Official Rugby Thread

[Niall]

ireland peaking when it doesn't matter?

 

[andruid]

ireland peaking when it doesn't matter?

It is their destiny

 

[andruid]

English and South African YouTubers both making big fusses of their favorite moments against one another

 

[Howe_zat]

I'm pretty impressed by England's fairly patchy looking tight 5 holding their own against the world champions, who have a better front row than most sitting on the bench. There was a couple of instances of being muscled off the ball in SA's 22 in the last 10 minutes of the half, but plenty to work with given we're playing a bloke with half a dozen starts for Newcastle.

Steward's finish for the second try was a bit special. On the whole a much better game than the test against Aus last week.

 

[wpdavid]

True, but Judging by the number of penalties that we've already conceded, our pack are already struggling against these guys, and that will probably become even more of an issue in the second half. Entertaining game though.

 

[Howe_zat]

Well we've started the second half getting belted up front so never mind I guess.

Gonna be bloody hard work to hold on to the lead

 

[wpdavid]

And there's another. Handling the ball in the ruck when the ref's screaming 'no' really isn't very smart, is it. I was trying to be sympathetic earlier, but one of the reasons I find England frustrating much of the time is their tendency to concede far more penalties than other teams.

 

[wpdavid]

SA go ahead after being awarded their 18th penalty of the game, and their 10th of the half. About one very four minutes. Maybe SA are so superior that this happens whoever they are playing. Or maybe England are just indescribably ill-disciplined. Ah well.

 

[Howe_zat]

Insane last 10. Huge grit in the face of being battered

 

[wpdavid]

Yes, incredibly brave, and a famous win. As Howe suggests, that's an extremely impressive reply after eventually falling behind.

 

[Howe_zat]

England under Ashton, Johnson and Lancaster (2007-15)
Played 10, won 5 vs Australia
Played 11, won 1 vs New Zealand
Played 11, won 0 vs South Africa, with 1 draw
Combined: Won 6, drawn 1, lost 25

England under Jones (2016-21)
Played 8, won 8 vs Australia
Played 7, won 4 vs South Africa
Played 2, won 1 vs New Zealand
Combined: Won 13, drawn 0, lost 4

 

[Flem274*]

Lynch Foster

 

[Bahnz]

Well that's a surprise. Good to see France becoming a genuine contender again after being a prank side for nearly a decade.

 

[James]

Very disappointing again from the All Blacks and well and truly outplayed by the French. Nice little comeback at the start of the second half, but just so lacking quality.

It was so lucky the Welsh didn't play their best team, otherwise we probably would have gone down to them too.

We're 5th/6th in the world in real rankings. Just heard our worst season since 2009 - hardily surprising.

 

[Howe_zat]

Watching the highlights now and Ntamack running it from behind his own line at 62 minutes, 2 points up and NZ having scored 3 on the bounce, when he could have just touched down for the drop out, is absolutely amazing. One of the lowest percentage successful plays there's ever been in a test match.

 

[Flem274*]

Well that's a surprise. Good to see France becoming a genuine contender again after being a prank side for nearly a decade.

.....it wasn't. The All Blacks have no attacking structure beyond getting turnovers and running it in broken play. Our tries this year relied on individual talent and in todays case, Southland Stags tactics.

Mo'unga had no options today because everyone bums around standing flat. Barrett also has this issue when he plays 10. McKenzie had it for his 10-15 minutes.

France have been playing like pornography for a while and once a fairly ho hum Ireland side showed us how bad we are last week, this was always on.

Foster oversaw a mediocre Chiefs side, a decline in attack as NZ attack coach and now a mediocre All Blacks side. He needs to go, but he won't, because NZRU are stubborn.

Forget Robertson, I would even take an intelligent coach like McMillan right now. Robertson is the gold standard of coaching in NZ but if NZRU are too proud then McMillan was very clever with that Chiefs side this year.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Border reopening just got brought forward a few months.

 

[Burgey]

Sing it with me like John Williamson fellas

“Could it be a dream?
My fathers son, that’s me.
I have a number on my back
A WOEFUL wallaby…”

Few things better than waking up to a loss for the toffs

 

[Burgey]

Few things more emblematic of Australian rugby than, the day after the cricket captain stands down for sending a racy but allegedly consensual text message, the RahRahs are led out by a coked up private school kid for whom everything is forgiven, as it always is for them.

how I despise them. The Ikki of sporting teams.

 

[Heboric]

Yes this format is the T20 of Rugby Union, but this is still funny and odd: