Rugby World Cup 2011

Vortrog · Post by **Vortrog** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:31 pm

I didnt watch France vs Tonga, but Tonga is not a weak team.

Samoa deserved a win vs the Boks.

My shock was Georgia beating Romania. Obviously the Georgians were wearing Garlic Cloves and were drenched in Holy water...only explaination

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:45 pm

Methinks the Wallabies are going to lose.

All the quarter-final matches look like they are going to be close, except for NZ vs Argentina.

Vortrog · Post by **Vortrog** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:42 pm

Factors to consider:

Australia
In - David Pocock
In - Digby Ioane

South Africa
Out - Frans Steyn (Injured vs Samoa)

That is a significant shift in power for both teams. More Australian ball from Pocock coupled with less South African backline attack (not to mention 60m penalty shots) means Australia will have the advantage starting off, and SA will rely on milking penalties for Morne Steyn to convert in lieu of scoring 5 pointers.

Had Steyn remained, I (dont tell my countrymen) would have been secretly hedging my bets. He would kick and run them to victory.

I am feeling that there will be no tries or at best 1 from the Boks and lots of driving mauls for close goal kicks vs. serious running rugby from the Wallabies.

If the weather gets crap....it will be anyones game

Phalanxe · Post by **Phalanxe** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:15 pm

HSharp wrote:QUOTE (HSharp @ Oct 3 2011, 03:45 PM) Methinks the Wallabies are going to lose.

All the quarter-final matches look like they are going to be close, except for NZ vs Argentina.

Of course we know argentina is favourite.

oh well... see ya guys on the "Three" Nations.

Post by **Raveen** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:21 am

Remembering to make my predictions before the games this time!

Gandalf2 · Post by **Gandalf2** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:37 am

Raveen wrote:QUOTE (Raveen @ Oct 6 2011, 12:21 PM) Remembering to make my predictions before the games this time!

I will send an email round tonight to everyone.

3 of the quarter fianls should be *brilliant* games. I'm really looking forwards to it, especially the first one obviously. I don't know how much sleep I'm going to get on Friday night, considering I had an awful night's sleep when Wales were playing Samoa....

Some general observations...
- ITVs' commentators hero-worship of Wilkinson is hilarious at times. He misses lots of kicks, scores one and they are "ah you can't keep a true great down! He's the man to turn to!" Say what?? Look at the facts, he's kicked, what, 43% of place-kicks so far this tournament? That's bad.... just bad.
- Wales starting with Priestland at fly-half... I'm not so sure. He's done well but Stephhe's mainly been there becuase Stephen Jones has been injured. Now he's back I'd bring him back in. Still though, best of luck to the lad. I guess Hook is still a bit injured which is why he's still on the bench... one heck of a player to have on for the last 20-30 minutes though.
- I'd be pleasantly suprised if we see more than 5 tries in the 2 games on Friday, kicking will probably dominate.
- I wonder who will be taking the penalties for England now they've picked Flood & Wilkinson....

QUOTE My shock was Georgia beating Romania.[/quote]
I guess you didn't watch them play England, Georgia were really quite good & unlucky to be behind at half-time before tiring in the 2nd half (plus England played better 2nd half). They put in a decent performance against Scotland too. They are my most-improved minor nation of the world cup.

Post by **Raveen** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:24 am

I agree with Gandy, the only QF winner I would comfortably like to pick is the All Blacks. SA vs Convicts, Sheeplovers vs Tattie Munchers and The Glorious England vs the Despicable Frogs could all go either way.

I'd pick England, Ireland and SA if you forced me to (and you have

) but I don't have much confidence.

Gandalf2 · Post by **Gandalf2** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:20 am

Wales-Ireland was a brilliant game. I don't think I've ever seen such a fantastic performance from Wales before... amazing. Finally living up to their massive potential. I'm so proud of them & very excitable at the moment

I'd fancy them against whoever wins the cripple fight that is France-England. Half-time at the moment, England are playing mediocre stuff as they have done all world cup, and France are playing some good stuff which they haven't really done at all so far apart from the first 15 minutes against NZ. The two France tries have come from some impressively bad defending from England... no way would they have scored those against Wales. But then, England haven't really played anyone who is any good at scoring tries so far this World Cup so they're out of practice

Vortrog · Post by **Vortrog** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:34 am

Ill save my post about the 2nd game until after aus vs sa
Gj wales but worrying for wales is lack of x factor plays. They will need them vs southerr hemisphere teams

Gandalf2 · Post by **Gandalf2** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:37 am

Vortrog wrote:QUOTE (Vortrog @ Oct 8 2011, 10:34 AM) Gj wales but worrying for wales is lack of x factor plays. They will need them vs southerr hemisphere teams

Yeah sure, because we were nowhere near good enough to beating South Africa a few weeks ago were we?

I honestly think if we carry on playing like that, in attack and defence, we have every chance of winning the whole thing.