Goodluck to this Weekends Rugby World Cup Finalists!

[bayala]

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/rugby-world-cup/teams/france/redcarded-sebastien-vahaamahina-retires-from-international-rugby/news-story/0ac0cfb2828f230f291a2bf7d0fd0c42

French player who was red carded has retired! Swears he was going to do it regardless ?

[bayala]

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2019/10/22/rugby-world-cup-peyper-stand-down?fbclid=IwAR3B7DmDD5XFUFjmsSSOIr8oXj3YU7BkATG46qPWrEBaXZ6oaIkK2zeyQr0

Peyper stood down for the semi finals. 

Appointments for the Semi Finals released as well - 

World Rugby went on to announce that Welsh referee Nigel Owens would take charge of Saturday's England-New Zealand match, with France's Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere as assistant referees and South African Marius Jonker as television match official.

Jerome Garces of France will referee Sunday's Wales-South Africa clash, with England's Wayne Barnes and New Zealander Ben O'Keeffe as his assistants and Ben Skeen, also of New Zealand, as the TMO."

[Ken Gargett]

if anyone was wondering whether rugby was dead in australia, the south african v wales semi final will not be shown on free to air. they will show nz v eng, thanbkfully. the station with the rights has three free to air stations on which they could show it. one has 'supercar' racing (whatever that is), another has motorbike racing and the third has frasier repeats (okay, i get the frasier repeats). 

rugby cannot get over the top of those. time for a eulogy. 

[westg]

The worst thing about super car racing is the commentary boring very boring . Would much prefer to watch a country grade game of rugby than the touring cars .

[Ken Gargett]

54 minutes ago, westg said:

The worst thing about super car racing is the commentary boring very boring . Would much prefer to watch a country grade game of rugby than the touring cars .

westie, you'll find me painting my toenails before i sit down to watch supercars. 

[99call]

Congratulations England, that was ridiculous dominance against the World Champs.   The AB's looked completely neutered. 

Expect the whole of NZ rugby to revolutionise after this point. 

[David88]

What a game from England today, you don't often see sides do that to New Zealand. That must have taken some effort so hopefully they still have some energy left for the final. Looking forward to tomorrow's game, I think it's going to be very close

[rckymtn22]

Got up early to watch the game, surprised how much of the play was in the  NZ and. I expected a much closer game. I am still expecting this game to be the actually final. Will be surprised if Wales or SA are even close to Eng.

[99call]

35 minutes ago, David88 said:

What a game from England today, you don't often see sides do that to New Zealand. That must have taken some effort so hopefully they still have some energy left for the final. Looking forward to tomorrow's game, I think it's going to be very close

The only thing stopping that England team from winning the World Cup, is inexplicable mental collapse, and as a Wales fan thats what i'm desperately holding on to. 

Often England come unstuck when an opposing team, stay within one score up to the 70th minute.   If SA, or Wales can give England a reason to choke, it's then down to them to see if the mentally combust or not.   Sadly for me, they may have moved beyond their normal modus operandi 

Congrats again to England, one of the most complete rugby performances I've seen for a long time.   

[JohnS]

England were supremely clinical tonight, you could see that from the number of penalties New Zealand conceded. But if Eddie Jones can counter the favouritism of the All Blacks by stating they're beatable, surely South Africa or Wales can follow the same advice.

[99call]

22 minutes ago, JohnS said:

England were supremely clinical tonight, you could see that from the number of penalties New Zealand conceded. But if Eddie Jones can counter the favouritism of the All Blacks by stating they're beatable, surely South Africa or Wales can follow the same advice.

Haha,  Yes John.....I'll hold on to this, tooth and claw.    If it's an England-Wales final,  don't be un-nerved if the sky clouds over, and the rivers start running backwards, it's going to be a ding dong royale.......even if we loose by 50, England will be battered black and blue by the end of it

[Ken Gargett]

take back everything i have said about the hobbit. amazing display by england. but for that horrible throw-in, the ABs don't even get on the board. itoje was enormous and i am a huge fan of underhill. 

shows how far behind the top level the clown left us. good riddance to him. 

and now i have a function on at the same time as the final. will have to tape it and hope i don't hear the score (if it wasn't drinking old magnums of cristal, i am not certain they would get me there at the point of a gun). 

[99call]

4 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

ake back everything i have said about the hobbit. amazing display by england.

HHmmm I still think it's safe to say he's still a poison dwarf.........selection is massive, and you have to give him credit, in putting the right players on the park.........that said the main difference is Stuart Lancaster didn't understand English rugby,  he's a decent Northerner, and tried to instil respect, honour, humility etc.........all things that are jarring for when English rugby is as it's best.    English rugby should be brash, arrogant, annoying, and full of niggle.    In short (pardon the pun),  I think Eddie's nature has topped up the tonic of the soul of English rugby,   

[Ken Gargett]

5 minutes ago, 99call said:

HHmmm I still think it's safe to say he's still a poison dwarf.........selection is massive, and you have to give him credit, in putting the right players on the park.........that said the main difference is Stuart Lancaster didn't understand English rugby,  he's a decent Northerner, and tried to instil respect, honour, humility etc.........all things that are jarring for when English rugby is as it's best.    English rugby should be brash, arrogant, annoying, and full of niggle.    In short (pardon the pun),  I think Eddie's nature has topped up the tonic of the soul of English rugby,   

not suggesting he is on my short list of people with whom one shares a beer but i thought that he would cause english rugby to collapse on itself well before this cup. instead, he had them at an absolute peak. i was there in 03 when we beat the ABs in the semi then. no doubt he had a big hand in that. but he could not carry it on the next week. be interested to see if he can this time. not that i'll be singing sweet chariot. 

all makes our dire mess look even worse. had a long chat to a good mate who has had a lot to do with one of our leading officials (speaks quite highly of that person) and his best mate since he was four is a former world cup winning wallaby and coach. fair to say that it does seem no one has a good word about the clown. left us in a huge mess. a really vile abusive bloke, according to the reports. not that you expect a rugby coach to be an angel but he did not even have the decency to see us getting wins. we are ranked below japan. cheika has taken us to our lowest point ever. he is the worst coach we have ever had, worse than smith. it will take us a long time to recover. 

[Ken Gargett]

interesting article on the wallabies from a kiwi perspective.

68 new wallabies - on top of all those playing at the time - in 6 years. and cheika still had no idea who to use as halves. incompetent virus. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/rugby-world-cup/rwc-2019-japan/116950957/michael-cheikas-legacy-cheapening-the-wallabies-jersey-and-playing-blame-game

[99call]

7 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

not suggesting he is on my short list of people with whom one shares a beer but i thought that he would cause english rugby to collapse on itself well before this cup. instead, he had them at an absolute peak. i was there in 03 when we beat the ABs in the semi then. no doubt he had a big hand in that. but he could not carry it on the next week. be interested to see if he can this time. not that i'll be singing sweet chariot. 

No definitely not robbing him of his achievements.  More saying he's an annoying little runt of a man........but he's the right fit for England.    Stuart Lancaster had his players righting thought journals, and short stories about how their mothers used to take them to training etc.     Players like Billy Vunipola were vocal in saying he didn't understand the culture, and didn't feel like he new his team mates.       Credit to Eddie, he realised that England are at their best when, they are cocky, arrogant, uncompromising,   Not when their having confessionals about their dreams etc.

Another thing to point out. Much like Warren Gatland owed a great deal to the Ospreys, when he won his first Grand Slam,  Eddie has picked the majorty of his side from the Saracens,  and their game plan is almost a carbon copy of how they play. It's not something he's come up with, but he does deserve credit, it stealing it from Mark McCall, and making it his own. 

Rewind 4yrs, Lancaster was trying out Sydney Rabbitohs Sam Burgess, as Centre,  when he's been playing the whole year at 6 for Bath......just bonkers. But, everyone does have their fit, and apparrantly a great deal of Leinsters success, has been down Stuart Lancaster.

 

[Ken Gargett]

well, just when you thought rugby had finally clawed back some of the decades of insanity, we get the final.

and they appoint that interfering moron ben skeen as TMO. a million to one he won't be able to resist sticking his nose in to make some completely unwarranted and unnecessary decision to make certain someone gets a yellow or a red card, probably for frowning. he will so desperately want to be the headline. 

then we go to the 3rd v 4th game. the assistant ref is jaco pypper. so for nz v wales, they appoint the bloke who got dropped after the wales win in the quarter final for celebrating with welsh fans and mocking the french player who he sent off. where on earth is the perception of fairness (not that i think anything will stopped the kiwis who must be seriously pissed off and looking for someone to take it out on)? 

[ayepatz]

15 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

well, just when you thought rugby had finally clawed back some of the decades of insanity, we get the final.

and they appoint that interfering moron ben skeen as TMO. a million to one he won't be able to resist sticking his nose in to make some completely unwarranted and unnecessary decision to make certain someone gets a yellow or a red card, probably for frowning. he will so desperately want to be the headline. 

then we go to the 3rd v 4th game. the assistant ref is jaco pypper. so for nz v wales, they appoint the bloke who got dropped after the wales win in the quarter final for celebrating with welsh fans and mocking the french player who he sent off. where on earth is the perception of fairness (not that i think anything will stopped the kiwis who must be seriously pissed off and looking for someone to take it out on)? 

I hear that Craig Joubert is free...

[Ken Gargett]

5 hours ago, ayepatz said:

I hear that Craig Joubert is free...

could not be worse. bring back kaplan????? spare me.