Rugby World Cup Japan 2019

[matt83]

England have been very good. New Zealand haven’t been under this sort of pressure yet and they don’t look quite as imperious as normal.

Watched the first half of the rugby league on bbc2. Bet there won’t have been 10 viewers left

[matt83]

Fuck off!!!!

This is just what happened vs this lot at twickenham. Playing 17 men.

[matt83]

If England come through this they can take great pride from the fact they’ve beaten New Zealand and the officials

[matt83]

The officials are panicking that we’ll win this.

[Husky]

It's all going pear shaped. NZ have hardly touched the ball in one hour and yet they are still only 1 try from the WC Final.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Husky

[47er]

Fantastic game! Loving it even though I don't fully understand the rules!  

[matt83]

This is one of the great England wins. In any sport. 

[matt83]

Just be like us to lose vs the taffs or saffas now

[Proudtobeblue&white]

What an absolutely awesome performance by an England team. They have beaten the best team in the World by miles. Bring on next Saturday. The second World Cup of the year is there to be won!!

[philipl]

Extraordinarily dominant England performance. Two tries (rightly) struck off and three kicks at goal incredibly narrowly missed and the All Blacks' only score was an England gift.

[Husky]

We've beaten the World Champions in the semi-final with them being allowed to pass the ball forward as well as back and having the TMO on their side. I think It's England's greatest ever Rugby performance.

 

As a side note - Hell, I can't believe it's been 24 years since Lomu steamed us that time.

 

[matt83]

[den]

Just now, Husky said:

We've beaten the World Champions in the semi-final with them being allowed to pass the ball forward as well as back and having the TMO on their side. I think It's England's greatest ever Rugby performance.

 

As a side note - Hell, I can't believe it's been 24 years since Lomu steamed us that time.

 

I think it must be best ever performance as well. Absolutely destroyed New Zealand.
 

superb.

[matt83]

1 minute ago, Husky said:

We've beaten the World Champions in the semi-final with them being allowed to pass the ball forward as well as back and having the TMO on their side. I think It's England's greatest ever Rugby performance.

 

As a side note - Hell, I can't believe it's been 24 years since Lomu steamed us that time.

 

I genuinely think one of the great England performances across all sports. Still stunned over that result. Comprehensively beat a very very good all black team. Who as you said were allowed to play onside or offside, pass the ball forward or backward and let’s say a generous TMO.

[matt83]

The all blacks forwards were poor. Line outs lost, ball turned over too many times, slow at the breakdown and no counter rucking. The 2 former points were ironically how they thought we would lose.

Reid and Whitelock looked lost and the latter broke with that shove on Farrell's face. But it all came from England pressure. The line speed was immense and it was struggle from them to get over the gain line.

They won't have been used to a team coming at them like that in the tackle. England totally rattled them. We didn't have to defend our try line once. Just a breakdown in communications in the line out.

Unfathomably impressive against the all blacks. First time in 28 years they were 0 at ht and they were lucky not to be 0 at the end. England could easily have had another 20 points. 

[Husky]

So who do we want in the final? Wales or South Africa?

[den]

Wales.

i haven’t seen much of SA in this comp, so don’t know how good they are. The norm for them is big, tough and very physical.

[matt83]

I think England are the best team left and out of South Africa and Wales I think South Africa are the better side but I genuinely think the Welsh would beat us. They seem to have a way of winding us up, chirping in the refs ear and we give away penalties. 
 

Plus if the worst was to happen and England lost I couldn’t stomach wales as World Cup winners. 

[philipl]

South Africa win against Japan probably a lot better than given credit for.

If Wales aren't improved over the way they were against France, South Africa will have too much for them 

[gumboots]

I think SA would be a more exciting match than Wales. The Welsh are niggly and difficult to play against. Would be a feast of Sale players on show too, so I wouldn't feel as disappointed if England lost as I would if we lost to the Welsh, although if we can find a performance like yesterday's we wont lose to either of them. Tom Curry has been immense for England so far. 

[matt83]

If anyone needs a pick me up from the detritus at dumpale read the New Zealand press. Hilarious. Clearly bugger all else happens down there. This is a typically pretentious front page:

 

[matt83]

One article said "the referee increasingly smiled on the English". What game were they watching!?!?

[gumboots]

If England get anywhere near yesterday's performance they have nothing to fear in the final. Plenty to be wary of but nothing to actually fear. 

[Husky]

On 26/10/2019 at 12:52, matt83 said:

On my phone that actually looks like Alan Shearer. ?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I watched the 3rd and 4th place game this morning. New Zealand won comfortably against Wales without ever really hitting top form. They made several mistakes with the ball simply by over playing their hand. Two line outs in really good attacking positions in the Wales 25 were blown because they were overthrown into no mans land. That's not like the Kiwis of old. Could be that they're not what they were years ago.

Looking forward to tomorrow's match. Come on England.