Rugby World Cup 2011

[Dinny Breen]

France won the toss for the Jersey allowing them to wear their dark blue but are allowing NZ were the All-Black jersey. Nice touch!

[trileacman]

France won the toss for the Jersey allowing them to wear their dark blue but are allowing NZ were the All-Black jersey. Nice touch!

Mind games more than anything I'd say. Try not to aggravate the Kiwi's and let them lure themselves into complacency.

[screenexile]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

[Dinny Breen]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

[muppet]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

"In the terms of the rules and the regulations, he is perfectly entitled to give a red card - but every game is different."

Well at least that quote from Gatland that is progress. He needs go one the next step and wonder how the ref was put in a position to be 'perfectly entitled to give a red'.

[AZOffaly]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

"In the terms of the rules and the regulations, he is perfectly entitled to give a red card - but every game is different."

Well at least that quote from Gatland that is progress. He needs go one the next step and wonder how the ref was put in a position to be 'perfectly entitled to give a red'.

So is he saying that Roland was entitled to give a red card, but he shouldn't have because it was a world cup semi final and it was going to have ahuge impact on the game?

[screenexile]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

"In the terms of the rules and the regulations, he is perfectly entitled to give a red card - but every game is different."

Well at least that quote from Gatland that is progress. He needs go one the next step and wonder how the ref was put in a position to be 'perfectly entitled to give a red'.

So is he saying that Roland was entitled to give a red card, but he shouldn't have because it was a world cup semi final and it was going to have ahuge impact on the game?

I think that he is saying yes under the letter of the law it COULD be construed as a red but that given there was no injury, the fact it was a semi final, the fact it was so early in the game that he could have showed a yellow card and that would have been the end of it.

I don't agree with that assessment btw I think it was a straight red.

[highorlow]

Gatland continued: "I will give you an example with what happened after that. We'd already lost Adam Jones, and we discussed in the (coaches) box whether we would fake an injury to one of our props and go to uncontested scrums.

"But morally, I made the decision it wasn't the right thing to do.

"We could easily have done that in the first 25-30 minutes, but in the spirit of the game, in the spirit of a World Cup semi-final, I didn't think that was the fairest or the right thing.

"That is why I honestly believe Alain Rolland made the wrong decision. Under the rules and regulations he was perfectly entitled to give a red card. But every game is different.

"You have to take the circumstances of the situation and the intent, and in that situation, given his experience and the role he was given, a yellow card was the right decision to make."

One wouldn't have been contemplated without the other. Nonsense talk. The fact is that Wales choked. They had enough chances to win the game without blaming the sending off.

The headline also missed the following.

Can stop from going under the posts for the try (did anyone else think he should have tried to edge to a more central position for the try to give Jones an easier kick?).

[passedit]

They missed a few there.

Can't wait to ask Stephen Jones how he feels about bottling the chance to win a World Cup semi final.
Can't imagine why everybody is blaming the referee and nobody is blaming Warburton, like the kind of people who go round to the school and attack the teacher when their kid is given lines for misbehaving.
Can't find "empathy for the players, the occasion and the game" in the index of the rulebook.

It's more to do with the mentality of the loser Hardy. They will always look furthest from home for the cause. It's what makes them losers, whether it's the irish blaming Henry and ignoring the sitter cheeky chappy Keane missed against French or the welsh here or the cubs blaming the bartman or the various 'curses' from Biddy Early to the Bambino. Losers look for excuses to fail, winners reasons to succeed.

[AQMP]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

"In the terms of the rules and the regulations, he is perfectly entitled to give a red card - but every game is different."

Well at least that quote from Gatland that is progress. He needs go one the next step and wonder how the ref was put in a position to be 'perfectly entitled to give a red'.

Well yes, every game is different but the rules and regulations should be the same for all games.  With that sort of logic Warren could find himself on the ITV panel for the next World Cup!

[AQMP]

France name an unchanged side for the final.

Parra still at 10

[Denn Forever]

France name unchanged team.  Foolhardy or cunning plan? 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/15363573.stm

[sans pessimism]

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/15347253.stm

Gatland thought about cheating and withdrawing a prop to get the Scrums uncontested. Fair play to him for not doing it I say and it's very honest of him to admit it crossed his mind. Surely this needs to be looked into by the IRB!

Didn't see him condemn Mike Philips cheating in the quick line-out try in Cardiff. He's trying to take some moral high ground with his whim about the occasion etc etc - It's just a dig at Alan Rolland.

]In the terms of the rules and the regulations, he is perfectly entitled to give a red card - but every game is different
Well at least that quote from Gatland that is progress. He needs go one the next step and wonder how the ref was put in a position to be 'perfectly entitled to give a red'.

Well yes, every game is different but the rules and regulations should be the same for all games.  With that sort of logic Warren could find himself on the ITV panel for the next World Cup!

Quick, hide...Here comes Dinny Breen

[galwayman]

If Ireland were beaten in similar ircumstances we would be just as bad in fairness. Maybe worse.
As others have said - look at how we dealt with the Henry thing in Paris. People are still going on about it now.

I know they are not strictly the same thing in that one was definite foul play that was missed while the other is less clearly the wrong decision but in terms of our reaction to a perceived injustice we would be every bit as bad have no doubt.

[muppet]

If Ireland were beaten in similar ircumstances we would be just as bad in fairness. Maybe worse.
As others have said - look at how we dealt with the Henry thing in Paris. People are still going on about it now.

Ah no, we picked sides. Roy Keane or Mick McCarthy.

The Welsh would have blamed Pierluigi Collina.