The Rugby Thread
- Thread starter Stan Hullis
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Donegal Wolf
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Looks like he is back for quarters (likely against South Africa) wearing a mask.
Banjo
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Ireland still might not make it beyond a world cup QF at this rate. The draw this time is a bit mad. France v SA in one QF and Ireland v NZ in another.
Paddingtonwolf
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Well that is why you shouldn’t do a draw so far out. No idea why the powers that be keep making that mistake. 2015 it creates a group of death that kills England. Now the best Scotland in thirty years is likely to be the victim
Saw some of the New Zealand match last night . They won 73 - 0 , pulling away easily once Uruguay ran out of gas , a problem for all of the tier 2 nations ( none of them are fit enough ) .
I'm none the wiser after watching them . They now enter a quarter final having won three games in a row against very poor or disappointing opposition , by huge margins .
The only hard match they had against France was one that they lost by a convincing margin .
Last might they also suffered injuries to some key players .
The long and short of it is that if you make basic errors as Uruguay did last night , then they will run right through you in a ruthless fashion .
If however you stand up to them , then they - like all other teams - do not like going backwards , and make as many mistakes when doing so , like all other mere mortals .
Their form throughout 2022 and all of 2023 ( including the first POOL match v France ) was patchy , and that's all that anyone has to go on really .
I find them quite difficult to assess right now in the sense that they could very easily have been timing this so that they can peak for this competition - but that's really hard to do with injuries etc .
I'm none the wiser after watching them . They now enter a quarter final having won three games in a row against very poor or disappointing opposition , by huge margins .
The only hard match they had against France was one that they lost by a convincing margin .
Last might they also suffered injuries to some key players .
The long and short of it is that if you make basic errors as Uruguay did last night , then they will run right through you in a ruthless fashion .
If however you stand up to them , then they - like all other teams - do not like going backwards , and make as many mistakes when doing so , like all other mere mortals .
Their form throughout 2022 and all of 2023 ( including the first POOL match v France ) was patchy , and that's all that anyone has to go on really .
I find them quite difficult to assess right now in the sense that they could very easily have been timing this so that they can peak for this competition - but that's really hard to do with injuries etc .
Banjo
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As a Wales fan, and without wanting to get too far ahead of myself, I would still much rather play Ireland in a semi final than NZ. That could be purely psychological (Wales haven't beaten NZ since the 1950s), but also Ireland have never got beyond a world cup quarter final ever. In reality, I think NZ will beat Ireland in the QF anyway (assuming Scotland don't pull off a miracle this evening!)
jd1981
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Whoever Wales play in the SF it’ll be a comfortable win for either NZ or Ireland
jd1981
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England are just a really poor side bunch of robotic players not able to think for themselves
