Knockout Stages

[BlackCap_Fan]

Gutted about the ABs. Pity that the ref was more concerned with penalising NZ than watching France, giving France a free pass on anything they like. Forward pass? Sure! Hands in the ruck? Go nuts! Offside at the breakdown? No problem!

Not to mention the France player running straight into McAlister with his back turned and the ref thinking McAlister had eyes at the back of his head.

What a travesty. Some of the worst refereeing I've seen in any rugby game, ever.


So now I'm rooting for either Argentina or England. It would be awesome for Argentina to win, but SA will be tough. Exceedingly tough.

 

[Johnners]

Gutted about the ABs. Pity that the ref was more concerned with penalising NZ than watching France, giving France a free pass on anything they like. Forward pass? Sure! Hands in the ruck? Go nuts! Offside at the breakdown? No problem!

Not to mention the France player running straight into McAlister with his back turned and the ref thinking McAlister had eyes at the back of his head.

What a travesty. Some of the worst refereeing I've seen in any rugby game, ever.


So now I'm rooting for either Argentina or England. It would be awesome for Argentina to win, but SA will be tough. Exceedingly tough.

Pity NZ only had 70% possession and could only turn it into 18 points as well...

 

[ohtani's jacket]

It's not that easy to score when the defence is offside and the ref won't blow a penalty.

 

[Johnners]

Oh boo hoo, they had 70% possession. They should've put 30+ points past the French with that amount of possession, and that amount of talent in the team, offside or no offside.

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's not that easy to score when the defence is offside and the ref won't blow a penalty.

I saw the game in a pub on a fairly small telly and with the benefit of a few ales inside me, so would need to see if again to see if Barnes's reffing of the breakdowns was as one-eyed as some kiwis are alleging, but NZ did have quite a few chances for a drop-goal after France had gone ahead which they spurned until McAlister tried to wobble one over from about 50 yards. Which is just bad game-management for me.

Having both your 5/8ths crocked obviously didn't help on the decision making front, but Barnes can't be blamed for that!

 

[Piper]

Whether the ref's decisions were one sided or not, there's nothing anyone can do about it. Whether we had the decisions fairly I'm not sure we would have won to be honest. France were playing better than we were. We have another 4 years to improve and lets just hope we don't peak between world cups again..

 

[Johnners]

I thought you were English...?

 

[Somerset]

I thought you were English...?

I thought you were Australian. (looking at avatar)

 

[Somerset]

Gutted about the ABs. Pity that the ref was more concerned with penalising NZ than watching France, giving France a free pass on anything they like. Forward pass? Sure! Hands in the ruck? Go nuts! Offside at the breakdown? No problem!

Not to mention the France player running straight into McAlister with his back turned and the ref thinking McAlister had eyes at the back of his head.

What a travesty. Some of the worst refereeing I've seen in any rugby game, ever.


So now I'm rooting for either Argentina or England. It would be awesome for Argentina to win, but SA will be tough. Exceedingly tough.

To be honest, I don't know how any referre would have been able to call the forward pass given Barnes' position behind the play, his angle was way obscurred and really, the touch judge is more to blame for that - but he too was slightly behind the play though and I doubt would've been able to call the forward pass with absolute certainty from his angle. Also remember that France still had 45 metres to run to the line when the pass was made.

The real matter is that Barnes is not to blame for the defeat. McAlister was sinbinned harshly, admittedly, but the collapsed maul two seconds earlier, in my opinion, contributed to the yellow card. He made what he believed was a fair punishment for what he deemed to be foul play.

They lost because they failed to convert possession and opportunites into points. And they lost because France played well. New Zealand were not unbeatable but the least beatable side and the same will apply in 2011. They will be unlikely to lose but there is always a possibility with a fired-up opposition such as the French. Not enough credit has gone to the French. 180+ tackles and less than 30% of the ball is enough to suggest that their defence and the All Blacks inability to convert pressure into points was the winning and losing of the game.

 

[biased indian]

Whether the ref's decisions were one sided or not, there's nothing anyone can do about it. Whether we had the decisions fairly I'm not sure we would have won to be honest. France were playing better than we were. We have another 4 years to improve and lets just hope we don't peak between world cups again..

piper's we in cricket means england

piper's we in rugby means All blacks

 

[PY]

Howlett gets himself arrested..oops.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Oh boo hoo, they had 70% possession. They should've put 30+ points past the French with that amount of possession, and that amount of talent in the team, offside or no offside.

How? You don't get points for driving off a pick and go. This match has been talked about to death, but it's not easy to break the line when they're offside & the French have guys killing the ball in each ruck. The All Blacks usually score off turnover ball. Barnes was all over us at the breakdown, so they tried to build it up patiently. We should've had more shots at goal for our efforts, but somehow France managed to defend the entire second half without conceeding a penalty. If the ref had reffed a normal game, NZ probably would've won by 30 points. What really let us down was our defence. We missed tackles and our cover defence against France's tries was ****.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Thousands of jokes doing the rounds, but these three made me laugh (even if I think the second one is at least 4 years old):

An Australian DIY chain has bought out a new furniture range called "The Wallabies" - it comes in a flattened pack.....

Condom sales in Australia have hit an all time low. As England's rugby team showed on Saturday, you only need one Jonny to **** 15 Australians.

Richie McCaw was walking dejectedly past the changing room doors after the French game when he came across a mobile phone. After picking it up and taking a brief look at it he knocked on the Wayne Barnes's door.

"Here you go mate, I found your phone."

"Cheers," says Wayne. "But how did you know it was mine?"

"Look for yourself - 15 missed calls."

 

[PhoenixFire]

Thousands of jokes doing the rounds, but these three made me laugh (even if I think the second one is at least 4 years old):

An Australian DIY chain has bought out a new furniture range called "The Wallabies" - it comes in a flattened pack.....

Condom sales in Australia have hit an all time low. As England's rugby team showed on Saturday, you only need one Jonny to **** 15 Australians.

Richie McCaw was walking dejectedly past the changing room doors after the French game when he came across a mobile phone. After picking it up and taking a brief look at it he knocked on the Wayne Barnes's door.

"Here you go mate, I found your phone."

"Cheers," says Wayne. "But how did you know it was mine?"

"Look for yourself - 15 missed calls."

 

[PhoenixFire]

How? You don't get points for driving off a pick and go. This match has been talked about to death, but it's not easy to break the line when they're offside & the French have guys killing the ball in each ruck. The All Blacks usually score off turnover ball. Barnes was all over us at the breakdown, so they tried to build it up patiently. We should've had more shots at goal for our efforts, but somehow France managed to defend the entire second half without conceeding a penalty. If the ref had reffed a normal game, NZ probably would've won by 30 points. What really let us down was our defence. We missed tackles and our cover defence against France's tries was ****.

No. NZ deserved to lose, even if France didn't deserve to win. NZ played poor rugby, and aided by some poor reffing desicions, they lost. Even without the ref, they still would have lost.

 

[James]

Good to see Zinzan Brooke stand up and tell it how it is.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

No. NZ deserved to lose, even if France didn't deserve to win. NZ played poor rugby, and aided by some poor reffing desicions, they lost. Even without the ref, they still would have lost.

Without the ref they would've won 18-13. They didn't play their usual style of rugby, but to say they played poorly is taking it too far. Under normal circumstances they wouldn't have lost, because team's don't usually lose with 72% possession & teams who have 72% possession aren't deemed to have played poorly. Usually. We're supposed to be all stoic and not blame the ref. Even the ref has admitted he made poor decisions. The IRB ought to acknowledge the fact that appointing Barnes was a mistake. They've sent him to the side lines for the rest of the tournament, but appointed him to the Six Nations. Nice.

And Zinzan Brooke was in two of our World Cup losing sides. You'd think he'd have more perspective than that, but he's working for the English press.

 

[nate-d]

On that given day, the Allbacks lacked composure and effective leadership. Once Dan Carter & Nick Evans left, the entire backline had their tails between their legs. They should have tried an array of tactics. 1) Play through the backs 2) make drop goals in their 22. .. The damn fools only had the pick up and go in their minds. Richie was ineffective as a captain.

If the beheading trend continues for the AB's, Henry, Hansen, Smith and Mcraw should go, Mcraw remains as a player, but not as captain.

 

[nate-d]

AB's should have never been in that situation of letting the ref screw things up. If only they'd hammered in right in the start, some 30 points in the first half. I do realize that France is no clown. This was evident from the defence they put aganist the AB. England will have a difficult time scoring tries. Perhaps, drop goals are in order. If I was a betting man, I would France to win by under 12.

South Africa should take out Argentina.

 

[vogue]

...ok, come on England....lets see you play some great rugby ....