RWC 2015 - build-up thread

Absoluvely

USA obliterated in the second half.

First Half:  USA 10 - 14 AUS
[U]Second Half: USA  0 - 33 AUS + [/U]
Full Time:   USA 10 - 47 AUS

Kiwi_knock

USA really tired in that second half and made simple mistakes that Australia capitalised on, the scoreline of 47-10 certainly flattered them. Positives for Australia are no injuries and Foley's goalkicking. Cheika has to find space for McMahon in his 23, and Tomane deserves a shot as well.

andymx11

Is the Canada Fiji match on anywhere?

thomond2006

Webb and Halfpenny confirmed gone. What a disaster for Wales. I assume it will be Gareth Davies and Alex Cuthbert (with nice guy Liam at 15) who will benefit.

rebel girl 15

If anyone wants to watch the match, it's being streamed here (not sure if it's region restricted though). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN_6BSr6yDA

Fiji 30 Canada 8 half time

Fiji have put huge pressure on the Canadian scrum, looked very dangerous with balls in hand. I'm at the game

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Canada are pretty terrible. I watched a few of the Pacific Nations matches and they were just shockingly bad.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Not entirely World Cup relater but an interesting read on English rugby here.... http://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2015/sep/04/chasing-the-chariot-in-search-of-the-soul-of-english-rugby

Goes into the game as a whole, league vs union and the new attitude Lancaster has tried to install in his players. It also explains why League has such a stronghold in the North which I could never understand. Interesting to hear how many guys involved heavily in local teams have very little time for Twickenham too.

Stheno

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Not entirely World Cup relater but an interesting read on English rugby here.... http://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2015/sep/04/chasing-the-chariot-in-search-of-the-soul-of-english-rugby

Goes into the game as a whole, league vs union and the new attitude Lancaster has tried to install in his players. It also explains why League has such a stronghold in the North which I could never understand. Interesting to hear how many guys involved heavily in local teams have very little time for Twickenham too.

Great article, most shocking stat from that for me, is the gap in regular players versus adult male players, the disparity between England and Ireland even as an example is shocking.

Squidgy Black

Stheno wrote: »

Great article, most shocking stat from that for me, is the gap in regular players versus adult male players, the disparity between England and Ireland even as an example is shocking.

I wouldn't really be that shocked, you have to remember that most people who played school rugby or even club rugby generally drop off after they leave school and get jobs or go to college.

irishbucsfan

Why am I only discovering this now?

The Lost Sheep

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Not entirely World Cup relater but an interesting read on English rugby here.... http://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2015/sep/04/chasing-the-chariot-in-search-of-the-soul-of-english-rugby

Goes into the game as a whole, league vs union and the new attitude Lancaster has tried to install in his players. It also explains why League has such a stronghold in the North which I could never understand. Interesting to hear how many guys involved heavily in local teams have very little time for Twickenham too.

Super read. Would love a similar style article on rugby in Ireland but who would do it.

_Tyrrell_ wrote: »

I wouldn't really be that shocked, you have to remember that most people who played school rugby or even club rugby generally drop off after they leave school and get jobs or go to college.

And that's the fault of the system and IRFU. IRFU have let certain sectors have too much power and don't do enough to keep people playing

Interesting weekend of rugby. Who were the winners and losers?

Winners

England, certainly, were the greatest net winner this weekend. Victory over recent world no.2 was clearly very important to them. They approached this game like it was a 6N decider and went all out. Ireland seemed content to keep things very simple and get a good physical workout. I don't think England were as good as they looked, nor Ireland as bad but I'm of the opinion that Ireland have all eyes firmly on the RWC and these games were tools for preparation. None of the players looked in any way despondent after the game. The English media, sky commentary and post match discussion has been exuberant about England now coming into the world cup and honestly I reckon it's misplaced.

Scotland and Fiji would both have come out Winners. Fiji with a comfortable win albeit against a poor Canada and Scotland really should have held on to beat France. Scotland look like they have settled on their first choice and actually played very nice rugby for large parts of the game against France. I'm much more excited now to see them against SA, could be a big game.

Italy also just get a foot in the winners door, they came very very close to toppling Wales.

Losers

Of the Losers, Wales have to top the list. They were the opposite of last week, lacked direction and intensity. They along with Australia have serious depth issues coming into the WC and the loss of Webb and Halfpenny to my mind is catastrophic. They are firmly 3rd choice for that group now in my opinion.

Ireland have two losses on the run now, a first for a Joe team I think?. We didn't bounce back from the Wales games and whilst looking a little sharper in the second half when we turned it on, we tired badly with 10 minutes to go. As mentioned above, tournament conditioning is a very different beast, we have a fit squad that have plenty in the tank but our first team is yet to click. Sexton and Zebo going off with cramp is a sign of two things, lack of conditioning or lack of tapering. I honestly think it's the latter and that we will continue to focus on training until the week of the Italian game and from then on in it's all about recovering between massive game efforts.

France fall into the loser category just about, in the same way that Italy fall into the winners category. They look tremendously fit yet seem to struggle after longer passages of play so I wonder what balance there is to their conditioning.

They also lack structure. Watching back through the game at the weekend, I txted a mate joking that MOC had taken over for France after a passage of play that saw them pass 6 - 7 times and make absolutely zero ground.

Two weeks to go now, I think we know what NZ will bring but I reckon every other top 8 team has the capacity to surprise us (in a good or bad way).

This is going to be an amazing tournament.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I wonder how England and I suppose Wales/Australia will approach their pool matches. We saw England play brilliantly entertaining rugby against France at the end of the 6 Nations and they won that match convincingly. Will they do the same against Wales and Australia, or will they all be going for the tactical one score win? I suppose the fact they needed a points difference win in the 6 Nations was what influenced their play against France.

razorblunt

I didn't think the Webb and Halfpenny injuries were confirmed. I know Webb's is pretty much nailed on (though the guy himself tweeted about staying positive until they know for sure) but I've not confirmation on Halfpenny at all.

razorblunt

razorblunt wrote: »

I didn't think the Webb and Halfpenny injuries were confirmed. I know Webb's is pretty much nailed on (though the guy himself tweeted about staying positive until they know for sure) but I've not confirmation on Halfpenny at all.

Neither formally confirmed but I think the word going around is that they are both "to be confirmed" to be missing the tournament. The video of Webb's injury, unless he is one of the fantastic four would lead me to believe he is out. It's hard to figure how Halfpenny hurt himself, reminds me a bit of Felix Jones for the last world cup, just one of those things.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

razorblunt wrote: »

I didn't think the Webb and Halfpenny injuries were confirmed. I know Webb's is pretty much nailed on (though the guy himself tweeted about staying positive until they know for sure) but I've not confirmation on Halfpenny at all.

Halfpenny isn't having his scan until some time today so I'm pretty sure there is nothing official on that because they don't know yet.

Buer

If the bloke was in so much pain that they had to give him oxygen on the field, I think we can take it that his injury is going to put him out for 6 weeks anyway.

rrpc

Deleted User wrote: »

Neither formally confirmed but I think the word going around is that they are both "to be confirmed" to be missing the tournament. The video of Webb's injury, unless he is one of the fantastic four would lead me to believe he is out. It's hard to figure how Halfpenny hurt himself, reminds me a bit of Felix Jones for the last world cup, just one of those things.

Halfpenny's injury reminds me of what happened to Felipe Contepomi during the 2009 HEC match against Munster. Tried to change direction but his foot got caught and the knee took the brunt.

English Lurker

rrpc wrote: »

Halfpenny's injury reminds me of what happened to Felipe Contepomi during the 2009 HEC match against Munster. Tried to change direction but his foot got caught and the knee took the brunt.

That has happened to me more times than I care to count (including, most embarassingly, on a dance floor) and I have been back playing within a month on most of them. A hyperextension will hurt like hell and swell like mad but not do that much damage.

Mindyou, I never actually went to hospital for any of them for one reason and another so my knowledge of what happened is a little shaky, and it's quite possible I shouldn't have been doing so on all those occasions, so take that one with a bucketful of salt...

b.gud

Reports from France are saying that Halfpenny done in his ACL and is expected to be out for 6 months

LuckyGent88

Confirmed that halfpenny is out of rwc. What a disaster for Wales.

aimee1

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Confirmed that halfpenny is out of rwc. What a disaster for Wales.

6 nations too

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Probably unrelated but I just saw reports that Toulon have changed their minds about allowing Quade Cooper to play 7s in an attempt to get him to play for them. Surely they have someone else to kick though? They'd be pretty desperate if they were relying on Cooper now.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Sorry, that's posted twice.

Eugene Norman

Very sad to see. Great kicker.

aimee1

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella

very good post about flakey freddy posted a few minutes ago

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Thought I'd ask this in here rather than starting a new thread.

Anyone fancy doing a Boards league on Fantasy Rugger? http://fantasyrugger.co/

Wang King

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Thought I'd ask this in here rather than starting a new thread.

Anyone fancy doing a Boards league on Fantasy Rugger? http://fantasyrugger.co/

I'm in, I'm quite brilliant at this fantasy craic!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wang King wrote: »

I'm in, I'm quite brilliant at this fantasy craic!

Should I start another thread for it then, do you think?

Stheno

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Should I start another thread for it then, do you think?

Yeah gwan