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Rugby Thread

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Lions will have no problem taking Australia apart next year unless they really up their game.
Wales and Australia looking like shadows of their former selves.
From what I can gather this is a young Australian team and this tournament has just come too soon for them. They can certainly attack with good runners but the Welsh defence has been excellent.

Wales are a bit like England right now, good enough to get out of the group but not to go much further.

Such is the cycle of international teams.

Edit: great start to the second half from Wales. They are simply squeezing Australia out of this game
 
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Eddie Jones will be gone now, can’t survive this.

Not so sure. Think he was given a contract until the end of the next world cup cycle. Going to cost a lot to pay him out if that and as we saw with England, he is not one for walking when the writing is in the wall despite having a supposed job lined up with Japan. A cynic may predict a loss to Portugal to ensure his payment
 
The only thing that may save him is that Australia have been rubbish for a few years now. Eddie has just made them worse though ;) :LOL:

Meanwhile, Australia annoyed their original post world cup coach who was hacked off that Eddie Jones was airdropped ahead of him on a long term deal. He is now at Leicester Tigers who brought him in to replace their coach who was brought into the England set up early to replace the under performing Eddie Jones. Seems to be one name over a lot at the moment.
 
Meanwhile, Australia annoyed their original post world cup coach who was hacked off that Eddie Jones was airdropped ahead of him on a long term deal. He is now at Leicester Tigers who brought him in to replace their coach who was brought into the England set up early to replace the under performing Eddie Jones. Seems to be one name over a lot at the moment.

I wonder if Eddie and Jose Mourinho are best mates? :LOL:
 
I wonder if Eddie and Jose Mourinho are best mates? :LOL:

Very similar MO. Previously respected coaches appearing out of date with modern methods, sign contracts, under perform, start discussions with other employers when this start going South, get sacked, get the pay out, sign up with new employer.

Interesting that in the interviews that I heard with Jones yesterday it was all about rugby Australia not wanting him after the world cup review. All about them having to pay him out.
 
i know i'll get shouted down, but it's so slow and ponderous. Rugby league is a far faster game with ball in hand more. In the '80s Union was great, but i believe professionalism and introducing League rules (substitutes, video ref, 40/20 kick (league version)) has made most games less interesting, especially as lots of League coaches in RU teaching defence and fitness.

I believe today a top RU match is good, but far too many tennis style kick-a-thons. The French side of the 80's threw the ball about with abandon, and it was fantastic to watch - today due to better fitness and defence there isn't the space to do so, however in League there is still that emphasis on scoring tries, rather than penalty kicks - for me it just makes for a better game.

And i live in Cambridge, not Featherstone....
 
i know i'll get shouted down, but it's so slow and ponderous. Rugby league is a far faster game with ball in hand more. In the '80s Union was great, but i believe professionalism and introducing League rules (substitutes, video ref, 40/20 kick (league version)) has made most games less interesting, especially as lots of League coaches in RU teaching defence and fitness.

I believe today a top RU match is good, but far too many tennis style kick-a-thons. The French side of the 80's threw the ball about with abandon, and it was fantastic to watch - today due to better fitness and defence there isn't the space to do so, however in League there is still that emphasis on scoring tries, rather than penalty kicks - for me it just makes for a better game.

And i live in Cambridge, not Featherstone....
I hear what you are saying sometimes about RU but every time I flick on a RL game it seems as if it is just big (very athletic men) just running into each other with little flow, then a line break and a quick try. I 100% concede that maybe I haven’t watched enough or perhaps the right game.
 
League is better than football but it’s still too much of a one dimensional game for me.

Love the physicality of it. Those lads are rock hard. No question!
 
I hear what you are saying sometimes about RU but every time I flick on a RL game it seems as if it is just big (very athletic men) just running into each other with little flow, then a line break and a quick try. I 100% concede that maybe I haven’t watched enough or perhaps the right game.
Each to there own. To me you have just described Union. Big guys ploughing back into the ruck the ball has just been cleared from in an attempt to gain a few centimetres. Scrums constantly reset, the ball hoofed aimlessly down the field. I watched 20 mins or so of the Ireland and South Africa game and didn't recognise what the commentators and some on here were describing. Sure, it was brutal and it was tight but I didn't find it entertaining. What I did notice though was how little time the ball was in play during the bit I watched. Players constantly down injured, the TMO intervening, the afore mentioned scrum resets. Judging by the number of crowd shots I seen it seems the TV companies have found a way to mask the inaction. But like I said, each to their own.
 
League is for people who want all action. The sort of people who would enjoy Alan Wick or The Fast and the Furious series of films.

Union is for people who want deft and intrigue and intelligence mixed in with their action. The sort of people who watch Lord of the Rings, Shawshank Redemption and Inception.
 
League can be exciting if you get two equally matched teams, but a lot of the time its one out runners and 13 identically shaped blokes running in to one another. Union has way more nuance and strategy and caters for a wider range of body types.
 
League is for people who want all action. The sort of people who would enjoy Alan Wick or The Fast and the Furious series of films.

Union is for people who want deft and intrigue and intelligence mixed in with their action. The sort of people who watch Lord of the Rings, Shawshank Redemption and Inception.
Who is Alan Wick?
Or do you mean Alan Whicker or John Wick?
 
Unfortunately, I think that one of the biggest barriers that rugby union has in attracting casual fans is that you have to have some understanding of the game to appreciate it - Its complicated, and with modern defences it's a chess game.

It's a hard line to toe as by simplifying or trying to make it flow more and attract new fans you drive away the rugbys "purists" who love the battles within the game (kicking, scrums, pick and goes, mauls etc).

Rugby league is more simple, more flowing and has some serious displays of athleticism and power but I find it rather boring to watch.

Having said that I played union for 20 years at various levels but some of my most enjoyable times on the pitch were during a brief foray into lower level rugby league. There was no efforts to move defences or break them down, it was just run hard and straight. In defence i absolutely loved it 😂 and in attack i felt like i was finding it surprisingly easy to make yards simply by arcing runs and stepping into gaps rather than just ploughing into the defence. My hand-off was always my strongest weapon in attack and the upright nature of tackling meant I was able to use it with gay abandon.

In one game me and a big kiwi bloke were just having a running battle, both just seeking each other out all game. It was brilliant 😂.
 
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