The Rugby Union Thread

TJT1979 · September 2023

Congrats Ireland. What a match!!

ewal · September 2023

That's true.

Congratulations Ireland. They always find a way.

sev112 · September 2023

South Africa showing that not having a real kicker is a bad bet

fretmeister · September 2023

What a great game! Thoroughly enjoyed that.

camf · September 2023

Superb stuff!

Philly_Q · September 2023

I don't really follow rugby, but they play some good music at the end of these World Cup matches!

Jonathangus · September 2023

That was intense. Glad Ireland didn't regret turning down kicks in the first half.

tbm · September 2023

If we’d had a line out in the first 20 mins we might have had another try, but if they had a kicker….

Loads of energy in defence. That was pleasing.

exocet · September 2023

That was a great match. S.A blew it with their 7/1 approach. Connor Murray knew exactly what he was doing at that last scrum.

TimmyO · September 2023

Yes but surely you play Steward at fullback when you play a team that are capable of putting the fullback under pressure. For any number of reasons, but chief among them that he’s one of the best in the world at it.

Gulliver · September 2023

sev112 said:

Harsh on Malins, he has been fine for England at a time when lots of people have been crap. His problem is that fine is not enough for an international winger, he is not fast enough.

The thing is, I don't think England have been selecting wingers for speed - May, Daly and Malins all seem to lack speed these days, Arundell put on a bloody good display of what happens when you allow fast wingers to get the ball and run with it...

Arundell might get a run out against Samoa, but I doubt he'll have a place in the QFs or later - he's too exciting and doesn't kick the ball every 17 seconds so doesn't fit the England game plan.

hywelg · September 2023

tbm said:

If we’d had a line out in the first 20 mins we might have had another try, but if they had a kicker….

Loads of energy in defence. That was pleasing.

Yes what went wrong with the first 4 lineouts? And then, as if they threw a switch they all went right. So many attacking chances spoiled because if those failures. Noticed later in the match that Ireland spoiled a couple of SA lineouts because they noticed that SA were very predictable. Etzebeth would jump and then the thrower would send the ball to him so Ireland would send their jumper up as soon as Etzebeth left the ground.

Still, glad they won and they did deserve to.

crunchman · September 2023

hywelg said:

tbm said:

If we’d had a line out in the first 20 mins we might have had another try, but if they had a kicker….

Loads of energy in defence. That was pleasing.

Yes what went wrong with the first 4 lineouts? And then, as if they threw a switch they all went right. So many attacking chances spoiled because if those failures. Noticed later in the match that Ireland spoiled a couple of SA lineouts because they noticed that SA were very predictable. Etzebeth would jump and then the thrower would send the ball to him so Ireland would send their jumper up as soon as Etzebeth left the ground.

Still, glad they won and they did deserve to.

Later in the match SA didn't have a proper hooker to throw into the lineout. They actually got pinged for a throw that was not straight.

Rocker · September 2023

Here in Ireland the Boks match was hyped up beyond belief by all the radio and TV stations. Despite a fumbled start, somehow Ireland found a way to win the game. I have no idea how but they did. The next game for Ireland is against Scotland, another tough assignment. The Boks are not out of the tournament, why Handre Pollard was not on the bench is simply beyond my understanding of team selection. Why call him up and not use his amazing skills? If Ireland

tbm · September 2023

hywelg said:

tbm said:

If we’d had a line out in the first 20 mins we might have had another try, but if they had a kicker….

Loads of energy in defence. That was pleasing.

Yes what went wrong with the first 4 lineouts? And then, as if they threw a switch they all went right. So many attacking chances spoiled because if those failures. Noticed later in the match that Ireland spoiled a couple of SA lineouts because they noticed that SA were very predictable. Etzebeth would jump and then the thrower would send the ball to him so Ireland would send their jumper up as soon as Etzebeth left the ground.

Still, glad they won and they did deserve to.

Dunno. Reminded me of when Best used to get the line out yips. But we recovered. POM just called the next 2/3 line outs to himself, and that settled the team. But 3 of the 4 were attacking lineouts, and we’ve a good conversion rate on those normally.

I rewatched and I think the missed kicks are a bit of a red herring. Yeah the were missed, but two of them were from over 50m. Why didn’t they go the the corner? They didn’t fancy it. Ireland defence was excellent all game.

Offset · September 2023

Various friends at various grounds in France to watch various games this weekend. In common with our experience in Marseille, the organisation has been utterly appalling. Massive and dangerous queues to get in and out of stadia, stampedes on the Metro in Paris (that was last night after the RSA game), hour-long queues for beer in the ground (when it hadn't run out) and the French hospitality business just not giving a toss about serving a mass captive audience. We couldn't even get a drink at the bar of our £600 a night hotel after Eng v Arg. And the hotel was full of rugby fans. Just atrocious.

There needs to be a really serious examination of France's ability to host this type of event in future. The warning signs were there long before the Liverpool Champions League Final debacle - I was at Fra v Eng at the Stade de France in the 6 nations some years back and it was chaos at best and a disaster waiting to happen at worst.

A South African friend who was at least night's game said he wouldn't watch another rugby international in France if he was paid to do so. And I'm with him.

Gassage · September 2023

Offset said:

Various friends at various grounds in France to watch various games this weekend. In common with our experience in Marseille, the organisation has been utterly appalling. Massive and dangerous queues to get in and out of stadia, stampedes on the Metro in Paris (that was last night after the RSA game), hour-long queues for beer in the ground (when it hadn't run out) and the French hospitality business just not giving a toss about serving a mass captive audience. We couldn't even get a drink at the bar of our £600 a night hotel after Eng v Arg. And the hotel was full of rugby fans. Just atrocious.

There needs to be a really serious examination of France's ability to host this type of event in future. The warning signs were there long before the Liverpool Champions League Final debacle - I was at Fra v Eng at the Stade de France in the 6 nations some years back and it was chaos at best and a disaster waiting to happen at worst.

A South African friend who was at least night's game said he wouldn't watch another rugby international in France if he was paid to do so. And I'm with him.

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/865bf77ca668ee31fb3a5bd79b730011b8b42ccf25607d9577

So, last night we (the rugby writers, who are an actually body) had arranged our flash interview with Arundell.

We have four pre-agreed interview stages, done professionally and formally:

1. Flash Interview- soundbites from player in tunnel immediately after final whistle as he comes off for social media. (Henry)
2. Top Table Presser (on youtube) Steve and Owen.
3. SB private briefing
4. Four players after match

Take an hour or so, and we all pool the interviews between those journos at the match.

Will Kelleher, Times, drew the short straw of the Arundell int. Headed down to meet Henry WITH England Comms and World Rugby comms present, starts recording, three French heavies charge in and assault Will and drag Arundell away. It was obscene. Literally assault.

It then spilled over as the liaison woman (Helen) started to get all feisty and protective despite this being mostly her/their fault. Literally, we spent the presser with fists clenched waiting for it to all tee off again with one former recent substantial England player, now a pundit, turning round to one of the French guys and asking him if he 'wanted some.' (he declined, quite wisely).

it was fucking outrageous. Will was doing his job as agreed and he was pretty shaken afterwards.

Offset · September 2023

@Gassage ;;;James, not remotely surprised. The whole thing to date has been a debacle. The thing is - how does the strength of feeling from both fans and pundits/journos translate into palpable action? Just about anyone who knows anything about French event management (or lack thereof) knew this was the inevitable outcome - so how do we communicate this isn't acceptable and can't be allowed to happen again? In other words, France can't hold this type of tournament again?

The low point for us was having to help a couple in their mid-70s trying to get out of the Velodrome in Marseille after the Argentina game. The chap was using a stick and was bad on his pins; his wife was in tears as she was scared shitless he'd be swept off his feet and trampled. There was no assistance from any kind of event officials (well, there were no event officials to be seen, period) and the couple were pretty traumatised.

'Outrageous' is the word alright. God help anyone attending the Olympics next year.

Fingers657 · September 2023

The French security and police were totally evil not letting Liverpool fans and children into the Euro football final a couple of years ago.
Emmanuel Macron keeps on about how much the French love the English.
It’s all rubbish.
The French hate the English and always have.

Fingers657 · September 2023

Scotland are having a good game against Tonga

ewal · September 2023

Good to see Horne and Graham get some decent game time. Job done I suppose.

camf · September 2023

Good(ish) performance. Some eye-catching rugby, though. I’m biased, obvs, but they do play in an entertaining way.

MagicPigDetective · September 2023

The hour of reckoning approaches... equally excited and nervous, ready to go through the whole spectrum of emotions.

Good win for Scotland. I don't think many will fancy your chances against Ireland. They were incredible last night - what a match that was, I enjoyed it immensely.

ewal · September 2023

camf said:

Good(ish) performance. Some eye-catching rugby, though. I’m biased, obvs, but they do play in an entertaining way.

I'm just about to board a sleeper from Graz to Split, so didn't see it. The boy says we left a lot of points out there, but Finn was class. Wee George Horne and Darcy Graham are always good fun to watch.

scrumhalf · September 2023

Well, that was an interesting start...

camf · September 2023

ewal said:

camf said:

Good(ish) performance. Some eye-catching rugby, though. I’m biased, obvs, but they do play in an entertaining way.

I'm just about to board a sleeper from Graz to Split, so didn't see it. The boy says we left a lot of points out there, but Finn was class. Wee George Horne and Darcy Graham are always good fun to watch.

The boy is spot on. Performances were good across the board, I thought, but still too many mistakes. Darge and Kinghorn had decent games too.

digitalscream · September 2023

Gotta say, I didn't see this coming.

Starting to look pretty good for Fiji, if I'm not mistaken.

MaxA867 · September 2023

Eddie are you okay, are you okay Eddie?

scrumhalf · September 2023

Looks like Calamity Jones has managed to bugger up two national teams in record time.

hywelg · September 2023

Take the Japan job Eddie....

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