Thread: The Rugby World Cup 2015

Do England still really deserve to be ranked above Scotland who come 4pm next Sunday will be one of only 5 teams left in the World Cup.....

Nel obviously took a few too many knocks to the head against Samoa.......

Scotland can win the World Cup, says Nel

SCOTLAND prop WP Nel has insisted that his team can win the Rugby World Cup despite being rated as rank outsiders by the bookmakers.

The Scots had to struggle all the way to see off Samoa at St James’ Park two days ago and set up a quarter-final against Australia on Sunday. Few people outside the camp will give them a chance of beating the Wallabies at Twickenham, but Nel thinks that provided they continue to believe in themselves, they can win that match and go on to lift the trophy.

“It’s the quarter-finals now, so everything is game by game,” he said. “The ball can bounce either way, so we can go to the final, we can win this World Cup, it just depends how we go out. I think we can back ourselves to go and win this World Cup.





“We’re in the quarter-finals, so every team now will regard each match almost like a final. We must play every game as if it is a final, so it will be a really tough battle for every team now.”

South African-born Nel only joined the national squad earlier this year after qualifying through the residency rule. He has quickly become a valuable member of the side, but downplayed his own contribution.

“I will not say I have helped them get into the quarter-final, but to be with this team and get this opportunity with them is massive,” he said. “For me as person, it’s a tremendous honour to play for Scotland and to play for this team. To be in the quarter-finals is an awesome achievement.”

Scotland have emerged from their 36-33 victory over Samoa with as clean a bill of health as could be expected, according to team doctor James Robson. Every player who was involved in Saturday’s bruising battle is feeling the pain, but with eight days between games Robson believes the coaches will have a full squad from which to select for the Australia game.

“There probably isn’t a single member of the squad that isn’t feeling something today,” he said. “They’re pretty sore, but I’d expect that everybody would be fit later in the week. We’ll spend a couple of days recovering, and on average it takes four days before people feel they’re back to square one after a game like that.”


Today Scotland travel from Newcastle, their base for the last fortnight, to Guildford, where they will prepare for Sunday’s quarter-final. The squad for that match will be announced on Thursday.

Scotland can win the World Cup, says Nel (From Herald Scotland)

Originally Posted by buriramboy

Do England still really deserve to be ranked above Scotland who come 4pm next Sunday will be one of only 5 teams left in the World Cup.....

They are meaningless.

Indeed they are....Wales should be above Ireland and only below the two teams to whom they have lost their last game.....

Yeah..... Tryout bully they are more often than not bollocks

Looks like 4 of the top 5 in those rankings will be in the semi finals with Wales being the odd ones out.

The hosts for the next Rugby World Cup are Japan , 3rd biggest economy in the world, it's all about generating the money.

^ Of course it is...that's why England and Japan are both out of the cup!

Silly Billy!...as Denis Healey would have said before explaining capitalism to you in a little more detail

What about the sponsorship of the England team, Heineken, Land Rover, some fkn annoying energy company, they claim that Japan have saved their bacon, that Nippon win against the Springboks has produced millions of new fans in Jippon. Marketing result.

^Good, now World Rugby has no excuse for starving tier 2 nations of funding and fixtures.

Originally Posted by baldrick

and with Japan fielding a team in the super rugby they will be a team to reckon with by the next world cup

They will indeed. The SunWolves will basically be the Japan team plus a few other imports. By the time 2019 come around the Japan team will have been playing together week in week out for 4 years. They are going to be highly competitive by then.

Originally Posted by wasabi

The hosts for the next Rugby World Cup are Japan , 3rd biggest economy in the world, it's all about generating the money.

If that were the case we'd see it in China, Russia, the US, India . . . this isn't the place for your bigotry

Originally Posted by pseudolus

They will indeed. The SunWolves will basically be the Japan team plus a few other imports. By the time 2019 come around the Japan team will have been playing together week in week out for 4 years. They are going to be highly competitive by then.

I think they're going to have an issue with players. The majority of the current Japanese team are contracted to company sides: there's zero benefit in it for them (the companies) to allow their players to play for the Sun Wolves.

Originally Posted by Troy

^ Of course it is...that's why England and Japan are both out of the cup!

Silly Billy!...as Denis Healey would have said before explaining capitalism to you in a little more detail

Financial impact to the competition itself will have very few implications to the WORLD RUGBY's coffers with England not making the play offs. The bulk of the money in comes from the pool stages, and the seating for the rest will be at near capacity no matter who plays in the matches.

The award of the competition rotates between Cash Cow locations and developing rugby nations. So once every 8 years it will always go to a country with the 70-80++ capacity stadiums that know will get filled, and on alternate years it will increasingly go to a place where the focus is on covering costs or making a loss, but developing the brands. Like Japan.

Japan will be a loss making competition for World Rugby. The Stadiums they are using have capacities in the 30k-45k range with one at 70k. Critically, will they fill them with the seat holders paying full ticket price? Well, they a so distant from the Rugby Catchment areas, that they will really need to rely on the locals to fill the bulk of the seats which I actually think will happen.... but not at the prices they charge for a ticket in the UK or Australia. The attendance so far for the England 2015 has been 1,881,023. NZ 2011 the total was 1,477,294.

Japan 2019 is about broadening the games appeal to new areas and supporting new countries who have set out to make an impact in the sport - It's not about greed or generating money. Having the competition in England was all about making money.

JApan 2019 will be fantastic and I hope everyone tries to go there to support it.

Is ee they finally got round to citing Sean O'Brien.....

Two week minumum for the offence but I reckon they'll find an excuse to bring it below the minimum for a one week ban if guilty at all (and he clearly is)

Nothing for David Pocock, apparently no case to answer. I wouldn't have called that one myself but then I'm biased, even if it was on a Welshman.

Originally Posted by chassamui

^Good, now World Rugby has no excuse for starving tier 2 nations of funding and fixtures.

Oh, they will find one don't you worry......

Originally Posted by pseudolus

JApan 2019 will be fantastic

I agree

Sure will, I'll be back in the Uk by then, but planning a huge Rugby In Asia reunion for the tournament.

Dana Johannsen: Take a peek at that famous aura

9:32 AM Tuesday Oct 13, 20151 comment

When it comes to the All Blacks, the English press are obsessed with three things: the haka, Richie McCaw's tactics at the breakdown, and the team's "aura".

The British rugby scribes are renowned experts in the art of aura reading and dispense with their mystical powers whenever the All Blacks roll into town.

They can sense even the smallest disturbance in the team's auric field, and breathlessly report when the All Blacks' aura of invincibility is slipping.

That's been their general consensus again after New Zealand's lacklustre wins over Argentina, Namibia and Tonga in World Cup pool-play.

But now it's the knock-out stages we thought it's time to get metaphysical and seek out a more in-depth aura reading for the All Blacks as they approach their anxiety-inducing quarterfinal showdown against France this Sunday.

The Herald tracked down Pinetree Medium, the nation's leading expert in the field of auric research, and asked him for his analysis of how the All Blacks are shaping up.

His findings may provide some comfort for New Zealand fans, although there were a couple of warnings attached.

The first thing Pinetree noted was the strong presence of violet shades in the All Blacks' aura, particularly in the causal body, reflecting the blending of heart and mind, or the physical with the spiritual.

There are also areas of more reddish shades, which indicate great passion and strength of will. Red can also indicate nervousness and aggression, but Pinetree is a pint-half-full kind of guy. He believes these colours in the energy field are noticeable when teams are truly coming into their own power.

Flecks of grey were also present in the All Blacks' celestial body, which refers to the team's emotional aspect.

While grey is a colour that can elicit fear from Kiwi fans when it comes to World Cup campaigns, in this case it can be read as a positive sign.

Grey is said to indicate determination and a need to leave no task undone, or a movement towards unveiling one's innate abilities - an observation that seems to reinforce Steve Hansen's assertions that the team have been holding back in pool-play and are preparing to unleash a second gameplan in the knock-out stages. Or it could suggest that one is colour blind.

There were however some slight disturbances in the All Blacks' auric field.

Pinetree warns the presence of deeper and muddier shades of yellow in the team's astral body suggests excessive thinking or over-analysing.

Something we all need to be mindful of over the next week.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Originally Posted by baldrick

and with Japan fielding a team in the super rugby they will be a team to reckon with by the next world cup

They will indeed. The SunWolves will basically be the Japan team plus a few other imports. By the time 2019 come around the Japan team will have been playing together week in week out for 4 years. They are going to be highly competitive by then.

Not quite. Believe they have just two signings so far.
No coach
Japan captain Michael Leitch has re-signed to play for NZ's Chiefs
Hendrik Tui re-signed with Australia's Reds
If the Japanese pro clubs refuse to release their contracted players, and why should they?, they are contracted to play in Japanese club comp, not Super rugby, the Sunwolves will struggle to take the field

christ that was a boring read....i forced myself to halfway then gave up.....

Originally Posted by prawnograph

Not quite. Believe they have just two signings so far.
No coach
Japan captain Michael Leitch has re-signed to play for NZ's Chiefs
Hendrik Tui re-signed with Australia's Reds
If the Japanese pro clubs refuse to release their contracted players, and why should they?, they are contracted to play in Japanese club comp, not Super rugby, the Sunwolves will struggle to take the field

Originally Posted by Bobcock

christ that was a boring read....i forced myself to halfway then gave up.....

Harsh. It was only five lines long.

Anyway I learned something interesting the other day.

The Brave Blossoms fly-half Kosei Ono went to Christchurch Boys' High School, he was in the same side as Owen Franks and Colin Slade.

Originally Posted by prawnograph

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Originally Posted by baldrick

and with Japan fielding a team in the super rugby they will be a team to reckon with by the next world cup

They will indeed. The SunWolves will basically be the Japan team plus a few other imports. By the time 2019 come around the Japan team will have been playing together week in week out for 4 years. They are going to be highly competitive by then.

Not quite. Believe they have just two signings so far.
No coach
Japan captain Michael Leitch has re-signed to play for NZ's Chiefs
Hendrik Tui re-signed with Australia's Reds
If the Japanese pro clubs refuse to release their contracted players, and why should they?, they are contracted to play in Japanese club comp, not Super rugby, the Sunwolves will struggle to take the field

The Sunwolves submitted a list of 29 'signed' players to SANZAR for approval in late ausguat

Cheers. How many of current rwc squad? Got names ? I read two rwc confirmed. Are the others released from the major clubs, or next level of their league?

Japan Times 5 October 2015

Japan eyes World Cup heroes for Super Rugby's Sunwolves | The Japan Times

Japan’s new Super Rugby franchise is hoping to ride the wave of the national team’s World Cup success when it enters the competition next season.

The new team, which was officially named the Sunwolves on Monday, is set to open its debut Super Rugby campaign in Tokyo against the Lions of Johannesburg on Feb. 27, despite having yet to sign a head coach or a full complement of players.

Reports last month suggested that Super Rugby organizer SANZAR was ready to pull the plug on the franchise if it could not field a competitive team.

The Sunwolves’ participation was confirmed last Monday with the release of the draw for the 18-team competition, but questions still remain over the make-up of the squad with officials saying Monday that the lineup will not be disclosed until after a board meeting of the Japan Rugby Football Union later this month.

But Sunwolves CEO Yuichi Ueno also insisted that signing Japan’s World Cup heroes — who have shocked the world with wins over South Africa and Samoa and are still in contention for a quarterfinal place — is a matter of “top priority.”