Ode to William Webb Ellis (The Rugby Union Thread)

[dimejinky99]

You gotta laugh.
No level French media won't stoop to.
They're now reporting that England are trying to head hunt Joe Schmidt fron Ireland after the RWC. weak ass mind game bullshit based in sour grapes. Schmidt has pooped the suggestion completely. He's just gotten Irish citizenship!

It turns out Pascal de Pape was in the hearing held for Sean o Briens disciplinary and said he was in severe pain the rest of the game after O Broen hit him off the ball.

This despite him hitting Sean and grabbing his ass repeatedly up to that point. And de Pape breaking Jamie heaslips back earlier this year and getting no disciplinary action at all.

The French Arent covering themselves in glory this tournament at all. On or off the pitch.
Again sour grapes cos NZ will probably send them home.


and t

[dimejinky99]

Amazing game from the all blacks but made easy for em by the French simply surrendering before even half time.

Quelle surprise

[LetMeSleep]

That was a complete display and it was not without its flaws.

[dimejinky99]

Weird psychology on display too. It's like teams just throw the towel in cos it's the all blacks.
They make huge errors and leave huge gaps in their lines and nobody seems to take advantage. It's boring if it's always gonna be a forgone conclusion that the all blacks win.


They have South Africa next though I think, so who knows what'll happen in that one

[LetMeSleep]

SA won't give them an inch. And no one in the final will either. It was disappointing that France seemed to give up once Michalek went off. Or at least when NZ scored straight after France's try.

[dimejinky99]

They really did fold completely. All the pundits here were saying Framce being historically the team that can undo NZ should win especially with a NZ not at its best. Good to see at least one of them woke up and turned up.

[Rangi Guy]

So - I just found out this afternoon that my third form - form teacher is the coach of the Irish team

[dimejinky99]

Joe Schmidt? No way! small world.
He got Irish citizenship a while ago. Think he's planning to hang around

[Rangi Guy]

Joe Schmidt? No way! small world.
He got Irish citizenship a while ago. Think he's planning to hang around

Yeah - had an old friend from high school come over yesterday and got talking about school days and he told me. Didn't believe him at first till I saw his picture on Wiki and sure enough it was my old teacher. Back then he was teaching English and Social Studies

[dimejinky99]

He's a good coach. Seems like a super nice guy.

Our game was depressing today. That's us out. Really felt the loss of our captain and sexton and o Brien.

Whatever about us though, the Scottish game was outright heartbreaking

[Rangi Guy]

Shame about the Irish game.

Joe was always one of my favourite teachers - he was a really nice guy (back then anyway). As punishment instead of sending anyone to the principle to get caned he'd put a series of dots on the blackboard and make the student put one of their limbs on each dot and hold it for however many minutes

[dimejinky99]

I can see how that translates to his current job

[LetMeSleep]

Holy shit that was close. Full credit to Scotland and I feel for them but we should have been a comfortable 5-10 points clear by the end. Scrappy play and a few missed goals. Also, why don't our wingers try to improve the conversion position. Instead they do a glory dive.

Argentina will be interesting.

[dimejinky99]

More and more I believe Argentina don't actually have a game strategy or set piece plan at all. They just seem to each play to chances and they're good at taking them. They played our game at us yesterday. Weird to watch and frustrating cos we couldn't answer it for the most part.

[LetMeSleep]

So it's down to the 2 top ranked teams. Very few real upsets but full credit to Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Japan and Argentina. They brought a lot to this World Cup.

As for the final, it's going to take one hell of a match from the Wallabies to win this and NZ are looking good. But both teams are making too many mistakes. Neither conceded a try in the semis but both gave away 15-18 pts worth of penalties.

And the line breaks that Australia conceded. Man, they were massive holes.

I hope it's close and Australia need to score first.

NZ by 5pts.

[Rangi Guy]

So it's down to the 2 top ranked teams. Very few real upsets but full credit to Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Japan and Argentina. They brought a lot to this World Cup.

As for the final, it's going to take one hell of a match from the Wallabies to win this and NZ are looking good. But both teams are making too many mistakes. Neither conceded a try in the semis but both gave away 15-18 pts worth of penalties.

And the line breaks that Australia conceded. Man, they were massive holes.

I hope it's close and Australia need to score first.

NZ by 5pts.

Nah - NZ will choke!

[LetMeSleep]

Not this time, RG.

[Rangi Guy]

Huh! Did not see that happening at all

[LetMeSleep]

Congrats NZ and RG. Didn't catch the game but not at all surprised with the result.

[Rangi Guy]

Congrats NZ and RG. Didn't catch the game but not at all surprised with the result.

Didn't watch the game either, but there's been no escaping it - pretty much the entire newspaper today was taken up with Rugby stuff in one way or another