Rugby 2011

**BonnieShels** · 02/10/2011, 10:25 AM

I echo your sentiment about D'arcy. I've been his biggest supporter the last few years but had started to lose faith.

Brilliant today.

**Real ale Madrid** · 02/10/2011, 10:35 AM

Wales game on TG4 at the moment. An absolute cakewalk, hardly ideal preparation for next week.

**Stuttgart88** · 02/10/2011, 10:38 AM

Any argument over the ROG selection now?

Ireland will never have a better chance of getting to a WC Final. We can beat any of the 3 teams standing in our way. We can lose to them too. Wales is going to be a corker.

**geysir** · 02/10/2011, 1:20 PM

Originally Posted by Kingdom

Geysir, do you read him often? He's about the most positive, pro-Ireland journalist there is.

I'd only read about rugby when there is a bandwagon revving up.
Whether he is the most positive or not (relatively speaking), doesn't matter one jot to me. His opening line, arguably the most important line in an article, was highlighting a negative which had already been more than rectified. And on the necessity to beat Italy - as Charlie pointed out - inaccurate in the scheme of things, as Ireland had always thought and planned for beating Italy, nothing had changed on that level. What had changed was the prize for beating them.
Most everybody had grasped this significance, but perhaps Gerry is a man ground down by repeated failures of the intl rugby teams on this stage, cannot get the fear of failure out of his system. Perhaps he was overly concerned, overwhelmed by the fear that he would have to take an early flight home?

**mypost** · 02/10/2011, 4:45 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Wonderful performance.

To a man they were magnificent.

They shouldn't need a wonderful performance to beat Italy.

If they beat Wales, they would surely prefer to play England in the semis instead of France. France always knock us out when they have to.

**BonnieShels** · 02/10/2011, 9:44 PM

Originally Posted by mypost

They shouldn't need a wonderful performance to beat Italy.

If they beat Wales, they would surely prefer to play England in the semis instead of France. France always knock us out when they have to.

What does that even mean? Would you rather we just about got over the line with them?

I'd rather we do the best we can as often as we can.

Agree about playing England instead of France, but to be honest I could care less once we are in the Semis!

**mypost** · 03/10/2011, 5:43 AM

It means Italy are rubbish, and will always be rubbish. Teams often run-up 30-40-50 point wins over them in the 6N. Training Session material.

**Macy** · 03/10/2011, 9:01 AM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Any argument over the ROG selection now?

Don't think there was that much debate for this one, I wouldn't think it's closed for Wales tbh. I'd go O'Gara again, for what it's worth, even though it was good to see Sexton nail the two he had - the conversion especially.

**legendz** · 04/10/2011, 8:00 PM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

Wales game on TG4 at the moment. An absolute cakewalk, hardly ideal preparation for next week.

I can see why they want more nations involved but it's been a poor world cup as a result. It should get better from here but as long as Ireland are doing well, it's great.

**Real ale Madrid** · 04/10/2011, 8:34 PM

Originally Posted by legendz

I can see why they want more nations involved but it's been a poor world cup as a result. It should get better from here but as long as Ireland are doing well, it's great.

I have to say that there seems to be an improvement in each world cup - no one has broken the 90 point barrier for instance this time round and some countries are making good progress, Georgia and Samoa for instance, - the IRB could be doing much more to improve things IMO having said that. But gone are the 145-0 days anyway.

**BonnieShels** · 04/10/2011, 9:19 PM

Completely agree oh gasless one.

It's easily been the best World Cup I have watched atmosphere wise at the games (I exclude our games obv.) even the attitude of the minnow nations is completely different then it used to be.

Canada v NZ wasn't the cakewalk for the All Blacks it would have been 10 years ago. The Canadian's heads never went down like they would have done. The Wales-Fiji game was a freak.

This weekend is not coming quick enough.

**Real ale Madrid** · 04/10/2011, 9:42 PM

One thing I have to mention is this whole England ball swapping scandal which has really cast a shadow over the whole tournament.

England basically got caught swapping balls between conversions during the Romania game - one of the backroom staff would hand a ball with different pressure to Wilko before he took a conversion. I'm not sure of the rules exactly - but I know that if a kicker / any player is unhappy with the match ball being used, he can ask the referee to check it who then can, change the ball if he is unhappy. What England did was basically cheating.

When this was found out the RFU suspended two of the backroom staff involved for the Scotland game - this seemed to appease the IRB / RWCL (Rugby world cup Limited) who are supossed to be running the tournament and therefore supposed to be sanctioning teams in the case of any disciplinary procedures.

A few days later a Samoan player was fined $10,000 for wearing a mouthguard with a sponsor's name on it, contraving RWCL rules!

I cannot understand why RWCL didn't investigate the England debacle further yet they have no problem slapping a huge fine on the Samoans who can't even afford to pay thier players for the duration of the tournament.

Its hugely disapointing behaviour, and the worst thing about it, is that it seems to have been brushed under the carpet. The IRB would really want to get thier house in order.

**legendz** · 04/10/2011, 10:01 PM

Hmmm. I take ye're point on the beatings being less, maybe it is working in that respect. One thing which should change though is that the World Cup is played over one extra week. This way the lesser seeds are given a fairer chance without having to play midweek games.
Do the lesser nations have any tournaments outside of the World Cup? Argentina finally are getting to join a 4 nations. I know there's the European Nations Cup for Europe's lesser nations. The like of the US, Canada and pacific teams, do they have any competition?

**Real ale Madrid** · 04/10/2011, 10:29 PM

There is a Pacific competition which includes Japan - check out IRB.com under tournaments. US / Canada play each other twice a year and used to comete in the Churchill cup - but that tournament is gone now.

Canada really haven't been helped geographically - in the late 80's early 90's they weren't the minnow they are now and even reached the Quarter Finals in 1991. Professionalism has had a big impact on the playing standards - the Gap between those who could run Pro teams and those who could not widened dramatically, it will be a long process but hopefully the appeal of the game can grow - the 20 team tournament is vital in this regard.

**BonnieShels** · 04/10/2011, 10:58 PM

Best in the team!

NYIAOW!

**Real ale Madrid** · 04/10/2011, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Best in the team!

NYIAOW!

Link?

**BonnieShels** · 04/10/2011, 11:57 PM

Saw it on VB. Think it was in the Indo.

Team announcement is at 115am.

Here, here and here.

**BonnieShels** · 05/10/2011, 12:02 AM

Seems to have been removed from the website now.

**Mr A** · 05/10/2011, 10:49 AM

In the team according to RTE: http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/worldc...eam_wales.html

**legendz** · 05/10/2011, 7:11 PM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

There is a Pacific competition which includes Japan - check out IRB.com under tournaments. US / Canada play each other twice a year and used to comete in the Churchill cup - but that tournament is gone now.

Canada really haven't been helped geographically - in the late 80's early 90's they weren't the minnow they are now and even reached the Quarter Finals in 1991. Professionalism has had a big impact on the playing standards - the Gap between those who could run Pro teams and those who could not widened dramatically, it will be a long process but hopefully the appeal of the game can grow - the 20 team tournament is vital in this regard.

Thanks for that. I'd like to see the US and Canada included in that being a Pacific 6 nations or something like that. I suppose logistics of travel is the one thing that would count against it but then again Argentina are joining the tri nations to being 4 nations but there's more money in that.