Rugby World Cup 2007

[Tetro Kornbluth]

What is with the Six Nations teams and the major suckage so far?

Lack of access to a regular supply of good players from a collection of tiny little islands?

So in other words, you want Wales to steal all of Ireland's better players.. (all 15 of them)..

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What is with the Six Nations teams and the major suckage so far?

Lack of access to a regular supply of good players from a collection of tiny little islands?

In which case the Aran Islands, Shetlands, Channel Islands and Ynys Môn have a lot of questions to answer.

Well, North Wales isn't really a rugby area (not by Welsh standards anyway...).

[StateBoiler]

Well after expecting the USA to get an absolute hiding from England, and then they only win 28-10, I'm thinking the Boks win by 50 on Friday.

The matches I've watched from best to worst:

Argentina-France
Ireland-Namibia
England-USA
South Africa-Samoa

[Tetro Kornbluth]

When England managed just to beat off the United States with the effort of an constipated moose in an orgy I thought it was a classic case of "Well, our opponents are the balls. So let's just relax for 80 minutes and pretend there's no game on at all".

But I was wrong. England are just rather sh**t.

[Democratic Hawk]

I don't think tonight's game could have been any worse for England had they just sat on their behinds

Dave

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wales play Australia today. Oh dear...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Wales play Australia today. Oh dear...

Indeed. If the performances of Six Nations countries are anything to go by so far... at this point I actually think England might lose to Samoa.

Ireland play Georgia today.. will watch with interest. Still unsure whether I want to watch the Rugby Chainsaw massarce (ie. Portugal vs New Zealand) which is also today.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

at this point I actually think England might lose to Samoa.

If that happens, then tis time for all fans of Welsh Rugby to engage in some revenge-gloating...

[Јas]

at this point I actually think England might lose to Samoa.

If that happens, then tis time for all fans of Welsh Rugby to engage in some revenge-gloating...

I haven't seen the Samoans so far, but based solely on the English performances against the US and South Africa, a Samoan victory is a real possibility. Might depend on whether one Mr. Wilkinson is fit to play.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

England was quite hapless, though I will make no gloating knowing the recent history of Wales v. Austrailia.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Looks like Springboks for us, joy, than again we could screw up and not get out of group....


Depressing overall, this is our sport, I'm looking for less excuses in the future, and byjesusgodsonofmary have an "injury" occur and put in GAVIN HENSON already, can't hurt at this point.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Wales/Australia game was better than I expected. We lost (of course), but in a respectable way.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Lame.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Lame.

Did Ireland manage to beat Georgia in the end?

[Јas]

Lame.

Did Ireland manage to beat Georgia in the end?

Officially, the moral victory was Georgia's though.
They were a matter of inches from a winning try at the end.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Lame.

Did Ireland manage to beat Georgia in the end?

Officially, the moral victory was Georgia's though.
They were a matter of inches from a winning try at the end.

Inches? More like the hands of super-Leamy.

It's actually amazing how close we've come to having a huge upset.. yet there has been none yet (France - Argentina was an upset, but not a huge one) - I mean Italy - Romania, Georgia - Ireland, Wales - Canada - all those games could have ended with different teams winning.. plus USA - England and Ireland - Namibia were much, much closer than first imagined.

So... eh.. Come on Samoa!

[Јas]

Lame.

Did Ireland manage to beat Georgia in the end?

Officially, the moral victory was Georgia's though.
They were a matter of inches from a winning try at the end.

Inches? More like the hands of super-Leamy.

Exactly...a few inches

It's actually amazing how close we've come to having a huge upset.. yet there has been none yet (France - Argentina was an upset, but not a huge one) - I mean Italy - Romania, Georgia - Ireland, Wales - Canada - all those games could have ended with different teams winning.. plus USA - England and Ireland - Namibia were much, much closer than first imagined.

So... eh.. Come on Samoa!

I think that Argentina's win against France counts as a huge upset (and I actually don't think Romania beating Italy would have been on the same scale) but I take your point.

The 6 Nations are making a show of themselves and the "minnows" are doing themsleves proud. Given the respective displays of Romania and Georgia, I'd be all the more in favour of 6 Nations expansion - possibly bringing in a promotion/relegation system with the European Nations Cup teams.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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An upset, yes. But nothing on the scale Georgia beating Ireland would have been.

As for expanding the Six Nations all I would state is that it would be extremely damaging for any country which would be relegated from such a system. But Romania, Georgia and Russia (who apparently according to the IRB site ranked higher than Georgia; and there was 45,000(!) attendance for the WC qualifier between the two teams last year which saw Georgia qualify) should be more encorporated into the European system. As should to a lesser extent - Portugal, Spain, Germany.. and any other non-professional nation.

[Јas]

An upset, yes. But nothing on the scale Georgia beating Ireland would have been.

Yep, no question.

As for expanding the Six Nations all I would state is that it would be extremely damaging for any country which would be relegated from such a system. But Romania, Georgia and Russia (who apparently according to the IRB site ranked higher than Georgia; and there was 45,000(!) attendance for the WC qualifier between the two teams last year which saw Georgia qualify) should be more encorporated into the European system. As should to a lesser extent - Portugal, Spain, Germany.. and any other non-professional nation.

Damaging? Possibly. But the extent of such damage, and also of the potential benefit to the new nations , would depend on how exacting it would be structured. (Say just a plain 7 or 8 nations top tier, or maybe 2 pools of 4 teams or something.)

A year in a lower league, say for Ireland, would increase the profile of the lower division. And if they couldn't get back out of it, it would presumably be deserving for them to stay there.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

An upset, yes. But nothing on the scale Georgia beating Ireland would have been.

Yep, no question.

As for expanding the Six Nations all I would state is that it would be extremely damaging for any country which would be relegated from such a system. But Romania, Georgia and Russia (who apparently according to the IRB site ranked higher than Georgia; and there was 45,000(!) attendance for the WC qualifier between the two teams last year which saw Georgia qualify) should be more encorporated into the European system. As should to a lesser extent - Portugal, Spain, Germany.. and any other non-professional nation.

Damaging? Possibly. But the extent of such damage, and also of the potential benefit to the new nations , would depend on how exacting it would be structured. (Say just a plain 7 or 8 nations top tier, or maybe 2 pools of 4 teams or something.)

A year in a lower league, say for Ireland, would increase the profile of the lower division. And if they couldn't get back out of it, it would presumably be deserving for them to stay there.

No doubt true on one level; but I can't imagine alot of the fair weather fans (and we both know how many of them there are.) would stick around with ourselves battling out with say, Italy, Romania and Georgia to win Four Nations B. And lower Attendances no matter what is not good. Ireland v Georgia at half (at best) filled Croke Park (I hoping we can somehow convince\command\bribe the Gah into making headquarters a permanent sporting home.) would not be a pretty sight. Ireland's rugby has done so well of late due to the exploding national profile it's got in the past 10 years. We don't want to back to the 90s when we regularly thrashed by France and England and the grassroots game was a mess, surely?

How these teams would be encorporated though is a big question; hell Italy has problem arranging Autumn tours as it is. Never mind Georgia, etc.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I have to say, things don't really look promising for us, at all, at all, at all...

Go Tonga, now I guess...

[afleitch]

42-0 to Scotland against Romania.

Glad it was a solid performance

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Big game tonight.. So I expect us to show up.

But we'll still lose though.. wouldn't be surprised at another last minute try for the French. Something like 29-26.

[Јas]

Big game tonight.. So I expect us to show up.

But we'll still lose though.. wouldn't be surprised at another last minute try for the French. Something like 29-26.

Judging by the performances so far, I'd suggest your scoreline predicition is optimistic.
I'll predict a late French score to deprive Ireland of a bonus point, something like 22-10.

[Јas]

25-3; so endeth the Irish World Cup effort...