Uruguay versus France
Namibia versus NZ
Romania versus SA
The only 2 that might be interesting will be Japan versus England and Fiji versus Wallabies.
Pro2,680 posts
13 Sept 2023, 07:54
#1
13 Sept 2023, 07:54#1
FORUM / RUGBY / Round 2 is not going to have fans here , especially Pakie and Corn Kob jumping up and down in their seats with excitement.
Round 2 is not going to have fans here , especially Pakie and Corn Kob jumping up and down in their seats with excitement.
Started by Seb8 REPLIES1,290 VIEWS· 13 Sept 2023, 07:54
Captain21,007 posts
13 Sept 2023, 08:11
#2
13 Sept 2023, 08:11#2
It's nuts that we have to play these teams.
Would great if we could have just four or five more top tier sides.
At least with the cricket one could have the odd upset.
Bit with rugby the lesser teams just stand so much less of a chance of winning.
Captain30,741 posts
13 Sept 2023, 08:20
#3
13 Sept 2023, 08:20#3
Yeah they need to keep it down to 16 teams
Boks
NZ
Oz
Argies
England
France
Ireland
Wales
Scotland
Italy
Samoa
Tonga
Fiji
Japan
USA
Georgia
Captain17,321 posts
13 Sept 2023, 09:11
#4
13 Sept 2023, 09:11#4
World Cup for any top side typically = 2 silly games, 2 decent games and playoffs (when the competition actually starts). It will ever be this way.
The smaller sides get an opportunity to play against the big boys, which is nice for them I guess as they'll not really get the opportunity at any other time.
Captain30,741 posts
13 Sept 2023, 09:29
#5
13 Sept 2023, 09:29#5
Yeah but it makes for poor viewing and dumbs down the competition
They need to resort to 16 teams which would give the sides one easier game each instead of 2
Captain21,007 posts
13 Sept 2023, 09:35
#6
13 Sept 2023, 09:35#6
Would be great if the Yanks would start taking rugby more seriously.
Their analysis would change the game for the better, in my view.
Captain30,741 posts
13 Sept 2023, 10:03
#7
13 Sept 2023, 10:03#7
The States have the second most rugby players after England
Given this stat they should be better but clearly the standard of that rugby played by all those players and it’s over a hundred thousand of them must be pretty piss poor
Some of the universities have good programs in place and take it seriously, my son a few years back looked into it as a potential avenue to go coaching - they pay the coaches a decent wage
Captain21,007 posts
13 Sept 2023, 10:36
#8
13 Sept 2023, 10:36#8
I'm a big fan of how the US approach their sport.
In any game they play, it's very difficult to hide behind reputation or ambiguity. They look at everything and are so damn good at identifying not only stats that nobody else thinks of but then also pinpointing which stats are the most meaningful.
You just know that if they got into rugby more they'd, for example, be tracking ruck clearance times live and feeding that info to the players on the field.
Think of how crazy it is that even at the highest level of the sport we still rely on the eye to tell us if our ruck clearance is slow, average, or fast. It's probably one the most important things in the game and we're still happy to simply guestimate it.
You just know the Yanks would simply never settle for that. They'd be tracking it, shaving milliseconds off or ruck times. That sort of thing.
It's just my view, but I'd love to see the game move more in that direction.
Pro2,680 posts
15 Sept 2023, 04:35
#9
15 Sept 2023, 04:35#9
Well Uruguay certainly quelled the argument that Tier 2 should be excluded from Rugby World Cups. I remember this argument way back about Japan, after the AB's put up a "cricket score" against them when they first qualified for the competition.
To keep RWC to a select few is selfish.These minnow teams have great enthusiasm as do their fans.They go through a long tough road to qualify.We want rugby to expand and grow.
Very well done Uruguay.
— END OF THREAD —
