Rugby World Cup 2015

[Soloman Tump]

Anyone here remotely interested in Rugby?

 

I managed to get tickets for a couple of games. Off to see Ireland vs. Canada at the Millennium stadium this Saturday (not seen either team play before and never been to that Stadium).

Also got a ticket for Ireland vs. Italy at the Olympic Stadium in October - again, never been to the stadium.

 

Not particularly a fan of Ireland but that's just how the tickets worked out. England tickets were an horrendous price and its far easier to watch it on the telly.

 

Keen to soak up the atmosphere and will probably end up supporting Canada this weekend.

[caze]

Yeah, looking forward to it. A load of my mates will be over for a few of the games, but I've not got any tickets myself. We were looking in great form going into this, the last two defeats aren't worrying me too much, especially given how the group games are set up. Schmidt is a winner, best coach in world rugby IMHO. I think we'll do well, wouldn't rule out a final appearance - though we don't have the same squad depth the other top nations have so we'll need our key players to stay fit.

England's group is a nightmare, will be fascinating to see how that one turns out.

[Soloman Tump]

England's group is a nightmare, will be fascinating to see how that one turns out.

 

Definitely the group of death. Fiji tomorrow night is a must win!

[beerwolf]

Always watch the internationals but never been interested in club rugby.

 

If I'd gone to the right school (where they knew even what a rugby ball looked like) I think I would of been pretty good at it.

[cwmbrancity]

Welsh/Irish family - its in the blood

 

fucking BUZZING, although the Wales injury situation has suddenly robbed us of some game changers

 

every1 hates Inglan (is a bitch)...... if we beat them in the pool game and go out to Australia so be it

 

if i was in town this wknd i'd offer you a pint n a smoke Fletch.......Cardiff on international day/nights is a blast, just watch Caroline St later on, aka chip fight alley

[Soloman Tump]

Cheers bud, next time then

 

I was in town a few years back when Wales played SA in an international. Wales lost by 6 points but it was proper carnival atmosphere all night, loved it. Every bar was heaving, dancing in the streets, no aggression in sight!

[Chris Toffer]

Looking forward to it. Kiwi here :) Won't be able to watch many live due to time diff. Hopefully ill catch the replays during the day. NZ ENG Final would b epic

[cwmbrancity]

Looking forward to it. Kiwi here :) Won't be able to watch many live due to time diff. Hopefully ill catch the replays during the day. NZ WALES Final would b epic

[Soloman Tump]

 

Looking forward to it. Kiwi here :) Won't be able to watch many live due to time diff. Hopefully ill catch the replays during the day. NZ WALES Final would b an NZ whitewash

 

[cwmbrancity]

i think we could put more tries past them than Inglan

 

would that be enough to win in it? fuck no

[caze]

Scoreline flattered England a bit in the end, better strength in depth off the bench to finish things off. Surprised how well Fiji competed at the set piece and they were excellent at the breakdown.

[Soloman Tump]

That could have been embarrassing, but as you say we had a full bench and they had some part timers.

 

A similar performance from Fiji against Wales could be interesting!

 

Enjoyed the opening ceremony, pretty grand but straight forward.

[iococoi]

...∑

 

[caze]

confident opening from us, one or two things to work on based on the 2nd half performance (allowed them into our 22 with a bit too much ease at times, not lined up well in defence, our defence at the breakdown once they got there was excellent though). in previous world cups we've made hard work of these types of games though, so this was a big improvement there. our set piece continues to look very good as well, we're probably unmatched there with the exception of South Africa at the moment.

[caze]

congrats to Japan! what a finish! cracking game. this has not been South African rugby's finest year.

[cwmbrancity]

Japan held their nerve superbly.....cos S-Africa are 1 of the most physical teams in world sport

 

a 20pt win against Uruguay 2m would set things up nicely for ruining Inglan's parteh next wknd

 

ps: Inglan fans, you know "swing low sweet chariot" is a slave anthem right?

[Hail Sagan]

...∑

 

 

lol.

[cwmbrancity]

Cant believe the US arent a bigger force in the game.....all the similarities to US grid-iron football.....

 

none of the pussy padding but same skill sets, different sized humans for different positions and the ball's in play longer = fitter players

 

still NZ's to lose, but if Eire can keep Sexton fit i see them as the most likely northern hemisphere team to nick it....gnarly veteran pack & some flying backs, they can flip flop some games but a tournament is all about momentum. If they did win i think my Ma might get drunk just the once lol

[doublename]

The 5-10 minutes of rugby I've seen in my life seemed a lot more interesting than the drudgery that is American football.

[Hail Sagan]

Cant believe the US arent a bigger force in the game.....all the similarities to US grid-iron football.....

 

Sure, there are some similarities and a lot of the physical attributes required for both sports are the same. But from what little I've seen of Rugby thus far it's apples and oranges (or at least tangerines and oranges). Then there's the whole cultural thing, and getting paid millions of dollars thing, etc. But speaking of making the shift the 49ers got a running back who was a hell of a rugby player who's looking pretty promising given it's his rookie year and he has had barely any practice games.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDiiI1Nn61E

 

 

none of the pussy padding but same skill sets, different sized humans for different positions and the ball's in play longer = fitter players

 

Yeah, but wearing pads doesn't soften things up as much as you might think. Players in the NFL move faster which results in some serious contact and a lot of injuries. Still though, would definitely say Rugby is the tougher sport. But you're kidding yourself if you think NFL players aren't warriors. They're not out there flopping around like it's a professional soccer or basketball game or some bullshit. They're some of the most physically fit and mentally tough athletes on the planet.

 

Enjoyed what I've seen of Rugby so far. I'm not huge on the whole nationalism thing but it would be cool to see Rugby get a bigger following out here, so I'm hoping the USA does better this year than they have in the past (I'm assuming they're pretty shitty based on your post).

[cwmbrancity]

the padding was a wind-up ;) and yer not only likely to get more concussions yer more likely to play on with them = dementia 15/20yrs later

 

thing is the US are improving year on year, game (mnus half time interval) is only 80+mins which is enough for any1 (unles you're Chevrolet with a new truck that runs at 2miles to the gallon) to punt

 

the other nation i can believe arent better are Germany, cos they got skill n grunt in spades

[Soloman Tump]

Was great hearing "swing low" being sung at the Olympic stadium last night during the France vs. Romania game, must really annoy the French lol

 

New Zealand currently tearing into Namibia as expected, but all the lower seed teams I've seen play so far have kept their heads held high until the final whistle so much respect to them

[caze]

...and now they've got a well worked try!

[cwmbrancity]

no thoughts on the Inglan (is a bitch) 15 for sat's game against Cymru?

 

cant quite believe Lancaster's gone for Burgess just yet against J Roberts, one of the best hardest running/tackling inside centers in world rugby

 

Inglan did this a few a years (2009?) where they picked "tree-cutter" Joe Worsely at 6 and things couldnt have worked out worse for Anglo-Saxonshire on that particular afternoon

 

we better not lose to some Swing Low shenanigans (ie: Inglan @ home)

[chenGOD]

I'm still very curious why England supporters sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. I know the backstory, but the song is about conditions being so bad, that the person singing would rather die than be in the here and now.

Seems an odd choice of song to support a sports side.

 

Also: Canada is pretty shit at rugby.