The 2011 Rugby World Cup Thread

Who do you think will win the RWC 2011?

  • Total voters
    56
GodCubed said:
and Richard Wigglesworth (Wtf? Youngs must not be in full fitness, SURELY).
I've just realised, the Samoans have found some props. Thus, we are ALL DOOMED.
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Youngs was outplayed by Wigglesworth and De **** in the Prem final last season so you can't really say Youngs is the better player. Yeah he had a great impact when he came into the team probably because he was an unkown quantity, but now teams are targeting him he's looked more shaky so Wigglesorth is a solid choice. Youngs can then come on when Argentina are tiring and up the tempo if necessary.
 
mark 19 times said:
granted youngs is much better than wiggy, but wiggy is a great player, have faith was great at sale a few years back
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I know, not knocking Wigglesworth. A good, solid player and a wonderful name, but you'd pick Youngs ahead of him, hence my surprise.

Poppa_ChesterCityFC said:
Youngs was outplayed by Wigglesworth and De **** in the Prem final last season so you can't really say Youngs is the better player. Yeah he had a great impact when he came into the team probably because he was an unkown quantity, but now teams are targeting him he's looked more shaky so Wigglesorth is a solid choice. Youngs can then come on when Argentina are tiring and up the tempo if necessary.
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Youngs is used to the England set-up, and has performed consistently excellently for us. One of our standout performers, particularly in the Six Nations, he's given us a cutting edge we lacked before. As I said though, one big advantage he has over Wiggs is that he knows the team, and the team knows him. Wigglesworth is a good player, but Youngs has that X factor, something even more important if we're going to be playing Jonny at Fly-Half rather than the more dynamic and attacking Flood.

Speaking of which, how beast is our defence going to be. You know you've got a good defence if WILKINSON is the weak link.
 
GodCubed said:
I know, not knocking Wigglesworth. A good, solid player and a wonderful name, but you'd pick Youngs ahead of him, hence my surprise.



Youngs is used to the England set-up, and has performed consistently excellently for us. One of our standout performers, particularly in the Six Nations, he's given us a cutting edge we lacked before. As I said though, one big advantage he has over Wiggs is that he knows the team, and the team knows him. Wigglesworth is a good player, but Youngs has that X factor, something even more important if we're going to be playing Jonny at Fly-Half rather than the more dynamic and attacking Flood.

Speaking of which, how beast is our defence going to be. You know you've got a good defence if WILKINSON is the weak link.
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Would have been even stronger if MJ had picked Barritt ;)
 
All Blacks looked impressive in the first half, but were very poor in the 2nd half. Tonga's tackling was woeful in the beginning and flattered some of the breaks made by the Kiwis, especially Kahui. Sonny Williams has an incredible offload though.

They looked rattled when Tonga finally kept the ball for a while, and the try wasn't scored after anything special. It looked fairly straightforward for the Tongan's to slowly bulldoze their way over. Definitely beatable, although I suspect they'll only get better as it goes on. I think Australia have the best chance to upset the hosts later on, and it will be interesting to see how France perform.
 
France are the one team I'm looking forward to seeing play, they either do brilliant or do nothing.
 
New Zealand always seem to choke/go out at about the semi-final stage. If England don't win it I hope the hosts do. Would be nice to see the best team in the world win it.
 
Was the match any good? Just got in from college so I haven't watched any of it yet.
 
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Chaz Sexington said:
Also, Scotland will have to do really well to get through the group stages.
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Not really! Argentina are a much weaker side than they were in 07, and we beat them twice on their home ground last summer, so without being complacent, we should manage to better them. They've not had many notable results recently so they look short of form and match practice going into it.
 
Nixon said:
Not really! Argentina are a much weaker side than they were in 07, and we beat them twice on their home ground last summer, so without being complacent, we should manage to better them. They've not had many notable results recently so they look short of form and match practice going into it.
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Never right off a fiery argentina side. Always raise themselves for WC's. Really expect them to push us today.
 
Scotland 34-24 Romania, Romania were fired up for a few moments but Scotland recovered quickly and won the game
 
And that's why I was surprised Youngs didn't start.

Bit of an ****-clencher, that one, but hey, we won.
 
English Front Row was much improved second half, the second row forwards really let me down for the majority of that game. Felt like they were to compact in possession and when the key rucks came most of the time they were found wanting. Line-out's on a whole went well, disappointed with the backs and their moves, lacked invention in the pass most of the game. The width was never quite there, the runs were always 5-10 feet inside the touchline rather than right on the outside shoulder of the Argentinian defenders.

It was a good result all in all, the bright side is there's a couple of key players to come in and England can't attack much worse than they just did. The referee as well was extremely harsh on Cole, the 10 minute sin bin was very harsh he should have been given a final warning. And the line-out penalty for obstruction was pretty farcical, that's how 80% of rugby teams use line-out tactics especially vs a rugged, defensive, Argentinian pack.

I know Armitage did well in the last 10-15 minutes but the majority of the game I thought he was pretty poor out wide, Ashton wasn't that much better, it was partly due to his lack of good supply but he was far too unimaginative in his movement out of possession.

My man of the match would have probably been out of Youngs or Foden if I had to pick an England player. Not the greatest spectacle, but it was a victory.
 
Oh yeah, how bad was the ref? ****** terrible. Definitely had it in for us, how can he bin Cole and then not do anything when he warned the Argentinians that the next penalty would result in a bin?
 
The Argentinian scrumming second half with the substitute forwards was atrocious. They kept collapsing/going over/going under and all the referee did was reset and say 'try again', bit of double standards from him with some of his decisions it has to be said. There was a few rookie errors by England in the first 40 but a good portion of them weren't really penalties not without a first/second warning anyway.

Wilkinson's kicking was a tad off today as well, but I feel more comfortable relying on try's rather than Wilkinson booting it from 40 yards. Courtney Lawes played well today as well, I think I counted 3 Argentinian players he sidelined all by himself. He looked the most up-for-it England player by a distance.

I see a big England future for Lawes, seemed to brush off the more senior Argentinian players like they were 10 pound tackling bags it was impressive. Tulagi and Ashton are 2 of the most important players this World Cup for England. They need to be on fire and threatening the opposition line on a regular basis rather than getting dragged inside for rucking.
 
Bryce Lawrence has a problem with England. He reffed the France game in the 2010 6 Nations - anyone remember that?

He had it in for us from the word go. Contepomi should have been in the bin along with a handful of other argies. If dan cole gets binned for what he did, surely the argies should have had their warnings (or lack of) from the ref followed up on. ****** me off.

Nice to see youngsy get a try, a quality player and that 9 shirt should be his for the foreseeable future. I also thought I was actually dead when wilko missed 4 penalties in a row.
 
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