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**Rugby World Cup 2011**

#21
I'm looking forward to this, especially since England are the best northern hemisphere team. A small abberation against Wales a couple of weeks ago and Ireland spoiling last years grand slam party can't take away from the fact that we're still 6 nations champions and dominant. - we also went some way to rectifying the indignity that Ireland put upon us in last year's six nations with an emphatic win last Saturday
 
#24
Jools4001 said:
I'm looking forward to this, especially since England are the best northern hemisphere team. A small abberation against Wales a couple of weeks ago and Ireland spoiling last years grand slam party can't take away from the fact that we're still 6 nations champions and dominant. - we also went some way to rectifying the indignity that Ireland put upon us in last year's six nations with an emphatic win last Saturday
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I wouldn't take these test matches to mean much. It's just a way of blooding some new players (heck, Scotland beat Ireland a few weeks back).

While England may hold the 6 nations currently, as they aren't taking 100% wins, they still have the chance of being knocked out. I think England would be hard pressed against France (and a full strength Ireland) tbh. Heck, even playing Scotland in the 6 nations was hairy for you guys, and that was at home, with a fox no less! I don't think there is any one dominant team in the north at the mo.
 
#25
i_got_a_mohawk said:
I wouldn't take these test matches to mean much. It's just a way of blooding some new players (heck, Scotland beat Ireland a few weeks back).

While England may hold the 6 nations currently, as they aren't taking 100% wins, they still have the chance of being knocked out. I think England would be hard pressed against France (and a full strength Ireland) tbh. Heck, even playing Scotland in the 6 nations was hairy for you guys, and that was at home, with a fox no less! I don't think there is any one dominant team in the north at the mo.
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Ha ha..you've got a point...especially about the fox... but why should that be a barrier to jingoistic banter?

I don't think we'll match the southern hemisphere teams, but, we'll live in hope. I'm sure I don't need to give you Scots guys any lessons about living in hope though ;)
 
#27
i_got_a_mohawk said:
Are they going forward with the 4 nations?

It's been on the cards for a fair while, but Argentina were dragging heels about joining. Granted, over the first few years, Argentina will get humped, but they will certainly become a stronger team for it.
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It sure will be great for Argentina.

Apparently this year's team is not as strong as we were in the last world cup. A friend of mine used to say how Rugby is a really predictable sport, unlike football (soccer I mean, I don't know much about the one played in the states!) It's not that hard to envision what team comes strongest to the world cup and is most probably going to win the cup. Things don't usually change much for the teams in the couple of months prior to the world cup.
Of course there's always room for surprises, but they don't happen much in rugby, even though games can always be exciting.
Vamos PUMAS!!
 
#30
i_got_a_mohawk said:
Are they going forward with the 4 nations?

It's been on the cards for a fair while, but Argentina were dragging heels about joining. Granted, over the first few years, Argentina will get humped, but they will certainly become a stronger team for it.
Click to expand...

It'll be a good thing about Argentina becoming part of the four nations. I'm wondering if Argentinan players will be eligible for the Rugby Super 15 competition.
 
#32
Hmm, the AB were beaten by the Wallabies a week ago in the final game of the Tri-nations, so they're not unbeatable.

Last WC they were beaten by France :)

Although I don't expect France to cause much of an upset this time, Lièvremont is a **** coach imo, he did the opposite of Martin Johnson, instead of building a team for the WC, he was still trying out new squads in the latest 6N :eek:

Looking forward to seeing Samoa & Fiji playing, these Islanders can cause a real upset if they play like a team, get their set pieces together (notably the line out) and tackle legally.

I think England could go a long way, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, not so much...France maybe. Italy? Dunno, I think they can beat any European squad except England, but I don't think they'll last against the SH teams.
 
#33
Jools4001 said:
Ha ha..you've got a point...especially about the fox... but why should that be a barrier to jingoistic banter?

I don't think we'll match the southern hemisphere teams, but, we'll live in hope. I'm sure I don't need to give you Scots guys any lessons about living in hope though ;)
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Hey, say what you want to say, but we beat South Africa last year, so we can pull out the guns at times :spit:

I do think that England are the strongest team in the north, it's the lack of dominance that'll make it interesting (ie, no sure-fire wins).



jmorbita said:
It sure will be great for Argentina.

Apparently this year's team is not as strong as we were in the last world cup. A friend of mine used to say how Rugby is a really predictable sport, unlike football (soccer I mean, I don't know much about the one played in the states!) It's not that hard to envision what team comes strongest to the world cup and is most probably going to win the cup. Things don't usually change much for the teams in the couple of months prior to the world cup.
Of course there's always room for surprises, but they don't happen much in rugby, even though games can always be exciting.
Vamos PUMAS!!
Click to expand...

I agree, I just didnt realise they had actually accepted the invite (as said, it's been on the cards for a while).

The timing of this WC isn't great for Argentina, they have a very mixed squad, some great vets in there and a lot of new bloods. But Contepomi leading the Pumas is always going to be a strong team.
 
#34
i_got_a_mohawk said:
I agree, I just didnt realise they had actually accepted the invite (as said, it's been on the cards for a while).

The timing of this WC isn't great for Argentina, they have a very mixed squad, some great vets in there and a lot of new bloods. But Contepomi leading the Pumas is always going to be a strong team.
Click to expand...

True... four nations will surely help, giving the team more matches in the year and opporunity to play against stronger teams.

Sadly, we don't get to see the pumas play much. Granted, I'm not a huge crazy rugby fun, but I'm sure most other teams have many more matches during the year than the pumas do. so it's great they'll get more official competition.
 
#35
Too true. Competition with the top 3 teams in the world at that!

6 nations teams get 5 games from that, plus UK teams tend to have 2-3 test matches around autumn each year. Plus a few mixed games here and there. The games Scotland played against Argentina, in Argentina, either last year or the year before, were amazing. I'm still amazed we won. The standard of rugby on those fields was insane, and the Puma forwards are not people to be ****ed with!
 
#40
wow.

I remember as a kid playing rugby ( I played till I was 20) there were a few teams that were obviously trained to cheat. I mean, coaches telling kids exactly what to do on racks and mauls in order to cheat and get advantages. A couple of teams were even prone to biting during mauls. No kidding!
I'm proud to say for what I can remember my coaches mostly told us to play by the rules. (there was always the deliberate kicking or stepping on that guy that was deliberately offside or tried to block the ball with no regards to the rules... :ninja:)
 

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