MichaelRobartes

Just now, Midred said:

S. A. bought a few cheap penalties in the scrums.

Thought BOK had an average game but he got the scrums spot on for me. Ox is the best scrummaging loosehead in the world.

Hard luck. You were the better side. SA brutal and haunted to win. Ox made the difference.

Fair play England. Taken SA way off scheme. Boks have shit the bed here.

Joe Joyce already announced himself in Galway:

Boks unchanged. I think it'd be England's best-ever win if they did it given the respective strength of both sides. I can see the Boks' bench making a big difference. Some terrifying men there.

Quick word for one of my favourite players too. Keith Earls confirmed his retirement today. An unbelievable player for Munster and Ireland for so long. I'd have loved him to stay on for one more year, but he goes out after helping Munster win our first trophy in 12 years, healthy and on his own terms. It could be worse. One of our all-time greats.

He has nothing on Peter Stringer though

24 minutes ago, TonyTonyTony said:

 

Was definitely legal. I'd say they practiced that. Ridiculous speed from Kolbe. Once Ramos makes that first little movement towards the ball, he's gone.

12 hours ago, Markthehorn said:

France not happy with the officials.

Sour grapes or got a point ?

I don't think so. Some calls that looked iffy on first glance but nothing out of the ordinary. O'Keefe didn't let in those tries. 

3 minutes ago, 2015 said:

This is why I don't think England have underachieved. Lets be honest Rugby Union only competes with Football in England in the West Country.

It is not our National Sport - unlike NZ, South Africa, Wales and it's definitely more popular in Ireland. 

You can't use Country population as a metric either, it should be about overall participation and I don't know the numbers but I can't imagine it is anywhere near as popular as Football and Cricket across England. 

I think the private school system has really held the Sport back 

Speaking for Ireland, rugby union is at best the fourth most popular sport after Gaelic football, hurling and football. 

1 minute ago, Super said:

Game winning penalty should have went other way. Like I said SA get away with a lot.

Them's the breaks. I thought O'Keefe had a good game overall to be fair.

Remember that charged-down conversion? Fine margins.

Four brilliant QFs. Some guts from SA to win that. Just an unbelievable game.

4 minutes ago, Markthehorn said:

Is that going to be a red or will the height difference come into account ?

I think the level of impact will also come into play. Eben tried to get low and almost got too low. I'd be surprised to see a red based on what we've seen but who knows.

1 minute ago, Super said:

Harsh if that ends up a red!

Think it'll stay at yellow based on what we've seen in the last few weeks. What a half. So good that I almost don't care about last night any more.

Whoever wins this will surely win the lot. These are the two best sides.

1 minute ago, Northern Red said:

A step up even from last night.

We've had some great matches but not seen anything like this yet imo.

This is unbelievable. Pity it's only a QF.

51 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

As a somewhat less than avid fan I am a tad confused, I was definitely given the impression in these pages before the RWC, that England wouldn't even get out of the group stages and that Ireland were going to win the tournament. What's everyone predicting now?

Don't know if I'm the only Ireland fan on here, but I thought we'd lose to SA in the group and France in the QF so don't look at me 

Fiji really unlucky. Raynal rode them at the breakdown. Another brilliant game. Been an amazing World Cup so far.

13 minutes ago, Maltshoveller said:

Could a rugby fan tell me the rules on a forward pass

NZ first try

Player behind the line when he pass the ball

his team mate catches the ball in front of the line which has to mean ball has gone forward 

but they done even look at it

Second try also 

The laws just say that a player may not intentionally throw the ball forward. I thought both passes were pretty flat but both came out of the hands backwards and both tries were fine. 

4 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

I don’t think Ireland bottled it at all. If Barrett doesn’t keep the ball up you win. New Zealand defended well. Not every loss is a bottle job. 

No it isn't but we were so below-par. We went away from what worked for us and didn't use our bench properly. I might feel differently in the morning but eight QF losses will do that to you. We should have won that and found a way not to. Don't know how else to describe it.

7 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

I’m glad you said it because people are giving me confused reactions for saying the same thing 

Too many of our big players didn't turn up. We nearly won without a set piece and with brutal half backs. I say we bottled it because if we'd been even at 80% we'd have won easily. Not saying the effort wasn't there, just not the quality. NZ had us in the scrum and on the gain line. Fair play to them. 

I'm repeating myself but I'm absolutely gutted. So deflating to get that performance in a QF again. This team should've won that handily.

23 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

Without doubt,Ireland bottled it again on the big occasion 

Agreed. We had more than enough to win that. We went down fighting but underperformed when it mattered again.

6 minutes ago, TonyTonyTony said:

Sexton not happy with the Ref it seems. Small margins

Sexton has form. Barnes isn't my cup of tea but it's our job to keep him out of the game. We beat ourselves tonight. Too many went missing. Half backs and set piece killed us. Might sound harsh but it's another QF bottled. Fair play to NZ.

We killed ourselves. I'm absolutely gutted.