Week One has provided some excellent rugby, dodgy refereeing and unfortunate injuries.
I think we can all unite around Uruguay as WC champions.
Other competitions are also starting up, so cancel all engagements and be prepared to spend your entire weekend and parts of the midweek glued to the screen. Hopefully not literally.
For those of you who lack rugby preparation skills, let me remind you to order in adequate supplies of booze, fags and possibly food.
Exciting rugby on the telly this week
Friday 27th September
| Cheetahs 48 – 14 Glasgow | 18:05 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster 38 – 14 Ospreys | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leicester 27 – 7 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 28th September
| Argentina 28 – 12 Tonga | 05:45 | ITV |
| Japan 19 – 12 Ireland | 08:15 | ITV |
| South Africa 57 – 3 Namibia | 10:45 | ITV |
| Northampton 32 – 36 Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Munster 39 – 3 Drags | 15:00 | Freesports / TG4 |
| Southern Kings 27 – 31 Cardiff Blues | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets 18 – 10 Connacht | 17:15 | PS2 / S4C / TG4 |
| Treviso 27 – 32 Leinster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Edinburgh 50 – 15 Zebre | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 29th September
| Georgia 33 – 7 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV |
| Australia 25 – 29 Wales | 08:45 | ITV / S4C |
Monday 30th September
| Scotland 34 – 0 Samoa | 11:15 | ITV |
Wednesday 2nd October
| France 33 – 9 USA | 08:45 | ITV4 |
| New Zealand 63 – 0 Canada | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Thursday 3rd October
| Georgia 10 – 45 Fiji | 06:15 | ITV4 |
| Ireland 35 – 0 Russia | 11:15 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
Last 2 minutes have been all Canada
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….but the sponsorship money is probably a nice wedge…………..
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OT…
….thanks for the SMMT link
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63?……………………”pfffft” as a llama might say
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Worst watch of the cup, genuinely felt pointless. Poor old Canada.
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That was a real throwback. Only one of those I’ve caught this World Cup (albeit didn’t see Boks-Namibia).
Still, only having one so far is probably a major improvement on all WCs since 1995.
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I think it gets tougher for the lower teams as the Tourni progresses – so relative performance of top teams against minnows is hard to judge.
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I’d agree Slade, the first game or two they’ve got full squads and relatively few bumps and bruises. The last couple of pool games test the depth far more, especially if smaller teams have had quick turnarounds between matches.
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Peter Sissons RIP
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‘As his job approval rating slides to an all-time low, reports emerge that the president suggested shooting migrants in the legs, building a snake and alligator-filled moat at the US-Mexico border (no, really) and electrifying his much-touted wall before being told by aides his ideas were both illegal and impractical.’
Illegal and impractical? Bunch of killjoys
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Should have gone for a shark moat.
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sharks with laser beams
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On their heads.
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All Sag wanted was sharks with fricking laser beams on their heads.
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Boks – Namibia was similar.
England – USA wasn’t that far off.
Ireland did quite well to stay in the game against Japan ….
It’s been quite competitive overall I think.
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Dov – noice
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So, having watched that, I think France stay in the “shit” bracket.
Watch them do England now.
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Cat – you not even bothering with a full update?
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Cat – Alfred spirals quite quickly doesn’t he?
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Chimpie, this is one of my favourite reactions to when Trump announced the wall:
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@Craigs. He does. He’s got a lot of pent up rage that boy. Go back to where you first met him for the end of the story.
It’s a complete waste of time. Annalise is immortal and you can make her whole again.
You killed Ebby? If so take Annalise’s remains to the altar in Space Slug’s lair. Annalise is only for PvP though, so it’s up to you whether to bother.
You can also ask Annalise to marry you. She keeps turning me down though. Possibly cos I use a female hunter.
Alfred is quite a tragic side quest. Not up to the level of Gazza’s Daughter or Granny crack dealer (or even the hooker- but you offed her)
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Will come back to Ebrietas, she keeps killing me easily. Need to replay so I can do Eileen’s quest properly. And Arianna.
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Having looked up Arianna’s quest, I’m not that bothered.
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My thoughts on the USA game.
1) The US defensive line is working well. With the exception of Fickou spotting a mismatch close to the line, France either scored from kicking over or around it, or from a maul.
2) Joe Taufeete’e is one of the most powerful ball carriers in the tournament. Him hitting the line at full tilt is splendid to see.
3) We should have scored when we were camped on their line. They should have had a player in the bin too. (How many final warnings can you get?) If we had scored then, and taken the lead, we might have been able to kick on against a rattled French team.
4) Not sure what Blaine Scully really brings at the moment apart from leadership and tackling.
5) Shaun Davies should not be the guy catching contestable high kicks. He’s tiny. Cam Dolan might be better dropping back, a la Sergio / Read.
6) Big improvement from the pack after the England debacle. France would have fancied mullering the US pack yet only exerted dominance towards the end. The States harassed them at the breakdown splendidly.
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Pro – thought US were so much better across the board.
Ref’s unlimited final warnings (there might be something to this two tier reffing thing) certainly didn’t help but I think biggest issue for US was kicking away promising possession that just ended up in a mark being called. Happened a couple of times that I can recall when they were around the French 10m line…either need to play more phases or kick low/into touch.
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@pro, i was flitting in and out but it looked a decent effort from the US. The chunks I saw the forwards looked pretty evenly matched. Your 15 seemed a bit lost positionally and when defending in general. Was he playing out of position?
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I also thought the replacement 9 was a step up, better kicks and nice heads-up decisions. Just impressions though.
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@IKS
He’s a utility back who usually plays as a wing, plays FB in the MLR and has even played 9.
@FF
The Tier Two reffing thing is definitely a thing.
Did you notice Picamoles leads with his forearm out in front of him on every carry?
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Re leading with the forearm, is it always a penalty or only if it hits the tackler in the neck or head?
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@Craigsman
at the moment it is only illegal if the tackler is hurt and/or if a either referees assistant, home crowd or TV director spot it.
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It’s never [rarely] a penalty, which is the real issue. Along with many other things that DBWR have let slide over the years. If the refereeing has, at times, seemed hysterical in this cup, it’s only because referees are learning to adapt to any change in directives as much as the players are.
Why DBWR haven’t implemented these changes long before their showpiece shindig should be questioned. But won’t.
Rugby has become infuriating to watch, which is a shame as the standard is ever improving.
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@Yosoy
Too right.
It is something that is 1) illegal and 2) being coached to players
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Here we go again with prorogation. Holy fuck.
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Is a ‘fend’ a hand-off? There’s a big difference between leading with your forearm/elbow and leading with your hand.
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I’d say it was the same, Iksy.
Was looking at some French rugby terminology earlier. I particularly liked “le raffut” for “hand off /fend” and “le cad-deb” for “sidestep”. Best of all is “le offload”.
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@tomp
I’d be very interested to see if there is French cricket terminology. I wonder what they say for “third man”, “fine leg” and “dibbly-dobbler”.
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troisième homme
bien jambe
dibbler-dobbler
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Cheers pro/yos. I remember seeing a few hand offs to the neck which went unpunished and there was Keith Earls tackle on Savea where he took an elbow.
There’s a few ways you can get injured in contact tbh, it’s difficult to deal with all of them. Coaching players to tackle low is one of them. But I think we have to accept a level of risk to players and maybe have an injury sub or something.
Otherwise it’s left to human judgement within the laws and no one is ever completely happy with that.
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Cheers Pro/yos. There is so many ways to get injured in contact that I’m not sure if you can ref it totally fairly. We might need to accept a certain level of risk and coach players to tackle low. Maybe have an injury sub.
The refs human judgment is always going to piss some people off.
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Ffs – for some reason I couldn’t see my first post and I thought I’d lost it. Oh well, double me.
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Toot de la fruit.
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French cricket is mostly made played by expats so don’t know if they’d have much need for their own versions of the terminology. Same here in the Czech Republic.
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Troisième mec
Jambe bien formée
bof-bof (wtf is a dibbly-dobbler anyway?)
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J’aime le offload et le throat smash aussi.
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Yos – I call bollocks on that. ‘Throat’ is practically unpronounceable for a French person. Except of course our Flair. ;-)
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třetí muž
jemná noha
dibbly-Dobbler
I’m really disappointed no-one has a translation for dibbly-dobbler.
No, wait. I have one! Latin – “Dobbler dibbly”
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BB – try Hindi or Urdu.
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just seen all the NZ tries.
In almost all of them Canada wing Jeff Hassler is desperately chasing the scorer to the line. He’s in every shot, arriving seconds after the try scorer with his glorious mane of hair.
He’s a big lad and with all that fruitless chasing he must have covered a serious amount of distance today. For nowt.
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BB, třetí muž is the film rather than the fielding position.
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