Rugby World Cup 2011

Hi all,

if you don't follow rugby, just close this thread and move on.

My little country is shaken and stirred by the Rugby World Cup 2011, which we have the honour to host this year.

Not surprising, as a native German, rugby did not exist for the first 40 or so years of my life. After settling in New Zealand, though, that was bound to change, of course. But it's quite a learning curve for someone who was brought up on football (or "soccer", for those other nations).

I've successfully dodged rugby for the better part of the last ten years, but now I feel I have to make the effort. A friend recently introduced me to the rugby rules, or "laws" as I've learned I should call them, and to the fact that there are several distinct varieties, like League, Union, Ozzie Rules, etc.

Fine.

So, I'm trying to get my head around the League "laws". It's hard. Not so much because of comprehension challenges, -- once you find someone who is eloquent enough to actually put words to the rules, it's really starting to make sense -- but more because of the (genetically induced??) conditioning that makes me want to claim every tackle as a foul, or that grabbing the ball with your hands is a no-no. These things are hard to overcome.

These last few days, we've been watching a lot of rugby on the telly. I find myself sitting on the sofa, framed by my two boys, to whom the concepts of rugby seem to come as easily as eating "Weet-Bix" for "brekkie". Being taught by an eight-year-old can be quite enlightening. Sobering, even.

Is anyone here interested in the RWC? How does it compare to a (Soccer) Football World Cup? Less, same, or more interest?

For the last Football World Cup, we've seen spreadsheets posted and bets being taken. The RWC does not seem to attract that kind of interest.

Are you following following the RWC? If so, which games have you watched? Which teams do you peg for a chance at the cup?

Since I don't really have a clue, please enlighten me: Do the All Blacks stand a chance at all?

cheers,

The ABs are firm favourites, as they always are. Having France in their group stage should help them immensely.
RWC is far more important than FWC. I was literally shaking with adrenaline/nerves watching the last five minutes of Ireland v Australia (thankfully, the right result!)
I think the ABs might actually win this one, barring injuries to McCaw or, more importantly I think, Carter. The odds make it not worth betting on though (they were 1000-1 on to beat Tonga in the first match!)

Whew! Thanks for that. I'm of course all for praise for the All Blacks.

I'm not a massive rugby fan but always watch the Six Nations and World Cup (although the times of the games have been a big problem this year).

The All Blacks always stand more than a good chance!!! They have consistently been the team to beat as far back as I can remember. Although I'd like to think that if England play well they could beat anyone on their day and have despite the fact we rely far too much on our kicking game these days. When we won the RWC in 2003 the Aussies did us a favour and knocked NZ out although I think then we were probably good enough to beat them.

I was lucky to have a friend who got me regular free tickets to go and watch England play whenever they were at Twickenham from the mid-nineties until a few years ago and the atmosphere there is absolutely amazing. There's nothing like a spot of Swing Low Sweet Chariot being belted by 80,000 fans to get the hairs on the back of the neck standing up on end!!!

Anything we can give the Aussies a shoeing at is good to watch in my books

Dom

the times of the games have been a big problem this year

That's the compensation for us Kiwis watching the important football world cup games at 2 am a year agol

Having a 7 week old baby, the times really haven't been an issue for me.

Hmm. I take it you don't breast-feed him, though, while watching the rugby, do you?
<ducking>

No, in spite of my daughters suggestion that I should! We do however use bottles at night so that I can share the feeding duties.

Kyle, I feel for your girl-friend

romperstomper, looks like you're building up a pattern of one-on-one quality time with the little one. I'm sure he's enjoying it, despite the noise of a rugby game in the background.

Originally Posted by teylyn

That's the compensation for us Kiwis watching the important football world cup games at 2 am a year agol

2:00am wouldn't be a problem at all for me but getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning when you've only got to bed a couple of hours before is a real struggle!!!

I tried that in 2003, it didn't work out well

Originally Posted by inayat

I am sure that this time they are going to win it...

Let's hope not

Dom

And their Haku dance

Haka. With an "a" at the end. The Maori are quite particular about that. So, practice with me: "Ha-ka, -- Ha-ka" (stress is on the first syllable).

I believe, they're doing the Kama Te haka this time round (they vary the haka from season to season)

Kama te, kama te,
ka ora, ka ora ....

Originally Posted by Domski

Let's hope not

erhmm, why not?

If England don't then I'd probably rather NZ than anyone else ;-)

This was quite interesting about how it's taking off in the US: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14725789

Dom

Interesting article Dom. I know next to nothing about Rugby but would welcome it making a dent in the media driven American sports venue. Soccer keeps trying but never has. :/

Congratulations. Haka is a hard word, isn't it?

Next task: Pohutukawa

That'll still be enough time to get it down pat before the ABs play the RWC final. (Which is not necessarily the RWC 2011 final )

Originally Posted by ChemistB

Interesting article Dom. I know next to nothing about Rugby but would welcome it making a dent in the media driven American sports venue. Soccer keeps trying but never has. :/

That's because we have 3 major sports that bombard us in American Football, Baseball, and yes Hockey (Go Jets Go!).

Where are they going?

Dom

I have to admit that, for the most part, I find soccer boring. This may be because I never played it myself (except in grade school physical education) and don't know the finer points of the game. I have the utmost respect for the physical conditioning of the players but I think it would be more interesting if played on a smaller field thus increasing shots on goal and steals.
I wrestled in college and high school and love to watch a good match but I know most people don't enjoy watching collegic wrestling. I do because I know the moves and the strategies. For some reason I like watching golf and tennis but maybe because it's relaxing rather than energizing. I've never seen a full rugby game (bout? match?) so can't say how I feel about that.

What sports do you find boring to watch?

Originally Posted by Mordred

That's because we have 3 major sports that bombard us in American Football, Baseball, and yes Hockey

In USA, #3 is basketball with Hockey in 4th. I find basketball (particularly professional) to be boring.

It's too bad that rugby doesn't get more media attention in the US. It was the top sport at my university, and I loved watching it. It'd be great if the US formed a professional league, but I'd guess the sports market is already pretty saturated. Maybe if the NBA season is cancelled (which would make me cry) there'd be some room for rugby.

Originally Posted by zbor

.....But I just can't understand baseball....

we call it "rounders"....

Off topic but I'm looking forward to the 2014 football World Cup (yes, already) - the first in South America since 1978 - I'm assuming I'll be able to watch most of the games without having to take time off work - hooray!

I like the rugby but it has the same problem as the Cricket World Cup - there are approximately 8 decent teams in the world (in both of those) and those 8 teams have hardly changed since the inception of world cups in those sports. ¾ of the tournament involves inevitably eliminating all the others before the real competition starts

Football, on the other hand, is a truly global sport - of course certain teams dominate but the competition is such that every World Cup there are strong teams from Europe who fail to qualify....and dark horses like Croatia, Belgium or Poland who manage to do well

I've never seen a cricket match. I do love curling. Not a lot of media attention on that one though.

Originally Posted by ChemistB

What sports do you find boring to watch?

American football, it just doesn't flow and I just don't see the point of most of it. Cricket can be amazingly dull sometimes. Golf is about the most pointless 'sport' I've ever had the misfortune to play/watch.

Dom

While I can understand your argument about american football not flowing Dom, it is a great sport to both watch and play once you take the time to learn the intricacies. And trust me, it does take a lot of time.

I think baseball's very dull - most players spend the majority of the game standing in one spot. Some people consider NASCAR (auto racing) a sport. If it is a sport, it has to be the dullest - if I wanted to watch cars drive around in a circle I could go sit next to a highway interchange.

I have to be honest, sitting and watching soccer (football for you others ) is not the funnest thing as the size of the fields make the game look slow. However, watching the theatrics of soccer players is a whole different ball of kittens. I typed "fake soccer injuries" into the YouTube search engine and this link was second from the top of the page. LoL! I'm going to watch a few more of these and have a good laugh.

I have watched some great games of rugby but I don't follow it enough to know the rules that well. As far as I know, there is no rugby league here though which is unfortunate.

Originally Posted by zbor

Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a5gZAO6xUQ

Hahaha, that is great!

It should be noted that what is taking place at the moment is the Rugby Union World Cup. Just to confuse matters there is also a type of Rugby called Rugby League which is played quite differently. Before I moved to the north of England I'd never really come across the latter but it's definitely got it's plus points as in the game doesn't stop and start quite as much and if you like the physical side of things it's got that in spades.

Dom

... and then there's also Ozzy Rules!!

Yeah but nobody plays that

Dom

Ozzy rules.

Yeah but nobody plays that

It seems there's quite a disconnect between the hemispheres. Ozzy rules actually matter where I live.

And everybody sucks at [soccer] football.

Ah, well.

I don't really think of Aussie Rules as being a code of Rugby but a game in it's own right a bit like Gaelic Football.

Dom

Originally Posted by zbor

If you like that you'll gonna like this even more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4qAFwUzt0

LoL, even the refs are actors.

Anyone think it was a coincidence Scotland lost by a point to Argentina with an Englishman refereeing the game. He must have had a real quandary who to favour in that one.

Dom

I'd say Scotland have only themselves to blame for that one!

I still haven't seen a game yet. Far too early for me on a weekend.

Dom

Sky+ (or equivalent)?

If you remember to programme it

Series link...

Cymru!!! My little home town just hosted the last of three games for the world to see. The town is teeming with fans, Welsh Dragons and red/white/green everywhere.

Lock up your sheep!

Dom

We have enough for everybody!

Thanks to this tutorial, I now know the game and have to say, it looks like fun.

I think 'no chance' is a little over the top. Admittedly their backups at 10 have not been that impressive (and they're too stubborn to call up Evans), but the rest of their team ought to be more than a match for anyone. At least as long as McCaw stays mobile...

I wouldn't make anything of the game against Canada.
They only have to play one of SA or Aus (assuming they don't have a mare this weekend) and they have better backs than the Boks, even without DC, and better forwards than the Aussies (other than Pocock). I reckon they ought to be able to come through either of those, especially with home support.
My hope is that the loss of Carter might actually stop them from getting overconfident and keep them focused on what they need to do, and keep the basics right (their handling against the Aussies in the last Trinations game was terrible)

And then they can hopefully lose to Ireland in the final.

You may be right, but I hope not. We're owed one after the cheating in the 6 nations.

Cymru!!!

England were late to pick up the pace. If they' had another 15 minutes, I feel they could have won. Ah, well.

Will be interesting to see the Southern Hemisphere matches tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Bob Phillips

First of my four to come home.

Was I the only one who couldn't see Ireland beating Wales (always assuming the referee kept on top of the niggling Irish front row, which he did today)?

Had Ireland actually kicked their penalties, which is surely the point of playing ROG instead of Sexton, I think it might have been different. Closer, certainly. Having said that, Welsh defence was, unfortunately, excellent on the day.

Thank God England went out too. Be interesting to see if they change anything and, if so, whether it's just a knee-jerk sacking of Johnson, or a thoughtful review of everything.

Originally Posted by Bob Phillips

Sexton is rubbish.

I think Northampton would disagree with you there. He's only rubbish when playing for Ireland, sadly.

a bit of a grind but well done all blacks

AB the champions... What a final... France Well Played...

The French won all the stats except the score.. the result will make it Intolerable/ Insufferable to return to work. I may have to take a month off

Is it over?

Dom

No, it's still all they screen on our tv....