Egg Chasing World Cup, Is that all you've got ? Options

[Stirer]

My first impression was No Try, but the replays looked to say otherwise.

Fair play to England though. A truly average team playing way above their level by reducing their opponents to playing their game. Reducing Aussie, France and SA to one try between them is one hell of an effort.

You'e obviously being very selective here Jams. You conveniently forgot the pool games, in which South Africa did score a try or two .... (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

But there's something in the stats. England had more possession and territory advantage, and won more scrums, and spent more time in the South African 22 - and still lost. To me, that says that they didn't take advantage of the situation. It also says that South African defence was superior.

Before the game, in south Africa, in the press, TV and radio talk shows, there was never any doubt that South Africa wa going to win. The only thing that might have stopped it, was complacency. Everyone talked about the 36-0 drubbing, and we don't know how England got to the finals and so on.

In rugby, we don't choke, but in tri-nations matches, we tend to run out of steam in the final 15-20 minutes. In the WC, we were obviously much fitter and focussed than we have been for a while. Another thing that helped us was the vision coach (who now has two gold WC medals in successive world cups. (She was the England coach last time), Also a big thanks to Australia, for giving us Eddie Jones as technical coach. He is a star. He turns good players into brilliant players.

[jamstains]

You'e obviously being very selective here Jams. You conveniently forgot the pool games, in which South Africa did score a try or two .... (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

But there's something in the stats. England had more possession and territory advantage, and won more scrums, and spent more time in the South African 22 - and still lost. To me, that says that they didn't take advantage of the situation. It also says that South African defence was superior.

Before the game, in south Africa, in the press, TV and radio talk shows, there was never any doubt that South Africa wa going to win. The only thing that might have stopped it, was complacency. Everyone talked about the 36-0 drubbing, and we don't know how England got to the finals and so on.

In rugby, we don't choke, but in tri-nations matches, we tend to run out of steam in the final 15-20 minutes. In the WC, we were obviously much fitter and focussed than we have been for a while. Another thing that helped us was the vision coach (who now has two gold WC medals in successive world cups. (She was the England coach last time), Also a big thanks to Australia, for giving us Eddie Jones as technical coach. He is a star. He turns good players into brilliant players.

There is no point in peaking early in these long, physical competitions. The idea must surely be to just get through to the next round, save your energy and maximise your energy and momentum toward the end of the tournament.

I cannot argue about SA's defence - with the exception of the No Try, but it was England's style of play that kept all three IMPORTANT matches down to one try between them. Basically we try to kill the game and score more goals than the opposition. On Saturday we managed part one, but not part two.

Eddie Jones had been touted for the Wales job, but I'm not sure whether he'd be mad enough to take it.

One last thing..... will the Argies be allowed to turn the tri-nations into the 4-nations ?

[Andrew Beacom]

IMO the No Try was a try. No replay was conclusive and the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team. The game other than that was as boring as bat shit. So pretty funny that the Poms were beaten at their own style of play.

[jamstains]

IMO the No Try was a try. No replay was conclusive and the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team. The game other than that was as boring as bat shit. So pretty funny that the Poms were beaten at their own style of play.

Yeah but at least we were there. (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Stirer]

IMO the No Try was a try. No replay was conclusive and the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team. The game other than that was as boring as bat shit. So pretty funny that the Poms were beaten at their own style of play.

Actually, there was a still pic in the local papers, that showed conclusively that the toe was touching the line, and the ball was still in the air before touchdown. Not that the try would have mad a difference. It wouldn't have been converted, and the winning margin would just have been a little closer. (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[Stirer]

There is no point in peaking early in these long, physical competitions. The idea must surely be to just get through to the next round, save your energy and maximise your energy and momentum toward the end of the tournament.

One last thing..... will the Argies be allowed to turn the tri-nations into the 4-nations ?

Remember tht the Tri-nations were all coming off a strenuous season with the Super 14 and the Tri-nations tournaments heaped close together. so the peaking took place then.

I think Jake White (SA Coach) might just look at other opportunities, including Wales, England (if it comes up), Australia ... Apart from the fact that he's being lauded as Coach of the Year, I think he's tired of the politics, of being hounded to pick more black players, and of politicians and Rugby Board members playing with the selections. He's a first class man, and he's spending more time protecting his back, than in doing his job.

On the Argies joining the Tri-Nations.... I don't know. There was talk of them joining the Northern competition seeing most of the plyers play in England and Europe anyway. Problem with the Tri-Nations is the huge amount of travelling involved. It's a 12-14 hour flight between SAf and NZ/Aus, not just a hop, skip and a jump to play an international in the Northern hemisphere. The Argies would just add further to that.

What we should do, is to teach the Argies to play cricket. Now there's a plan. (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/clown.gif)

[Mate of Pommy Da...]

IMO the No Try was a try. No replay was conclusive and the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team. The game other than that was as boring as bat shit. So pretty funny that the Poms were beaten at their own style of play.

Of course it would have been far better with Oz and NZ in the final......... but both are so pathetic that they lost to Northern Hemisphere teams. Both choked like a South African in a Cricket World Cup semi-final.

Both Aus and France were beaten by a bunch of 'no-hopers' who stopped them playing the destructive game that they had threatened to blow us away with. Even SA were stopped from playing their kind of game, but they were good enough to beat us at ours.

[Andrew Beacom]

The Kiwi's self imploded with injuries and the replacements couldn't get the job done. The Aussies may have been complacent. They got sucked into playing England's game and the forward pack went missing when it was needed. Yet they still went close. To be honest I was worried before the England game. We hadn't been tested in the tournament and our record in big games recently hasn't been good.

[PommyDave]

The Aussie forward pack didn't go missing, it just doesn't exist.