Rugby World Cup Thread

[SirFozzie]

Yeah, I know I'm one of only a few rugby watchers around here, but I created this thread for all of us..

Most of the games are on Universal Sports (s substation of NBC in your market, quite a few cable systems have it, check your listings), the final will be on NBC.. and the US is in it.

Unfortunately, we have very little shot at making noise (the USA is ranked 18th of the world, and quite a few players are semi-pro... only a few of them play overseas).. and the draw didn't help either, the USA plays against Australia and Ireland (two World Powers in Rugby) as well as Italy (still a minnow, but starting to move up the ranks, they can pull off the upset, and Russia.

But they're in it.

I'll be rooting for the US, and some good games. Check it out :)

[SirFozzie]

And if you doubt that the sport of Rugby is bad ass.. they can turn this (about a man being rescued from a pit, first in Maori then in English for a translation)

Leader: Ringa pakia! Slap the hands against the thighs!
Uma tiraha! Puff out the chest.
Turi whatia! Bend the knees!
Hope whai ake! Let the hip follow!
Waewae takahia kia kino! Stomp the feet as hard as you can!


Leader: Ka mate, ka mate 'I die, I die,
Team: Ka ora' Ka ora' 'I live, 'I live,
Leader: Ka mate, ka mate 'I die, 'I die
Team: Ka ora Ka ora " 'I live, 'I live,
All: Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru This is the fierce, powerful man
Nāna i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā ...Who caused the sun to shine again for me
A Upane! Ka Upane! Up the ladder, Up the ladder
Upane Kaupane" Up to the top
Whiti te rā,! The sun shines!
Hī! Rise!


Into this:

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tdMCAV6Yd0Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(this is Ka Mate, a traditional Maori Haka, or war dance, ie the last thing they'd do before charging at you with the intent of carving you up into itty bitty pieces)

[MacroGuru]

The All Blacks Haka is awesome...

USA had a horrible draw and if they do win this round, which they shouldn't...but if they do advance it would be a shock.

Based upon what play I have seen through warm ups and such...All Blacks should take it, but SA and England are definitely looking tougher than thought initially to me.

[Alf]

The All Blacks Haka is awesome...

USA had a horrible draw and if they do win this round, which they shouldn't...but if they do advance it would be a shock.



USA should finish 4th ahead of Russia. We're not in cold war mode anymore, but I am going to be watching this game if I can.

[Young Drachma]

I wondered where it was being held. My google machine says New Zealand.

[Butter]

I don't know, we looked pretty bad in the couple of run-up matches I saw vs. Canada. I would be pretty pleased with 4th and maybe hanging tough in one of the matches against the harder teams.

[SirFozzie]

No surprise in game one of the World Cup, New Zealand battering and deep frying Tonga 41-10 (somewhere, Meng sheds a tear).

Three games tomorrow:

Scotland v Romania
Fiji v Namibia
France v Japan.

France and Scotland heavily favored, and a couple minnows play each other.

[eiskrap]

Don't forget England v Argentina is tomorrow as well

[kiwiLB57]

No surprise in game one of the World Cup, New Zealand battering and deep frying Tonga 41-10 (somewhere, Meng sheds a tear).

Three games tomorrow:

Scotland v Romania
Fiji v Namibia
France v Japan.

France and Scotland heavily favored, and a couple minnows play each other.

Don't forget England v Argentina. Look for this game to perhaps provide an early World Cup upset with Argentina Exoceting the English hopes.

Argentina beat France in the opening game of the '07 World Cup, a game which hosts France had already considered in the bag. Argentina always lift for World Cups and finished THIRD in the '07 tournament.

Thats my 2p.

kiwiLB57

[kiwiLB57]

Don't forget England v Argentina is tomorrow as well

How did you do that. Literally seconds before me!

:)

[SirFozzie]

yeah, had that written up and didn't post it somehow.

Well, Day 2 went as expected.. IF you look at the scoreboard..

Scotland did not look great against Romania, considering Romania almost took a losing bonus point, and were actually ahead with 12 to play. This is a team whose winger withdrew just before the World Cup.. because he couldn't get in the plane to fly to New Zealand due to a fear of flying.

Fiji is a fun team to watch sometimes, and they beat Namibia.

France-Japan was fun, and closer then expected, until Les Bleus put it away with three late tries. It's eight years away, but can you imagine what the 2019 RWC in Japan will look like?

Argentina should have won this game by 20. Wilkinson miss FIVE in a row (how often are you going to see that?), but Argentina were unbelieveably worse, missing SIX kicks at goal, and you can't even blame the weather conditions, as the game was being played in the world's first fully enclosed grass turf arena (Otago). The late try was enough to give England the win, but both teams have got to get their shit together, or they're both going home, early.

Three games today (was looking at the wrong date yesterday)

Ireland v USA (subplot, ex-Ireland coach is now the coach of the USA Eagles). I can already predict the score. It'll be a lot to a little. And the US will be on the lower side of a little

Australia v Italy. Italy are slowly building infrastructure, and are JUST about there (having lost to Ireland by 2, and actually beating France in the 2011 Six Nations), but I'll say Aussies by 20 or so.

And the glamour tie of the round:

South Africa v Wales: Wales have not had the best of it recently, but South Africa are sputtering as well. The 'Boks have not shown top form in a while. They actually played in November '10 in Wales, a pretty good game, with South Africa coming back to win 29-25. I expect a rather brutal slugfest of a game, and South Africa by 5 or so

[tarcone]

What a terrible draw for the USA. Its too bad rugby is a minor sport in the US. I played for 10 years and it was a great time. Met some awesome people, got in shape, drank a lot of beer, traveled. I miss those days.

As the quote goes "Soccer is a gentlemens sport played by barbarians. Rugby is a barbaric sport played by gentlemen."

GO USA!

Now I need to find it on the internet.

[MrBug708]

What time do the US play?

[SirFozzie]

Kickoff is at 2:00 am Eastern.

The game will be shown on Universal Sports and I think NBC on delay

[SirFozzie]

I am definitely on the Rugby kick, I just picked up the official Rugby World Cup game for the 360, and added the best rugby game on PC (Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge) to my wishlist on Steam (it releases this month)

I think Rugby Challenge has a career mode. I'll have to try it out.

[SirFozzie]

Well, the story of the game was more bad handling from Ireland then a valiant fight by the US, but they managed to deny Ireland the four tries bonus, and scored one of their own, falling to Ireland 22-10. Much better than expected.

[SirFozzie]

So, after a couple days break, we're back on

Scotland looks completely bleh again, they're on course to make the knockout stages, but I see no way they actually do anything once they get there. Good win for Canada, keeping the flag of North American rugby high after beating Tonga.. and Samoa (who scored six tries against Nambibia on the way to a win)-Wales is going to be a fun lil game.

[SirFozzie]

USA's best chance for a win is this morning against Russia.

[SirFozzie]

And they pull it off, beating the World Cup debutants 13-6, not allowing a single try.

[SirFozzie]

Japan (who beat the US in a pre-WC game) gets used as a chewtoy and shredded by New Zealand, 83-7.


Three games today: Argentina try to recover from the disappointing loss to England by Romania, South Africa takes on Fiji in a rematch of the 2007 QF (where South Africa was made to work in a 37-20 game), and in the glamor tie of the week, Australia takes on Ireland.

[MrBug708]

Which I could catch these games

[bhlloy]

Nice to see the RWC organizers managed to follow the script so Wales would be in their comfort zone - push one of the tri-nations close but ultimately lose heroically followed by a soul crushing loss to one of the minor pacific nations and go out at the group stages. It's as inevitable as death and taxes.

[SirFozzie]

the Aussies fall 15-6 to Ireland (which has to be considered a bit of a shock result), and it looks like one of the Northern Hemisphere teams (Ireland) will break into the top 3 for the first time in a while. (it had been New Zealand

In the other games, Fiji steps in front of the South African steamroller and falls 49-3, and Argentina recovers to beat up Romania 43-8.

[SirFozzie]

Today's games were pretty much true to form:

Wales life and deaths it with Samoa, and wins a close one, 17-10. (well, I guess it's not quite true to form, as the Welsh didn't LOSE to the Pacific nation this time..

England started slow, but just wore out Georgia, and scored six tries in a 41-10 win.

And the Maple Leafs of Canada keep it respectable for a half against Les Bleus B side (they made 11 changes out of a starting 15 for this game), but France poured it on in the second half and trotted home easy winners,. 43-19

[kiwiLB57]

Wales survives the scare. Samoa are their World Cup bogey team so they will be pleased to get through that. I had a foot in each camp because I love to see the Pacific Island nations do well at the world cup, but have a soft spot for Wales as one of the true Rugby First countries (New Zealand being the other).

Got tickets to France vs New Zealand (arrived in Auckland about 3 hours ago from the UK via LAX) which is shaping up as a blockbuster.

So good to see Ireland smack those smug Aussies. There were 4 million Kiwis cheering for Ireland.

[tarcone]

Anyone know where I can watch online?

[kiwiLB57]

Anyone know where I can watch online?

ITV.com in the UK has free online coverage. Not sure if it is available outside of the UK, you may need to use a proxy server or something. No idea how to do that though.

[SirFozzie]

To the surprise of... well, absolutely no one, the Aussies punt the US Eagles 67-5, featuring a new WC record for the fastest hat-trick of tries, as Australia's Adam Ashley-Cooper scored three tries within seven minutes.

The US did get their licks in, and five Aussies had to be taken off due to various injuries, and Australia actually finished the game with 14 after the US put one of the Aussies on a stretcher when the Wallabies were out of subs.

Kurtley Beale (hamstring)
Robert Horne (cheekbone)
Pat McCabe (shoulder)
Anthony Faingaa (concussion)
Wycliff Palu (hamstring)

So the Aussies win the game, but it looks like the Aussie trainer's room is going to be a mite bit crowded for the next few days.

[SirFozzie]

So, huge game in the morning US time, Argentina vs Scotland:

If Scotland win, then England and Scotland will make the knockout stages and their game next week is just for standings (and the ability to avoid stepping in front of the New Zeland steamroller)

If Argentina wins, then it's going to be all gillooly...Scotland would then need to beat England (and would need a bonus point win if they do not get a point against Argentina) to make the knockoutstage, while Argentina would just have to take care of business against Georgia in their final game to qualify.

[SirFozzie]

And Argentina win, 13-12, and it's gone all gillooly. Here's the standings with one game to go:

England 14
Scotland 10
Argentina 10

Remaining games:
Saturday October 1: England v Scotland
Sunday October 2: Argentina v Georgia

Argentina are pretty much through if they score a bonus point win against Georgia (as Scotland would need a bonus point win and England would also need a bonus point to make it a three team tie (within seven points or four tries themselves). Scotland must beat England by more than seven points to qualify (barring the four try bonus for each team). England need at least one point to qualify for the next round (or if Argentina fails to get a bonus point win over Georgia, as they hold the first tiebreaker (Head to head) over Argentina).

Prediction: England takes a sloppy game, and Argentina beats georgia easily, and Scotland is sent home early.

[Young Drachma]

2011 Rugby World Cup - Let the Routs Begin - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/sports/2011-rugby-world-cup-let-the-routs-begin.html?hp)

[SirFozzie]

Scotland are out, as they didn't manage to score the win against England they needed (although it was close to the bonus point win they needed with about 20 minutes to go).

Argentina beat Georgia, so with only the Ireland/Italy game of any consequence left in the group stages (The only way Fiji or Samoa make the next round involves Armageddon coming before 2012), this is what the Knockout stages look like

October 8th:

A- Ireland (or Australia) versus Wales
B- England versus France

October 9th
C-South Africa versus Australia (or Italy)
D- New Zealand versus Argentina


Semi Finals (to be played 10/15-10/16)

A vs B
C v D


My predictions:

Ireland beats Italy to take the group, and give us a great showdown in the QF between Australia and South Africa, Ireland handles Wales fairly easily, England's habit of throwing a wobbler in this tournament finally willcost them against an embarassed and angry Les Bleus side (From their defeat by Tonga), South Africa squeaks by Australia, and New Zealand beats Argentina handly, leaving a pair of Northern Hemisphere teams in one semifinal (Ireland over France), and a pair of Southern Hemisphere teams in the other semi final (New Zealand over South Africa), and in le grand finale, New Zeland hoists the Webb-Ellis trophy in front of their home fans.

[SirFozzie]

2011 Rugby World Cup - Let the Routs Begin - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/sports/2011-rugby-world-cup-let-the-routs-begin.html?hp)

Disagree, the Tonga upset of France was pretty sweet (even if it did keep Canada out from the third spot in their group and meaning they'll have to go through qualifying for RWC2015.

[SirFozzie]

Ireland take a 26-6 lead, so it looks like it's going to be as I said above.

[tarcone]

Great knockout round. Go Ireland!

[bhlloy]

Had a quietly confident feeling that Wales would make you eat your words today foz. Just absolutely amazed and ecstatic about how good this young team looks and how quickly everything has come together.

Final doesn't look out of reach - I'd much rather see France rather than England next though

[SirFozzie]

Yup, I was wrong about Wales. Although I was right about France ;)

Wales-France in one semi, and tonight's games will determine the other semifinal.

[Alf]

I was uber thrilled this morning. France showed some flashes of brain vs our best ennemy : England !

Good game (as they usually say to us).

[3ric]

Thrilling final so far - impressed with the French team, they are keeping up very well with NZL.

[MIJB#19]

I suppose the french are devastated. They had a serious shot (literally) to win it, no?

[Alf]

Ref stole our win. That's not me saying that, but the estimed english connaisseurs.

McCaw (as usual) spent most time in France maul side than French players did.

[kiwiLB57]

REDEMPTION!

That was the most stressful 80 minutes I have had for a long time.

Congrats to the French for putting the negative media in their place. Everybody around the world had written them off except for the New Zealand public who know exactly what France are capable of in a World Cup (see: RWC '99 NZ vs France and RWC'07 NZ vs France).

I went to the France vs NZ game in pool play at Eden Park and the French supporters were great. I have got a photo of me lying on the ground surrounded by 8-9 French Musketeers with swords drawn. I said to them then that we would see them in the final, and I was right.

Hats off to Richie and the lads. It looked like a game too far after the brutal Aussie vs Kiwi grudge match in the semi-finals last week. They hung on against a French team that was much better than the All Blacks in the 2nd half.

No other nation is so hung up on just one sport and one team like New Zealand is with Rugby, so it is a huge relief to get the win after 24 years since the first world cup.

Can't wait till RWC 2015 in England!

Cheers,

kiwiLB57

[MacroGuru]

Can't wait till RWC 2015 in England!


Neither can I...even if the Eagles aren't in it...I am going to try and make this trip.

[SirFozzie]

In a post script:

The United States Rugby League team (a lot closer to gridiron in that you have six tackles to try to score, and most teams do the equivalent of the punt on the final tackle to try to pin the opponent back) have qualified for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, to be held in Wales and England. They qualified by beating Jamaica 40-4.