RWC2007

Brady Kelly

I think we'll beat Samoa on Sunday. It also looks like New Zealand will beet the rest of their pool match group.

I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. - W. Somerset Maugham My New Blog

Fred_Smith

Yeah... we're gonna thrash you! :sigh:.. alright, we won't, :(( but I just wanted to say it anyway! :-D

Matthew Faithfull

My prediction is it will be a great spectacle, a lot of good hard fought games, probably spoiled by a handful of unfortunate injuries to key players (especially in teams playing against France and Australia) and the 'tactics' otherwise known as cheating of the All Blacks who will ultimately win anyway and probably could do so without ruining the game.:sigh: My hope is that a few fantastic, memorable, well refereed, fairly played, close games, like France-Argentina last time will redeem the whole tournament and make it worth watching. Anyone in Cardiff for the Wales-Japan match, I'll see you there.:)

Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.

KaRl

It's a world cup, anything could happen on one game, it would not be the first time we would be eliminated by England - Question is, how many English players will survive the game vs South Africa?

RWC2007: Jour J - 1 Fold with us! ¤ flickr

_Damian S_

Wallabies all the way!!

------------------------------------------- Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Just bugger off and leave me alone!!

KaRl

Matthew Faithfull wrote:

the 'tactics' otherwise known as cheating of the All Blacks

For instance?

Matthew Faithfull wrote:

My hope is that a few fantastic, memorable, well refereed, fairly played, close game

They are many unpredictable games during this first stage. Ireland or Argentina? Ireland and Argentina? Scotland or Italy? Could England surprise the Boks? Wales vs Australia will be interesting too.

RWC2007: Jour J - 1 Fold with us! ¤ flickr

KaRl

If the Australian scrum did not improve, it will be all the way back! ;-P

RWC2007: Jour J - 1 Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Matthew Faithfull

K(arl) wrote:

Matthew Faithfull wrote: the 'tactics' otherwise known as cheating of the All Blacks For instance?

Well, forward passes (denied even when blatent), standing offside for minutes at a time, intimidation of referees, acquiring lenience from officials and commentators through having the same sponsor as the entire tournament and therefore a back door via the people paying for it to those running it, off the ball blocking, interfering on the floor, bad scrumaging, physically playing the referee etc. I have no doubt that they would counter that every team does the same things, All Blacks just do it better but that sort of attitude is what's wrong with the game. Of course they only go to these lengths when their backs are to the wall and that doesn't happen too often. One classic example was the NZ-ENG game, not in the last world cup but the one before, where all these factors combined to practically ruin the tournament with one of the worst refereed, worst played and worst commentated games ever telivised. At one point Dallaglio actually picked up one of the NZ players held him in the air over his head like a weight lifer and hurled him bodily accross the field. He did this openly right in front of the referee who could do nothing because he would have had to acknowledge the All Black player had been standing offside for about a minute and a half at that point. The commentator (specially brought in for the match) entirely failed to acknowledge what was happening in front of him because he was too busy reading from the script supplied to him for the game (probably by the All Black-Tournament co-sponsors) which required him to read out a eulogy for a different All Black player every 2 minutes whether he was involved in the game at the time or not. The game becomes a farse once the ref is biased and the commentator blinded. With any luck things have moved on and we'll have a great tournament. Rugby at its best is without doubt the best team sport to watch on television and I would love to see a straight, clean tournament raise its profile.

Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.

Rich Leyshon

As someone said on TV last night, it's New Zealand's to lose. Can't see anyone else in the frame except Australia (need to improve lots but they are capable) or France (can be brilliant when things are going well). S. Africans seem to have gone down hill. Was amazed to read a UK poll the other day where voters decided England were massive favourites with twice the percentage of votes of the All Blacks! There again, according to the fans and the press, England were going to retain the Ashes in Australia and win the last (and every) football World Cup. They would have done too if it wasn't for the slight problem of most of the other teams being better than them at football. I'll be supporting Wales but we need a miracle if we are to do anything at all. I suspect we are the world's leading team for knock ons! Rich

Dave Thomson

Scotland to win :)