Irish hat off..... my impression in no particular order...
Love watching Japan and Canada...
Wales played their best game against us....
Felt immensely proud watching Ireland BEAT the crap out of Oz...
The locals with their whistling piss me off....
The scenery down there is incredible...
England are still ****....
edit.... Its is unfortunate for the rugby-ati that Dan Carter isn't playing in the world cup final....
yours...???
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
The constant OTT booing of Cooper every time he touched the ball in every game. According to Paul Rees in the IT today he insisted on walking off rather then be carried off on stretcher as he didn't want to be jeered at......
4 Feb 2011 - Gilmore on the General Election
"Frankfurts way or Labours way."
28 Feb 2012 - Gilmore on a yes vote for the fiscal treaty
"A vote for economic stability and a vote for economic recovery."
Pretty much the same as other World Cups, drawn out, huge mismatches in teams. Maybe 1/2 decent games in the overall scheme, very cagey matches. It hasn't been a good world cup & NZ should never get another one, they couldn't even sell out semi-finals FFS. As usual an Irish team bottled it.
6 Nations & HEC are much better entertainment. 6 Nations is the best tournament in the world.
The only thing lance is on is his bike 6 hours a day, busting his ass, what are you on?
Agree with you Toby in that the 6N is the best tourno ny far. The orld cup on the whole has been underwhelming for me. Too few stand out games, a lot of 'practice' matches for the top sides. What is needed, I think, is a re-structure of the competition. Have the weaker teams play a number of weeks beforehand in a kind of preliminary to whittle them down to teams who can perform to a respectable level.
Also, give the World cup to a developing nation.
Wha!?! The majority of games in the 6 Nations for the last number of years have been muck.....this year it was just a training tournament for the RWC!!Originally Posted by Tobyglen
Pretty much the same as other World Cups, drawn out, huge mismatches in teams. Maybe 1/2 decent games in the overall scheme, very cagey matches. It hasn't been a good world cup & NZ should never get another one, they couldn't even sell out semi-finals FFS. As usual an Irish team bottled it
6 Nations & HEC are much better entertainment. 6 Nations is the best tournament in the world.
The HEC is a much better tournament IMO, the setup of it allows for much more tension and excitement and makes sure that almost every game counts!!
Anyway this WC.....Marc Lievremont has answered the whole question of which side of the genius/madman fine line he stands on- genius!!
Also, much respect for Quade Cooper....very dignified through the entire tournament despite everything
Classic Lievremont
Both are the biz, 6 Nations is great for day drinking. This years was a bit ****ty because of WC. I can't for the life of me understand why teams prepare 3/4 yrs in advance for the WC. The Welsh team only came together in the last few months.
The only thing lance is on is his bike 6 hours a day, busting his ass, what are you on?
Both are the biz, 6 Nations is great for day drinking. This years was a bit ****ty because of WC. I can't for the life of me understand why teams prepare 3/4 yrs in advance for the WC. The Welsh team only came together in the last few months.
I'm wrong about 6 Nations being the best tourney, the HEC is the one. In hindsight the H-Cup has been magic when Munster were buzzing.
The only thing lance is on is his bike 6 hours a day, busting his ass, what are you on?
Couple of years ago that was very much the prevailing viewpoint on this site - since the success rate of a certain team has slipped back things have changed...but I agree with you completely - if Ireland had played with the attacking ability of Leinster last year they would be playing tomorow.
HEC is still the #1 competition for me.
Never mind perception because it isn’t real. It’s only what people think. Go out and make them think something else.
- Alan Quinlan on believing in yourself
'Tis petering out like the feeling you get when you pissed your pants as a kid, great sense of warmth & relief gives way to a dampness and smell of piss.
A couple of good games, Irl v Oz being one, but meaningless overall.
I think it's been fairly good. Much better than the last one where crap rugby, including Argentina's, was the order of the day. We were probably involved in two of the best games. I have a slight feeling the final could be a total classic.
YAWN!
Given that Ireland are out of it.....Im glad its nearly over.
Anybody who sees a psychiatrist would want their head examined.*&nb sp;Henry Ford
The HEC is only the business because we cant cut the mustard at international level. Thats the bottom line.
Connacht Rugby
"Live to win. Born to lose"
Ignoring triple crowns, and the odd grand slam.
far too simplistic!!
in the RWC this year, the top 8 seeds as it was drawn got out of their groups, as expected!! It's predictable in the early stages and even France could afford to lose to Tonga and still go through!!
the HEC with home & away games, and only 1 guaranteed QF spot for each group is far more competitive at the start, also because there is much more equality between the teams out there!!
Classic Lievremont
C'mon we couldnt even beat northern hemisphere teams to get to a Final. It doesnt get to look any better then that. HEC isnt the same standard at top international level. Its a lower level bar the top 4 teams.
Connacht Rugby
"Live to win. Born to lose"
A Welsh region has never won a HEC. We've won 4. How do you tally that in to your bottom line oh Ooracle?
Simply because Welsh players have proved they can raise their game at international level more consistently then ours. Hence the reason why they have been more successful at international level in the last decade.
Connacht Rugby
"Live to win. Born to lose"
Garbage. We've been better far more consistently than Wales at international level, and i would wager a good few bob that we'll continue to be so. They have two good seasons over the last decade and got 2, imo fairly fluky, Grand Slams out of it. They don't appear to have our problem of playing with a favourites tag, something which probably goes back to their glory days i'd guess.
There is one lesson we could take from Wales though. Wales use all 4 of their sides to feed players to their national side, where as we only really use 3. Carr, Keatley and Hagan should have had far more involvement with Irish squads over the last 2 years.
Bull. How may more competitions have they won?
Can't agree with that. Ask Wales to play in our pool from this WC and we'll play in theirs. The biggest factor in their beating us is that they'd one tough pool game against SA and everything subsequent was aimed at us. If we'd had a by for all intents and purposes leading up to the 1/4 final we'd have looked a completely different team. Thems the breaks. On paper the welsh pool looked tougher than ours, didn't work out that way at all.
I am the million man.
Wales have 2 grand slams to Nigel Owens' one. (they also have one wooden spoon to their credit!) We have 4 triple crowns to their pair.
But overall we have 16 more wins than they do since the 6Ns started.
Six Nations All-Time Table (2000–2011)
Last edited by Old Dog; 22nd-October-2011 at 22:15.
I think a 2 tier competition 4 x 4 teams in each group for 32 teams with the lower group games played tue / wed thu and the top groups played fri / sat / sun... all teams would get a similar 6 / 7 day break between games unlike this time around....
From a kids / club pov we have had a huge influx of new players this season...am presuming it's down to the WC. At work it was all a lot of people talked about for the last month so definitely raised profile of game...
looking forward to final tmw.. in #Singapore and a lot of bars have big banners out with the rwc schedule up advertising games...
Ruairi
Add 4 x HEC OD. The Oracle is totally discredited as normal.
That's the bottom line
Like Busbi, I think its been a pretty great world cup. I was at a lot of the 07 WC and the rugby was cack, all the sides that played cack rugby best prospered i.e. SA, Eng and Arg and all the sides that tried valiantly to play attacking running rugby failed miserably e.g. ABs, Aus, Ire & Wales. In fairness to the IRB the changes to the rules in the meantime have really improved the game, giving back the advantage to those who retain the ball and try to attack with it. Long may this continue.
In this RWC, the country embraced the competition, the grounds looked great and the crowds looked like they really got into it. I thought there were 3 or 4 good games each weekend and whether by design or otherwise these seemed nicely spaced out with the best games normally on at the 9am time too for good measure!! A few games I thought were super were SA v Wales, Eng v Arg, ABs v Fra (for interest), Ire v Aus, Ire v Ita, Wales v Samoa, Eng v Scot, Arg v Scot and pretty much any game the Abs have played in cos they're such a joy to watch. The 1/4s were good IMHO with Wales nailing us, France beating England, a tough battle between ABs & Arg and a cracker between SA & Aus. Semis were good too, pity about Wales warranting a yellow, bigger pity that they couldn't close out the game but that's life. ABs v Fra in the final, 2 sides who can play scintillating attacking running rugby- SH v NH, consistent brilliance v eccentric brilliance- how bad!?
_________________________________
Irish By Birth, Munster By The Grace of God
Hardly Johnny me ould flower. I'm offered specialist mathematics classes for the numerically challenged like yourself.Add 4 x HEC OD. The Oracle is totally discredited as normal.
That's the bottom line
2 Grand Slams to 1. ( 2 is higher then 1 on the number line)
When did Ireland make a WC semi last Johnny
Triple Crowns are irrelevent- they had to make a trophy up for it for us to win something.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Connacht Rugby
"Live to win. Born to lose"
Thoughts on this World cup?? Really glad its over at least in the HC or 6N your not sure who is going to win it before it starts
I am one of the 5 clowns woo hoo
Wales have 2 grand slams to Nigel Owens' one. (they also have one wooden spoon to their credit!) We have 4 triple crowns to their pair.
But overall we have 16 more wins than they do since the 6Ns started.
Six Nations All-Time Table (2000–2011)
You conveniently ignored the facts Outlaw. Par for the course from you.
A World Cup that masqueraded for a while as a revolution for the smaller with a lot of media outlets playing on the "anything can happen in this world cup!" line for a time but when all was said and done there was really only 2 significant upsets and both involved Ireland.
The most disappointing element was the near upsets that could have made a big impact. Thinking Romania or Georgia over Scotland, Canada or Japan over France, Samoa over South Africa or Scotland over either England or Argentina. Shame none of those came off, the one that did come off from Tonga was ultimately at a point where it could never do any damage and you wonder if they'd have pulled it off at a more critical stage.
Another underlying current throughout was the unfair schedule on the second tier sides. You wonder on a level playing field how Wales v Samoa would have gone and how significant to the tournament that could have been.
Interesting tournament overall but with a predictable ending and one that just never felt quite as satisfying as it promised.
If I were to give a Power Ranking on the competing sides based purely on their strongest performance and thus capacity to deliver I'd go with:
1 - New Zealand
2 - France
3 - Ireland
4 - South Africa
5 - Australia
6 - Wales
7 - Samoa
8 - England
9 - Argentina
10 - Scotland
11 - Italy
12 - Tonga
13 - Georgia
14 - Canada
15 - Japan
16 - USA
17 - Fiji
18 - Romania
19 - Russia
20 - Namibia
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