Rugby World Cup (other teams)

[fourthirtythree]

I honestly think NZ would have done this to France last world cup had they met them earlier. They were a rabble until the final when NZ froze.

The final put a gloss on how sh!t they were then.

[leinster4life13]

That French performance takes the cake, the ffr top brass should be lined up, cr@p coaches, cr@p foreigners playing for them, no heart, no brain, a rugby Waterloo that has been four years in gestation.

[Oldschool]

Next up NZ v FRA.
This match will give us an idea of where NZ are at.
France usually perform much better after the traditional palace revolution.
They normally turn form on it's head and deliver.
It's simply a case of players playing harder to justify themselves and the revolt.
So let's hope for some cheesy grins.

Now I know what they mean by a bloodless coup.
It's a Surrender without a shot being fired.

[Oldschool]

That French performance takes the cake, the ffr top brass should be lined up, cr@p coaches, cr@p foreigners playing for them, no heart, no brain, a rugby Waterloo that has been four years in gestation.

Signs on, a while now since they've beaten us.

[Blue not red blood]

Was wondering when they were going to put on black jerseys and collaborate for more tries

[hugonaut]

South Africa need to get WLR more involved in attack, otherwise it's just bosh bosh bosh. Burger took on an unbelievable amount of work but for the 23 carries he had at the time the commentator mentioned it, I'd say he had only made 23 yards. He needed to let the ball go on a few occasions and he wasn't the only one. Considering their game plan I don't see why they don't use De Allende on the crash more often, that'd bring the rest of the backline into it more.

Ultimately just a game too far for Wales I think. Not quite the intensity and accuracy across the board that they somehow mustered up over the last two games, great effort from them again though. One or two less injuries and they could have won.

The Boks play a ridiculous amount of rugby off their No9, as good as he is. Fourie du Preez had 127 possessions [a K/P/R of 16/103/8], Pollard had 39 [a K/P/R of 11/16/12] and Burger had 41 [1/14/26]. Their openside was their first receiver more often than their outhalf.

I disagree with DC that Burger is a dumb player. I think that there was a very definite [albeit short-sighted and largely blunt] gameplan to take the pressure off their very young No10 and bludgeon an already injury-stricken Welsh team into submission. I would put that on Meyer, rather than Burger. I thought that the latter played the part that you would want a senior player to play in that gameplan: he wanted the ball, got on it when he could, and varied his game reasonably well. He passed 14 times, and offloaded out of contact twice – he didn't just run into people. He also racked up 16 tackles, the highest on the SA side.

South Africa had enough ball to win that game far earlier – they had enough talent and pace in their backline, and they also had an opposition backline cobbled together out of fourth-choice [Tyler Morgan], third choice [Gareth Anscombe] and woefully out of form [Alex Cuthbert] players. They just played ridiculously conservative rugby. In fairness to them, it got them the result in the end, which is really all that matters in cup rugby.

They could have made it easier on themselves though. Keith Earls made mincemeat out of Tyler Morgan in the first Ireland-Wales game ... he's a 20 year old who has barely played 30 games of pro rugby. How many tackles did they force him to make? 6 [albeit he didn't miss a tackle]. How many tackles did they force the famously tackle-happy Welsh back five of A-W Jones, Charteris, Lydiate, Warburton and Faletau to make? 99, i.e. basically 20 each, of which they made all but a cumulative 7. To put it another way, do you think you have a better chance of making yards through Tyler Morgan or through Dan Lydiate?

You can make the argument that the further the Boks attacked from the bulk of their pack, the more likely it was that Warburton or Faletau could turn over the ball at the resulting breakdown, but there were double-figure turnovers from both sides anyway.

I have to say that I thought it was a game that would have done a Top14 final justice ... a man-up-a-thon with loads of mistakes, little invention and a bunch of big lumps running straight into each other.

[hugonaut]

Staggeringly good performance from New Zealand against the French, in contrast. Reminded me of the 1995 semi-final performance against England, and not just because of Savea's Lomu impression. So much pace, accuracy and aggression in their actions [single and collective] that there isn't a team in the world who would have beaten them on the night [or come within 12-15 points]. I would be surprised if they can get to that level again in this World Cup.

The two nations with the biggest playing numbers, the most professional club sides and the most commercial leagues in world rugby have been complete flops in this World Cup. Both did better four years ago, but still had shambolic campaigns in many aspects [off-field shenanigans from the English and a QF exit; three losses out of seven games for the French, who were blessed to get to the final]. Neither side have won the Six Nations in the interim.

You would have to be absolutely one-eyed not to recognise that their club set-ups have hugely damaged their respective national sides. Unless the RFU and the FFR take significant actions to redress the balance – far more than just changing coaches – they may as well cue Jimmy Hill: "go on getting bad results ... getting bad results ... getting bad results."

[VGE]

France have no skill, no speed, no aggression and no shape, complete clowns, at minimum you fight a team, you throw a few digs, you decapitate a few c**ts, this is abhorrent to watch, you dont just sit there and let a team dick all over you

that's the only thing I don't want to read about players.

France has become weak since French Top 14 is rich. Don't blame players, they are just less strong than they have to be. Stronger players in France generally come from Australia, South Africa, Nz, Fidji and other Islands, Argentina, Georgia, even Canada. Welcome to the top14, the "Best Championship of the World" as can say the businessmen of Canal +.


Au revoir.

[simonokeeffe]

Jennings also had a real dig at Lydiate's ball skills

It was a case of 2 big teams running into each other and slightly bigger team won, largely from setpiece work too

NZ will beat them by 20 points though, Boks were wrecked late on, De Jaager was walking around for last 20 especially and everything is so based on DuPreez if NZ slow him at all theyll be totally static

Only ways France will improve under Noves is if they they dont select project players ( fire up a bit of nationalism) and he gets really good assistants (who'll be doing all the work)

[Oldschool]

Staggeringly good performance from New Zealand against the French, in contrast. Reminded me of the 1995 semi-final performance against England, and not just because of Savea's Lomu impression. So much pace, accuracy and aggression in their actions [single and collective] that there isn't a team in the world who would have beaten them on the night [or come within 12-15 points]. I would be surprised if they can get to that level again in this World Cup.

The two nations with the biggest playing numbers, the most professional club sides and the most commercial leagues in world rugby have been complete flops in this World Cup. Both did better four years ago, but still had shambolic campaigns in many aspects [off-field shenanigans from the English and a QF exit; three losses out of seven games for the French, who were blessed to get to the final]. Neither side have won the Six Nations in the interim.

You would have to be absolutely one-eyed not to recognise that their club set-ups have hugely damaged their respective national sides. Unless the RFU and the FFR take significant actions to redress the balance – far more than just changing coaches – they may as well cue Jimmy Hill: "go on getting bad results ... getting bad results ... getting bad results."

NZ wouldn''t get anything like the same amount of possession against any of the remaining teams in the RWC so it's hard to judge the NZ performance.
You're right about the RFU and FFR.
For example, Clerment have been superb while their seconds have been away at the RWC.

[hugonaut]

You're right about the RFU and FFR. For example, Clerment have been superb while their seconds have been away at the RWC.

That's just one example. Another is the Sam Burgess situation. Whether you think that Lancaster was correct in seeing him as a No12 or not, the fact that he clearly indicated he wanted the big lad to play in the backs and Bath picked him to play at blindside was a clear clash and outlined that there isn't a simple, linear hierarchy of decision-making. That simply wouldn't happen in Ireland, New Zealand, Wales etc.

Saint-Andre is also correct when he talks about the ludicrous amount of games the French club sides are expected to play: 14 teams in the league means a minimum of 26 regular season games, the repechage system at the top of the league adds another 2-3, European competition on top of that means a further 6-9, and then you have pre-season matches, which don't count for points, but do count for toll on your body.

Laporte wants them to either make it a Top12 with a two round knockout for the top four teams, or to make it a pure league if it is to remain a 14-team league, i.e. no knockouts.

[simonokeeffe]

You're right about the RFU and FFR. For example, Clerment have been superb while their seconds have been away at the RWC.

That's just one example. Another is the Sam Burgess situation. Whether you think that Lancaster was correct in seeing him as a No12 or not, the fact that he clearly indicated he wanted the big lad to play in the backs and Bath picked him to play at blindside was a clear clash and outlined that there isn't a simple, linear hierarchy of decision-making. That simply wouldn't happen in Ireland, New Zealand, Wales etc.

Saint-Andre is also correct when he talks about the ludicrous amount of games the French club sides are expected to play: 14 teams in the league means a minimum of 26 regular season games, the repechage system at the top of the league adds another 2-3, European competition on top of that means a further 6-9, and then you have pre-season matches, which don't count for points, but do count for toll on your body.

Laporte wants them to either make it a Top12 with a two round knockout for the top four teams, or to make it a pure league if it is to remain a 14-team league, i.e. no knockouts.

improving the refereeing in top14 would help too, so lax on offside and ruck offences, just fosters out of date puke rugby

[leinster4life13]

France have no skill, no speed, no aggression and no shape, complete clowns, at minimum you fight a team, you throw a few digs, you decapitate a few c**ts, this is abhorrent to watch, you dont just sit there and let a team dick all over you

that's the only thing I don't want to read about players.

France has become weak since French Top 14 is rich. Don't blame players, they are just less strong than they have to be. Stronger players in France generally come from Australia, South Africa, Nz, Fidji and other Islands, Argentina, Georgia, even Canada. Welcome to the top14, the "Best Championship of the World" as can say the businessmen of Canal +.


Au revoir.

Dusatoir let McCaw away with murder, the supposed hard men Maestri and Pape didnt enforce anybody, its like they watched a tape of Bakkies Botha and said"lets do the exact opposite". Forget about gameplan, talent, fitness, coaching etc, you do not let a team take the piss, the French players gave up and let NZ embarrass them, they are clowns, Spedding aside. The Top 14 is full of bid teams playing bosh-ball, add in some offloads and you have a good platform to play hardman rugby, suck teams into a dogfight, make your weight count.Its an utter lack of heart and brains that is the problem, you use what you have, France just didnt want to know, cowards and clowns, disgraceful display of rugby.

[Dave Cahill]

[Dave Cahill]

Oh Louie, Louie, oh no, you gotta go

[nc6000]

So now we're left with two rounds of The Rugby Championship minus the time difference.

[VGE]

France have no skill, no speed, no aggression and no shape, complete clowns, at minimum you fight a team, you throw a few digs, you decapitate a few c**ts, this is abhorrent to watch, you dont just sit there and let a team dick all over you

that's the only thing I don't want to read about players.

France has become weak since French Top 14 is rich. Don't blame players, they are just less strong than they have to be. Stronger players in France generally come from Australia, South Africa, Nz, Fidji and other Islands, Argentina, Georgia, even Canada. Welcome to the top14, the "Best Championship of the World" as can say the businessmen of Canal +.


Au revoir.

Dusatoir let McCaw away with murder, the supposed hard men Maestri and Pape didnt enforce anybody, its like they watched a tape of Bakkies Botha and said"lets do the exact opposite". Forget about gameplan, talent, fitness, coaching etc, you do not let a team take the piss, the French players gave up and let NZ embarrass them, they are clowns, Spedding aside. The Top 14 is full of bid teams playing bosh-ball, add in some offloads and you have a good platform to play hardman rugby, suck teams into a dogfight, make your weight count.Its an utter lack of heart and brains that is the problem, you use what you have, France just didnt want to know, cowards and clowns, disgraceful display of rugby.

That doesn't make them clowns. No good rugby players only. No brain maybe, no spirit surely.Top14 is poor and annoying as I say for years. When you try to play rugby in France you're beaten by restrictive teams. And you are said to be "chokers"

I'm not sure they are cowards either. But I'll let you ask them yourself.


Anyway, Scottish were great today. Gutted for them and Cotter. He knows rugby, he makes players and teams greeater, he has been stolen by a poor referee one more time.


Au revoir.

[simonokeeffe]

Its almost as if adding Argentina have improved the rugby championship in general (and soon Super Rugby)

Imagine if Boks had a decent coach, and theyre lucky De Villiers got injured

Australia were sloppy but a decent kicking performance and they would have been home and hosed, think thats the worst/first awful game I've ever seen AAC have

[Flakey 16]

the Northern Hemisphere has really gone backwards on the evidence of this World Cup, .....

[RoboProp]

Its almost as if adding Argentina have improved the rugby championship in general (and soon Super Rugby)

Imagine if Boks had a decent coach, and theyre lucky De Villiers got injured

Australia were sloppy but a decent kicking performance and they would have been home and hosed, think thats the worst/first awful game I've ever seen AAC have

Scarily Japan are the only non Quad Nations team to beat a Quad nations team