Official 2011 Rugby World Cup Thread

sandmanm34 said:
DJ agree it was a lovely game for the Boks but let's put it into perspective. Fiji are ranked 15th in world rugby.Hell, Canada, Tonga and Japan are ranked above them.

Just saying...
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True, but they definitely didn't play a bad game whatsoever. They played well, all things considered. They certainly gave us a run for our money in our last encounter...

EDIT: some perspective from my side: I'd sooner have us play Tonga, Canada and Japan before Fiji...
 
sandmanm34 said:
Namibia is another 5 points in the bag MickeyD. We can win this pool now. The hard yards have been done, Wales, bonus point win against Fiji, Namibia to follow and then Samoa. Field the B team against Samoa and give them a win, take 2nd place and the high road to the final.... That's how I would play it...
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Your plan depends on the Wales/Samoa result tomorrow.
 
MickeyD said:
Your plan depends on the Wales/Samoa result tomorrow.
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Not really. If Samoa win tomorrow will set them up for 2nd place if they beat us and if Wales win tomorrow then Wales will finish 2nd if we lose to Samoa... Either way if we lose to Samoa we finish 2nd...
 
sandmanm34 said:
Not really. If Samoa win tomorrow will set them up for 2nd place if they beat us and if Wales win tomorrow then Wales will finish 2nd if we lose to Samoa... Either way if we lose to Samoa we finish 2nd...
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I do not believe in throwing any game; it's not the way to play the game.
 
Throwing games is for lame losers, the minute a game is thrown, I lose all respect. How anyone can even advocate it :rolleyes:
 
There's absolutely no way that any Bok team would throw a RWC game. Or any game for that matter as far as I am concerned...
 
We throw games in tri-nations all the time...

EDIT: And by throw I mean field the B team with instructions to take it easy...
 
Doesn't matter if we go out, we go out with pride not some BS easy road crap coz we threw games
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Doesn't matter if we go out, we go out with pride not some BS easy road crap coz we threw games
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Agreed. We played Australia and New Zealand in 1995 and we won. Can't see why we can't do it again. If we go out in the QF then so be it. I only really if we win the Cup or not - whether we go out in the QF or SF is quite frankly irrelevant. Taking the easy road is a cop-out.
 
If you have the prospect of having to face both Australia, and then New Zealand, would you

a) Send in your best players to face Samoa
b) Rest your 'top players' so they are ready for the 2 upcoming matches (and not out to injury)

You follow option B. There is a

a) Loss, and we face Ireland (the Australia beaters), England, and then New Zealand in the final
b) Win, and we face Australia, New Zealand, and England in the final

So the odds are on that we could face Australia (or the team that beat them), New Zealand either way, Ireland who just prove they can beat Australia, and/or one other team.

I think the decision is way more technical and tactical than purely 'throwing a game'. And the players wont have much of a say. It will be setup for one or the other route.

What could suck is putting in a full strength side to beat Aus, then beat New Zealand and then rock up at the final with injuries/tired players, and suffer a gifting defeat to England or heaven forbid, France. Or Ireland! The goal is to win the world cup - not beat every top team. No one cares about a "free win" or other mocking comments. It's the silverware and the title...thats all. Coaches will strategise accordingly.
 
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Yeah, man up and play to win at all times.

Also from a psychological point of view the team has to back themselves to beat everyone in the tournament if they want to win. You don't get to play Springbok rugby if you don't have a serious Alpha Personality. The moment you lose that edge you're going to fail at that level.

In a tournament like this exhaustion and injuries are a given.
 
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MickeyD said:
If you want to be World Champions you have to beat the rest!
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You can also get lucky and win a game. We would have had a tough enough game beating NZ. Beating Aus in the QF, and then NZ in the SF and probably Eng in the final is too much. We may have gotten very lucky and beaten NZ and had someone else knock out Aus before the final. I can't see us beating Aus and give us less chance of beating NZ.
 
sandmanm34 said:
We throw games in tri-nations all the time...

EDIT: And by throw I mean field the B team with instructions to take it easy...
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That is slightly different dude, we never threw the game we just got beaten because we fielded an understrength team. We didn't go out aiming to lose, we knew it would happen but we never intended to go out and lose :D

Why would we be scared of aus or nz? we are the world champs. People can say we had an easy ride in 2007 but nz didn't exactly have a tough ride and they went out. So is there an easy ride i wonder?

We will pomp anyone and win the world cup!!!!!!!! feels so good to say that :D.
 
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killadoob said:
We didn't go out aiming to lose, we knew it would happen but we never intended to go out and lose :D
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Same difference

Why would we be scared of aus or nz? we are the world champs. People can say we had an easy ride in 2007 but nz didn't exactly have a tough ride and they went out. So is there an easy ride i wonder?
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The point is you make your destiny in this competition. As was the case in 95 and 2007 we won the matches required to get us the high road route to the final and we won the final. 2011 is no different. The high road was win our pool, meet Ireland in the quarters and NZ in the semis and OZ/England or France in the finals but with Ireland winning today that has changed drastically. The high road now would suit the team finishing 2nd in our pool and the high road now would entail Ireland in the quarters and either France or England in the semis and NZ or OZ in the final.

Just for the record we were drawn in the pool of death, the high road now if we were to finish 2nd in our pool would have us facing the AB's or OZ in the final so how is this a "free" ride to the final??? Are we expected to win the pool of death, then go beat OZ and NZ on consecutive Saturdays and still have the resolve and resources to win the final??

We will pomp anyone and win the world cup!!!!!!!! feels so good to say that :D.
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Was it as easy for you to say now at it was for you to say during the cricket world cup?? :p
 
LOL no because i knew in the cricket i was just talking crap hahah. It was me trying the whole positive thing, but sadly SA didn't play along.

We can take anyone, if we have to nail aus and then bring it on i say. Whoever we play will be more scared of us than we are of them. If we go out then so be it but we will show the world why we are two soon to be three time champions :p
 
Manhood, honour blah blah blah. Not suggesting we THROW the game. But we are in the WC to win the Webb Ellis trophy. The last time I looked they don't inscribe comments on the cup - "SA, but they were lucky to beat xyz in the semi's and abc was terrible in the final". You do the best you can to win the cup. Full stop.

So it is definitely worth considering fielding a B team, try a few new combinations and moves whatever. If we win, so be it. I'm not suggesting they drop the ball once they cross the try line or anything like that. Just to take it easy. If we finish second in the pool we'll meet NZ/Aus in the final in any case, might just as well increase the odds of getting there via the "easier" route.
 
Samoa... the high tackles and diving off the feet at rucks continue - and the refs only ping them selectively. They should be penalised every time, not just on the odd occasion.


EDIT: and now that Roland is pinging them, they get upset....
 
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