All things related to Rugby.
Rugby World Cup is on right now , so who do you think will win it. I am going for England.
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All things related to Rugby.
Rugby World Cup is on right now , so who do you think will win it. I am going for England.
There's already a World Cup thread :moop:
...or not >_>
FINALS FOOTY, Salford in yet another crisis, the MILLION POUND GAME... Shitting hell it's all going off.
What's the million pound game? Is that the superleague winners vs the Australian winners thing?
It's the decider in the Middle Eights to see who gets into Super League next season. Bradford vs Wakefield. Hopefully Bradford win, because a decent Bradford will actually draw crowds. Wakefield are a busted bag of shit.
Wanky Wire fuck off
The Super Eights have been such a good idea. I thought it sounded like shit at first, but we need that INTENSITY of regular big games.
Broncos vs Roosters tomorrow, and I'll miss it. :moop:
Can't help but agree about the Super Eights. Needs a better name though.
I've been saying Leeds vs Wigan final, but Leeds are looking a bit toilet without a proper hooker (robbed against Castleford mind) and losing tomorrow might balls them right up. Imagine having to support Huddersfield as the anyone but Wigan candidate. :sick:
Auckland Nines is back in Feb - http://nrlaucklandnines.co.nz/ Would like to go to it, but its in Auckland and I am busy that weekend. doh!
Sometime told me last night that Wigan haven't lost at home for 18 months. That's not true, is it?
I think it is. The RFL must be very proud.
How does Wayne Bennett do it? It's basically magic.
:drool:
Went to a Harlequins game tonight. Decent enough rugby. 22-17 over London Irish.
That final is going to be mega. Where is niko? Bastard.
I'm going to miss the England game tonight. Fucking birthday parties. :moop:
Canada have just scored try of the tournament. Italians in proper reverse tank mode now.
John Moonlight sounds like a werewolf in some dodgy teen novel.
Not watching though so I'll have to keep an eye out for that try.
Tasty. :drool:
The Japan one where they cut the passes back inside and the guy ran through was ace too.
The Cowboys better get it done for FNQ. I fucking hate the Broncos.
This season has almost entirely passed me by. I only clocked the other day that Queensland had absolutely monstered New South Wales in the last Origin game.
That Canada try was class, shame they let Italy just go up the other end and score straight away.
Canada absolutely running riot here. Italian rugby possibly coming to an end.
Whoever this commentator is he's been everything that's wrong with commentary in the last few minutes. Endless rabbitting about Bergamasco's career milestones, English players he debuted against, etc. while there's actual rugby being played. We know you're just reading these off a factsheet you useless arse and even if you weren't we wouldn't care anyway.
Well, you really kiboshed that Jim.
Harsh on Canada, but they had their chances. That 'accidental' knock-on when Canada had about 8 men on the overlap probably cost them the game.
Vermuelen is the new McCaw.
Did we used to get as many tries disallowed for retrospective forward passes? There seems to be one a game at the moment.
No, but that's because there has been a 20 year moratorium on the 'flat pass'.
It was getting silly and it is time enough something was done.
This would have been 50+ if they could kick at goal.
We'd better not foul up this evening.
I refuse to accept that Prince William actually supports Wales.
If we lose this it will be because Chris Robshaw just hasn't been in enough adverts.
Courtney Lawes gave away a penalty? What a shock.
My dad will be seething with all this kicking in open play.
I'd LOVE IT if we converted this into a proper, fuck off victory. We won't though.
It's not Scotland, Wales are actually dangerous with the ball.
Lots of injuries now for Wales
I take it they can call up replacements into the squad?
England's BOTTLER streak coming out again.
Yep they will have a few in the replacements
Look at the fucking inbreds going mental.
Drop goal bollocks coming up.
A draw makes it interesting.
Important 5 mins, no mistakes from England now.
Once you know the ref is going to be a dick about the tackler rolling away why would you keep getting caught out? Thrown away a relatively simple win here.
The last 20 minutes from England have been an absolute disgrace.
Always. Take. The. Fucking. Points.
That was pathetic. Whoever dropped it off the line-out should be sent home as well.
Ahahahhahahahaha
I didn't mind them sending it into the corner. It was just the worst lineout ever.
The other turning point was that fucking ridiculous late tackle penalty which Farrell gave away when Wales were out for the count on their own line.
Superb.
Once we win against the Aussies all of this shite will be forgotten.
Burgess did shit all going forward, but he kept Jamie Roberts locked up all night. He comes off, and Roberts starts scattering plebs all over the show.
England got what they deserved...fuck all.
Totally understand going for the win at the end, but even three of us sitting on a couch who don't play rugby knew what England were going to attempt from the line out.
Then the knock on from the following line out from Wigglesworth summed it all up.
Well done Wales, deserved it.
This sets up a very spicy Eng vs Aus then. It might also be one of the only times I've ever rooted for Australia in sport. Might not be also, only time will tell...
I enjoy seeing England lose as much as the next Australian, but I can't help but think that this result drops Australia's chances of progressing from the group quite substantially. Probably third-favourites to get out of the pot, which is worrying.
But oddly, it might also improve our chances of winning the group and sneaking into the easy side of the knockouts.
http://cdn.greenandgoldrugby.com/804...9/original.jpg
There really needs to be a spider cam above every English scrum.
@Queenslander, why?
Number 1 Joe Marler is boring on that 45 degree angle. Not driving straight is cheating because it gives an unfair advantage as it prevents the opposition tight head getting a fair straight push and it's really dangerous. All part of the dark arts of front row srummaging and England aren't the only team that do it but have a habit of getting away with murder at the moment.
All Black Tony Woodcock is a rotten for it.
Look at the Italian number one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3su4_5rJJw4
The two turning points in the game were not finding touch off that penalty towards the end of the first half (which would have given England a platform to go in 13-17 points ahead and effectively have the match won) and conceding the penalty when Wales were scrambling on their own line - was it really for a late hit? Impressively shambolic from England. They should have won with ease. Can you sack a coach mid World Cup?
Because Australians never bend the rules in search of an advantage. :harold:
Care to show an example of what this current Australian team are up too?
Seriously?
The same thing as everyone else, whatever you can get away with.
Joe Marler is a fucking pleb though.
:rosebud:
Yeah fair point. I mention it mainly because i can see Marler's boring earning shitty penalties against us.
I take issue with the boring because it gives the illusion that England are a dominant scrummaging side when in reality they benefit from shit referring.
But yes we benefit from breakdown interpretation when it comes to Hooper and Pocock.
Soz, but: lololololololololol.
Gareth Edwards reckons we BOTTLED IT. There we have it.
USA giving Scotland a little bit of a scare. They'll get through it though.
10 changes. To be expected. Just trolling the poor fuckers - Bonus point again as well.
Decent win. The downer is the knock to Russell. He's without peer in the Scotland 10 ranks, so that's a major worry.
Like this McFarland at 6 for USA, I can understand how they left Todd Clever at home*
*well, Japan
Lovely try, that.
Wayne Bennett winning Coach of the Year: 'The things that won 28 years ago still work today'. :cool:
Fiji have just scored the most Fijian try in history. Came from about a thousand metres out, dancing through tackles, basketball offloads. Fucking magical stuff.
17-13 to Wales...
What is this idiot doing lining that kick up?
Fuck off Wigan. On the other hand, Huddersfield taking fifty people to the Grand Final isn't a great look. Hmm...
As much as it pains me, I hope Wigan win.
Obviously hopefully Saints do too; even my bias aside I think it'd make for a better final than if Leeds do.
If by some miracle it ends up as Huddersfield-Leeds, I won't even bother to find out the result, nevermind watch it.
Why? Especially since Wigan would probably bum Saints this time round.
Better game though, innit. And I don't know any Huddersfield fans.
Pity Warrington have gone toss, cos that'd be the best final considering I'm on a pubcrawl in Warrington when the finals on. Plus, revenge and that.
What channel is the new Zealand game on, trying to use kodi to stream it
ITV?
First-half drop-goals are the sign of a good game. :cool:
I couldnt find it in Kodi, only the SkySports channel
Yorkshire! (Yorkshire!) Yorkshire! (Yorkshire!) Yorkshire! (Yorkshire!) Yorkshire! (Yorkshire!)
And so on. [Sir] Kevin Sinfield. :drool:
I still don't really understand how Pools B and C in the world cup have come about. How are they so infested with shite by comparison to the other groups? Fiji, who are going to come 4th in their group, would probably come 2nd in either of those.
But even then how? Which of England, Wales or Australia were in a lower grouping than Scotland? That group is wall to wall shite. New Zealand's isn't much better, but I can accept Argentina may have wormed their way into 'tier 2' status somehow. Unless it was just Top 4 teams and then draw the rest, which I have a feeling has been the approach in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Rugby_World_Cup#Draw
Wales were ranked 9th.
Both Wales and Scotland lost more than they won in the games just before the draw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_e...2.80.93_Part_3
Georgia, subject to beating Namibia which they should do, will qualify automatically for the next one of these, thus making their efforts in whatever the second tier European thing is pretty pointless. Should we not make Italy/Scotland/the wooden spoon team play off against them for the Six Nations place? Italy in particular are bringing very little to the party nowadays.
I would like to see Georgia play more 1st tier teams. They have the potential to make the next step IMO.
I thought that and was reading about whether anything like that had been proposed. It looks like a fair few are coming around to that way of thinking, or at least the idea that tier one nations should be playing the top tier two nations as part of their autumn schedules to aid the development of the latter.
Some proposals go further than that with straight promotion and relegation being suggested and even expansion into a bigger northern hemisphere competition (two tier with promotion/relegation) including Georgia, Romania, the US and Canada and leaving a way in for other developing countries like Spain and Portugal.
The biggest arguments I could find against was that Georgia (and others) would bring less money to the table than any of the current competitors, that Rome is a better away day for fans than Tblisi, and that the international is too busy to accommodate any additional matches.
Keiron Cunningham went up in my estimation after the match (although I may have been associating him with Sean Long, who nobody likes). Leeds look a bit knackered, so it's on Paul Aiton to don Wigan by himself.
Just caught the highlights of the Leeds game. Gutted I missed it, looked like a stormer.
Yeah, Wigan will probably boss it next weekend, sadly.
Commentators calling this Samoan war dance a 'cultural challenge' instead of a war dance is a bit grim.
Kind of hoping for a Samoan win here so they can dunk Scotland in the following game.
Samoa with the worst 20 minutes of anyone at the tournament so far. Japan smashing them and down to 13 men.
Yep, pretty poor stuff. I like Japan but I'd thought this might be a bit of a ding-dong.
Japan might regret not capitalising on this. They should be 30 ahead.
Qualification isn't actually in Japanese hands, despite all the excitement. If Scotland and South Africa win their games to form they will go out in third.
Can't believe Japan didn't go for the bonus points there.
Also, getting a bit sick of the ITV commentator (the main one, not Shane Williams) being incredibly biased towards Japan. Sure, it's a nice story, but you don't have to put Samoa down at every opportunity as well.
Considering Japan to be beating Samoa an underdog triumph is slightly laughable in itself. How many resources must have been pumped into there in the last 20 years compared to Samoa?
Mon the sweaties.
Samoa, second seeds. It's mind bottling.
The jocks can almost put the saffas out here, can't they? Have they even bothered putting out a full strength side though?
Why do they do the draw 2-3 years before the actual tournament anyway?
It's not a bad XV - Finn Russel is the big absentee, but is injured for now, hopefully back for Samoa. Duncan Weir will probably make a hash of 10 - I'd have preferred Peter Horne in.
Vernon is a freight train on his day, but we've lost a little in terms of distribution in midfield. Oh if Alex Dunbar were fit for the WC.
Gordon Reid is probably a necessary LH addition just due to his size and the weight of the Bokke pack.
Also- boggling as opposed to bottling surely!? Samoa are a traditionally very successful team - yes, they've been shit this time around but when four Tuilagi's were running a mock alongside Brian Lima and Earl Va'a, they were a great side.
Anchorman.
I half hope the jocks get shoed here and then done in by Samoa. Chance to win the group foregone in favour of being out.
Who are you calling antipodean?
*dusts off string vest*
You're in Australia right?
Naw me pal.
A much smaller island.
I don't want to be too hard on our porridge eating friends, but they really are shite.
Rubbish.
Might actually stick Chelsea/Southampton on which wasn't the plan at all.
Safferball exposes us like nothing else. Gatland ball too. Hence, modern international rugby is a complete cunt for a Scotland fan. I forgive Meyer and SAF for that, it's their game, I even forgive England stepping five years backwards.
Glasgow play in an adventurous league where we chuck the ball around and win the thing, against the Welsh and the Irish. Then those same Welsh and Irish players get together for their countries and spend all day with shitty maul after maul (something must be done for the good of the game - there's no legal antidote in the current game), up and unders that exploit the ridiculousness of the current rule around challenging off the ground and centres with no playmaking ability whatsoever that might as well have an 8 on their back.
Fuck it. Fuck Gatland, fuck that Schmidt has changed from taken everything he did at Leinster to revolutionise Irish defensive capabilities whilst narrowing the scope of their attack, that Heyneke Meyer continues the fine tradition of meathead Safferball and that Lancaster cannot hold a fucking candle to Ashton to the detriment of the whole NH game, never mind that France cannot field a single player with an iota of the flair that was a part of every member of their back 9-15 in the 80's and 90's.
Merse :D
Why the fuck are they kicking for the corner on 42 minutes with their jenga lineout?
That's better.
You're after league, mate. I think you know it deep down as well. You can still dress like a pleb at the grounds if that's what you're worried about.
Speaking of plebs, if we lose tonight than Stuart Lancaster should be sacked in the tunnel. No bullshit. No 'Ooh, well if Dylan Hartley wasn't a fat moron...' Sacked.
That's a try, that is.
If league actually had positions, a break down, srummaging, size differentials, bigger pitches, etc.
If anything league has helped kill a lot of Union leagues. Too much insistence on defensive structures that were imported from League and too much insistence on hitting man as opposed to space. The latter being the most frustrating.
Lovely try. This side always has a great counter in it at least.
Seymours in my ESPN team too :D
Really can't beat a good interception try. Mon you useless haggis bastards.
Is Nigel Owens actually the best ref by miles, or does he just seem it to my untrained eye?
No need for that at all.
Fucking Laidlaw. Pyrgos or Hidalgo Clyne are the better options in the squad and Cussiter, who didn't even make the squad is far superior (and a bloody Lion) but every Scotland coach for the last 5 years has wanked over his 'Rugby Brain'.
Pensive piece of shite. He's not even a real fucking Borderer, stylistically at least.
By quite a distance, not that many agree. He's often known as O'wens by Scots and Welsh Pro 12 fans due to perceived bias towards the Irish, in truth it's because he likes to see a game played the Irish way, and far fewer Glasgow complain now that we've moved from attritional 'on the edge' stuff under Lineen to several years of Townsend's Borders meet Super 14 stuff.
I'm a bit surprised by that. Is the rule open to interpretation or, letter-of-the-law, should it have been a yellow?
It should be a yellow via earlier directives, but I'm actually a fan of the call made there. Having said that - it's rarely malicious when I would call for a yellow, it's just that Pietersen looked to have executed it wrong, as opposed to making no effort to support the tackled players at all.
I like break downs, I like scrums. I like open play, my problem is when the open play becomes dominated by structure intended not to open up defences but rather to exploit rules and to pull penalties out of defences. Look at that midfield fielded by England against Wales.
Not a single playmaker in there. Burgess- Shit caveman, can only hit people, Barritt- Shit caveman, can only hit people, Farrel- one dimensional fly half, even if he's got better recently.
Abysmal.
Shouldn't this, much like the "wasn't malicious not that sort of player lovely lad" bullshit in football, be purely down to whether he was at risk of injuring the player though? I mean, in that particular case I think the tackle-ee could have supported himself with an arm anyway as he wasn't dropped that fast but the Saffer didn't really look in control of his descent to me.
I agree, but he made a lot more effort to try to recover it than on other occasions. He also didn't tip him as much.
Unfortunately there is no chance of Scotland losing to Samoa. The latter today were about as bad as you can possibly get. Fiji twenty times better and yet got lumped into the shit pool due to their form three years ago.
Samoa are on the wain a bit, but bear in mind that this Samoa team beat them in the PNC this year, last year to if I recall rightly.
Edit - @Jimmy Floyd
What happens if we lose tonight and win against Uruguay?
We get third I'm assuming barring Wales don't fuck up against the Aussies.
Don't you get enough of this from being an Arsenal fan?
Thing is, the world of Rugby is now perverse. Teams used to play structured games at International level because that was the culture in their leagues. So - Saffers and England played the shit stuff, most of the rest of us chucked it around.
Glasgow and Scotland used to be like that - I mean, I love Graeme Morrison but he was as much a poor man's crash ball 12 as you get, but that was because we had nothing else to play with, despite a tradition of smaller, flair guys.
England have a plethora of alternatives these days, their culture changed to allow for creatives. Wales to some have changed and moved towards the old English styles to some extent, but also have plenty of alternatives to some of Gats's favourites (many doing well now, to be fair). France have just seen their whole rugby culture change.
It's fucking sad.
But I still love the game emphatically.
Have they had WOMAN pundits in any of the other games?
She's been on the coverage a few times. She's actually pretty eloquent.
Rugby has changed, Merse, because the players are all much bigger than they used to be. Philippe Sella wouldn't play professionally now (or then, which is the difference of course).
Is it her with the permanently sore throat?
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/corporate2/i...1jwwt6.jpg/624
Tanya Arnold, F off.
Mon then, you slaaaaags.
I'm quite excited about this.
You stupid twat.
We've already made three ridiculously shite decisions in the first three minutes.
So the fucking fanzone in RIchmond is full, so I've had to "powerwalk" home to watch the game.
Luckily I've got beers in the fridge, and now garlic bread in the oven.
#weartherose
England are rank.
Yeah, this has been wank.
It's a reassuringly English world cup performance. The rugger buggers couldn't escape the norm forever.
England as always too many mistakes.
It's just sloppy garbage isn't it?
Every time we do anything good we bollocks it up.
This is woeful, its like they are trying too hard and in doing so make mistakes.
Fucking hell this is bad.
BOTTLING IT big style, like we've done in the past however many Six Nations deciders.
Our passing has been horrid.
That Australian set move was fucking beautiful to be honest. No shame there, except for Ben Young maybe.
Well that's that then, see you in four years chaps.
Wankers.
Does this guy ever fucking stop and think?
We've had, what, four trips into their 22? All have ended in abject shame.
On the bright side, at least x-factor should be back to enliven our Saturday nights next week, with whatever event this is confined to the depths of ITV4.
Come on, Clive, you don't actually believe we're playing really well.
What game was Sir Clive watching?
2003 final.
Wankers.
Is 'Wills' there in his Green and Gold today? He's their king too, the fucking cunt.
These Chris Robshaw ads have probably sealed our fate.
So, when is the game up then, when they run another in under the sticks?
There must be some way to utilise Tom Youngs' other qualities without having to let him throw the ball.
497th turnover of the day.
Let's do a sweep for when the Aussies get their bonus point to keep things interesting.
We try, but just don't have the ability, experience or mental strength.
England weren't playing the worst, but they're properly crumbling now.
There's a suspicion that these players are all wankers as well. Look at that Marler.
That is us done and dusted, no coming back now. Scrum, mauls, carrying the ball we are not good enough.
Not that he got more than about two chances to actually do anything but it's a bit of a pisser that May had to go off. One of a few players who might have made something happen out of the blue.
No, commentator, it's the other black bloke.
Lovely kick.
Let's fucking have it.
(Australia to scored within about three minutes.)
Needed that.
More of the same please.
Nick Phipps literally throwing the game away?
Sam Burgess is on. He'd better not fuck this up for us.
Phipps is both a shit player and unlikeable dirty player. No redeeming features.
The indiscipline is just ridiculous.
Joining this late. Shambles from England.
Has Farrell been playing much for England in the last few years? I was under the impression he'd been left out more often than not. Have they accidentally put the cricket selectors in charge of picking the team?
It's like watching the football lads.
If Holland were in this we'd probably have lost to them.
Everyone will be well up for playing Uruguay in a dead rubber at the Etihad.
It's actually a massive blow for rugby in this country, once in a generation chance to get everyone mental for it (during a fairly shit era for football and cricket) and completely blown it.
This is basically the end of the pub sector in England.
Going out because of Wales and Australia. Fucking hell. I would have rather lost to France in he final.
Has to be the worst week in the history of English Rugby. Well done lads.
I'm probably forgetting some kind of plane crash here, but as I have no knowledge of said disaster it's fair to say this is worse.
This all sets up for a Aussie-New Zealand final.
Wankers.
This can also probably be pinned on ITV in some way or another.
Every pass is either too high or too low. It's just basic, basic shitness.
Drink it in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBY4PMk39QM
They'll be rioting in the aisles of Waitrose tonight. Rural market towns will burn.
They'll be burning roses in Market Bosworth florists.
Can we just bin the Uruguay game and try not to qualify for the next one of these?
Moving on. Will you be watching the final tomorrow, niko?
On the plus side, in pretty much all of the games going forward we'll get to relive this moment as the commentators somehow bring everything back to England.
Satisfying.
We might as well, Niko, because whatever happens it's going to be tragic viewing.
Australia played on another level. Are they favourites yet?
Omg hahahahaha.
Whats more embarrassing for hosts, going out before the group stages are even over or getting absolutely murdered in the semi final like Brazil?
Shut up ITV, it's only a game.
Can't decide whether Lancaster and Robshaw should resign, or whether it was just a ridiculous group?
Who do I support now? Wales is just a horrifying prospect, and Scotland is pointless, so it's between Ireland and France. Fucking hell.
Who's playing bad rock over the ITV coverage? Haha shambles all round.
Support the home nations.
Ireland for me, on the basis of pre-war family links I don't actually care about.
I suppose for me it'd be Scotland then Wales, by default, but the former are pants and the latter are bottlers even when all their players aren't spontaneously combusting.
With no home nations left I guess that means I have to support Ireland.
Not that it matters. Just so long as I don't have to fucking want France to win again at any point like the last World Cup.
Wanting France to win at things is when you have to reassess everything in your life and wonder what mistakes could have got you to this low, low state of being. But it's awfully close. They are quite good to w... shut up.
It was only in the final I supported them last time.
But even then it felt wrong.
Yeah, just saw that. I'll probably try, although 9.15 is more awkward than 7.15 for me, oddly.
Marvellous.
Cracking, now at least the footy won't be switched off for some crap pool game now as the hype dies.
I don't watch the sport and I may not have a national side but still, lol as fuck.
Ireland are my favorites going into the knock out games.
Forget tonight, that Ireland v France game is the biggest of the pool stage. The winner has Argentina and then Australia/Wales/Scotland. Loser has the All Blacks and then the Springboks.
Ireland are too good for this current Springbok set up and the ageing All Blacks are vulnerable at the moment. New Zealand are very beatable away from Eden Park.
I thought they were pretty wank against Argentina but I've not seen any Tri Nations (or whatever it's called now) so have no context for thinking that.
Ireland have more stuff against them though in that nobody from Ireland has ever won anything of any note ever in any field, so the mental side come the really big games is not with them at all.
Don't care about rugger, just going to leave this here.
:jayjay:
https://youtu.be/blaRBdm0wfE?t=10s
Edit - feck, doesn't work doing the 'start at 10 seconds' thing when you embed :yellow:
He did an absolutely corking one of those today on Stuart Hogg.
That video is outstanding, and I'd love to see more if it. Although rugby is generally pretty good, to be fair.
Personal favourite of mine is 'Christopherrr'. Along with his 'I'm straighter than that one' in response to a crooked line out throw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TpxEOQ0bVo
Excellent of example of what you're saying though are these two -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u55BnNhwKHE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFPd0CbdOCc
Oh man. "Christopherrrr" in that tone brings back so many childhood memories for me.
Anyone got a grand final stream?
It's alright , I have found something.
Mon you FNQ toads.
Surprised that was given as a knock on, looked like he dropped it backwards.
Is Darius Boyd an appendix to Wayne Bennett's contract? He goes absolutely everywhere with him.
Oh Thurston you plank. TMO to the rescue?
Nope.
Bit of a blow after defending the line so well.
Jack Reed actually looking like a 'footballer' again is Wayne Bennett's greatest achievement.
'JT' is having one of those Steven Gerrard games. Everywhere, but (thus far) kind of over-doing it.
Fucking hell.
Yeah alright mate in your own time.
*breathe*
Ben Cunt more like.
You alright Lewis? Enjoy that?
I wanted Brisbane to win. Whatever. If Anthony Milford doesn't get the Clive Churchill (NARRATIVE) then the seethe will set in.
That was one hell of a final. Ben Hunt won't sleep well tonight.
I was sure for the last half hour that NQ were going to break the line at some stage, but I'd abandoned that idea with about six minutes to go.
There's no way Brisbane don't win one soon, mind. Too many young fantastic players.
Which sport is the Grand Final down there?
They must have engraved that last week.
It should've been Milford. But Thurston was the reason the winning team won, so you can understand him getting it. But if ever there was a final where someone on the losing side could be considered for the award, this one is it.
Is the Grand Final rugby league or union in Australia?
League. Australia's peak union comp is the international Super Rugby.
"You just dropped the *insert name of NRL trophy here* mate."
If only.
It's like Sam Burgess last year. He wasn't even the best Burgess on the day (alright he got his massive head smashed in), but provided he never went completely missing he was always getting it. It was a minor miracle when 'DCE' won it in 2013 when the entire build-up [and season] had been about 'SBW', and the poor bastard got booed by the shithead Roosters fans for ruining the moment.
I thought Jake Granville (letting him go was a good idea) could have won it as well if you want to go down the winning team route.
When the Raiders play the Warriors in next year's final Shaun Johnson will benefit from the same mawkishness.
Speaking of undeserved MOTM awards, the expression here is a bit special:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQbIGWYUwAAdY8V.png
Overcome with joy.
Which Englishman picked him and not Foley?
Absolutely seeeeeeeething.
As if those hill billy fuks have won a premiershiop.
I had to go out with 5 minutes of the final remaining, whilst it was still 16-12.
:face:
Were you giving Ben Hunt a lift home?
Was it at the Olympic Stadium or whatever they call that these days? Fuck driving all the way over there.
I've never really liked Thurston, but it's good to see him win one, particularly against the Bennett Broncos.
I reckon I'll avoid Australian media for a few weeks until the NEXT IMMORTAL stuff dies down. It took about a month for them to get over the Souths FAIRY TALE, so let's say six-eight weeks.
Maradona's at the Argentina v Tonga game and he's going absolutely mental at every Argentina score. It's quite touching really.
Has time taken by kickers ever become an issue? Jonny Sexton just spent a full minute lining one up straight in front of the posts.
I was wondering that. How much concentration did that really take?
Saint Johnny was the pioneer.
Still many occasions of direct imitation on show every weekend.
Back in the day they used to just whack them over. A 'round the corner kick' was witchcraft indeed.
He was a bit pants at everything else but didn't Neil Jenkins basically step up to basically anything inside the opposition half and just kick it over without all this dicking about?
Out of interest Merse, as a 'neutral', what do you make of the England team player-wise? Not in terms of performances over the last few weeks, as in who would you be keeping, binning and bringing in after the World Cup?
Toe-punt off a handful of sand.
A big part of the problem with England is the embarrassment of riches that they get to choose from with so many strong professional teams. They've spent 4 years capping 60 odd players. Every time someone has a one or two poor outings, they're jettisoned, to such an extent that there is no consistency in the partnerships across the field.
The back three are ridiculous - Goode, Foden, Sharples, Abendanon, Pennel, Nowell, May, Brown, Watson, Strettle, Wade, Rokoduguni, Ashton, Yarde - there's another one or two I can't recall right now, too I'd imagine - and still, they decided to try Manu Fucking Tuilagi out there???
The pack are fairly set, but I'd still move Robshaw back to his old Harlequins position at 6 and end the ban on overseas based players to bring in Armitage, who is one of the finest 7's in the world. Having said that, he's not far off 30 now.
Second receiver needs sorting out with a playmaker - Burgess/Barritt are ridiculously poor there and should be sat at 13 organising defence and making back row carries when required not just lining up a wallop after every ruck - Twelvetrees was going great guns before hitting two bad games and being sacked off, and Henry Slade is the most in form answer, Danny Cipriani also offers so much flair but plays his club rugby at 10. At the very least, get him on the bench as 10/12/15 cover.
Nick Abendanon may offer more from 15 than Brown too, but again he's in France and is close to thirty.
There's no need for wholesale change, but I would make the above, it's the focus really - try and play some real rugby for fucks sake, and once you've found a good, winning XV, try to stick with it a bit.
The other problem is harder to fix - England have more test-standard players than anyone else in the NH, probably even the world. But there's a lack of real world class players there that can change a game. I was looking forward to seeing if Joseph, Ford and Brown could be at the RWC
'He (Andrew Johns) was severely intoxicated. I am a 42 year old woman that he asked to kiss him. When I refused to kiss him and replied I was happily married and had three sons, his question to me was "did you have a cesarean birth?"'
What a great chat up line. Worth breaking the embargo for.
Lewis Just reminded me that I'd forgotten another RL convert - Chris Ashton from that list of back 3 players under Lancaster. Never understood him losing his place, being as he was about as prolific a try scorer as any in the world at Test level.
Edit - I suppose that he couldn't really defend, but neither can most England wings. High ball was a real issue as well I guess.
Do you mean Chris Ashton?
The pasta squad making a quite unexpected go of this.
Yeah, I'm not sure why I said Tomkins there at all... Weird since I watch league about once a year.
Edit - I also had him in the list after all :facepalm:
Train of thought fuck ups - I was thinking of James Tomkins, the centre when it came to mind. James Tomkins, by the way is utter, utter gash.
Joel Tomkins. How did he get capped for England? Was he promised a fast-track or something? He's crap (well, overrated) at league as well. More so since he came back thinking he's a hardman. Sam Tomkins would have made a brilliant winger at one point, but he's lost a bit of pace to injuries and would probably just get flattened now.
Unfortunately England have a lot of unselectable wankers and foreign based players. You could probably cobble a team out of them which would beat the World Cup XV.
Tuilagi always struck me as a fundamentally dense player, so I never really bought into the hype that surrounded him (although I'm sure he's a good bench option). Is his passing and awareness of other players still non-existent?
True. I'd like to see him in league. He'd make a decent second row if he could get the tackling right (memories of Andy Powell stealing a living at Wigan).
Andy Powell. Fucking hell. The most average player ever to win a grand slam and be a Lion (in the shit games).
You could see the idea behind his conversion, even if it was unusually risky for sensible Wigan, since he was big and always ran with his head up, but he wasn't fit enough and couldn't tackle (as in genuinely couldn't do it, rather than just being bad at it). Gareth Thomas was good, if unlucky with injuries; but then he's a legend and would probably succeed at most sports if he bothered.
Scotland were trying to get Danny Brough to convert at one stage, the Scotland Rugby League is a bit lol since no-one in Scotland bothers with it, but they seemed pretty good at the World Cup (which I watched) and the European Championship (did I fuck). I think the idea was to make him a 10.
Is he well rated? Seemed decent from what I'd seen? But generally, players converted to 10's and 12's from League lack the ability to be playmakers in Union, partly due to the depth or running and lack of structured attacks, along with the greater breadth of situations unfolding in front of them.
Henry Paul was shite at 10, but did a good job at Prem level at 12.
Danny Brough has been the best half in Super League for years now (better than Henry Paul), and he's from the same part of Scotland as me: Yorkshire. Was Iestyn Harris good in union?
Unfortunately for Wales we lose absolutely nothing with Sean McMahon at 7.
We have 5 world class 7's at the moment.
This Scotland game. :D
Shambles
We've had a real issue with the South Pacific sides for a few years. Their physicality with the ball in hand and communal in the tackle area plays to our weaknesses in a big way.
This is where John Barclay and Alex Dunbar are needed the former being inexplicably left out of the squad in favour of the good but not as good Hardie and the latter deemed to far away from the required fitness levels in recovering from his 6N injury. Matt Scott is getting turned at 12 too often and Hardie not doing enough to clear out the breakdown and I'd have stuck Barclay in at 8 as he's played a lot of rugby there this past year for Llanelli whilst retaining Hardie at 7 to imitate the Australia plan and give two genuine trufflers that can retain and win ball at the breakdown.
Do Scotland go out if they lose this? I haven't watched/read anything since we BOTTLED ourselves to death.
If they lose and Japan beat the USA.
Yeah I think so.
Would be refreshing to see Scotland play well in the first half.
I always thought the point of rugger was that if you put your body somewhere it shouldn't be, or you did something you ought not do, the penalty (and hence disincentive to do it) was getting a good shoeing. Professionalism really has fucked it as a sport.
And Ryan Wilson showing the kind of form that regularly sees him suspended and/or arrested. Idiot.
This defending :D
Scott Hastings on commentary is properly seething.
Every single try going to a TMO for about three minutes. Just get on with it. I suppose they've at least knocked one off at last.
The way they use it is so arbitrary (and a warning for football). I reckon if the referee doesn't spot it, bad luck. As someone who isn't a rugby devotee but can be persuaded, having thrilling tries scored and then cancelled because of a minor infringement that wasn't spotted three phases ago is a poor show.
Scotland will rape them in the second.
It's not so bad in the domestic game, they've gone a bit OTT at the World Cup due to 'the stakes'.
Stamping is a big no-no. It gets missed in the domestic game a lot more, but doing it to a prone body in open play is always likely to land you a spell in the bin.
I reckon Japan will bonus point the USA. They really were great against Samoa, and the USA are crap.
I always forget that you can get a bonus point just for not losing by too much. Probably because it's a shithouse rule which I hope will get scrapped every time I hear about it.
Japan not playing until 8pm tomorrow is amateurish scheduling.
Do they just not have the offside rule in Samoa?
Penalty, penalty, penalty
It's not amateurish, Tobes, it's give-England-the-best-schedule-at-any-cost. Thankfully that worked out really well.
Surely you dish out yellow's if he is giving out a penalty every two minutes?
What a shit sport.
Every time Scotland make a break, they panic and throw a shit pass.
Basically, they play like I do in touch.
Samoa were the same against Japan, just no discipline whatsoever. They're basically playing sevens.
Another high tackle.
Rugby's a bit different. You'd never have anyone manipulating games.
I totally agree, Toby, though I imagine they're partly interested in building up DRAMA too.
I also agree that this Samoa team are a right shower. If Scotland manage to lose to them it'd be a proper shambles.
I'm not thinking of that, it's just a bit shit having a group hang in the balance for more than 24 hours after some teams have played their final games.
The games were scheduled absolutely ages ago and they would have assumed that Japan v USA would be a dead game anyway. On seeding, this game now should be a decider, which is why it's now.
That was an insane period of play. Neither of these teams has the killer touch.
Scotland's passing has been horrific.
This Scottish team is infuriating. Learn to throw the final pass!
Didn't he knock it on?
Samoa were out of it for that whole half but their final pass was just so bad.
Jesus, Scotland are going to get hit for 70 if they don't fuck this up
This game has been mad. If Samoa were to kick for the draw it wouldn't (definitely) be enough for Scotland in the absence of a fourth try bonus point, would it?
EDIT: Nevermind. They've done pretty well there. Onwards to a shafting by Australia.
If Samoa were more disciplined they'd have won that easily.
England. lolololololololol
Can another STV watcher confirm that I've just heard an Aldi advert with an Aberdonian saying, "somebody's taking a shite in your jumper"? :cab:
Turns out it is "shine to" apparently...
https://twitter.com/NeilSargent86/st...17901605040128
Oh please somebody spare me a Wales v Scotland quarter-final.
Wales are loving this so far.
Grand Final. 'Mon Yorkshire. Get fucked Wigan.
The Charlatans are on and nobody is interested. Lovely stuff. Pre-match entertainment needs putting in a bin.
The Australians are down to 13. Dirty bastards.
Australia :drool:
This is pretty heroic from the Aussies.
Wales have been in the 22 against 14 and then 13 men for almost 15 minutes now and haven't scored. Their scrum half constantly darting himself needs to be shot.
Fucking hell Wales.
That's their tournament and they know it. Scotland are a free pass to the semis for the winner here.
The small in goal areas are always awful. Are Warrington shit now, Lewis?
Fucking hell. Australia playing like champions.
It's just plain depressing England lost to this Welsh mob.
Also good to see Dan Biggar forgot how to kick them over from straight in front this week, typical.
Yorkshire. :cool:
Best Super League team of my lifetime.
I can just about see Suarez scoring a pair of tries to troll England at another sport.
So many dons in that side.
On to the England vs New Zealand (minus their good players) series. No Matty Smith, with his 'organising', please, selectors.
Again, not indicative of most of the individuals on display. Russel in particular is normally a fine distributor.Quote:
Originally Posted by hfswjyr
Again, indicative of Scotland v Pacific Islanders (also goes for Ireland and France actually) - big bastards don't half hurt us and the handling and passing goes astray as soon as you start over anticipating the contact you're running into.
England are so fucking bad. Constant handling errors. I saw it said by some big rugby name the other day that we're trying to play a 'brand of rugby' that our players just aren't good enough for. Is there anything in that? I wouldn't know.
Yes and no.
Traditionally Scotland (lol), Wales and France played the flair stuff. England were massively attritional and Ireland were shit. Wales are now amongst the more attritional and France take the piss. Ireland are an odd one - capable of expansive stuff but get bogged down in their admittedly quite special ability to be absolute cunts and play on the fringes of the rules, and exploiting them, because it yields smaller winning margins but is much more safe and consistent in getting the win at any cost.
England have the players to play expansive, heads up rugby these days and the Premiership is far, far more expansive than the old club rugby days of yesteryear.
However, the squad taken to the world cup was not sufficient to do so - particularly in the centres, and when Farrell is at 10.
We should stick to playing shit. 2007 should be our model.
With squad, especially with Farrell playing 10 (what the fuck?) it ought just be Woodward-ball on a continual basis.
Thing is... Wales Gatland-ball is actually probably superior, as are key players for them in that gameplan (both centres, all three back rowers and 10 & 9 when Webb is fit). So you'd probably still have been up against it against them.
I haven't the foggiest about the rules of Rugby (and am in some doubt as to whether anyone really does) but the two things which annoy me most about watching it are the catch and drive shit, which is so ubiquitous now (was it ever thus?) and the 'rush defence', which both serve to essentially eradicate any hope of an interesting game from a viewing perspective.
Also, lol at that Wigan kick in the last minute. Don't think I've ever seen anyone do that before.
:D The kick up in the air and backwards? Massive fuck up.
The line out maul was an English speciality before professionalism, and Scots too. But they were looser. Now, it's almost indefensible and shite. We've used it really effectively this tournament, but I hate it. So agree it's a shit element. It just needs balancing in the rules- basically let the defence take it down.
Regarding rush defence, I enjoy a good line speed - if you've played and watch a lot of rugby, defence is easier to appreciate, particularly when a rush leads to isolation of a ball carrier. Also, from an attacking perspective it can be fun. It's ubiquitous in pro12 and Southern Hemisphere rugby, but opportunism off the back of it is also common and exciting. On the international stage, less so.
They should just bin lineout lifting again.
The way to fix the driving maul is to prevent players joining past ball carrier or sliding up past the ball carrier. A proper rolling maul is a thing of beauty!
That's already banned but not policed well enough. Regardless, just let it be dragged down legally like the old days.
It's not really enforced though is it? Every nation gets away with truck and trailier mauling at the moment.
As I say, not policed well enough.
But still - even then, execute it within the law and there's nothing legal to stop it. Let the defending team take it down. It's dogshit safferball nonsense.
Blow it up as soon as the first player joins above or slides up past the trailer/ball carrier.
All the illegal stuff happens right at the start so unless it's right away we are left with the run away train nonsense.
Ireland v Australia semi should be good. Ireland look like they could shit their way past just about anyone, although they'll need someone else to account for New Zealand. France are absolute dross, so they'll probably turn in a miracle performance against them next weekend..
France were properly reversing back over their own corpses in that game just now, which is bad news for the All Blacks as you say.
Argies won't roll over either. Scotland will.
It was out patriotic duty to make it as difficult as possible for the likes of Ireland. That game should have been played in Norwich.
Some Aussie (probably Chris Broad) has banned as many jocks as he can from the rest of the world cup.
:D
Is there any way to make it so most players aren't injured or suspended by the end of this?
What an idiotic conspiracy theory.
They were cited by an Australian commissioner, but he had nothing to do with the result which was reached by an English QC. And given it wound up rubbing them out for three weeks (would have been five, but they added a two-week reduction for having a clean disciplinary record), I think it's safe to say he was on the money.
They dumped a bloke on his head...
Was Pat O'Cake retiring from international rugby anyway, or have Ireland told him to piss off for going to France?
I think he was anyway.
Anyway, sore subjects, Ex-Wales international Jonathan Davies has described the tournament's disciplinary hearings as a "disgrace".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34529687
Who'll play Fantasy Super League next season? (Starts late Jan/early Feb 2016)
There's Love Rugby League or there's Super League Dream Team.
I picked a team on the former in February (missed GW1) but forgot to change it all season so don't know if it's any good.
I'll do one if I don't have to fiddle with it every week.
I just had a great masterbation session of Shaun Johnson
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. :nodd:
You've timed that well.
Ford and Junior are big losses, the latter more so with Gilchrist already out. If big Jim steps out of international retirement to be called up (having retired as soon as he missed out on the 31 man squad I see him stepping back in) it's going to be all kinds of bad news for the penalty count.
Cheika, by the way is a cunt. Proper cunt. Tyring to hijack Taquele Naiyarovoro's move to Glasgow was up there amongst the cuntiest things he's ever done too, as well as capping him to tie him up for his eventual return. I'd shag him with a cactus.
He isn't good enough for International Rugby anyway so consider it a blessing in disguise that he won't be turning out for Scotland.
@The Merse
The bloke is proper mercenary and was going to put his hand up for your lot after 3 years.
No, I didn't want him turning out for Scotland. Rather would see him play for Fiji.
Not a fan of 'project players'. Now Nel and Strauss are in the dark blue, I'll support them and even trot out the McNel/Jock McStrauss stuff, but they oughtn't be there.
Junior Bulamakau will likely be capped - correctly. Been here since he was 10 as his dad was in the army and has a weird Weegee-Fiji mix of an accent, that'll do. Even Visser was ok - there's no real Dutch test standard team to speak of, whilst the likes of Big Jim are the kind of English you want - like me, Midlands schooled from a Scots/Irish heavy area, first generation to be down here, plenty of pics in Scotland tops as a kid shared in a programme... But the likes of Henry Pyrgos probably oughtn't... It's too complex to govern as really it's a question of whether the lad identifies with the nation, and that's hard to qualify.
Anyway, Naiyarovoro shouldn't play for Australia or Scotland really. He probably will be international standard though - watched about 10 games of his last year and the man can finish like a bulldozer.
Cheika was a cunt for getting involved and trying to unsettle him before he'd arrived, not for capping him so much.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cps...i029617154.jpg
Call the citing commissioner.
The French team has apparently mutinied. :cab:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/ru...-1227571108902Quote:
RUMOURS have emerged in the French press that the France rugby side have staged a “discreet” rebellion, sidelined embattled coach Phillipe Saint-Andre and begun coaching themselves ahead of the World Cup quarter-finals.
The ARU and the Waratahs have played a part in this as well which is shit because he'll probably never play for the Wobs again with this current batch of young wingers coming through at the moment.
From the outside looking in it does look like a cynical cap and scrap to prevent him from being available for Scotland.
I remember England playing the Dutch team in a World Cup qualifier (post professionalism). That was a great idea. Think it was a two legger and ended 100-0 in both.
Wiki says it was a three team qualifying group between us, Italy and Holland, with two to qualify. What a genius idea that was.
Glasgow get a bonus point victory, Naiyarovoro debuts, Dunbar makes his comeback and Edinburgh beat Ulster.
Now Johnny Gray and Ross Ford have their bans rescinded on appeal and so are free to play tomorrow.
The gods are smiling on us. Feel good about tomorrow.
Fuck off, Wales.
Jesus, that was a match. Cuthbert continues to be a huge weakness for them. His positioning and decision making has always been poor, and somewhat made up for by John Davies and Leigh Halfpenny, but he was horrendously exposed at times today and his handling was incredibly poor. They missed Webb's sniping today more than at any other time in the WC so far as well.
Du Preez. :rasta:
The number of try scorers in that SA team is ridiculous. The new generation continue the trend. Threats all over the place, with the ability to affect the flow of a match when they're at a big deficit in terms of possession and territory (not referring to todays game obviously), it creates a frightening prospect.
Still some deficiencies there mind you - if you move ball around quick enough and deny the disruptors and trufflers you've got a chance.
The white players should really sit the haka out.
That defence fucking hell France.
Smashing performance by the AB's. The passing of the All Blacks we epics, quick hands and quick feet, well played.
I see the Welsh shit the bed just for a change. Game raising wankers.
The French rolled over quicker than May 1940 etc.
Ireland are looking shaky here.
This is superb. I do like Argentina. I'd been impressed by what I'd seen of Ireland up to now though.
Argentina look like scoring a try every time they have it.
As is usually the case, I'd like to say fuck Argentina but it would be pretty awesome if they put the Micks out.
The Facebook reaction on this is hilarious.
Argentina :cool:
Seven more points will see Argentina safe. Not convinced they'll get it though.
If this happens then in all likelihood it'll be an all Southern Hemisphere World Cup from here on in.
That was grim.
If I'd known that was going to happen I'd have went out for the lols.
The Argies are still filth, but lol. Why do the Micks/Welsh even turn up for these?
To be fair, we're missing Sexton, O'Connell, O'Brien, O'Mahony, Payne and Bowe went off injured in the first twenty minutes too. Earls is never a replacement for O'Driscoll either.
We simply don't have the depth to cope with injuries. Madigan, Henry, Earls etc. are alright - not spectacular. I'm not sure what Dave Kearney really does either.
Very disappointing, overall.
Wales chucked it away at the death and France got humped by nearly 50 points yesterday, this might be the second best WC yet. :drool:
What a useless cunt. 50-13.
Scotlol.
Best first half of rugby I've seen from Scotland in a decade. The defeat is going to fucking smart a bit.
Come on, Scotland. Stop pissing about.
What?
Money has swapped hands here.
Penalty not a yellow card.
Hard luck Scotland.
Yep, ref threw the game. Give the cunt a clap.
It's not rugby league you have to make an attempt to catch the ball.
The TMO had no business calling that back though.
This could be a pretty interesting final twenty minutes. Nice try for Scotland.
Scotland just aren't very good at stopping tries.
"Nice try" probably covers it from here, just not in the sense you'd want in rugby.
Fucking hell.
Well played Scotland. :(
Scotland are going to Scotland it again.
Australia are outrageously sloppy. Doubt anybody would have predicted Scotland leading with five minutes to go.
Fuck me fair play to the Scots here. A Scotland/Argentina semi would be lovely.
This is great, smashing stuff from the jocks.
Lol at NH rugger though if Scotland are our most accomplished representatives, when was the last time you could say that?
What we need now is some outrageous reffing to get the Aussie bile up. :drool:
Silly fuckers.
Ah well.
We didn't deserve to win that game.
Amazing
I know nothing about rugby, don't even know the rules, but that was disgustingly inevitable, no?
What did they do to give the penalty away?
Offside.
Jammy wankers, it's going to take some world class choking for NZ to bin it against any of this lot.
Its the hope that kills you, eh, lads?
Yaaaaaaaas, the bitterness.
It just gets better. I could get into this game :)
In before death threats.
World Rugby need to tell the TMO's to fuck off unless dangerous play has taken place.
I feel sorry for Sean Maitland because that was such a shit yellow card.
Shambles. All home nations knocked out. What sports are we actually any good at these days?
We've the 'World' champion in snooker. :cool:
The ref should never ref another international again on account of his conduct at full time. Hastings sounds like he's going to spark him out at the first opportunity.
Rugby's too civilised; that sort of shit should result in a riot.
Deliberate knock on.
Which was very, very, very debatable - hence the analysts at the end there and Laidlaw's seethe at the TMO not being used (actually that was the offside at the end - the TMO picked over Maitland for fucking ages).
Two big calls have shagged us a bit. Maitland shouldn't have gone for a yellow, and the offside at the end was pretty dodgy at best - but Brycey screwed the throw and Denton the jump so to be fair, we put ourselves in that position.
Immense pride nonetheless.
If we play like that again, we won't even get to the final to lose to NZ.
I think the ref is getting some harsh treatment. Every pundit / reporter I've listened to has said it was the right call and that the ref wasn't able to use TMO in that situation.
Still, absolutely gutted for Scotland. What a performance they put in.
I guess it's good for the tournament as it sets up a Australia - New Zealand final. I know everyone will be writing Australia off but they have beaten England and Wales fairly convincingly.
I know nothing about Rugby, but I can't read body language to a decent level and spot bullshit from biased pundits a mile off and the ITV mob were definitely guilty of that in the aftermath.
Who, exactly?
lol at this not being a penalty:
https://vine.co/v/e9nv1AZXItI
I've not seen any such pundits, but I'd imagine they're fair dinkum cobbers mate.
Lol at the idea of a ref running off the pitch at the end of a game. I hope Hastings does catch up with him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-u...linkname=sport
That seems a pointless thing to be announcing publicly.Quote:
Referee Craig Joubert was wrong to award a crucial 78th-minute penalty against Scotland in Sunday's World Cup quarter-final defeat by Australia, says World Rugby.
Scotland led 34-32 at Twickenham when Jon Welsh was ruled deliberately offside for playing the ball after a knock-on by a team-mate.
The governing body said that, because Australia's Nick Phipps touched the ball, "the appropriate decision should have been a scrum to Australia for the original knock-on".
I agree he's being vilified too harshly. I'm not a Joubert fan - grimaced at him being named ref of this after the NZ v France debacle in last RWC final (he was incredibly inconsistent in NZ's favour throughout), but still it's harsh when the man made a call in real time. However - the call was wrong, and even World Rugby have admitted it in the match report, along with Lynagh (the only ITV pundit that said he wasn't sure). Having said all of that, it's Scotland's own fault for making him make that decision - it was a stupid lineout call. Just go short and churn it.
He did also miss the late hit on Hogg immediately before the lineout, which should have been a pen, and additionally the yellow was harsh as fuck. So a bad day at the office, but we do all have them. Commiserate and critique, but let's not pillory the man. Some of the ex-internationals (of all nationalities) have gone over the top.
The thing I agree is truly poor, is him running off. Poor, poor show.
In what will surely turn out to be the best decision they ever make, Manly have hired John Hopoate to coach their under-eighteens.
He was giving them wedgies.
I remember it but had no idea until looking on Wikipedia that he used wedging as his excuse - 'just got it wrong 3 times boss, poor technique'. Who in their right fucking minds does that three times? Hardly inconspicuously so. I could better imagine it in rugby union in a breakdown or maul situation, but that's just insane. In those circumstances.
I know there are conflicts here, but the English ref should really stop being so pro-Australian.
Horrible team Australia, led by a total dickhead of a coach.
You'd forget the sport ever existed or that this tournament was even still on here :D
Bandwagon cunts.
Argies have literally no composure and it's cost them. Australia are allowed to basically do what they want at the breakdown which doesn't help.
"Do whatever they want" = "Good enough to dominate the breakdown legally"
Pocock was offside about 40 times in the second half, cue 'legitimate counter-rucking!'. Wayne Barnes being fucking useless isn't a new thing though.
They're the sort of team the All Blacks will bottle it against, too.
It'd be nice if the ABs steamrollered them.
Part of me really wants to see NZ bottle it again but I'm not sure it's really on the cards.
The All Blacks fitness might be a bit too much for us I fear.
English Rugby is used to plodders in the back row maybe if Neil Back was playing the rules of the breakdown might be better understood.
If any back row is following the letter of the law he isn't doing it right.
He's not at Rutchie levels of cheating though. Pocock is just too powerful once he is over the ball.
We're the same as any other side. It's just that Pocock is so good that he makes it count every single time.
Either way, the All-Blacks are still better than us man-for-man. Winning isn't out of the question, but it'd be a pretty substantial upset. Given where we were a year ago, and the group we got drawn into, I'd say that making the final at all exceeds expectations by about a round-and-a-half. As long as we don't collapse totally in the final, I think that Australia will be pretty satisfied irrespective of the outcome.
I feel like everyone who watches rugby must be happy to see Argentina coming along so well, though. They've earned a seat at the top table, and rugby's better for it.
The real question is who is going to win the World Cup first, out of Argentina, Wales, Ireland or Scotland?
The Super team will have 22 players out of this World Cup squad which is exciting.
Probably none. New Zealand and South Africa are always going to work out better because rugby is just such a big deal there. England have only managed a solitary win when everything aligned perfectly one time, and France have not yet done it.
Argentina definitely have the best chance though. It may sound silly but I just don't think a country like Ireland or Wales will ever win a World Cup in any major team sport. They just don't have the psyche for it.
France/Argentina might be the big race. There'll be a new winner eventually.
I don't buy national psyche rubbish - I see it as lazy thinking - but we've had that discussion before.
The football World Cup is all the proof you need.
The Top 14 will hold the French back unless they change the rules on foreigners.
Once Argentina get their on professional league below Super Rugby I think they be very dominant. To think they have got this far with an amateur system is incredible.
Why is rugby big in Argentina? I thought it was basically restricted to British colonies like cricket is.
Argentina was an unofficial British colony for a good long while, hence football club names often being English.
The dickhead solicitor sending Martin Taupau's Manly contract to some Canadian theatre critic with the same name as the Manly gaffer is a bit good. They might have a decent side next year if Trent Barrett (still lol) isn't shit and Tim 'Theo Walcott' Moltzen plays more than twice.
If we beat New Zealand 3-0 in this test series there is a possibility of Australia sliding to third in the rankings. Unbelievable, Gus. Unfortunately I had forgotten how lol New Zealand's depth is at the moment. Their world class halves are out, and they're missing the form prop and 'lock' (loose-forward, boys) in the NRL, their captain, and their top try-scorer; yet this was their team in the warm-up against Leeds:
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
Jason Nightingale
Jordan Kahu
Dean Whare
Shaun Kenny-Dowall
Peta Hiku
Tuimoala Lolohea
Jesse Bromwich
Issac Luke
Ben Matulino
Kevin Proctor
Tohu Harris
Martin Taupau
It's only two years since they got bummed to death in the World Cup final, yet they've suddenly got all of this quality (and the Warriors are still bollocks). Give them a second franchise.
Fuck that. I'd rather see the Warriors win a premiership than see another club diluting our player base. How many times have the junior warriors won the toyota cup or whatever it is?
Their Polynesian man-child advantage presumably fades at grown-up level. Two Leeds prospects went over to join their youth system a couple of years ago and they said everybody had about thirty stone on them. There were also claims that the cliquey cuzzy bros froze them out, but I think they were just both a bit crap.
I'm more surprised that rugby league even has rankings.
Belgium moved up to eighteenth recently. The Germans and Norwegians were gutted, whilst the Ukrainians have more pressing concerns.
Black jerseys everywhere in Brisbane today. :(
This build-up is begging for a classic New Zealand BOTTLE JOB. But then fuck Australia. I don't know which way to go.
That haka thing is such a load of shite. Is it different now than it used to be?
They're only a small nation, mate. They don't have the resources. We should admire their pluck.
Going the pub later but want to go after the rugby's finished so it's not full of idiots. What time should it finish?
Nigel Owens knows. Mon the All Blacks.
This seems rather one-sided.
God that was good.
Cheer up Cheika.
It's happening.
Oh, now this is getting a bit good. Come on Australia.
Big time. Compared to the tourists of the 70s at least. It all ramped up when more Maori lads started playing and when adidas jumped on board.
The legend of the haka is so fucking ridiculous. That they mandate the conditions under which its performed and throw a hissy fit if anyone tries a non-Maori response (hello, Wales) is fucking ridiculous and I'd ban the shit if they don't grow up about it. The precious pricks.
I'd ban it completely. Can any country decide to do a pre match dance if they want?
Watch the one at the beginning of this for a proper haka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89h49kubZI4
That's fucking terrible, just a big gay dance before the match. The little jump at the end. :D
I love the old style lineouts as well, looks like they're lining up at the bar for a boat race.
The league team being almost entirely indigenous means everybody gets into it, rather than the tokens making the noise as Richie McCaw looks awkward. When Hull played their last match at the Boulevard against New Zealand in 2002 it was met with a 'What the fucking hell is that?' chant. I would like to see more of that.
Lucky to get as far as we did. I thought we were back in it untill AFL Folau kicked away our momentum.
Hansen's tactical sub at half time was genious.
Id like to think that losing Carter will hurt them but it wont.
And the winner of the Pacific Games 2015 Best Team Dance is....
You're over-doing it, Hull.
Donned by Brett Ferres. The shame.
The highlights were on the actual news(!). It was like an old Pathe newsreel.
'...when young Brett Ferres burst through to score. I bet he takes some feeding.'
Great pic, the Kiwi's are happy over here :)
Top world cup final, Oz being a bit of a dirty bunch. Should of had a player sent off, and Pocock should of be sent off too with the head stomp.
Nothing in it. Rutchie was holding onto him then got up and played the rest of the game.
Kiwi media is rubbish just like the Australian media
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/i...unt-to-a-stomp
Fair play to New Zealand - to win, they beat the three best teams (aside from themselves) over the course of the tournament. Nobody could accuse them of doing it the easy way.
That haka is immense. One of the guys towards the end is doing what I can only assume went on to become the macarena.
I was going to lend my support to the idea that the haka used to seem more intimidating/special than it does now, but that probably blows that out of the water a bit.
Is that the match of immortalised try fame?
Did they not bother with 'the big fellas' back then on grounds of racism?
The Try is in the first couple passages of play.
Oh aye, quality. Don't think I've ever seen it out of a highlight context.
The state of that conversion attempt.
The standard of play in general was a bit terrible, breakdown especially.
It looks awful. Did no one used to score conversions? :cab:
It was an amateur sport and would be for another 20 years after that game.
My grandad claims to have smashed Mike Campbell-Lamerton (British Lions captain) on National Service in a scratch game of league.
Even though the All-Blacks were definitely the better team, David Pocock really should have been given Player of the Tournament. He was arguably one of the top two players in every match Australia won that he played in, and it was clear against Scotland what Australia lost when he wasn't there.
BBC agrees: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/34695223
Guardian agrees: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...rdian-verdicts
Still, best player on the winning side is hard to look past.
Remember our Clive Churchill discussion?
Sam Burgess is BACK. The Sydney media are all asleep, but the Guardian sez he'll be the best paid player in the NRL (meaning more than 'DCE'). It's not worked out too badly has it?
Next: 'The Hayne Drain'.
Lol at English rugby union on that one.
I've not really been keeping tabs on Jared since he meffed up his first ever touch in the NLF, but the 49ers appear to be having a fairly tragic season.
Edit, cut last week eh? Won't be long then.
I saw some footage of him running away and instinctively looking behind for support. It was more lol than anything, but why don't they try that?
They do sometimes, but it's far too risky.
Hayne to come back and play Union. :cool:
If they somehow hypothetically merged the two codes and met in the middle with the rules, would Australia completely smash the resulting World Cup as a result of their talent stocks in league, or would the All Blacks still piss it?
New Zealand are better than Australia at league at the minute, so I suppose they would keep winning. We might win the Six Nations though.
Our goal kicking options would finally have some depth.
This team is a massive upgrade on the current Wobs.
1. Sio
2. Moore
3. Kepu
4. David Klemmer
5. Douglas
6. Fardy (calls the lineout)
7. Pocock (c)
8. Matt Scott
9. Micheal Ennis
10. Thurston GK (vc)
11. Will Chambers
12. Greg Inglis
13. Kurindrani
14. Hayne
15. Billy Slater
I couldn't see Slater getting in ahead of Folau. He may not have been at his best at the World Cup, but he's still the best Australian in that position.
Folau can't kick effectively when it comes to clearing from inside the 22 and he also struggles to link up with his wingers IMO
He is unmatched under the high ball though.
Hopefully he gets some time at 13 next year.
I hadn't factored Michael Ennis in. He would win so many penalties provoking people at the breakdown.
It would be amazing to see him bait the Springboks.
He could troll Nigel Owens into a coma.
I was thinking about this a bit watching that Nehe Milner-Skudder melt heads with his run-of-the-mill step. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (or even Shaun Johnson) could put Joe Rokocoko numbers on the board with their running. I like James Roberts (Gold Coast) as well. He's got to be the fastest thing since Darren Albert. It's proper explosive speed as well, unlike say Greg Inglis who takes half the pitch to get some momentum behind his arse, so he would presumably be ideal for tight union spaces.
I thought about putting him at 13 but Im not sure what his defence is like.
His head makes up most of his weight, so I reckon he could defend the line easily enough.
Nehe Milner-Skudder and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck are basically the same player I reckon. Both of them in an All Black back line sounds terrifying as Wobs fan. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that RTS is keen on playing for the All Blacks.
Proper rugby on bbc1 now.
This is a proper old-school test match, although New Zealand look like a team without their good halves.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...-stock-farrago
That would be brilliant if true.Quote:
England’s Rugby World Cup campaign has plumbed surreal new depths after it emerged some members of the squad lost money on shares recommended to them by their kit man. The Rugby Football Union has confirmed to the Guardian it will be launching an investigation amid reports the investment advice received led to disquiet in the camp.
As someone said earlier when I read about it, anyone who knows what they're at with stocks doesn't lay out shorts and socks for people.
You don't need to know what you are doing to be able to effectively channel insider information. This would probably be much bigger deal/problem if the shares had gone through the roof. Investment advice off the kit man though, that is quite funny.
Sam Burgess wrote an article(!) about his decision, and basically he doesn't really like union. What did he expect?
It's a shame he was coached by a bunch of dickheads because I reckon Cheika and the Brumbies would have got the best out of him.
Or drop him in any of the New Zealand teams and he probably would have been world class with in 3 years. eg SBW
Bath have closed ranks and called him a Toby-headed fanny, and it's all getting a bit serious. Would anyone think less of him if he just said he fancied the World Cup but otherwise prefers smashing people in league? It will be interesting to see whether it puts people off code-hopping in future.
Maybe some might now prefer to stay in the comfort zone of bosh bosh bosh bosh bosh kick but League is as big as it will ever get.
League will only ever be a Queensland and NSW sport down here with the perfect example being that the Storm have still failed to produce 1 Victorian Rugby League player.
Does Victoria produce anything other than AFL players?
League obviously doesn't have the international game to match union, but at day-to-day club level things seem pretty even as far as crowds and money go (French/Japanese rugby possibly excepted; but then if you go to Japan I would suggest that prestige isn't the deciding factor). If you can hop over and be guaranteed an international place for a big tournament as Sam Burgess clearly was then you can see why people might do it, but if the NRL provides the same financial rewards then it's not necessarily worth the risk of having to spend three seasons earning your World Cup place.
I cant find the total list of players because they don't list all the professional Wobs. https://www.melbournerebels.com.au/c...an-rugby-union
The NRL look after their players very well and I totally understand why Burgess would come back because he is worshiped down here and he is in the same City as his brothers.
Im not sure if it's reported in England but Fox Sports have lost rights to the Premier League which will have to benefit the NRL because they dont have a deal with them yet.
But with all the TV money, well over 50% of the clubs don't turn a profit.
Edit: Now they just need to go back to 6 interchanges, make the ruck a contest again and fix the bloody scrum up so it's backs on back and prevent the lock from playing the ball.
Stuart Lancaster is gone. The RFU must be rolling in money, so watch them give it to Andy 'Andrew Farrell' Farrell.
That McGillvary take was what done won it, was class.
Don't watch much, but this has been a good game, some serious last ditch efforts.
That kick :face:
That was quite a game though.
Was about as shambolic as it gets at top level sport. Phenomenal bottle job, not that it would have mattered.
Good to see the opportunity to give the French a good kicking whilst their down hasn't been missed by the union clubs. Did they all lose today?
Odd that the games went ahead really.
RIP big man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO1ZWGm5KnM
He's one of the few rugby players I know of, I met him once. Bit of a surprise news. :/
He was looking a bit thin (relatively speaking) when he popped up at that Warriors game a few months ago, which makes you think kidneys, but they haven't confirmed that yet have they?
No news yet but it would be a pretty good bet.
His twitter feed was still active until 3 days ago, stuffing his face in Dubai looking quite fit and healthy.
Survival on dialysis is usually not too terrible, but the stress on the body can be unseen.
It's so sad. :(
Here is NZ Stuff news website - http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/a...u-dies-aged-40
At least he got to see the AB's win the WC again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heoO_5MvZ0w
Never a bad time to relive this match.
I was listening to the radio 3/4 weeks ago and he was at a kids school during the rugby World Cup it see,s pretty sudden. Mike Catt 95 I think that is all there really is to say about it.
:(
Sad news.
Bloody hell, I know he was ill but this is a bit of a shock.
Big shock, there hasn't been anything in the news in the lead up to this to prepare us.
The Warriors have given Ali Lauitiiti a one year deal after he donned the national team with Leeds for a laugh (nobody cares, Richie McCaw, mate). :cool:
We might finally have a chance at the Bledisloe now.
True we'll probably need Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock to blowout both their knees as well.
Eddie Jones :serious:
Wow just read this about Eddie Jones -
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/i...ching-contract
Irrelevant now. They blew their chance to get rugby big. Next World Cup is in the middle of the night as well.
Pretty much screwed it for themselves, could be a while be England host another World Cup.
South Africa must be due, and they'll no doubt take it pointlessly to the USA at some stage.
Eddie Jones is such a pleb.
They'd be better off with Dingo Deans, and he's a bit of a div as well.
Just stick Sir Clive and his innate smugness in charge in perpetuity.
Eddie Jones will happily de-power any scrum to get more mobility in the front row.
Im pretty sure the pattern with Rugby will always be Europe - somewhere else - Europe - somewhere else.
Edit: Japan then SA stuffs that theory though derp.
lol at Souths still being over the salary cap. If he gets crocked at any point next season then they're going to be fucked.
It's Manly's Year. :cool:
Broncos too bounce back to start the 3rd dynasty. :drool:
Tom Youngs, Brad Barritt, Tom Wood, Geoff Parling and Danny Cipriani missed out.
What a wonderful sentence that is. Role on the disappointment.
Parling has been excellent since moving and Cip is in much better form than Ford.
Wade and Simpson being missing is mental. Game changers the two of them.
Oh but Chris Ashton is back you say?
Some players just aren't test match footballers, regardless of their domestic form, and that is a nice list of them.
Eddie Jones is a complete chancer. What an atrocious appointment.
I'm not entirely sure what the point is now anyway. The scale of the disaster in the autumn has set the game back a decade.
It will never get any better, poor team selection and management.
I might stick with my 2nd team New Zealand.
Welcome to England Eddie.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35362589
I meant to post this for thoughts yesterday. Without wanting to have The Debate, I expect there are people in the sport who would rather collapse it into farce than make changes that could be seen as league-like.
Seeing as a shit ref ruins any sport I'm going with that.Quote:
Is it, in the end, the fault of the aforementioned zealot with the over-active whistle or, actually, the game itself?
I'd happily see a few changes, and agree there's an issue with rules at the moment - namely that emphasis on individual ref's interpretation is failing in the modern pro game where consistency is expected, but mooted due to the different styles across the top leagues.
However, I'm very mindful that I don't want League and nor do I want uncontested scrums in the vein of Australian provincial rugby.
Eh? Scrums are contested in the ARC.
We have definitely turned a corner in our approach to scrummaging over the last few years.
From about 2005 to 2013 is fair enough calling us a shamble though.
He didn't actually bum the dog, you puritan freaks. Then again, if it means he misses Origin...
Anyone fancy a go at some fantasy rugby? New season starts on Thursday.
Signup and make your team here: http://www.sldreamteam.co.uk/
Then join the mini league called TTH using the pin 10011 and password tth1
:thbup:
Is that one where you update it every weekend? I can't be bothered with that.
Unfortunately, I reckon Wigan will win it this year. I just hope they use John Bateman properly in doing so, because I'm not watching him stink up the Four Nations at centre.
No you can just leave it once it's done. The cutoff is Thursday so most people forget to make subs/transfers anyway.
You should signup, if only to get pounded by my team. :nod:
Is the TTH mini-league just you? I might as well.
The consensus seems to be that the Roosters are going to chuck Mitchell Pearce (he's only got a year left on his contract, so any long ban makes it pointless keeping him), so I might wait to see whether Salford sign him. It's a good job camera phones weren't around when Andrew Johns was playing. Imagine the precedents the NRL would have set letting him get away with everything to keep him from leaving the code. :drool:
Between him and Lockyer running a muck on Caxton Street in his early 20's.
The Seven's in Wellington start in a few weeks, I havent been keep tabs what is going on but hear USA have beaten New Zealand a few times already.
Nah he was a pest when he was younger. Im not sure if you remember but he was staying at big Dells place in Sydney when Sailor got a a 2 year ban for cocaine use. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1111114319999
He might not have dabbled as much as Joey but plenty of people my age who grew up in Brisbane have a friend of a friend Lockyer being a bit of a drunk cunt story.
The Broncos are a protected species in Brisbane. Not much makes it's way to the papers.
Big Dell. :cool:
'I have a problem with alcohol and I need help', sez Pearce. Grow up, mate.
All it needed was a simple sorry for being a bit of dick. I'll donate one afternoon a week for the rest of the year coaching the local under 6's.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/...lcohol-problem
"Together with the club I'm working on a solution for me to address the issues which will come out in the next couple of days.
"I just want to thank everyone for turning up and I apologise again."
Pearce was exposed in a video shot on Australia Day in a highly intoxicated state and involved in a distasteful interaction with a dog.
Speculation has been that Pearce will be stripped of the Roosters captaincy, fined A$50,000 and suspended from the Roosters' UK trip for the World Club Challenge.
The NRL is said to be considering a ban in the vicinity of six matches.
What a load of shit.
Agreed, what a knob jockey!
Yeah knob but a bit of an overreaction.
So he got pissed up on Australia Day?
How un-Australian. Country's fucked cobber.
What on earth is a 'cabcharge'? At least this has probably distracted from our lot tearing up the Manly Wharf Hotel this year.
Okay so now it's coming out that Mitch Pearce and the 3 other Roosters were using cocaine.
SKY SOURCES say Wayne Bennett is the new England coach. Are there any other Wayne Bennetts who they might have appointed by mistake?
Nope he is seething at not getting the Australian job and said he would coach another nation.
He's coached them before hasn't he?
Twice, and the second time he conspired to make a right mess of it (relatively speaking). This is interesting because the recent near misses have been easy to blame on Steve McNamara being a clueless twat. Having not just an actual coach, but Wayne-fucking-Bennett, should give us a better idea of where our best squad in ages stand.
The Kiwis miraculously became world beaters when he assisted Steven Kearney, so no doubt the English are now the side to beat.
League is back. :drool:
It's going to be a long season for Rovers (I was going to go to the opener on Sunday, but Andy Bell put me off), and I'm also going back on my Wigan prediction. I had forgotten how good Leeds' forwards look now we don't all have to pretend Jamie Peacock was still good.
Why do teams announce their line-ups several days in advance of a match? In this modern era of professionalism and all it always strikes me as a bit anachronistic.
I don't think Leeds have realised the season's started.
Sir Kevin Sinfield wouldn't have passed up those points in the first half. Zak Hardaker kicking all season. :sick:
The usual feelings of confidence when you're hanging around murrayfield on opening day have kicked in. Reserved confidence, but confidence nonetheless. Hard to say it's backed up by greater pragmatism this time around, but I'd venture the XV today is the strongest in around 8 or 9 years. Set piece will decide a lot. Ford has to hit his throws and Johnny needs to get his calls right. Scrum should be solid enough with the Embra trio in fine form - I'd be concerned were Vunipola starting, will take an out of form Marler against Nel anytime.
Queenslander will be happy to know that Dave Taylor looked bigger than ever in his specially-made XXXXL Catalan shirt (the slimming black away version), but he'll still have a right laugh against most teams in better conditions.
Fucking hell, Italy.
The Lions are going to get absolutely molested in NZ. 3-0 and no survivors.
I've no idea whether Jones will be any good for England, but whenever I've seen him speaking (as just now) you can at least tell he's talking about rugby and not increasing productivity with new office furniture.
I wish I'd been organised enough to watch this now, seeing France lose is the next best thing to beating them yourself.
I watched a couple of their Tuuhp 14 games recently and the standard is really high, pissing on anything in the British/Irish club game. Why are they so shit? 'Because they're French' explains 99% of it I suppose.
Their gameplan consists of 'being French' too, which is your other 1%.
High tackle by Scotland there, get him binned.
Terrible game, this, between two terrible teams.
Is the BBC studio outside? In the middle of February? In Scotland?
Hasn't French rugby (like English football) shit itself by allowing their better teams to pack their key positions with expensive foreigners?
If Scotland can't beat us today they won't ever do so again.
Essentially yes, although it's not quite so chronic because (until recently) international sides wouldn't pick players from foreign clubs.
Will the Irish be able to resist losing their players (I expect England can hold out), or will they fold like Wales?
That kick. Fucking hell. Your old man would still sink that with his eyes closed.
And Australia don't forget. I suspect everyone with the possible exception of New Zealand will fold eventually.
Give up, Scotland. Just... No more.
Wee Jimmy Krankie wasn't happy.
I turned it off before he started speaking.
I've just seen that our last game is in Paris, I'd gladly lose the next three in exchange for battering the French. ISIS better not ruin it.
Fucks sake.
Russell not putting Hoggy in was a 7 point moment for a start...
England defense was impressive but yet again we rue handling errors in key positions.
Massive shame too that Barclay, a man most of the support has been calling for a recall for3 years for (I've been massively vocal on it myself) looked lost, and Cowan immediately improved the blindside.
The commentators billed him at 135kg, which can't be right because this old article about his weight problems had him struggling at 120. :cab:
I've seen him reported at 140kg so good luck getting a full season out of him Catalans.
He is a lazy mess who will disappear in big games. His one trick is popping up in the centres to run over the smallest blokes on the field.
Any other antipodeans playing this season?
Glenn Stewart and Justin Horo have joined Catalans, so their pack should be reasonably handy, Frank Pritchard is already a cult figure at Hull, and Keith Galloway is at Leeds until they realise he's the slowest man on Earth. In the backs, Kurt Gidley is at Warrington, and Robert Lui somehow got a work permit to join Salford.
Your currency picking up really did wonders for our game. Every team used to have half about eight shit Australians (especially after the Super League War sucked the money out of the NRL). Now they're used sparingly.
All the best to all the women of Salford.
Glenn Stewart is a great pick up I reckon.
I haven't followed it closely enough are there any new English players down here this season?
Elliot Whitehead has gone to Canberra, and Joe Burgess (no relation to the others) has gone to the Roosters. Whitehead will be one of the best second-rows in the competition by the end of the year, and Burgess should do well if he doesn't get homesick like Sam Tomkins did.
We should have some Four Nations side once Darius Boyd gets his passport.
:D
Hopefully Bennett can get some English forwards for the Broncos.
Let's see if ITV contrive to ruin the rugby as much as they do the football.
They have had the World Cup since the beginning of time, in fairness.
They had me at 'no Jonathan Davies'.
The Six Nations is opening up nicely for England. Grand Slam decider against France, and confirmation of whether or not the BOTTLER mentality has gone.
Can't believe France are topping the table at the moment. Watched both their games, and they were crap both times.
Made it up to Murrayfield for the opener, which was a great atmosphere. Just watched both games on today also, and gotta say the Scots keep losing, but there's very little in it.
These 'shoulder to shoulder' Facebook profile pictures are the stuff of wankers.
Happily France are unlikely to be top tomorrow afternoon.
Danny Cipriani back to Wasps, and they are trying to get Pocock.
Wasps have made an audacious attempt to bring David Pocock to the English Premiership, in a potential deal that would make the Australia flanker the highest-paid rugby player in the world.
The feelgood factor has only been enhanced by the capture of Danny Cipriani, their prodigal son, on Tuesday (NZ time). Despite interest from Harlequins and Toulon, Cipriani returned to his boyhood club on a three-year deal worth an estimated £400,000 (NZ$870,000) a year, after activating a break clause in his Sale contract.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/i...estpaid-player
Sabbatical with a bit of study on the side then he will be back for the next world cup.
We will lose a few players for a bit them they will come back 2 years out.
How would they get that under their salary cap? Do they do the league thing of paying wives lol salaries to do an afternoon in the club shop?
It's the World Club Challenge this weekend. 3-0 Australia again. Shit. Keep an eye out for John Bateman if you watch the Broncos' match, Queens. He'll be donning the NRL before long.
I do like them wide running forwards. :drool:
Hopefully My Bennett directs him to the Broncos.
Do you know much about this bloke http://www.broncos.com.au/team/profiles/greg_eden.html? @Lewis
He looked like a bit of a natural when he first came through, but eventually he was such an inconsistent waste of a shirt that everybody was completely mystified by the Broncos being interested. Nathan Brown calling him 'England's Billy Slater' at Huddersfield didn't do him any favours, but if he was that shit he would surely have been cut by now (he isn't exactly young), so somebody obviously likes him.
Well in, Saints. Ten minutes is a definite improvement on last year.
Baz, this is the worst Saints team I've ever seen. The entire squad has four decent players (RIP Jonny Lomax), and two of them are James Roby.
One out, one dropped, and both Lewis Tierney's fault. He's Jason Robinson's son! He's also crap.
That was good, as is the TTH-style post-defeat hand-wringing. Big pitches. Small pitches. Not enough pitches. Too many pitches.
Coming over here with your slaps. Aussie Twitter is seething.
In other news, Leeds were good for a half, and then their kids shit themselves. Not that the result matters when somebody gets GUBBED. :drool:
What a punch. Why offer a little slap like the Aussie guy did? You just know you're getting gubbed.
Girlfriend is a Rhinos fan and went tonight, so might follow the rugger a little more again. I 'ope Sentelens are still decent.
Because in Australia they go into MELTDOWN whenever somebody throws a punch (if that had been an NRL game a million State of the Game articles would currently be underway), so shithouse players throw little slaps around thinking that nothing will happen.
I'm surprised at that. I thought they'd be bang up for it.
If you just sent everyone off for deliberate head contact like they do in football you could eliminate it, but their 'no punching' rule is loose enough to allow daft slaps, sly headbutts, and all that sort of shit. Their problem down there is that they have convinced themselves that every such incident or piece of off-field idiocy drives ten families (all about the families) to the AFL or 'soccer', so they make a big deal of NO PUNCHING but end up looking stupid when it solves nothing.
Every sport bar football only seems to be five minutes away from a State of the Game exchange these days. Union is having a shocking one about the Six Nations being rubbish at the moment. It is rubbish, but what do you want to do about it? Just enjoy the game.
I went to the match today, and the Australians pissing on us this weekend got a few people into moaning about how poorly rugby league is run compared to football and whatever other examples they could think of. Rugby league is definitely run by [well-meaning] idiots, but they weren't having it that football is too, and that it succeeds in spite of its administrators. If tens of millions of people liked rugby league, and threw their money at everything rugby league-related, a fucking monkey could make a success of that as well.
I know very little about rugby league but from afar it strikes me as fairly well run compared to many other sports, given that it has no potential for expansion whatsoever and a pretty limited market even within its own boundaries. There is a point at which you just have to accept that Australians generally do beat us at sport because they have massive concentrated population centres with old sporting institutions that make sense, their weather is much better, and they all have a chip on their shoulder that drives them on.
Whenever this sort of panning happens we start stressing about what they do differently, but it's simply more popular in Australia. It doesn't dominate everywhere, but New South Wales and Queensland (half of the population) are solid league territories, so it has effective first call on their human and financial resources. Here it's clearly a very, very distant second to football. In football terms we're Portugal and they're Spain. We can produce quality individuals, and sometimes enough of them at once to form a competitive national team, but we don't have their depth at any level.
I'd like to go on record to say Jordan Lilley is the worst player to ever wear a Leeds shirt.
Dan Biggar looks like he needs the toilet every time he takes a kick.
That first half was genuinely disgraceful. They really need to sort the scrum rules out (and liquidise Wayne Barnes) because as a wavering on-off viewer I'm on the off side if the sport is going to be played like that.
It was turgid and not in a northern hemisphere stick it up your jumper way (ie great) but in a scrappy error strewn way. A proper French team wouldn't have poked away at the try line with a whole line of backs wasting away outside them. The Welsh will win as they have a couple of players who can score all on their own.
Yeah, it's basically 100% France's fault that it's so shit - not sure about this new policy of picking as few Frenchmen as possible - although the Welsh don't appear to have any bottle either.
Nice assist from Plisson there.
The commentary on this game is the best thing about it. Jonathan Davies and Brian Moore just going off on rants, regardless of whether or not the other is already talking, and Eddie Butler in his optimal fixture for faithful surname pronunciation.
How did France bottle that drive?
Even with a potential 17% less Jonathan Davies I still have the sound off.
This is without a doubt the worst French side I've ever seen. France always used to carry that potential to be brilliant out of nowhere, this lot look like they've been suffocated.
You never used to get people wanting to lie in front of the ball like that, not more than once anyway.
That 15 minute spell of 'dominance' was embarrassing. The first team I've seen who don't even look threatening with ten people on the opposition try line.
They've looked better with Trihn Duc on but still don't look like scoring.
Well, Brian Moore has just won the Six Nations by saying 'It's not hard when you're up against a gameplan developed by Inspector Clouseau'.
:D He must have had a lovely time.
Ace? He probably couldn't even put me on the floor.
oh and lol in yo face etc
Did the idiot dressed as Batman prowling the sidelines make it onto Sky? What a sport.
I go out for half an hour and Italy make quick work of chucking this away.
The indiscipline by us is so poor and it's been that way for years and years now, under several regimes.
We tend to concede about twice as many penalties as I would like.
Didn't realise Twickenham played music when a team scores.
When did they ban tackling?
Phew.
Stuart Lancaster England would have crumpled after that Irish try, so Eddie Jones is a genius.
We'll probably let them back into it now.
England :hail:
Nothing wrong with that, bit of good old fashioned rucking.
Shafted. :drool:
Two more absolutely terrible teams. It's a little bit chronic.
If England weren't the mentally weakest team going they'd have scored 40+.
I thought England were ok, although a better team would have buried them with those two binnings.
Oh we're lovely 40 metres out, but we completely bossed the first half and only came away with 6 pikey points because we kept bottling it inside the 22, as always.
We literally can't cope when we have injuries to first choice players. The depth just isn't there. We can close the gap in quality through hard work and putting the tackles (when we're not missing the fuckers), but it shows massively in the last quarter of the match.
I thought we seemed pretty comfortable. Owen Farrell bombed about ten 'kickable' points, and the defence held.
Aye, a couple of breaks aside I didn't think we were going to get over the line beyond kicking it into the corner and mauling it over. We're quite uninspiring to watch at the minute.
I'm not sure how anyone could type that headline unironically without bursting into flames.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35680242
THE BUNKER. :drool:
Fucking nine o'clock starts. I'll get into it once the clocks change. 'Mon the Warriors letting everybody - literally everybody - down again.
Cracking start lads.
Geoff Toovey would have won that game 40-0. FACT.
Speaking of shit, I only saw some extended highlights from the lolamatta vs Brisbane game, but all of the reports said Greg Eden melted. Bless.
If Kurtley Beale signs for Wasps I hope they bring his family and hire a huge team of minders to keep him away from alcohol because he is an absolute cunt when he goes off the rails.
OUR Brad Thorn has offered to train and possibly play with the first team once his duties with the under 20's has finished for the year.
41 years old and going strong. It'd be a shame if he was shit and ruined his legacy, although I suppose he knows that's the risk and he simply doesn't care about that stuff and is only interested in playing for his love of the game.
Sandow's dropgoal as the hooter went was something special. :drool:
Adam Swift Man Of Steel this season.
I'll go Luke Gale. Yer man Jordan Lilley Young Player of the Year.
If that happens, I'll get his name tattooed on my neck. Lilley, that is.
This reminds me actually. I need to order my derby ticket before they sell out. I was thinking of giving it a miss, but Tony Christie is the pre-match headliner (what a sport), so now I feel like I have to.
Is the 1998 or the 2000 team considered the best?
I had to go back and check but I reckon 2000 was the more impressive Grand Final win.
Brad Thorn
Brisbane Broncos, 1994 Rookie of the Year[20]
Brisbane Broncos award for Best Forward, 1997, 2000 and 2006[20]
Brisbane Broncos award for Most Consistent, 2005[20]
Brisbane Broncos award for Defence Play of the Year, 2007[20]
Identified as one of the Broncos' 20 best players to play for the club[21]
Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league
And in the other code, Super Rugby title winner and World Cup winner.
Not a bad career really.
I had dinner with Brad Thorn at his place once, when he played for Brisbane. He was sort of an extended friend of the family for a bit.
If you exclude the nobodies and the loonies, Keith Galloway is on track to be the worst import we've had in a long time. They gave him a three year deal as well. Christ.
Is Rugby League slowly getting less juniors coming through? @Lewis?
Super League seems to be producing more decent youngsters than ever. Leeds signed Galloway (if that is the connection) because they wanted an experienced forward to replace Jamie Peacock. Peacock was pretty much the best forward we've ever produced though, so looking for any sort of replacement was a bit of a waste of time.
This is going to be perfectly set up for us to throw it away in the second half.
BOTTLING IT is a thing of the past. Or it will be until we bin it against France.
Itoje is an absolute monster, the RFU need to grow a few more like him.
That half was pretty perfect.
The fabled Welsh pressing defence has half shat itself too, which is enormously amusing.
Wales look to be offside 50% of the time.
Send him off. Ban him forever. Get lost, Natalie Bennett.
'Time-waste! Time-waste! Time-waste!'
Stick it up your jumper and ruck them to death.
Lol at the ITV commentators, they spent the last 10 minutes wondering why Wales didn't play that way earlier in the game. I wonder if it had anything to do with the man advantage that corresponded exactly with that period of play. It's as if they aren't even watching.
What is the opinion of Eddie Jones at the moment?
Four from four and if we beat France it's all ok with me, a promising start all things considered.
Has battled with the media and the clubs?
Leicester weren't thrilled that Tuilagi was brought back so soon after his injuries but that's been about it.
The tour of Australia should be pretty brutal.
Is there any reason not to go huge on France @ just over Evens?
They're France.
Scotland have never beaten them in the 6 Nations but then again France have never been this bad.
This is truly a sight for sore eyes. Pile on the misery please.
Cheers, Scotland.
This is a half decent French team by recent standards, they get the ball wide and into the bet back line they've had into a whole very quickly and are competent in defence. Their pack is, as ever, monstrous. Make no mistake, whilst not one of the great French teams it's not one of their worst either.
Atmosphere in Edinburgh is better than ever, obviously. Nearly missed it. I was taking my mum this time and she bailed at the last minute due to an infection so instead of having her stay over and an early night, I went on the sesh and got to bed about 4 hours before I was due to leave the house. Bad choice. Had 3 sausage sarnies in the airport whilst queuing for the plane as o turned up with 30 mins to go.
Would not have missed this one for the world. Huge shifts by Richie, Hardy, Barclay and Taylor but Hoggy made everything tick. Especially important too was Horne playing well when Russell went off so early, when he's really very much a 12 that can cover 10 rather than an out and out stand off.
Party time.
I bet you've already started building your hopes for next year.
1. No, they're not. Livremonts France and the first three years of st Andre were worse.
2. I wondered if he was getting at that. In north and east of Scotland it's very posh, absolutely, but in the west of Scotland (outside Glasgow - I.e. Ayrshire, cambuslang, etc) it's not at all posh, just massively outnumbered in terms of active spectators and participants by football. But a Glasgow Warriors game is attended by normal, working class folk in the main.
In the true rugby heart land meanwhile - the borders, it's like Wales, in that it is class-less and their main sport and a huge part of their cultural identity.
Shit for France means being functional. This lot might never hit the lows of some previous French teams, but you could never imagine them bothering a proper side.
I was literally about to post that rugby people probably voted no before he posted that. What a stupid, petty country.
Totally missed that.
Fair one.
But I will point out that the SNP had a strong showing at rugby games around 12/13 and that he's posted a pic of 18 of Scotland caps from a pool of around 700 that are still alive. And of them, 5 are making money from British broadcasters and so have an invested economic interest.
The more I reflect and watch highlights over, the more convinced I am that his round was the best in the 6N for some time. 21 tries, Ireland somehow being entertaining again, the Welsh in one of their classic last 20 minutes 'plan A hasn't worked so let's actually play some heads up rugby' performances falling short for once, England bringing the most abrasive performance of the tournament with plenty of attacking spark and of course Scotland v France being littered with excellent attacking invention and a couple of the tries of the tournament with Hoggy's inspired over the head for Visser and Taylor's 60 metre tap and go.
Itoje is something else. Never mind people questioning how Youngs beat JJ to the MOTM award, Itoje was frighteningly dominant. A one man platform with his carries, line out, maul work and clearing out rucks like a man 6 inches shorter. His body positioning with and over the ball is the best I've ever seen from a lock. England are sorted at 5 for the next decade with him.
Interesting battle for a few Lions shirts. Hoggy is nailed on for 15, I'd take Itoje and JJ as well, but they're less safe. Biggar is unopposed at 10.
At scrum half its anyone's guess. Youngs has put his hand up, but Laidlaw and the two Welshmen aren't far off, whilst if Murray can rediscover his form, he's probably the most natural 9 in the NH.
8 is a fascinating battle between Vunipola and Faletau. In the front row there's not a Welshman to be seen, which is odd. Gats is picking again obviously so Wales will have far too many representatives.
He's 'nailed on' if Leigh Halfpenny dies.
I'd expect only to the same extent they correlate with posh schools and upper class areas.
I can't really comment on the rest of Scotland but rugby was a complete non-entity here until about six or seven years ago. It's slowly been growing in popularity since - not least because the newly energised club were awarded funding to employ a "development officer" / schools botherer - but it's still mostly played by people who were either shit at football. I should probably take it up, tbh.
Not liking a sport because of the way you perceive its participants to vote in a referendum is pretty odd. Cricket is packed full of communists, so I guess I should be packing my bags.
Rugby is the same here. Only for the privileged and West Brits but they're making hay at the moment due to all the bandwagon jumpers of late who are trying to believe they belong to that.
I actively want 'Ireland' to lose every game they play so its new found popularity can die the death it deserves. Plus, the involvement with that shower to our north just makes it doubly sickening.
God I hate it when other people enjoy things.
He might as well be already. Since arriving in Toulon he's hardly been available and will struggle to oust Williams in the Welsh side at 15 now hat he's established. With Biggar at 10, there's no need for a kicking 15 though I see him taking 14 from Cuthbert when fit.
Waff is right, more miserable pessimists is what the Scots need.
I love the way he just stops mid-sentence. Mate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35834956
I bet the RFU has been in MELTDOWN all afternoon.
We need Harold back to tell us if Gypsy is a race or not.
As if any Australian coach is ever going to feed the media with more talking points for that 7 day old story. Go Eddie!
Eddie Jones is such a prick. Prick at the world cup, prick at Saracens (well, that's hardly out of place).
Smarmy uber-Australian prick.
:D
A lot people in Australia think the is a prick as well just quietly. He fucked over the Reds really badly in his only season with us by treating younger players like shit and scaring off Pocock, O'Connor and Mowen.
Quality International coach now though and I hope he returns to the Wallabies one day.
I've never had much of an opinion on him but I'm quite ok with him being a prick for us.
The referee has already ruined this. Still, the pre-match had Mr. Italy dismissing criticism of their participation by pointing out that they're better than Scotland, and Warren Gatland convincing himself that they were better than England (which bodes well for the Lions selection).
If they were going to get rid of teams for being shit we'd be down to England, France, and maybe Ireland by now.
The Italians are genuinely dreadful though. Losing to them would be a disgrace for any team which isn't Scotland.
Weren't Ireland only about Scotland-level until the last decade? Their application to join the Three Nations would be pending.
Gatland, with O'Gara and O'Driscoll made Ireland a force only just over a decade ago. They had previously traditionally hopped around 3rd, 4th, 5th always with 3 or 4 world class players (Willie John McBride and Keith Wood were both probably the best players in their position, in the world in their day) but never really a title challenger.
Scotland up until the 6N were traditionally a top 3 team, with a title once a decade or so.
Wales were pretty damn shite until that Twickers win - a lot like France, lot's of good players but utter bottlers and lots of in-fighting between the Neath and Swansea and Cardiff and Ponty boys. The regions put an end to that too, obviously.
Worried here. Johnny Gray is a big loss, one I feel Ben Toolis would have largely mitigated (particularly in disrupting Best's throw and showing Toner is all size and no technique), but Harley I think might struggle. He's not a lock. Swinson off the bench will weaken the line out too. I also wonder whether giving 20 odd kgs up in the second row at scrum time is why Wilson is preferred to Strauss at 8.
Russell's absence is alsos likely to be felt, Weir is in great form since announcing he's off to the Library next year but he's a very different player, won't play flat and fix a defence in the way that Finn would or that Horne did last week. The latter off the bench if we're losing with 20 to go, no doubt.
Cracking play acting from Sexton.
Excellent.
This has been a bollocks game (the five minutes of rugby between scrums has been alright), but GRAND SLAM.
'I'm Owen Farrell. I'm from Wiggin me.'
Cheika. Another uber-Aussie prick.
Stiffed us properly over Taquele Naiyarovoro who will unboubtedly end up no closer to the Aussie XV, but hey - he wants him on the fringes so you we have him.
It's a good vintage for England, to state the obvious, to think Jamie George is on that bench...
What a shit year of rugby that was.
Eddie V Chieka in June :drool:
lol at Semi Radradradradradra threatening to go to union if he can't play for New South Wales/Australia (French/Japanese union as well, since he isn't eligible for Australia with his sevens caps). lol also at me spending actual money on a derby ticket. They're going to get felt right up.
Easter rugby. :cool:
Easter rugby indeed. :cool: Saints vs Wigan on Good Friday should be as fiery as ever.
Well that was special.
Huddersfield v Salford. Fuck.
Looks like The Salford players that jumped in are being backed up by eye witnesses as trying to protect their kids. Scrapping with their own fans after a win must be unprecedented surely?
Mancs.
Never a dull moment at Salford. Still, at least they won and kept Rovers off the bottom (for now).
The man looks great in Reds gear.
https://www.facebook.com/QldReds/vid...3920762000236/
It's difficult to see beyond the Broncos this season. Way too much talent, and Milford is really turning it on.
Their match against North Queensland was spectacular. The Broncos aren't unstoppable, but they have to slip up themselves and the opposition has to be at their best, I think.
I think Parra have chance if they are lucky with injuries and they keep passing the ball to Semi Radradra.
I've never seen a twenty-one year old doing what Anthony Milford does (and certainly not with his consistency). He's ridiculous, and he should be playing 'rep footy'.
Broncos > Josh Hodgson > Bulldogs > Penrith > Everyone else > Warriors > Trent Barrett
Milford is banned from Origin this year for breaking curfew at a pre season origin camp. lol
http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/stat...ae60e5f96cc22f
Oh yeah. Well, just Australia then. They should really be phasing the likes of him (and James Tedesco, and them Yugoslavs at Manly) in for 2017, but I bet they're still counting on Billy Slater and Paul Gallen.
Who gets nilled at home by Catalan? Fucking hell. I saw Ben Hunt was back on it today. Give them the trophy now.
Broncos to win all their Origin games. :drool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljeQAHl4fI
This sort of dominance usually ends up with a salary cap scandal. 2001 Parramatta are the embarrassing exception, since they somehow save those for being terrible, but their points record is at risk at this rate. Mental. Unless both halves get run over, everyone else might as well start planning for 2018.
Do we not care about head high tackles in league anymore? He might have prevented the try if he went mid-height actually.
Also first time I've seen a lady touch judge in league. Well done to her.
Nice to see Jordan Lilley having an absolute stinker of a game. The useless shitbag.
He's donning it, and no less an authority than Stevo has just tipped him for Young Player of the Year.
They will struggle to keep Matt Gillet I reckon but Bennet usually has set prices for props and wingers so it's fair to say it should be under control. They have lost a lot of players over the years though. Also they have like 3-4 feeder clubs in the Queensland Cup with plenty of talent on the books.
The Broncos have been a tad dodgy before paying shit blokes through the Leagues club but players have signed on for less money to be around Bennett and a winning Broncos team in the past.
Brad Thorn has signed his first Bronco for the Reds recently as well. Caleb Timu was a beast as a Union school boy player.
When you look at the squad there won't actually be that many big earners, since the likes of Corey Parker and Sam Thaiday will come with a load of salary cap exemptions (plus half their income will be third party stuff), and Darius Boyd probably plays for free so his head doesn't melt. I bet it's only the two halves on major money, and as long as they keep them together I could probably look decent at left centre.
It's a shame the Jack Reed isn't working out, they definitely need to get a sports science bloke to work on his speed.
His defence is solid, and he knows his limitations, so hopefully he is fit for the Four Nations. It will be a nice change for Ryan Hall not to have a complete pleb throwing the ball at his head or getting slammed into touch. Again, not that it matters. I could look good at stand-off provided all of our forwards are fit.
8. George Burgess
9. Josh Hodgson (fresh from his Dally M victory)
10. James Graham
11. Sam Burgess
12. Elliott Whitehead
13. Sean O'Loughlin
14. James Roby
15. Tom Burgess
16. Chris Hill
17. John Bateman
:cool:
Pretty mean forward pack and could easily bash the Kangaroos around.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...eague-1-canada
That should be interesting.
What sort of nutter is going to fund that? Just shelling out for the Rochdale Hornets to go on a jolly.
Probably Luca. The Toronto Gook Wranglers, with him screaming on the badge.
That sounds like a silly way to burn a pile of money.
The Toronto Wolfpack. :cool:
My name was better, but they've got an all-black kit, will play home and away in blocks of five, and they're going to pay for the other teams to travel, so this is exciting and/or mental. On the other hand, they've given Brian Noble a job, which these days is the rugby league equivalent of hiring Harry Redknapp (although Paul Rowley is the actual manager)
Blocks of 5 makes it very interesting actually and is exactly what super duper 18 should have tried to do with the Japanese and the Argies.
Will they be invited into the Super League if they have a few good seasons?
They will need to get promoted through two divisions, but if it works (and looks sustainable) they will probably end up finding a way to invite them in.
I think the distance issue is being over-stated, seeing as London (or Hunslet) to Toronto is only the same as Auckland to Perth. It's simply a case of whether they have the finances to establish themselves, since you would expect them to be able to attract a better standard of player than their immediate competition. Either way, I think I'm going to buy one of their shirts. If it works then my hipster credentials are secured, and if it flops I will always have a shirt from that lol attempt to get a team going in fucking Toronto.
Oh yeah, and lol at everybody pretending that they support Kieran Foran. You can't miss a test match, let alone bail on the team you captain, because your lass dumped you. Ray Price must be spewing.
:D
I don't see how it could work out unless they sign a bunch of English, Australians and Kiwis with Canadian passports. Good point about the travel that shouldn't be an issue at all because It's the amount of time zones crossed that is a huge bummer for travelling teams.
I was going through the USA Pro Rugby Union teams the other day and noticed Timana Tahu was playing for one of them. He would be perfect for that Toronto mob.
Im pretty confused about bloody Aussie Semi being allowed to play for the Kangaroos but not allowed to play Origin. Off the top of my head I think he is the first bloke to pull that off.
Jamie Peacock claims to have been approached, so it will presumably be a mix of jobbers, local union crossovers, and the odd big name (Willie Mason's involvement is surely inevitable). Their plan is to have about six local players at first, but they would obviously need more to sustain themselves and get into Super League.
Picking Radradradradradra is a joke, and Corey Oates must be seething.
It just shows that the NRL gives zero fucks about International League. They could have easily used the WARCHEST and used Semi as the face of Fijian Rugby League.
Regional mentality continues to prevent League from being relevant outside of QLD and NSW.
It's difficult to get right as far as the actual rules go, since making them too restrictive would only prevent the likes of Fiji and Samoa calling Australians up and fielding competitive sides; but how hard would it have been to just not pick him (and paid him to promote Fijian league, like you said)? The quote about the Palestinians 'never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity' describes league perfectly. Once the broadcasting and season ticket money is already in the bank, everything else is fair game to be ballsed up.
League just can't get out of it's own way. Victoria still hasn't produced one professional league player despite being around for almost 20 years and there are plenty of Sydney clubs scratching to break even.
The NRL is bloody lucky with grass roots in New South Wales and Queensland. It feels like every suburb in Brisbane has a junior leagues club with at least one field and pokies room attached as standard.
I think the nature of league as a lesser-known sport leads it to being run by 'passionate' people rather than people who actually know what they're doing, and it's noticeable what happens when you either get a smart chairman (Leeds, Wigan) or somebody comes in from outside and starts asking questions. Having said that, the English clubs are currently said to be more profitable than ever. It's probably because the salary cap has barely increased in a decade, and because expensive imports are all but finished, but the general feeling is that they have finally (twenty years on) hit upon a sustainable system.
I would fancy New South Wales if they picked the Canberra halves and James Tedesco. Which they won't (Tedesco might be injured anyway).
Picking the Canberra halves would be the best imaginable choice.
It would, but Mitchell Pearce is back tomorrow, so...
Wash your mouth out.
Mitchell Pearce and Josh Reynolds, with Robbie Farah kicking the goals. Speaking of kicking goals, Jordan Lilley was class again tonight, Baz. He looks like the best young half since Sam Tomkins, so get on board before it's too late.
That's the big issue isn't it no one ever asks the hard questions. The biggest thing that comes to mind at the moment is why doesnt anyone question the culture of treating the refs like cunts? The culture of expecting perfect refereeing is beyond a joke and the leeway that Trent Robinson got with going all out on the number 1 ref in the game is bizarre. He can't ref them anymore because it will be weird and he can't not ref them because it sets a precedent for dickhead coaches going forward.
Hard to be pissed off at that annihilation, because that Talanda finish was boss.
Fuck off Lewis etc
Keiron Cunningham is so far OUT OF HIS DEPTH that you feel a bit sorry for him.
My building is named after him. :D
Jarryd Hayne's off to play sevens for Fiji in the Olympics then.
:cab:
Drug testing questions and fitness questions come to mind. He couldn't make the Aussie 7's team let alone the best team in the world.
Then onto the Roosters for the end of the season.
Marwan Koukash, legendary Salford owner who interacts with his own parody account and offers a fifteen per cent discount at his plush hotel if you sign a declaration that you 'hate the RFL' (seriously), has reacted to being docked points for salary cap infringements by gathering support for a vote of no confidence in the governing bodies. :cool:
There seems to be a widespread sense of 'You wot mate?' over this New South Wales squad, and rightly so. Planning to every game 4-0 didn't work last year, so this year let's go for 6-0 by picking proper kickers.
That's a good way of putting it. Nothing of threat in the halves and no creativity in the backrow and Jennings would be the only centre/wing that could beat a first tackler.
Sterlo is right and they need to move on from the Gallen years and have a go with a young team for once.
They've gone with a newish team, by the looks of it. No Bird, no Morris, no Pearce. Jennings is still there, of course.
Truthfully, there's just not the talent to beat Queensland, no matter what they do. Even if they got every selection right, as long as Queensland don't implode, NSW won't get near winning.
Im pretty sure Bird is there.
Blake Austin, Lachlan Coote, James Roberts on the wing and Junior Paulo should be considered surely?
I disagree with that. New South Wales could field a much stronger set of forwards if a normal person was selecting them (and still will), and, unless Josh Dugan is allowed to shit up the centres with his refusal to pass, they are as strong from one to five seeing as Billy Slater is dead. It's only in the halves that they trail, but, seeing as the current Queensland pair always seem to stifle each other, somebody like Blake Austin could have caused them all sorts of problems like Josh Reynolds did in 2014. No Michael Ennis is the real crime though.
Those are all changes that could have happened, but let's face it, players like Ennis aren't going to change the result. He's a good player and all, but he's not going to create anything other than a bit of aggression and quick darts at the line.
Blake Austin is the only one that could matter at all, and even that's not nearly going to bring them into the ballpark. Forwards are important, but it's a back's game. And saying that Josh Reynolds caused "all sorts of problems" is definitely reading a little too much into his roles. He was alright, but let's not go overboard.
Forwards keep you in the game, but backs win it.
EDIT: Bird is there, but as 18th man. He won't be on the pitch. Just sharing his professional expertise, presumably. Teaching them how to hold the bottle so it doesn't shatter in your hand. Stuff like that.
They need take more of a risk with players who can take the creative pressure off 6 and 7. It just feels same old same old and very safe.
Do we even have decent-quality creative players elsewhere on the park? I mean, I assume that's why they called up "utility player" Dylan Walker. But if that's the point in the barrel we're scraping, then I'm honestly not sure it matters who lines up next week. They could have a dozen do-overs with a dozen different teamlists, and NSW simply won't find the creativity to get close. I mean, maybe they should have selected Jarrod Croker, who can play the ball a bit. But really, there's just nobody sitting on the sidelines good enough to tip the balance.
That's true and I dont watch close to enough NRL to comment. Just going from the gut... :cool:
The gut is saying too many props and that Dugan and Ferguson are pretty meh.
St George have lost every game that Dugan has played at center. He's a very adequate fullback, but he's just not a ball-handing player.
Ferguson is meh, but at least decent meh. The tragic thing is that if you start identifying problems in the team, it'll be a while before you get to him.
Back in the good old days Semi would have played for the Blues and the team would looked far more positive on paper.
From what has actually been selected they can still field a pretty creative side provided Dugan and his METERS (he doesn't play against Greg Inglis every week, stats) aren't allowed to ruin it.
Moylan
Mansour
Jennings
Morris
Ferguson
That is probably better than whatever Queensland will put out. Throw in Greg Bird playing as an actual ball-playing (English-style) loose forward, rather than somebody driving it in every time as will actually happen, and there is some potential there. But yes, they've picked the wrong halves so it probably won't matter. This is basically how England have approached every test since we last had two decent halves in 1990.
Morris is 18th man.
Also, that's not better than the Queensland side. There's a reason the Broncos and Cowboys are running the competition. Blake Austin isn't going to change that. He's part of the "right halves", but he's not nearly so right as to be the difference. Not unless he's secretly reincarnated Andrew Johns or something.
Exactly. Morris should be playing because 1) he is an actual centre; and 2) he is a proven big game player, in which case you would get:
Moylan > Boyd-Bennett
Mansour > Oates
Jennings < Inglis
Morris > O'Neil
Ferguson > Gagai (although they are both meh)
You can write the halves off, but the forwards could still make the difference. Brisbane and North Queensland are the best teams because they have the best halves pairings (pairings who complement each other), but the latter was given the edge by their forwards in the Grand Final, and the last two Sydney champions won it on the back of their forward strength. It's also why New Zealand have been molesting the Australians recently.
That's very harsh on Stacey Jones.
I truly wish that Moylan and Mansour would come out ahead in those comparisons, but I truly don't believe that they do. Would be happy to be wrong.
And most importantly, the forward strength will give you an edge if you're in the same halves ballpark. But New South Wales aren't even close, even if they picked their best possible combination - whoever that happens to be.
Brett Kenny and Peter Sterling.
I really would have preferred Inglis at fullback with Boyd-Bennett on one of the wings and Chambers playing right centre. Dickhead Myles is bloody lucky that LOYALTY is still a thing because McGuire is clearly a much better player.
Gagai is there because that Holmes bloke broke Kevie's curfew.
Having previously been his biggest fan, I've come to dislike Inglis at full-back. He doesn't score or create enough tries to be an excellent attacking full-back (at least not with any consistency), he doesn't chew up the meters like he should, and, whilst his tackling is brilliant, he doesn't defend well enough to be a completely dependable last man. I want to see him at thirteen like a fat Brad Fittler.
Michael Maguire stuck Sam Tomkins at full-back and wrecked his knees, so there might be a pattern there.
13 would be ideal but he's a bit fat for a
Proper workload. I just like the idea of him hanging around the ruck like a good running fullback.
He definitely goes missing in the centres though and hasnt got the passing game to be a 6 at origin level.
Maybe put him on the wing and come in for work?
Sam Tomkins should be a lesson to all English Super Stars to play in Brisbane or Sydney and no where else!
He should just stay at centre. Even when he has a quiet game there it basically negates his opposing centre and winger because they're too busy marking him to have any attacking effect.
Canberra seems like the place to be at the moment. :cool:
That's true.
What's happening in Canberra?
Can someone please give me an update on Leroy Houston's form? Word on the street is that he has signed for the Reds and will be called up to the Wobs for the English series.
Australia squad for England Test series:
The forwards pick themelves no idea what the backline will look like though.Quote:
Forwards: Allan Alaalatoa, Rory Arnold, Sam Carter, Adam Coleman, Scott Fardy, Liam Gill, James Hanson, Greg Holmes, Michael Hooper, James Horwill, Leroy Houston, Sekope Kepu, Ben McCalman, Sean McMahon, Stephen Moore, Dean Mumm, Wycliff Palu, David Pocock, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Rob Simmons, Scott Sio, Will Skelton, James Slipper, Toby Smith
Backs: Israel Folau, Bernard Foley, Nick Frisby, Mike Harris, Dane Haylett-Petty, Rob Horne, Karmichael Hunt, Tevita Kuridrani, Christian Lealiifano, Samu Kerevi, Luke Morahan, Eto Nabuli, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Nick Phipps, Joe Powell
I'd like to see this backline at some stage.
9. Phipps
10. Foley
11.Kurindrani
12. Kerevi
13. Folau
14. DHP
15. Hunt
Donning the Welsh with ease, and Eddie Jones reckons English rugby became corporate and 'soft' after 2003. He's so ace.
Dugan is out of game one as well. Happy days.
I watched Canberra yesterday those blokes to win 2 titles in the next 5 years.
I've always associated Ricky Stuart with his 2008 MELTDOWN and BOTTLING a couple of premierships at the Roosters (and called him a chancer), but they are donning it. He loves a Super League signing as well. :cool:
I would love to see Canberra back at the top of the competition.
Imagine if they'd kept Milford. :cab:
Josh Mansour is the only member of the Blues backline who would get near the QLD side. And as usual, having better forwards proved to mean absolutely nothing.
The halves were insipid. Moylan was an accident waiting to happen. Centres were anonymous. Farah was the only back who even tried to achieve anything, and he just wasn't very good at it (although I dread what would have happened if his at-least-attempts at ball-playing were replaced by two dozen Ennis dummy-half runs). Dylan Walker giving the game away was a particularly embarrassing piece of theater.
I missed it, but the highlights and stats make it look like the platform was there had some of the backs (not the halves) not shit the bed. At least Jarryd Hayne will be back next year.
Nah, that doesn't tell the real story. Neither team were letting anyone get through on the run. Lots of forward hit-ups, but that doesn't mean anything if the defences are locking the runners down. Both teams were only really trying to score off kicks by the second half, but neither side really brought their kicking game. The halves basically did what they were told to do, which was risk-free kicks on the fifth play. But the other side was almost always there to counter it, because it was clear that neither side were any threat if they ran the ball.
QLD were the tireder of the two sides in the second half, and basically slowed the play down dramatically from the 41st minute onwards.
You didn't miss much.
I saw James Tamou going to loose forward at the last minute (although he claims to have known about the change since last week) and sighed. The loose forward is there to play the ball a bit, Australia. Otherwise you would just have three second rowers.
If Laurie Dailey doesnt pick Junior Paulo for the next game then he needs to let Phil Gould take over the coaching duties.
George Smith has signed for the Reds next season. The tight forwards have Brad Thorn coaching them and the loose forwards have George Smith as a player coach :drool:
I'm looking forward to these tests. How do you see them going?
I really have no idea. If I were Eddie I'd tell England to kick for the corners in this test because Folau's kicking will give England great feild position for attacking lineouts.
The key for us is our backrow and our centre pairing. Kerivi and Kurindrani are both beasts at breaking the line.
How is George Smith still playing? He's about 60 by now surely?
I assume each series is 3 games?
NZ 3-0 Wales
Aus 3-0 England
SA 2-1 Ireland
He is up there but to be far he was one of the best players in Europe this year. This biggest excitement for me is that Stephen Moore, Brad Thorn and George Smith will be training all the young players at Ballymore next year.
Looking forward to this. No idea if it'll be a good game or not but it's the start of day of England sport so I'm well game.
Every test match should be opened by a rambling old woman.
This is going well.
Fuck Folau you shit cunt!
Soft, corporate England would have folded at 10-0.
Yeah I didn't expect us to turn this around. Still plenty of time for a fuck up but it's nice to see a bit of grit.
Sky really have spared no expense here.
Flipcharts. :drool:
I reckon Clive Woodward is actually frozen in 2003. His post-rugby career fried his brain, so he uses a Motorola flip-phone with a dead number and watches a massive silver telly.
We really need a second kicker in the backline preferably at fullback
I expect that Australia will come back into this and at least make the score more respectable but I'd love us to do the highly un-English thing and push on for a properly big result here.
Yikes Sio can't start next week. Dumb scrummaging against a much better bloke.
Blimey, this is score I like waking up to.
Hopefully Cheika will realise kicking is vital outside of 10.
Under the cosh as soon as we're a man up. How very English.
This should be an interesting finish.
:cool:
You blokes should just play the All Blacks next week.
Honestly thought Australia would be better than that. Super Rugby has been superb this year, but it's clearly not translated into international form yet. Same with the All Blacks.
Could've done without the megawobble but I was pleased as punch when that last try went over.
Eddie Jones, the Emperor of Lang Park. :cool:
What was that South African clown doing? He just has to run straight into the corner and back his finishing, but he comes inside and tries to carry the defenders over with him. Dickhead.
That was a bit rotten from Australia. At least you know they have better in them than that.
Pocock is a huge blow though.
A few great performances in that Aussie team nonetheless, this England team is just scarily good. Best lock partnership in the world allied to a quality front row with ridiculous replacements (Jamie fucking George on the bench?!) and an electric back line. If Ford keeps his form then him and Farrell at 10-12 are up there with the best too. And the ages of the cunts?! It's phenomenal. These lot will make a RWC final at least within the next 7 years and should have a grand slam or two in them.
Wales aren't bringing through that kind of quality (their best prospect is a former England U20 player too), France continue to dwell in the dark ages (oddly, considering their Maverick past) and Ireland, whilst boasting some very special young centres and back rows in their ranks are devoid of balance and ambition.
Basically, England are sickeningly good.
Having said all that, any white Saffer with a British granny or time to kill (3 years) will be over in the UK soon enough getting capped by the Pro 12 nations due to the new SA rules. That could help out any team that has a few gaps (a la WP Nel).
We need a couple scrum halves, no 8's and locks if any of them care to head to Perth for a 3 years.
What's the Aussies view on project players?
They are more than happy for Western Australia to have a few because they arent quite there yet with their own pathways. I think everyone else is allowed one project player but I dont think anyone has takilen advantage for a few seasons.
Henry Speight is the only current player i can think of who was signed as a project poach.
Development players.
Reds - JAMIE-JERRY TAULAGI
WA - Brynard Stander, Chris Heiberg , Francois van Wyk, Albert Nikoro, Marcel Brache, Semisi Masirewa, Ryan Louwrens
JJ at the Reds is a very good ball runner but flaky as fuck in defence and the WA lot offer nothing as project poaches. None of these blokes will ever come close to playing for the Wobs.
Waikato Chiefs 40 - 7 Wales
Both with their b teams. Shows how strong super rugby in NZ is at the moment.
Wales could play a 101 Test series there and lose the lot, as could any of the northern hemisphere sides.
Semi has walked away from the NRL and signed with a French Rugby club :D
His try against Souths was mental, but it will probably end up working out if it releases the salary cap space to bring Hayne back.
Try!
Foley kicking well again...
Playing 100kg notta at no. 8 was an awesome call
This is the most disgusting pitch in memory.
Really looks like they've just turfed over some sand for the most part.
It's disgraceful and I hope no one does a knee.
James Slipper is being completely outclassed and refusing to adjust his bind.
I don't know. If Parramatta could put a million a year up would they better that?
Japan could easily they throw stupid money around plus endorsements. Im not he who have the name recognition in France.
He could presumably walk [back] into a load of third party/media things in Sydney, so maybe a year in Japan while they sort themselves out and sack half the players.
We can't do this for another 20 minutes can we? One of these is going to go over.
You're fine, Foley is truly awful at 10.
Fucking get in.
:rave:
Have it ya bastards!
Cracker series so far from England.
Smash and grab. :cool:
Eddie Jones to coach the English dominated Lions to a series win next.
What a week. Grit out this game to take the series and nab a late winner against the Welsh.
Anything we can beat the Scots or the French at while we're at it?
Fantastic. :D
Line up the Scots next please. Wales, Australia... we need to be a ticking a few off whilst we got this momentum.
Who cares about the Celts, let's get at the Saffers and the Kiwis (I would say France but what's the point at this stage).
Feel free to take our place in the Rugby Championship. Cheika's current state will just embarrass if this squad stays as is for the All Blacks.
Phipps was awful. Every time you were close to the line, he choked and threw terrible passes.
Australia looked really lost on attack. Always hitting the first man. That's not hard to defend against. To defend against it for basically 80 minutes is pretty good though. Back to the England of old.
England were pretty excellent again, can't help but wax lyrical about that 23 (and it's very much that, rather than just the starting 15).
Scotland did the job against Japan, not bad but Ruaridh Jackson looked rusty at 10 and the game would've benefitted from Horne starting 12. Also a shame that Cummings didn't get the nod over Swinson for the bench spot, as the latter still isn't and never will be, an international class lock whilst the former looked every bit the spiritual successor to Al Kellock whilst playing for GW in the Autumn and Spring of last season.
Not a good day to be an Irish.
Eddie Jones played another blinder by inviting Joey Johns into camp. Plenty of people are a tad upset lol
I notice he made sure it was somewhere with photographers. :D
The Australian attitude to this tour continues to be pretty shameful in places.
It's bloody embarrassing reading the News Limited papers and Fox Sports has turned into hysterical footy show types. The most frustrating thing atm moment is that most punters have still not read a single page of the rule book especially in regards to the scrum.
Wayne Bennett is trying to convince the Morris twins and Trent Hodkinson to play for England.
@Lewis Thoughts?
You would like to think that the people in charge would veto that farce, but wouldn't it rule them out of future Origin selection? We practically offered 'DCE' the coaching job in 2011 when he was eligible, but he told us to piss off because he wanted to play for Queensland and couldn't do so whilst representing another proper country. It might be different if they have already done so, but that could cause a load of problems down the line.
Not that any of them would get a game. Maybe Josh Morris, but we're set for full-backs/wingers, and Trent Hodkinson (he wanted to play for us before) is crap.
I think the rules are a bit more flimsy for the World Cup.
Bennett is a bit of a rude cunt if he thinks he can bring his own players into a National team. Id sack him for even suggesting player poaching.
Presumably Darius Boyd's papers are being rushed through and record expunged as we speak.
Well in, New South Wales. Geoff Toovey IN.
Would have been a huge all in if Woods connected.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/video/le...s-farah!530443
Mate.Quote:
"Teams that I think are dull throw it around a little bit more because they've won the series," Cheika said.
"Eddie and me play different footy. We are not set up to play kick and chase footy. We play running rugby."
Cheika is a total wanker.
Douglas Carswell must really be sick of having to clarify things Nigel Farage has said.
EDIT: Well that's in the wrong thread. Onya, Eddie, mate.
When you blokes are done with Eddie can we have him back please?
Andrew Johns will have corrupted the entire camp, so give it a year.
I think the plan for Joey is to splt time between those duties and being Gus Gould's understudy in a new and improved Blues coaching team. Old mate Gus speaking out against Gallen and Bird is pretty surreal as a Queenslander,
What a legend he is. Donning all these scandals because grow up mate he's the best ever.
'No, no, no, no, no.'
If Gus were a Queenslander he would have a statue next Lewis.
It was all before my time, but how come he hasn't coached for a decade? Channel 9 must pay him loads, but even then he still finds time to don it at Penrith.
I quite like Nowell but he's missing too many tackles here.
Good to see Cheika not learn anything as a coach this series.
This England won its first ever game in Brisbane, first series in Australia and are the first team from memory to win 3 nil in a series down here.
I missed the second half. Did we 'throw it around a little bit' like he wanted?
Yeah a bit more. There is a lot left in that backline so I reckon Fiji are in for a touch up.
If he manages to install Randwick rugby in the backline you blokes will be in for a treat. The shape and style will see more cut and loops and the 10 attacking outside channels.
Between him and Ella it will be interesting to see what develops
In other news, Wayne Bennett was over last week, and he's apparently wound everybody right up with his 'requests' about 2017 World Cup preparation. He never met any coaches (other than Widnes coach Denis Betts, who will be his assistant), he wants a two week camp right before the season starts, and he wants to take them all to Dubai mid-season for an international, presumably against New Zealand during the Origin period. The Super League clubs are all seething, since he presented it all as an ultimatum, but fucking he... Let him do what he wants, you small-time twats.
He is going to QLD Origin camp them.
If it stops us falling to bits in the last ten minutes of matches then send them all to live with him.
:D
Former sevens star Jarryd Hayne is off to the Gold Coast (lol) for Sam Burgess money, and Parramatta Twitter is spewing. I blame Kieran Foran.
They might finally sell out their stadium.