Rugby League World Cup 2013

Liam147

On Probation
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Not a complete cock, just really young.
All set to kick off this weekend against Australia at the Millennium in Cardiff.

We've seen England lose to minnows Italy and now we've got Gareth Hock being kicked out of the squad for not turning up to the training camp (:wenger:).

Despite all this I predict the World Cup to be a massive success for the sport. Loads of celebrities are getting behind it. I believe it's received support from the likes of Wayne Rooney, Gary Lineker, Roy Hodgson, Lord Coe, David Haye, Michael Palin, Phil Taylor, Freddie Flintoff and of course, David Cameron.

Anyway, who's watching?
 
Love rugby league, though my knowledge of the international stage is at an absolute minimum. Infact, it is non existent other than that I knew the World Cup was starting soon. I'll certainly watch as much as I can.

Who are the favourites going in to the World Cup?
 
Australia will win it. New Zealand are the closest to England and hopefully England can give them a game when they most likely play in the semi final.

It's like:
Australia
New Zealand

England


Fiji (I think


The rest

What I will say though is Italy were seen as one of the whipping boys of the competition and they've just beaten England (and deservedly so). They played well and if they play like that all the way through they could get our of their group.
 
It needs to be a good tournament to be honest, It has had a bad history of being poorly ran and very disorganised and for the sports sake it needs t'be good'un.
 
Liam147 said:
Australia will win it. New Zealand are the closest to England and hopefully England can give them a game when they most likely play in the semi final.

It's like:
Australia
New Zealand

England


Fiji (I think


The rest

What I will say though is Italy were seen as one of the whipping boys of the competition and they've just beaten England (and deservedly so). They played well and if they play like that all the way through they could get our of their group.
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Do Ireland have a team?
 
Liam147 said:
Yeah, as do Wales and Scotland; both some way down the pecking order.
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Ah good I'll have a look. I don't think we have many rugby league clubs here. I used to like watching Martin Ophiah for Wigan and Robinson when he played. Farrell was a decent player too.
 
CallyRed said:
It needs to be a good tournament to be honest, It has had a bad history of being poorly ran and very disorganised and for the sports sake it needs t'be good'un.
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I was just reading the fixtures for this World Cup on the official site, and it seems primarily hosted in the UK, except for two group games in the south of France. It sounds a bit disorganised already.

What's that all about?
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
I was just reading the fixtures for this World Cup on the official site, and it seems primarily hosted in the UK, except for two group games in the south of France. It sounds a bit disorganised already.

What's that all about?
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Believe me when I say it's anything but. The last one in England was all over the shop and no one went. They've learned from that and this one is almost exclusively in the heartland of RL, with Bristol, Workington, Wrexham, Limerick and Perpignan getting games for their home side (Workington and Bristol aside). England vs Ireland in Huddersfield sold out last Friday. There'll be around 50k in Cardiff if not more, at least 50k for the semi finals at Wembley and it should be full for the final at OT.
 
Sure you all missed the game yesterday with that football malarkey going on, so here's a bit of a catch up.

Aussies started poorly, lot of mistakes, and England went 10-0 up. Then after about 25 minutes Australia came back into it and looked like running away with it, but two tries from Charnley and Burgess brought a lot of respectability to the scoreline. 28-20 in the end was a very fair result. Good performance from England, encouraging signs for the rest of the tournament.
 
Fiji 14 Ireland 4 58mins gone. Looks like Ireland are out. We aint going to beat Aus or England.
 
Proud_Lyon said:
Great win for the Kiwis last night, thrashing France 48-0, and more importantly, the English lads thrashing the Irish by 42-0, well played lads and keep up the good work.
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Two poor games though in truth. The problem with the 2000 World Cup was these sorts of thrashings. Not sure what happened with France. Not sure New Zealand are 48 points better than them, but the French looked knackered by the end. Irish poor today too. Hopefully England will play France in the quarters before New Zealand in the semis. Lined up to be crackers. Can't say I'm looking forward to the Aussies running 80 past USA though.
 
Nearly a fortnight since this thread was active, which says a bit about the predictability of the competition. New Zealand v England for the right to play the Aussies in the final was about as nailed on as you could envisage in sport, which is a shame because there have been some good moments and great tries.
 
Northstand said:
Nearly a fortnight since this thread was active, which says a bit about the predictability of the competition. New Zealand v England for the right to play the Aussies in the final was about as nailed on as you could envisage in sport, which is a shame because there have been some good moments and great tries.
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Not so. In regards to the big three it's been predictable; the gulf in class is massive, but the likes of Scotland, Italy and the USA have been fantastic.

In any case, when England go out this weekend it'll set up one hell of a match at OT next Saturday.
 
Northstand said:
Nearly a fortnight since this thread was active, which says a bit about the predictability of the competition. New Zealand v England for the right to play the Aussies in the final was about as nailed on as you could envisage in sport, which is a shame because there have been some good moments and great tries.
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The tournament started with England v Aus, albeit we knew the winner, but from them on it went on pause until now, this is when the real stuff begins, there was some decent stuff amongst the 'minnows', but we all knew this Eng v NZ game was coming

And agree, NZ will win, England will push them hard but quality tells
 
Keenst said:
Jesus. Up there with the best tries I've seen from New Zealand there.
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Yeah holy feck, I don't watch rugby and I literally just woke up with it on the tv. I was thinking to myself "I really wish I could see something special" and within 30 seconds that happens.

I'm not a follower of rugby, but when you see moments of magic like that it's hard not to enjoy the sport.
 
What a sickener! Awesome game decided at the very death. Through gritted teeth I hope the Kiwis win the final.
 
One of the best games of rugby you'll ever see. Absolute heartbreak for England. Great advertisement for the sport. The players were absolutely shell shocked. Handled themselves really well afterwards though, can be extremely proud of that.

Anyone who didn't watch it, I implore you to catch the highlights.
 
Not really a Rugby guy League nor Union, however I watched this and it was terrific. Sport played at a very high intensity and great skill level. Felt England wanted it more but New Zealand simply had more game changers and it showed.
 
I've never really watched much League but wow that second half yesterday!
 
Carbon copy win against us in Dublin today in Union. Sickened, but what a team New Zealand are.
 
Keenst said:
Carbon copy win against us in Dublin today in Union. Sickened, but what a team New Zealand are.
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Now can you imagine that it was to play in a World Cup final on home soil, in a game which could revolutionise the sport?

That's not to devalue what happened to the Irish today, but to put some scale onto what happened to England.
 
Glad that after we got our pitch sorted this lot are being given a chance to turn it in to a ploughed field again.
 
Australia mauling NZ in the final right now. Was hoping that the final would be closer than this, but I'm not complaining
 
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