The 2015 rugby union thread

[Axver]

Yep, three fucking am.

In a way I'm glad. I don't have any Kiwis to watch this with and I could not bear to watch it with Australians.

 

[MadForIt]

Ka mate, ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!
Ka mate! ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!

Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru

Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā

Ā, upane! ka upane!

Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra!

Come on NZ!!!!!!!!!

 

[Axver]

Tense and nervous already. Bloody hell, why do I have to wait until 3am?!

 

[Axver]

Half an hour to go now. My stomach has been in knots all evening. Had the good fortune to meet some Kiwis at a gig and I think we all had a sense of quiet optimism and serious nervousness. Everybody expects it to be a close game - and I'm not sure my heart can handle a close finish.

Let's do it, lads. Leave them all behind. Destiny awaits.

 

[domo-kun]

Live stream on

 

[Axver]

MlLNER-SKUDDER MY BOY WHAT A TRY!!!!!

 

[Axver]

What a half. My heart is absolutely pounding. We had to get a try at the end there to cement our advantage - we'd been much more threatening than the Wallabies, so to only lead by a couple of penalties at the break would not have made enough of it. Crucial try. Some of our play has been simply gorgeous, and Australia aren't helped by having two players already out through injury.

Still, it's only a thirteen point margin. Where to now? Come on boys!

 

[domo-kun]

sweet SWEET try indeed.

 

[Axver]

Wow Milner-Skudder's Wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect that he scored the first try of the final.

 

[Axver]

MA'A NONU TRYTlIIIIIME!!!

 

[Axver]

Ben Smith you fool. Thank fuck that was only a yellow card.

 

[domo-kun]

Well that makes it a game again Dammit. this is not good for my heart.

 

[Axver]

Oh fuck this is unravelling now.

 

[domo-kun]

Holy shit. Aussies rising like a fucking Phoenix from the ashes.

 

[domo-kun]

YES YES YES.

 

[Axver]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i cannot speak WE DID IT WE DID IT WE FUCKING DID IT FUCK ME I LOVE THIS TEAM

 

[Axver]

This is basically the most perfect thing ever. Welcome to sporting immortality, New Zealand.

These All Blacks are the greatest sports team of all time. The first country to successfully retain the World Cup, and in the four years in between tournaments we won all but three games. We're the only team in the professional era to go undefeated in a calendar year. We've gone everywhere a rugby team can go. And to win the trophy in such an exhilarating, fast-paced game was sensational.

Oh wow. Just look at our trip through the finals to glory. First we flog the daylights out of France, our great World Cup nemesis, at the home of one of our most infamous defeats. Then we knock off our two fiercest rivals, South Africa in the semi and then Australia.

Nothing like this feeling. Nothing at all.



You might say this is a...

 

[cobl04]

Enjoy ????????


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Axver]

Not coming down from this elation. Sinking some Kiwi beer right now.

What an absolutely perfect team. This is how rugby is meant to be played. An absolute cracker of a final; an absolute cracker of a tournament. There have been none better.

 

[MadForIt]

Great win for NZ
Great for Carter and McCaw to finish this way

 

[cobl04]

I can't say I knew who he was, but this is sad upon reflection - Jonah Lomu has died.

 

[Axver]

Absolutely devastated. He was probably rugby's first global superstar after what he did in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and maybe the most internationally famous All Black. He came at just the right time to be the face of rugby going from an amateur sport poorly followed beyond its heartlands to a professional global sport.

And holy shit his first try from the 1995 England semi-final may well be the greatest try ever. Just watch this thing:



The commentator's call is amazing, left gasping after Lomu literally runs straight over the top of Mike Catt (the poor guy is now solely remembered as Lomu's victim). At his peak - which happened to coincide with the 1995 and 1999 World Cups - Lomu was the most physically imposing player in all rugby, and certainly a contender for that title in all sport. Nobody had seen anything like him beforehand, a winger so big yet so so fast. He had that perfect combination of brute strength, acceleration, and agility. When he was on form, he simply ran straight at the defence because he knew he had the power to knock them out of the way. If they tried to hold on, he'd just drag them along until they fell off him.

It's such a tragedy he was then struck down by poor health and had his career cut short. You struggle to even believe a man who showed such awesome, dominant physicality on the rugby field could have even the slightest ailment, let alone kidney problems so serious to require a transplant. I'm assuming - though it's not yet confirmed - that his death will probably have something to do with his kidney condition, especially since his body rejected the transplanted kidney a few years ago.

I'm so glad he at least went out with a trip to our greatest sporting triumph. This is really getting to me. His performance of 1995 set my eight-year-old world on fucking fire. I will never ever forget it.

 

[Vlad n U 2]