Rugby World Cup

**Jofspring** · 07/09/2007, 12:02 PM

ya bonus points came in for the first time in the 2003 World Cup

**Stuttgart88** · 07/09/2007, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by Schumi

Yes. A point for scoring 4 tries & a point for losing by less than 7 points.

We have 4 games in the group, two (Namibia and Georgia) are guaranteed wins (contrary to clich�, there are easy games in international rugby). If we also beat France and Argentina, we'll win the group and play the runners up in New Zealand's group; either Scotland or Italy in the quarter finals.

OK, so if we all beat Georgia and Namibia, and we each win one and lose one of the France / Argentina / Ireland clashes, it'll all go down to bonus points?

**Jofspring** · 07/09/2007, 12:33 PM

bonus points and also points difference as far as i know, so its vital Ireland rack up a very high score against namibia cause more than likely both france and argentina will put up nearly a cricket score.

**gilberto_eire** · 07/09/2007, 2:17 PM

just saw this on paddy power.... wtf is it a legal name change or just an un-offical??!!

The Tongan player, formerly known as Epeli Taione has changed his name to Paddy Power for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. On 28 September Paddy Power will line out for Tonga against England and we�ve got all the betting

**Dodge** · 07/09/2007, 2:36 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/n...nd/6977125.stm

**crc** · 07/09/2007, 3:22 PM

Ideally we'd want a low scoring draw for FRA-ARG (i.e. each scoring less than 4 tries).
Failing that, we'd want one or other of them to win by 8 points or more, without scoring 4 tries (we don't want the losing team to pick up a BP).

Win = 4 points
Draw = 2 points
Loss = 0 points

Bonus Points:
4 tries or more = 1 point
defeat by 7pts or less = 1 point.

(It is possible to get 2 Bonus Points in a game if you lose narrowly, but still somehow manage to score 4 tries. You don't get multiple Bonus Points for scoring multiples of 4 tries - i.e. scoring 8 tries gives you 1 BP, not 2).

**ollie** · 07/09/2007, 7:51 PM

Argentina have started well so far. 17-9 up after the 1st half.

**pete** · 07/09/2007, 9:49 PM

Before tonight I felt a France win was a good thing but after Argentina won don't think it matters.

Ireland need to focus on winning the group & avoiding the All Blacks for a few more games. We can't beat NZ in the quarter final so its all or nothing to win the group.

**kingdom hoop** · 08/09/2007, 12:20 AM

Great win for the Argies, delighted for them.

France need a new word to be coined to describe how bad they were. But still weren't too far away from victory given the affable Argentinians slightly inept attacking performance with a questionable preponderance of garryowens. Their hooker gave a legendary Keith Wood-esque performance, even getting a great grubber kick in there, heroic. Pity Pipe Contepomi didn't get either of those kicks at the end to deny fumbling France an undeserved bonus point. Started watching the match on TV3 but soon switched to ITV given Conor McNamara's amazingly annoying voice and tangible lack of rugby knowledge. TV3's post-match coverage was pretty good alright though.

Hopefully we can beat the fragrant French, on tonight's showing we'd easily win, to set up an 'ok we both go through but I don't want to play NZ' tussle with los pumas. Though given our predisposition for making things hard on ourselves we'll probably have to beat Argentina by more than seven to go through.

Just to avoid any confusion I'll set out the possible variations for future reference (you'll love me for this Stutts!);

A) If we beat France we go through. Then it's down to the Argentina match to see who tops the group, winner takes all.

B) If France beat us by more than seven, unless we score four tries in beating Arg we must deny them a BP, be it for losing by seven or less or for four tries scored. If we do, we go through as we beat Arg. France will likely top the group.

C) If we get a BP in defeat against the frogs, then beat Arg by more than seven, France and us will go through. France would probably top the group as they beat us, unless we get more try BPs than them in the two games. (If Arg score four tries while losing to us by seven our more and we don't score four tries they would go through in our stead, that's crazy talk really though, gotta keep the geeks happy mind.)

D) If we get a BP in defeat against Laporte's lambs, and allow Arg to sneak a BP in defeat against us then, as we all beat each other, the two teams with the best points difference go through, unless some team scores four tries.

E&OE

Scenario D is the only one that comes down to points difference. We should be looking to score 90 points against Namibia and 60 against Georgia to see that we don't see an agonising repeat of the Six Nations debacle.

Originally Posted by pete

We can't beat NZ in the quarter final so its all or nothing to win the group.

Come on, if I can figure the above out without a calculator and more than twenty braincells then anything is possible! Plus the match would be on in Cardiff with 60,000 baying Irishmen.

**gustavo** · 08/09/2007, 1:27 AM

Originally Posted by pete

Before tonight I felt a France win was a good thing but after Argentina won don't think it matters.

Ireland need to focus on winning the group & avoiding the All Blacks for a few more games. We can't beat NZ in the quarter final so its all or nothing to win the group.

I suppose another way of looking at it is if the team are serious about winning the competition then it shouldnt matter to them whether we play NZ in the 1/4s or the final

**Plastic Paddy** · 08/09/2007, 2:22 AM

Originally Posted by pete

Before tonight I felt a France win was a good thing but after Argentina won don't think it matters.

Ireland need to focus on winning the group & avoiding the All Blacks for a few more games... its all or nothing to win the group.

Saints in heaven, that almost sounds like a positive post pete! And this from Ireland's foremost miserabilist/Daily Mail reader. Have you been at the holy water or what?

PP

**pete** · 08/09/2007, 11:05 AM

Passion won't beat a fresh NZ team in the 1/4 final especially as the Ireland players would off the back of 2 very physical games. When is the last time we beat them?