chrissmith921 Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Quade Coopers quality, but he seems to be making wrong decisions at key times - not a good sign... he will be the better 10 on show in the semi final against the AB's 239th choice or whatever - take the shot... If you want to see Pocock v Warburton, turn up at Millennium Stadium in about 8 weeks time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 o`driscoll will be the only hard one to replace maybe fitzgerald ? o`connell prob get another world cup out of him best prob get another world cup ,o gara was on the way out of the door anyway with sexton more than a decent replacment I'm not sure about Fitz as a centre, but he is a good player when on form, but I'm happier with him on the wing, much like Earls. There are decent players coming through, O'Driscoll will be hard to replace, and the best chance to freshen our midfield will probably be with the Ulster duo that I see often enough in Nevin Spence and Darren Cave. Not a patch on BOD but different enough to give us 'something else' which has been our problem for a while. Sexton is a good player, but if Conor Murray and Ian Keatley play for Munster in the coming years then I'll have them at 9/10. Murray looks to be a good player in the making. We'll still have good players, and some very good players, but it all depends on how much experience they get or if the IRB just keep throwing money at the old guard in the hope they can still perform in their mid to late 30s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 I hope Quade Cooper has a stormer against NZ. Simply because I'd like to see a Pocock/Warburton battle in the final. Plus, I can't really stand NZ. Well **** you too :x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CastleBromVilla Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Its the same with any national sport, the media and 70% of the public got some sick pleasure out of seeing us lose and get knocked out of competitions. Every major tournement turns into a **** witch-hunt, just so that people can say "i told you so...look, we're shite!". I wouldnt blame the players of rugby or football national teams if leading upto and during every major event they introduced a media blackout. I've been thinking exactly the same, the media in this country are words removed, it's as if they want to see us crash and burn, but that doesnt matter, whatever sells their paper i suppose. That incident in the bar involving Mike Tindall was such a non event, got blown all out of proportion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 I've been thinking exactly the same, the media in this country are words removed, it's as if they want to see us crash and burn, but that doesnt matter, whatever sells their paper i suppose. media might be bad but players dont help themselves especially in times of cameraphones and twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banger75 Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I think the Kiwis (as much as I will hate it), will beat the Aussies....just. Then NZ will win the final by approximately 1,000 points. *sigh* :notsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I think the Kiwis (as much as I will hate it), will beat the Aussies....just. Then NZ will win the final by approximately 1,000 points. *sigh* :notsure: There is one thing you failed to account for though: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I think the Kiwis (as much as I will hate it), will beat the Aussies....just. Then NZ will win the final by approximately 1,000 points. *sigh* :notsure: There is one thing you failed to account for though: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSufferingVilla Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I honestly cannot call either of these two semi's. Wales were fantastic against Ireland one of the finest performances I've seen in years, tactical masterclass from Gatland and the players didn't put a foot wrong all game. First half I was left in hope that some poor discipline by Wales might leave the door open from Ireland but they came out on their best behavior. France are a mystery I honestly have no idea if they played out of their skins against England or trudged along with plenty more left in the tank. Like all French sides if you expect them to do well then they'll be crap but if you write them off then they'll beat anyone. Regardless I think they would stand a better chance in the final than Wales simply due to their "We can beat the All Blacks when we want" mentality that the rest of the Northern hemisphere lacks. That is if the All Blacks can overcome Australia... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunRickyRun Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I'm pretty confident that Wales will see off France. France lost the 2nd half 12-3 against a shit England and took a big lead by virtue of England missing something like 10 tackles in the first 20 mins. New Zealand don't seem to have that air of invulnerability they possessed in previous tournaments. I don't know if this is a bad thing considering their ability to choke at those same tournaments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Allain Roland. Not only have we just dumped the land of his mother, but hes half french, refereeing us in this - he already tried doing us once with Samoa in the groups letting them literally do as they pleased at the breakdown. Good choice IRB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 It's almost as if they're trying to choose the worst/most inappropriate refs possible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I just hope we have Nigel Owens refereeing us in the final next week Or the 3rd/4th, whichever we're in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted October 14, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted October 14, 2011 Interesting piece in the WSJ. on rugby incorporating aspects from other football codes post-professionalization (will probably go behind the paywall fairly soon) (the second paragraph is a bit trollish, though, thus some editing) The world has six major codes of football. There's [association football], Australian rules football, Gaelic football, and [gridiron] football (the helmeted variety played in North America). Then there are the two varieties of rugby football -- union (played at the Rugby World Cup) and league [the Rugby League World Cup can't get no love from the WSJ. I guess --LR) -- which emerged in 1895 after a split over whether players should be paid. Anyone who has toggled between these sports on the lonely TV channels up the dial knows these codes have evolved in radically different ways. All they have in common, seemingly, is that they involve the accumulation of territory by running and kicking an oval ["oval" is not technically correct: elliptical is more accurate; remember that circles are just ellipses with zero eccentricity --LR] ball while sometimes flattening people. But Sunday, when New Zealand and Australia face off in the most-anticipated match here at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, anyone with an educated eye is likely to see evidence of one inescapable fact: Rugby looks almost nothing like it did 30 years ago because it has spent most of that time stealing players, tactics and training ideas from everyone else. "The game today is almost unrecognizable from the first World Cup [in 1987]," said Austin Healey, a former England international. "The way some of these teams are playing nowadays, you have to count the number of players to check what sport you're watching." Rugby has become faster and more efficient. In the professional era, the average number of passes in an international game has jumped by more than 400% while fewer errors and infringements mean the amount of time the ball is in play has doubled, according to the International Rugby Board. The result: Individual passages of play have grown longer, creating the sort of structured, multi-phase game that is the hallmark of the other code, rugby league. In rugby league—much like American football—the play is dead when a player is tackled. Play doesn't restart until the tackled player returns to his feet and rolls the ball between his legs. Today's top rugby teams are increasingly reliant on systems and set plays which have been lifted from the playbooks of other codes. Most successful teams—including Wales and France, who will meet in the other World Cup semifinal this Saturday—have adopted a "rush defense" that was lifted from rugby league.This defense forces defensive players to move forward rapidly towards opposition runners, smothering attacking moves before they're made. The combination of today's bigger, faster backs and these suffocating defensive tactics has transformed the art of the attack. Since space and time are at a premium and tries are rarely scored quickly, offenses have come to rely on choreographed set plays to break down defenses. In this sense, it's becoming more like the NFL, where planning, elaborate schemes and deception are vital. The trendiest tactic here in New Zealand is the longtime rugby league ploy of passing behind a dummy runner, who shields the intended receiver and allows his team to orchestrate a choreographed maneuver to break through the defensive line. This is vaguely reminiscent of a scheme the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills have tried with their wide receivers. New Zealand's All Blacks have also rattled opponents by launching deep crossfield kicks to onrushing wingers, a strategy which has been perfected by Australian rules teams and which England also used in its 2003 triumph. "We stole a lot of stuff from Aussie Rules in terms of the techniques for taking a crossfield kick and how to out-jump the defender underneath it," said Ben Kay, a World Cup winner with England in 2003 and now a rugby analyst for ESPN. "We had coaches exploring all these sports to see what we could learn from them." Technical advances in Australian rules during the last decade have produced a marked rise in team goals as players increasingly dispose of the ball by hand (propelling it forward by their fists) instead of through kicks. The same is true of rugby, where running to advance the ball has been gained favor over kicking. For rugby, many of these developments have improved the game as a spectacle. In the 1980s, half the time the ball came into play, it became dead again less than 10 seconds later. Today, such instances occur less than 20% of the time. Players from rival codes are switching to the sport in greater numbers. England's Chris Ashton, the World Cup's leading try-scorer, is one of several stars at this tournament who grew up playing rugby league. Ireland's Conor Murray and Keith Earls got started in Gaelic football. This creeping convergence owes much to the advent of professionalism in rugby union in 1995. The introduction of full-time training programs has raised the players' fitness and endurance levels and improved their technical skills, causing a seismic shift in the way the game is played. Some believe these trends speak to a natural evolution of the skills involved in playing these sports. In other words, the arts of running, kicking and hitting people don't vary that much no matter what the rules. "Increasingly, these sports require very similar skill sets, from how to pass and handle the ball, how to kick it, even the way defenses now operate," said Kay "There's a natural crossover there." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I must say, the last time I was this nervous about a semi I'd just been watching Brokeback Mountain... Really cannot wait for tomorrow - time has dragged all week... the win against Ireland feels like it was an eternity ago now Really excited, really confident and really hopeful we'll be making that final. Certainly got the talent - hopefully its not one step too far, too soon, for our young team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Tom Shanklin earlier that Had to RT that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Its all over the various players & ex players twitter feeds this side of the bridge - great joke though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 it's funny because it's true. wales to win. NZ to choke. Aus to win the final. then i can quote myself from earlier in the thread and say i knew it all along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted October 14, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted October 14, 2011 Enjoyed that article Levi, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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