It's that time of year again. Scotland are playing the All Blacks as I type. Seventeen points against the All Blacks is a good score these days, by any measure. Sadly they've scored thirty four. And it's only half-time!
Indeed and He is at the game. I haven't been watching, but did watch a bit of the Irish RSA game yesterday and they were miles ahead at half time and then were shot down in flames in the second half. I better put the tv on and watch that, in case he asks questions when he comes back.
I don't feel like contributing to this thread, for some reason. Can't imagine why! Woefully dismal Welsh performance against Argentina - poor selections, poor tactics, completely devoid of imagination or attack. Dreadful. I guess the unfortunate result of giving the ordan grinder a year off, and leaving the team in the hands of one of the monkeys! Scotland did well, though, despite the score - NZ are pretty unstoppable at the moment when they get going, but Scotland had some great periods in the game too.
I only saw a bit of it while I was running on the treadmill and it was on the treadmill tv, but couldn't hear it. Did they lose then? I told my husband that, but it was wasted on him. He was at that game and said they were rubbish. I said they did really well. Thing is, you know what Scotland's like in all sports they play up to the good teams and down to the bad teams, there's no consistency.
Yup. 12-26. Wales didn't look remotely like scoring a try at all all game. Argentina pretty much controlled the game with ease, and scored 2 tries in the process. Appauling performance.
I was at the Scotland v AB game with friends, great fun! Scotland playing positively, kicking for corner and not the uprights. Wales - *face palm*. Sorry lads but I think your world ranking reflects the team and have done for a long while. Lots a top drawer players but recent history shows an inability to beat the top 5 teams. France - I just love it when the Aussies go down in such fashion *thank you*. Once again the Aussies failed to bring a scum to a game of rugby. I wished France played at that standard consistently. England, still building, the real test is this Sat! As a side note, did anyone notice this: http://prem0.hiboox.com/images/4612/diapo2659339a8fc8397ccbd2a2deb2bf7f21.gif Looks like the AB is trying to break the Scotish forwards arm, it's absolutely filthy, he should be banned for a long time for that.
My throat is hoarse shouting directions at them but still they keep giving it away. They'd be winning by now if they only listened FFS. Whatever happened in Wales Samoa btw...
I bloody know. That's why they lost. They did play well though. Be interesting to see what they do against a normal team, as opposed to the super teams. I see that Cenydd keeping a low profile again. No wonder. Better days must be coming C.
Rugby is a cool game I first witness in Australia. However it is not an international game unless the USA likes it too. Although the USA has a world team, the game is not popular in the USA. Not because Americans are stupid, which they are, but Americans do not show any interest in the game and are not exposed to it. For the game of rugby to be popular in the USA it nees to be televised during the football offseason, basketball offseason and MLB offseason. And even NASCAR offseason. And for that to happen one of those sports need to be off the ESPN cable networks. And that is not going to happen untill someone pays a jewish media mogule a whole lot of money.
Nobody cares about US, Clint. And nobody cares about the almighty dollar. All that seems to do is corrupt the ethics of the game. Rugby here, at least, would rather play in front of an empty stadium than have the hoi polloi involved. There's a whole world of international sport US misses because of it's strange isolationist sporting politics of playing its own bastardized games. Why don't you get with the program and learn to play cricket, soccer, rugby etc instead of your exclusionist internationally limited versions? Fraid you can't win? (we're not, as you can see from the thread) Or just taking that independence thing to silly levels like rebellious teenagers with nothing to rebel against? Oh wait, you have a decent football team these days (soccer, but football to everyone but US), both male and female. Maybe you have a cricket and rugby team I haven't noticed yet.
To be fair, I can't think of a truly international team sport that is popular among the people of the USA at all! 'Soccer' is the most genuinely 'international' team sport there is, but the USA doesn't even like that one very much! The IRB world rankings include 96 countries - that's reasonable 'international', but obviously nothing compared with the 207 included in the FIFA rankings. The USA is currently 17th in the IRB rankings, by the way, and 27th in the FIFA rankings.
I certainly hope so - the last couple of weeks have been a disgrace - poor performances, no invention, no imagination and absolutely no spirit or hwyl to the team. Dreadful. That's what happens when you lend your coach to the Lions and leave the waterboy in charge. Why anybody thought Howley was up to being acting head coach is beyond me - he was a useless captain in his day precisely because he has a complete inability to motivate the players, so he's exactly the wrong man for the job. The same kind of thing happened with Graham Henry, of course, and personally I'd rather see an end to the Lions alogether. I don't see what purpose they serve, or what relevance they have - it's just a distraction from developing the international rugby squads, and a hugely pointless one. Other than that, Scotland did well, and there's plenty to be positive about with that performance even if they didn't win and they aren't quite there yet. Ireland's demolition of Fiji was a good run out to blood some youngsters, although I thought that man of the match was Leighton Hodges, the ref - I though he did a superb job of communicating what he expected clearly and keeping consistent and in control even when players were starting to get wound up and frustrated. If only I'd had the option on my TV to shut Eddie Butler up and have the ref mic instead! Still, a rugby weekend can never said to be completely all bad when England have lost!
They probably improve from the experience gained with the Lions, come on now. England...heh heh heh [video=youtube;NHOf3s70w-c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHOf3s70w-c[/video]
I don't see much evidence that the players come back from the Lions any better than when they left, and in the meantime they seem to lose track of what they are doing in their important job with their own national team. Alot of players seem to come back from the Lions and suffer an immediate dip in form. I just don't see that it's particularly necessary or helpful on any level, and I particularly don't think they should keep trying to take current national team coaches away from their jobs (or that the national unions should let them go off an do it). It harms national sides to lose coaches in that way, and I'm not convinced that it doesn't have similar effect with at least some of the players. The team itself really has no relevance or importance to anything anyway, so why bother with it it all?
It was Wale's shaming by the Samoans which got me though England's loss... FFS at least we lose to teams ranked higher than us . Beaten in every single aspect of the game by the Aussies - even the scrum FFS! Next week SA, then the AB's. I read that Warburten said he still thinks Wales could beat the AB's this WE... Seriously dude, perhaps the mind altering drugs which would give you this thought patter are also impacting the team on the pitch! I do not look fwd to this coming WE... I already have to wear a Saffer shirt to the pub from my bet from the Summer tour and it looks like I'm be wearing a Saffer jersey to the follow up game...
Well most Lions players openly say it's the highest honour they have - it's rated above paying for their national team.
1(1) NEW ZEALAND 92.91 2(3) SOUTH AFRICA 85.50 3(2) AUSTRALIA 84.82 4(5) FRANCE 84.58 5(4) ENGLAND 83.09 6(6) WALES 80.60 7( ARGENTINA 80.29 8(7) IRELAND 79.04 9(9) SCOTLAND 77.97 10(10) SAMOA 77.14 We'll dry our eyes Viv... you can have the tissue box from us if you like
Ah if I knew what that table related to I might care, but it's unlikely. Scottish people don't have delusions of grandeur, when we're beat we're beat. UNLIKE OTHERS>>>>>>>>> Cenydd, if we're up against countries ten times our size with ten times the pool, the Lions hopefully levels the playing field a bit and is giving our players the chance to acquire more skills by interacting and of course that old chestnut of sport crossing all national boundaries and making the world a better place. I mean when else would our players get the magnificent opportunity to play with Englishmen? Perhaps you could ask them to send the England coach next time though, to shut Leffe up.
Errr Viv, that would be the IRB world rankings. If you are in the top 4 you avoid other top 4 teams in the next WC, if you are 5-8, you are in a group with a top 4 team. If (as is currently the case with Scotland), you are 10th (they get updated on a Monday), you'll be in a group with two, count them two, top tier teams. Meaning you'll be very very lucky to get out of the group stages. Now, I'm part Scottish on my mothers side, I went to the Scot vs AB game last WE to cheer on the Scots, but idiotic "we hate you because of some BS 100's of years ago" mentality, which you seem to have, simply makes me ashamed of that Scottish part of me. It's childish and petty and somehow sums up the Scots as a nation; never proud of their achivements (of which there are many), but take some heart out of England losing. Like I said, sad and pathetic and IMHO holds back your nation. Anyway, now you know what the IRB world ranking table looks like (and you bloody well should if you get into a discussion about rugby), I'll repost it, so you can see where Scotland lie: 1(1) NEW ZEALAND 92.91 2(2) SOUTH AFRICA 86.05 3(3) AUSTRALIA 85.94 4(4) FRANCE 84.99 5(5) ENGLAND 81.96 6(7) ARGENTINA 79.89 7( IRELAND 79.04 8(6) WALES 78.95 9(10) SAMOA 78.79 10(9) SCOTLAND 77.42 You play Tonga next week and I believe this is Scotlands last chance to swap places with Ireland as the WC places are determined after these AI's. You are at home so will take less points out of a win, you also take less points from beating a team lower ranked than you. It would therefore seem that in the next WC you will be facing a daunting task to get out of the groups. Incidentally, from a pool of player size, I agree. For England it is shameful, although Ireland, Wales, Argentina and now Samoa seem to have a more positive out look, with a similar sized pool. Perhaps they focus more on their own team winning, than England losing. I dunno, but that would seem a more sensible outlook to me. Have a nice day.
Bla bla... Which part? Let me guess... Who said we hate you? We enjoy a laugh at your expense. You'd be better knowing what I think than guessing and surmising from an over defensive standpoint though, wouldn't you. UK (not England, as we all know England has possibly less real political power than other UK countries these days) holds back my nation and others, but hopefully not much longer. However, that is completely out of place in a thread about rugby, so I will just reiterate it is was a good weekend when England were tanked as we don't have to switch off the sporting news. Nothing you can say will detract from that. It might increase it though.. I don't believe you are dictating the discussion, so many thanks but I care as much for that opinion as for your second rate rugby team. Hahhhh... So what? Do you know it's a game? Entertainment? Honestly, 3 below England last table and 4 below this time. Do you really think that makes England a different class from these other teams? It doesn't, btw. It seems typical domineering English (or perhaps schoolboy is more accurate) style however, to have omitted the other bazillion teams in the rankings in a sad attempt to portray Scotland as a rubbish team. They are rebuilding and somewhat rubbish compared to how they have played at times, but are in the top 10 in a fair size of a ranking table, so if I cared I would be very happy with the current rank. And having seen France's and even England's recent display, have to wonder how rankings are even relevant or indicative. France is above England in the rankings. Just wanted to point that out...hehehe...
Thgis pretty much summarises your post. You came to a thread on International Rugby, didn't even know the IRB rankling table, spouted BS, asked for help from someone else and now seem to try to back off. Please, take your nonsense elsewhere Viv, this is not football, it's rugby. We do not act like this, sorry, like you.
