The Rugby World Cup 2015

[T_i_B]

Last edited Tue Sep 15, 2015, 03:10 AM - Edit history (1)

Fed up with all the incessant arguments about Brady's balls? Well how about watching rugby union instead? The biggest event in the sport, the Rugby World Cup, which starts this week.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/

The USA is in Pool B with South Africa, Samoa, Scotland and Japan.
I'm English, and England are Pool A, up against Australia, Wales, Fiji and Uruguay.

As usual with Rugby Union I would tip New Zealand to win the World Cup. However, The All Blacks have been known to choke at vital moments in the past.

And the player I'm going to tip as one to watch this tournament is Argentina's Juan Pablo Socino, although I may be slightly biased as he used to play for my beloved Rotherham Titans.

[T_i_B]

1. Japan have just beaten South Africa 34 - 32

One of the all time great rugby matches.

HUGE upset.

[frylock]

2. Wow! I'm meeting a friend from SA for some beers tonight..

he took the day off yesterday to catch the opening match. He should be in a good mood!

[T_i_B]

3. The daft thing is...

I didn't think that South Africa played that badly. But Japan played brilliantly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And Japan even turned down the option of an easy draw, in favour of the chance to win with a try

Bold, and they had the skills to back it up. Brilliant.

I think Georgia deserves a word too. Beating Tonga isn't as impressive as South Africa, but it's still more than they were expected to do. They made 213 tackles!

[T_i_B]

5. Didn't watch Georgia v Tonga

But I did watch Samoa v USA yesterday. I liked how the Americans got in their opponents faces, and they scored an excellent try just before half time but they just made too many errors.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. After 25 minutes, the USA are leading Scotland 10-6 and playing well

so if there's any coverage in the USA, and you want to see your team, as underdogs, giving a more experienced team a hard time, this is it.

[T_i_B]

7. Scotland stepped up a gear in the 2nd half.

Last edited Tue Sep 29, 2015, 07:36 AM - Edit history (1)

And ended up beating the USA 39-16.

In other news, England stuffed up against the Welsh last night.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Aye, that second half was how Scotland should have been playing from the start

and yes, England couldn't get it together at the end of that match, while Wales did. Oh well, the Group of Death had to have some major team die (how they picked the groups, I don't know, but to have the teams with world rankings 2, 4 and 5 (just before the competition started) in one group seems ridiculous. Scotland were ranked 10 in the world, and they just had one higher ranked team in their group; Fiji were ranked 9, and they had 3.

Ah, looking it up I see the groups were decided way back in Dec 2012, when Wales were ranked 9th in the world. And Samoa 7th! Back then, Scotland were only the 3rd placed team in their group.

[geardaddy]

10. Australia are the team to beat in Pool A

Watched the Wales v. England match. I thought Wales was a goner, but luckily we pulled through. It was an exciting game for sure.

[geardaddy]

9. Hitler has something to say about the Welsh injury crisis.

[T_i_B]

11. The Quarter Final line up

On Saturday we have
South Africa v Wales
New Zealand v France

On Sunday it's
Ireland v Argentina
Australia v Scotland

England are out as they've played rubbish. I'm expecting it to be a New Zealand v Australia final unless we have some more surprises.

[T_i_B]

12. Not good news for the Northern Hemisphere

All 4 Northern Hemisphere teams lost, although in the case of Australia v Scotland it was ultimately a dodgy call from the referee that swung it.

Japan are the only team from the Northern Hemisphere to beat any of the Rugby Championship teams in this tournament.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. World Rugby says referee should have awarded Australia a scrum

World Rugby has conceded that the controversial decision by Craig Joubert to award Australia a penalty in the dying moments of their late victory over Scotland was wrong but the referee has been defended by many in the game.
...
A statement read: “The selection committee confirms that Joubert applied World Rugby Law 11.7 penalising Scotland’s Jon Welsh, who had played the ball following a knock-on by a team-mate, resulting in an offside. On review of all available angles, it is clear that after the knock-on, the ball was touched by Australia’s Nick Phipps and Law 11.3(c) states that a player can be put on-side by an opponent who intentionally plays the ball.

“It is important to clarify that, under the protocols, the referee could not refer to the television match official in this case and therefore had to rely on what he saw in real time. In this case Law 11.3(c) should have been applied, putting Welsh onside. The appropriate decision, therefore, should have been a scrum to Australia for the original knock-on.”
...
He said: “We will review everything after this tournament. It is interesting that at the beginning of the tournament everyone thought there was too much TMO and suddenly at the end there is not enough. If we TMO’d every decision a ref made we would be here all night. You do have to draw the line, the balance has to be found between the critical TMO calls and the ones that are in the referee’s domain.”

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct/19/craig-joubert-mistake-penalty-australia-scotland-world-cup

I'll give Scotland a moral place in the semi-finals. It seems surprising that he couldn't go to the TMO when play had already stopped, and awarding the penalty was a clear scoring chance.

[T_i_B]

14. It's not easy to referee a rugby match

How many people would have given it the same way as Joubert did in real time? Most of us I suspect.

And then there's the mysteries of the front row of the scrum to consider.

As the the actual sport, it's a New Zealand v Australia final. Didn't see the All Blacks match as I was in Huddersfield (birthplace of Rugby League) that day but I would still make them favourites.

[T_i_B]

15. New Zealand 34 Australia 17

Congratulations to The All Blacks. Easily the best team at the tournament.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11967570/New-Zealand-34-Australia-17-Rugby-World-Cup-final-match-report-Richie-McCaw-and-Dan-Carter-bow-out-in-style.html