QuoteAll this talk of it not being "good" to watch is absolute tosh. I am loving this intensity. How could you not?
Watching that scrum on Sunday had me purring. When has it ever been this good? Not in my lifetime.
It's great ..... 10 wins in a row and England are fuming about it! .... the Wales game will be a lot tougher though .... the centres battle is going to be great to watch!Originally Posted by Spudulika
All this talk of it not being "good" to watch is absolute tosh. I am loving this intensity. How could you not?
Watching that scrum on Sunday had me purring. When has it ever been this good? Not in my lifetime.
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I thought that was a brilliant match on Sunday and Ireland could and perhaps should have won by more. 10 wins in a row is a hell of a thing. The intensity of the game would make you fear for player welfare though.
The Welsh will have their tails up, although their general arrogance means they're never all that short of confidence anyway.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
I thought the France match wasn't great but the game Sunday was good. England came to play a bit in fairness to them but they are a very inexperienced team and just let the occasion get to them a little. They got a few soft scores in Cardiff which they were never doing to get in Dublin. We should have pressed on after the 52 min mark a bit but hard to be over-critical.
Rugby is a different game to what is was though - no more mis-matches in terms of pace and power. Barring the props all the players have similar physique which is bound to send the game itself into a more rugby league type set-up.
The scrums were OK on Sunday but in rugby generally, the scrum is badly in need of a re-haul - 20 years ago the scrum was just a means of restarting the game. Now its a penalty generator. Something needs to change there. No-one wants to see 10 mins of scrums per game. No one.
A similar level of performance against Wales and Scotland and we are certainties for the Grand slam. Can't help but think we will throw in a below par performance somewhere along the road.
A good start would be stopping the clock at restarts and only starting again once the ball is put in.
That will at least resolve that problem of wasting time.
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Mmmmmmm ..... Wayne Barnes is the ref against Wales ......
Bawlls.
In other news, Italy have exoresses an interest in RWC2023
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Connacht ...... why would you kick the ball away in the 79 minute of the game ..... Carty you useless ....... threw the win away and this will come back to haunt ye at the end of the season!
I've only ever really had any interest in international rugby, and even then only in a fleeting sense, but I was thinking I might try and give the upcoming World Cup a bit more of my attention than I gave to the last one. Reading into it, I'm wondering why the authorities are content with four groups of five (and with such a poor geographical spread). Surely you could find four more teams (so, a USA 94 format) as good or better than, say, Namibia, and make everything a bit more streamlined? I mean, Spain and Russia are reasonably competitive right? Is it really just a case of trying to avoid too many lopsided scorelines? How do you grow the international game then?
Last edited by NeverFeltBetter; 08/03/2015 at 11:17 AM.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
They don't really want to grow the international game unless if it includes a big TV market like the USA, or maybe Russia. It's as bad as cricket in the institutionalised disregard for ambitious, talented and plucky, but not wealthy, nations. That's modern sport for you.
Could have played all day there without creating a try.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Now THAT was sport at its most dramatic. Even though it was nail biting stuff, I had to laugh when the RTE commentators celebrated prematurely when the clock was in red and France were awarded a penalty on their own line. They assumed that France would put it out but they tap and go instead. "What are France doing" says Lenihan as England almost turn it over. Now if Chris Kamara was watching, that was unbelievable stuff. Amazing really amazing and it just shows in sport that when you need to win by a certain amount, how a game changes.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
I celebrated prematurely too as I'm sure the whole nation did. Sheer disbelief that they ran it.
What a day though. 7 hours of sheer madness and breathtaking rugby.
That England France game was astonishing. Delighted is not the word.
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Ireland have won 10 matches winning our first back-to-back championships since 1949.
Ireland won 7 five nations games in total through the entire the 1990's.
Great days for Irish rugby with the women's team doing well, and the U-20s off the back of a World Cup semi final last year. Let's hope we can win the big one now on 11-10-15 - what a sporting day that promises to be.
Sunday 11th of October 2015
RWC Group D - Ireland v France 4.45pm
Euro Qualifier Group B - Poland v Republic of Ireland 7.45pm
The best part about that day is I'll be in Cardiff.
Gonna be whopper. Possible QF v Argentina for the victor, NZ for the vanquished.
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I'm genuinely gutted for Leigh Halfpenny. Big loss to Wales and the RWC in general.
Yeah, shades of Geordan Murphy before world cup 2003
Or David Wallace pre-2011. Hopefully he comes back all the stronger, terrific player.
"It was a very physical game" - the latest which all the players trot out after each match. The Canadians, Romanians and Italians have all played a physical game so far. Surely it goes without saying that a rugby international will be a physical game. We'll hear it about the French as well because their forwards are massive but these days, so are the forwards (and backs) of just about every national team.
Is the French game really that important? New Zealand or Argentina in the quarters. If Ireland wants to win this competition, we'll have to face the All Blacks at some stage ? Should we not rest our top players for the French game and take on the All Blacks with a fresh team fired up rather than a bruised one after a physical game against the French which more than likely we may lose anyway ? Or are we just targeting the semis
If, for the sake of argument, we beat the French and beat Argentina, I assume it will be either Australia or South Africa in the semi-final or do the All Blacks stay in our half of the draw?
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
[QUOTE=OwlsFan;1841918
If, for the sake of argument, we beat the French and beat Argentina, I assume it will be either Australia or South Africa in the semi-final or do the All Blacks stay in our half of the draw?[/QUOTE]
If we were to beat France and then Argentina, then it's either Australia or Wales (depends who wins on Saturday) or Scotland or Tonga! Now you see why the France game is so important!
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