The official Rugby Union World Cup thread

[pieceofme]

France: The least impressive World Cup finalists ever.

40 good minutes against a mediocre England side and nothing else remotely impressive all tournament. Who knows what will happen in the final, but the All Blacks and Wallabies will have to destroy each other for France to have a prayer next week.

Completely agree.

Just put something similar on my facebook.

[demolition23]

Two hours until kick-off! The anticipation here is ridiculous. Biggest game in 8 years.

[demolition23]

For a scrappy, one try game, that was one hell of a performance.

Mealamu, McCaw, Dagg, Jane. Fantastic, composed semi-final football. If they get a little more room to open up against France it could get ugly quickly.

The final is a week away, and anything can happen, but the France of last night doesn't get within 20 point of the All Blacks of tonight.

[pieceofme]

For a scrappy, one try game, that was one hell of a performance.

Mealamu, McCaw, Dagg, Jane. Fantastic, composed semi-final football. If they get a little more room to open up against France it could get ugly quickly.

The final is a week away, and anything can happen, but the France of last night doesn't get within 20 point of the All Blacks of tonight.

At least!

The way the All Blacks have been playing they deserve it.

Out of the two teams I guess I'll be supporting France because they are a Northern Hemisphere team and it would be enjoyable to see New Zealand fail in the final against a team they have already beaten on home soil this tournament.

France are the least deserving finalists and of course if they won they would be the least deserving winners.

I think the All Blacks will win big though. I said at the start of the tournament its theirs to lose and if they face one of their bogey teams in later rounds (France and Australia) they will have too much momentum by then and so far it seems that has been the case.

[demolition23]

Well, 73 hours and it will all be over. Fairly psyched, especially since it's a public holiday the day after the game as luck would have it.

More than anything I was pleased to see Richie McCaw pull out one more great game in the twilight of the career of possibly the greatest All Black (and greatest open-side flanker) ever. Australia's Pocock may be the man now, but not last Sunday!

I this suspect Sunday is going to be the end of a lot of great All Black careers though, which will be bittersweet.



The media is starting to talk like the Cup's been won though, which makes me nervous.

[demolition23]

Out of the two teams I guess I'll be supporting France

Hmmm...

England winning it is always the worst case scenario.

I look forward to that worst case scenario happening!

I'm hoping if England don't win then I'm going for South Africa.

I guess go Wales!

By all means, please support France.

[pieceofme]

Out of the two teams I guess I'll be supporting France

Hmmm...

England winning it is always the worst case scenario.

I look forward to that worst case scenario happening!

I'm hoping if England don't win then I'm going for South Africa.

I guess go Wales!

By all means, please support France.

[demolition23]

It's on! 16 years we've been waiting for another shot. Just 80 minutes in it now.

[pieceofme]

It's on! 16 years we've been waiting for another shot. Just 80 minutes in it now.

And France have decided to wear the England kit so you're going to win it for sure!

[demolition23]

They advanced on the haka... Awesome.

[pieceofme]

Well only 5-0 at halftime so at least it is looking like a whitewash atm. France just don't look too threatening at all, but their defence has been solid.

[pieceofme]

Kicking for New Zealand is off as well.

Weird seeing New Zealand kicking so much.

[demolition23]

Jesus that was a tense game.
A game to be endured, not enjoyed.
Like 1995 all over again.
Except for that we just won the Rugby World Cup. With our 4th String 1st 5/8 no less.

[demolition23]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5840 ... All-Blacks

[pieceofme]

It was a good intense final but the best team on the day lost. But overall the best team of the tournament won.

They seemed to be just a hint of bias to New Zealand from the ref. If the ref had treated each team equal then France probably would have won the game. But then 4 years ago one could argue that there was bias towards the French in that world cup game.

France were lucky to even make it to the final but were unlucky to lose the actual final.

Overall it was a step down from the last world cup, which on the whole had far better matches, better shocks and was just a better tournament full stop. Although at least this years final was more more entertaining.