Non: Rugby World Cup

Druss_the_Legend

Druss_the_Legend

UTC Legend
Not seen a thread on this and I am sure 90% of people on the forum are probably not interested..but...

So far its certainly delivered. The opening night between France and NZ was everything you would want from a neutral. However, lasts night England game against Argentina was superb, unexpected, unpredictable and a cracking 2 hours of entertainment. Shame there was another England side playing last night that was anything but that..

Should be a great 6 weeks ahead.
 
Agree. Last night’s offering though-wow, some kind of entertainment! “It’s Rugby Jim, but not as we know it.”
 
Having an England kicker smacking over drop goals to get us out of trouble was a nice touch of nostalgia.

I'm probably not clued up enough to argue decisons with authority in rugby, and they keep updating interpretations etc. But upgrading the yellow to red for an accidental head clash seemed very harsh. Though Argentina did seem to be quickly penalised for every small thing after that.
 
Not really a rugby fan but I watched the 2nd half and thought it was brilliant. It was so refreshing watching a sport without players diving, conning the ref, feigning injury, trying to get the opposition carded, time wasting etc.
Hope the rest of it is as good. The fans seemed to be having a great time too.
 
stanthevan said:
3 red cards in 4 games suggests a problem with discipline.
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No, a change in the laws around contact to the head. The red card last night was an accidental clash and it was actually the Argentinian who instigated the heads coming together. But that apparently is now a red.

Imagine if every time two players go to head the ball in football and they clash...one would get a red. Is that discipline or an over sensitive change to the laws?
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
No, a change in the laws around contact to the head. The red card last night was an accidental clash and it was actually the Argentinian who instigated the heads coming together. But that apparently is now a red.

Imagine if every time two players go to head the ball in football and they clash...one would get a red. Is that discipline or an over sensitive change to the laws?
Click to expand...
Must admit it did seem like they’ve reversed the burden of proof. Clash of heads = guilty, unless you can find mitigation to stop the upgrade. Saw that the Argentine then got away with one only a short time later.
 
Rob151060 said:
Must admit it did seem like they’ve reversed the burden of proof. Clash of heads = guilty, unless you can find mitigation to stop the upgrade. Saw that the Argentine then got away with one only a short time later.
Click to expand...

The yellow card a few minutes later was not red becuase first impact was lower than the head. However, there would be a strong argument there was intent unlike the red.

Neither should be a red but the one that had intent was only a yellow ironically.

A bit like in football now that VAR is in place, the yellow card offence was about as obvious as it gets in sport and the ref allowed play to continue and only stopped when the VAR official told him. What was he looking at that he didnt see the kicker flattened late?
 
I use to think the TMO in rugby was really great, and so much better than VAR. But now they also take for ever, and then the 8 minutes to decide if its a red is ridiculous
 
The Rugby World Cup: thirty players take to the pitch. Most of the players come from the Pacific Islands or New Zealand, with some token players born in the country they are representing.
They chase an odd shaped ball, when they all dive on it the referee blows his whistle. He will point in the wrong direction and some players congratulate each other even though nobody has any idea of what is going on.
You are meant to place the ball over a white line, except England, who play football and kick it towards the goal.
Japan vs Chile is so insignificant that the co-commentator has not bothered to learn any names and calls players, "the chap" or "the paceman".
There are some enjoyable bits, but as soon as you become too involved the referee will blow his whistle and everyone, including the players, will stand and watch the screen for four minutes, and then an England Player will be sent off.
 
On a more serious note, has professionalism and greater physicality led to players being g too big for a collision based sport? Hence all the yellow and red cards. But even with padding American Football has its concussion football.
I was listening to a discussion on dementia within football and the increasing number of ex-players needing help in later life. O e estimate has the FA needing to find £1 billion for medical needs due to head injuries/heading etc.

I don't watch rugby league, does it have a head injury issue?
 
Does Rugby have a future?
With the ever increasing understanding of the long term effects of humans smacking into one another it would appear that participation in amateur egg chasing is in serious decline.
Can see the professional game having a real problem when those poor buggers that end up with MND start legal proceedings against clubs and the RFU.
So surely the game as presently played is unsustainable.
Dont know where they go - the NFL route of helmets and armour hasn’t helped - concussions and MND are rife even with the ’protection’ - and I can’t see 70,000 turning up to watch touch rugby.
I think that in the medium term the sport is f**ked.
 
I've never been to a major rugby event but from what I gather the most important thing is how much you can drink. So seeing as it's a sport to only watch pissed, maybe they can have some kind of cgi/holograms beamed onto the pitch, controlled by ai. That way no one gets hurt, the crowd get what they came for, everyone's a winner : )
 
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