Rugby World Cup 2023

[Protein Junkie]

Looking from the outside in with England I am not sure they know themselves what their best match day squad looks like. Having said that they were a dubious penalty away from the final.
The governing body really need to change when they seed the draw. Forget Italy and Fiji you have nine major Countries and this does not fit into eight for the quarters. Add in the shifting nature of form and this has ensured a lopsided draw.
I thought it was an excellent semi final from a purist point of view and genuinely gutted for England.

 

[bluemoon32]

Looking from the outside in with England I am not sure they know themselves what their best match day squad looks like. Having said that they were a dubious penalty away from the final.
The governing body really need to change when they seed the draw. Forget Italy and Fiji you have nine major Countries and this does not fit into eight for the quarters. Add in the shifting nature of form and this has ensured a lopsided draw.
I thought it was an excellent semi final from a purist point of view and genuinely gutted for England.

I love an old fashioned forwards grind but last night wasnt like that, far too many basic mistakes, constantly kicking away ball & the refusal of both sides to counter attack, instead, just to wait on errors by the opposing side made for a dull game, only compelling due to the closeness of the score.
For the good of rugby, i hope NZ batter SA next weekend

 

[bluemoon32]

Woke up still angry about it. Knee jerk reaction to South Africa making so many changes our coaching staff felt obliged to do the same. Had them completely rattled.

Don't think our coaching staff can have watched the World Cup Final 4 years ago. Got dominated in the scrum then until Marler came on. Complete role reversal yesterday when we were doing fine in the scrum and then lost pretty much every single scrum after he departed.

Wish Steward didn't compete for that ball in the air at the end and just made it awkward. Knocked on and inevitably conceded another penalty at the resulting scrum. Can't blame him though as he was outstanding and had caught everything all game.

Steward is quite brilliant in the air, doesnt offer a thing as an attacking force though but that isnt Englands game anyway.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Steward is quite brilliant in the air, doesnt offer a thing as an attacking force though but that isnt Englands game anyway.

I thought England in general were much better in the air. Steward stood out alright.
Maybe my enjoyment of RU internationals is enhanced by my lack of technical knowledge of the rules. I like the respect given to the ref and the apparent transparency between viewer, TMO, ref and captains.
Having said that though, I find myself scratching my head at how penalties are given sometimes. I’m not saying England were hard done by, because there was similar going on in the first half and I thought a few soft decisions were given that you benefited from. But something definitively changed with the substitutions, the bomb squad, as they call them.

It seems their function in every game is to force the penalties and let’s face it, rightly or wrongly, they got them.

It’ll be a decent contest next week, but I for one was rooting for England last night, strange as that seems for an Irish man. I thought you had a game plan and it was working very well in the difficult conditions. You were forcing them into mistakes and had them rattled. You just never looked like scoring a try.

You got close two or three times in the second half but wasted lineouts.

It’s a bitter pill to take but England were within a whisker of another final.
Hard luck lads.

 

[Protein Junkie]

I love an old fashioned forwards grind but last night wasnt like that, far too many basic mistakes, constantly kicking away ball & the refusal of both sides to counter attack, instead, just to wait on errors by the opposing side made for a dull game, only compelling due to the closeness of the score.
For the good of rugby, i hope NZ batter SA next weekend

I didn’t see all of the game but enjoyed what I saw.
Yes hope NZ win it :-)

 

[TinFoilHat]

Cue a cagey bore draw of a final.

 

[Corky]

Cue a cagey bore draw of a final.

You mean a Tie? Wonder if both sides have 5 decent kickers for the penalty shoot-out.

 

[bluemanchester]

Cue a cagey bore draw of a final.

I dont think NZ will play without an attempt to create. After watching both sides for many years and their lip service to the LotG and other manipulative shxthousery I would be happy for both to lose. As I texted to a mate in Ireland last night if Borthwick changed the props voluntarily then its down to him. The penalties conceded to give SA the win, well the last one was the most baffling, almost like Fodens late "foul" yesterday, another ref a different decision. But for SA to win with that poor decision by the ref, when England were clearly the better side, cannot give them any confidence going to face NZ. Their only hope in my opinion is to play the percentages and play for penalties if they hope to win. The referee choice will be interesting.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I thought England in general were much better in the air. Steward stood out alright.
Maybe my enjoyment of RU internationals is enhanced by my lack of technical knowledge of the rules. I like the respect given to the ref and the apparent transparency between viewer, TMO, ref and captains.
Having said that though, I find myself scratching my head at how penalties are given sometimes. I’m not saying England were hard done by, because there was similar going on in the first half and I thought a few soft decisions were given that you benefited from. But something definitively changed with the substitutions, the bomb squad, as they call them.

It seems their function in every game is to force the penalties and let’s face it, rightly or wrongly, they got them.

It’ll be a decent contest next week, but I for one was rooting for England last night, strange as that seems for an Irish man. I thought you had a game plan and it was working very well in the difficult conditions. You were forcing them into mistakes and had them rattled. You just never looked like scoring a try.

You got close two or three times in the second half but wasted lineouts.

It’s a bitter pill to take but England were within a whisker of another final.
Hard luck lads.

I think thats a bit unfair to the SA pack replacements.

The scrum has two purposes:
either to get secure ball, getting quick ball while half the players are in one place giving space elsewhere, etc
or to force the opponent scrum into conceding a penalty - this can be either to deliberately stymie the first point or just because they're overpowered.

SA bring four scrummaging props - England's replacements couldn't acclimatise to their opposition. England going back to the old men of Marler and Cole probably says a lot about their replacements; I've not really thought that Sinckler could take on the best props.

Behind the front row, Chessum is a big lump but rarely seems to have a notable effect, and Vunipola hasn't looked like an elite player for some years (and allowing for the long injury).

I also don't think that taking Mitchell off for Care at scrumhalf helped. Unless it was injury, why take the 9 off with half an hour to go?

 

[MillionMilesAway]

SA hooker accused of making a racial slur to Curry.
Being investigated - he's the only real hooker in the SA team.