Rugby World Cup 2019

[minmooch]

Can't see a thread on this ....

Any rugby lovers here? Not many of my girlfriends share my love of rugby.

France/Argentina - cracking close match.

Japan/Russia - glad the home team won.

Australia/Fiji fantastic first half.

And now the All Blacks v Springboks - can't wait ....

Craig Joubert still can't set foot in Scotland to be honest. Holding a grudge like.

Well, SA definitely deserved to win!

It's been a great World Cup overall

Japan has loved hosting it!

Really hope Japan can keep the momentum for the next 4 years and get a bit further next time 🇯🇵

Just read an article about rugby refs - take my "(fans, not players)" bit back!!

Also we can add Matt Cecchin to the list of ludicrous grudges.

Who'd be a ref!!!

@TanteRose it sure has. Scotland have confirmed that Japan going to Murrayfield next year. They definitely need more high profile games to sustain the momentum!

Great world cup - certainly had everything, from celebrations to extreme weather!! Well done to Japan.

I never had a doubt they'd host anything but an amazing world cup. The Japanese team then added to it no end.

Btw has everyone seen this?!

Dh (qualified referee ) thinks Wayne Barnes is without doubt the best referee in the world (much better than the sainted Nigel who he used to like but who he thinks got too full of himself). He's really disappointed he's retiring.

In fact, he's going to watch yesterday's game again purely to observe Barnes' positioning and to listen to his communication, to learn from it and improve his own refereeing (He specialises in refereeing youth games, so there's also an element of coaching in his refereeing he's also a qualified youth coach ).

He doesn't think very much of Gauzere (or any of the French referees for that matter ) and doesn't think that he was World Cup standard. Having said that, neither he nor ds (who come down specially from Uni for a whole 24 hours to watch the game with his dad although he booked the train when he expected the All Blacks to be in the final ) don't think he was biased today: equally bad to both sides

Wayne Barnes used to be a terrible ref, but over the past couple of years he has been consistently pretty good. Agree that Nigel Owens isn't as good as he used to be.

Ben O'Keeffe is good to look at decent enough. Not sure I rate many of the others out there right now.

I agree that Barnes has improved. I used to dread him refereeing us.
Nigel has said that's it as far as the RWC goes for him now. He's 48 and keeping the fitness up for this many matches must be hard. He ended up in hospital because of Ulcerative Colitis between games this RWC so he's going to scale back a bit.

I (and dh ) agree - Barnes used to be dreadful (we were actually having this discussion last night I have to listen to a never ending steam of rugby related topics ). But he went away and learnt and improved massively. Gardener is the same.

Now Clancy on the other hand..... (he doesn't do internationals any more but we still have to suffer him in the Pro 14)

The best team won. Well Ddone South Africa, maybe we'll get you next time. :o

O'Keeffe is another one that dh and ds rate. And also Joy Neville, who refereed last night's game at Scotstoun (Glasgow Warriors v Southern Kings)

I also love that O'Keeffe is an eye doctor during the week and has a charity for helping people in poverty keep their eyesight. I might have a little crush now.

Amazing picture on the front of the Sunday Telegraph today 3rd November of the battered and bloodied brave English team.

It's great that from awful aparthied beginnings, a South African team, captained by Siya Kolisi, wins the World Cup.

The England team acted like spoilt brats by refusing to wear their silver medals, presented to them by Bill Beaumont, the chairman of world cup rugby. Appallingly bad sportsmanship displayed by the "team". Embarrassing for Eddie Jones, especially as he was largely responsible for getting them as far as they did, and he kept his medal on!

It's truly shameful behaviour - so disrespectful to the hosts and winning team - they are supposed to be role models to kids everywhere. Sore losers. If that's how they lose, they didn't deserve to win.

Churlish behaviour from Farrell and co, that is indicative of everything that is going wrong with England.

I did think that it's was poor behaviour by the English team to refuse the second place medals. Maro Itoje pushed Bill Beaumont's hand away.
Stuart Barnes has suggested in today's Times that Maro should be the Captain of the British and Irish Lions in 2020.
Glad Barnes isn't picking the Lions team
It must have been a massive disappointment to England to lose so comprehensively but their churlish behaviour did them no favours on the World rugby stage.

I am a little bit late, but just found this thread.

I am in SA, and as you can imagine its been a weekend of elation.

But, I see on the last two threads from Paisley and Butter referring to the England team refusing their medals, and not greeting the Japanese hosts correctly. I was shocked to see this.

This is what everyone is talking about here. (Well apart from Faff greeting Prince Harry is his speedo). You didn't see the All Blacks refusing their 3rd place medals like this.

Of course they were upset to have lost, but I have to wonder what the general thoughts are of this in the UK?

It flown under the radar here. If our football team had refused medals the press would be all over it.

England rugby should be ashamed of themselves.

It it very much in the spotlight here Misspiggy. I can't believe it is just being overlooked.

Beanaseiran, I know every country wants to win, but we needed this win for more than just winning the RWC. We have had a lot of turmoil and a lot of negativity recently. The spirit amongst the people, from all backgrounds, is just amazing.

I was thoroughly ashamed or our team. They played badly after their stellar performance against NZ then acted like spoilt brats. Bill Beaumont is a bastion of the sport and to treat him like that was shocking. I'm surprised he didn't grab them by the scruff of their necks and give them a good telling off.

I'm a naturalised Scot been here since I was 3 born in SA - I noticed it immediately and commented disapprovingly to dh.

It goes completely against the spirit of rugby.

My favourite bit of every rugby game, having watched ds since he started age 5 (now 19 ) is still the bit at the end when they go through the wee "dance" of shaking each others' hands and then the corridor when they applaud each other off the pitch. That's what rugby is about.

The medal ceremony at the end was an extension of that. The English players and staff should have shown more respect

I also enjoy the end Pretty, the teams congratulating one another. It was here that I started to notice things a bit off tbh. The disrespect towards the Japanese host and Bill Beaumont is what shocked me the most. So you can imagine, they of course are being called sore losers here, as it is exactly what was displayed there imo.

I was just wondering if anything would come of it. As i haven't seen much mention of it from British social media.

Really glad England lost now! Their behaviour was absolutely shameful. Such bad losers.

I'm not sure the ABs did all take their medals properly tbh. There was one where Bill B put it around the guy's little girl's neck which was lovely but I'm sure one or two didn't receive it properly.

Compare and contrast ....

One All Black does pick up the medal by the ribbon but is seen putting his medal around his own neck as he goes out of shot. All the All Blacks wear their medals throughout the ceremony before they come together as a team.

Itoje never puts his on - another (Sinckler?) takes it off as soon as it gets put on and almost all of them take them off straightaway (with a few honourable exceptions - Tom Curry? ds would be horrified at me ). As captain, Farrell showed an extremely poor example.

To be fair, the All Blacks has just won a game - even if it was just the 3rd/4th play-off - whereas England had just lost their game.

But it still sets a really poor example to all the youngsters who were watching it. They are role models.