Rugby world cup

The Real Laoislad · October 21, 2007, 02:26:07 AM

Quote from: bennydorano on October 21, 2007, 02:24:38 AM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on October 21, 2007, 02:08:40 AM
Anyone else think that Gordon Brown was probably secretly happy England lost as he shook their hands after the final whistle..Him being a Scot and all
I dont think so, the same man who said his fav sporting moment was Gasgoine's goal against scotland in 96

Did he really say that

ziggysego · October 21, 2007, 02:52:08 AM

I'm afraid he did. He got a lot of flack for that and rightly so. He was trying to win the favour of the English Labour and forgot about the Scottish Labour supporters.

Main Street · October 21, 2007, 09:25:05 AM

I watched the Down Meath AIF on TG4, much better

, before switching over to the rugby.
England did well, a bit of Dunkirk spirit, clutching victory from a defeat or was it the other way around.

A Quinn Martin Production · October 21, 2007, 02:24:24 PM

England did very well to reach the final with a poor enough team, if you scrape through all the media hype St Jonny actually had a nondescript tournament and was virtually anonymous in the final. Significant that the two best players were the youngest on each side, Steyn & Tait. Had England won it would have set rugby back 20 years to the old Brian Moore tactic of stick it up the jumper and rumble upfield till you get a penalty and win the game 9-3. England scored one try in the knockout phase, which was a gift from France. Wales scored 50 points more than England in the tournament and they didn't get out of the pool. Well done to SA but the people's champs are definintely the Argies!!

Balboa · October 21, 2007, 09:10:39 PM

Quote from: Aristotle Flynn on October 20, 2007, 10:21:45 PM
Quote from: pintsofguinness on October 20, 2007, 10:16:04 PM
The ref give England nothing according to the BBC news.
Who was saying that POG. I didn't hear it. I thought the English were quite gracious in defeat.

What struck me about the match and the world cup in general was how magnanimous rugby players are compared to those spoilt f**king brat football players, Vickery and Wilkinson both said the best team won and refused to make an issue of the try/non try no matter how much they were prompted by the ITV reporters. Can you imagine something similar if something as contoversial happened to their football team? Can you imagine Gerrard/Lampard/Terry etc saying "the best team won" or " the ref/adjudicator made their decision and we have to respect it"?. Martin Johnson also went up in my estimation & Jim Rosenthal went further down, Rosenthal was banging on about the try & Johnson said "looking from that angle it wasnt a try" but the boul Jim wouldnt let it go, he kept banging on about it and Johnson said we should move on from it and dont want to be talking about it in 40 years.

After posting this i saw these quotes from Englands Micah Richards........

"People are now saying England are not good enough but it was a hard game to play in and, apart from those five minutes, you cannot really blame us that much.
I am not going to use the artificial pitch as an excuse but I am not going to lie either - it made a difference. "

Declan · October 22, 2007, 07:56:21 AM

Brutal match to end a very poor tournament. SA won handily and I cannot remember one pass going across the back line to Habana or Pietersen. Best player by a country mile was Matfield. Unreal performance by him. England deserve great credit for getting to the final but it says more about the inability of Oz and France than Englands abilities.
I know finals can be poor to watch with fear of losing being the dominant theme but I was very disappointed in it. It wasn't a try either.

Dinny Breen · October 22, 2007, 08:45:59 AM

QuoteBrutal match to end a very poor tournament.

Th final depended on what you were looking for, I enjoyed it as a very intense physical and mental occasion, the quality of attacking rugby was poor but the defensive effort of both teams was immense.

Overall the tournament was probably too long but there was some cracking games but from the quarter-finals onwards it's the fear of losing that is the over whelming theme. Defence wins you titles I'm afraid..

I agree with Balboa I thought the English players and management team were very magmanimous in defeat and a credit to their sport and their nation. The Irish guys could learn an awful lot from those guys..

And for anyone who hates smug gits I predicted South Africa to win the World Cup and had them at a tasty 6/1

screenexile · October 22, 2007, 09:12:18 AM

Quote from: Dinny Breen on October 22, 2007, 08:45:59 AM
QuoteBrutal match to end a very poor tournament.

Th final depended on what you were looking for, I enjoyed it as a very intense physical and mental occasion, the quality of attacking rugby was poor but the defensive effort of both teams was immense.

Overall the tournament was probably too long but there was some cracking games but from the quarter-finals onwards it's the fear of losing that is the over whelming theme. Defence wins you titles I'm afraid..

I agree with Balboa I thought the English players and management team were very magmanimous in defeat and a credit to their sport and their nation. The Irish guys could learn an awful lot from those guys..

And for anyone who hates smug gits I predicted South Africa to win the World Cup and had them at a tasty 6/1

Disappointing final as many have said although I have to agree with Dinny. THe defensive effort from both teams was absilutely outstanding and some of the hitting during the game would have made your bones shudder! As for your bet Dinny, I had a mate who did a double with Habana to be top try scorer! Only problem is he chickened out and threw a few quid on England to cover himself... he has lost all respect I ever had for him.

johnneycool · October 22, 2007, 09:58:37 AM

This worls cup showed that big ignorant MF'er packs win games. The fancy dan backs just decide by how much as the old addage goes.

England have a poor enough set of backs but their pack won and held onto the ball long enough to get them in the right positions to get penalties and drop goals.
The Argies also have an immense pack who didn't spill a lot of ball and kept possession too. They gifted SA the tries in the semi final which led to their own downfall. They were too hyped up as can bee seen from the tears etc during the national anthems. Their back row forwards won a huge amount of turnover ball. If only they'd kept their nerves in the semi I think they'd have won it, but I suppose if the wee dog didn't shit etc, etc,.

SA probably deserved to win it as NZ didn't turn up when the heat was on, so you'd have to say that they were worthy champions in fairness.

Where to now for Ireland and EOS?

Rugby world cup

johnneycool