Thread: 2011 Rugby World Cup. Who will win?

^ just not the case.

When you are up against the wall, against a better team, you are bound to struggle and be seen to be struggling. Imagine we had some mystical 'leader'. What could he have got out of this current England team??? The front row are too tall and lack a bit of technique. The second row have consistently failed to win their own ball over many years now (since before the last WC). The backrow are 3 average, solid but average, players - none of them would get into the best WC 30 squad.... Our halfbacks are fine. Our centres have been weak for many many years, we have not had a strong centre partnership since 2003/4. Our left winger is weak, he has poor handling skills, and doesn't convert well against top opposition. Our fullback and right winder are fine, but not amongst the world's best 5 or 6... So, imagine we have this mystical leader on the pitch, then what is he suddenly gonna get out of this group of hard working but distinctly average players??? Look at the flair of the Welsh backs (or the skillset and technique of their front row) or the marauding of the Irish backrow (or the lines at pace that their backs bring to their attacks) - England does not currently have players of that class. How many of our players would make it into the French, Irish or Welsh teams??? Very few, of any. The England players played well and tried their hearts out.

Wilkinson showed great commitment, and during the second half he was everywhere, often protecting the ball when the loose forwards were nowhere to be seen... The Samoan showed his inexperience, shocking play for the second French try when all he had to do was stay in position and the French would not have scored...

What was crap about England (NZ, Aus, Wales, France and Ireland are leagues ahead of us here) was how many times the backs were stationary when they received the ball. That was poor, but they had lost their structure and often looked confused in a broken/unstructured game - they just don't have the individual talent, experience and skillset of the other teams mentioned. They played tough, fully committed rugby, I don't know why everyone is knocking their attitude or effort - that's total bollocks in my opinion. They came up short because as individuals and as a team they just were not good enough. Nobody is moaning at Scotland for going out when they just weren't good enough, but them and England are at a very similar level (the Scottish backs were also too often stationary when receiving the ball) IMO. I wouldn't have got upset if Scotland had knocked us out, we aren't a better team than them at the moment. Just because we are called 'ENGLAND' does nt give us some right to beat teams that are better than us... We massively over-performed in the last WC, Ireland, NZ, Aus and France were better teams than us then, and we still nearly won it, but that was a freak event when everything came together, it wasn't that England were a great team. NZ 1999 were a great team. England 2002 were a great team. SA 2007 were a good team, but not great... No great teams in this WC. Ireland had great potential, as do Wales. NZ and Aus have real talent. SA are tough bastards who can grind out a win against anyone.

^^ I thought that NZ were the best team in that WC. (did the Irish do them?)

The Aussies were a strong team, so I'm being a bit cheeky here, just hard to forget Capo's deliberate knock on (a bit like Burger's deliberate cheating to stop a try in the last WC - ref should have given a penalty try and a yellow card...) which stopped them from losing the game; but it was a close match the Aussies had an excellent generation of players; just a 50/50 match, from my very biased perspective we had the upper hand in the game (although we were not the best team in the world or that tournament...)

Last WC, SA were very c=very lucky to win the final, England outplayed them in that 1 game, and some truly shocking ref (Irish...) decisions won the game for SA; having said that, SA were the best team in that tournament (England certainly were not) and NZ probably the best team in the world at that time.

2003, well the best team in the world, the best team in the tournament won it...

SA home win was just, well, we all know... NZ were an outstanding team, by far the best in the tournament and the world, a lot of foul play by the SAs to win that tournament... For that loss alone, NZ deserve a fair bite of the cherry at this WC.

Maybe I'm being a tad unfair to the Aussies, but SA have won 2 WC out of the last 3, and I wouldn't say they have ever been the best team in the world over that period, or dominated a tournament and convincingly won the final by being a better team.

Just my bitterness coming out, I suppose.

Australia's real strength this WC has been their defense giving away very few tries apart from a few soft one's against the US when they were miles ahead.

I am really confident they can win this thing and based upon their great defense.

Feck...2 minutes into the match and we get a 5.5 temblor. Funny thing, my wife, daughter and I all sang out in unison, 'NOT DURING THE RUGBY!'

At any rate, los Pumas are playing tight and so far are very competitive. Piri Weepu has been deadly accurate and has been everywhere on the paddock.

Rugby World Cup quarter-final: All Blacks book semifinal spot

By Patrick McKendry
10:16 PM Sunday Oct 9, 2011


Aaron Cruden had a strong game after coming on for Colin Slade.

The All Blacks don't really do upsets at Eden Park but Argentina threatened a monumental shock before they were finally subdued 33-10 tonight. Now a semi-final against Australia at the same venue awaits Graham Henry's rattled men in seven days.

New Zealand haven't lost in this part of suburban Auckland since 1994, a run consisting of 24 victories before tonight, but it took a try to Kieran Read with 13 minutes left to make the game safe and banish memories of their loss to France in Cardiff at the same stage in 2007.

Argentina's suffocating style took its toll. The All Blacks simply couldn't get their game going until the final quarter and the confidence levels won't be high going into the Wallabies match.

The All Blacks could also be missing several key personnel, with first-five Colin Slade limping off in the first half and Mils Muliaina, who was celebrating his 100th test, clutching his ribs in pain as he left the field at halftime, not to return. Jerome Kaino also looked at pain at times and Cory Jane was hobbling in the final stages.

Argentina played the final quarter of the match with 14 players after their halfback Nicolas Vergallo was sinbinned for holding on to the ball.

It was the latest in a series of offences by the Pumas and referee Nigel Owens could have penalised them more for it.

It took until well after halftime for the All Blacks to begin to dominate. Captain Richie McCaw had a try ruled out by the TMO when he dived through a ruck after concerted pressure and almost touched a post.

While Henry will have been nervous throughout, one bright spot was the poise of Slade's replacement Aaron Cruden.

He went close to scoring in the right corner following a kick pass and went on several good runs, though if anything he could have looked to pass a little more when in space.

He also had the good fortune of playing outside Piri Weepu who is coming into the form of his life.

Aside from kicking 21 points, Weepu ran the show in the first half when things were looking very shaky. Slade had injured his ankle after about 18 minutes and took a limited part in proceedings until being substituted a quarter of an hour later.

But just when Weepu could be excused for going into his shell as the Pumas poured on the pressure, he went the other way, jinking and stepping and creating that little bit of inspiration the All Blacks were crying out for.

Weepu's fourth penalty of the half eased All Blacks into a slightly more comfortable position after the shock of Julio Farias Cabello's try.

That came after several embarrassing defensive lapses from the All Blacks. No8 Leonardo Senatore was the instigator, charging off the back of a scrum near halfway, easily stepping inside Kieran Read and created merry havoc as he surged into the All Blacks 22m before blindside flanker Cabello dived through a weak Sonny Bill Williams tackle attempt in the corner.

Contepomi converted from the sideline and thoughts were quickly returning to Cardiff.

The All Blacks desperately needed Weepu's contribution on the scoreboard because they just couldn't get things going on attack. The width game only works when on the front foot and the Pumas forwards were experts at slowing the ball down.

The edge the All Blacks forwards showed against Canada in their final pool game last weekend wasn't there. Kaino looked troubled by injury and Read looked rusty.

McCaw tried hard, as ever, but the lack of fluency in this department is a concern.

The Pumas could easily have gone to the break ahead rather than 12-7 down. Contempomi missed a relatively easy penalty attempt and Santiago Fernandez only just missed with an ugly drop goal attempt which remarkably went just under the crossbar and required a TMO decision to rule out.

Brad Thorn had the final say for the All Blacks when scoring a popular try with only minutes left. If the All Blacks wanted a tough test going in their semi-final, they certainly got it tonight.

New Zealand 33 (Kieran Read, Brad Thorn tries; Piri Weepu 7 penalties, Aaron Cruden conversion), Argentina 10 (Julio Farias Cabello try; Felipe Contepomi conversion, Marcelo Bosch penalty). HT: 12-