Namibia were better than this Argentina team. At least they tackled really well.
Rugby Union 21/22/23 Discussion | RWC time!
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England's defensive line has been really good.
Have Argentina ever been favourites against us before in a competitive game?
Yeah, it's amazing how much better Maguire looks when he's playing for his country.
England have been superb to a man. With 14 for 77 minutes!
England win
Haha
Haha
England will probably destroy any momentum by bringing Farrell back in the 3rd game.
Well that’s it boys. That’s for turning up, enjoy the croissants. We’re fecking winning it now
I love world cups, doesnt matter the sport, we get to see all these players we dont usually see and we get to cheer for the underdog a bit more
Shhhh, it’s just Argentina being rubbish
I'm probably gonna guess he'll be nullified more against Japan before Smith steals the show and wins it in the second half... which correct, leads to Farrell of course returning in the third game
Shhhh, it’s just Argentina being rubbish
Those begging for the Farrell ban.. thank you!
ha ha
The handling in this World Cup has been diabolical. Might as well be pissing rain. All the sweat seems to have turned the ball into a bar of soap anyway. Hope to feck it cools down over the next few weeks so we can see some running rugby. These first few games have been ugly as feck. It’s been nothing but foot tennis and handling errors. Grim stuff altogether.
Not sure, but I imagine most people thought they were tonight.
Argentina ranked 6th in world (believe it or not after that performance), England 8th. Therefore given englands previous form, Argentina were the faves.
They were -1 evens with the bookies, so very narrow favourites
Yep exactly
England defended so well. The tackling was absolutely ruthlessly efficient and the kicking was completely on point. Yeah Argentina were awful (don't think they like being the favourite in big games) but winning like that with 14 against a supposedly tier 1 side is class.
You’re not that bad!
Can’t believe how bad the Argies were
Added one
Is it coming home?
But where is Scotland? Do they even have a ranking?
Class effort by England. Was worried there was a possibility that they could go out in the group stages but at least that has been avoided
Yup very disappointing. England were good though and George Ford in particular controlled it brilliantly. Just a shame he’ll probably have to make way for Farrell when he returns.
Even though they're in South Africa and Ireland's group they could do very well as in the dark horse/outsider.
I think the break up of super rugby has severely hurt southern hemisphere rugby. You’ve also got a lot more southern hemisphere players playing northern hemisphere club rugby, which has further hurt the cohesion whilst simultaneously improving northern hemisphere talent.
lastly the World Cup is in the northern hemisphere which should theoretically be an advantage for the northern hemisphere teams, although this is slightly negated by the above points.
Overall, I think the teams are a lot closer to each other now. It does sometimes move in cycles, but we’ll see if the break up or super rugby has long lasting impacts on NZ.
Yeah can’t take the performance away from England. They were fantastic with 14 men.
So, assuming Aus win their group, winner of Wales Fiji tonight is most likely to get England in the knockout?
Yep, especially when they essentially played against 14 men the entire match! Credit to England though.
It was a crappy match to watch for the neutrals though. England defended superbly and kicked well but never looked like scoring a try. Or even wanting to run with the ball. Argentina didn’t look capable of scoring a try despite desperately wanting to. And having a man advantage. The most notable feature of the WC so far is all the handling errors. It’s made for a poor spectacle.
Yeah, so much hype & promise with this Argentinian side and they sort of crumbled/disappointed on opening day. Hopefully quality wise, things get better as teams get through more minutes in the World Cup. The sin bins/cards are also impacting matches quite a bit, so teams will have to be extremely tight on discipline during this WC.
It was by far the most exciting match to watch for actual neutrals yesterday. Just admit you’re not neutral when England are playing.
Don’t be silly. France - NZ was a far more exciting game. Higher quality too. With actual tries being scored. You know, the sort of thing neutrals tune into games hoping to see.
I said yesterday.
France v New Zealand is probably the best game of the group stages, so no surprises the quality was better. If that’s your bar then you’re in for a disappointing group stage.
What England did yesterday was hugely impressive with 14 men. You could argue that building the scoreboard pressure with drop goals led to Argentina shitting their pants. Maybe England could have tried to score more tries but if they don’t build that lead at half time, the game could have quickly slipped away. Again, just admit you’re not neutral and move on.
These groups aren’t very well balanced on world rankings are they? Taking the top 3 rankings in each:
A: 3, 4, 13
B: 1, 2, 5
C: 7, 9, 10
D: 6, 8, 12
Do they just do the draw really early and things have changed a lot since?
A: 3, 4, 13
B: 1, 2, 5
C: 7, 9, 10
D: 6, 8, 12
Do they just do the draw really early and things have changed a lot since?
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