Round Three was full of excitement and correct results (see picture).
But I am not going to wear my little fingers to the bone typing a preview of this week’s matches when Deebee7 has already done it! Or, if you’re bored with the World Cup, you could look forward with him to the 2024 summer tours.
The (English) 11 aren’t going so flash in India at the moment, 121/4 after 22 overs. Run rate is fine, but wild swinging and misjudged balls (Karl, and Karl) are eroding their scoring potential (and again!) very quickly.
Liam Livingstone living large! Until he isn’t. All the England batsmen have contrived to get out to silly shots so far (of the wickets I’ve seen), with only Joe Root, captain of his ship and master of his destiny, sailing serenely through the chaos.
Reverse sweep from serene skipper Root and the ship hits the rocks! Or more accurately, attempted reverse sweep and the ball hits the wickets after he misses – again. A few play and misses from Root off a shot that is high risk, low reward given his outrageous ability to score heavily off proper cricket shots.
Have to disagree with that re Root as he’s ordinarily very good at all kinds of sweep.
England have made a right old mess of this with NZ only having picked maybe three proper bowlers. Hard to get excited about this tournament anyway with more interesting things going on elsewhere.
CMW, he may usually be very good at the reverse, but he’s a sublime batsman and can score with so many other, less risky shots. Looks like the crowd (or lack thereof) in India agrees with you on the excitement front. They’re clearly all staying away to save their energy for Uruguay’s dissection of the All Blacks tonight!
That horrible batting is probably the strong suit of this side so unless there are more demons in the pitch than the radio coverage suggests they are going to need NZ to bat just as horribly.
@Deebee – It’s not a test match and I would give him some leeway to know what his percentage shots are. Commentary suggests he picked the length wrong which is unlike him. Mo, Brook, Livingstone and Malan are all pretty awful dismissals. Haven’t seen Root’s yet, but it’s not going to be worse!
I think we’ve become so accustomed to 300+ and even 350+ in ODIs that below 300 sounds well short. New Zealand have a pretty decent batting lineup too, although I see Williamson was in the stands, so that’s a bit of a blow.
World Rugby doing a bang up job promoting the game
Wayne Barnes, one of the most high profile refs in World Rugby, has had a clip taken down that he personally appears in and that promoted the kind of values that Rugby Union is so proud of. Confused. pic.twitter.com/yKI86fYBHK
Thing is Italy didn’t lose games by huge amounts in the 6N. Think 14/15 points were the largest margins (they only got beat by 5 points against France). Don’t know if the NZ game just blew out any confidence they may have had.
Interesting one with the non-try, both players were moving into the ruck and the French player was falling into it though the Italian player went in more forcefully and perhaps carelessly.
France were offside five or six times in the build up to it, not that any of this matters.
Italy appear to have brought a non-kicking game which is not going to work very well.
Ovally Balls 
@Deebee – It’s been nice of South Africa to let the Scots play at being the ruthless bastards before they move on without them.
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If we were that bloody ruthless we would have beaten the big South African softies…
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England to play Faz at 12 vs Samoa.
Ffs.
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Its OK Dab, he gonna shoulder charge someone, so likely to be out for the rest of the tournament.
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Funnily enough, much as I would rather he wasn’t in the team at all, I would be happier if we had him at 10 than twelve.
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Also, where Craigs and Chimpie ?
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@Dab – I guess it was always highly likely?
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If we were that bloody ruthless we would have beaten the big South African softies…
Problem is you picked four softie rejects in your side.
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Problem was the other 11.
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The (English) 11 aren’t going so flash in India at the moment, 121/4 after 22 overs. Run rate is fine, but wild swinging and misjudged balls (Karl, and Karl) are eroding their scoring potential (and again!) very quickly.
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Just as I predicted, Buttler and Root have steadied the ship, and looking to accelerate. Or something.
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Sorry, England fans. Buttler feathers one through to the ‘keeper.
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Liam Livingstone living large! Until he isn’t. All the England batsmen have contrived to get out to silly shots so far (of the wickets I’ve seen), with only Joe Root, captain of his ship and master of his destiny, sailing serenely through the chaos.
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Reverse sweep from serene skipper Root and the ship hits the rocks! Or more accurately, attempted reverse sweep and the ball hits the wickets after he misses – again. A few play and misses from Root off a shot that is high risk, low reward given his outrageous ability to score heavily off proper cricket shots.
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Have to disagree with that re Root as he’s ordinarily very good at all kinds of sweep.
England have made a right old mess of this with NZ only having picked maybe three proper bowlers. Hard to get excited about this tournament anyway with more interesting things going on elsewhere.
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252/9. England have hit the rocks and burnt their boat at the same time. Horrible batting.
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CMW, he may usually be very good at the reverse, but he’s a sublime batsman and can score with so many other, less risky shots. Looks like the crowd (or lack thereof) in India agrees with you on the excitement front. They’re clearly all staying away to save their energy for Uruguay’s dissection of the All Blacks tonight!
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That horrible batting is probably the strong suit of this side so unless there are more demons in the pitch than the radio coverage suggests they are going to need NZ to bat just as horribly.
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@Deebee – It’s not a test match and I would give him some leeway to know what his percentage shots are. Commentary suggests he picked the length wrong which is unlike him. Mo, Brook, Livingstone and Malan are all pretty awful dismissals. Haven’t seen Root’s yet, but it’s not going to be worse!
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Seen Bairstow’s one now and it’s very similar to Livingstone – if you’re going to hit it in the air at least try to hit it hard enough!
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I guess 282 is still quite a lot of runs to defend even if it sounds like it could be well below par.
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I think we’ve become so accustomed to 300+ and even 350+ in ODIs that below 300 sounds well short. New Zealand have a pretty decent batting lineup too, although I see Williamson was in the stands, so that’s a bit of a blow.
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Don’t appear to be too many demons in the pitch, just at the moment.
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Needed 420.
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Ooooohhh…Uruguay? Oh, he’s in touch.
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This was looking a lot closer than expected, but the ABs are getting into their horrible groove now.
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Oh bloody hell, that was great ABs skillz.
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Ooh, that was something a little special from DMac.
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Oh well, don’t think I have the stamina to see this match out with its foregone conclusion. It’s been a bit of a rough fortnight!
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Robbie Henshaw in doubt for the World Cup with a hamstring injury. Scotland by 23, but Aki to score four tries. Oh. Shit.
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From the Graun:
Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey has taken Henshaw’s place among the replacements for this weekend’s Stade de France match
Scotland by 34, Aki to score five tries! Oh. Shit.
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World Rugby doing a bang up job promoting the game
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It’s been One of Those Days. I will get a new post up tomorrow, hopefully before any matches kick off!
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Other than tonight’s France v Italy, obvs. :-(
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Didn’t take Pennaud long.
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Didn’t take long.
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Nice from the young hyphenated winger.
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Italy are so frustratingly shit. How have they gone backwards so much? They are a shell of a team.
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Piperboy – I guess it’s because they don’t have Parisse any more, who was practically a one-man team.
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Penaud is a genius though (even if he has an annoying Ashtonesque quality)
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Ashton never stepped like that.
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Thing is Italy didn’t lose games by huge amounts in the 6N. Think 14/15 points were the largest margins (they only got beat by 5 points against France). Don’t know if the NZ game just blew out any confidence they may have had.
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Thaum – his step around Drew Mitchell was pretty good though :)
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Oh no, Capuozzo going off. Temporarily? He’s Italy’s best 5 players.
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It’s for an HIA Thaum. Italy think they’ve scored, but the guy who scored might be in trouble!
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I think that’s harsh. A wrapping clear out on a falling player. Crowd-led decision making.
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This one, Refit? Quite an entertaining article in retrospect.
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Ah, posted too soon. They talked it down to a reasonable outcome.
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BB – thanks, thought it was, but wasn’t sure.
Piperboy – agree.
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Interesting one with the non-try, both players were moving into the ruck and the French player was falling into it though the Italian player went in more forcefully and perhaps carelessly.
France were offside five or six times in the build up to it, not that any of this matters.
Italy appear to have brought a non-kicking game which is not going to work very well.
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