[Archived] Rugby

[bblue]

Not the most entertaining rugby match ever, but glad to see that England are holding their own quite well. Was expecting SA to have an easier mission tonight. Not too sure about that England try being disallowed though, but the ref's the boss.

[Rovers Air Force]

Well played the guys! and that is to all 30+ players on the pitch!

South Africa Deserved the game! Their line outs were fantastic and ours were .... welll not! as a result SA deserved the match.

well played to England though at no point did we give it up and surrender.

And to any one feeling "robbed" by the TV official .......... Don't! it was the RIGHT CALL!!!!!!!!!!! the toe of the foot was in touch, it was obvious from the first replay! the toe clears out a portion of the touch line... any part of the body touched the line the ball is in touch.

Well done south africa a deserved victory.

England.. be proud, the boys played well and fought hard. The best Omens in the match was the fact that our best players (Robbinson excluded) were all young guns and not the guys retiring...

Although it hurts, and you may want to cry, the future is far rosier than it was at the start of this competition!

WELL DONE BOYS YOU DID US PROUD!

[Rovermatt]

Watched it in a pretty partizan bar in the student quarter and it was very tense until the final ten minutes. I'm absolutely hoarse now. The game was compelling though, both sets of forwards slamming into each other with a level of commitment that football could learn from. I thought the South Africans did a good job of playing the English at their own game, the kicking from Montgomery and Steyn was awesome.

All in all a very fitting end to an excellent tournament.

[jim mk2]

I thought it was a dull tedious game.

Relief to watch Match of the Day afterwards and some proper sporting action.

[Eddie]

Just got back from the match.

The atmosphere was pretty good, not as good as I expected for a world cup final.

The match itself was poor. Pointless kicking that wasn't even of a high quality and then a total lack of imagination from both sides.

The officials were horrible. I'm still not sure about the try and I won't hold that against anyone either way, but other little decisions were really poor. Never punished South Africa for putting their hands in, but the worst part was the decisions with regards to crossing. Why he gave a penalty against England for crossing that crucially put South Africa up by 9 points I'll never know, how he missed two blatant examples of crossing by South Africa was even more shocking.

That doesn't take anything away from South Africa. Over the course of the tournament they have probably been the best side, it was however a poor final. Not a good example for rugby, either from the players or officials.

[RevidgeBlue]

I forced myself to sit through the full game and I'm more convinced than ever that sitting watching paint dry is marginally preferable to watching a game of rugby.

One decent piece of action in eighty minutes - the disallowed try.

The players are wonderful sportsmen though, (the referee's word is gospel) they're real hard men, and great athletes. Give me Johnny Wilkinson over Beckham as a role model any day of the week.

Unlucky chaps.

[bblue]

The players are wonderful sportsmen though, (the referee's word is gospel) they're real hard men, and great athletes. Give me Johnny Wilkinson over Beckham as a role model any day of the week.

Lots of things that football could learn from this sport. Like the fact that only one man in the team is allowed to talk to the ref and there's hardly any discussing his decisions.

[ABBEY]

Im with rev and jim ,I watched it and tried to find what entertainment value there was..I know it was a final and lots of battles went on but I kept thinking I would rather watch the "old wimbledon" team at footy as they didnt lump the the ball up the pitch as much as that ...GIMME LEAGUE ANY DAY OF THE WEEK AT LEAST THEY WANT TO SCORE TRIES.

I would go as far as to say that must have been the most boring final in any sport.

Ah well Im gonna get at a bit of excitment now...spud peeling time for me roast.

[Claytons Left Boot]

...GIMME LEAGUE ANY DAY OF THE WEEK AT LEAST THEY WANT TO SCORE TRIES.

Spot on there pal.

Revidge - give League a try (if you'll pardon the pun!)

[Billy Castell]

I like both codes, as both can produce good games. I can't stand the 'little northerners' who bitch and snipe at Union and moan about how the best players a bought by union teams. The whippet molesters didn't moan as they stripped Welsh clubs of their best players when union was amatuer in the 1980's and 90's. And the union world cup is infinately more interesting than the Australian trophy presentation tournament.

Rugby league also helps the residents of St. Helens forget they live in one of the crappest towns in Europe, which I suppose can't be bad.

[Rovermatt]

You simply cannot compare league and union. League's basic premise may be to score tries by blindly running into the man in front of you but it lacks the epic scale, attritional clashes and subtle skills that make union so great. The international union game is thriving while league has a grand total of three nations who are either any good at it or really give a fiddlers in the first place.

[RoyRover]

I'm glad that South Africa won on Saturday, they were the best and most consistent team at the tournament. It's a shame that we never saw them play at their best, but they won the World Cup, so you can't argue with that. Even though the game itself wasn't the most interesting of spectacles, it was still pretty enthralling and could have gone either way. England threw everything at them, but it just wasn't enough. South Africa were more than a match for the English forwards and weren't dominated like some people predicated. As such England had to play more running rugby and apart from Tait's truly magical break and eventually Cueto's rightly disallowed try, they never really threatened. It looked like South Africa never really got out of third gear.

Overall I thought that it has been a brilliant World Cup. One of the things that has pleased me the most is how the smaller nations have progressed. Fiji and Tonga have always been very talented rugby players, with their best players playing in the top leagues in the world, but there has always been a disorganised look to them. It showed how well they can do when they have a more organised set up and their best players play, compared in the past when clubs haven't realised them. Tonga nearly beating South Africa and fiji beating Wales, were two of the highlights of the tournament. It was also good to see the likes of Georgia, Romania and Namibia being more competitive. It shows what is capable when these countries are given money, equipment and coaches. If rugby is to become a truly global game then countries like Fiji, Saoma, Tonga have to play more regularly against other Southern Hemisphere teams, maybe even joining the Tri-Nations. Argentina have progressed the most and can no longer be ignored, they must play in the Six Nations or Tri-Nations. While the other countries should be able to play more internationals against top opposition.

[ABBEY]

You simply cannot compare league and union. League's basic premise may be to score tries by blindly running into the man in front of you but it lacks the epic scale, attritional clashes and subtle skills that make union so great. The international union game is thriving while league has a grand total of three nations who are either any good at it or really give a fiddlers in the first place.

YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,then oooops penalty kick 3ponits and then YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,scrum YEA RIGHT AS OPPOSED TO BOOOOOT ,RUN CHASE ,ALL PILE ON ,WAIT THROW BOOOT,then as for throwing the ball from the side its who can lift someone the highest its like bloody gymanastics ...what happened to jumping fairly...

sorry matty i bow to you ....***but it lacks the epic scale, attritional clashes and subtle skills that make union so great****

[Rovermatt]

SO do YOU Agree OR DISAgreE.......???!!!!!!!!!

[SouthAussieRover]

BOTH CODES OF RUGBY BEAT RENT AN AD GRIDIRON.

[ABBEY]

SO do YOU Agree OR DISAgreE.......???!!!!!!!!!

disagree 100%

[neekoy]

Typical whining Crim.

"The golden age of Rugby was when we were good at it". How predictable.

Yawn, typical inferiority complex raising it's ugly head again.

Great final

Should have saved everyones time and had a 1 on 1 shootout Percy V Jonny

Now that you give us the rundown of your history as a forward I can appreciate why you like the game as it is, fair enough, I like a different style.

[Cheshireblue]

Yawn, typical inferiority complex raising it's ugly head again.

Inferiority complex? Just run that one by me again. You have been put out of the last two world cups by England, including the defeat in your own back yard. Your pack has been humiliated on more occasions that I care to remember in between.

You come from a two bob country, colonised by our prison service, you have no presence or influence on the world stage in any way shape or form, and in fact your country's only claims to fame are that apparently you have good weather and you are quite good at sports, although not the ones that the rest of the world play. The three most famous australians that I can think of are Rolf Harris, Kylie Minogue and Greg Norman. Not exactly Brunel, Shakespeare and Wordsworth are they?

I'm just looking for where you get any sense of inferiority complex in me from?

[Eddie]

Yawn.

[Rovermatt]

What about the final though Chesh? I take it you didn't 'love it'?

[Flopsy]

watching the NFL game from Wembley.

Abbey I dont know what you're on about, its incredibly like rugby but with some passes going forward. You even have a form of the scrum.

Still, I admit im enjoying it, but I always have liked gridiron

[thenodrog]

The three most famous australians that I can think of are Rolf Harris, Kylie Minogue and Greg Norman. Not exactly Brunel, Shakespeare and Wordsworth are they?

You've dropped a bollock there regarding culture. You've forgotten Australia's cultural attache to these shores ..... Sir Les Patterson!

[Eddie]

watching the NFL game from Wembley.

Abbey I dont know what you're on about, its incredibly like rugby but with some passes going forward. You even have a form of the scrum.

Still, I admit im enjoying it, but I always have liked gridiron

Want to see some true athletes play some rugby...

[neekoy]

Inferiority complex? Just run that one by me again. You have been put out of the last two world cups by England, including the defeat in your own back yard. Your pack has been humiliated on more occasions that I care to remember in between.

You come from a two bob country, colonised by our prison service, you have no presence or influence on the world stage in any way shape or form, and in fact your country's only claims to fame are that apparently you have good weather and you are quite good at sports, although not the ones that the rest of the world play. The three most famous australians that I can think of are Rolf Harris, Kylie Minogue and Greg Norman. Not exactly Brunel, Shakespeare and Wordsworth are they?

I'm just looking for where you get any sense of inferiority complex in me from?

Your second paragraph sums it up perfectly for me, thanks. "BUT BUT BUT we have this" yeh good, happy for you.

[Cheshireblue]

Sorry, you've lost me there. I don't speak Crim. What exactly are you saying?