Rugby World Cup 2015

[HFX]

So it's almost that time again as this time England play host to the World Cup. In under three days England will kick off the tournament against Fiji. I know not many people here follow the sport or even know anything about it but we do have a number of people from countries involved so maybe there will be some passing interest. What makes it better is some of our home countries go head to head. England, Wales and Australia are in a pool together. USA faces off against Scotland. Ireland and Canada smash heads. Might be nice to see some gentlemanly banter and sig bets happening.

[Romo]

My hopes of winning the world cup were cut when both Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny both got injured and then we lost the man who was brought in for Halfpenny Eli Walker so its all going shits up

[HFX]

My hopes of winning the world cup were cut when both Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny both got injured and then we lost the man who was brought in for Halfpenny Eli Walker so its all going shits up

Ya at this point I don't know if y'all will even get by the Flyin' Fijians for the AQ spot let alone Australia and England. Liam Williams is going to need to find form fast and no more injuries to anyone for you lot to stand a chance.

[Romo]

My hopes of winning the world cup were cut when both Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny both got injured and then we lost the man who was brought in for Halfpenny Eli Walker so its all going shits up

Ya at this point I don't know if y'all will even get by the Flyin' Fijians for the AQ spot let alone Australia and England. Liam Williams is going to need to find form fast and no more injuries to anyone for you lot to stand a chance.

Yeah my hope is that George North comes alive because if he can find top form no one can stop him, Liam Williams should do fine, he's been learning under Halfpenny for awhile and i'm sure Halfpenny will be supporting him now.

[prophet]

I don't like that we're in the same group as Australia and Wales, those type of big games belong in the latter stages. The optimist in me believes England have an outside chance but there are far stronger sides in the tournament.

We're doing a sweepstakes at work, I got Wales and Namibia. Agree that Halfpenny's injury is a massive blow to the Welsh therefore my hopes of winning rest solely on the shoulders of the mighty Namibians

[Hanley!]

It was a really tough blow for Wales losing Webb and Halfpenny. I don't think we can rule the team out yet though. Their replacements will really want to make a big impact and put their names forward for the future. Halfpenny is probably the last person they wanted to get injured ahead of the World Cup, but they could still be dangerous.

Personally, I was kinda hoping for an Ireland vs Wales semi-final, so we could get revenge for our knockout in the World Cup back in 2011.

Nick isn't going to like me for this, but unlikely as it is, I'd love to see Fiji open the tournament with a win against England. It'd really show that it's all to play for in Pool A.

I don't think Ireland are going to have any trouble at all until Italy. The Italy game could be a close score, but I'm not worried about any of our games until the final game of our group against France. That's going to be an important one, as whoever loses will probably face the All Blacks in the quarter finals. Whereas winning the France match probably means a match against Argentina in the quarter finals. Which is obviously a much nicer draw.

[Str8Shooter]

I'd watch a bit of this but know virtually nothing about Rugby. Somebody explain the rules and which teams are the favourites

Is Canada actually any good or are we just cannon fodder for the rest of the teams?

[Romo]

I'd watch a bit of this but know virtually nothing about Rugby. Somebody explain the rules and which teams are the favourites

Is Canada actually any good or are we just cannon fodder for the rest of the teams?

I've not seen this myself but England Rugby put this video out awhile back for beginners which could be helpful

[Hanley!]

I'd watch a bit of this but know virtually nothing about Rugby. Somebody explain the rules and which teams are the favourites

Is Canada actually any good or are we just cannon fodder for the rest of the teams?

It's a little bit like American Football, but with some pretty major differences. The main goals are still ultimately the same though.

There are two ways to score points. The first is from kicking the ball between the uprights. Sometimes this will be done from open play, but more often than not it happens as a result of a penalty kick. Teams get 3 points for this.

The second way is to score a touchdown basically. Touchdowns are referred to as "tries" in rugby. When a player scores a try, his team gets 5 points AND then a conversion kick ... this is basically the same as a penalty, except instead of scoring 3 points, it only scores 2.

Basically penalties are worth 3 points, tries are potentially worth 7.

The biggest difference between American Football and rugby otherwise is that in rugby it's illegal to throw the ball forward. You can only pass the ball backwards to your team mates, so it's about strategically finding gaps in the oppositions defense and making breaks. It is legal to kick the ball forward though, so some teams will try to make ground mostly by running with the ball and other teams will kick and chase.

There are a lot of other rules that I could get into which would just put you to sleep out of context; really the best way to get a feel for it is just to watch a game.

This is actually the most open Rugby World Cup ever probably. There are seven teams that are very much in contention to win: New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Wales, France and Ireland. The favourites are New Zealand though. Just in case you don't know, they're the team that are referred to as the All Blacks, and they're usually the best side in the world at any given time.

Canada are not really any good though, I'm sorry to say. They're in Group D, and it's almost 100% guaranteed that the two teams that will be qualifying from Group D are Ireland and France.

[HFX]

@Hanley! I think I'm going to do something I've never done and back out of our Canada/Ireland bet like the coward I am. They announced the rosters and I have absolutely no faith in this squad putting in a respectable performance. I mean I'm still hoping for the best but I'm a realist and this is not the best we got to offer. You lot should have an absolute field day in dominating our set pieces and smacking our forwards around in open play and at the rucks. I'm more than keen on a France vs Ireland bet though.

[Romo]

@Hanley! I think I'm going to do something I've never done and back out of our Canada/Ireland bet like the coward I am. They announced the rosters and I have absolutely no faith in this squad putting in a respectable performance. I mean I'm still hoping for the best but I'm a realist and this is not the best we got to offer. You lot should have an absolute field day in dominating our set pieces and smacking our forwards around in open play and at the rucks. I'm more than keen on a France vs Ireland bet though.

PUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[Hanley!]

Just one day left. I'm excited.

[Romo]

The only downside for me is that i'm going to be surrounded by the english whilst watching Wales play down at Uni which will make viewing alot of difficult.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Not a Rugby fan at all but it seems Matt Dawson is garnering publicity for himself by mocking New Zealand's pre-match Haka routine and this article sums up what I detested about Dawson but could never quite put a finger on what specifically.

[Hanley!]

I thought that disallowed try at the end of Ireland vs Canada was dumb. But a lot of close decisions were going Canada's way in the second half, because they were so far behind. Looked to me like they were feeding way crooked in the scrum, and there was a bit of offside going on too.

Happy enough with 50-7 though. Playing against a team with so many amateurs, you can't be quite as enthusiastic about that kind of scoreline, but we still ran in plenty of tries and were clinical and we almost held Canada scoreless, so our defense was pretty good. Their only try came after Payne's dumb grubber kick and if it was a close game, I don't think he'd have risked that kind of play.

There was a lack of discipline from us at times, which we'll have to look at, but other than that I think it was a very solid performance. No injuries either. Looks like we'll be on good form come our game with France.

[prophet]

Good start for England yesterday, nice to get the ball rolling with a win. I'll be honest and admit I was more interested in the Leigh/Bradford game today though, much prefer watching League.

How about Japan though? Biggest upset in WC history?

[Hanley!]

What the fucking fuck? Go Japan! Where the hell did that come from?

[Hanley!]

I was half expecting another upset today, with Argentina against New Zealand. Particularly after Argentina were up after the first half. In the end though, they just ran out of energy and ideas. They were pretty brave in defense for the entire match, but they ran entirely out of steam offensively in the second half.

France vs Italy last night was ugly as fuck. The referee was shit, there were infringements constantly from both teams and yet nobody was given a card. Ref didn't control the game at all. Ultimately both teams looked sloppy and based on last night's performance, I don't think either of them can beat Ireland. Though I'd expect France to improve over the tournament.

I think the ref let a lot of decisions go France's way, and they were getting away with murder in the fourth quarter. But it makes little difference in the end. I thought the final scoreline was flattering to France, but they never looked like losing.

[Hanley!]

Triple posting like a boss. Come on, people, at least some of you must be watching this.

A couple of big games later: Samoa vs South Africa in an hour or so, and after Japan beat South Africa, Samoa will be eager to have a go. Then England vs Wales in what could well decide who goes through from their group.

Canada are beating Italy at the moment too, in what would be an upset. They're playing better rugby though for sure, they deserve to be ahead. @HFX must be pleased, even if their chances of getting out of their group is slim to none regardless of the result today.

[Romo]

And the english go silent.....ssssssssshhhhhhhh