Rugby World Cup

[yertle-the-turtle]

yes i agree with your last point

as i've stated many times before, a plate/bowl competition would be excellent for teams like Argentina, Italy, Canada, Samoa, Fiji and the USA who put in great performances but finished in 3rd/4th positions in their groups

I think New Zealand may prove your Australia point wrong next week though

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Colin Charvis - apparently third sexiest rugby player in Wales, if BBC report is to be believed.

Earlier this year Colin Charvis was deemed less popular than Osama Bin Laden by one opinion poll.


But the Wales captain has returned to favour, at least amongst female supporters in the Principality.

Charvis has been voted the third sexiest rugby player in Wales in a survey of 800 women.

"Am I? Brilliant," he said on being given the news as he arrived in Brisbane ahead of Sunday's quarter-final against England.

The survey also revealed that 82% of women thought Welsh rugby players had sexier legs than their English counterparts.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Squads:

Australia -
15 Mat Rogers 14 Wendell Sailor 13 Stirling Mortlock 12 Elton Flatley 11 Lote Tuqiri 10 Stephen Larkham 9 George Gregan 8 David Lyons 7 Phil Waugh 6 George Smith 5 Nathan Sharpe 4 Justin Harrison 3 Ben Darwin 2 Brendan Cannon 1 Bill Young

Replacements: 16 Jeremy Paul 17 Al Baxter 18 David Giffin/Daniel Vickerman 19 Matt Cockbain 20 Chris Whitaker 21 Nathan Grey 22 Joe Roff

New Zealand -
15 Mils Muliaina 14 Doug Howlett 13 Leon MacDonald 12 Aaron Mauger 11 Joe Rokocoko 10 Carlos Spencer 9 Justin Marshall 8 Jerry Collins 7 Richie McCaw 6 Reuben Thorne 5 Ali Williams 4 Chris Jack 3 Greg Somerville 2 Keven Mealamu 1 Dave Hewett

Replacements: 16 Mark Hammett 17 Kees Meeuws 18 Brad Thorn 19 Marty Holah 20 Byron Kelleher 21 Daniel Carter 22 Caleb Ralph

can't wait.

 

[U2NZ]

sorry I am back after not having the net 4 a few weeks.
Already into the semi-finals!
I was gunning for the rish, until they got licked by the french.
Now the All Blacks are gunna kick aussies... atleast thats what the buildup is suggesting.
Does anybody agree with me that rugby is realllly "soft" now.
I mean players are basicly not allowd to ruck now... I mean a really good protest would have been to wear tutu's or ballet skirt thingys and play in them, and kiss the oppositions hand, a bit disrespectful to the country u play for, but it would have given the world cup organisers a bit of a shock and embarressment and really make them think, but that's what it's almost like now.

 

[foray]

Is rugby legalised war?

Can't wait for this saturday's match.


furry

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen

unlike football/soccer, which is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans

 

[bono_man2002]

if australia are going to win, they have the play a good 80 min game...not a good second half.....
if they play like last week the game will be over by half time

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

it's in less than four hours

 

[bono_man2002]

74th Min Australia 22 - 10 New Zealand

i think that fat lady can nearly sing

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

well today i was rooting for the all blacks

but it was a helluva performance by the wallabies and the win was deserved

 

[brettig]

foray: ha ha!

 

[U2NZ]

Go England!

 

[bono_man2002]

Go England!

I think that the aussies will be playing France in the final, all will be found out tonight

 

[foray]

The Aussies didn't beat the All Blacks - rather the All Blacks lost; cos I don't think the Aussies played that aggressively. I can't believe how shit AB played, when they were fabulous throughout the Cup so far. The whole game was no attack, just defense, and they hardly got the ball. But whenever they got the ball, they passed it to a Wallaby!

:shakes head:

foray

 

[Axver]

New Zealand versus Australia match summary: I nearly cried and I could've thrown up. That referee was USELESS. He penalised NZ so many times and missed so much the Aussies did.

Ah well, NZ still has the Bledisloe, Tri-Nations, Super 12, Women's World Cup, 7s World Cup, and Under-21s World Cup, and we are easily the best rugby team in history, so I guess I can hang on until 2007.

 

[brettig]

World Cups are won in defence, not attack.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

you all should have been around a couple of weeks earlier, when I was talking to myself

I don't think there was a lot between the two teams yesterday

other than the fact NZ gave away a lot of silly penalties within kicking range

and Flatley doesn't miss much

maybe if Muliana hadn't dropped the ball within the first ten minutes (great tackle by Tuqiri to put him off though) and MacDonald hadn't missed his first two penalty attempts the scoreline might be different

but that's that

I bet every Aussie rugby fan must be grinning from ear to ear at this victory though

 

[foray]

Yes the referee sucked, too, but All Blacks sucked goats - SIGH. Ka mate ka mate indeed. I might shave my head now. I invested so much emotion into that game

 

[cass]

I can imagine when they get "home" they will replay that run of Mortlocks a few times....forwards , backwards, forwards..it was a bottler
I haven't seen/heard any news today, I wonder how Darwin is?
I have mixed feelings about tonight...maybe the last time to watch Frederic..maybe not.
Wallabies v. France please.
I was in Brisbane last week the night after the Wales v. England game. You could just feel the atmosphere, so many supporters in town. It was neat
I might go along to the local outdoor big screen viewing of the grand final next week...although I'd much rather watch the kids play local soccer

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/team_pages/australia/3274531.stm

Injured Darwin to miss final

Australia prop Ben Darwin is out of the Rugby World Cup final and could require neck surgery after being stretchered off during Saturday's semi-final win over New Zealand.
Darwin lost all feeling in his arms and legs for several minutes after a scrum buckled 10 minutes into the second half.

He was taken to hospital and underwent X-rays and an MRI scan which showed a disc in his neck bulging and touching on the spinal cord.

"If it doesn't settle down of its own accord it will require surgery," said Wallabies doctor Martin Raftery.

Darwin credited All Blacks prop Kees Meeuws with helping to prevent further injury.

"I heard a crack and immediately called out 'neck, neck, neck' and to his credit Kees stopped pushing, which was fortunate because I lost feeling in my body and he could have really crashed me into the ground," said Darwin.

"When I was on the ground, I had no feeling from my neck down for about two minutes.

"It was terrifying but the medical staff did a great job of getting me into the right position and then I felt pins and needles in my arms and legs, which was a great relief.

"I'll be in hospital for a couple of days at least while they monitor my condition but the doctors are happy with my progress so far.

"I desperately want to be able to sit with the team on the bench and cheer the boys on in the final."

Australia had several other injury concerns after the 22-10 win over the All Blacks.

Second rower Nathan Sharpe (knee), hooker Brendan Cannon (shoulder), skipper George Gregan (leg) and centre Stirling Mortlock (leg) should all be fit for the final.

 

[cass]

Thanks yertle.

hmmm Freddy baby, what happened mate?
ahh well, he gets my good-looking award

so next week....Australia v. Wilkinson
I wish some of that rain would move up here.
Go the Wobbleys ( that's what my son called them when he was little...the Wobbleys)
I heard last night 1.7 million people have attended the games. Good fun.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Hrmph. I knew I should not have backed the darn Boks. Ah well, go England

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

go England!

talking pt:

should drop goals be worth two or three points? are the likes of Wilko and de Beer 'killing' the game?

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

amusing article for your perusal:

from the Times Online

'Are you Norwich in disguise?'
From Ashling O'Connor in Sydney



The week-long build up to the rugby World Cup final has barely begun and already the Australians are sick of hearing the England supporters' anthem, Swing Low Sweet Chariot.

Booming renditions of the song officially adopted by Twickenham in the 1991 tournament can be heard all over Sydney from pockets of fans walking around the city in white shirts and boisterous mood.

It is not the spontaneous outbursts of support for the hated opposition in their own backyard that seem to be annoying the locals but the fact that few English fans know more than the four-line chorus.

The repetitive strains, sung after every one of Jonny Wilkinson's successful kicks against France and also during the weekend's other semi-final, are grating on Australian nerves. "Enough already. England weren't even playing on Saturday night and you couldn't go ten minutes without hearing a rendition," the Sydney Morning Herald complained yesterday.

The spontaneous outbreaks of Swing Low during the game between the Wallabies and the All Blacks were jeered and booed by the Australian and New Zealand supporters. Just what has English rugby got to do with an American spiritual song, they have been asking? It is a legitimate question that not even English rugby fans can really answer.

Some say it emerged from the Twickenham terraces during a match between England and Ireland in 1988 when Chris Oti, the Nigerian-born England wing, scored three tries in the second half. Others argue it simply caught on because it had a simple melody and rude gestures to accompany the lyrics.

Either way, Harry Thacker Burleigh's 19th-century gospel tune has stuck, much to the chagrin of the Australian public. Well, the chorus at least. In a sing-along before Sunday's semi-final, the English crowd was strangely silent as an entertainer dressed as the Queen started the first verse of "I looked over Jordan and what did I see, Comin' for to carry me home, A band of angels comin' after me, Comin' for to carry me home."

Now that Australians have revealed just how much Swing Low gets to them, they can expect to be bombarded with it more than ever. Meanwhile, England fans are working on other ways to needle their rivals. On the train journey back from Olympic Park on Sunday night, a group of Londoners discovered that to chant "Are you Norwich (City) in disguise?" at anyone in a Wallabies shirt worked a treat.* To suggest the colour was canary yellow rather than gold was of even greater annoyance.

Australia has no established singing culture in sport, a serious issue not to be trivialised with verse. But sports-goers have become more accustomed to terrace-style chants since cricket's Barmy Army started coming to Australia to follow the Ashes tours. Where once they merely accepted the cries of "Get Your S**t Stars Off Our Flag", Australian cricket fans now have their own juicy ripostes at the ready. One of the most popular being trotted out for the rugby is "You can stuff your f***ing chariot up your arse!" (To the tune of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain).

Swing Low may be repetitive but it is not just England that has a monopoly on irritating anthems. Even Australians themselves have been questioning the adoption by rugby fans of Waltzing Matilda.

The song is based on Banjo Paterson's 19th-century poem about a hobo shoving a stolen sheep into a sack and drowning himself in a billabong before he could be arrested. "Should we really be promoting vagrancy and violence to sheep?" asked one reader of a Sydney newspaper.

The England supporters have responded in typically sophisticated fashion by bastardising the lyrics to "I Shagged Maltida ... and so did all my friends."

In the days leading up to the biggest game in international rugby for four years, the vocal war will continue apace. It is all good-natured banter. But if England win, Australians will find no aural reprieve from Swing Low and are bound to have a total sense of humour failure.


*As an Ipswich Town fan I find this bit (and the title) absolutely hilarious.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Brilliant! Thanks turtle

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

35-13, it's all over now!

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Holah goes over, 40-13. Carter's stepping up...drags it wide.

Never a try for Brad Thorn though, as Chris Handy and Gordon Bray keep reminding me, but I don't think it matters too much.

 

[brettig]

sweet chariot coming to carry me home...carrying the ball perhaps? and for some reason i always thought it had something to do with 'chariots' of fire.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

well brettig,

are you Norwich in disguise?

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

swiiiing looooow
sweeeet chariiioooooot

repeat x 10000