dagg did all of the above, scoring two tries to match Kahui's brace.

And yet, even in this period of consummate counterattacking, there was the other side. A killer pass too far was attempted here, or was dropped. Only Jerome Kaino remained a model of forthright conviction to complete this task without fuss. The blindside flanker scored after a delicious kick-and-gather by Kahui and ran hard in defence. Kaino is hugely influential, especially in the absence of the injured No8, Kieran Read.

Victor Vito, standing in for Read, is packed with promise, but World Cups, as the defending champions South Africa are highlighting by cramming as many caps into their starting line-ups as possible - are won on what old dogs have done, rather than what young hounds might do in the weeks to come.

Sonny Bill has not been in this World Cup place before. The centre was tremendous with his tricks and pulled off his torn shirt to give the crowd - a couple of thousand light of capacity - an extra treat. He does cut a defined figure. But he chucked as much rubbish around as anyone and when, in the second half, he had the line at his mercy, he cut inside into a double-tackle and was left in a rather undignified heap. The shirt then came off to reveal a lot of ink and tattoo, a sort of strip to raise the spirits.

This came after Toeava had been denied in the corner by the television match official, Giulio De Santis, for a foot placed in touch a fraction of a second before the wing grounded the ball. It meant that the game that had stood at 29-3 at half-time was yet to be locked away.

True, Kaino then scored, but it was almost against the run of play. The Tongans had replaced their individual efforts with a collective purpose and started to rumble, tight and together, in the forwards. Well, they all joined in, forming a 13-man cluster around the ball. But it worked, because in the face of this new approach the All Blacks were reduced to doing that which makes the outside world view them with dismay. No side quite so readily gives away a penalty at the first sniff of a try against them as New Zealand.

George Clancy, the Irish referee, blew against them but kept his hand away from the yellow card. The All Blacks' head coach, Graham Henry, expressed disappointment afterwards at the number of reset scrums, but if had wanted to be truly critical of the referee he might have said that he was too lenient on the ball-killers in black. As if. He opted instead for the old pot-boiler of the accursed reset scrum.

Anyway, Tonga were on a roll and the All Blacks were giving away penalties. It could have ended with a breakout against a nonexistent Tongan three-quarter line. Instead, the replacement prop Alisona Taumalolo picked and plunged for the try and the Tongans had underlined the All Blacks' lapse in concentration and discipline.

There was never the fear that it might trigger a turnaround of the French dimension (see World Cups passim), but it certainly dampened the atmosphere. The volume was raised when Colin Slade, on at fly-half for Carter, put Nonu between the posts, but it was only an echo of the happier moments of the first half. Tonga had the better of the second.

This was far from being a crisis, and there was almost relief in Henry's tone afterwards when he said that it had not been easy. There is a momentum to a properly conducted campaign, as South Africa found in 2007. From having their ribs rattled from start to finish by the Tongans in their pool game, the Springboks grew in determination and went all the way. New Zealand beat Tonga more convincingly than the champions of the last World Cup managed. The All Blacks are off and running, devastating on the counter and clinical in their finishing. They did not have to reach for an alternative way to beat their opponents. No sign of the forwards grabbing the ball and making ground the attritional way.

The proud individuals of Tonga were no match for the peerless individual skills of the All Blacks' backs. Perhaps Sonny Bill and co are even more all-consuming than the three-quarters - John Gallagher and John Kirwan, for example - who swept all before them on the only occasion New Zealand have won the World Cup, here in New Zealand in 1987.

But nobody rules rugby now the way the All Blacks did back then. This opening game showed that their latest version is very good, but also vulnerable. It makes for a more compelling tournament than that early prototype 24 years ago, but also makes the Kiwi nation a little queasy about the big circus in their town. Only the World Cups of 1987 and 1995 (South Africa) have been won by the home team. As if anybody here needs reminding.

My opinion on the Game:

New Zealand were most defiantly the dominant side, Sonny Bill Williams was awe inspiring. the only chink in the All Blacks armour I could see was the when the Tongans dug in in the second half and fought they seemed fall away for a good 20 minutes before pumbling them again.

A friend told me that in all the years the two teams have meet that was Tonga's second try against the All Blacks and that in itself was a mini defeat. All in all a good way to start it off, roll on Sunday.

[CharltonChinchilla]

Lol most of them teams are a bunch of fucking no hopers. Gotta fancy the all blacks as much as I want the lads to bring it back home, cmon England we have Wilko the god of rugby.

[Coop]

Alright, it's game time. Yes, New Zealand did a number on Tonga (including Worcester Warriors hooker Aleki Lutui), but we're talking about the one colour of jersey that matters - we are all white, we wear a rose on our chest and we're going to leave a mark on this tournament!

COME ON ENGLAND!

[Lunaful]

At 9/10/11 04:27 AM, Coop wrote: Alright, it's game time. Yes, New Zealand did a number on Tonga (including Worcester Warriors hooker Aleki Lutui), but we're talking about the one colour of jersey that matters - we are all white, we wear a rose on our chest and we're going to leave a mark on this tournament!

COME ON ENGLAND!

England are really really lucky, Argentinians almost had you!

[Sentio]

At 9/10/11 06:09 AM, Lunaful wrote:

England are really really lucky, Argentinians almost had you!

Too right, that was hard to watch at times. If Argentina could actually kick we would have been well beaten. Extremely poor discipline from England constantly giving them chances, and then awful kicking from the most unlikely source... it is an enormous relief that we got away with that.

But we always start slowly (the USA nearly beat us four years ago!), so I'm not worried yet. Its not like we were behind to Romania... Argentina are a top side, and if they play like that they will be tough for Scotland to beat. England have a couple of easy games coming up to get their confidence back, and Youngs getting fit is a big bonus- without him we might never have turned the game around.

[DannyIsOnFire]

Caught the second half of the England game. Fairly dull, just glad we managed to grab the victory. Wilkinson had a shocker, and the only player who really stood out for me was Ben Youngs who scored the try and had another really close attempt right at the end.

Here's hoping we pick up next weekend!

[positively-negative]

LOL Rugby...

Here we've had "rugby this, rugby that" fired at us over the last 6 months that I'm already sick of it.

[Dogbert581]

England were second-best team by a long way for about 70 minutes and yet somehow still managed to win. We need to shape up if we're going to do well in this world cup

[Lunaful]

At 9/10/11 09:29 AM, positively-negative wrote: LOL Rugby...

Here we've had "rugby this, rugby that" fired at us over the last 6 months that I'm already sick of it.

Your from New Zealand lol, you guys apparently delayed your elections just for the World Cup.

[Luthaxx]

At 8/5/11 10:56 AM, PePpEr828 wrote: New Zealand is where it at!

Yeah, New Zealand is really good!
I have very little faith in the USA team. USA sucks at Rugby.

[Rawter]

I have NEVER in my whole life of watching rugby seen such crap goal kicking in the England-Argentina game. The stadium was had a roof and the wind wasn't even a factor! Don't count out the USA tomorrow though, I am not sure if he still plays for them but they have this black Zimbabwean wing or scored an unbelievable try against South Africa in the 2007 WC.

Also the big game tomorrow Wales vs South Africa, I predict a 27-18 win to SA. SA have a lot of experience!

However England have to start playing more attacking rugby, they need to pass the ball out wide and they need some creativity in their backline, they didn't look like scoring throughout the whole match and they their attack just looked bland and lacked energy

[Rawter]

At 9/10/11 06:24 PM, Rawter wrote: I have NEVER in my whole life of watching rugby seen such crap goal kicking in the England-Argentina game. The stadium was had a roof and the wind wasn't even a factor! : :

However England have to start playing more attacking rugby, they need to pass the ball out wide and they need some creativity in their backline, they didn't look like scoring throughout the whole match and they their attack just looked bland and lacked energy

wow my grammar is terrible in that post, sorry guys its late here gotta go catch up on some sleep!

[CyanSandwich]

At 9/10/11 03:56 PM, Lunaful wrote:

At 9/10/11 09:29 AM, positively-negative wrote: LOL Rugby...

Here we've had "rugby this, rugby that" fired at us over the last 6 months that I'm already sick of it.

Your from New Zealand lol, you guys apparently delayed your elections just for the World Cup.

And our school's term dates were made to fit around the world cup.
I was sick of it long before it started.

[BananaBreadMuffin]

At 8/3/11 08:51 PM, NEVR wrote: I'll be watching and hoping that England doesn't make a mess of things. My best mate is South African so I'm hoping we won't give him as much reason to gloat this year as we did in 2007.

My boss at the time was south african, wore a south african flag as a cape for all of the next day lol

[Lunaful]

At 9/10/11 06:33 PM, sandwich-eater wrote:

At 9/10/11 03:56 PM, Lunaful wrote:

At 9/10/11 09:29 AM, positively-negative wrote: LOL Rugby...

Here we've had "rugby this, rugby that" fired at us over the last 6 months that I'm already sick of it.

Your from New Zealand lol, you guys apparently delayed your elections just for the World Cup.

And our school's term dates were made to fit around the world cup.
I was sick of it long before it started.

But your gonna win hands down, I have faith in Ireland beating most of the group teams (apart from Australia) but the warm up matches were horrendous.

You country's national well-being is judge on whether your doing well at rugby or not lol.