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Rugby

Started by aaaaaaaaaargh!, January 20, 2008, 03:35:46 PM

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There's a fair bit of soap-operatic needle going into the final two matches of the Championship (England v Scotland and Wales v Ireland) today.  Steve Borthwick has said that Scotland's players celebrated in an ungracious manner after last year's defeat and so England will be out for revenge, former Irish coach Warren Gatland has had a bit of a go at his old team.

The bookies, well Paddy Power anyway, are saying that the Welsh are marginal favourites to win today, which'll suit the Irish - they don't cope well at all with being favourites in anything rugby-related.  Ronan O'Gara is just going to have to try a little harder at getting his kicks over if Ireland are to have a chance here.  The Welsh are playing Henson and Shanklin at centre - that's a big and powerful combination with a fair amount of dangerous running, enough to overpower O'Driscoll and D'Arcy I think, if they get enough of the ball.  I'm afraid I can't see Ireland doing it (unless BOD, ROG and the pack have huge games), although I'd like to see them do it.  Can't see the Welsh bagging the 13 points required to win the championship though, unless Ireland collapse towards the end of the second half. 

Interesting gimmick from Paddy Power:

QuoteMoney-Back Special
If Brian O'Driscoll scores a try at anytime, Paddy Power will refund all losing try scorer and winning margin bets on the match.

Eddie O'Sullivan has been appointed manager of the US rugby team.  I guess he's used to going out of the world cup at the group stage so he's well suited to them.

Kidney has turned Ireland into Munster and since Munster seldom get beaten by a significant margin I'm thinking Wales won't be able to win by 13 points. Ireland for the Slam, England to beat Scotland and finish 2nd. France to tank Italy by 20 points or more.

I think the match in Cardiff as well as deciding the Championship will effectively be a Lions Tour try out match.

There seems to be the most insane amount of wind in Rome at the moment, I don't think I've ever seen rugby posts sway so much in my life.  It's a wonder any of the kicks have gone over, the goal posts are being moved, quite literally, every time the kickers step up.

Famous Mortimer

It was quite a fun match, that. Nice and open second half. I have absolutely no idea who's going to win the next match, but it appears the commentators reckon England are going to thrash Scotland.

#364
What a fucking start to the second half by Ireland.  Paul O'Connell is immense, as is O'Driscoll at the moment.

Edit - the tension for Irish supporters must be almost unbearable right now, I'd imagine!

2nd edit - going to be a huge show of character for the Irish now.

Wales 15 - Ireland 17

final score

Gulftastic

Sounds like something awful may have happened in the academy game before the Wakefield/Celtic game.

A player has been airlifted away, and it's caused the first team game to be called off at very short notice. There is no definite news as yet. I hope it's not as bad as people are fearing.

Old Thrashbarg

For a first team game, due to be broadcast on Sky, to be called off half an hour before kick-off it must be extremely serious and, you'd have to assume, life-threatening. Not good news at all for a Wakefield club that's already had its fair share of tragedy in the recent past.

It's curious, if you search for "Crusaders v Wakefield" on Google News the BBC story starts with "Sunday's Super League match between Celtic Crusaders and Wakefield was postponed following a serious injury to a player in a reserve game at Maesteg.", but if you click on the story there's no mention of that on the BBC's website, it just says "cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances".  Sounds terrible, whatever it is.

Old Thrashbarg

Confirmed a few minutes ago on Sky that 21 year old Leon Walker of Wakefield has died after collapsing during their reserve team game against Celtic.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Stuff like that really shits me up. I think it must be because these guys are professional athletes, exactly the people you don't expect to just collapse and die. Was this another case of an undiagnosed heart murmur or something?

mikeyg27

Too early to tell, and I'm just really depressed by this and I really feel for those at the Wakefield club. As Old Thrashbarg alluded to, they have had far more than their fair share of misfortune in the last six months. This is the second of their players to die in that time (Adam Watene collapsed in training, I think that was diagnosed as a heart problem), one of their players technically died during a routine knee operation before being revived, and one of their other players hasn't played this season due to being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. How they manage to get through a period like this is something that amazes me.

This brightened up my day, somewhat.

Old Thrashbarg

This didn't brighten up mine; it was thoroughly depressing.

Gulftastic

We are not good enough this year. Just not good enough. Our refusla to properly fill the right centre position is going to haunt us all season, and not getting Eastwood is a much bigger blow than the club are admitting. We needed him to replace Ellis. As it is, we are a worse team than last year. Hopefully, Buderis might work out and offer us something more.

actwithoutwords

Another great day for Irish rugby. Munster destroyed the Ospreys and Leinster uncharacteristically ground out an extremely narrow win at the Stoop. Munster Leinster semi-final in Croke Park will be huge. Last time they met in the semis it was a national occasion. Same result again this time I think, Munster should still have too much.

Gulftastic

Fucking hell, it's going to be a long, grim season.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: Gulftastic on April 25, 2009, 01:30:01 PM
Fucking hell, it's going to be a long, grim season.

As much as it's not exactly been an overly-enjoyable season as a Hull fan either, it is good to see results like Salford beating Leeds (sorry), Bradford beating Leeds (sorry again), Quins beating Leeds (once more, sorry) and Bradford beating Saints only a week after they took a pasting from Warrington. Celtic aside, it really is a very open, evenly matched league. Although if (when?) we lose tonight, the league's openness won't be of much consolation.

dr beat

Similar can be said of the Co-Op Championship too - there's a pack of about five teams who I think will be fighting amongst themselves for the Grand Final, of which Barrow are proving to be the surprise package, with Halifax and Featherstone much improved -although my lot (Widnes) seem to be doing their utmost to cock their chances up at the mo. 

As for the other teams though, there's plenty of scope for some surprises - Toulouse seem to be starting to get their act together, and I think Gateshead, Doncaster and Sheffield are perfectly capable of getting results on their day. 

mikeyg27

Did anyone else watch the Tigers-Blues penalty shootout? As someone who wishes there was a better way of settling stalemates in football, it seemed absolutely ludicrous to me. Why couldn't they just play an extra 10 minutes of sudden death?

actwithoutwords

Shit, missed today's game, but that sounds like two great semi finals. Yesterday was a cracking occasion. Leinster manned up in a big way. Surprised and impressed with their dominance over Munster in almost every area. Hopefully they can go on and beat Leicester in the final, but yesterday's game was huge psychologically given the enormous chip on Leinster's shoulder. There's a danger they could be flat in the final.

Yesterday was only marred by this disgraceful act from Alan Quinlan towards the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZYbZQQ3q0Q

It's not like Quinlan, and it's certainly not like Munster. But the evidence is fairly incontrovertible, and if he's cited and banned for the Lions tour I don't think anyone can complain.

dr beat

QuoteDid anyone else watch the Tigers-Blues penalty shootout? As someone who wishes there was a better way of settling stalemates in football, it seemed absolutely ludicrous to me. Why couldn't they just play an extra 10 minutes of sudden death?

I did - entertaining but maybe not necessarily for the right reasons.  The 'golden points' would have been a fairer way of doing it, I don't agree with how they've used it in the NRL, but surely it makes sense for a big cup-tie.

Heineken Cup final weekend was pretty good, Leinster were bloody huge against Munster.  Munster were huge favourites and their supporters outnumbered Leinster's by three to one in the stadium which made the win all the more impressive.  O'Driscoll and Elsom were both great (Elsom in particular seemed to be everywhere), it must be a long time since Munster were blunted so effectively. 

As for the Blues v Tigers shootout, well, a shootout is completely ridiculous in rugby, isn't it?  It seems to be an idea which has been transported from football, which has a completely different scoring system (as well as being a different sport, obviously) where penalties, while not perfect, are a reasonable way of concluding a match.  I strongly believe that sudden death extra time would be a better way to resolve the match.

Re Quinlan, I don't think he's a dirty player, but I think that he's in big trouble.  If he gets a ban which means he misses the start of the tour I think he could well be dropped entirely, I don't think he's enough of a key player to be able to come into the tour halfway through.

The matches this weekend were interesting from a Lions point of view, mostly because of the first semi.  Keith Earls made a decent attacking run in the first half, but if his defence is as shonky as it was on Saturday the South Africans are going to rip him to shreds.  I might do a longer post about the Lions tour some time later if I can be bothered, but what I would say at the moment as it's good to see Simon Shaw given a last hurrah: I reckon he's been brought in for the midweek matches where the hosts will bring out the most psychotic Dutchmen they can find to try and soften up the tourists.

dr beat

QuoteIt seems to be an idea which has been transported from football, which has a completely different scoring system (as well as being a different sport, obviously) where penalties, while not perfect, are a reasonable way of concluding a match.

At least in football penalty shoot-outs, the fact that the goalkeeper is involved retains at least part of a competitive element, and also that both teams are represented in that particular situation.

Is the first time in either code that a shoot-out has been used to settle a game? I can't recall another time.

Quote from: dr beat on May 04, 2009, 03:31:21 PM
At least in football penalty shoot-outs, the fact that the goalkeeper is involved retains at least part of a competitive element, and also that both teams are represented in that particular situation.

Is the first time in either code that a shoot-out has been used to settle a game? I can't recall another time.

Well yes, it was stupid when it was getting to the flankers kicking for goal, was kind of hoping it was going to get to the point where the front rows were kicking for goal, just to highlight the ridiculousness of it all.

BBC live commentary said it was the first shootout in union, not so sure about league.

Eventful stuff one month before the Lions tour:

Alan Quinlan banned for 12 weeks

Not a huge loss for the Lions squad, his replacement Tom Croft is obviously a better player and should have been in from the start, but it will be a crashing blow for the player seeing as it was his one and only chance to go on a Lions tour.

Ia McGeechan to be sacked quit as Wasps boss

...and it looks like the coach might have more than one thing on his mind when the Lions tour comes up.  Probably not though, McGeechan has already taken time away from Wasps this season to prepare for the Lions tour, but it's a bit of a concern as I think the Lions will need everything to go for them and with the injuries and suspensions it looks like things might be getting off to a difficult start.

actwithoutwords

Anyone watch the Heineken Cup Final today?
Fantastic win for Leinster, but a game that promised much, but ended with 20 minutes of farcically mediocre rugby.
Superb kick from young Sexton to win it though, looked outside the posts right until the last moment. The cheers of the Leicester fans around me while the ball was still in the air only made it sweeter. That one is for Neil Back in Cardiff 2002 you cunts.
What a year for Irish rugby, though our Lions are dropping like flies. Not that I'm particularly arsed about the Lions tour, but that's another discussion entirely.

Wow, I know that hardly any bugger on here cares about rugby, but should say that France have just beaten New Zealand 27-22 at the stupidly dubbed "House of Pain" in Dunedin.  There was a fair bit of talk before the match about the Kiwis getting revenge for their ignominiously feeble surrender in the world cup, but "good France" showed up and they bloody smashed them.  France had a cracking start with a couple of early tries and had to withstand a bit of an onslaught from the All Blacks in the second half, but what a bloody result and performance!

Joy Nktonga

Good on 'em! I haven't seen much rugby outside of the England internationals/Baa-Baas game sadly. Not even the Lions games. That's what happens when you have kids in the house *sigh*. Can you believe nowhere is showing the Pumas - England game tonight! Apparently Five are showing highlights at some stupid time tomorrow night or something. It's outrageous, and that's no hyperbole.

I'd imagine that if you were to type the letters atdhe into google you might have some success if you don't mind watching streams.