The draw was done 3 years ago based on the rankings on 1 January 2020, in comparison the football world cup (which has 12 more teams) was done in April 2022 based on the March 2022 rankings, it's really daft and means 2 of the 4 favourites will be gone by the quarters.
Rugby Union 21/22/23 Discussion | RWC time!
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Wow - I thought it might be 6 months ago. Didn’t even occur to me that it might be several years! That’s just bizarre.
Move on? Feck me. How thin skinned are you? I get that you’re giddy your team won and you want to think it was a classic, so I’m sorry to disappoint you. As I said, the England defence was very impressive. Well done. But nobody watches rugby just because they want to watch a good defence, or a load of penalties being kicked. If one team can’t score any tries - and the other makes no effort to - then it is objectively not a particularly entertaining game to watch.
Having said all that, I did misunderstand your original point. You meant the most entertaining game to watch yesterday, which rules out NZ-France. The only other game I watched yesterday was Ireland Romania which would have been equally uninteresting to neutrals (for very different reasons) so maybe you’re right? Although apparently Italy scored some very nice tries against Namibia? Feck knows. There were no classic games of rugby played yesterday, that’s for sure.
It wasn't a hugely impressive game for either teams, England had a very good excuse while Argentina were incredibly poor in all aspects of the game. The only reason England managed to score points was due to Argentina committing unforced fouls which routinely put England in their territory and the reason England's performance was impressive is that in spite of being gifted territory they almost never actually threatened the goal line.
If you want an example of an impressive game at 14 against 15, you have Australia beating France in 2021, when Koroibete got expelled after 5 minutes.
If you want an example of an impressive game at 14 against 15, you have Australia beating France in 2021, when Koroibete got expelled after 5 minutes.
And the funny thing about it is that 3 years ago anyone that followed Rugby knew that the rankings weren't representative of the upper end of the rankings.
Guys, how impressive do you want us to be with a red card after like 2 minutes 
We’re obviously going to keep it tight and kick the points, we struggle to play running rugby with 15 never mind 14, but you can’t fault the gameplan it’d have been daft to do anything else with the man disadvantage
We’re obviously going to keep it tight and kick the points, we struggle to play running rugby with 15 never mind 14, but you can’t fault the gameplan it’d have been daft to do anything else with the man disadvantage
Bashing England is popular.Guys, how impressive do you want us to be with a red card after like 2 minutes
We’re obviously going to keep it tight and kick the points, we struggle to play running rugby with 15 never mind 14, but you can’t fault the gameplan it’d have been daft to do anything else with the man disadvantage
I know….being honest about it isn’t though
England did well with 14 and beat what was in front of them. Fair play for that.
However, Argentina were a disaster. They were totally headless. The number of unforced errors was ridiculous. Every team should have a plan nowadays for playing against 14 and they had nothing. They didn't even seem to have a plan A.
The height of it and the clear sign they were fecked was them trying a drop goal from halfway in the first half, just because England had done it
It was hilariously ridiculous.
However, Argentina were a disaster. They were totally headless. The number of unforced errors was ridiculous. Every team should have a plan nowadays for playing against 14 and they had nothing. They didn't even seem to have a plan A.
The height of it and the clear sign they were fecked was them trying a drop goal from halfway in the first half, just because England had done it
It was hilariously ridiculous.
What should be the honest response?
Guys, how impressive do you want us to be with a red card after like 2 minutes
We’re obviously going to keep it tight and kick the points, we struggle to play running rugby with 15 never mind 14, but you can’t fault the gameplan it’d have been daft to do anything else with the man disadvantage
It was the right gameplan and well executed. But it was a tough watch. And Argentina played very poorly, which made it relatively easy for you.
I’d say that’s a fair summary?
England did well with 14 and beat what was in front of them. Fair play for that.
However, Argentina were a disaster. They were totally headless. The number of unforced errors was ridiculous. Every team should have a plan nowadays for playing against 14 and they had nothing. They didn't even seem to have a plan A.
The height of it and the clear sign they were fecked was them trying a drop goal from halfway in the first half, just because England had done it
It was hilariously ridiculous.
As if the eyetest wasn't enough the stats of the game are crazy, basically both teams were inefficient in nearly every ways possible. The amounts of kicks for that little gain is quite impressive. The one thing I really liked about England was their 1v1 tackling and defensive line around rucks, that was good, the rest was shoddy. Now I expect England to fix most of their issues because they have very good players that are capable of doing way better.
we could all be cheats and just have 1 club side, making it way easier to manage workloads of players and build cohesion. we just like to do things fairly.
Giddy? I’ve only said it was the most interesting game for the neutrals out of the four played yesterday. At no point have I said it’s a classic or that england put on some super exciting clinic of rugby. What a strange response.
I think if we’d have watched that same game 15 vs 15 you would have a point (although nothing is as boring as an 80 point blowout no matter how many tries are scored). Im not sure why you were expecting a team with as many problems as England have had to go out with 14 men and run the ball against Argentina for 78 minutes in 30 degree heat? Every single team, even the mighty Ireland, would have been taking those three points.
Yeah draw’s made way too early, unfortunately.
England did well with 14 and beat what was in front of them. Fair play for that.
However, Argentina were a disaster. They were totally headless. The number of unforced errors was ridiculous. Every team should have a plan nowadays for playing against 14 and they had nothing. They didn't even seem to have a plan A.
The height of it and the clear sign they were fecked was them trying a drop goal from halfway in the first half, just because England had done it
It was hilariously ridiculous.
Argentina appeared to have wilted under the expectations that a red card gives you. You're immediately made big favourites (unless the disparity between the two teams is huge where even a red card wouldn't close the gap) so all eyes are on you, and they gave a text book example of how not to play with a man advantage. The pressure got to them, and messed with their heads. The amount of mistakes they made were comical.
They should never have lost that game. England did what they had to do, and that's fine. It wasn't pretty (fecking shite actually), but Argentina let them off big time.
Really looking forward to the Scotland South Africa game. Feck it - I'm going to go for a Scotland win.
Wales will lose because they're catastrophically shit.
Wales will lose because they're catastrophically shit.
Most of the ‘neutrals’ are desperate for England to lose. Honestly, if you’d been in the cricket thread during the ashes you’d know what I mean
See I didn’t think it was a bad watch and I suspect that’s what the other poster meant as well.
The great thing about rugby (as opposed in general to football) is that it doesn’t have to be all running rugby and flowing moves to be exciting. You can have a gritty edgy game that’s gripping, even if it’s light on the above.
Just my 10 cents though
Japan vs Chile
@George Owen get your hole out the mma thread for once, Chile are playing
Chile take the lead, their first ever try at a WC 
It was a poor game due to a lack of discipline, the rucks weren't really contested, the kicking was subpar, neither team played with ball in hands and even phases like scrums were pointless due to constant poor bindings by both teams. I can see English fans finding it good because you are emotionally involved but for neutrals it was likely as bad as it gets.
Like England against Argentina in Marseille?
South America has to build better local structures. They have so much potential.
I never thought I'd write or say these words but I was relieved when we beat Georgia. We had won 33% of our tests since the last World Cup so to avoid the banana skin first up was pleasing, while the performance was decent enough. Discipline had been a huge issue through the Dave Rennie years so it was pleasing to see the Wallabies gave up just 7 penalties.
I hope Tom Curry's red gets rescinded but I'm afraid that's highly unlikely. While 6 penalties and 3 drop goals wouldn't be described as entertaining, it did the job for England. I thought Jannie De Beer's World Cup (and maybe world) record of 5 drop goals for a match was under threat by George Ford. The English managed the game very well playing with 14 for as long as they did. Michael Cheika will be spewing at the result and performance of his team which can be best described as shithouse.
I hope Tom Curry's red gets rescinded but I'm afraid that's highly unlikely. While 6 penalties and 3 drop goals wouldn't be described as entertaining, it did the job for England. I thought Jannie De Beer's World Cup (and maybe world) record of 5 drop goals for a match was under threat by George Ford. The English managed the game very well playing with 14 for as long as they did. Michael Cheika will be spewing at the result and performance of his team which can be best described as shithouse.
We're at it again
We’ll replace Curry with Willis and have a backrow of:
Lawes - Earl - Willis
that’s tasty as hell, backrow is the only sub-department of the team where I think we’re legitimately world class.
Australia looking odds on to be facing Argentina….would you rather face them or us?
I don't mind. Both are very much beatable and whoever we play would say the same about us. Our record against England this century isn't very good but I'm quietly confident we can beat you just like in the 2015 World Cup.
I'd agree with this. A very poor game
Tuned in for the second half. Come on, comeback time!
That's a nice backline. I think Earl played very well if I remember right.
Marchand could miss the rest of the tournament, Jelonch and Danty could be back for the next game or the third one, Baille could be back for the last game of the group stage or the QFs. Adding Danty, Jelonch and Baille would be nice.
He did, it was his best game for England IMHO. We’ve been due it though, he’s an absolute menace every week for saracens. We’ll have to tell him we’re a flanker down every game
Didn’t know Jelonch was back so soon, thought he was an ACL? Doesn’t feel like all that long ago he did it
We're getting the South African pre game and according to Frans Steyn, there's no point in this game taking place as apparently the Boks are certainties.
Pride comes before a fall.
Hopefully the actual team don't subscribe to the same view, which I most certainly don't think is the case.
These pundits always like to blow hot air and their input should be taken with a pinch of salt.
He’s probably already quite drunk. Anyway, they’re expected to win but I fancy Scotland to cause them a few problems if they can keep the penalty count down. If Scotland get penalised a lot and give up lots of free territory it’ll make their job impossible
It was in February. It was rumoured that he would be ready during the World Cup but it is indeed surprisingly early.
Scotland vs South Africa feat Referee De Klerk
Faf de Klerk will referee his 50th test in Marseille. Taniela Tupou and Antoine Dupont won their 50th tests against Georgia and New Zealand respectively while Richie Mo'unga's 50th test was a loss against the French.
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