The Rugby World Cup 2007 thread

[AntRobertson]

SA name an unchanged starting lineup. 2 days to go.

Someone's getting excited!










Lucky focker

[Bobcock]

Nope.....but I bet he made a profit

I will change what i said to "I would never sell a ticket for more than I paid for it" however.

My Kiwi friends from the UK (Undies for example who is known to Ant) are still going to the game. they decided against the semi's and sold the tickets to genuine friends / fans at face value.

[BKKBoet]

My Kiwi friends from the UK (Undies for example who is known to Ant) are still going to the game. they decided against the semi's and sold the tickets to genuine friends / fans at face value.

I hope all the Kiwi's and Aussie's going will be supporting SA, heard that there will be about 50,000 Englishmen there! Mind you SA have had hostile crowds every game (damn French) so they should be used to it!

[Troubled]

^
Well I cant see the French in the crowd cheering on the English but Engalnd will have more support.
Could it be a factor?

[Marmite the Dog]

Come aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn nnnn Ingerland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bobcock]

Marmers

What time you getting to Wall Street?

I've been out by 7 last two weekends and not got home til light, I'm an old man, I think I won't go out until 10 at the earliest this weekend.

[bongthom]

i'll be back from ayutthaya by 5pm so will be free for bevvies later

[AntRobertson]

I hope all the Kiwi's and Aussie's going will be supporting SA, heard that there will be about 50,000 Englishmen there! Mind you SA have had hostile crowds every game (damn French) so they should be used to it!

It's an interesting point actually, will be a relatively cosmopolitan crowd. Clearly there will be Saffa's there supporting their team but I can't imagine there will be that many English (considering the surprise it has been with England making the final).

So the crowds likely to be a mix of English, South Africans, Kiwi's, Aussies, and French (who I reckon will be supporting SA).

[BKKBoet]

I hope all the Kiwi's and Aussie's going will be supporting SA, heard that there will be about 50,000 Englishmen there! Mind you SA have had hostile crowds every game (damn French) so they should be used to it!

It's an interesting point actually, will be a relatively cosmopolitan crowd. Clearly there will be Saffa's there supporting their team but I can't imagine there will be that many English (considering the surprise it has been with England making the final).

So the crowds likely to be a mix of English, South Africans, Kiwi's, Aussies, and French (who I reckon will be supporting SA).

One can only hope; as I say SA have played most of their games with the crowd supporting the other side (the Island Teams & Argentina) so are used to it; thus it would be great for their psyche is they had some decent crowd support in the final.

[bongthom]

I can't imagine there will be that many English

of course there will be a massive contingent of engerlish there! they only live a few hours away..

[Marmite the Dog]

What time you getting to Wall Street?

Well, it seems that I am good for 6 hours solid drinking, so I guess around 10pm.

[AntRobertson]

of course there will be a massive contingent of engerlish there! they only live a few hours away..

Be that as it may, the finals tickets sold out months before the actual tournament started. How many English fans do you reckon would've pre-booked on the chance of their team being in the final?

[Marmite the Dog]

I thought this was amusing

> Unbelievable. What a match. Having proved to the Australians that
> they aren't even any good at sport, we took on the French in the semi-
> finals . . . and won.
>
> Or lost. It's hard to say for sure because today's Friday and the
> match hasn't happened yet. But one thing's certain: when it does I'll
> be there, glued to the screen, with my boy and some beers, talking a
> load of absolute codswallop.
>
> The problem is that I like rugby very much and I have many opinions
> about who should do what and when, but never having played I do not
> have the first clue what's going on. I have no idea why the forwards
> play at the back and the backs at the front. And nor do I understand
> what's meant by "the blind side".
>
> I can't see why one side of the pitch is blind and the other is in
> full view. It all makes no sense.
>
> And it makes even less sense when 140 tons of beef all lands in a big
> muddy lump on top of the ball and you have no idea what on earth is
> going on in there. Not until the referee blows his whistle, does some
> signing for the deaf and decides that someone at the bottom of the
> pile has let go too soon, or not at all, or come in from the side or
> made the ball go forwards and that as a result, another big muddy
> lump must be formed to get the game going again.
>
> Despite all this, though, you have to love the collisions, the
> moments when someone with thighs made from oak and a chest the size
> of a tugboat smashes into a winger with such ferocity that you wonder
> how his skeleton hasn't just disintegrated into a million pieces.
>
> That and the fights, those cherished moments when a man mountain
> smashes his fist, which is the size of a Christmas ham, into someone
> else's face and all hell breaks loose. Brilliant.
>
> And that brings us on to the referee who, instead of wading into the
> melee and showering the participants with red cards, simply asks
> everyone to calm down, pauses while the more badly injured have their
> noses and ears sewn back on, and then restarts the game.
>
> Compare this attitude with the homosexual nonsense we see in
> football. Flick someone's earlobe in a game of football and some
> jumped-up little gnome, sweating like a rapist, will mince over and
> order you off the pitch.
>
> What's more, a rugby referee is not so drunk on power that he won't
> go to the video ref if he's not sure. The commentators complain about
> this but I think it's marvellous: the chap knows how important this
> game is to the players and he wants to make sure he gets the decision
> right.
>
> Football refs are not allowed to consult technology even though, so
> far as I can see, they never ever make a correct decision. No really.
> They don't notice when the ball goes over the goal line, they send
> players off for breathing and do nothing when Ronaldo hurls himself
> to the ground and claws at his face as though he's been showered with
> acid.
>
> And you can't argue with these power-crazed idiots because then you
> get sent off as well.
>
> Do you know a football referee? Do you know anyone who knows a
> football referee? Have you ever even met anyone who sold a dog to
> someone who knows a football referee? No. And don't you think that's
> weird? I know an astronaut. I've even met someone who makes a living
> from sexing the Queen's ducks. But I've never met a football ref.
>
> Perhaps they're bred on farms, like The Boys from Brazil. Either that
> or they all hide behind meaningless day jobs in PC World, emerging
> only on a Saturday like a troop of SuperNazis with their too-tight
> Hitler Youth shorts and their silly whistles.
>
> It's not just football either. The unseen referees in Formula One
> motor racing distinguish themselves every year by getting every
> single decision wrong. Only the other week a Polish driver was made
> to come and sit on the naughty step because he had the temerity to
> try to overtake a rival.
>
> Then there's Wimbledon. Half a trillion pounds' worth of electronic
> projections say the ball was out. But sometimes, and I often feel for
> the hell of it, the umpire calls it in.
>
> And then docks the player points if he objects. But what's the player
> supposed to do? He's been on a court, solidly, since he was old
> enough to vomit. He's never been out with a girl, he's never had a
> beer, he's never been allowed to masturbate. He has dedicated his
> whole life to this match and this moment and now some jumped-up power-
> crazed lunatic has denied him the point.
>
> Of course he's going to be angry. Of course he's going to throw his
> racket on the floor.
>
> If I were in charge of tennis, I would allow aggrieved players to
> actually punch the officials in certain circumstances.
>
> Either that, or I would get them all down to Twickenham to see how it
> should be done.
>
> They will note that rugby refs josh and joke with the players. They
> give off a sense that they're pleased to be out there and - by
> constantly issuing instructions during rucks and mauls - that they
> are on hand to offer advice, as much as they are to enforce the rules.
>
> I was going to say that they are the most important feature in rugby.
> But obviously that's not true. The most important feature in the
> game, of course, is watching Australia lose.
>
> Again.

[BKKBoet]

I thought this was amusing...

Ten reasons the Boks must win

Him win twice? Please, NO!


South Africa and defending champions England go head-to-head in the World Cup Final in Paris on Saturday and rugby365.com's John Dobson tells us why the Springboks must and will triumph!

1. Lawrence Dallaglio. He cannot, must not, get two World Cup winning medals. It's amusing watching him strain every sinew for his belting out of the God Save The Queen and at the Annual Awards for Most Emotional Anthem he would certainly be a nominee with Vasco Uva of Portugal and the Argentinian front row. Thing is, Lawrence, it actually is more convincing if you actually made the starting team. No use in going through all that passion to go and take your seat in the stands next to the masseuse and the exercise bike.

2. These confounded English have lured the pride of Hilton, Michaelhouse, St Stithians and Bishops etc to glorious London and made them do things like queue, grocery shop and use public transport. Errggggh. Can you imagine? Making them do what most South Africans have to do every day. It's virtually a crime against humanity.

3. It's so funny - the England soccer team are not going to even make Euro 2008 - well, if you draw with Israel and don't put eight goals past Andorra and have a striker who, if he was 6kg heavier should be playing at lock for the Griffons and another striker who likes ageing hookers and looks like the Webb Ellis trophy - then what do you expect? So the Rugby World Cup is all they have, so make sure you take that away. Remember RWC 2003 took the crowing through to the Ashes which in turn took them through until the Aussies sorted that out last year. There is nothing we can do about Lewis Hamilton, but it doesn't really count if you copy other people's cars.

4. They put glass in our grandmother's sugar in the Boer war. Ask Bok van Blerk. He knows.

5. Kevin Pietersen. Mike Catt has been playing for England, with aplomb, for 15 years and he still sounds like he's the barman at Toby Joes on the PE Beachfront - KP, with his England tattoos tries so hard with his pommy accent, it's laughable. Deprive KP, a victim of such cruelty and deprivation in this cruel, evil, land, of another reason to gloat at SA.

6. Stuart Barnes, Brian Moore and every other insufferable English commentator. If we lose, having won 36-0 earlier, they and their papers will be crowing and filled with all the clich้'s about the greatest comeback since Lazarus. And we will have to see the bus trip down Oxford Street, the trip to the Queen for the OBE and Sir Rob Andrew. Don't forget, as they come down here for their holidays this summer with their sandals and pink shirts, to drink elegant Constantia whites and desperate search for Nivea After Sun, that they will be here as rugby world champions. Absolutely impossible.

7. The French! The Poor old French. Not only did they have to lose the semi-final to the old enemy against whom they have probably fought wars for 150 years, in their great stadium during their own party, imagine if they have to hand them the William Webb Ellis Trophy to take back across the channel on the Eurostar. It is like having Eugene Terreblanche or Jeremy Clarkson walk into your lounge and seduce your daughter in front of you. The French will be supporting us, desperately. Let's not let them down after laying on such a great World Cup.

8. Mark Regan. The thought of the most average, obnoxious hooker in world rugby being a world champion is too much to bear. To see him and Lawrence screaming and shouting Eng-er-land at the cameras at the final whistle will be life-altering. Love to see if this tubby little invertebrate would be so brave were he not hanging between Phil Vickery and Andrew Sheridan.

9. The Pride of the South. Listening to the English podcasts at the start of the World Cup, there was much angst and wailing about how woeful the northern hemisphere was. Now that has all changed. The Tri-Nations, Bledisloe Cup (7th and 8th place play off joke and all that) and the Super 14 lie disgraced as the very ugly also rans of rugby competitions. The North has risen, the Heineken Cup is a great tournament, French and English domestic leagues the best etc etc. As Jeremy Guscott said on one podcast after the quarters and the exit of our SANZAR partners "Goodbye and good riddance." As much as we like to beat them, and as much as Graham Henry and the up-itself All Black management gives us the needle, Australia and new Zealand will be supporting us over England. The South is where we live and play. Let's show them it is still the top of the rugby pile.

10. Those poor young gap year South Africans who go 'overseas' in their droves with romantic notions of freedom and life's experiences, and end up living in Southfields and working as security guards at Sainsbury's. Don't let them have to hide their accents on the tube on Monday and let them stand near the frozen chicken counter with some pride as they look for hooded shop lifters. Do it for them.

[BKKBoet]

I found this mildly amusing in an irritating sort of way.....

Ten reasons England must win

Bryan Habana: Cheetahs meat?


England go head-to-head with South Africa in the World Cup final in Paris on Saturday and skysports.com's Tony Curtis tells us why the defending champions must win.

1. If I see Bryan Habana 'supposedly' racing a cheetah, I will scream. Honestly. Now come on, it was hardly a fair race given Habana was given the sort of head start I would give my two-year-old son in a race, so to make out that only just losing makes the Boks winger special is laughable. How about a straight race between Habana and another rugby player? Let's say Takudzwa Ngwenya! It has got to the point I am willing the cheetah to think, "Sod this bit of grubby meat, I am going to bite this fella to my right". However it seems the only way to stop the video being shown again is for England to win...

2. Is there any more accent more grating than the Afrikaner drawl? I remember the days I could order a pint in London without my ears being subjected to such horrific abuse that they curl in upon themselves, while who can forget the South African baddies in Lethal Weapon 2... that movie was ruined by the accents. So there will be nothing worse than hearing John Smit and Jake White is self-congratulatory mode if the Boks win on Saturday.

3. Never one to complain about the rough stuff on the rugby field - it is a man's game after all - but Corn้ Krige took dirty play to a whole new level during his stint as Boks captain. Who can forget the 2002 tour when Krige went on a mad rampage, attacking England players at will? Martin Johnson, Matt Dawson and Jonny Wilkinson all got the treatment, but England had the last laugh by winning both the game and the World Cup match a year later. Krige, though, only just edges out Jannes Labuschagne, who was guilty of a horrific challenge on Wilkinson in the same tour.

4. Eddie Jones. Pure and simple. The technical advisor to the South African team enjoys nothing more some "Pom-bashing", however he was forced to eat humble pie in 2003 as Australia coach. Now wouldn't it just be sweet to see him suffer the same fate four years on.

5. Kamp Staldraad. Now what on earth forces a country to put their own side through such brutality. This is rugby not a war. Back in 2003, Rudi Straeuli made his squad strip naked and sing their national anthem as ice water was tipped on their heads. And this was the nice part of the camp.

6. For the retiring stars. For Jason Robinson, there is no doubt this is his last hurrah, having retired from club rugby at the end of the season. However, time is almost certainly to be called on the international careers of Lawrence Dallaglio, Mark Regan and Mike Catt - although I said that about Catt four years ago! All four have been great servants for England and deserve a fitting send-off.

7. It is our game. If it hadn't been for former England international William Henry Milton in the 19th century South Africa would still be playing the Wincester School rules of football - well, possibly.

8. Please, please, please don't put us through seeing Nelson Mandela in a Boks shirt again. Okay it was a touching moment in 1995 when the then President donned the green and gold jersey to present Francois Pienaar with the trophy in South Africa, underlining the message of unity. But that was then, this is France and it is a completely different situation. People respect Mandela too much for such a cringeworthy act in 2007.

9. Time to face facts. Why, if South Africa so good and great, have half the Boks team only bought one-way tickets to Europe? John Smit, Butch James, Percy Montgomery and Victor Matfield are among the South Africans who will be gracing the European leagues this season. So wouldn't it be great to make them feel welcome by reminding them who won the World Cup?

10. To silence the arrogant so-and-sos. Okay I admit the English can be prone to a little bit of self-indulgence, but come on, South Africa are in a different league. Take Boks boss Zola Yeye: "What we did to England, 36-0, we will inflict the same punishment on them again." Will you indeed? Thanks for the teamtalk Yeye. However he isn't the only one. Having the misfortune of South African relatives, I have had my fair share of abuse this week. Well my little Boks, he who laughs last, laughs longest.

[Marmite the Dog]

The French! The Poor old French. Not only did they have to lose the semi-final to the old enemy against whom they have probably fought wars for 150 years, in their great stadium during their own party, imagine if they have to hand them the William Webb Ellis Trophy to take back across the channel on the Eurostar. It is like having Eugene Terreblanche or Jeremy Clarkson walk into your lounge and seduce your daughter in front of you. The French will be supporting us, desperately. Let's not let them down after laying on such a great World Cup.

That's what would make it so sweet!

[BKKBoet]

Just a little something to rub salt into the wounds..

Just two weeks after they bowed out of the World Cup the All Blacks are faced with the prospect of losing the only thing that justifies their claim as the best rugby team in the world, the number one spot on the official International Rugby Board (IRB) rankings.

All it would require for the All Blacks to be removed from the pedestal they have occupied since June 2004 is a one point victory for their traditional rivals the Springboks against England this Saturday.

However, depending on the Final result, the balance of power in world rugby could in fact shift back to the Northern Hemisphere once again if England, who are currently third on the IRB rankings, beat South Africa by more than 15 points on Saturday.

[AntRobertson]

If I see Bryan Habana 'supposedly' racing a cheetah, I will scream

Eh? What's all that about? I'm really hating that cringe-worthy blatant 300 rip-off they've been running on SuperSports. By Thors hammer it's atrocious!

All it would require for the All Blacks to be removed from the pedestal they have occupied since June 2004

There have been other pretenders to the crown before and will be again. 3yrs, pretty good tenure. Let's see if they can at least match that

[AntRobertson]

England, who are currently third on the IRB rankings, beat South Africa by more than 15 points on Saturday.

Actually, and in all seriousness, does that strike anyone else as a little off? There's something rotten in the state of the IRB rankings if England, absolutely dire for the best part of the last 4yrs, could top the rankings following the World Cup.

SA certainly are more expected but then again, superb WC form notwithstanding, haven't exactly been beating all-comers over the last few years either.

Hmmm, I would investigate further but it would no doubt require a modicum of mathematical ability to decipher it all. And I'm crap at math.

[Marmite the Dog]

And I'm crap at math.

You're not very good at knowing how much hay you can mow in a day?

[AntRobertson]

You're not very good at knowing how much hay you can mow in a day?

Do I look like a friggin cow?? Wait, no, don't answer that...

[Marmite the Dog]

^ You obviously don't know what a math is.

[AntRobertson]

^ You obviously don't know what a math is.

Err, no I don't.

And I'm shit at all that addition, multiplication and subtraction nonsense too.

[Little Chuchok]

^ You obviously don't know what a math is.

Been using an American English dictionary marmers?

[Marmite the Dog]

^ No. It's proper English. To refer to mathematics as 'math' is quite simply wrong. It's maths.

A math is the amount of grass/hay that one can mow in a day. Sadly Seppos are fucking clueless about English.