Rugby World Cup

[Number5]

My lad told me The Met office issued Flood Warnings for England this morning....
- due to the Scots, Welsh and Irish all pissing themselves !

There's lots of jokes going around today but 24 hours later its all a bit sad really. ( And I say that as a Welsh fan). Obviously the Tournament will suffer as a result of England going out and the general appetite for the competition will drop off significantly.

I'm naturally relieved that Wales have qualified as a result, but in hindsight I would have preferred the Aussies to have gone home first, keeping both Wales and England in a bit longer, to keeping the carnival going.

I dont know if Stuart Lancaster is to blame. After all, any new coach would probably pick 95% the same group of players. Lancaster may end up being the scape-goat, but at the end of the day, its the 15+ players on the pitch who didnt perform when asked.

England played 3 games. All ironically at home in Twickenham and managed to lose 2 of the. You have to ask how/why these games were all fixtured at Twickenham, when Wembley would have held a fair few thousand more fans all willing to pay 3 figure sums for tickets, - especially for the Wales game, and how fair was that.
(bearing in mind Wales will play Australia at Twickenham next weekend, not in Cardiff )

My only other observations are that
1) George Ford has been playing well at 10 this year all through six nations and Autumn games and led them to a bonus point win v Fiji
2) Why did Owen Farrell then suddenly get announced at 10, two days before the Wales game when he's been out injured most of the season ?
3) When Ford was brought on as Sub at 10, why wasn't Farrell taken off, rather than moved to 12 and staying on the pitch ?
4) Who lost his temper in the six nations, the Wales game and then got carded in the Aussie game with 10 minutes to go when England were only 7pts down.
5) England fell down in both games in the last 10 minutes this week. Just at the point Farrell was moved as an inadequate 12 .

Is Andy Farrell (Daddy) pulling the strings, rather than Lancaster ? In my opinion thats where the weakness lies. He's immature for the big occasions and the red mists descends far too easily. When they announced Farrell was playing in the Wales game, I was rather hoping Gatland would select Mike Phillips as he would have easily wound Farrell up in no time ! ( JMO )

 

[Jasey]

The best two teams are progressing out of Pool A.

I just hope the Welsh injuries don't play too big a part in any future games.

Oh well - time to get behind the rest of the Northern hemisphere sides

Except France of course

 

[Taz]

Obviously the Tournament will suffer as a result of England going out and the general appetite for the competition will drop off significantly

not sure i agree with this, maybe for an English support ye, but for all those remaining the tournament will still be good, personally i'm just changing who i support, its only a game lol

 

[jakblade]

I could always pull the grandparents clause.......could start to support Wales seeing as both my Great Great Grandparents were from Mountain Ash in S.Wales.......which would make me eligible to play for Wales(if I was that good that is).....

Sadly it wouldn't - it's by birth, parents or grand parents. Your lineage is too distant

Oh, and if you're Scottish as you location suggests - wash your mooth oot noo ! :lol:

OK. Point taken.
But you need to brush up on your geography Bing. Lincolnshire is about 4 hrs South of the border.
Unless the Scots have invaded and moved the border this afternoon.

 

[Number5]

Obviously the Tournament will suffer as a result of England going out and the general appetite for the competition will drop off significantly

not sure i agree with this, maybe for an English support ye, but for all those remaining the tournament will still be good, personally i'm just changing who i support, its only a game lol

I think it's the same for most tournaments when the hosts go out. The pubs and bars will suffer mostly, the flags wont be hanging out of the cars, etc It carries on but the mood is somewhat deflated.

..Or did you mean that you disagree with Farrell being a complete T....er :evil:

 

[Bing]

I could always pull the grandparents clause.......could start to support Wales seeing as both my Great Great Grandparents were from Mountain Ash in S.Wales.......which would make me eligible to play for Wales(if I was that good that is).....

Sadly it wouldn't - it's by birth, parents or grand parents. Your lineage is too distant

Oh, and if you're Scottish as you location suggests - wash your mooth oot noo ! :lol:

OK. Point taken.
But you need to brush up on your geography Bing. Lincolnshire is about 4 hrs South of the border.
Unless the Scots have invaded and moved the border this afternoon.

Oops, I was reading the post above mine instead of yours — sorry !

 

[dalecan]

Ireland just scraped through on that win! They will have to severely up their game to beat France. Still, at least we're through.

 

[jimmybell]

Have to say, as an Englishman, i now have no interest in the tourny. I'll watch on TV if it's on, and i'm around - but i'm no longer chasing the game. Saturday night was more entertaining after the match than during it, i managed to get a video of ~20+ guys starting a ruck with a car on the main junction outside Clapham Junction. Pretty hillarious really, with a game of rugby going on around all the cars / big red buses and the police coming in to break up the fun.

Going out so early is a big shame really - it's gona mean lots of pubs/bars/venues get much less traffic.

 

[Bing]

I don't understand the 'I have no interest now' attitude - there is still loads of great rugby on, it needs watched if you're a fan of the game. Of course if you're not and its all about English glory or nothing then fine. I have probably had more experience than most of watching a tourney (and tourney lol) that my team has exited early from :lol:

 

[jimmybell]

when i say 'NO' interest, i mean, i've gone from 90% really following what's going on to probably 10-20%, it's nice to see.. but our dissapointment puts a big downer on it for me.

 

[simonlpearce]

Since my nan is Irish i will simply follow and cheer on my next closest team.

Its a shame the English are out, but you have to put in the performances to stay in the tournament, something which we simply did not do. Went to sleep against the welsh and let that game slip, and were simply outclassed by the Australians.

 

[stuartC]

Ditto, sad that England are out, but by grand parents, I still have Scotland, Ireland and Wales to choose from

 

[dalecan]

Over the years I've found most of my English mates will not support other teams (Ireland, Wales, Scotland) whenever they play. I always support one of our "local" teams whomever they play. It's a shame that as a supporter of rugby you don't want to watch the rest of the tournament just because your team is now out.

 

[Jasey]

Over the years I've found most of my English mates will not support other teams (Ireland, Wales, Scotland) whenever they play. I always support one of our "local" teams whomever they play. It's a shame that as a supporter of rugby you don't want to watch the rest of the tournament just because your team is now out.

It's not difficult to understand why a lot of England fans don't want to support other "local" teams when you see the bile spouted by supporters of other "local" teams whenever England play anyone.

Unlike The Scots, Welsh & Irish the English also don't want to support ANY other teams playing against the home nations.

This leaves them feeling they don't really care who wins !

 

[original guvnor]

As I said in previous threads, I'm not really a rugby fan, so I'm definitely less interested now England are out. It's a big disappointment, but part me of feels a bit smug because English rugby fans who don't follow football (yes it's football not soccer Bing ) have had a right old piss take of England's ups and downs in World Cups/European Championships, but we've never embarassed ourselves as bad as that in a home tournament. Humble pie time for the rugger boys methinks.

It would be nice to see Wales or Scotland do well, so that's where my allegiance will be from now on. Jasey makes a good point above though. Sometimes it's hard to support the other countries because of the anti-Englishness that always surfaces during these tournaments.

 

[Bing]

The use of soccer was deliberate - rugby started as Rugby football, was avoiding a dig, provably from Perry

On my part any banter is just that - I live in the SE of England, coach at an English club and am RFU qualified. My son sounds like he's English and was born in London. I feel for my mates as this is rugby's biggest stage and it's really sad that England are out. I remember being on the edge of my seat in 2003 and leaping off the sofa when Jonny got those 3 was made up for us as a nation. What I don't get is the utter disdain and viscious criticism that many English fans heap on their teams, sometimes even when they've won. I guess decades of losing has caused me to be thankful for whatever we Scots can get :lol:

 

[PerryGunn]

The use of soccer was deliberate - rugby started as Rugby football, was avoiding a dig, provably from Perry

WTF have I done now...

....has caused me to be thankful for whatever we Scots can get :lol:

That's why Cheryl rules the household... 'cos you're thankful for whatever you can get :bonk:

 

[jakblade]

Let's not forget though that there has been some great games during this World Cup and hopefully there will be more. I'm gutted that England are out but I will continue to watch, just as I did on Saturday,watched all 3 games. Been a few surprises too and the "lesser" teams are starting to show their metal and are catching up the more established sides.

 

[original guvnor]

I should've said there's a definite distinction between banter and less pleasant stuff. There's been plenty of the former and none of the latter on here I'm pleased to say! Enjoy the rest of the tournament folks and let's hope Wales or Scotland do us proud.

 

[Jasey]

And Ireland