The Rugby Thread

[oakdale160]

So it could be an all southern or all northern hemisphere final..My guess NZ and Wales

[dtaai-maai]

Would have been great to see France on this form have played the Lillywhites in the Pool stages (with a full compliment of players throughout!).

Nah, you wouldn't like that. On the off chance that the French had beaten England <stifled chuckles>, the Welsh would then have had to face England in their quarter final and would now be boarding the plane homewards!

On current form, England or NZ will be World Champions.

[PeteC]

RWC Quarter Finals

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[Lost]

F***ing referee is doing his very best to beat England. Ffs!

[Lost]

Not content with taking away a legitimate try, the ref has decided to allow blatant forward passes for New Zealand now.

What a twat.

[dtaai-maai]

But what a win! What a performance!!

[PET]

I have thought for some time that this England squad were special and I expected them to play very well yesterday -
But they were just outstanding in every facet of the game - it was the greatest performance I have ever seen from England and the game itself must rank way up with the best.
This is a team of 30 players who can only improve and I was just so proud to be English, for once.

[Lost]

Not only did we beat New Zealand, we completely dominated them. The scoreline didn't reflect that as much as it should have. Absolutely outstanding performance.

As for today's game.

I'm a big fan of the Welsh Rugby team. Always root for them unless they're playing England but...

... after the blatant, obvious, one-sided shocker from the Welsh ref yesterday, doing everything he could to keep New Zealand in the game, I'm kinda hoping Wales get trounced.

[dtaai-maai]

... after the blatant, obvious, one-sided shocker from the Welsh ref yesterday, doing everything he could to keep New Zealand in the game, I'm kinda hoping Wales get trounced.

Nope, sorry Lost, but that's nonsense.

I'm hoping to see a boring 3-3 draw with extra time required (I think I saw Eddie Jones say something like that yesterday).

[Lost]

... after the blatant, obvious, one-sided shocker from the Welsh ref yesterday, doing everything he could to keep New Zealand in the game, I'm kinda hoping Wales get trounced.

Nope, sorry Lost, but that's nonsense.

Will have to agree to disagree on that one. For me, it became quite apparent when passes that were 3 foot forward were being ignored. Got the result regardless - that's all that matters.

[Lost]

COME ON WALES! Get over that bloody line!

[Big Boy]

Oh well, never mind. It would have been more fun beating the Welsh in the final, but so long as we win, does it really matter who we beat?

[pharvey]

F***ing referee is doing his very best to beat England. Ffs!

Not content with taking away a legitimate try, the ref has decided to allow blatant forward passes for New Zealand now.

What a twat.

... after the blatant, obvious, one-sided shocker from the Welsh ref yesterday, doing everything he could to keep New Zealand in the game, I'm kinda hoping Wales get trounced.

Well Lost, no not Nigel Owens' best ref'ing display by a long shot, but your comments are somewhat "out there". Although the Internet connection is somewhat hit & miss out here, I must admit that I've not seen the "after-match pasting" in the press or forums that such an obviously biased refereeing display should so richly deserve.
Yes he missed a few off-sides (an England interception one of them), one or two forward passes - indeed, one a yard forward from NZ hands....... None of which did or would have impacted the scoreline.

Onto the disallowed tries. Unless I was receiving different commentary here in Zouerate, both decisions were referred to the "TMO" (Television Match Official). During the conversations between Owens and the TMO on BOTH occasions, Owens indicated that his initial reaction was that the try was scored but wanted elements checked. After which, the TMO ruled "NO TRY" in both instances..... The first was blatant obstruction by England, the second being that England lost control of the ball in the "mall".
IMO, no real question that the first try should have been disallowed. If English, I would have been well pi$$ed off with the second try being disallowed - under the strictest sense of the law, it was no try, but Christ that was harsh beyond words and thankfully did not effect the final score/result.

And YES, being a Welshman, I am biased - but also (as many others do) class him amongst the world's best ref's.

[pharvey]

Oh well, never mind. It would have been more fun beating the Welsh in the final, but so long as we win, does it really matter who we beat?

You are most certainly OFF the Christmas Card list........

[pharvey]

But what a win! What a performance!!

Indeed it was! And all thanks to a semi-decent Internet connection and "TV Mucho" once again, I managed to watch it.... That and the Welsh Semi the following day!

Have to say, an incredible performance by the Lillywhites - Kudos to them! The AB's didn't perform well, but put quite simply they weren't allowed to. It was disappointing to see that NZ didn't look to change their game-plan when things were obviously not going well (sh*tty actually), but is this coaching tactics or Captain's on field decision making? Either way, a massive performance by England throughout the match-day squad - fully deserved victory.

The AB's certainly had a pasting from the NZ press and Wales are no doubt going to take the brunt of that backlash come the "Third-place Play-off" on Friday. I'll be arriving back in the UK on Thursday afternoon, so can hide in the local community for support for that one!!

Many will say that the "Third-place Play-off" is meaningless - I beg to differ as I'm sure we'll see several others do come Friday.