Rugby World Cup 2011: Go Canada! - Page 7 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Slava · 09-17-2011, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Perhaps this is France just surrendering early?

Rugby Canada should've enlisted some more German Canadians for this game in particular!

Sainters7 · 09-17-2011, 10:04 AM

I'm extremely new to rugby, just got into it last week after being at an out-of-town wedding full of Brits & Aussies who got me into the WC, and had it on TV 24/7. Watched the Canada/Tonga match, was admittedly confusing but fun, shocked to see them win too. One Q though, what's with the strategy of resting that many players during round robin play? Is it normal to rest 3/4ths of your starters against lesser teams? That seems absurdly over the top. If the sport is that gruelling why don't they just space out the games a little more?

That'd be like Canada resting their top 2 lines & D pairings in the hockey Oly RR against Switzerland or something. Would never happen. Seems cocky too, kinda bugs me they take us that lightly. Or maybe I'm just too new to get the nuances.

Locke · 09-17-2011, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

Rugby Canada should've enlisted some more German Canadians for this game in particular!

We've got Kleeberger, that sounds like a Germanic name and his beard ought to be enough to beat these cheese eating surrender monkeys all by itself!

Slava · 09-17-2011, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sainters7

I'm extremely new to rugby, just got into it last week after being at an out-of-town wedding full of Brits & Aussies who got me into the WC, and had it on TV 24/7. Watched the Canada/Tonga match, was admittedly confusing but fun, shocked to see them win too. One Q though, what's with the strategy of resting that many players during round robin play? Is it normal to rest 3/4ths of your starters against lesser teams? That seems absurdly over the top. If the sport is that gruelling why don't they just space out the games a little more?

That'd be like Canada resting their top 2 lines & D pairings in the hockey Oly RR against Switzerland or something. Would never happen. Seems cocky too, kinda bugs me they take us that lightly. Or maybe I'm just too new to get the nuances.

Resting that many is a lot. For France though this is a top echelon team; I hate to say it, but they should win easily even with a "B" squad against Canada. Canada could keep it close and of course theres a reason that they play the games, but its really unlikely. The French team is made up of all professional players, where Canada has only 2 out of 22 players playing professionally.

Slava · 09-17-2011, 09:32 PM

A game that should be a good one kicks off now: Wales and Samoa....

troutman · 09-17-2011, 09:57 PM

Come on Ireland!

Gundo · 09-18-2011, 01:22 AM

I'm watching the England vs Georgia match only thing going through my head "LACES OUT DAN!!!"

Good lord, if Georgia was kicking 50% and the Try in the first 15 mins wasn't called back England would have lost that game and that's not even taking into consideration all the Yellow cards England evaded.

Update: Little did I know England was gonna blow it open with 2 try's in 5 minutes after I post that.

NBC · 09-18-2011, 04:49 AM

That was irritating. France was beatable today. Scoreline was in no way reflective of the match. I hate late tries especially 2 inside the last few minutes. Always gives the impression of a comfortable win. But at 25-19 it was by no means comfortable.

Conceding 3 late 1st half penalties were always going to be difficult to overturn. Had the match been a bit closer going into the 2nd half - or a Canadian lead - which would not have been undeserved, the final outcome may have been different. Ill-discipline was a real problem today. Too many penalties - 8 in the 1st half. Parra was on fire and not likely to miss many while Pritchard picked a poor time to have an off-game with the boot.

France has a lot of class and talent in their fold, but today, at least for a while, they were beatable. Lots of handling errors and serious problems with the high-ball. We just gave away too many silly penalties in soft positions where their kicker was not going to miss.

Too bad. Could have been an upset for the ages.

Matty81 · 09-18-2011, 12:15 PM

What an effort by Canada, ultimately beat by a way more talented side but given the resources of the two programs it was a gritty performance, hopefully the WC earns a few contracts for them. Too bad about the last couple tries to run up the score - agree about the penalties too, coupled with Pritchard's 3 misses in the first half and I though canada could have been up 9 at half.

Thought the one French dude diving over the ad boards after the slight bump was hilarious too until it resulted in a penalty, that's all you need to see, embellishment in rugby.

Locke · 09-18-2011, 01:57 PM

I'm just about to sit down and watch the replay here, anything in particular I should keep my eyes open for?

I forgot how much I love Rugby. I'm sure as hell never going to play it again, I've got a rotator cuff that'll never forgive me for playing it in the first place, but watching international Rugby has been a bit of a revelation. Plus, I love being able to cheer for my country in another sport. Sure, we may not be great at it, but we can compete and the quality is good. Obviously, as we qualified for the World Cup.

And no, soccer doesnt count, while I do cheer for Canada against whomever they play against in soccer, the quality of play is so low its difficult to watch, this is much different and I really like it.

Locke · 09-18-2011, 02:09 PM

HAHA! The novelty beards! Those are great!

Locke · 09-18-2011, 02:52 PM

I love the fact that you can listen to the ref. Thats fantastic. This should be in every sport.

And theres a 'Ryan Smith' that plays for Canada. Of course there is.

Slava · 09-18-2011, 03:27 PM

Locke (and anyone else interested!), when are we having a beer to watch a game?

GirlySports · 09-18-2011, 03:30 PM

I said the NHL would be cool if the refs had mics.

But the players swear too much. I got mocked! :P

Slava · 09-18-2011, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I said the NHL would be cool if the refs had mics.

But the players swear too much. I got mocked! :P

One things I really enjoyed about rugby was that you couldn't bad mouth a ref, and that they were always treated respectfully. I've been in games where the ref penalised for swearing though and that really didn't go over well! IMO that was going too far...

The Big Chill · 09-18-2011, 03:41 PM

We played great but made too many mental errors, and clearly got tired towards the end of the match. Great effort by our boys though.

Boblobla · 09-18-2011, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

I love the fact that you can listen to the ref. Thats fantastic. This should be in every sport.

And theres a 'Ryan Smith' that plays for Canada. Of course there is.

He plays his club rugby in Calgary. He is a fantastic player.

Locke · 09-19-2011, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

Locke (and anyone else interested!), when are we having a beer to watch a game?

How can we make it work? The next one is Canada/Japan which would be great as we have a good shot at winning, but it would probably have to be a replay unless it was live at like 9:30pm or something.

SeoulFire · 09-19-2011, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

How can we make it work? The next one is Canada/Japan which would be great as we have a good shot at winning, but it would probably have to be a replay unless it was live at like 9:30pm or something.

I believe that it is a 10pm game on the 27th.

Locke · 09-19-2011, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

I believe that it is a 10pm game on the 27th.

Alright, I could still conceivably do that. 10-12pm, we get to watch the game live. Work the next day would suck but it wouldnt be the end of the world.

Pete's?