Geekzone Rugby (Union) Discussion Thread

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#3147755 15-Oct-2023 17:53

Batman:

invisibleman18: Epic rugby quarter final but result was never in doubt IMO. Ireland the best they have ever been but still can't get past that quarter final hurdle. Will they ever have a better chance?
Guess that means an NZ-France final in a rematch of the opening game.

if that happens you know there is this guy called Wayne Barnes ....

What's wrong with Barnes? 2007 was a long time ago if that's what you are referring to.

Handle9

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#3147769 15-Oct-2023 18:48

Dingbatt:
Handle9: What a privilege to have been at that game.

So much heart. I felt like I was going to be sick in the last 5.

I agree. You were there for a game worthy of being the final. The other one will be same time, same place, tomorrow.

I had to take my watch off for the last 10 minutes because it kept warning me of an elevated resting heart rate!

Shame about the first yellow card. Correct by the letter of the law, but grazing past Smith’s pinky isn’t a deliberate knock-on. No question about the second yellow. If a penalty try is awarded, someone has to go to the bin.

The flipside occurred in the Wales/Argentina game, where a shoulder to head contact was called by the TMO. On examination it was determined the player was falling and was collateral to the tackle. So not foul play, play on.

The ABs marquee players stood up in this match. Particularly (but not limited to) Savea and Cane.

Edit: Great that there will be at least one Southern Hemisphere team in the final.

Both yellows were bang on. We were dead in line with Hansen and the All Blacks were busted. It probably saved a try.

We’re going to the game tonight as well. It should be another great game.

I felt for the Irish last night. Their supporters were distraught but after the game, and at the pub afterwards, no one had a cross word. They are phenomenal supporters.

networkn

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#3147841 15-Oct-2023 21:22

Handle9: I’m dropping in for a special guest report from Paris.

Paris is buzzing with heaps of Irish supporters but also plenty of kiwis and Boks. It’s going to be quite cool tonight, it’s down to 15 degrees and still 6 hours to kick off. It’s literally 10 degrees cooler than the same time yesterday.

It’s going to be a great night, regardless of the result.

I am super jealous. It was my dream to come to France for the RWC, unfortunately, it didn't work out. This is the game I would have most wanted to attend, along with SA/Ireland. I can only imagine the atmosphere.

I'll need to settle for Australia in 2027 by the looks.

Sounds like it was a blast, congrats.

networkn

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#3147844 15-Oct-2023 21:43

What a cracker match it was between Ireland and NZ. I was quietly confident leading in, based on the elements previously mentioned, and when WE put 30 phases on THEM in the first major stanza of play (Which is the opposite of what usually happens), I felt reasonable confidence we were going to give them a good run for their money. I felt most of the match we had control and were coping with them nicely. The penalty try, and 2 yellow cards made life harder than it had to be, and it's quite a testament to us that we managed to win despite those factors. We should make the final, though many teams have underestimated Argentina, including us, at their peril.

Like you Handle9, I felt like I was going to be sick in that last 5 minutes, but as those minutes went on, I felt we had it. I was just waiting for one of our players to latch on the ball, and when we did (We got so close a couple of times), it was magic.

That was as an incredible 37 phases as I've seen played between 2 teams ever I think (I do recall a game in SA where we defended against the Boks on our line for seemingly forever). Both on attack, but particularly on defense. I don't think any other team could have held them out without giving away a single penalty. It really was QUITE incredible.

As soon as I saw Whitelock form up over the ball, I knew we would get that penalty and I was absolutely screaming at that point. Reminded me so much of the Beauden Barrett clear run to win RWC 2015.

I had such mixed emotions at the end though. I wouldn't have begrudged Ireland the win, they were good enough, but it was incredibly satisfying to put paid to so much that was made of their wins over us in recent times.

Throughout Fosters time in charge, the AB's have managed to get up almost every time it's really mattered. Its how you build consistency in that, that is the trick. Hopefully, some of these massive moments of the last 12 months, have burned themselves into the psyche of those AB's who will remain in 2024 and it can help lay a platform of the type of mentality associated to the AB's of 2000-2019's (Approximately).

The AB's were classy toward the clearly broken hearted Irish players at the end (Except, it seems Reiko who was Reiko, though it's hard to feel sympathy for Sexton who is very mouthy too). I really felt for them. Coach Farrell was pretty stoic and philosophical during his end of match interview.

This will be forever etched in my memory along with the other best matches I've ever seen. Means so much to have made it to the Semi's.

GV27

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#3147933 16-Oct-2023 06:49

Appalling cynical knock-on from Farrell with no card at the death.

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#3147936 16-Oct-2023 07:28

Richie had to ask Nuggy how to put the ball into the scrum😄

JPNZ

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#3147965 16-Oct-2023 09:01

Hope everyone is watching the France v South Africa game. Has eclipsed the NZ v IRE game so far IMHO

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GV27

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#3147968 16-Oct-2023 09:05

The French style of play is probably on another level since we played them in the opener. It's almost vintage Blues-era stuff.

I mean we had very few mistakes given our recent track record and discipline issues, but this is definitely something we haven't been able to muster consistently.

The Boks look flustered. We need them to step up and take the French out of the equation.

JPNZ

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#3148019 16-Oct-2023 10:32

GV27:

The Boks look flustered. We need them to step up and take the French out of the equation.

And they did, Fantastic game that one. England vs South Africa will be interesting. I see the NZ bookies have already written Argentina off

NZ = $1.10 v Argentina = $6.50

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Handle9

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#3148030 16-Oct-2023 10:43

JPNZ:
Hope everyone is watching the France v South Africa game. Has eclipsed the NZ v IRE game so far IMHO

Totally different sort of game. The Irish game was significantly more physical, the France game was end to end.

Both were fantastic, just very very different.

networkn

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#3148037 16-Oct-2023 11:06

GV27:

Appalling cynical knock-on from Farrell with no card at the death.

It wasn't Farrell, he was the second person to touch the ball.

I thought penalty was a light punishment. There was space and only one defender, they would have at least made decent meters and had the chance to recycle.

Having said that, England looked in control most of the night.

Dingbatt

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#3148044 16-Oct-2023 11:26

Both games (QF2 & QF4) had a 4 point differential with 10 minutes to go.

The way the French started, I thought it was going to go their way. But SA converted their chances.

I liked that the ref didn’t let the clock be run down by scrum resets with 2 minutes to go. Stopping the clock each time a reset was required. But if the French hadn’t kicked the 22m restart out on the full, they wouldn’t have been in that position.

For a sport that goes to such lengths to protect player’s heads, I can’t see how attacking players get away with leading forearms into the head of a tackler.

In the Fiji/England game I can’t see how Farrell got away without a yellow card for the cynical knock on at the end of the game. I also noted he hasn’t learned his lesson about tackle technique. A couple of times leading with his shoulder and riding up. The only saviour being the Fijian players were so huge, the contact remained on the shoulder. If Fiji had a better kicker, it may well have been them facing SA in the semis.

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#3148045 16-Oct-2023 11:30

SA v France was incredible to watch. I wanted France to win a little bit more as I would have been keen to try our luck a second time against them in a Final (IF we beat Argentina).

Cheslin Kolbe is incredibly incredibly quick. Their other winger is no slouch either.

Some interesting things in that match... The call for the scrum after the mark was taken right before half time. It was obviously something indicated by the coaching staff, I can't recall the last time I saw it. SA were very confident they could get that penalty. The other thing was taking Kolisi off just after half time. I don't think he has been quite at his best this tournament, not quite that same level of talismanic influence.

France had some wicked quick passing. SA missed a LOT of tackles but still didn't seem to suffer significantly for this. I understand it's a tactic, but I haven't looked into it in depth.

Dingbatt

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#3148053 16-Oct-2023 11:44

networkn:

It wasn't Farrell, he was the second person to touch the ball.

I thought penalty was a light punishment. There was space and only one defender, they would have at least made decent meters and had the chance to recycle.

Having said that, England looked in control most of the night.

Okay, so it was the first touch by the English player that brushed past the ball that was penalised? And not Farrell, where he looked at the ball and definitely altered the motion of his arm to contact the ball as part of the tackle? I admit I had the sound turned down so missed the ref’s explanation.

I agree England looked in control, including when Fiji caught up. There was no panic, just get in a position to kick for the win.

Probably due to having so many full time professional players that were able to come together early enough to coalesce as a team has signalled a coming of age for Fijian rugby. Watch out RWC 2027.

My hope is now that SA and Eng beat each other up next weekend, and that we can sneak past Arg unscathed.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

invisibleman18

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#3148055 16-Oct-2023 11:50

Phew. Pleased to get through that quarter final against Fiji that got nervy at the end. It hasn’t always been pretty but we’ve won 5 in a row and are in the semi final so I suspect there are a couple more fancied teams who’d take it. We’ve been a shambles all year, woeful in the warm up games and lost to Fiji at home the week before the tournament. The talk was we may not even get out of the group so making the semi final is beyond any realistic dreams. Appreciate the draw made 3 years in advance ended up kind to us this time but we've been on the wrong side of it before too - particularly 2015 at home when we were drawn in a group with the teams ranked 2 and 3 by the time the tournament came around.

Not sure who I’d have preferred in the semi. Like Ireland with the All Blacks in quarter finals, we have history with France in semi finals so maybe there might have been something mental there, even though none of the players in either team would have played in the previous ones. South Africa we’ve always lost to in knockout. We have a good chunk of players who went to the final last time so maybe that experience counts for something and they will be keen to reverse the result against them from last time.

Most likely we’ll be thrashed, but we’ve already exceeded expectations, so I guess in a one off game you never know. There's only a small chance but in a one off game it's not zero.

As I’ve said I’m no rugby expert but I’m still struggling with the red/yellow card decisions for head contact. We had a red card in the 3rd minute of the first game for what was an accidental collision where essentially the opposition player landed on top of ours. This morning we got a full head to the face from a Fiji player (our player was then off the pitch getting patched up for 20 odd minutes) then something similar happened in the France-SA game and both were only yellow which I’m puzzled about. Admittedly I was watching on mute at the time the South African one happened as I was on a work call so didn’t hear the explanation. Typically the player who avoided the red card ended up scoring the winner.

Anyway really good quarter finals and on rankings and according to the bookies there were 3 upsets. Amazing how all of them were in the balance so late in the game and 3 of them went down to the last play after time was up.

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