Rugby World Cup

 

One of the things that's always annoyed me about rugby is how easy it is to kill off a game. That match looked to be set up for a quality last five minutes, but instead the ABs just won possession and then kept recycling it through the forwards. Really poor stuff from a spectators point of view.

 

Wasn't a particularly good tournament, very few of the minnows got anything but the expected hammerings, and now this lad is calling for even more cannon fodder?? As for the rest of it, Ireland played exceptionally well Vs Oz, but when you look at the influence Pocock had for Oz Vs Springboks, you start wondering if we would have beaten them had he been fit. Wales were generally good, and pity we will be seeing the end of Shane Williams, a genuine exciting player for his entire career. France stumbled in to the final, and could easily have won it, but it doesnt say much for the game that the traditionally 2 most exciting teams from each hemisphere, and noted for the quality of their backplay, could produce 4 scores between them, with the sole try coming from the speedy winger, Tony Woodcock.

 

Dont know what the solution is, I'm not even sure it matters to the IRB, the game seems to be growing regardless in some parts of the world, which is probably their main concern. The hardcore rugby fan will attend/watch on TV anyway, much the same as us football fans for the last (underwhelming) world cup in SA, but I didn't see too much in that RWC to appeal to the neutral.

 

 

 

 

 

And not even original, Willie Anderson did it back in the late 80's, when it was considered even more sacrosanct. Only annoyed the Kiwis though, they inflicted a worse beating than normal on us. As for the IRB, the love in can be traced back to awarding the Kiwis the RWC in the first place, it was fairly widely acknowledged that Japan had a superior bid at the time, but for marketing purposes, it suited the IRB to award it to NZ, they being fully aware of the marketing value of their most famous team having a chance of winning the RWC, something they have now managed to do twice, but only in their own country.

 

 

 

 

Fcuking joke if that's the attitude the IRB are going to take then teams should refuse allow NZ to perform the Haka when NZ are playing away a la Wales a few years ago when they wouldn't allow NZ to do it at the Millenuium Stadium and they did it  somewhere else IIRC.