Rugby World Cup

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
The weekend game against France shows too, that tests outside the world cup are just a nonsense.. ABs thrashed France 61 points to 10 scoring 9 tries to 1. Does anyone think that was a test... I think not the French Team and Reserves were watching it on telly planning how they will play against the ABs in the cup.

Sad for rugby... sad for France.. a t ...[text shortened]... ayed a team of welsh housewives, who would have put up more fight. Pardon me up the valleys ;-)

I'm probably one of the few people who would take winning 90% + of the games in between the World Cups over winning it ...

I disagree entirely that being world champs is meaningful if you hold the cup but lose everything between tournaments.

Having said that, I'd like to win this year to shut the 'ABs are chokers' crowd up! 🙂

Love to bring the six week tours (provinces and all) back ... not going to happen in this corporate age but ...

Originally posted by treetalk
I'm probably one of the few people who would take winning 90% + of the games in between the World Cups over winning it ...

I disagree entirely that being world champs is meaningful if you hold the cup but lose everything between tournaments.

Having said that, I'd like to win this year to shut the 'ABs are chokers' crowd up! 🙂

Love to bring the six week tours (provinces and all) back ... not going to happen in this corporate age but ...

The greatest tour was Graeme Mouries late seventies Grand Slam tour.. magic matches.. hard gripping games with real rucking and plenty of claret.
The games against Billy Beaumont's (Northern Div and England) sides were epics.. Laugh whatever happened to Cowboy Shaw?
Those tours were 3 months..... no family on tour, not always the greatest hotels and long bus trips.

I was quite surprised to hear this morning that we now hold the record for straight home wins...23 games in a row at home.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
The greatest tour was Graeme Mouries late seventies Grand Slam tour.. magic matches.. hard gripping games with real rucking and plenty of claret.
The games against Billy Beaumont's (Northern Div and England) sides were epics.. Laugh whatever happened to Cowboy Shaw?
Those tours were 3 months..... no family on tour, not always the greatest hotels and lo ...[text shortened]... ar this morning that we now hold the record for straight home wins...23 games in a row at home.

Only until the tri nations arrives,you will suffer defeats at the hands of the springboks and wallabies.

Originally posted by boarman
Only until the tri nations arrives,you will suffer defeats at the hands of the springboks and wallabies.

Don't worry I won't suffer the defeats, I'll expect them and take them in my stride.

Bring back Buck!!!

Originally posted by boarman
How can you say Australia is lacking in the halves ,Gregan and Larkham.Maybe they are aging but by no means have they lost too much,They will be the most experienced combination at the world cup,and it being their last appearances for Australia ,they will rise to the occasion.
The Aussie forwards hammered the Welsh in the last test ,and when Gregan was introduced the team had so much more direction.

Thats just it mate, we are a lot better around the scrum with Gregan. He should still be run on half.
That game on the weekend against Wales showed me a lot more of our team. Very satisfying result. Great to see Tuqiri in form too.
The game against the Sprinboks this coming weekend will be a better yard-stick to measure their form. If our forwards dont muscle up, it will be a long day at the office.

Boks beat the Wallies 22-19
1 try a piece with two late drop goals taking the game despite courageous defence which saw the aussies making 137 tackles to SA 52.
SA had all the possession but lacked the ability to break a hard defence.

Meanwhile in Hamilton a sell out crowd watched the ABs lead Canada by only 6pts at half time. However the heat was turned up in the second half as the demolition job was done to gain victory by 64-13.

Dan Carter dominated the score sheet with three tries and seven conversions to finish with 29 points

After the game NZ got on a bus drove to Auckland and flew off to SA for their Tri-Nations opener next week.

Watch out for the future.. as The Junior All Blacks have thoroughly embarrassed Australia A by a resounding 50 points to nil in their Pacific Nations Cup game in Dunedin. Juniors Capt Marty Holah from Waikato was pleased his side didn't let Aus in for a soft try at the end.. YES! thats what a good capt must have... "kick butt & rub their nose in it" attitude.. He is a brilliant player who would certainly will be playing in my world cup squad.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
Marty Holah from Waikato was pleased his side didn't let Aus in for a soft try at the end.. YES! thats what a good capt must have... "kick butt & rub their nose in it" attitude.. He is a brilliant player who would certainly will be playing in my world cup squad.

There was a fantastic scrum half in Wales in the '70's called Brynmor Williams, nobody outside Wales ever remembers him because his career happened to coincide with a certain Mr Gareth Edwards.

Marty Holah would be first choice in almost every other international team. It's just a shame he'll always be in McCaw's shadow.

Originally posted by Angry Boy
There was a fantastic scrum half in Wales in the '70's called Brynmor Williams, nobody outside Wales ever remembers him because his career happened to coincide with a certain Mr Gareth Edwards.

Marty Holah would be first choice in almost every other international team. It's just a shame he'll always be in McCaw's shadow.

I think McCaw will step aside for Hollah after this cup and leave the way open for Hollah to be capt for a long career... just a thought. Hollah should be in the squad.. fast, hard, sensible and totally committed. Best Waikato man since Duane Monkley. .. Monkley was kept out too.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
Boks beat the Wallies 22-19
1 try a piece with two late drop goals taking the game despite courageous defence which saw the aussies making 137 tackles to SA 52.
SA had all the possession but lacked the ability to break a hard defence.

Meanwhile in Hamilton a sell out crowd watched the ABs lead Canada by only 6pts at half time. However the heat was tu ...[text shortened]... ttitude.. He is a brilliant player who would certainly will be playing in my world cup squad.

YES when will the IRB board downgrade the points awarded for a field goal.They are easy to kick and get a simple 3 points ,whereas a try on the other hand is only worth the 5 points and harder to get.
So many times we have seen the better team lose out only for the drop goal.
If you downgrade what they are worth ,more emphasis will be put into scoring tries.
A lot of the European teams rely on the drop goal ,definitely Argentina,South Africa employ its use a fair bit.
Lets hope that after this years World Cup the IRB will make the drop goal only worth 2 points or like Rugby League only 1 point.
There are a number of rule changes to come into affect after the cup and we can just hope that this is one of them.

Originally posted by boarman
YES when will the IRB board downgrade the points awarded for a field goal.They are easy to kick and get a simple 3 points ,whereas a try on the other hand is only worth the 5 points and harder to get.
So many times we have seen the better team lose out only for the drop goal.
If you downgrade what they are worth ,more emphasis will be put into scoring trie ...[text shortened]... of rule changes to come into affect after the cup and we can just hope that this is one of them.

I agree - no disrepect to certain teams/players but I think drop goals being worth 3 points can cause a bit of a reliance on them - definitely reducing them to 2 (or even 1) would be a good move.

Originally posted by treetalk
I agree - no disrepect to certain teams/players but I think drop goals being worth 3 points can cause a bit of a reliance on them - definitely reducing them to 2 (or even 1) would be a good move.

1 for droppie is fine by me but it doesn't stop league games from having field goal swapping sessions to get the clear point..

If you are in danger of tying a game most front rowers know how to make the opposition infringe in front of the ref to get a penalty.. if you take the 3 pts you'll see more skulduggery out in front.

Laugh but the way some refs love the whistle maybe penalty kicks are a waste of time, couldn't the ref just award a pt every time someone pharts in the scrum and we go back to the centre for a kick off just save time and dump the place kicks.

Originally posted by treetalk
I'm probably one of the few people who would take winning 90% + of the games in between the World Cups over winning it ...

I disagree entirely that being world champs is meaningful if you hold the cup but lose everything between tournaments.

Having said that, I'd like to win this year to shut the 'ABs are chokers' crowd up! 🙂

Love to bring the six week tours (provinces and all) back ... not going to happen in this corporate age but ...

No one can acuse the All Blacks of being chokers. They are a tough team to beat on their worst day. I do however think that people make the mistake of favouring them because of their reputation.
If i have to make a prediction i would say the QF will be SA, NZ, Aus, and France. After that anything can happen, but my favourites for the final would be SA vs. France.

Originally posted by Senta
No one can acuse the All Blacks of being chokers. They are a tough team to beat on their worst day. I do however think that people make the mistake of favouring them because of their reputation.
If i have to make a prediction i would say the QF will be SA, NZ, Aus, and France. After that anything can happen, but my favourites for the final would be SA vs. France.

The World cup pools are amazingly uneven.. tragic draw...stacked to ruin the semis once again favouring the six nations.

A has: England SA Samoa USA and Tonga

B has Aus Wales Canada Japan and Fiji

C: New Zealand Scotland Italy Romania Portugal

D: France Ireland Argentina Georgia Namibia.

The draw with my pre tri nations predictions are..

W Pool B (Aus) RU Pool A (Eng) QF1 22-15
W Pool C (NZ) RU Pool D (Fra) QF2 36-12
W Pool A (SA) RU Pool B (Wal) QF3 42-10
W Pool D (Ire) RU Pool C (Ita) QF4 26-12

W QF1 (Aus) W QF2 (NZ) SF1 16-24
W QF3 (SA) W QF4 (Ire) SF2 32-16

Final NZ v SA.... go All Blacks !! 16-12 NZ Champions 2007.
2 trieds to one with Mils Mulialana crossing in the first ten minutes out wide.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
The World cup pools are amazingly uneven.. tragic draw...stacked to ruin the semis once again favouring the six nations.

A has: England SA Samoa USA and Tonga

B has Aus Wales Canada Japan and Fiji

C: New Zealand Scotland Italy Romania Portugal

D: France Ireland Argentina Georgia Namibia.

The draw with my pre tri nations predictions are..
...[text shortened]... Champions 2007.
2 trieds to one with Mils Mulialana crossing in the first ten minutes out wide.

I predict the same score, but with Brian Habana scoring the winning try for South Africa.

Originally posted by Senta
I predict the same score, but with Brian Habana scoring the winning try for South Africa.

Rusty ABs did it all wrong for 60 minutes then blew the tired juggernaut boks out of the water. The last 15 of the game showed that the reconditioned ABs are very very fit indeed.. when they get the fine tuning right they are going to be a great side.