DrK on 6/10/2007 at 20:45
WE DID IT !!!! WE FUCKING DID IT !!! FUCK YEAH !!!!
Matthew on 6/10/2007 at 20:46
Well, that's the thread title's question answered.
Oceanstorm on 6/10/2007 at 21:17
Well, all credit to the French. They played their hearts out and earned the win.
It hurts for us though. The AB's have played so well over the last 2 or 3 years only to have it end here.
But that's how it goes eh. The sun's still shining outside and we just have to look forward now.
On a side note, that english ref was F**KIN USELESS.:mad:
Missing hands in the ruck, a forward pass and sending Luke off when he bloody well shouldn't have.:mad:
I know it sounds like sour grapes. It's not, The French fought hard and did well but at that level of the game the ref SHOULD NOT be missing shit like that.
Ah well, back to normal life now.
Zygoptera on 6/10/2007 at 22:34
Interesting results, those.
The ref for the Eng-Aus game was excellent. Australia's front row has been appallingly bad for years, and Connelly 'fixed' it by making collapsing all the time a policy, relying on most refs giving a 50-50 split on penalties. Nice to see someone finally pick up on that, and as soon as they actually kept it up they got totally steamrollered. Goal kicking apart England played almost perfectly to their strengths, and to Australia's weaknesses.
Oddly enough I'm not too bothered about the other game. The french played very well, but we didn't play badly either. A few mistakes, a crucial injury, but nothing you don't see in any other game and forget about. Earlier exit, but I feel better about it than the rather feeble exits in '99 and '03. Plus the looks on the presenter's faces afterwards were priceless, and after all, the team I picked is still in it to win.
The officiating, however, was atrocious. Referee was a clown who shouldn't be seen in an international again, and the linesmen were painted on.
DrK on 6/10/2007 at 22:50
I agree both France and NZ teams had kind of an equal game, it was very intense from the beginning to the end. If we knew how to use our feet, 1st half could have ended with 13-12 instead of 13-3, but NZ did the same mistake near the end with their try where we managed to transform our. Basicaly both teams could have won, we just had a little more chance (damn last seconds were endless for me).
But to win against the all blacks is like a miracle, a gift or something to us. Seven years we didn't win against them. It's like we won the world cup (at least for me, no matter how far we go, we did it !). And hell, the french coming closer to the NZ during the Hakka, it ruined their effect, god it was amazing !
*yay*:D
bob_doe_nz on 7/10/2007 at 08:02
*sigh* Well, at least the Aussies didn't get far either. :rolleyes:
Now to kick that referee to where the sun don't shine.:ebil:
ercles on 7/10/2007 at 11:06
:(
DrK on 7/10/2007 at 14:51
:( What a shame Fiji couldn't make it.
South Africa didn't impress me at all, they were strong and had some intelligent play, but compared to Fiji they didn't seem to enjoy playing. Against Tonga they already didn't play that well.
WOW Fiji, 2 fantastic tries in a row while being only 14, attacking everytime they had the ball, it was so great to see them playing. Too many mistakes but such a passion in their game. For me, they won the game.
Shug on 7/10/2007 at 23:47
So... we reducing the field goal/penalty to 2 points, or just getting rid of those 'try scoring' shenanigans totally?
At least it looks like the French are playing well enough to do that which we couldn't :(
edit: credit to the english forward pack who are solid as always, our pack has been pretty poor for a while now and it shows. you even tried running the ball out your back line for a period in the first half before going back to default maul it up in the forwards then take the points
gregan also had about 15 good minutes in him before going back to his trademark of slow service, poor handling and arguing with the ref
on the topic of scrums, i highly doubt we were deliberately collapsing the scrums on our own feed - old mate tighthead on the english side was causing some mischief, and for some odd reason we weren't getting the ball back even when we turned the english scrum more than 90 degrees
ercles on 8/10/2007 at 03:19
France, England, South Africa, Argentina in Semis. I guess we can wave goodbye to expansive rugby now.
