Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Rugby, Rugby, Rugby. Yay!

OK, now I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that I'm not a sporty person. Don't play because I'm no good and don't like it but I do quite like watching some sports. Not football (ugh), golf, snooker and stuff like that. But I love athletics, gymnastics, swimming and diving (and not just for the sexy men in teeny tiny speedos), hockey (my Dad used to play for Shropshire so I've always liked hockey) and tennis.

My fave though is rugby. I *love* rugby. Not sure why, I just do. OK, so certainly the fact that i think rugby players are damn sexy helps but I just like watching the game too. So of course the World Cup going on at the moment id fabulous. Spent the best part of Sunday morning watching the Wales, Scotland and England games.

Wales were great until the last quarter where they just seemed to get a bit lazy. Canada weren't great either but if Wales play like that against teams like Italy and New Zealand then they're buggered. Hopefully they can actually get back to the kind of form that they should be though (they were the best team in the world way back when. Sigh).

Scotland... well Scotland were pretty bad actually. OK so they won but they didn't really deserve to. They really need to up their game if they're going to get anywhere. Like Wales they should be a lot better than they are.

And England. Well, no surprise there. If they had lost against georgia then I think it'd have been the shock of the championship. So they won by a *huge* margin and played pretty damn well too. I'm still not entirely convinced that they're a dead cert to win (New Zealand are either going to be at their very best or a huge dissappointment but they're still a major threat) and Australia have the home advantage as well as still being one of the best teams in the world. I would be pretty surprised though if three of the final four aren't England, New Zealand and Australia though.

And finally there's one thing that really deserves a mention. Nothing to do with the way that any team played or anything, but something that made the England game extra special. OK so England have probably the sexiest team there (although i have a bit of a soft spot for Iestyn Harris. Great, great bum. *woof*) but what helped to make them even sexier was their strip. Little shorts are very much in at the moment (always a good thing) but the new tight, stretchy lycra looking tops that the team were sporting were pure genius. Nothing better than seeing a sexy, strapping bloke in teeny tiny shorts and very form fitting white top. Yummy. I'm looking forward to Englands next game just for the tops again. Now if only every other team can be persuaded to start wearing them too.

Oh, and a quick question. Is rugby starting to get attention in the US now? I know that the US team is actually meant to be quite god for what is still a relativly new tea.m but I was wondering if people had started to realise that American Fottbal is just rugby for wimps (like Giles said in an episode of Buffy it's hard to take anyone seriously when they have to put in tons of padding just to play rugby. )

Rugby...an evil, evil sport I was forced to play in my youth. I guess growing up in the Scottish Borders turned me off that game for life! And this is coming from someone that loves most sports. Murrayfield to me will always mean the home of scottish ice-hockey.

Can't answer they American question, but when I was travelling around British Columbia a couple of years ago there seemed to be an awful lot of rugby pitches out there.

Ah growing up in Wales I was made to play Rugby too and hated it. It was always pissing it down with rain when we played and I'm only little (short and skinny) which of course meant that I was kinda a bit squished if I ever got tackled. That being said I wasn't actually that bad at playing. Being little means that I'm also quite nippy on my feet so as long as I was far enough down the field and didn't have too many people round me if I got the ball (and didn't drop it. Heh) I actually had a pretty good chance of scoring. They did ask me once if I wanted to play for the year team but I just laughed at them. Nothing on earth would possess me to play rugby by choice. Watching it of course is a different matter but it's only in the last five years or so that I've actually gotten into it really.

I was made to play rugby at school once but I was so bad that they never made me do it again.

I love watching rugby and the new England tops are very eye catching indeed. I do think lookswise France is a strong contender. Or at leat it was when Christophe LaMaison was paying for them

France I think have been a little iffy of late. They're the strongest team in their group (Fiji and Scotland are the only two threats) but I dunno if they'll go any further than the quarter finals.

Then again looking at the way all the teams have been playing of late the only two that stand out are England and New Zealand. Australia have the home ground advantage and South Africa are always a pretty good team, but apart from that you jump down a level to Wales, Itlay, Fiji, France, Scotland and Ireland and then down again to the new teams like the US and Japan and the ones that don't have a chance like Tonga or Georgia.

I wouldn't like to make a guess as to who will be in the quarter finals though. England, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa are pretty much dead certs but as to the second place in each group it could be almost anyone. Wales has to beat Italy to come second in their group which i think could happen but they're pretty much on the same level (and whatever happens they'll have to play England to get any further so unless they pulled of a huge shock win they won't be in the semis).

I'm gonna make a guess that the top two from the groups will be Australia and... Ireland (just because they're a UK team) from A (Argentina could beat Ireland easily though if they play their game right), France and... ooh, I dunno. Scotland or Fiji (coz it's not gonna be Japan or USA ) from B (I think I'm gonna go for Fiji considering how lacklustre Scotland were the other day), England and South Africa from C (Samoa, Geogia and Uruguay I don't think are threats at all to either of those two) and New Zealand and... Wales (becase I'm Welsh) from D but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Italy got through.

So Quarter finals I'm going to say are going to be New Zealand vs South Africa, Australia vs Fiji, France vs Ireland and England vs Wales. Which would make the semis New Zealand vs Australia and France vs England (or possibly Ireland vs England. I'd be thrilled if it France/Ireland vs Wales though and it'd be a huge shock in the tournament all round if England went out that early).

And the final between England and New Zealand. OK so the final, bar any huge shock, is pretty much a foregone conclusion but I still wouldn't want to call who's going to win.

Unless of course they all start wearing the tops that England have on. And then i wouldn't care who wins at all just as long as we got lots of shots of them standing round looking secy.

Gosh, listen to me all turning into a sports commentator. Not something that happens very often believe me. He he he.

You are up on it all aren't you!

Not that I know as much as you but haven't Ireland been quite strong recently?

I've always thought France has a lot of potential. They can be surprisingly good.

Ireland haven't been half bad of late, but they've been doing a lot of whinging coming up to the tournament which is never a good sign. Apparently they've been training to play on a dry field in very warm weather and it didn't occur to them that playing games in South Australia at the moment would mean they'll be playing in early spring, hence wet and relativly cold. So you now have the bizarre thing of the Irish team saying that it's too wet for them. Heh heh

So much for the luck of the Irish then

Just like to put a vote in for the Scots getting through to the next round. Yes, they were pish against Japan, and certainly didn't deserve to score as many against them as they did. However, they know just how bad they were, and aren't going to rest on their laurels. At least they'd better bloody not.

Unfortunately I can see the Bloody English winning the tournament, and if football is anything to go by they won't shut up for the next 40 fuckin' years about it!

By the way, for those counting, I did used to play for my school. We were pants. Absolute pants - and since it was late 70s / early 80s it probably was those little short ones....
The only reason that I played was cos I wasn't good enough at football, and there were only another 14 boys in my year that wanted to play, so I was pretty much guaranteed a game.

Don't know what half the rules are these days though.

As they say, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.....

couldn't go to the kiwi/ canada match because of work, but have caught most of the matches at my local.

Fiji versus japan was interesting and did show what a skill gap, apart from some of the score thrashings, there is between the top teams & the 'making up the numbers' trams.

the downside is being a kiwi in aus. Australians are absolutely the worst winners in the world. they have been making comments about the unsporting nature of the japan/ kiwi 17- 145 score of a few years ago.

now they managed to beat Namibia by 7 to 145 and there's a certain amount of chest beating going on.

plus they bumped the matches on friday to play the godawful 'international rules' game they're trying to put up against the rugby.Kiwi and England seem to be the favourites but i'm hoping somebody comes in as a wild card. And that Aus don' win. that would be hard.

So, Kid Psychout, do I take it you're from New Zealand?

Well if England carry on playing like they did this weekend then I think there's a pretty good chance that they won't win. They were absolutely bloody awful. OK so they won but they should have been able to win easily. Samoa are pretty good but really they shouldn't have been such a challenge for a team that has been seen as being pretty much unbeatable this year. I kinda wanted Samoa to win just to teach the English team a lesson. They can't just think that they're going to coast games, they need coherence. And when Johnny Wilkinson is missing goals as badly as he did then you know there's trouble.

On the other hand Wales were fabulous. It was always going to be a tight game and the decider as to who would go through to the quarter finals between Wales and Italy so both teams were really playing to the hilt but Wales were great. They were definately playing a defensive game for the most part but made their attacks count when it was important. I think in reality Italy are probably a slightly stronger team and Wales knew that so played the game accordingly and it worked. And of course now Italy have played all their group games and can't get into the quarter finals and Wales just have their New Zealand game. I'm under no illusions that they'll win that but they don't really need to. And, assuming England don't screw up their final match, Wales will be playing England in the quarter finals so the Kiwi game should be a good chance for them to get in some real practice against a tp tier team without having to worry too much about winning.

Whatever happens with that game though I think it's going to be one of the best in the tournament so far. Wales have been playing brilliantly the last couple of games and New Zealand are on top form (I think they're going to beat England to the trophy personally unless England really get themselves together in the next few days) so even though the result is pretty much a foregone conclusion I think it's going to be a great game to watch.

OK, another weekend of great rugby. Yeah, England won 111 to 14 or whatever it was but that really wasn't the game worth watching. Scotland didn't play terribly well and are really going to have to pull their socks up if they have even a vague chance of beating Australia next weekend, but...

Oooh, Ireland and Wales did us proud. OK so they both lost but by far the best games so far in the tournament. Australia were having a bad day to be fair but even with that being said I really think Ireland deserved to win. Losing by one point was pretty damn gutting but they played fantastically. I didn't see all the game but what i saw was great.

And then there was Wales. Last game of the pool groups. Everyone (including Welsh fans like yours truly) was sitting there knowing how it was going to go, Wales were going to lose and it was just a matter of how badly. Hell even the Welsh coach had said the game was basically going to be a chance for some of the younger players to get their first taste of what it's like to play a really top team. They were already through to the quarter finals and they were playing the All Blacks so really there wasn't that much tension there was there?

Only of course when it came down to it it was one of the best rugby games I have ever seen. Sure NZ won, but to be honest that was more because the Welsh team just seened to run out of steam in the last ten or fifteen minutes. Up to that point Wales had actually been forcing the Kiwis to play a defensive game as much as an offensive one and when was the last time you saw that happen? New Zealand are seen as the only team at the moment with a good chance of beating England and they were fielding their best team against Wales' self-professed weak one. But Wales nearly pulled off the shock of the tournament. The try at the start of the second half which took them into the lead had me jumping up and down in my seat like a loon. Really couldn't believe what I was seeing. I mean after NZ scored in the first two minutes I was sat there thinking that it was just going to be a complete walk-over and then even up until half way through the second half there was a real possibility that Wales were going to win. Really, I can't take that much excitement first thing on a Sunday morning.

Can't wait for next weekend now. Scotland are playing Australia so I think, unfortunately, that Scotland are on their way out. New Zealand are up against South Africa (i think) and considering the way the Springboks have been playing it should be an easy game for the Kiwis (although of course we said that about the Wales game too). Ireland against France could go either way, although France have been by far the most consistent team this World Cup so I think they'll take it. Should be a damn fine game though. And finally Wales against England. You know I'm hoping against hope that what with the boost Sunday's game gave to Wales and with their strongest players all back playing they could actually pull this one off. I'm not going to hold my breath about it because the England team probably watched the game on Sunday and so are going to go out onto the field at the weekend ready to really play the best game they possibly can but you never know. How cool would it be for the favourites to be knocked out by a team that until this weekend no-one really thought about twice?

One really annoying thing I realised this weekend though, the final is on the 22nd. And I'm away that day so won't be able to watch it. Humph. Most annoying.

hope you caught the final. we laughed...

couldn't get to see the game (the circumstances were extremely weird, even for parts of my life)

did catch it on the radio, with some other kiwi & islander expat friends, and it was pretty cliffhangy.

Then we went out on the streets to taunt aussies.

And yes, losing to aus was as traumatic as i expected. It wasn't the losing, the match was well fought and aus had the better strategy. Despite the beat up about it being NZ's cup (aus sports reporters have a very schizophrenic need to portray aus sportsmen as both the best in the world and the plucky underdog) nobody expected a walkover.

It was the countless @#$%&#&^ news reports about how my country was 'devastated' and the sun didn't shine there no more. THEY get to you.

anyhoo, let's hope in 4 years more teams get to a critical standard where there are far less walkovers & more good matches.