Pool D - Fiji, Nambia, Samoa, South Africa, Wales

[BoyBrumby]

Only caught the last twenty mins, but looked a good battle. Hard lines Samoa.

 

[_Ed_]

That was an epic defensive battle. Loved it.

 

[Somerset]

Yeh good game to watch. Wales were excellent on defence; had to make a huge number of tackles but kept their line well against a side known for making breaks in defences. Halfpenny certainly made a difference after coming on at halftime for Hook. Makes the challenge far more difficult for the Samoans as to qualify they need to beat South Africa and then hope that things go in their favour with regard to bonus points and/or the Fiji vs Wales match.

 

[Quaggas]

Must say, the Fijian captain is a gracious fellow. PdV seems a bit lost, while Smit is more insightful and show why he's a great captain.

 

[Quaggas]

Will clearly have to support Namibia here, just for the day.

 

[Somerset]

Heading along to the match this evening. Hoping that Namibia are competitive but South Africa seem to have named a pretty strong XV so it could be one of the more one-sided matches of the tournament.

 

[TT Boy]

Only just turned in but the Boks have been apparently pretty poor today. Lots of unforced errors, losing their own line-outs and Bakkies is off injured.

Though as I type this, the Boks have scored four tries in 8 minutes! 27 away from the magical 100 with 9 to go.

 

[Howe_zat]

I sometimes wonder if there's a bigger gulf between the top teams and minnows in rugby than in cricket.

 

[TT Boy]

I sometimes wonder if there's a bigger gulf between the top teams and minnows in rugby than in cricket.

You watch England on the weekend?

 

[Howe_zat]

You watch England on the weekend?

Where they played horrendously badly, yet beat Georgia by 30 points anyway? Kind of helps my point.

 

[TT Boy]

Where they played horrendously badly, yet beat Georgia by 30 points anyway? Kind of helps my point.

Not really. Georgia would have been leading the game with 20 to go if their kicker could kick. Georgia are no Zim or Bangladesh eqiv, they are proper **** with no real domestic structure playing against the best founded rugby side going and they were the better side. England should have put a cricket score on them.

 

[centurymaker]

any team but SA in semis please.



only watched the 2nd half and what i saw made me wish i was there on the field for SA because i'm certain i would've got one too. tries were coming that easily.

 

[Howe_zat]

Not really. Georgia would have been leading the game with 20 to go if their kicker could kick. Georgia are no Zim or Bangladesh eqiv, they are proper **** with no real domestic structure playing against the best founded rugby side going and they were the better side. England should have put a cricket score on them.

Well, yes. The fact that we're able to say England should have utterly hammered them, and only managed to put in a moderate thrashing we're all disappointed with, rather illustrates the gulf in class. I really don't think you're contradicting me here.

 

[Somerset]

Pretty average display from Namibia, they were only really kept in the match by some poor handling from the Boks in the first half and even then SA led 31-0 at halftime. Had no answer when the South Africans clicked in the last 20 minutes. Still a good game to attend, plenty of tries. Very large South African fan base which was not unexpected for a match played on the North Shore.

 

[Hurricane]

In the tipping comp I reckon I should get a gold star I predicted a 80 point win for SA.

But I think I only get 3 bonus points

 

[_Ed_]

Samoa-Fiji took a long time to get going this afternoon - opportunities kept being extinguished by handling errors. But I really enjoyed the last 20 minutes or so.

 

[Somerset]

Yeh the final quarter of the match was good to watch but until that point the match was a bit of a let-down truth be told. Pleased to see Samoa get the victory but I don't hold much hope for them getting close to South Africa next week.

 

[Hurricane]

I didn;t watch the game at all - but from the Wales game I just remember that Samoa has 1 or 2 players who let them down.

Would be great to see an Islands team competing at the RWC.

 

[Goughy]

Samoa-Fiji took a long time to get going this afternoon - opportunities kept being extinguished by handling errors. But I really enjoyed the last 20 minutes or so.

Handling errors seem to be a common theme for the Pacific Island teams this world cup. I dont know why. Do they play touch as children for skills development or do they play tackle from a very young age?

 

[Hurricane]

Handling errors seem to be a common theme for the Pacific Island teams this world cup. I dont know why. Do they play touch as children for skills development or do they play tackle from a very young age?

I know Sevens is more popular.