*** Official 2007 Rugby World Cup - Page 20

bismillahno · #**191** 10-15-2007, 08:16 AM

England making the final is nearly as tilt inducing as NZ losing the quarter. Flat out ugly rugby. There isn't an international team of any sport I dislike more than the English rugby side, so I'll be a diehard Springbok fan this coming Sunday morning.

Disclaimer: I'm not an England hater, I supported you in the ashes and the football world cup.

raju · #**192** 10-15-2007, 08:44 AM

late but funny

Disturbance · #**193** 10-15-2007, 03:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
South Africa have to win the final to save the game of Rugby.
England have been down right appauling right up to this world cup and a team to be beaten 36-0 in pool games is a disgrace to the competition for them to make it through. They have one player that has been inspurational and that is wilkinson. The rest I would not want to put in a high school team.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL you must be a kiwi to display that level of bitterness? So none of the England forward pack would make your school team then?

England actually ran the ball as much as Australia did in their match and scored the only try in their semi-final, it's hardly their fault the other teams can't win against forward dominance. Perhaps you would prefer it that the IRB change the rules so England aren't allowed to win?

MURK · #**194** 10-15-2007, 04:02 PM

it's not as if flair and style have ever been particlarly strong Anglo-Saxon qualities anyway, nothing wrong with playing to your strengths.

and getting the [censored] bombed out of you is the price you have to pay for standing up to fascism I guess.

bouglas · #**195** 10-16-2007, 02:52 AM

[ QUOTE ]
South Africa have to win the final to save the game of Rugby.
England have been down right appauling right up to this world cup and a team to be beaten 36-0 in pool games is a disgrace to the competition for them to make it through. They have one player that has been inspurational and that is wilkinson. The rest I would not want to put in a high school team.
French were lucky to make it as the 20 minutes of the NZ game as the ref made very bad decisions which have inturn put the best team out. France also made bad tactical moves in the last 10 minutes that cost them the game. England would of been no match for New Zealand and this has wruined in what would of been a spectical final between SA and NZ.
South Africa will destroy England again in the final IMO to save the game of rugby. looking forward to some south African tries to stop the final being a dour and boring game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are an angry man, were you the guy who punted $5m on the All Blacks with an Aussie bookmaker?

the_optical · #**196** 10-16-2007, 07:03 AM

For the record I am not a kiwi however as a Rugby purest I think the All Blacks are a great team and were hard done by to lose the game against the French.
As for the bit about attacking as much as Australian's well I totally disagree with you there Australia scored the only try of the game and the try against the French was pure luck of the bounce of the ball. All the English reverted to was drop goals for all the possession the forwards gave them.All I am saying is that they will well and truely get found out against South Africa this weekend.
I do believe though they should change the value of a drop kick to 1 point and therefore see some more attacking rugby. See how England would fare then???

The once and future king · #**197** 10-16-2007, 07:43 AM

[ QUOTE ]
England fared so much better during World War II, curled up in the fetal position on their little island.

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Until the Germans gained air superiority and invaded........... oh wait.

See you in the final...........oh wait.

cbloom · #**198** 10-16-2007, 12:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I do believe though they should change the value of a drop kick to 1 point and therefore see some more attacking rugby. See how England would fare then???

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL that's a bit extreme, but Rugby is a strange sport. Most Rugby savants consider to be still unfinished. The rules are worked up to create a certain style of play, but they aren't quite working. Drop goals are a pretty difficult skill; a more obvious complaint is the importance of penalties. Not only do penalties make up a huge amount of the score, they're really random and depend on the ref. So many of the penalties are called on rucks, not releasing, diving over the top, coming in the side, and that kind of stuff is happening all the time and it's so marginal, it adds a huge strange variance to the game.

The England-Australia scrums were one of the clear cases where something is wrong with the rules. All the restarts wasted a ton of time, and England clearly had a huge advantage in the scrums, but if they don't stay up you can't even get a drive or build a maul.

negtv capability · #**199** 10-16-2007, 02:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The rules are worked up to create a certain style of play, but they aren't quite working. Drop goals are a pretty difficult skill; a more obvious complaint is the importance of penalties. Not only do penalties make up a huge amount of the score, they're really random and depend on the ref. So many of the penalties are called on rucks, not releasing, diving over the top, coming in the side, and that kind of stuff is happening all the time and it's so marginal, it adds a huge strange variance to the game.

The England-Australia scrums were one of the clear cases where something is wrong with the rules. All the restarts wasted a ton of time, and England clearly had a huge advantage in the scrums, but if they don't stay up you can't even get a drive or build a maul.

[/ QUOTE ]

True. The laws, designed to speed up the game, are actually restricting the game. Not releasing/ diving in/ marginal coming from the side calls/ hands in ruck/ etc.
I think the main reason scrums are collapsing so often is b/c props are pulling down, trying to draw a penalty from the ref. The refs don't seem to know how to call these situations.
Penalties are so valuable, and they're called so often, that it makes sense to "draw" a penalty from the other team.
2/3 o' scores should not be from penalty kicks.
The refs should just call the obvious infractions and let the rest go, b/c they aren't getting a good percentage of the marginal calls correct.
Rugby has become a sport of who can draw the most penalties.
Maybe if the refs stopped calling so many, this practice of drawing a penalty would not be such a detriment to the game as it is now.

the_optical · #**200** 10-17-2007, 02:46 AM

I read an article that they are testing new laws of for the game in South Africa, Australia and new Zealand thoroughly.
These new ideas will change the game to more of a game like league and illiminate most of the reasons for a scrum and instead give a free kick. I am not in agreeance of the idea as I feel that scrumaging is a vital part of the game but it is interesting if the IRB persue the idea or not.