Rolling Rugby Thread

B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
luka said:
amazing turnaround... almost miraculous turnaround. they couldn't catch the ball last week this week they were throwing it about with abandon, hitting the ball at pace, finding gaps, winning turnover ball, looking for once, like a real rugby team. still depended on giteau missing a lot of kicks but wilkonson missed on at the end too so who knows, really encouraging... looking foward to the rest of their tour games now
Click to expand...

the thing is that england, for the first time in my lifetime, have flair to spare in the backs - that Youngs try on Saturday was amazing. England are, gulp, looking like a rugby side I respect for the first time ever - positive and entertaining. I'm not sure how much martin johnson hs to do with this, but he's certainly choosing the flair players in the first place, so credit to him for that.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
just watched the first game of the tri-nations. rugby on a different level. this really is a great sport.
all blacks were as good as i've ever seen them against the springboks. dominated the scrum which im not sure anyone was expecting. scored tries for fun. brad thorn is the hardest man in the sport. almost reached jerry collins levels of graniteness. nonu is one of the best players in the world as far as im concerned. Mils Muliaina and melalamu both still unstoppable. the lineout actually won springbok ball which is unprecedented, certainly for nz. everything went right. so dangerous on the counter. great ball handling. just top class rugby. if you saw them against wales and thought they were nothing special try and see a replay of this game. you will never see anything of that quality in the 6 nations in a million years. exhilerating. cant wait to see how sonny bill does for cantebury....
 
Last edited:
luka

luka

Well-known member
4 tries to nuffink! also forgot to mention one huge rolling maul. looking foward to seeing them use that more often this tri-nations. i think it was wise to stick with henry. hes still the best. let deans have a go after the world cup once hes got some more international experience with the wallabies.
 
Last edited:
luka

luka

Well-known member
if you care about high level sport you have to watch this. best game of rugby in a long time
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
australia weren't very good today. pocock was immense but everyone else was pretty poor.elsom was dumb. the scrum is a disaster area again. new zealand got 4 tries in the first 20 minutes. still looking the buisness. i liked kaino today. one massive fend midway throgh the second half. melalamu was great again. new zealalnd kept going for the short restarts and winning the ball time and time again which makes you wonder why everyone doesnt do that.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
i think they mentioned some statisitc like mcaw has only lost to aus 3 times in 21 matches. thats not a bad record. he got man of the match today.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
highlights. worth a watch...helter skelter....
new zealands second try is something special... do yourself a favour and have a gander...
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
rokocoko was a case study into the wider All Blacks game plan which could be termed Total Rugby, similar to the Netherlands' Total Football which took them to the final of the 1974 World Cup.

Any player on the field seems to be able to master any skill. Wings are playing like loose forwards and retaining the ball at the breakdown while front rowers run without clumsiness in the backline.

The athleticism is stunning as is the mobility and economy of movement around the field despite the turf starting to churn as the match went on.

The theory of Total Rugby is assisted by a ferocity on defence where the term 'team-mate' has never been more apt as they reach supreme levels of player support.



Rokocoko tackled James O'Connor to save a try in the third minute after an initial hit from Mils Muliaina. Later in the half, he was helping Ma'a Nonu turn over the ball to help Richie McCaw score after fullback Ashley-Cooper was caught alone outside his 22 with little support.

Brad Thorn was already ranging on the inside. The Blues winger also regularly turns up in the midfield hungry for work knowing that the competition for wingers in the All Blacks ranks is heating up with Rene Ranger, Zac Guildford and the injured Sitiveni Sivivatu on standby with the World Cup just over a year away.

Rokocoko's fellow wing Cory Jane was another example. He received a Smith pass heading into the Wallabies half and proceeded to hold off a charging Australian captain Rocky Elsom with one hand while chipping in field with his foot. That's multi-tasking. Then, as if to celebrate the All Blacks skill-set, Muliaina was on hand to gather the kick and score on his 30th birthday in his 86th test.

Adding lustre to Jane's skills was that fans could bear witness to the ball working its way through the hands of Keven Mealamu to Thorn to Mealamu as if they were a world class first and second five-eighths combination.

Jane was not done. He fended off number eight Richard Brown like a blindside flanker as he stormed across, then cut inside Will Genia as he went on to score himself.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
this is an interesting article
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...k-a-turn-back-to-heavenly-20100731-110hz.html


Courtesy of the new breakdown and kick-chase interpretations, the try tally already stands at a whopping 14 just three matches into the Tri Nations series - more than half the total number of tries scored in the Tri Nations in 2009.

Running rugby is back.

Further proof is the fact that average kicks per match have dropped from 60 in 2009 to just 33 this season - Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper remarkably putting boot to ball just once in Australia's 30-13 win over South Africa in Brisbane last week.

The kicking statistics now mirror those of rugby league's showpiece, State of Origin, giving ARU officials all the more reason to smile as audience figures continue to grow.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Dr Awesome said:
Hopefully this is not going to a repeat of previous world cups where NZ peaks too early.
Click to expand...

i think that is a very vain hope, unfortunately. i'd like to see the All Blacks win it, if only to prevent SA triumphing again, but they are almost routinely (by far) the best side in the world between World Cups, and always but always fuck it up.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
spain never win the football world cup either.
you should watch some of those youtube clips baboon. they;re playing ridicuolous rugby. beating the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the world by 20 points. thats outrageous.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I have watched them, and there's no doubt they're superb. But, to take an example, in 2007, New Zealnd beat France 61-10 a few months before the World Cup....and then lost to them in the QFs. I dont' know why it happens, but it always seems to. Pretty sure NZ were (with justification) the pre-tournament favourites in 1995, 1999 and 2007, and probably in 1991 too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top