Rugby Union

[CG123]

Official RWC 2015 Site - Fixture and Results

The RWC 2015 fixtures are out, our quarter-final's probably going to be at Millennium Stadium again...

 

[MrNginator]

Official RWC 2015 Site - Fixture and Results

The RWC 2015 fixtures are out, our quarter-final's probably going to be at Millennium Stadium again...

Only cause Wayne Barnes was the ref, and guess what. He's reffing the first match of the All Blacks vs France, how surprising.

 

[CG123]

Only cause Wayne Barnes was the ref, and guess what. He's reffing the first match of the All Blacks vs France, how surprising.

 

[Sedition]

What did South Africa do to get put in the easiest pool of the comp? Can understand NZ and France getting easy pools after being the finalists of the previous WC, but pretty ridiculous when the Boks were thrown out in the QF against us.

 

[CG123]

What did South Africa do to get put in the easiest pool of the comp? Can understand NZ and France getting easy pools after being the finalists of the previous WC, but pretty ridiculous when the Boks were thrown out in the QF against us.

The top three teams in each of the pools at the 2011 WC automatically qualified, and they got put into three bands according to their ranking:

Band 1 - New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France
Band 2 - England, Ireland, Samoa, Argentina
Band 3 - Wales, Italy, Tonga, Scotland

So after that it was just luck that you guys drew the 5th and 9th ranked teams.

 

[CG123]

The biggest weekend of the season coming up for the New Zealand teams, with two massive local derbies. Also the Blues tough run home starts now, with four of our last six matches being against current top seven teams, and the other two being away against the Sharks and the Highlanders.

 

[CG123]

What a performance last night, those 2nd and 3rd tries were something special. To defend 26+ phases on your own line, force the opposition into a drop kick, charge it down, and then go down the other end and score is something that few other teams would be able to do.

 

[Chewie]

Those two tries were awesome

 

[CG123]

Deans finally gone, now Australia might actually be half decent. He probably knew that he was going to go and just wanted to take the piss by playing the most overrated player in the world O'Connor at 10. Not even any of the Australian Super teams want him.

 

[CG123]

Two seasons ago the Chiefs were the worst New Zealand team (10th overall) and the Brumbies were the 2nd worst Australian team (13th overall)!

 

[Abner007]

Rugby is also a good but dangerous game. Honestly speaking i am afraid when some body told me that he play that game. But the one thing that i would like to mention that the muscles of rugby's player was too strong. Anyway be careful who play that game.

Who We Are !

 

[w3lshrugby]

Having seen the first couple of weeks of the Rugby Championship, it appears the SH rugby world is in a pretty similar position to the past few years. NZ look above and beyond the best team - although Aus/SA can run them (fairly) close in their home nations. Australia don't look much different since the Lions hammering and will struggle in SA and Argentina. SA looked very good at home, but then struggled over in Argentina so it's hard to say whether or not they will be able to challenge NZ for the title.

Argentina look like building on a promising first season despite their walloping in the first test v SA. They deserved to beat the Saffers 2nd time round and hopefully can pick up that elusive first win v Aus this year!

Predictions:
1. NZ; 2. SA; 3= Aus/Arg.

 

[CG123]

The last couple of weeks have shown why the Ranfurly Shield is without doubt the greatest prize in NZ domestic sport - Otago breaking a 56 year drought, followed nine days later by Hawke's Bay breaking a 44 year drought. Bring on Saturday - Auckland (my 1st team) playing at 2.30, then the Shield at 4.30 between my 3rd team Hawke's Bay and my 2nd team Counties Manukau who have never won it before, followed by the Test!

 

[w3lshrugby]

CG - that is exciting news! How do you see the state of the international scene in the run up to 2015?

 

[CG123]

CG - that is exciting news! How do you see the state of the international scene in the run up to 2015?

New Zealand - What can I say, we've lost one of our last 26 Tests, and that was at the end of a long season.

Aussie - They've got some good players, but they just don't really seem to fit together. Atm they're still rebuilding post Deans, and after those two Tests against us they haven't started heading in the right direction yet.

SA - I didn't see much of their two Tests against Argentina, but they're always going to be a force at home and drop a peg or two when playing away. Picking players from overseas is starting to take a bit of a toll on their domestic game, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out over the next couple of years.

England - Probably the team I'm most worried about, with them playing at home in 2015 and having a good youngish team.

Wales - I think they'll be glad to have Gatland etc. back after losing to Japan. Since the RWC draw when they were sitting in 9th which caused the pool of death, they've been on the improve. Smashed England in the Six Nations.

Argentina - Should improve with more matches against NZ, Aus, SA, and in 2015 they should face either France or Ireland in the quarters which gives them an alright chance of making the semis.