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Rugby World Cup Thread

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chipdawg

chipdawg

Posted
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Always the wife, isn't it!?

Good luck with it all mate, it's the best time of your life. Say goodbye to sleep and your money though - they don't belong to you anymore! All 3 of my girls, and the wife, hate sport, I'm outvoted for everything that I want to do, I listen to the most awful music, I watch tv that I'm sure is turning my brain to mush - and I wouldn't swap any of it, not for one second!

I've been trying to convince the wife that the baby should watch sport with me from as early an age as possible. Unfortunately, my shouting and swearing at the tv last night didn't do a lot to convince her that's a good idea! 

Looking forward to it though

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'Orns

'Orns

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I've been trying to convince the wife that the baby should watch sport with me from as early an age as possible. Unfortunately, my shouting and swearing at the tv last night didn't do a lot to convince her that's a good idea! 

Looking forward to it though

Ha, they're gonna learn it sooner or later mate! Better to hear it from Daddy than some kid in the playground....that's what I keep telling myself!

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Portland Bill

Portland Bill

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All Blacks till I die this weekend! It's my father in laws birthday and we're taking him out for lunch, so I might have to feign illness or something to get home in time to watch! 

I've got NZ citizenship, I lived there for a few years, I also have a son and 3 grandchildren living in Auckland.

So I'm unashamedly backing the AB's to win the WC.

I got into rugby big time when I lived there, league and Union are big in Auckland, and the local Sunday rugby league was something else. If you couldn't look after yourself you didn't play, it was mental.

 

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EmersonsRed

EmersonsRed

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I see Burgess is on the verge of going back to Rugby league. Wasn't he supposed to be the man to win us the world cup?! 

I was told by somebody within the rugby circles (I literally never watch rugby, ever) I know nothng about it, just watch the odd bit but I was told he hated Union and would return to league after the WC - and this was before the WC.

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'Orns

'Orns

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Barf are saying that he's staying. Personally I don't care, a great rugby league player he may be, but I'm not sure he's cut out for Union

I don't know why we spend so much money bringing these guys over, we don't have a great record of converting them, Australia and NZ seem to do it a lot better than us

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chipdawg

chipdawg

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Barf are saying that he's staying. Personally I don't care, a great rugby league player he may be, but I'm not sure he's cut out for Union

I don't know why we spend so much money bringing these guys over, we don't have a great record of converting them, Australia and NZ seem to do it a lot better than us

I really hope the scapegoating of Sam Burgess stops soon though, he played ok during the World Cup and certainly wasn't the sole- or even main- reason England were poor. I think there is a danger of this distracting people from the myriad of reasons why we were actually shit in the WC

I think if Burgess sticks at it he'll be a tremendous asset to English rugby union- but as a 6 rather than a 12/13. He doesn't have the pace to play centre, but has the athletic ability and game reading skills to play in the pack. HOWEVER, it'll take him more than the 9 months he was given to learn that position- or indeed any other- and it was always unrealistic to expect him to make an impact with so fees games behind him

As an RL player the comparison to Sonny Bill Williams was always fair, but people forget that SBW grew up playing both codes and new the game instinctively. Burgess was never going to have that kind of impact, especially in so short a space of time 

For what it's worth, I think he'll carry on for Bath, do pretty well then go back to Sydney in a season or twos time

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MichaelRobartes

MichaelRobartes

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I really hope the scapegoating of Sam Burgess stops soon though, he played ok during the World Cup and certainly wasn't the sole- or even main- reason England were poor. I think there is a danger of this distracting people from the myriad of reasons why we were actually shit in the WC

I think if Burgess sticks at it he'll be a tremendous asset to English rugby union- but as a 6 rather than a 12/13. He doesn't have the pace to play centre, but has the athletic ability and game reading skills to play in the pack. HOWEVER, it'll take him more than the 9 months he was given to learn that position- or indeed any other- and it was always unrealistic to expect him to make an impact with so fees games behind him

As an RL player the comparison to Sonny Bill Williams was always fair, but people forget that SBW grew up playing both codes and new the game instinctively. Burgess was never going to have that kind of impact, especially in so short a space of time 

For what it's worth, I think he'll carry on for Bath, do pretty well then go back to Sydney in a season or twos time

This. He's got the potential to be a very good blindside. He shouldn't have been within an arse's roar of a test jersey at centre but England have previous for this with Andy Farrell, an equally bizarre piece of selection.

To be fair, I think most people have criticised the management rather than him for putting him there. And rightly so. People have zero-ed in on his and Narky's selection at 10 and 12 because that was the indication that Lancaster was changing the plan because he was scared of the Welsh midfield, and I think there's plenty of justification in criticising that.

It must be hard for him given his status in league but if he sticks around there's no reason he can't play for England for some years. England's backrow (particularly Wood and The Brand) are hardly tearing up trees.

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'Orns

'Orns

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I really hope the scapegoating of Sam Burgess stops soon though, he played ok during the World Cup and certainly wasn't the sole- or even main- reason England were poor. I think there is a danger of this distracting people from the myriad of reasons why we were actually shit in the WC

I think if Burgess sticks at it he'll be a tremendous asset to English rugby union- but as a 6 rather than a 12/13. He doesn't have the pace to play centre, but has the athletic ability and game reading skills to play in the pack. HOWEVER, it'll take him more than the 9 months he was given to learn that position- or indeed any other- and it was always unrealistic to expect him to make an impact with so fees games behind him

As an RL player the comparison to Sonny Bill Williams was always fair, but people forget that SBW grew up playing both codes and new the game instinctively. Burgess was never going to have that kind of impact, especially in so short a space of time 

For what it's worth, I think he'll carry on for Bath, do pretty well then go back to Sydney in a season or twos time

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Burgess for anything. He was given an opportunity and took it, he was thrown in the deep end way too soon with England. Absolutely agree that he's a 6 as opposed to 12/13

I think you'll right, he'll tough it out with Barf for another year or so then go back to Rabbitoh's

As for scapegoating, I hope the unnamed England player who called out Ben Morgan last week can do another interview ahead of the game this weekend, and every weekend - apparently he was superb for Gloucester last week

This. He's got the potential to be a very good blindside. He shouldn't have been within an arse's roar of a test jersey at centre but England have previous for this with Andy Farrell, an equally bizarre piece of selection.

To be fair, I think most people have criticised the management rather than him for putting him there. And rightly so. People have zero-ed in on his and Narky's selection at 10 and 12 because that was the indication that Lancaster was changing the plan because he was scared of the Welsh midfield, and I think there's plenty of justification in criticising that.

It must be hard for him given his status in league but if he sticks around there's no reason he can't play for England for some years. England's backrow (particularly Wood and The Brand) are hardly tearing up trees.

An 'arses roar' - why have I never heard that before? Beautiful

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chipdawg

chipdawg

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Burgess for anything. He was given an opportunity and took it, he was thrown in the deep end way too soon with England. Absolutely agree that he's a 6 as opposed to 12/13

I think you'll right, he'll tough it out with Barf for another year or so then go back to Rabbitoh's

As for scapegoating, I hope the unnamed England player who called out Ben Morgan last week can do another interview ahead of the game this weekend, and every weekend - apparently he was superb for Gloucester last week

An 'arses roar' - why have I never heard that before? Beautiful

I know you're not fella, it's more that there are many ex-players and journalists who seem to be focussing in on Burgess' selection as the biggest problem in England's World Cup campaign and I think there's a danger of missing what the actual problems were (lack of balance in the squad, lack of leaders on the pitch, lack of discipline, regression to old tactics to name but a few) and once again missing the opportunity to learn from mistakes

To be honest, when Burgess first moved to Bath I thought he'd naturally play centres, but 6 makes a lot more sense. The problem with that is that it's a much more technical and complex position to learn and so it would have gone from difficult to get into the England squad to impossible. It's basically a bit of a **** up all round, but very little of that is SBs fault

I genuinely think Morgan could be one of the best 8s in the world, but he's had terrible luck with injuries. Some of the sniping and back-biting from supposedly within the squad is another symptom of England's failure

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'Orns

'Orns

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I've listened to a few podcasts since England's demise, they are all incredibly damning of the setup. There was a good one with Billy V before the Australia game, he said they weren't allowed to have a beer together, no chance to get to know each other. In his own words 'it would have been nice to know a bit more about the lads other than their name and who they play for' - shocking. Dawson was on it too, the 2003 team knew each other inside out, knew the wives, the kids etc - makes it easier to get smashed up for someone you really know, than an acquaintance I suspect

As you allude to - the problems England face are a lot deeper than fitting an ex RL player into the squad

Will be interesting to hear the outcome of the WC debrief, and who they choose to come in next, although a little bit of me thinks that SL has more than half a chance of staying. Whoever it is, they certainly have some cracking talent coming through. Maybe let them have a pint or two with the more experienced players when they come into the squad....you never know, it just might work for us!

Morgan - completely agree, he is a wrecking machine when he's on his game, but seems to pick up injury after injury. He played at Dursley and I know a few lads who played with him - apparently he's a top bloke and keeps in touch with them all. No Billy Big Bollocks stuff going on. He's the kind of bloke that you want to succeed, that's for sure

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kiwicolin

kiwicolin

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We can't wait to see City play v Fulham for the first half. Then off to watch my beloved  All Blacks, hopefully win back to back  World Cup wins.

Will still have the radio on to listen to city , on Radio Bristol.

See we can multi task. 

COYR

COYAB. 

 

 

 

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Portland Bill

Portland Bill

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On 29 October 2015 at 11:02:28, chipdawg said:

I really hope the scapegoating of Sam Burgess stops soon though, he played ok during the World Cup and certainly wasn't the sole- or even main- reason England were poor. I think there is a danger of this distracting people from the myriad of reasons why we were actually shit in the WC

I think if Burgess sticks at it he'll be a tremendous asset to English rugby union- but as a 6 rather than a 12/13. He doesn't have the pace to play centre, but has the athletic ability and game reading skills to play in the pack. HOWEVER, it'll take him more than the 9 months he was given to learn that position- or indeed any other- and it was always unrealistic to expect him to make an impact with so fees games behind him

As an RL player the comparison to Sonny Bill Williams was always fair, but people forget that SBW grew up playing both codes and new the game instinctively. Burgess was never going to have that kind of impact, especially in so short a space of time 

For what it's worth, I think he'll carry on for Bath, do pretty well then go back to Sydney in a season or twos time

Sonny Bill Williams is a one off ( league and Union international plus NZ heavyweight boxing champion.)I don't think comparing Burgess with him is fair on Burgess. SBW is comfortable with both codes, but another reason he came back to union is the promise of playing sevens in the Olympics next year.

I liken Burgess's situation to that of Benji Marshall, he left the NRL to play Union for Auckland Blues a couple of seasons ago, Marshall was/is an amazing League player but it didn't work out for him playing Union.

He only stayed with Auckland for less than a season, and is now back in the NRL.

It seems pretty obvious that Burgess will join him again soon, surely if Bath have given him 'time off to think about it', he will be going back to Australia. That's how I read it anyway!

 

 

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Super

Super

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Just watched the whole game and Carter now (if he wasn't before) for me will go down as an all time great as will the team. Fantastic end to a great World Cup. We certainly can host a tournament in this country that's for sure.

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chipdawg

chipdawg

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29 minutes ago, MichaelRobartes said:

Confirmed that Burgess is heading back to Sydney:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/34732141

Disappointing. I suspect he never had any intention of staying very long, just wanted to try and win a 15-man World Cup. If he's stuck around, I imagine he could have been a success but we'll never know. To be fair though, as lovely as Barf is, I think Sydney probably wins as a place to live!

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MichaelRobartes

MichaelRobartes

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13 minutes ago, chipdawg said:

Disappointing. I suspect he never had any intention of staying very long, just wanted to try and win a 15-man World Cup. If he's stuck around, I imagine he could have been a success but we'll never know. To be fair though, as lovely as Barf is, I think Sydney probably wins as a place to live!

Can't help but feel that he'd have made a good backrow. Also can't help but feel that much of this could have been avoided had he made the switch a year earlier, then there wouldn't have been the impetus to fast-track him into the test side.

Don't blame him for fleeing the English media, but I don't think he's been hung out to dry by the majority of observers.

Trouble with Baff is that nobody who lives there seems to pronounce it properly! Some incredible bookshops though.

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chipdawg

chipdawg

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1 hour ago, MichaelRobartes said:

Can't help but feel that he'd have made a good backrow. Also can't help but feel that much of this could have been avoided had he made the switch a year earlier, then there wouldn't have been the impetus to fast-track him into the test side.

Don't blame him for fleeing the English media, but I don't think he's been hung out to dry by the majority of observers.

Trouble with Baff is that nobody who lives there seems to pronounce it properly! Some incredible bookshops though.

Yeah, he's been completely hung out to dry so from that point of view I don't blame him. Would have been nice to see him try and prove people wrong though. With bridges apparently burnt with Steffon Armitage, you have to wonder how England will hope to counter the rucking ability of... well, pretty much everyone else, going forward... in the back row. Maro Itoje springs to mind but he's desperately inexperienced. Dave Ewers maybe but he's quite raw. Otherwise you're looking at pretty much the same pool of players. Croat will never be fit enough, Kvesic isn't good enough and Clark is a complete ******. Bit screwed really

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Barrs Court Red

Barrs Court Red

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The fall out from the World Cup disaster continues. I don't think Burgess is blameless in all of this, I feel it was always his intention to play in the WC and then escape back to Sydney.

 

Among the more interesting call, I've started to see more shouts for summer rugby.  Personally I find this attractive, but it ejat would it mean for the 6 nations? 

 

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