The Game They Play In Heaven! It's that time again.... (PIC)

[bill bolton]

Yes, it's Rugby World Cup time!



Who will win?

USA is in Pool A with England South Africa Samoa and Tonga

Canada is in Pool B with Australia Wales Japan and Fiji

New Zealand is in Pool C with Scotland Italy Romania and Portugal

France is in Pool D with Ireland Argentina Georgia and Namibia

Read all about it and follow the action at http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/index.html

As for me....

C'mon Aussie, C'mon!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[The Spirit of X21]

I'm afraid that I don't know much about Rugby at all...except that it is a very painful sport...

I call it Football for Real Men!

Uh, American Football, that is.....

[RealBlackStuff]

I call it Football for Real Men! Smile

Uh, American Football, that is.....

If those were real men, why do they need all that padding?
Rugby players don't need all that sissy-stuff...

[bill bolton]

Argentina defeats France in the first match of the World Cup.... this raises the possibility that France could face New Zealand in the Quarter Finals, which is something they would definitely not want!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Australia 91, defeats Japan 3
England 28, defeats USA 10
New Zealand 76, defeats Italy 10

To play today....

Wales vs Canada
South Africa vs Somoa
Scotland vs Portugal
Ireland vs Namibia

The first top tier face-off is in Pool B, when Australia meets Wales next Saturday at Cardiff Millenium Stadium!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[skitty4gzus]

while rugby is definitely a hardcore sport, there is no way you can say american style football is for sissy's. that is obviously the view from someone who has never played. ive played football many times, never with pads either, and i welcome anyone who thinks its for sissies to come play with us. i guarantee you'll change your mind pretty quick.

[gator]

I second the above post.

I played american football for fun a few times after I came to UF, and I was aching all over for atleast a week after every game. Obviously, I gave up soon Now I just watch the game on TV ... one thing though, it takes a while to appreciate the game. When I started watching it a couple of years back, NOTHING made sense. All I could see was guys running about and crashing into each other like crazy. After my (american) friends exlained the nuances of the game, I developed an interest ... all for the good, since Gators won the championship last year

[GomJabbar]

When I started watching it a couple of years back, NOTHING made sense. All I could see was guys running about and crashing into each other like crazy.

Perhaps you will appreciate Andy Griffith's take on the game (MP3) - WHAT IT WAS, WAS FOOTBALL!

[The Spirit of X21]

I call it Football for Real Men! Smile

Uh, American Football, that is.....

If those were real men, why do they need all that padding?
Rugby players don't need all that sissy-stuff...

Right. That's why I said rugby was for "real men" which, by the way, was a joke (poorly created it seems) for those who couldn't tell....

[bill bolton]

A modern Rugby Union player will have a fair amount of padding/protection, though nowhere near as much as an American Football player.

Rugby Union is often called "the running game" for reason.... once you go on the field there are relatively few interruptions to play until the end of 40 minutes playing time (one half of a Rugby game).

It's pretty much continuous play and the quality of the game is often judged by how little interruption there is to play. Rugby Union fans talk in term of "phases" of play and a good game will have a lot of multi-phase play were a ball is kept continuously moving for several minutes before points are scored, or it is lost to the other side, or a set piece play is needed to determine possession.

So playing Rugby Union, particularly at the top levels of each competition, is pretty much continuous effort, with only short pauses when a scrum or line-out is set, after a try has been scored, while a penalty kick is taken or during a brief time-out for genuine injury.

Play tactics, and to some extent strategy, also has to be worked out on the fly and there are a very limited number of replacements that can be made, so its basically a matter of being fit enough to run around the field for a 40 minute stretch, take some hard knocks and tackle, tackle, tackle and still adapt team playing on the fly according to the bounce of the ball and the way the particular game encounter is playing out.

Rugby League is a different game with lots of stops and starts, that is played in a much smaller number of countries, and which is not spoken of in polite Rugby company.... though Manly-Warringah have made the Australian Rugby League finals this year so I'm clandestinely watching those matches!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[RealBlackStuff]

Perhaps I am biased.
I follow the 6 Nations Rugby (Ireland, UK, France, Italy, Scotland, Wales).
These boys have only gum shields, and very few wear some light head-protection.
Admittedly, it's only a European affair, but when these guys start 'battling', very few go home without a bruising of some kind. You really need to be tough to play at this level.
http://www.irishrugby.ie/226_121.php
http://www.rbs6nations.com/splash.htm

[andyP]

If anyone is interested in learning a little more about Rugby Union, the BBC have a pretty good site explaing some of the rules and equipment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_u ... efault.stm

And to show just how popular the sport is:

Quote irb.com

With a world wide television audience in excess of 3 billion four years ago, RWC has become established as the third most important sporting event behind the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.

http://www.irb.com/aboutirb/organisation/index.html

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Perhaps I am biased.

me too!

Thankfully there is a German broadcaster who is showing a lot of the games from the world cup, I have been and will be watching as many as possible.
Being a true Scot I love watching Rugby, probably because we were never very successful at football [soccer] and need a sport at which we have a better than even chance of beating the English.
IMHO we had a good warm-up game against Portugal at the weekend, the next fixture on 09/18 against Romania will get the team a little warmer for the drubbing the “All Blacks” are gonna get on the 23rd, after that on the 29th a nice warm-down game against the Italians before the next round.

[bill bolton]

Ooops!

England vs South Africa on September 14 is actually the first top tier face-off in this World Cup.

England (the reigning world champions) needs to lift its play significantly for this match as their performance to date hasn't been that inspirining.

Argentina is leading Pool D and wont face a hard game until the second last match of the initial round on September 30th! The pressure will be on France for the upcoming match with Ireland on September 21.

Otherwise the individual match results are playing out pretty much as expected so far.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[eddy eddy]

It never got my attention until I watched the All Blacks performing the Haka before a match. Then I thought "this must be worth taking a look"

It's a shame we don't get much coverage in Brazil. Sports channels just show 24 hours soccer...

[bill bolton]

England vs South Africa on September 14 is actually the first top tier face-off in this World Cup.

It's half time in the game and South Africa is dominating with 20 points, to England's 0. South Africa has scored two tries and only very closely missed crossing the line for a third time.

Half time territory stats are 57% for South Africa vs 43% for England.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Full time score was South Africa 36 to England 0. This first game so far in the World Cup to have a 0 score

This performance of the current World Champions can only be described as lackluster while the Springboks played a very co-ordinated and polished game. England çame out of the game with a couple of key players injured, and based on todays performance, may be at risk of losing their next game against Somoa.

Interesting times indeed!

For a bit of fun have a look at..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFOExU5pIyo

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Soccer vs Rugby...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DICdXTPY ... ed&search=

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

It never got my attention until I watched the All Blacks performing the Haka before a match. Then I thought "this must be worth taking a look"

The Haka..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N568Ry_s ... ed&search=

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Australia vs Wales... kick off in 5 minutes.

Can you hear the thunder?

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Australia 25 - Wales 3 at half time!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

Full time - Australia 32, Wales 20.

Go, you good thing!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

The pool rounds have ended and the countries going through to the quarter finals are:

Pool A

South Africa - 19 points
England - 14 points

Pool B

Australia - 20 points
Fiji - 15 points

Pool C

New Zealand - 20 points
Scotland - 14 points

Pool D

Argentina - 18 points
France - 15 points

The quarter final matchups are:

Australia v England at Marseille on October 6th

New Zealand v France at Cardiff on October 6th

South Africa v Fiji at Marseille on October 7th

Argentina v Scotland at Saint-Denis on October 7th

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Superego]

Bill,

What kind of World Cup TV coverage do you Aussies have? I assume it's pretty extensive...unlike in America. I can only get a few games that are taped and then replayed on the Versus Network here in the States. I just got back from playing in a match this weekend and it got me pumped to watch the America v. S. Africa game but, dangit, I have to try and duck out of work to catch the game at 4 in the afternoon! Not that I'm expecting much from the Eagles (especially after seeing your last post) but guy can hope!

[bill bolton]

Bill,

What kind of World Cup TV coverage do you Aussies have?

The coverage has been good, with live coverage of most games being available on free-to-air broadcast TV. The downside is that a +9 to +10 hour time zone difference means that the live coverage comes in during the wee hours of the morning!

For most of the important games (from Australia's point of view) , there has also been a delayed replay at a more sane hour of the day.

Cheers,

Bill B. (who being a true Rugby tragic, has watched a lot of live coverage!)

[Diehard]

In my home country, we have a sort of sport which is very much the same with Rugby and American Football.
Pictures of it:




Crouch, touch, and engage!!!

[bill bolton]

Well, thing just got very interesting after last night's sunnden death quarter final matches. In both cases the a pool runner-up defeated a pool winner!

England 12 defeated Australia 10 (but England did not score any trys)

France 20 defeated New Zealand 18

What will happen with the last two quarter final matches tonight?

Cheers,

Bill

[bill bolton]

The World Cup final next weekend will be between South Africa and England.

Given the small number of tries that England has managed to run in over their dour progress through the world cup to date, South Africa will be going in as favourites.

Cheers,

Bill B.