The Official Rugby World Cup 2007 Thread

Quarter finals would've been an adequate placing considering the shambles of the last four years (in which time the rest of the world game has moved on - witness the Argentinians as a prime example). The last four games have been about guts, character and brutally effective 'in-your-face' rugby, and Ashton's ability to make the players believe in themselves, and ruthlessly analyse opposition weaknesses is paying dividends. He deserves enormous credit: he has always had a reputation for innovative attacking rugby, but has shown in the last 4 games that he can put in place the right gameplan to win. In the latter stages of tournaments, that's all you need. Group games are all about long passes in the three quarters and wingers scoring hat-tricks, but strategy and tactics win trophies.
 
I have to admit, that after the excitment of the last finals, followed by the doldrums, I had been watching this tournament with a quiet feeling of 'if we get through the groups it wil be victory', and not making a song and dance about it. But the recent games have shown a spirit to grind out a victory. It wasnt pretty, and I dont know nearly enough about the rules to make any comments about tactics, but they have looked like a team that was going to go down fighting, and because of that have ground out a result. Much kudos to coach and players for that! (y)
 
And here I thought the final would be France vs Argentina:bonk:

Good thing I am not a bookie:D

Well done to England, pity I didn't watch the game!
 
Anton Roland said:
And here I thought the final would be France vs Argentina:bonk:

Good thing I am not a bookie:D

Well done to England, pity I didn't watch the game!
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:D Well it's England South Africa Anton ;)

England are the underdogs but, as this world cup has shown, you can't take anything for granted :D
 
Grendel said:
:D Well it's England South Africa Anton ;)

England are the underdogs but, as this world cup has shown, you can't take anything for granted :D
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So true!:D

But then England has the cup and surely they will not let go easily, will they?

Especially after such a comeback?(y)
 
Wish i had put some money on England getting to the finals:crying:

Lets hope that the final is a good and exciting game, may the best team win :clap::D
 
Have to say that of course, as a Welshman, I would be supporting Wales if they'd have managed to get to the last 8 - but heck... we're used to this eh! - but as was the case against Australia, and on Saturday against France... next Saturday I shall be firmly supporting England and the boot of the fantastic Mr W.

I think the 36-0 win for SA when they played in the qualifying rounds will be a long forgotten result - for both sides. England had a wake up call after that game... and as we have seen in their following games, they have certainly woken up! I don't think SA will be resting on their laurels either... they'll know that they won't get the same English performance as they did 36 days prior to the final.

I'd put money on England winning it actually, and of becoming the first team ever to retain the Rugby World Cup...

Now... wouldn't it be simply brilliant if it were another drop goal!!
 
theMusicMan said:
I'd put money on England winning it actually, and of becoming the first team ever to retain the Rugby World Cup...

Now... wouldn't it be simply brilliant if it were another drop goal!!
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It certainly would :D I can still remember jumping over the coffee table and knocking over a lamp when Jonny drop kicked us the win 4 years ago :LOL:
 
birdy961 said:
Wish i had put some money on England getting to the finals:crying:

Lets hope that the final is a good and exciting game, may the best team win :clap::D
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A Tenner at the odds you probably could have got immediately after the last time we played SA would probably have bought you a nice new lens :LOL:


I rather like Ashtons comments that they wont train much this week, as the less they train the better they play "probably something to do with my coaching" :LOL:
 
Blast - must keep on trying
 
Well done SA. They were the better team. Mods can we lock this thread now;):p:D
 
Huge congratulations to South Africa, they were the best team and deserved the win.

However, I have to say, what does is say for our football team when a losing rugby team makes me feel 100% more proud of their efforts than any win the equivalent football team have managed recently?

Well done England, your tried your very best, and NO ONE can ask more than that, thankyou! :notworthy:
 
Agreed, they tried and in my opinion played better than against France but they just didn't have enough.

My wife is South African, so i had to beat my lip quite a bit, but admit the best team won in the end.
 
We're gutted but the boys (20 year olds) got naked up the club last night and danced around so that made up for it.
 
I think that all of us in Taffyland are very grateful that they lost, as we would have it rammed down our throats by the media for the next four years, let alone a propable Sir Johnny Wilkinson!
But as has been said before, the best team won
 
Well I'd put it slightly differently.

I am not grateful that England lost as I wanted them to win, but I am grateful though that it now won't be rammed down our throats for the next 4 years :) Great win in 2003, no scrap that last comment... a superb win actually, but you gotta experience that 'ramming down your throat by the media' to know how infuriating it became.
 
I think that England showed true spirit and played the game as it should be played, not one person in the team moaned about the "try" decision, can you imagine the football team doing the same! The ref's decision is final and everyone accepted that.:D I get what you all mean about the media though, must be extremely tiring to have it rammed down your throat, the joy's of the british press:shrug:
 
On the contrary, I believe there is a lot of truth in what he says about the standard of coaching and that goes for the Welsh and Scottish unions as well, I also think that the hierarchy need to be replaced, that is from the coach up!!
It has to be said that England did extreamly well considering the age of most of there players but unless they start bringing on younger players then god help them in 2011 !
 
I think Ashton's weakness is dealing with the media - he is better equipped just being a coach, and a backs coach at that.

Thing is, I believe that in the upper echelons of all international sport, coaches don't always know the right anwers, and should discuss matters with their players for the best overall outcome. Dallaglio's attitude disappoints me. I'll bet he would not've been half as forthright if a) he didn't have a book to promote and b) had demonstrated before and during the RWC that he was half the player he was between 2000 and 2004, thereby making himself an automatic pick.

I agree with your allusions about the structure of the game across the UK and Ireland, though. The most disappointing side in the RWC were the Irish, and the Welsh were embarassing at times - so is that down to coaching? Or organisation? Either way, we will continue to fall behind the rest of the world if the status quo remains. Bring the Argies into the 6N too to shake it up!
 
marky_h said:
The most disappointing side in the RWC were the Irish...
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... and the most disappointing result in the RWC was... need I say more?
marky_h said:
...and the Welsh were embarassing at times...
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... see above... :)

Having made my point, I do agree with you regarding coaching standards in the UK and Irish teams. It goes to show when you have class at the helm such as Sir Clive, and more recently for Wales, Mr. Hanson (who was thrown out unceremoniously) they do a far greater job and their value is immense.
 
I was disappointed that England lost in the final, but not distraught, because we'd been so poor since winning in Australia that I expected a quarter-final exit at best, and so I felt we overachieved at the time. However, looking back at it now, it's the intervening 4 years that disappoint me most, and that has everything to do with club vs country rows, and little to do with coaching. That's what I mean by 'falling behind' - I think the southern hemisphere nations prize international representation in rugby above the club game, whereas we don't. The Heineken cup is more lucrative and hence gets higher priority than internationals. This issue is what Rob Andrew was brought in to sort out, and I see little progress so far.

It's a similar story in football, although there's a bigger marketing and TV income debate to be had there. Sky have rejuvenated (financially) top-end football in England, to the point where the national side falls to a lowly third behind the prestige of the Premier and Champion's leagues.
 
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