The Rugby Thread

[E17yid]

Oh boy.

(Aus v Eng)

Referee

Jérôme Garcès (France)


Assistant 1

Romain Poite (France)


Assistant 2

Mathieu Raynal (France)


TMO

Ben Skeen (New Zealand

I hate all the french refs. All of them.

I like that young English ref Luke Pearce. Is consistent, good communicator and his head isn’t up his own arse.

I like Angus Gardener to. What do they both have in common? Both ex players (played to a reasonably high standard too)

 

['O Zio]

It’s not a bad idea but I can’t see it happening. Telling fans who are used to seeing big games in their country every year that you now only get to see games played in your country every 16 years (20 if Japan get brought in) is going to be hard to take.

Having said that, SA aside, crowd attendances are poor in the Southern Hemisphere.

Maths was never my strong point but unless I'm really missing something here why would it be every 16 (or 20) years? It would be every 4 or 5 years i.e. let's say they started next year it could go:

2020 - Australia
2021 - S. Africa
2022 - New Zealand
2023 - Argentina
2024 - Japan
2025 - back to Australia etc.

Obviously you're right in the sense that there wouldn't be matches in your country every single year but it wouldn't be every 20 years or so.

 

[E17yid]

Maths was never my strong point but unless I'm really missing something here why would it be every 16 (or 20) years? It would be every 4 or 5 years i.e. let's say they started next year it could go:

2020 - Australia
2021 - S. Africa
2022 - New Zealand
2023 - Argentina
2024 - Japan
2025 - back to Australia etc.

Obviously you're right in the sense that there wouldn't be matches in your country every single year but it wouldn't be every 20 years or so.

Lol. Don’t know why but my brain went into Lion tour mode. ?

 

[E17yid]

Maths was never my strong point but unless I'm really missing something here why would it be every 16 (or 20) years? It would be every 4 or 5 years i.e. let's say they started next year it could go:

2020 - Australia
2021 - S. Africa
2022 - New Zealand
2023 - Argentina
2024 - Japan
2025 - back to Australia etc.

Obviously you're right in the sense that there wouldn't be matches in your country every single year but it wouldn't be every 20 years or so.

I think it’s not a bad idea. 5 year wait ain’t to bad and, like I say, crowd attendances in Australia,NZ and Argentina aren’t the best in the championship. Miles better than they are in Super rugby (as you’d expect) but still not amazing.

 

[dirtyh]

The refs have been confirmed.

England v Australia - Jerome Garces
Ireland v NZ - Nigel Owens
Wales v France - Jaco Peyper
Japan v SA - Wayne Barnes.

I’d actually rather Wayne. Not a fan of Peyper at all. Mind you I’m always nervous with Garces as well. Hopefully there’s no controversy.

are you really welsh? I'd rather ronald mcdonald than biased, one-eyed barnes after the amount of times he's screwed us over the years and i've never met any fellow welshies who'd disagree

agree though that there's bound to be some controversy in at least one of the games.

 

[E17yid]

are you really welsh? I'd rather ronald mcdonald than biased, one-eyed barnes after the amount of times he's screwed us over the years and i've never met any fellow welshies who'd disagree

agree though that there's bound to be some controversy in at least one of the games.

Ha ha. Fair point. If you check my post history on Wayne it’s fair to say it’s not overly complimentary but you know what, I’ve actually slightly warmed to him over the last year or so. I don’t like his style, I don’t like his demeanour but he’s not to bad.

Peyper is just not a good ref at all, imo. And the less said about the french refs the better.

 

[Thewobbler]

The team that wins the World Cup will be the best team in the tournament.

Anyone who says otherwise is being a sore loser to be honest. You just don't normally see people be sore losers before they've lost!

Youre right but the teams that have had a bye in the group stages will go in to the quarters fresher then there opponent. Niggling Injuries and bumps will probably have healed up. Its a big advantage.

 

['O Zio]

I think it’s not a bad idea. 5 year wait ain’t to bad and, like I say, crowd attendances in Australia,NZ and Argentina aren’t the best in the championship. Miles better than they are in Super rugby (as you’d expect) but still not amazing.

Actually on that point, I also think the tournament only coming to town once every 4 or 5 years might actually help boost attendances because it would give it almost like a "World Cup" type vibe. The more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense to be honest. Like I say, it's a non-issue in the 6N because the distances involved are tiny anyway, but with the Rugby Championship it's already a lot of travel and if Japan are added to the mix it'll be a ridiculous amount of travel.

Out of interest I just did a rough calculation and assuming that the games all take place in the respective capitals (Joburg used for SA and Sydney for Australia in this case) then if they added Japan and continued with the H&A format, New Zealand would have to travel about 41200 miles to get to and from the away games. Obviously in practice they might not fly back to NZ in between each game but even still it's an absurd amount of travel.

 

[E17yid]

Team of the tournament so far?

15: Beauden Barrett (NZ)
14. Kotaro Matsushima (Japan)
13. Timothy Lafaele (Japan)
12. Samu Kerevi (Australia)
11. Semi Radradra (Fiji)
10. Richie Mo’unga (New Zealand)
9. Gareth Davies (Wales)
1. Keita Inagaki (Japan)
2. Tolu Latu (Australia)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)
4. Scott Barrett (New Zealand)
5. Lood de Jager (South Africa)
6. Josh Navidi (Wales)
7. Ardie Savea (New Zealand)
8. Kazuki Himeno (Japan)

@Japhet. For clarity that isn’t my team of the tournament so far but you won’t be surprised to learn, due to there being no English players, that it came from Walesonline. Ha.

 

[Japhet]

@Japhet. For clarity that isn’t my team of the tournament so far but you won’t be surprised to learn, due to their being no English players, that it came from Walesonline. Ha.

It's just as funny whether it's your team or from Walesonline.

 

[E17yid]

It's just as funny whether it's your team or from Walesonline.

Which players are in there that’d make your team so far and which ones wouldn’t?

 

[Japhet]

Which players are in there that’d make your team so far and which ones wouldn’t?

I couldn't pick a team in all honesty because a load of what I've watched has been highlights.I've seen the England games from start to finish though and I'd be surprised if any flanker has had a better tournament than Tom Curry.

 

[E17yid]

I couldn't pick a team in all honesty because a load of what I've watched has been highlights.I've seen the England games from start to finish though and I'd be surprised if any flanker has had a better tournament than Tom Curry.

Savea for me was quality in that SA game. And Tips and Navidi were incredible in the Australia game. It’s obviously not helped England that they haven’t had a real test yet. As I’ve said before Curry and Underhill will be judged when your pack is in the back foot a bit.

 

[teok]

Torrential rain predicted for the ire/nz game, that certainly evens things up a bit. Could be much close than we thought.

 

[E17yid]

Torrential rain predicted for the ire/nz game, that certainly evens things up a bit. Could be much close than we thought.

I’m not sure it does. NZ are in their element. I see what you’re saying though. It could work in Ireland favour.

 

[SugarRay]

The team of the tournament so far features 15 Japanese players imo.

 

[E17yid]

The team of the tournament so far features 15 Japanese players imo.

You can get 5/1 on them to beat South Africa.

 

[E17yid]

Apparently a few of the Ozzie’s were getting annoyed with some of the English journalists yesterday and Chikeka responded to Eddies “Typhoon gods are on are side” comment by saying “well he better make sure he wins then”

Today coming out with the old no one is giving us a chance and commenting on how Eddie has brought in an Ozzie rugby league legend to talk to the English players which Chekeh obviously didn’t like. Looking forward to Eddies response.

 

[E17yid]

Also, I missed a weird comment by Eddie last week (must’ve not been widely reported) where he said something like “if it’s typhoon season here it’s terrorist season somewhere else” I didn’t watch or read a transcript of the interview so unsure of the context but a bit odd. Then again so was his typhoon gods are on our side comment. Not sure the people who have died or lost their homes are thinking that but tbf to him I think he said that before the scale Of the destruction was apparent.

 

[talkshowhost86]

Eddie is the absolute master of getting under Cheika's skin.

All meaningless of course if we lose.