Rugby World Cup 2023

Actually thought this was over. Minimal publicity when Australia was still in it, none since we were eliminated.

Presumably NZ wins.

Great effort by our boys, put the cricketers to shame with their earlier shitshow. But SA are world champions for a reason, two single-point wins to end Northern Hemisphere hopes, wouldn’t rule them out next week.

SA v NZ?

lardbucket wrote:SA v NZ?

Yeah, NZ demolished Argentina last night. It’s the reverse of the old days, the All Blacks struggled for a couple of years but have peaked for the World Cup! Much-hyped Ireland and France fell by the wayside.

Anyway, first time the two have met in the big one since the Mandela/Invictus Final of ‘95.

Two nations where the sport is overshadowed by soccer, AFL, Gaelic football, rugby league, or several of those sports.

So, English sports fans, which was worse? Getting eviscerated at cricket, or snatching defeat from the jaws at rugby? Serious research - and I am English by birth

lardbucket wrote:Two nations where the sport is overshadowed by soccer, AFL, Gaelic football, rugby league, or several of those sports.

What, New Zealand and South Africa? Think they’re the only ones you can’t claim any of that about…

Fred Nerk wrote:So, English sports fans, which was worse? Getting eviscerated at cricket, or snatching defeat from the jaws at rugby? Serious research - and I am English by birth

I was happy to just put up a fight in the rugby, a lot more than was expected. Thought it would probably be the other way around, narrow defeat at cricket and getting a pasting in the rugby. All down to a 50-50 scrum call really and the fact the Yarps know how to win when it comes to the crunch, though they didn’t turn up for 60 minutes/didn’t like the weather tonight.

Anyway, one record we’re likely to hold for a while is being the only nation to win football, cricket and rugby World Cups. Though as of now, only one man still alive has won the football version in an England shirt…

Anyway, you can remove your hands from your eyes Aussies, it finally reaches its conclusion this weekend (just be thankful your team didn’t have to play three weeks of meaningless matches after being eliminated, like our cricketers do).

Biggest headline of the week is Tom Curry allegedly being called a Gilly by Bongi Mbonambi, but the Yarp hooker has been cleared amidst a debate over misheard Afrikaans phrases…

And the Boks win by one point, as in each of the previous knockout rounds.

All Blacks showed great fight after the Cane red card (though the Yarps missed chances to finish them off) but missed a conversion and a penalty that could have won it. Four more years, boys, as the Aussies used to say back when they were half decent at this… Khaleesi and his dragons join McCaw’s Snoozers in retaining Bill, and take the overall lead with four titles (and have still never lost a final).

It has to be said, LOL @ the Blecks.

So that means Eng were a semi-final bee's dick away from winning the Cup.

beamer wrote:And the Boks win by one point, as in each of the previous knockout rounds.

All Blacks showed great fight after the Cane red card (though the Yarps missed chances to finish them off) but missed a conversion and a penalty that could have won it. Four more years, boys, as the Aussies used to say back when they were half decent at this… Khaleesi and his dragons join McCaw’s Snoozers in retaining Bill, and take the overall lead with four titles (and have still never lost a final).

Did SA miss some World Cups due to Apartheid?  The French and the English have both lost three finals. So the Saffers only choke in cricket it seems!

skully wrote:It has to be said, LOL @ the Blecks.

So that means Eng were a semi-final bee's dick away from winning the Cup.

Well, in a sense… not sure we’d have produced what the Yarps did last night, though the weather was in our favour.

Red wrote:

beamer wrote:And the Boks win by one point, as in each of the previous knockout rounds.

All Blacks showed great fight after the Cane red card (though the Yarps missed chances to finish them off) but missed a conversion and a penalty that could have won it. Four more years, boys, as the Aussies used to say back when they were half decent at this… Khaleesi and his dragons join McCaw’s Snoozers in retaining Bill, and take the overall lead with four titles (and have still never lost a final).

Did SA miss some World Cups due to Apartheid?  The French and the English have both lost three finals.  So the Saffers only choke in cricket it seems!

Well yeah, they missed the first two, so have won exactly half of those they’ve competed in (two third places and two quarter-final exits aside from that).

They are the antithesis of their cricket team… England and France’s final defeats can be partially excused by the likelihood that they were heavy underdogs in most of them anyway. A bit like NZ in cricket finals.

Anyway, four years to drum up some interest/a competitive team in Australia for hosting it. Who won it last time it was held there?

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabies/sayonara-eddie-jones-quits-after-disastrous-second-stint-as-wallabies-coach/news-story/58630b50a8947296650fab34c59150d6

bye Eddie

Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

“Sometimes you have to eat shit for others to eat caviar”

He didn’t have to go into it with a squad of youngsters and has paid the price. Could be right that someone else will benefit.

Aye beams. A bit of the messiah complex maybe. Thought he could pluck a miracle out of thin air.

skully wrote:Aye beams. A bit of the messiah complex maybe. Thought he could pluck a miracle out of thin air.

He claims he was building for ‘27, but you don’t get that sort of margin for error at this level.

We made the best of what we had and gave it one more push with the old guard (alongside a sprinkling of promising youngsters), and did as well as could have reasonably been expected. “You’ll won nothing with kids”, as football pundit Alan Hansen once infamously said (he was actually proved wrong, as said kids he was referring to were Beckham, Scholes, Neville et al…)