Rugby World Cup 2023

[BMann]

Coaches are funny creatures. Borthwick for persisting with Smith at fullback./ Cheika with Santiago Carreras at flyhalf. Neither are natural at these positions.

Once again officiating comes under scrutiny and it is something WR needs to take a long hard look at. Yet again a forward pass missed for Cubelli's try and a dubious penalty against Savea early on.

SA are moulded in the image of their coach. And gamesmanship seems to feature in it. From trying to disguise the knockdown by Kolbe to this tactic of somehow conveniently falling offside at the ruck. This slows the first receiver and their access to the ball. Shouting no or the ball is free from the referee is not ideal. WR needs to look at it.

NZ did try and play rugby but ultimately place kicking cost them the Cup.

WR need to look at the officiating and how feeds at line outs and scrums are not straight or contested. And to clamp down on the continual breaks with medics running on with water, the screeching from players at referees, captains constantly asking for explanations and some of the simulation we have seen this tournament. It's not for union thanks.

As mentioned it's sad day for rugby globally with the events earlier in the week. One thing that might be an encouragement is that Jeffrey may not be the next WR President judging by a swing in support for Pichot from SANZAAR. UnfortunatelY the horse has bolted and T2s are in purgatory for a decade.

I'm please Marler did not shake Beaumont's hands the old fossil whose tenure as WR President has been a disaster for the game as a whole. The reasons might be to do with the treatment of his chum Farrell by WR but a smug Beaumont needs to have the grin wiped from his face.

Makes me wonder how competitive the 2027 tournament in Oz will be. Only 2 teams will now have regular T1 rugby. Japan still relying on naturalization and residency and Fiji. That simply isn't good enough.

 

[BMann]

I thought New Zealand were the better team in the final.

Again, South Africa win by a point!

The Cane card could have gone either way. Pre-tournament that normally is a red. But throughout the tournament they seemed to have been a bit more lenient and looked for any mitigation. I thought yellow was fair, but can also understand red. Feel sorry for Cane. He already gets enough stick from kiwi fans.

This game also confirmed New Zealand are still top tier. I read a few comments (not on here) that New Zealand were a slight tier below France, Ireland, and South Africa. This should nip that in the bud!

Kind of weird that New Zealand lost the opening game and the final game.

And England ended up winning more games that New Zealand. Yeah, I know England didn't face the greatest competition, but still.

Fair play to South Africa. They beat France, England, New Zealand, and Scotland. So their run this tournament was harder than their 2019 win. And one point games show how close it was.

South Africa have now won 50% of the World Cups they have competed in. Also the first team to win 4 titles. And second team to win back to back titles.

France are a youngish team, and I fancy them to win the next one. Of course a lot can potentially change in 4 years.

Cane was a red. The Savea penalty was incredibly harsh while yet again officials missed Smith hands on the ground while securing a turnover. I am sure players are offside more times than they are penalized looking at the linespeed from both SA and England. Miraculously they are already next to the receiver even when the attacking line is slant.

France have some exceptional u20s inc. another Tuilagi (shame they never turn out for Samoa) and Jauneau. Beaumont will be out next year and hopefully Pichot gets in instead of Jeffrey another old fossil. But the damage done to the game in terms of development has been done now for at least 10 years with this dumb World League. Beaumont's tenure based on lies has been shambolic.

WR need a long hard look at this tournament and the game itself the behaviours of players, referees and some of the rules esp. with regards to penalties to make it a more free flowing and easier to follow sport. And if they have any decency to make sure T2s are included in some Tests from 2024-2027.

Fiji need to join the RC and what of Georgia. Still in limbo. Makes the decision of their union to go with the decision to approve the WL bizarre. Canada also seem keen to shoot themselves again in the feet after reappointing the disaster that is Kingsley Jones as head coach for another two years.

 

[member 305909]

In football there's a rivalry between Europe and South America but in rugby the rivalry is between Northern and Southern hemispheres and the South has an upper hand with 5 wins in a row.

 

[Kiwi]

In football there's a rivalry between Europe and South America but in rugby the rivalry is between Northern and Southern hemispheres and the South has an upper hand with 5 wins in a row.

The gap used to be wider but France, Ireland and England have pulled it back a ton

Now it's who's having the better day not the Bokks or ABS 85% of the time

It made for a better tournament imo, the quarter finals in particular were amazing

 

[Fighter]

Oh boy, what a thriller！

Four times WORLD CHAMPS!!!

Springboks put out a clinic on defense, ABs played valiantly despite being down a man for more than half of the game, that high tackle will haunt Cane forever.
As I expected, the game was very tight and not exactly pretty, but emotions ran high indeed.
ABs tried their way but almost always encountered the Boks wall which stopped any attempt made. Also, in the first half the ABs made so many errors I could hardly recognize them. At the start of the second half the Boks with a man up seemed to take over (De Allende kept high, Arendse losing the ball on the try line) then the yellow on Kolisi changed the momentum and the ABs kept attacking and attacking, my heart didn't go lower than 120 beats per second in the last 30 minutes, I swear.
In hindsight, keeping going for the touche costed the ABs at least 6 potential points if I recall well. They eventually scored (first ever try scored against SA in four finals!) although IMO Telea's pass and maybe the previous one too were forward. Mo'unga's missed conversion (subpar game from him, I wonder if the devastating tackle he took from Etzebeth early in the game rocked him for good) and Jordie Barrett's missed penalty after Kolbe's knock-on were decisive.
Du Toit with 27 (!!!) tackle led the Boks defense and won MOTM.
Major props to the ABs, they did whatever they could to win despite being one man down for so long.

As for the Boks, first ever team winning the Webb Ellis Cup four times, back to back like the immortal All Blacks 2011-2015. The Springboks won this WC without the best hooker in the game, Malcolm Marx and arguably one of the three best centres in the world, Lukhanyo Am, nevermind winger Mapimpi and lock Lood de Jager. Not only that, but all the knockout stages were played with only Bonambi as a role hooker and the final almost entirely (78 minutes!) with NO hooker, the role covered by veteran Deon Fourie, who had played hooker before in his long career but in reality he's a flanker. So yes, that's why the renowned South Africa' scrum didn't do any damage in this final, there were way too many missing pieces, although they ran unscathed and I praise them for that (NZ' scrum is nothing to sneeze at!).

When they won, somewhat unexpectedly in 2019, I knew they had another run in them, given the age. Now the cycle is over: only the back row has another WC in them IMO, I can imagine Etzebeth and Kolisi (he said he'd retire but he's too big of a leader to not be needed for the next class of Bokke) returning, but almost the entire scrum will be well over 30 and with injuries piling up who knows who will be fit by 2027.
Anyway, South Africa got two cups out of this incredible crop of talent who will go down in the History of Rugby.

GO BOKKE!

 

[BMann]

Agustin Pichot is running for WR President next year. Too late to stop this WL monstrosity but this time it looks like SA and France will be backing him as they are fed up of the Anglocolonial nature of the governing body. I hope he wins. Canada have foolishly reappointed Kingsley Jones as coach which also means many players will continue to refuse to play for Canada inc. Tyler Duguid and Tyler Ardron.

Rugby in Europe is flourishing as with record TV figures for the RWC. There is a plan for a 2035 RWC in Spain and Portugal which to me would be superb. Several sides will be in rebuild, Portugal will be missing most of their stars like Nicolas Martins with them playing in ProD2 but not for much longer I expect but there are several youngsters like Prim and Vareiro who have immense potential and ability making their debuts for Lusitanos at 1500.

All matches of the European Super Cup can be watched for free here:
Welcome to Rugby Europe TV

 

[BMann]

The Netherlands were impressive ar u18 and u20 level at the recent Euro championships. It just highlights their progress and hiw well their union is developing the sport. Can dennHoven just joined Manawatu in NZ. I hope he and several players on France join the side fir the RWC qualifiers. A couple of players ere members of Toulouse's junior Ceabis tickets winning side.

Portugal's juniors were excellent too showing their progress on the pitch is no fluke. Shame the off pitch progress is not so good. FPR need to really up their game.

Several young Georgians are also impressing in the T14. Abramashvili geing the latest.

Spain hammered Canada in their Autumn Test. No surpris there.

Meanwhile WR under Billty Bunter are being heavily criticised and rightly so for the games overall contraction. Their sheer ineptitude Inc. getting rugby channels copyright strikes on YT shows their inability to rake the sport forward in this era. These channels do an immense amount in promoting the game to non aficionados.

The sport needs to develop it's base in depth and competitiveness because ultimately with more viewers in more nations that makes events like the RWC more lucrative.. And not just globally but also within teams already in T1. It's still for example very regional in reach in Australia France,England and Wales.

Australia are in a pickle. Nawaquanitase being recently approached by RL for instance.