Rugby World Cup 2023 | Vital Football

Rugby World Cup 2023

BBJ

BBJ

Father Of The Forum
It starts this evening with a game between the hosts, France, and New Zealand.
Much of the commentary so far has been on the imbalance between the two sides of the draw. Of the current ranked top five countries, Ireland, France, South Africa (the holders), Scotland and New Zealand, one cannot even get past the group stages. So Ireland, South Africa and Scotland will be fighting it out for two places.
Meanwhile, England and Wales are on the "easy" side, easy being a relative term. Both of them have been pretty uninspiring of late yet I suspect one of them will be a semi-finalist.
Who's going to win it on 28th October?
Short answer -I haven't a clue.
France, being the hosts (and also an excellent team) are favourites but not by very much. South Africa with their two monster packs each half strategy are formidable. The All Blacks can never be discounted. Ireland have won 25 or their last 27 matches - the exceptions being the Springboks and France (both of whom they have also defeated during that period). And they've never got beyond the quarter-finals anyway. Scotland, on their day, can be lethal. And, like New Zealand, the Rosbifs cannot be underestimated. And Australia have won it in the past.
I'm looking forward to it!
 
Melon Donkey said:
Really not into Rugby and won't be watching tbh .

But I watch NFL and love it . Weird !

Enjoy the tournament if its your bag though!.
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Is NFL like rugby but with cheer leaders?
I can not for the life of me see the attraction.
 
France looked good.

This England/Argentina match has been a bit scrappy, think they are taking the video ref stuff a bit too far these days. Think England are slowly waking up now though.
 
Remarkable from England after being down to 14 men for most of the match. 24-3 up with 10 minutes to go.
Ireland trounced Romania but were quite sloppy at times. If they'd been more clinical, they'd have put 100 plus on the scoreboard.
 
Discipline is so vital in Rugby and once Curry was red carded the England team hardly stepped out of line. Perhaps then we were done a favour with his dismissal, the team responded brilliantly thereafter. Curry has a reputation of being a bit reckless at times. Sinclair is another one who always seems to give penalties away, and wasn’t playing tonight either. Certainly food for thought for Borthwick for this World Cup.
 
I was pleasantly surprised to see we'd won when I woke up earlier this morning. Specially as we were down to 14 men for 77 minutes.

Decent start but I'm not going to get too excited.

In other news, 'my' club won 42-20 so I'm happy.
 
BBJ said:
Remarkable from England after being down to 14 men for most of the match. 24-3 up with 10 minutes to go.
Ireland trounced Romania but were quite sloppy at times. If they'd been more clinical, they'd have put 100 plus on the scoreboard.
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And they kept their discipline (which sounds strange when you consider we got a red card after 3 mins.. well, yellow to red, but you get my drift) ... and is something we have failed to do for 12-15 months.

Really interesting match.
 
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Woke up earlier to the news of England defeating Japan 34-12, which was nice.

Then I saw Fiji had beat Australia 22-15 in the first real upset so far.

It should start getting really interesting as we approach the end of the group stages.
 
Scruffy match for England, this obsession with kicking, when we showed in the last 20 mins how good we are with hands, is madness. Still, a win is a win.
 
The Fear said:
Scruffy match for England, this obsession with kicking, when we showed in the last 20 mins how good we are with hands, is madness. Still, a win is a win.
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Yeah wasn’t pretty and didn’t really enjoy watching it. However in order to advance to the quarter finals they are playing with low risk tactics and winning ugly. They’ve got 2 wins against teams who are no mugs, and are actually doing better than I expected them to considering their form prior to the World Cup.
They should progress and will I think have a good chance of making the semi finals as they will play either Wales, Fiji or Australia in the quarters.
 
Bad news for France. Antoine Dupont, their star man, and probably the best player in the world has a broken jaw. Having already lost Ntamack who is also top drawer, it would appear their chances of winning the World Cup have greatly diminished.
 
Really impressed with that win by Ireland.... well done.

I was shocked by the England score too. Obviously I expected them to win, but knowing England, they'll huff and puff and do just enough. I fully expected somewhere in the mid 30s to lower 40s, but 70 plus...... wtf?!
 
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