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DickEmery posted:Adam is shot, there's no way he is fit enough. You know what you have to do? That's right, another Max Boyce sing-a-long LP, may God have mercy on us all.
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Sep 20, 2015 21:01
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Fans will be turning up to matches with their passports to prove they're eligible for selection.
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Sep 20, 2015 21:54
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When I initially looked at the next lot of games I figured that Australia/Fiji would be the big one..... but now it's Scotland/Japan 
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Sep 20, 2015 22:39
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Just got around to reading about Michael Leitch. What a story! Just goes to show that study abroad is a really good idea.
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Sep 20, 2015 22:39
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Jerusalem posted:When I initially looked at the next lot of games I figured that Australia/Fiji would be the big one..... but now it's Scotland/Japan I've tipped Japan after the last game, just hope they aren't too exhausted.
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Sep 21, 2015 02:06
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I've been reading a bit of reaction to the AB's - Argentina game and it all seems a little off to me. The Pommie press is banging on about how it was very nearly an upset of Japan - South Africa levels but I think that's being very unkind to the Argies. Coming into their match, Japan were ranked 13th, South Africa 3rd. Japan had not won a RWC match since 1991 and then against Zimbabwe. That's 24 years without a win and then they topple the 3rd ranked team, who coming into the event were tipped as a good chance to be finalists (and still could yet). Meanwhile Argentina are ranked 8th and have beaten the Bokke at home this year, no mean feat that. Never mind they've regularly made the Quarter Finals, and even the Semis, have one of the best front rows in the world and plenty of other outstanding players. I'm not denying it would have been an upset if they had beaten the AB's, seeing as they have never done so in the past, but to put it in the same league as the Japan upset I think is a little spurious. I can really see Argentina going on to do well in this Cup, they have great defense and look like they have the ability to score points too.
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Sep 21, 2015 05:11
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One other thing is that 3 very easy tries were lost on 3 short dropped passes in the second half that were just pure dumb luck for Argentina. The score could've easily been 47-16. The All Blacks shot themselves in the foot a lot, but they still absolutely dominated the second half. The game wasn't as close as the score would indicate, but you still have to give Argentina a lot of credit. They're a very good team, and they played excellently until they ran out of gas.
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Sep 21, 2015 05:51
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I'm not sure how the tables work out but I'd love to see England go down to Argentina edit: or Japan
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Sep 21, 2015 05:52
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DickEmery posted:Adam is shot, there's no way he is fit enough. I dunno what this is about but Gatland and Edwards both love Henson, they think his work ethic (training etc) is top notch so I doubt they would stand on ceremony. Right now its Tyler Morgan, James Hook or maybe the orange one. Bigger issue he needs to call up Smith (who should have been there anyway) and find a tight head and hooker somewhere.
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Sep 21, 2015 09:09
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slothrop posted:I've been reading a bit of reaction to the AB's - Argentina game and it all seems a little off to me. The Pommie press is banging on about how it was very nearly an upset of Japan - South Africa levels but I think that's being very unkind to the Argies. Coming into their match, Japan were ranked 13th, South Africa 3rd. Japan had not won a RWC match since 1991 and then against Zimbabwe. That's 24 years without a win and then they topple the 3rd ranked team, who coming into the event were tipped as a good chance to be finalists (and still could yet). Beating the all blacks at any point is always something of an achievement. It certainly wouldn't have been another Japan but it would have made the tournament a whole lot more better. Or at least continued the trend of upsets where you don't expect them. Anyway it's all academic since no-one can play 80 minutes of full intensity like the all blacks. Must be something in the water
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Sep 21, 2015 09:20
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slothrop posted:I've been reading a bit of reaction to the AB's - Argentina game and it all seems a little off to me. The Pommie press is banging on about how it was very nearly an upset of Japan - South Africa levels but I think that's being very unkind to the Argies. Coming into their match, Japan were ranked 13th, South Africa 3rd. Japan had not won a RWC match since 1991 and then against Zimbabwe. That's 24 years without a win and then they topple the 3rd ranked team, who coming into the event were tipped as a good chance to be finalists (and still could yet). Ah English rugby press, who have suddenly become staunch defenders of the breakdown rules. I'm sure this has nothing to do with diverting attention away from the officials being laughably bad in most of the games in their tournament, or the fact they were bloody lucky to get away with a win over Fiji.
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Sep 21, 2015 10:38
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I wouldn't say the refs have been that bad so far, barring the really dumb TMO re-reviews
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Sep 21, 2015 10:52
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Butt Wizard posted:Ah English rugby press, who have suddenly become staunch defenders of the breakdown rules. I'm sure this has nothing to do with diverting attention away from the officials being laughably bad in most of the games in their tournament, or the fact they were bloody lucky to get away with a win over Fiji. I thought the break down had been pretty well reffed so far, they're really hammering the neck crank but they should be. The only really bad one has been Joubert not really knowing the rules of a maul so far.
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Sep 21, 2015 11:05
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Aramoro posted:I thought the break down had been pretty well reffed so far, they're really hammering the neck crank but they should be. The only really bad one has been Joubert not really knowing the rules of a maul so far. Barnes' approach to managing infringements in the 22 (i.e. to not bother, hence the Argies giving away a stack in the first twenty with no warnings or cards) was pretty awful - it set up a situation where teams were effectively rewarded for stupid play and I suspect that may have been a factor in McCaw's brain explosion - he probably simply didn't think he'd get in trouble for it. The most frustrating thing about the breakdowns is players coming through legitimately seem to be getting pinged for incorrectly joining a ruck that they were the first ones at or have legitimately come through the middle of. Given how bad the refs are at policing the player placing the ball back (which now only happens once everyone but your fullback has blown over the top of you), it's really annoying to see one of the last chances defenders have at contesting is being shut down. Then again I guess the international refs have been out of action for a while too so they'll take a little while to get back into the swing of things themselves, and when you combine that with player cobwebs then it's probably not going to be pretty either way.
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Sep 21, 2015 11:52
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Aramoro posted:I thought the break down had been pretty well reffed so far, they're really hammering the neck crank but they should be. The only really bad one has been Joubert not really knowing the rules of a maul so far. Yeah the breakdown reffing has been good, particularly the focus on players going off their feet. I'm not happy about mauls from lineouts though. How often do you see the ball passed to the back of the maul instead of players forming in front of the ball carrier, both at the start and as the maul progresses? It's such bullshit and it never gets called. There's nothing inherently wrong with mauls, but they need to clamp down on the attacking side so that we can separate the great packs from the mediocre.
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Sep 21, 2015 13:35
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I liked the asking the TMO to look at things while the game continued, that was nice. They've been weird about a few things though, mauls in particular, the usual incomprehension at scrums. The increased crack down about tacking round the neck interacting with competing for the high ball could get interesting at some point. Some things I'm sure I'm just not getting because the camera angles are odd. All weekend I kept thinking there were forward passes that obviously weren't when they showed the wide angle replay.
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Sep 21, 2015 14:10
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Wales have a ceremony of some sort this afternoon. Apparently Paul James has a moon boot, but Samson Lee and Liam Williams are walking alright. There may be hope...
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Sep 21, 2015 15:59
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Sacrifice Gavin Henson on the altar of Pryderi or whatever. Has Allen really ruptured his hamstring?
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Sep 21, 2015 16:53
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Painkiller posted:Yeah the breakdown reffing has been good, particularly the focus on players going off their feet. I'm not happy about mauls from lineouts though. How often do you see the ball passed to the back of the maul instead of players forming in front of the ball carrier, both at the start and as the maul progresses? It's such bullshit and it never gets called. There's nothing inherently wrong with mauls, but they need to clamp down on the attacking side so that we can separate the great packs from the mediocre. there's no law that would prevent being able to hand-off the ball in the maul on the flip side, defenders can just lie on the ball-carrier once the maul goes down
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Sep 21, 2015 18:42
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WhiskeyJuvenile posted:there's no law that would prevent being able to hand-off the ball in the maul The big issue for the maul is that refs are not policing truck and trailer consistently making them even harder to defend than they already are. More teams should just hold off the engagement and smash the poo poo out of the bloke at the back to stop tedious rolling mauls looking for penalties. Vaders Jester fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Sep 21, 2015 |
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Sep 21, 2015 22:10
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Nobody seems to police the binding on mauls.
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Sep 21, 2015 22:19
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One thing that bothers me is when referees let the attacking team fly into rucks off their feet and without binding if they're just on the tryline, the rules still apply no matter how close to scoring they are! I love a good rolling maul and they're actually easy enough for the defending team to halt against if they correctly organise their defensive lineout so I hope they remain a popular tactic.
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Sep 22, 2015 00:18
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As a Scotland fan despite the advice of the op I'm looking forward to the heartwarming Japanese victory.
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Sep 22, 2015 00:27
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Swan Curry posted:One thing that bothers me is when referees let the attacking team fly into rucks off their feet and without binding if they're just on the tryline, the rules still apply no matter how close to scoring they are! It's not so much the maul, it's players joining ahead of the ball carrier which in any other situation would be offside. When the ball actually gets passed back through the channel in the maul, sure, but that doesn't happen anymore  Also re: goal line - most of the defenders on the line don't use their arms anymore and are basically just using low-energy grasscutters and getting away with it.
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Sep 22, 2015 01:12
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Scotland has named their team for their game against Japan. It seems like Cotter's taking it pretty serious after the surprise result on the weekend. 1. Alasdair Dickinson 2. Ross Ford 3. WP Nel 4. Grant Gilchrist 5. Jonny Gray 6. Ryan Wilson 7. John Hardie 8. David Denton 9. Greig Laidlaw (C) 10. Finn Russell 11. Sean Lamont 12. Matt Scott 13. Mark Bennett 14. Tommy Seymour 15. Stuart Hogg 16. Fraser Brown 17. Ryan Grant 18. Jon Welsh 19. Richie Gray 20. Josh Strauss 21. Henry Pyrgos 22. Peter Horne 23. Sean Maitland and the Japanese side is: 1. Keita Inagaki 2. Shota Horie 3. Hiroshi Yamashita 4. Luke Thompson 5. Justin Ives 6. Michael Leitch (C) 7. Michael Broadhurst 8. Amanaki Mafi 9. Fumiaki Tanaka 10. Harumichi Tatekawa 11. Kenki Fukuoka 12. Yu Tamura 13. Male Su'u 14. Kotaro Matsushima 15. Ayumu Goromaru 16. Takeshi Kizu 17. Masataka Mikami 18. Kensuke Hatakeyama 19. Shinya Makabe 20. Shoji Ito 21. Hendrik Tui 22. Atsushi Hiwasa 23. Karne Hesketh 7 changes from the team that beat South Africa, along with 2 positional switches: The bench and starting props from the Springboks game have been switched around, lock Hitoshi Ono has been rested and replaced by Justin Ives, Amanaki Mafi has been swapped into the starting 8 position with Hendrik Tui who is now on the bench, Kosei Ono who started at 10 has been rested as Harumichi Tatekawa moves in to 10 from 12 as Yu Tamura goes in to the second-five position, Kotaro Matsushima moves over to 14 for Kenki Fukuoka, who takes over for Akihito Yamada, who gets a rest. So, Harumichi Tatekawa trained with the Brumbies last year, and was seriously impressive for the Tenri University team in the 2011/2012 Japan National University Rugby Championship. He's actually really good with ball in hand, and it would be interesting to see what he might have picked up from his time under Larkham's tutelage. edogawa rando fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Sep 22, 2015 |
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Sep 22, 2015 08:41
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I never thought that three days without rugby would be a hardship
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Sep 22, 2015 09:02
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I'm cursing these breaks between matches too, the first round of games were surprisingly good too so half of me is expecting the next few to be more predictable. Scotland Japan should be a fiery one, everyone's going to be gunning for Japan after that Springboks upset but I think they're a legitimately good team at this point, that win was no fluke.
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Sep 22, 2015 10:19
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So frustrated that I have to miss Scotland/Japan live because it is being played during my class. Fortunately I can watch it on replay that evening, but it means avoiding spoilers all day.
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Sep 22, 2015 12:14
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Apollodorus posted:So frustrated that I have to miss Scotland/Japan live because it is being played during my class. Fortunately I can watch it on replay that evening, but it means avoiding spoilers all day. Spoilers : Vaders Jester will be sporting some sort of terrible anime avatar by the time you get home.
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Sep 22, 2015 12:21
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Speaking of which, I will almost certainly be sporting a David Denton avatar after the Scots go to town on USA later in the round.
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Sep 22, 2015 12:27
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Tyma posted:Spoilers : Vaders Jester will be sporting some sort of terrible anime avatar by the time you get home. Already got the super happy Japanese team lined up and ready to go.
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Sep 22, 2015 12:47
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Apollodorus posted:So frustrated that I have to miss Scotland/Japan live because it is being played during my class. Fortunately I can watch it on replay that evening, but it means avoiding spoilers all day. Keep your eyes on the ground, because if there are any Japanese people where you live they might be getting paraded around on people's shoulders as you head home.
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Sep 22, 2015 13:00
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Vaders Jester posted:Already got the super happy Japanese team lined up and ready to go. I'm hoping for something like this for him. 
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Sep 22, 2015 13:29
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Jerusalem posted:Keep your eyes on the ground, because if there are any Japanese people where you live they might be getting paraded around on people's shoulders as you head home. All the East Asian people where I live are Chinese, no worries. Seriously though someone who means well and knows I like rugby is going to see the result in some sidebar link on ESPN.com or whatever and say "hey did you hear that [scotland or japan] beat [japan or scotland]???"
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Sep 22, 2015 13:51
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So All Blacks side to face Namibia has been named, Sam Cane to captain and the bench has more test caps than the starting XV: 15. Colin Slade 14. Nehe Milner-Skudder 13. Malakai Fekitoa 12. Sonny Bill Williams 11. Julian Savea 10. Beauden Barrett 9. TJ Perenara 8. Victor Vito 7. Sam Cane (c) 6. Liam Messam 5. Sam Whitelock 4. Luke Romano 3. Charlie Faumuina 2. Codie Taylor 1. Ben Franks Reserves 16. Keven Mealamu 17. Wyatt Crockett 18. Tony Woodcock 19. Kieran Read 20. Richie McCaw 21. Tawera Kerr-Barlow 22. Ma'a Nonu 23. Ben Smith Pretty strong bench considering Namibia will likely be routed. I guess its a chance to work out some combinations in the starting XV and give the regular players on the bench enough game time to stay conditioned.
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Sep 22, 2015 13:56
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Not sure I should even bother watching that game. Though I do like me some Burger.
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Sep 22, 2015 13:58
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Richie's on the bench instead of getting the day off. The All Blacks version of the naughty step.
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Sep 22, 2015 14:32
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poo poo, I'd totally blanked that it was a 1430 match and I'd be at work. I'll probably miss most of Australia/Fiji too.
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Sep 22, 2015 14:37
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As a neutral, that's probably my All Blacks dream team. I genuinely want to see all 15 of them play rugby.
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Sep 22, 2015 14:40
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I think SBW should be the starting 12 in the next tough ABs match. He offered so much more than Nonu in the Argentina game--I would even argue that if Nonu finishes the game or SBW doesn't come on until minute 70 or w/e the Pumas beat them.
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Sep 22, 2015 15:07
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