Where Giggles leads, I follow.Originally Posted by Ian
Where Giggles leads, I follow.
trendsetter.
The twitter is glorious today.
We should get a decent final if both of the good teams in the semi-finals can rest half of their players and still coast through.
This is also a great game, albeit about 5% of the quality of last night's. Not sure about the option from Farrell with the drop goal 10 minutes out, surely you have to price in another Fijian try.
Surprised they haven't gone full penalty try there.
The best team in the British Isles.
Fiji are great fun but fuck me they can’t kick a ball or take a line out
Hopefully France or South Africa hit these for 50 next week.
Ben Earl is some specimen.
France have got it in them to bottle a home semi-final I reckon. Not sure the saffas have. Allez les bleus.
But, yeah, probably need to avoid shitting in France's chips yet again. They'd best not bottle it tonight.
New Zealand v France would be a good final, and an interesting echo of the NZ one where all the pressure was on them, but unfortunately I fear the French would just melt and New Zealand are too good not to walk all over them.
New Zealand can be beaten through the middle, as Ireland proved before they kept blowing good positions trying to play them at their own game, so I would fancy whoever wins tonight to bully them.
France will win the final if they get there. 1998 all over again. Will probably poison Sam Cane and all.
Would love to get the overhead on that 'knock back' by the South African. Almost game on the line decision.
Never seen a charge down actually come off before. He’s fkn rapid
Kiwi has given them absolutely everything so far. Laughable forward pass just now.
Some game this
What a game this is so far. The quality is unbelievable.
Was going to say earlier they need a legend like Barnsey to ref this for them. Uphill struggle against the flat pass mate brigade.
Funny that one of these is going out whilst England and Argentina are going to be stinking up the semis.
What is the deal with the modern move towards charging down conversions?
Analytics innit. Have NFL started taking more 2 point conversions yet? It's been ten years since I paid attention.
You score a try. We score a try. Not even any penalties so far.
I've not kept up with it, but there was a time when it was statistically better to do so although was still fairly infrequent.
Taking a scrum off a mark [what?] winning the penalty and failing to find touch is just all round.
And here comes the bunker!
Last edited by niko_cee; 15-10-2023 at 07:44 PM.
I'm not sure that you should be able to jump from outside the field to keep it in.
I still can't get my head fully around how much of a tank Eben Etzebeth is at 6'9".
Same size as Tyson Fury, which means Fury will probably be fighting him soon in Saudi Arabia.
Has a major sporting World Cup ever had the first and last games of the tournament be the same?
That kick.
These four teams from this side of the draw are all ridiculously close.
Absolutely désolée.
God's sake. Rugby is such a frustrating game to watch when you're a casual. You want the exciting stuff to win but the boring stuff is 100x more important.
In the Northern hemisphere.The best team in the British Isles.
South Africa or New Zealand Rugby/Cricket double is still on
It only ever pops up with South Africa, but the weird matrix of being better in the scrum, and therefore just having infinite scrums is never not awful/hilarious to watch.
Came down to the blocked conversion. Bet he started closing down way earlier than he should have.
Would New Zealand survive as a country/culture if South Africa shitted them out of being first to four World Cups and Best Rugby Country status?
Lewis' post about SA being a cartoon team is bang on and I think it's why I like them so much. Wacky Rugby.
Huge weekend for tournament pedigree, that's for sure.
Antoine Dupont roaring about the referee as well.
On a related note, the BBC documentary about wheelchair rugby league is well worth a watch. The French side of things seems to be one long seethe about the other teams playing too aggressively, culminating in their coach openly bealing about the English players not being disabled enough and only picking the ex-squaddie with no legs to deceive people.
I been watching this from the outside, but one thing I have noticed is how much the British press seem to hate this England team. Particularly the Guardian rugby guys - every opponent has been "brave" or "resilient" whilst shitty old English progress into the semi's.
Is it just the style of play, or that they've been shit for a few years so don't want to back them?
Everyone we've played so far has been a lovable underdog with vastly inferior resources.
Also Owen Farrell comes across as a deeply unpleasant man.
Im glad it’s not just my bias thinking that. He comes across as a right fanny. Hear him far too often in the Ref’s mic.
Also, I hope for Smith’s sake he does not play full back against South Africa. He might need a stretcher to leave the field if he does. He was constantly getting battered and ran through yesterday. Absolutely useless defensively.
I know it's probably completely unworkable in terms of time and whatnot, but if there was ever a sport that would benefit from "the Swiss model" it's rugby union. Feels like there must have been about 6 meaningful games in this tournament, with both semis promising to be a one way shitfests. Sadly, even if you limited it to the top 10 in the world you'd be looking at an 11 week tournament in all likelihood. 11 weeks of proper games though, as opposed to a handful in however many weeks this has been going on for.
They and cricket should swap formats.
Yeah, that was the inspiration. Maybe they could incorporate some sort of plate competition to keep the lesser nations involved, no idea how to work that though.
Let's have it.
They need to take the captaincy off this stupid northern prick, mid game if necessary. Incapable of keeping his head.
Not keen on this ref.
Yeah losing us ground gobbing off at the ref there when his teammates have knocked their pans in for this slender leader is properly idiot behaviour.
He's the only player we have with any BOTTLE. He Sets the Tone.
'I'm from Wiggin me and I get the buz to work.'
We're fucked now they've changed the 10.
England have been basically about as good as can be expected so far, but South Africa will definitely come out way better in the second half and put us away.
Hasn't been as grim as expected so far though.
Worse that way though, hope and all that.
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