[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
GDollars37 wrote:
U.S. put up a good fight against England, I was impressed, rucked and tackled really well. Convinced me to just buy a flight to Montpellier, even though I can’t really afford it, will be over there Wednesday for the Tonga game. Really hope we can win that one.
I’m proud of our boys. It could’ve easily been 28-28 if not for two knock-ons in both halves. My only complaint is that they played like chickenshits offensively for the first 10-15 minutes. Their defense looked great, but getting sinbinned near halftime allowed England to pull away. England didn’t look like they had just won after the final whistle, which I found amusing.
I still can’t believe Argentina won. I knew they were improving, but to beat France in their own turf in the first match?! Wow.
South Africa is relying on Habana and Montgomery to get the points, but both men are durable anyway so it’s a workable strategy.
I’ve never heard of a rugby game with as many points scored as Australia managed yesterday.[/quote]
1995 RWC NZ vs Japan
NZ 145 - Japan 17
Simon Culhane scored 45 points and was droppped never played another RWC game. Marc Ellis got 6 Tries.
[quote]NeilMc wrote:
Ireland were atrocious and Namibia played well
us micks better improve on that display
Did anyone else notice how much bulkier they were?[/quote]
The tri nations teams all seem to be firing.
The six nation teams all seem to be stalling.
What gives? Is the gaps in top flight Rugby closing? Or are we (6-nations teams), simply off the boil?
England should show some balls and make some brave changes for the SA match. Certian forwards are not performing. As for the backs. Well. errrm. What was once one of the worlds deadliest line breakers looks out of ideas (Robinson), as des the rest of the team. The centre partnership - well, there isn’t one, The best winger England has is bloody injured (Strettle). I could go on.
[quote]supermick wrote:
NeilMc wrote:
Ireland were atrocious and Namibia played well
us micks better improve on that display
Did anyone else notice how much bulkier they were?
The tri nations teams all seem to be firing.
The six nation teams all seem to be stalling.
What gives? Is the gaps in top flight Rugby closing? Or are we (6-nations teams), simply off the boil?
England should show some balls and make some brave changes for the SA match. Certian forwards are not performing. As for the backs. Well. errrm. What was once one of the worlds deadliest line breakers looks out of ideas (Robinson), as des the rest of the team. The centre partnership - well, there isn’t one, The best winger England has is bloody injured (Strettle). I could go on.
[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
GDollars37 wrote:
U.S. put up a good fight against England, I was impressed, rucked and tackled really well. Convinced me to just buy a flight to Montpellier, even though I can’t really afford it, will be over there Wednesday for the Tonga game. Really hope we can win that one.
I’m proud of our boys. It could’ve easily been 28-28 if not for two knock-ons in both halves. My only complaint is that they played like chickenshits offensively for the first 10-15 minutes. Their defense looked great, but getting sinbinned near halftime allowed England to pull away. England didn’t look like they had just won after the final whistle, which I found amusing.
[/quote]
Yeah, but let’s be fair, England could have won by a couple more tries too, they had it in our territory most of the first half. The papers over here (I’m in the UK for most of the next year) were generally complimentary to the US team, but they said they were getting away with all kinds of stuff in the rucks until the center got the card. I don’t know the game well enough to spot stuff like that most of the time.
That Ireland match was hard to watch. they all look like they’re in top shape but basic stuff (like holding on to the ball)let them down. Arriving at the breakdown in 1’s and 2’s and going into contact without adequate support as well. Not enough time together perhaps? Scrummaging was brilliant though…
Pacific Island teams (Samoa, Tonga) are always frightening-big men who enjoy fierce hits-but seem to gas and while they’re in it for 20-40 minutes they fail in the end. The SA match was great until the half, for example.
Hard to tell with New Zealand, they’re habitually brilliant against the minnows. I’m keen to see them in the quarter finals and on.
Just got my Setanta tv subs. Going to be a fun 6 weeks…
[quote]Winger11 wrote:
That Ireland match was hard to watch. they all look like they’re in top shape but basic stuff (like holding on to the ball)let them down. Arriving at the breakdown in 1’s and 2’s and going into contact without adequate support as well. Not enough time together perhaps? Scrummaging was brilliant though…
[/quote]
Difficult to watch? Ugh, it was downright soul-destroying. Good thing O’Sullivan signed his contract extension before the WC started!!
I’m sick to death of the inconsistency of these guys. The hammering of England in Croke Park a few short months ago
seems like light-years ago going by that performance last night, and if that’s a typical example of the standard of rugby we have to look forward to from the Irish boys we can forget about getting past Pool stage.
There’s been hype about this team being the team with a real chance of going all the way in this WC and they are the ones making those claims. Fine, then stop acting like an under-13s school team and start playing with the big boys. At least it was a win, and 5 points were scored.
[quote]SuperBeaver wrote:
Seems like New Zealand , Austrailia and south africa are on form to me.
New Zealand players looked super human to me - against Italy anyway.
England played poorly at the start of the last world cup too. Don’t give up hope yet![/quote]
Not sure I agree with the played poorly thing. We stuffed SA and France off the park in 2003, playing most our best Rugby in the final.
The SA coach made a good point actually - since England arrived, the had a very hard week in training, then the USA game - this week will be easy so they will be nice and fresh and peaking for SA. SA will not be as fresh after the war with Samoa. Either way I’m expecting a VERY hard game. The winner of this pool has a straightforward (ish) route to the semi’s.
Since I had no interest in the NFL games yesterday, I checked out Argentina/France on Versus. I’ve never watched rugby before so I was more than a little confused (what the is with the impromptu cheerleading move on the out of bounds play?), but it was still fun to watch. I’ve even been browsing in 'net for rules and strategy so I can figure out what the hell is going on!
I hope I can catch the replay of the U.S./England match.
[quote]g’em wrote:
Winger11 wrote:
That Ireland match was hard to watch. they all look like they’re in top shape but basic stuff (like holding on to the ball)let them down. Arriving at the breakdown in 1’s and 2’s and going into contact without adequate support as well. Not enough time together perhaps? Scrummaging was brilliant though…
Difficult to watch? Ugh, it was downright soul-destroying. Good thing O’Sullivan signed his contract extension before the WC started!!
I’m sick to death of the inconsistency of these guys. The hammering of England in Croke Park a few short months ago
seems like light-years ago going by that performance last night, and if that’s a typical example of the standard of rugby we have to look forward to from the Irish boys we can forget about getting past Pool stage.
There’s been hype about this team being the team with a real chance of going all the way in this WC and they are the ones making those claims. Fine, then stop acting like an under-13s school team and start playing with the big boys. At least it was a win, and 5 points were scored.
[/quote]
I agree, although I wonder what a week in training will do-those weaknesses are easy enough to fix (says the guy on the internet) and the backline (beyond the aforementioned ball dropping) seems very fit and technical not as big as some sides but crafty.
[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Since I had no interest in the NFL games yesterday, I checked out Argentina/France on Versus. I’ve never watched rugby before so I was more than a little confused (what the is with the impromptu cheerleading move on the out of bounds play?), but it was still fun to watch. I’ve even been browsing in 'net for rules and strategy so I can figure out what the hell is going on!
I hope I can catch the replay of the U.S./England match.[/quote]
Damnit, that’s gym time. I should’ve paid attention during the match I watched because I know they said it then.
When do they play again? How long is the gap between games, a few days or a whole week?
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These are the games they are showing on Versus. There are a lot more that they are not showing.
9/9/2007 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm France vs Argentina
9/10/2007 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm USA vs England
9/13/2007 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm USA vs Tonga
9/16/2007 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm England vs South Africa
9/23/2007 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm France vs Ireland
9/24/2007 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Scotland vs New Zealand
9/27/2007 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Samoa vs USA
Wow, first Strettle, then Wilkoinson, now Vickery for 2 and most likely Barkley for at least one. I almost feel bad for England. Except now the US actually has a shot at making it out of the pool if we can score enough points against Tonga, not give up too many to the Boks, and not get beaten up too badly by Samoa. Losing Emerick in the centers sucks, but I suppose it could be a lot worse.
[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
Except now the US actually has a shot at making it out of the pool if we can score enough points against Tonga, not give up too many to the Boks, and not get beaten up too badly by Samoa. Losing Emerick in the centers sucks, but I suppose it could be a lot worse.[/quote]
WTF America has no hopes of getting if they were to only win one match, it doesnt make sense
I think its great that all these teams like portugal georgia USA etc are really developing and competing against the “superior” nations
The Argentina and Georgia match was tense in terms of the bonus point factor in that they got it at the very last play oh shame
[quote]NeilMc wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
Except now the US actually has a shot at making it out of the pool if we can score enough points against Tonga, not give up too many to the Boks, and not get beaten up too badly by Samoa. Losing Emerick in the centers sucks, but I suppose it could be a lot worse.
WTF America has no hopes of getting if they were to only win one match, it doesnt make sense
I think its great that all these teams like portugal georgia USA etc are really developing and competing against the “superior” nations
The Argentina and Georgia match was tense in terms of the bonus point factor in that they got it at the very last play oh shame
[/quote]
when I said “not get beaten up too badly by samoa” I meant America wins the match without any of our players getting killed or suffering major injuries. Samoa plays hard and physical, but there are a lot of holes in their defense and they don’t score a lot of points.
So if the US could pull off 2 wins with a lot of points, and then not give up too much to the Boks, we’d have a chance at making the runner up spot over England on points differential.
