Rugby World Cup 2011: Go Canada!

[SeoulFire]

Man...I posted that then hit edit while I checked again the finally posted.

So glad that somebody caught this

[Locke]

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

Man...I posted that then hit edit while I checked again the finally posted.

So glad that somebody caught this

Haha, no worries!

We all know when someone is on Japan's payroll....

I totally figured that you'd be pro-Canada because anyone from Seoul should be against Japan. Does your mother know?

[Slava]

I didn't stay up for it (and the replay is on later today if you're interested), but New Zealand secured a spot in the QF round with a 37-17 win over France.

Tonights early game (9:30pm) is a potentially good match up of Fiji and Samoa.

[NBC]

England hammered Romania in the early match today 67-3, scoring 10 tries in the process. They looked good - very good, granted it was against a Romania side that is undoubtedly targeting the Georgia clash as their priority.

New Zealand was clinical in their dismantling of France today. Don't let the scoreline fool you into thinking that France were in it. Outside of the first 13 or 14 minutes where France was controlling the play and had all the territory, they were totally outplayed in ever facet of the game afterwards. Their forwards were blown away by the ABs and were not remotely aggressive enough. And their backs had an absolutely torrid time. They were under intense pressure from minute 15 onwards and not a single one showed anything. Their tackling was atrocious, kicking suspect at times and they were out-competed on almost every ball. The two tries they did manage to get were almost farcical. An interception off a long Carter pass and a weird kick restart after a penalty was given by the ref. The ABs thought that time had been called but hadn't been. Very strange that.

NZ looked mightily impressive today. Their skill at the breakdown is sublime. Smith and Nonu were fantastic, and the young fullback Dagg was great. But the way in which the NZ forwards dominated the French pack was unbelievable. I've not seen a French pack get bossed around like this for a long time.

If I were SA or Aus, I'd not relish the thought of facing this AB side in the quarters. And if today's performance is anything to go on, and if England win their group, I don't fancy France's chances of reaching the semis.

Scotland and Argentina tomorrow. Winner will be looking towards the QF, loser most likely going home. Scotland have a great kicking game and are underrated. Argies are old and are carrying some injuries. Not sure if Contepomi will play. They won't have much of a chance if he doesn't. Scotland - England next weekend should decide who wins the group and who avoids the All Blacks.

[Slava]

^Contepomi is back in the line-up for the game.

[Stay Golden]

Flat out dominance by the All Blacks over a solid France squad. Scary how good they really are.

[GirlySports]

I don't recall a Fijian team ever being this poor or this slow. 0 points against SA and now 0 points against Samoa. What happened?

[NBC]

As I suspected, Contepomi was the difference maker in this one. How he was not penalized at the death for offside on Parks' drop goal attempt is rather quite baffling. That was a clear penalty in front of the sticks and would almost assuredly given the Scots a gritty, well-deserved 2 point victory. Now they have to go to Auckland and beat an in-form England to have any hope of reaching the KO stage.

If I were a Scottish rugby fan I'd be livid right now.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by NBC

As I suspected, Contepomi was the difference maker in this one. How he was not penalized at the death for offside on Parks' drop goal attempt is rather quite baffling. That was a clear penalty in front of the sticks and would almost assuredly given the Scots a gritty, well-deserved 2 point victory. Now they have to go to Auckland and beat an in-form England to have any hope of reaching the KO stage.

If I were a Scottish rugby fan I'd be livid right now.

I didn't watch this one, but its sounds like the Scots had it all under control until the last few minutes? I agree though...beating England is asking a lot of them at this point. Its not impossible, but they've got to he somewhat demoralized now and that won't help either.

[moon]

Unfortunate result for Scotland who were by far the better team.

How Argentina consistently get away with all their cheap crap and cheating is beyond me.

They consistently come in from the side, consistently hold onto to the ball in tackles and are always playing the ball while on the ground. Not sure what they have over the refs but they are a frustrating team to watch.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by Slava

I didn't watch this one, but its sounds like the Scots had it all under control until the last few minutes? I agree though...beating England is asking a lot of them at this point. Its not impossible, but they've got to he somewhat demoralized now and that won't help either.

That's pretty much what happened. They lost focus for 30 seconds and it cost them the match. But the bigger question is how Wayne Barnes missed Contepomi being a few yards offside. That was a terrible blown call.

I think the Argies have a good reputation for being fierce competitors at the breakdown and this reputation gets them their fair share of calls. To their credit they are pretty quick at getting support in once the ball carrier goes to ground. But it does seem that there are an awful lot of hands in the ruck when there shouldn't be. One of their big back row forwards did just that, got his hand on the ball from the side, knocked it loose and Scotland were penalized for the knock-on. It was frustrating to watch.

[3 Justin 3]

Wales killed Namibia 81-7 scoring 7 tries in the last 20 minutes.

This is my 3rd game I've ever watched and I still don't really understand the rules, but I enjoy watching it.

The Scotland-Argentina match yesterday was fairly entertaining, good defense. The Wales-Namibia game was miss tackle after miss tackle (but I knew Namibia would get destroyed).

[Locke]

Dont forget, Pete's Peanut Pub, tonight at 9:30.

[Stay Golden]

Wales demolished Nambia and they used their younger squad for the most part. The USA were equally crushed by Aussie, the american egos must be humbled as no matter the sport they fully expect to win.
Canada has to beat Japan tonight and score more than 4 to get the max 5pts.
It might be a tall task as I hear reports that Canada is pretty banged up after the France game.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

Wales demolished Nambia and they used their younger squad for the most part. The USA were equally crushed by Aussie, the american egos must be humbled as no matter the sport they fully expect to win.
Canada has to beat Japan tonight and score more than 4 to get the max 5pts.
It might be a tall task as I hear reports that Canada is pretty banged up after the France game.

I think by this time in a tourney like this you can say that about any of the lower tier teams. They don't have the depth of the All Blacks etc. so they overplay their best players.

But I still think this is a clash of styles and will be very different from the last two. Japan loves to move the ball quickly and Canada needs to play a slower controlled game to win.

Whoever can put their stamp on the game will take it.

[CofR]

Originally Posted by Locke

Dont forget, Pete's Peanut Pub, tonight at 9:30.

I think I will make it, I'm new to rugby, so this seems like fun!

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

Wales demolished Nambia and they used their younger squad for the most part. The USA were equally crushed by Aussie, the american egos must be humbled as no matter the sport they fully expect to win.
Canada has to beat Japan tonight and score more than 4 to get the max 5pts.
It might be a tall task as I hear reports that Canada is pretty banged up after the France game.

Easy there, nobody outside of the guys in that room had any expectation of the Eagles pulling out a victory, and even those guys knew that doing so would have been somewhat of a miracle.

[browna]

Good start...the best, rousing, rendition of our national anthem I've heard in a while, thanks to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Choir of all people.

[browna]

7-0 Canada...8 mins in.

[Matty81]

Wow how does a country like japan with no immigration have a team with no actual japanese people on it.

Canada looks in trouble, down 10-7 and their goal kicker got punched in the face and koed somewhat accidentally. Seems like the annoncers are cheering for Japan pretty blatently.