Rugby
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Springboks V All Blacks in a couple of hours!
This game could be the highlight of the international season!
Kinda was the mother of all games played in the last 10 years.
Saturday is going to be a blood bath, I'm afraid. The AB's are walking on water at the moment.
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Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Ben Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Charlie Piutau, Dan Carter, Aaron Smith; Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (capt), Liam Messam, Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock.
Reserves: Dane Coles, Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Steven Luatua, Sam Cane, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Aaron Cruden, Ryan Crotty
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Yes Hemi, NZ is the only team I dont mind France losing to. They are beautiful to watch, there is no other word. The weather is crappy and it's been raining for days on end. They need to build roofs on stadiums, rain sucks.
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We need to hire English gardeners for our pitches. For almost a hundred years, teams defeated by the AB's always say the same thing: "We were close and could have won" But 90% of the time, they didnt…
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Fucking amazing. NZ seems to have found a formula to grow fantastic players at ALL positions.
Please smash England badly, AB's that's all I ask for 2013.
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Yeah mate, you can go to any of the 3 Colleges near my house and find players with this sort of potential. Ma'a Nonu and Julian Savea are but two graduates from just down the street. My 13 year old nephew has just about finished his first year at the same college and is in the Hurricanes programme for kids training all year round. He's already 90kgs, 6'2" and plays 8 or 12… all the kids are genetic freaks now!
I don't care if we lose by 50 points to Ireland next week for the first time in history... as long as we beat England!
P.S. Watch out for Julian Savea's younger brother Ardie in the future. He has just turned 20 and plays 7. He has incredible pace and a huge work rate and the All Blacks have taken him on this tour as an apprentice to learn about the environment.
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Holy mackrel what a game. Glad NZ won and glad England lost. Watch out for them in 2 years in their home turf, they are a definite contender. Possession was like 70% England and They spent more than 60% in the NZ's 50, and yet they NEVER EVER crossed the line. People keep praising NZ's offensive skills (and they're right about those, they are stunning), but they should also mention the defensive prowess of the NZ players. Against physically stronger teams like SA or England, they hardly ever break down. Maximum respect.
About them taking Julian Savea's younger brother aboard their tour: that's what I LOVE about NZealanders: they never stop to integrate kids in their roster, honing their skills, getting them ready. No need for SBW when he wants to return to play the 2015 RWC…
Last, I feel sorry for Daniel Carter getting injured yet again. He should retire. Cruden is doing just fine and Beauden Barrett is as good, too. And isnt there a 19-20 year old wiz kid at that position too? Cant remember the name.
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France beat Tonga 38-18 but the game showed how limited France has become, especially when comparing with England-New Zealand. Poor technical skills. Lackluster offense against a very predictable Tonga side. How are we ever going to win the RWC in my lifetime??? I'm 50 and have another 26 years based on statistics. That's 6 world cups….
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Hang in there mate, I would love to see France win the World Cup.
You're right about the All Black defense. We actually build our game around defense and being efficient in the contact area. You would have noticed that England are very physical and send a lot of guys to the contact area which means they never create overlaps especially during the transition from defense to attack… counter attack is where the All Blacks are so much better then everyone else. England play one way, the All Blacks do what they have too and can win pretty or ugly it just depends on who they're playing.
I only saw the Tonga v France fight.
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Good performance by England but we still lost so can't praise it too much. No glory in second place in my book. On the us side, it does show England are catching up again and by tightening up a few areas and showing more creativity in others, I think we can win the World Cup in 2015.
I'm looking forward to the rugby league semis now, might try to get a ticket for the double header, Wembley is just down the road from me.
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@Maynard:
Good performance by England but we still lost so can't praise it too much. No glory in second place in my book. On the positive side, it does show England are catching up again and by tightening up a few areas and showing more creativity in others, I think we can win the World Cup in 2015.
I'm looking forward to the rugby league semis now, might try to get a ticket for the double header, Wembley is just down the road from me.
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@Maynard:
@Maynard:
Good performance by England but we still lost so can't praise it too much. No glory in second place in my book. On the positive side, it does show England are catching up again and by tightening up a few areas and showing more creativity in others, I think we can win the World Cup in 2015.
I'm looking forward to the rugby league semis now, might try to get a ticket for the double header, Wembley is just down the road from me.
Funnily enough, one of the semis is NZ-England. Could have been a final. I'd put a coin on NZ, despite the fact that England will have 90% of the Wembley crowd cheering for them…
Just checked the betting odds and was very surprised to see how much NZ is favorite.
Australia is going to crush Fiji. -
Got my ticket for the Wembley semis on Saturday, now it's down to business. Three of the semi-finalists came from one group, which shows how few strong national teams there are in the game. England v New Zealand could go either way but Australia will romp it against Fiji and in all probability win the final. The winners should have 2 cross-code challenge games with the All Blacks, like Wigan used to do with Bath about 20 years ago!
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Gutted! Went to the semis yesterday and what a match England v NZ was, it had everything. The first half definitely belonged to the Kiwis but England got on top in the second and dominated it only to lose through sloppy play and errors. The visitors defence had been masterful in the first half but was looking tired in the second and England just didn't exploit it enough, but still looked the only team likely to win (imho). But it shows that the slightest mistake at this level is punished so good luck to NZ. This really could have gone either way and both sides will justifiably have felt they didn't deserve to lose.
As for the second game…..it shows why a truly competitive RLWC is still some way off.
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Bookmakers are favoring Australia by 8. If I had a bit more money at the moment, I'd jump on the Eurostar to see the game at the stadium. Here in France, you have to pay an extra option on pay TV so I'll settle for crummy targetaroja streams that freeze every other minute…
