Official Rugby World Cup 2015 Thread

A lot of legends of the game have left over this World Cup, gonna be weird not seeing so many of the big names on the field anymore. But will be interesting to see the new players make their mark.
 
orin76 said:
I think all top teams practice tactics and strategies for dealing a player being sin binned
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Whenever a team of whichever class is short of a scrumhalf everyone at the breakdown act as if there is a carrot up their arse. Normally it depends on the position and required specialisation, losing a prop would normally mean a loose forward replaced with another prop, the same with a hooker. In the backline it can get quite mixed up when you have players playing in combination which normally result in communication errors when replaced out of combination.
 
Hopefully we can either mould a flyhalf that is as influential as Dan Carter or Jonny Wilkinson over the next four years.
 
Kr1mZoN said:
Hopefully we can either mould a flyhalf that is as influential as Dan Carter or Jonny Wilkinson over the next four years.
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Barring injury Pollard can go on to be a great flyhalf. He has size and pace and is already a proficient goal kicker.

What he lacks is the ability to get his back line moving and putting players outside of him into space. His tactical kicking is poor and his ability to read the game is severely lacking. That will all come with experience.

But a Dan Carter or a Johnny Wilkinson or a Naas Botha, players of this calibre are few and far between.
 
sand_man said:
Barring injury Pollard can go on to be a great flyhalf. He has size and pace and is already a proficient goal kicker.

What he lacks is the ability to get his back line moving and putting players outside of him into space. His tactical kicking is poor and his ability to read the game is severely lacking. That will all come with experience.

But a Dan Carter or a Johnny Wilkinson or a Naas Botha, players of this calibre are few and far between.
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Agreed with you on Pollard and I think we should stick with them. I am all for picking form players in their positions but it may be better for us to stick with a flyhalf for the long run and show faith in him. How many flyhalves have we had in the last four years? Carter was looking out of sorts for quite some time this year, and look what he produced at this world cup.
 
MickeyD said:
We have a bigger issue at scrumhalf!
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Indeed, we have no succession plan and probably lost the best scrumhalf to France (Kockett). I haven't seen much of Page. Super rugby next year is going to be really important to the boks future scrumhalf. I would love to see Faf given a chance, and Reinach become more consistent.
 
Kr1mZoN said:
Indeed, we have no succession plan and probably lost the best scrumhalf to France (Kockett). I haven't seen much of Page. Super rugby next year is going to be really important to the boks future scrumhalf. I would love to see Faf given a chance, and Reinach become more consistent.
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There's also Nic Groome.

But they are all "standard" - nothing special.
 
MickeyD said:
We have a bigger issue at scrumhalf!
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The Springbok regulars are also packing their bags to play elsewhere. Will our captaincy be local or European based? How much will this impact our game on union development to ready players into the Springbok squad?

This is a hurdle our coaching teams has to deal with... The advantage however is that coaches can work more actively on the youth developing into senior positions, it is only how to retain this quality within SA.
 
MickeyD said:
There's also Nic Groome.

But they are all "standard" - nothing special.
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New Zealand are blessed with Perenara (and he was hardly even on their bench) and Aaron Smith. As has been said special players don't come along too often. Man for man in most positions NZ have the edge on every other nation. I think reinach can become something special. He has flair and passion. Just needs the consistency.
 
Kr1mZoN said:
I think Vermaak's age counts against him?
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I give him 4 years, but he has to lead the other scrumhalves at WP which include Groom, Schreuder (played U/20 Springbok) and another development player. In essence, he is the du Preez at WP. Vermaak is currently underutilised and needs more game time to develop to set the milestones. I doubt that he will ever play Springbok again, but he is a mentor.

The other options are de Klerk and Hougaard.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I give him 4 years, but he has to lead the other scrumhalves at WP which include Groom, Schreuder (played U/20 Springbok) and another development player. In essence, he is the du Preez at WP. Vermaak is currently underutilised and needs more game time to develop to set the milestones. I doubt that he will ever play Springbok again, but he is a mentor.

The other options are de Klerk and Hougaard.
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I doubt Hougaard will get much time at scrumhalf for the Bulls. Paige will probably get given a chance at the Bulls as a starting scrumhalf for the 2016 super rugby season. I think he deserves a shot, he looked decent in the short amount of time he was given and he has been at his union for four years.
 
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Well Done to the Kiwis. Valiant effort from the Aussies but they never really pressured them like we did.
It was yet another good game and overall a very good world cup.
 
Was always going to be a few controversial moments in such a tough competition.

But this was hands down the best World Cup ever.

Crowds, stadiums, matches, upsets, and and and. Lovely stuff!
 
APoc184 said:
Was always going to be a few controversial moments in such a tough competition.

But this was hands down the best World Cup ever.

Crowds, stadiums, matches, upsets, and and and. Lovely stuff!
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This. It was a great tournament. Love the buy in from all the locals and how they supported the minnow teams. Even after England got dumped out.
 
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