Rugby Union World Cup 2011
 

The world's no.2 ranked country, Australia, just took the Bledisloe cup off the world's no. 1 ranked country, New Zealand, for the first time in 10 years.

The World cup begins in a little over a week, in New Zealand, where sport is king and Rugby is God. Despite usually being favourites, the All Blacks have been notorious chokers and have only won it once, in 1987.

Are we interested?

I like the All Blacks logo. The whole New Zealand fern thing is cool.

Great news. Now get to work on your Palma Rifle ranking, you're only #3 and as Lightning McQueen says, "There's one winner and two losers."

I'm looking forward to the highlights.
Rugby is best like sushi - bite sized portions.

Woot! My game.....

USA did fairly well against Ireland. Even if they lost, they certainly made them pay for every meter gained. It was a hard hitting game, and the USA left a mark. The next two should be a bit easier, even though no one expects them to make it to the final rounds.

We here in the sunshine state have high hopes for The Reds, ooops, I mean Australia. :D

I think the wallabies are looking pretty good so far.
They had a solid 32-6 win over Italy, who are quite respectable.

The other major teams didn't do so well first up.
England struggled to beat Argentina 13-9. Wilko missed lots of kicks.
South Africa (defending champs) just barely edged past wales 17-16.
France needed a late surge to beat Japan 47-21. (The Cherry Blossoms, what kind of name is that for a rugby team?)
Even the All Blacks only beat Tonga 41-10, when they normally beat them by about 70 points.

Early days, and our winger Digby Ioane copped a broken thumb playing Italy.

Hey, you Merkins get to play Russia next!

That be racist!

You know what the NZ basketball team are called?



The Tall Blacks.

I think the Aussies are going to take this one. Everyone else seems to be struggling.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/te...d=2050793.html

Russians closing gap, aiming for debut glory

Bloody good one I say.
I may be biased.
Especially as I have a cherry blossom motif on my personalised post-its...
(what? they're really useful for sending little messages home to Tiger-mum)

cherry blossoms isn't really very manly though is it?

Neither are rugby players...

Ummmmm - diagree there.
They are men by gender amd chromosomes.

Flowers notwithstanding (and they have significance in Japan) they play a pretty violent sport.

Most of them are gay. Just ask one...

Really? Have you ever seen one, or watched a game?

Haha, yes, I've even attended matches without being paid (and still do occasionally).

lol...ok well you can give union players all the shit you like then. ;)

They are all pussy cats. Just walk right up and tell them what you think....

Union players, maybe, but League? Unwise.

My brother played rugby when he was grad asst football coach at the college from which he graduated.

Mom said "I will NOT watch my son play rugby and I will NOT watch my daughter jump out of an airplane." These instances were in the same time frame.

'Cause, rugby is a TOUGH sport!

League or Union...?

Oh, I don't know the difference. It was like an intramural league, nothing official.

Is there a difference in the play?

In league, when you're tackled, you have the right to get to your feet and play the ball at your convenience without being hindered, at least in theory. In Union, when tackled, you must immediately play the ball, usually by placing it on the ground behind you, and hope to goodness your teammates get there to secure the ball before the opposition do.

Ohhhh. I'll have to ask him! Thanks. :)

Well, if he has the imprints of the studs of football boots on his head, it was probably union.

But it another man has handled his funny shaped balls, it could be either.

I think it was non-pussified. My dad went to watch sometimes and said it could be pretty brutal. My brother, a no-holds-barred athlete and one of the smartest people I know, probably played the Union thingy. He never does anything halfway. ;)

Trust me, all Rugby is brutal.

Look at Zara Phillip's husband Mike Tindall, he plays League, she is the daughter of the Princess Royal and grand-daughter of the Queen.
The man has been seriously bashed about.

Wow, looks 'shopped.

Gosh darn it. The Wallabies just got beaten by Ireland. Bother.
We made poor decisions early, taking difficult penalty shots instead of going for a line-out and putting on the pressure for a try. Our execution was average and we kicked the ball away too early.

Hmm.

Oh and I have a correction to make. The Japanese rugby team are the Brave Blossoms, not the Cherry Blossoms as I wrote earlier.

I think it makes them sound even sookier.

That is so not shopped.
But I see what you mean.

It's about to get even more crooked, as there are pics in all today's papers of him with a mystery blonde who is not his new wife. You don't mess about when you've married into a huntin', shootin', fishin', ridin' family! Zara's had far bigger studs between her thighs, as has her mother. Smack-down alert.

Brave Blossoms sound like a cheerleading team. Cherry Blossoms FTW.

I was shocked by that result. I was in the camp that felt like they might go to the finals, I've changed my mind after that performance.

Yay, Australia finally got to beat the USA in something.

We paid a heavy price - one concussion, one dislocated shoulder, one broken cheekbone, one hamstring, one leg injury. Five of our starting fifteen seriously injured. Crap. We'll be lucky to get past the first knockout game at this rate.

I didn't see all of the game, but I thought the Wallabies were not too good. Team plays didn't hook up, support was late, poor decisions were made.

A US player was yellow carded late in the game for a deliberate knock-down. I thought that was harsh but not completely unreasonable. I thought he was a chance to take the intercept.

Looked like he was trying to take the ball to me as well. But that score certainly did not reflect the first half. A bit of an embarrassment that one. The US has put up some really great defensive stands during all of their matches, I think they surprised Ireland in that respect, offensively we still can't hang with the big boys. But well will put a hurt on ya... :blush:

W just went 68-22 over Russia - on more injury, nearly outscored in the second half, and at times our forwards struggled.

I don't think we're going to win the world cup this time, Skippy.

We're through to the quarter-finals!
But Scotland played a blinder from what I heard (radio updates).

We play France, who are probably one of the most unpredictable teams evah.
Actually that applies in many sports, especially football.
I think the whole teamwork thing isn't generally understood there (see The World Cup!*) But against England they should be united and could leave us in the dirt.

* as in The World Cup as most nations understand it. Football.

We reach the quarter finals with New Zealand the only team to have four wins and four bonus points. England and South Africa struggled to win games, Australia and France managed losses. Argentina, Ireland and Wales have done well to advance.

On current form, you'd have to tip the All Blacks. I wonder if they're still like toyotas ... with an automatic choke. :D

Man it is going to be a VERY interesting weekend! This is what WC is all about! 8 best teams are stepping into the arena.

Ooooh yeah!

New Zealand to beat Argentina is the only one I'd consider "almost certain".

Australia, England and Ireland are all modest favorites to win their matches, but South Africa, France and Wales could all take their games with effort and a drop of luck.

It's kind of a pity that this is now the knock-out stage. I'd like to see these teams playing each other more. I guess with the long turn-around time of Rugby games, that would stretch the tournament too long.

Eh, bring it on. Play hard. Win, or lose. That's what it is about, in the end. :D

We're out.
Sounds like we deserved it too, from our awful first half.

YAY for Wales!
Wales ftw!

England and Ireland lost. :facepalm: strewth I'm rubbish at this.

Both were very good games, lots of clean running and kicking play, good skills, few penalties. Neither was high scoring but that was largely due to excellent defense.

France brought their A-game, and were very stylish. We could have seen it coming - it takes a humiliation to get them going. Like when Jonah Lomu single-handedly beat pretty much the entire French team for a try, but this sparked their ferocious comeback. Their last pool game was a loss to Tonga. Should have read that.

Still hopeful for Wallabies Vs Springboks tomorrow.

The Wallabies edged out the Springboks with the only try of the match, but against the weight of possession and territory. It was a very unconvincing win and we were very lucky. SA were twice denied probable tries by forward passes. We kept kicking the ball away early - obviously a planned strategy - but too deep to recover it, or straight to a close defender. Cooper had a poor game and Deans should have taken him off.

Argentina were very brave against New Zealand and even had the lead after scoring the first try, but they were outclassed and to some degree kept in the game by desperate defense and infringing at the breakdown.

I'm really unsure about France Vs Wales, and I've got an opinion about Australia Vs New Zealand, but it isn't the one I'd like.

Ugg, I am a huge Springboks fan. Disappointed. Well the final 4 have been set. Next weekend should be huge. I predict France vs. one of the other two, could go either way. I will be pissed if the French win. Just saying...

On the last game's form, you'd pick France over Wales, but that doesn't allow for the French erraticness.

I think NZ should beat Australia, although they might be missing a few good players. They'll have huge crowd support.

I would think that NZ would beat France should it come to that in the final. If it is Australia/france, the NZ fans have a terrible dilemma. Kiwis will cheer for two teams: New Zealand, and whoever is playing Australia. Could they bring themselves to suport France, who have knocked them out in semis several times, or Australia, the old foe who just knocked them out this time? Tough call.

An Englishman, An Irishman and a South African walked into a bar... The Kiwi didn't because he was still at the Rugby World Cup!

I like these guys!

Arrgggggg! Bite me mate! ;)

I can't agree more with your assessment.

I think Australia will be pretty keen to prove the Bledisloe wasn't just a fluke. They might be worth watching even. :)

This guy is funny.

Some of it is NSFW due to it's mild adult nature.

http://www.arcrugby.co.nz/

Haaa....

Poor NZ can't get a break.

http://video.news.com.au/2152702652/...QA3D0.facebook

hahaha... funny as bro!

Kiwis vs Cocks in the final!

If only we had a point for every time Cooper messed up.
If only we had a coach who would pull off an underperforming player.
If only we had some kind of strategy for attack other than the ineffective chip kick.

We probably still would have lost anyway.

We were simply outplayed by a better team, as well as making a number of poor decisions.

Looking forward to watching the All Blacks hammer France next week.

Merc, what did you think of that red card against Wales? I wouldn't argue with a yellow, but the way he eased off rather than going on with the pile drive makes the red seem a bit harsh. Your thoughts?

I know you asked Merc, and as a ref he has important input. But to me, it was a valid red card.
I was listening to Danny Baker on Five Live (ANYONE interested in English sport should do so, regardless of time constraints) and he kept referring back to the rugby.

I came downstairs to watch it on TV because of the sending off and the replays of said event.

Wales should have won. But not because of a wrong call.

Indeed, the Welsh kicked (IIRC) one out of five attempts, and when you lose by a single point...

Reconsidering, All Black Sonny Bill Williams got yellow carded for a much less dangerous shoulder-charge. Compared to that, the Welsh one was much more dangerous.

Was there anyone in tonight's game who didn't bleed at least a bit?

Does anyone else think that some of the calls might have been a bit dodgy after considering that there was a SA ref, keeping in mind Aus beat SA to get to the AB's?

A few were a bit iffy, but we lost that game all on our own.