The Silver Fern

@KiwiMurph said in How to rank this RWC?:

Quite a few of the hyped pool games failed to live up to expectations from a neutral point of view.

Scotland-Boks, Scotland-Ireland, England-Argentina, Wales-Australia come to mind. Italy weren't even semi competitive vs ABs or France

Of course this isn't unique to this World Cup and other teams performed above expectations going in (Portgual & Japan) but on paper I thought pool play would be even more competitive than it was.

Failing to live up to expectations in a WC has been a Scots tradition for pretty much as long as I remember. A couple of blow outs but completely shat the bed when it counted.

@Stargazer said in RWC: Records:

@frugby said in RWC: Records:

Perhaps getting giddy, but with Narawa's injury, Will Jordan will start v France, Namibia (15) and Italy, and potentially even Uruguay, as him and Telea are the only recognised right wing options, and I'd suggest it is likely he places through. On this basis could he score 9 tries for the record in a single tournament? If he plays vs all three latter teams, don't think it would be unreasonable, especially as he has 23 tries in 25 tests, so if the ABs can make the final, you can probably budget him scoring in the other games.

Nah, against minnows like Uruguay they'll play a few players out of position. Didn't they chuck Jordie at 10 in one game, last time? Easiest is to just move Clarke or Fainga'anuku to the right wing to give them both a start.

On the assumption Narawa is replaced by a loose forward, this is my rough thought:

v France:
Telea, Jordan, B Barrett

v Namibia
Clarke/Fainga'anuku, Telea, Jordan

v Italy
Telea, Jordan, B Barrett

v Uruguay
Clarke/Fainga'anuku, Jordan, B Barrett

I expect that as there are week-long breaks (two weeks between Namibia and Italy) they won't overly rotate in the backs. I think it is entirely possible Narawa was pencilled in for the Uruguay game only, so it is whether they go for Telea or Jordan I reckon, and I expect it will be Jordan. Fainga'anuku could get a trot at 13 in that game potentially...

@nostrildamus our plan 'a' aint much cop either

Right. Here we go.

Flew into Tokyo night before the opener. Chopped two perfect beers in the Ginza, savaged some overly pampered beef, smashed too many too complicated cocktails.

Woke up. Shook the cobwebs out in the arcades of Shinjuku then hit the opener.

Just a great vibe around the stadium. Russians doing boat races in a cardboard rocket. Loads of local fans mingling with rugby lovers from all over. Special mention to the two awesome frog lads in Asterix & Obelix gear.

As luck would have it, as we’re walking up the stairs into the stadium along with the throng of excited rugby fans the great Noddy himself [that’s Helmet, you helmet. Noddy’s Linagh - ed] comes down the stairs escorted by a phalanx of officials.

As Mr. Horan slowly pushed against the tide of supporters, I yelled out:

Look everybody: it’s former player of the Tournament, Tim Horan!

Leaving Timothy a half-beat to graciously acknowledge the rumble of approval with a shy wave of his hand, I naturally followed this up with a shout of: MASTER OF THE MARGINALLY FORWARD PASS!

Queue uproarious laughter as the little magician shuffled off, hopefully suitably chastened for dumping us out of the 99 semis.

(So if you happen to see Monsieur Horan in France, you know what to do.)

Top night in Golden Gai, trading yarns with Wallaby hookers, belting out Karoake and trying to teach a marriage ruining troop of Dutch dancers the intricacies of taking a tighthead.

Back to Tokyo stadium for the good guys v the forces of evil. Great Haka, better chat with the kiwis behind us, could feel the game turn when we didn’t get any reward for the first twenty minutes of dominance. Tried and failed to meet up with @gt12

Locals were so moved by my anguish at the final whistle that they gave me a baby. Must’ve gone off, smelt terrible, so I gave it back.

Back to Golden Gai. Sadly no dancers. But here are the indomitable Gauls. So drink our pain away in a Shibuya dive until dawn. Needing a slash I wander up to the roof to watch the sunrise against the odds.

What’s this? Young Japanese kid right on the edge. Shame so thick you can see it. So I wander over and tell him it can’t be that bad - he could be Australian or worse, English. Whether he understood or whether he was appalled by a drunk saffir pissing on his town from a great height, he turned around in a hurry.

When I got back to the bar the cops were busy trying to drag Obelix away for helping himself to the top shelf.

Nothing for it but to get some shuteye before heading out to Yokohama to smash a few frothies with two Valley RFC legends before a truly dire game of rugby.

24 hours later was back home with the glory of the next six weeks ahead of us all.

Eventually got through the replay. Had about 8 goes at it over the week.

Upshot is I'm not completely pissed off at Carley.

I do think his errors favoured Wales, but don't think it was Paddy O'Brien / Wayne Barnes level fuck ups.

But they were fuck ups, and influenced the result.

Still struggling with his cards or lack thereof, and Quick Draw McGraw on the Fiji one. If it was worth a tallow it was worth a PT.

Couldn't find @MiketheSnow's knock on in that scrum that was penalised.

Upshot is I think Fiji can feel aggrieved.

@MN5 Ellendig forgot to pass. All these years.

@nostrildamus said in RWC Week 1: Japan v Chile:

@NTA said in RWC Week 1: Japan v Chile:

@MN5 said in RWC Week 1: Japan v Chile:

In future with some experience it’s fair to say that Chile might be a bit hot to handle for some countries.

Get out.

Chile? Sweet as, bro.

You can join him.

@antipodean

Ah! I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought you were against it in principle but you just hate Squidge.

As you were then. 😀

Anyway, that wasn't a bad performance in the heat. If you work ons maybe a couple of injury replacements for Fiji, who by the way still scare the shit out of me 😬

@MN5 said in RWC: Ireland v Romania:

@Derm-McCrum said in RWC: Ireland v Romania:

@MN5 said in RWC: Ireland v Romania:

@NTA said in RWC: Ireland v Romania:

@Steve said in RWC: Ireland v Romania:

They are some shower of whinge bags on the field. Detestable bunch.

Sexton is such a whiny fluffybunny

Seems to be a very Irish trait these days.

I blame BOD for starting it.

Oddly enough, it seems to have infected a lot of Fern fans too.
Whine here, whine there, bloody wine everywhere.

Seems to have started sometime around 2016, according to the historians...

I blame Wayne Barnes

Fair comment. 😉

I decided to re-watch this game to have a closer look at the lineouts. As per previous comments about not using Vaa'i as a lineout target, he was used as a lifter with one of the locks to lift the other lock. Examples being the first lineout of the game, and the lineout after Mo'unga made the try-saving tackle on Penaud. That pod worked well because of the extra height of the lifters. What was of more concern was how little the ABs challenged the French lineout. On one of the few occasions we did, the French lost the ball.

Christie wasn't the only ginga who had a shocker. Newell made de Groot look co-ordinated trying to roll away from a tackle. Zero impact.

Beauden actually played well for 60 mins until he and Mo'unga thought that the best option when chasing the game was to kick the ball away.

Yeah I was never worried, same as semi 2011. Scores might have got close but Ozzie were never going to win

Jonathan Danty apparently out of opener against the ABs. Good player, handy over the ball and very good carrier. Moefana next in line probably

Watching the Final just now brought back a lot of memories. We didn't go to a single game, but what a great time we had! Second best experience of a sports event I've ever had, both watching the games in a mate's beer-filled man cave with a group of friends and the whole atmosphere in NZ during the tournament and after the Final.

The only highlights from this tournament happened off the field for me.

I remember driving back in a dazed mix of bewilderment and anger from a mates place and saw some guy get pulled over by a cop for speeding so I guess it goes to show - there's always someone worse off than you.

Anyway my sister called form the UK to see how I was after the game, she hardly ever calls, we're not particularly close in terms of keeping in touch a lot I guess it's a more quality over quantity type of relationship. But at the time I was going through a messy divorce and she knew that the AB's loosing would have hurt so she just called out of the blue to make sure her little brother was ok.

And I guess that call was a bringing down to earth for all the things that matter in life, family, friends and the people that care are so much more important than what any game of rugby is.

I've forgotten close to every other phone call in my life but I've never forgotten that one.

I felt immeasurably better after talking to her.

"Bloody well"
"Brilliant"

Really?

Was ok. His pass was at best adequate.

He was Sid Going without Sid's ability for the spectacular finish.

As a halfback he was good. But not better than good.

Certainly not the second best AB halfback at world cups.

I maintain, his votes come on the back of a perception of his ability based on his stand in captaincy, and photos of of him holding the Cup.

@mariner4life said in Best of RWC 2003:

@canefan said in Best of RWC 2003:

Was 2003 also the scene of Gregan's iconic "4 more years" sledge?

all time sledge.

Yep. It wasn’t personal, nasty or laden with profanity - but cut like a knife to the heart.

@Smuts said in Best of RWC 1999:

Who says the rugby gods don’t have a sense of irony? Larkham landing the longest, jammiest drop goal in history to send Jannie Playgirl de Beer and the boks home is some funny fucking cosmic justice.

Live by the sword die by the sword