Admin Note: Rugby Post Split From Religion Post



Now hold on. If I'm reading you right, you have some fantasy that England might beat the All Blacks. That's so stupid and I find it quite offensive.


Opps OPPS. Misread. It's Scotrland you're backing. Loveable people the Scottish...but can't even beat the English at rugby.

It's not my national pride I'm worried about, greybeard. It's the challenge to my faith. Go the Blacks.

DaveP, you do have religion after all although your faith in Scotland will indeed be challenged once judgement day arrives when the mighty All Blacks once again prove that good is greater than mediocre and crush the Scottish. No science in that, just fact.

not if wayne barnes is refereeing.

Rugby? blah.... Play man real mans sport! Like Curling...Or midget tossing!

There are very few sports as physically exhausting as midget tossing.
It is indeed a man's sport requiring not only incredible strength but stamina, agility, speed and quickness, AND, an unbelievably resolute desire to win at any and all costs. The "tosser" AND, the midget himself, must be virtually perfect human specimens as they are a team inextricably entwined in this pavane of horror so often called the "sport of lunatics"

How did we get onto this subject anyway?

I just watched parts one and two of those youtube "let's get high with the guy in the sky" propaganda pieces. Slick as hell. Devoid of any real content but the music was nice. Ya got this Louis guy, very charismatic, eloquent, hansom, vivacious and all that giving "god" the credit (without any evidence what so ever) for all the as yet inexplicable phenomena that surrounds us. Nothing more than a pep talk for those who already believe or are perhaps teetering upon the brink of belief. Or the precipice of disbelief.

WHAAAT-EEEVER!

Nifty bit o' fluff if yer way, way bored and in dire need of entertainment but watching rust accumulate on an old shovel would have more educational value. IMHO.

E-dog

What Wayne Barnes does is not refereeing.

AND, to appease anyone who mistakenly thinks the subject is wandering away from "Religion & Science" I refer you to THIS.

Hi Nomis

Wayne Barnes is generally a good referee, unless he is reffing Glos (obviously no ref is ever on our side!!) I thought he did really well in the Wales v Ireland game at the weekend. Plus he is a local guy (he's from the Forest of Dean). Wayne went seriously up in my estimation after our sponsored walk that we did last year ending up at the Glos v Wasps game he took time out from his warm up to come and tell us how well we'd done and how proud he was of all of us. I know this has gone way off topic now (sorry Simon) but I heard Steve Walsh had been sacked, what's the story behind that.

jules
x

Topic split from DaveP's religion post:

Actually, Barnes recently controlled a game down here and did fine (under very very close scrutiny). He's a promising prospect but will never be forgiven by the over sensative kiwi fans. Steve Walsh has been stood down for "personal employment" issues which generally has been taken to mean his collection of incidents. Apparentlly, his beef is more with the NZRFU rather than the IRB and there's rumours he's leaving NZ for Japan and could be nominated by them to referee at the next World Cup. He's a top ref and too good to waste.


Did you notice, Simon shifted the rugby posts.

Hey all this sounds a bit energetic. Why dont we just settle this now with a good game of tiddly winks...... We could even get a world championship going

As a South African it is my duty to respond to any post concerning rugby!

The All Blacks are an intimidating bunch, but we can all take heart with the knowledge that they have choked in the last 4 (yes 4) World Cups. I mean, even the French have beaten them . . . twice!

It seems the only way they are going to win another World Cup is to host it in NZ (in 2011), where, if anyone looks like beating them, they will organise public protests, restrict teams to spending the night in the stadium change rooms, if all else fails, arrange for some yobo in a light aircraft to buzz the playing field with flour bombs!

P.S. . . . For those too young to know, they actually resorted to these tactics in 1981. Even then they could only clinch the series thanks to a last minute penalty awarded by a referee who had stated on his arrival that he wasn't going to allow the visitors to win!

Um non-contact sport watching yank here...Rugby, kinda like USA football without the pads yes must be some manly men playin about...do they play in the mud also

I must mention how gay does it look when other Rugby teams sing like Wendys after the All Blacks do their pretty impressive, intimidating, Haka thing?

They've changed the Haka.
The new one's a bit wimpish.

I prefered the old one.

Mind you . . . I'd be a bit careful with any man who stuck his tonque out at me.
You know, backs to the wall and all that! . . .

The haka is back to the old one. I 'spose you realise it's about a Maori chief, Te Rauparaha, hiding from his enemies in a kumara (sweet potatot) pit under the skirts of a woman. Real scary, eh.

This time Hilton, we're planning to use pink flour. That'll freak the boys. We're also planning to lose most of our matches starting this season for the next couple of years so we won't be so complacent when the World Cup comes around. For a little while we're gonna let South Africa think they're top but it's just pretend.

Also, our boys will be eating at home where they can count on safe food.

pleased its back to the old one.
the haka is one of the greatest sights in sport and i hope it stays. don't mess with a good thing.
hiltonp - are the boks lining up a trashing for the lions? or another choke on home soil?

nomis . . . Hiding under a woman's skirt sounds more fun than scary!

Smart plans with the pink flour, and playing dead . . . but didn't you guys try the latter in 2007, and you ended up losing both the WC and the Super14! Tell you what, instead of the Haka why not try a big group hug. That would shock everyone so much you might be able to sneak in a couple of tries before half time! Either that or stop hogging the sheep to yourselves and share them out a little with the opposition. I hear shagging before a match reduces the energy levels!

Yeah, the food thing . . . Mmm, guess we'll never know . . . ;)

JT . . . Yes, choking on the big occasion is not limited to the All Blacks!
Here in SA we're pretty good at it as well! . . .

Difficult to assess the Boks -vs- Lions clashes.

Difficult to assess the Lions actually . . . as four nations they don't look like much, but as a combined unit things might be different? Similar to SA in a way. Our Super14 teams are strong (of international standard), but combined into a Bok team? Who knows? The whole team dynamics change, as does the coaching, and the motivation and sense of occasion.

Professionalism in rugby has made many of the big names into "rock star millionaires", and although they're all muscular and brawny and growl and bark they're actually just pretty boys. More concerned about the hair-do and the car than about the on-field performance.

In my opinion the weak points of the Boks lie at flyhalf and fullback, both of which are rather critical positions!

i agree hiltonp, difficult to see how it will go...i can't wait.
will they go butch james at f-h? he has actually been playing quite well over here..
i think s.a are not what they were in the front row either - they can't decide which 3 they favour.
however, the bok lock/back row combinations are immense. we are in trouble here.

Now you'll understand the tongue poking and the rolling eyes.

You'll have to see the Aussies about your sheep interest. Our boys are busy thinking of women in billowing skirts and kumera pits and that's why they'll keep doing the haka - why stop a good thing...also with the haka trade marked, packaged and copyrighted they've got contractual commitments. It's becoming a serious dilemma - do you pick the best haka dancers or the best rugby players?

Well . . . the 1st B&I Lions -vs- Springboks test has come and gone.

Despite the Springbok coach's best attempts to gift the game to the Lions in the last 25 minutes the Springboks won. Flyhalf and fullback remain problem areas IMHO, with the best players warming the bench. Centres looked dodgy at times, an area where the Lions are skilled. The Springbok scrums and tight five were awesome.

Let's see what this Saturday holds in store . . .


P.S. . . . The ticket pricing is insane. Over R1100 per seat.
That's more than an entire months social security pension!

Our game performances against the French left much to be concerned with BUT for so early in the international season the haka is looking really good. We should really be dancing a storm by the tri-nations.

nomis . . . the AB's seem to have developed a bit of a French bogie.
The French seem to come up with wins against them fairly regularly, sometimes at the most inappropriate time!
Maybe the AB's need to spend less time on dancing lessons, and more time perfecting the art of French kissing? . . .

Thought I'd add my two pence worth here, agree about the All Blacks looking a bit dodgy against the French, did find it quite amusing in the first test when the commentators on Sky (Ian Smith and another guy) were using the excuse that the AB couldn't defend against the Rolling Maul because they were not used to it, and the French were. I don't think anyone had told them that it had been legal to pull down the rolling maul in the Northern Hemisphere as well as in the Southern Hemisphere so the rule changes were new to both teams. Hopefully this rule change will help my team, the rolling maul was always one of our strong points and many of the older generations of fans would prefer a try from a rolling maul from 10m out than a fancy backs try!

Lets hope the second lions test is good, obviously from my completely biased opinion the reason the lions lost was due to a lack of Gloucester players, James Simpson-Daniel (JSD) wouldn't have squandered those chances that Monye did, although given his bad luck with injuries he probably would have got hurt scoring them. Looking forward to the start of the Tri-Nations that should stop me getting withdrawl symptoms before our season starts! Also got the Ashes to enjoy.

What a nail-biter!
And what a steal by the Springboks with a super-cooly taken 80th minute penalty!

Once again, the Springbok coaching and selection staff nearly let us down by only
bringing on the in-form players with just 20 minutes of the match remaining. Hope-
fully they've learned their lesson and will give Steyn and Brussoux a starting position
next week.

Ticket prices just insane! . . . R1140 per person. Little wonder that the stadium looked
more like Twickenham than Loftus!

2 good games Lions v Springboks... I've got tickets to see Australia v Springboks in Perth on 29th Aig - can't wait!

A serious amount of shouting at the tv was going on in our house! Gutted at the end result!

De Villiers really does seem to be an arrogant f@$%wit! His comments over the eye gouging incident just beggar belief!

Certainly was a steal - with a player extra than they should have had on the pitch for 79 1/2 minutes and another that should at least have been sin binned later - at least if the citing commissioners are to be believed. Ah well if you can't win by fair means why not resort to foul? And even then had we not lost our props (as a result of said foul play by the Boks) which allowed the SA pack who were being destroyed in the scrum a platform to work off the result would clearly have been different.

SchalkB was a real a-hole. He is a shadow of his former self, and wouldn't make it into my Super14 lineup, let alone a Springbok squad. I do however think that the whole eye-gouging episode was overblown. It was but one of many dangerous actions taken on the field, sadly something which is becoming increasingly common worldwide.

A "violent edge" has been allowed to develop in world rugby (high tackles, trailing arms, spear tackles, etc). A rudimentary glance at a lineup of international players physique tells one that chemical abuse must be common. We see Under19 players built like Hulk Hogan! The side effect of these chemicals is a heightened level of aggression and violence. We're hearing of more and more off the field aggression from players, and I predict we will begin to hear of more family violence.

But back to the Lions tour . . .

I know the UK folks take Lions tours very seriously, but to be honest, it is all a bit of let down on our side. The games (bar the tests) have been boring with little local connection to rally behind. Watching four countries group together to play one club side is hardly exciting.

The Lions themselves have alienated many rugby fans in my home town of Cape Town by refusing to play here because they claimed the stadium and accommodation was sub-standard. What a load of rubbish. Newlands is an international standard venue, vastly superior to most stadiums found in Oz, NZ or even the UK. Cape Town has a string of 5-star hotels, and even a 6-star hotel. It plays home to visiting dignatories, presidents, sports teams, etc . . yet it's not good enough for the Lions? Pah! Newlands rugby and cricket stadiums has a proven record of excellent fan attendance, certainly the best in SA by some margin, yet the Lions turned their backs on us.

Now the Tri-Nations . . . yes, now there's a battle people can relate to. One country against one country. No cobbled together nonsense.

Love the Tri Nations! C'mon The All Blacks!!!

I personally love the Lions, for a start its the only time my Dad and I can watch an international together and support the same team (he's a very proud Taff), the game was great but, as Russ said Burger should not have been on the pitch had that happened at any other time than the first minute he would have been red carded.

Looking forward to the tri-nations, then pre-season friendlies start for us on August 15th.

Congrats to the Lions fans on their 3rd test win!
The Boks were completely outplayed.

An awful game from the Springboks, and a real concern about
the quality of our coach and his staff as we head into the Tri-Nations.