Rugby Union

[teaky]

3 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

There is quite a history at RWC of teams having a great semi and then not managing to follow that up in the final. So England have a big job to do psychologically. But Eddie Jones will know that.

 

I think that South Africa still have another gear. They were far from their best on Sunday but lucky enough to come up against a Wales side well below par. Injuries played their part, especially the absence of Navidi, but above all Wales made some poor kicking decisions and executed them poorly. I was very disappointed.

 

But why so much kicking from both sides? Once again the RWC organisers must take the blame for putting two matches on the same pitch in 24 hours. Even the best groundsman in the world is not going to give you a good pitch on Day 2 in the wet season. The pitch was cutting up and the ball greasy within 5 minutes of the kick-off. Not what you want to play attacking rugby. Are they playing both games next weekend on that pitch? If so, the final is likely to be very compromised. 

 

The other thing that restricted the match from becoming a decent spectacle was poor refereeing of offside. Garces (and his assistants) persistently let the defence lines be 50cm offside. Does not sound much but it makes a lot of difference in a physical game as the attack can not build any momentum.

 

I hope that next weekend's referees do better on this point. In fact, I believe that the rulemakers made need to wake up to the realities of modern rugby and change the rules for offside at rucks and mauls.

Thankfully, the bronze playoff is at Tokyo.  With luck the Yokohama pitch will recover in time for Saturday's final.

[robert17649]

they aint rules theys laws, and there is a difference.

 

I wonder if some of the comments are made by people who have actually refereed I would defy anyone to judge 50cm in the heat of a game,

taking into account parallax error and TV distortion the off side line is not too often broken actually . furthermore the line speed of defences is way faster this year than in the past..

 

leave the referees alone that sort of criticism should be left to the soccer pundits and the constant TV replayers who I am sure make way better referees than the guys who actually do it.

[Joseph_Pestell]

On 26/10/2019 at 12:47, rockershovel said:

 

Ermm.... yes, they do. England attempted one today. But, they are a risky strategy unless you have a world class kicker (I’m talking in the Johnny Wilkinson, Janie de Beer class - and JdB was closed down by Australia in the next game, ) AND they mean that you then have to receive a kickoff 

 

To illustrate how rare they are, and always have been;

 

 

I’m surprised to see Rob Andrew on the list, I always remember him a a dull-as-dishwater #10 who kicked possession away, time after time after time....

 

 

That table should really be rearranged to show drop goals per game as a percentage. On that basis, Guy Camberabero is a clear leader. But I think that he played in the era of the four-point try. (Correction: He's older than I thought. It was only three points for a try in his era)

Edited October 28, 2019 by Joseph_Pestell
Correction

[Joseph_Pestell]

58 minutes ago, robert17649 said:

they aint rules theys laws, and there is a difference.

 

I wonder if some of the comments are made by people who have actually refereed I would defy anyone to judge 50cm in the heat of a game,

taking into account parallax error and TV distortion the off side line is not too often broken actually . furthermore the line speed of defences is way faster this year than in the past..

 

leave the referees alone that sort of criticism should be left to the soccer pundits and the constant TV replayers who I am sure make way better referees than the guys who actually do it.

 

I can only answer for myself. Yes, I am a former referee who has officiated in France (Languedoc, where rugby is a substitute for civil war) and England.

 

For the referee, it can be difficult. But when you have two qualified referees as assistants, they should be advising on constant offside.

 

But anyway, Garces was aware of the situation. On one occasion he warned Faff de Klerk three times but took no action. That is game-changing because Wales were just a couple of metres from the South African line at that time (and had been for about fifteen phases). All that I can say in Garces favour was that he was consistent: the Welsh defensive line was also frequently offside. It did not help that Garces was allowing both scrum-halves an unusual amount of time to use the ball.

[robert17649]

I refereed for thirty odd years in UK  and as a guest in France.

 

I think that a return to the good old days when if the scrum half had hands on the ball he was a fair target would put a stop to a lot of the problems there.

 

Mind you I do not advocate a return to steel toe caps and legitimate hacking even though it did make you get off the ball a bit quick.

 

seriously though calling a mark anywhere on the pitch with the option of a kick to touch which retained possession ( another return to prehistory) would put a stop to the pointless aerial tennis

[rockershovel]

Important point there. If you spend long enough hovering over the ball at the back of the ruck, someone WILL come offside, sooner rather later. There seems to be an increasing reluctance to ref it, though, along with forward passes. NZ threw a couple of shockers on Saturday. 

 

Never mind all this technobabble about parallax, yada yada. Given rugby’s bedazzlement with the NFL at times, and the increasing intrusion of the TMO into areas such as England’s “knock on” in the maul (which I concede to have been technically correct, in the narrowest possible interpretation, but whether it was in the interests of the game as a whole is a rather different matter) - why not copy the NFL format of projecting a plane across the pitch on the big-screen replay, and deem that to be definitive? 

 

[rockershovel]

6 minutes ago, robert17649 said:

I refereed for thirty odd years in UK  and as a guest in France.

 

I think that a return to the good old days when if the scrum half had hands on the ball he was a fair target would put a stop to a lot of the problems there.

 

Mind you I do not advocate a return to steel toe caps and legitimate hacking even though it did make you get off the ball a bit quick.

 

seriously though calling a mark anywhere on the pitch with the option of a kick to touch which retained possession ( another return to prehistory) would put a stop to the pointless aerial tennis

 

Oh no, no. Those days are gone, and a good job too. That was all very well in the days when a kick of thirty yards was considered exceptional, and rucks continued indefinitely with hands everywhere and people laying over the ball, but not now. 

 

 

[robert17649]

But then the ball weighed half a ton and when it got wet you could break a foot kicking it.

[BoD]

[rockershovel]

A Scotsman, a Welshman and an Irishman walk into a bar.... but no Englishman. He’s still in Japan. 

[tigerburnie]

The Scotsman got bored waiting for so long and went home ages ago...……………………………………...

[NorthBrit]

19 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

The Scotsman got bored waiting for so long and went home ages ago...……………………………………...

 

The Japanese whisky is rubbish!

[rockershovel]

22 minutes ago, NorthBrit said:

 

The Japanese whisky is rubbish!

 

I saw some Suntory in a noodle bar in Osaka... in a 2.7 litre plastic bottle. God knows what they use it for, cleaning the cooking utensils if the taste is any guide. 

[tigerburnie]

Some of their whisky has won many respected awards, I have not however tried any yet, I tried an English one which was adequate a Welsh one that was awful, an Irish one that was ok. So I might suggest leave whisky making to the Scots, playing rugby to the English, the Irish to making stout and the welsh...………………………………………………………………..I'll think of something in a minute...…………………………...

Edited November 1, 2019 by tigerburnie

[grandadbob]

10 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Some of their whisky has won many respected awards, I have not however tried any yet, I tried an English one which was adequate a Welsh one that was awful, an Irish one that was ok. So I might suggest leave whisky making to the Scots, playing rugby to the English, the Irish to making stout and the welsh...………………………………………………………………..I'll think of something in a minute...…………………………...

 

Herding sheep? 

[BoD]

Singing.

When The Arms Park was in full voice the hairs on the back of the neck couldn’t help but stand on end.

[rockershovel]

I did some ... research... into the matter before going there. Japanese whiskey is like any other sort, you get what you pay for. Some of the cheaper stuff is no better, and no worse than any other sort. 

 

We had a VERY acceptable single malt in the Observation Bar in Osaka, the one where you sit in leather chairs by a porthole window about 5 ft in diameter and look out over the city. Mind you, it SHOULD have been good under the circumstances ...

 

[Jol Wilkinson]

On 31/10/2019 at 21:34, rockershovel said:

A Scotsman, a Welshman and an Irishman walk into a bar.... but no Englishman. He’s still in Japan. 

An interesting but disappointing set of vox pop interviews on the goggle box yesterday, in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. When asked who they would be supporting in the final, the majority of the Welsh and Scots said South Africa because their team hadn't go through, while the Northern Irish unanimously support the English. 

 

Only a small sample, but says a lot about the strength of the Union.

[MarkC]

59 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

An interesting but disappointing set of vox pop interviews on the goggle box yesterday, in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. When asked who they would be supporting in the final, the majority of the Welsh and Scots said South Africa because their team hadn't go through, while the Northern Irish unanimously support the English. 

 

Only a small sample, but says a lot about the strength of the Union.

ABE...

 

Plus ҫa change, plus c'est la même chose...

[tigerburnie]

My old scots work mates all supported english teams, but none would ever support an English national team, not even at tiddlywinks...…………………………….

[BoD]

A comprehensive and well deserved victory for SA.

Well done and worthy world champions.

 

A Scotsman, Irishman and a Welshman walked into a bar....... to celebrate.

[Dave47549]

.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Dave47549
Removed pointless guff

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Only a small sample, but says a lot about the strength of the Union.

 

Yes, the sooner the English get their independence the better.

[colin penfold]

They have been brilliant through the tournament, but it was a game too far. I don't think a world cup will ever be won by a team beating the three southern hemisphere powerhouses consecutively, which is what we just tried to do. Well played England

[scottystitch]

2 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

An interesting but disappointing set of vox pop interviews on the goggle box yesterday, in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. When asked who they would be supporting in the final, the majority of the Welsh and Scots said South Africa because their team hadn't go through, while the Northern Irish unanimously support the English. 

 

Only a small sample, but says a lot about the strength of the Union.

 

I think rather than bemoaning the issue, England should seriously sit down and consider WHY that tendency exists. One would strongly suggest it is not simply out of petty sporting spite.........