The Rugby Union Thread

Gassage

Australia created an incredible 142 phases in our 22. 2 pens conceded at the breakdown

That's astonishing.

snakemanStoo

Does it seem like SA are playing to lose?

tbm

My feckin heart. 4 ahead with 7 to go.

exocet

Looks like they've blown it?

snakemanStoo

snakemanStoo said:

Does it seem like SA are playing to lose?

Yeah, I was wrong about that.

tbm

We look exhausted. We've had nothing this half.

kjdowd

That was some comeback from SA. Gutted for the Irish, though.

scrumhalf

Fantastic stuff from England, the defence reminded me of Wasps at their peak. As for those who said that Haskell was no longer worthy of international selection - ya-boo. But the playing surface - unacceptably poor.

I imagine that the Boks were given one of the most ferocious ever bollockings at half time, it was a different team that came out for the second half.

All-in-all it's been a quite exhausting sofa-bound day so far.

tbm

Last 15/20 the altitude really showed. Next week will be a cracker.

lloyd

Shame for Ireland, didn't see the game but looked close enough for long periods?

tbm

We were in control. 26-10 up with 20 to go. Benches made a huge impact. Many of the SA bench play at Ellis Park, but Ireland's bench wasn't nearly as strong. Ireland then started missing tackles they'd been making the whole game. Looked utterly drained. Shattered. Next week will be huge. Could go either way because I don't see them dominating us like they did in the last quarter at sea level. We'll have fresh legs back in too.

exocet

Hopefully the altitude exertion won't have taken too much out of Ireland. Next week could be a real cracker.

digitalscream

Gassage said:

A world class side is born.

Been thinking about this...I have to say, for all that I think they really are genuine contenders now (as opposed to the also-rans from the last decade or so), I still don't feel as confident in them as the 2003 team. None of them feel like giants of the game if you see what I mean - Johnson, Leonard, Dallaglio, Wilkinson etc...whether they were individually world-beaters can be debated endlessly, but they had an air about them which meant they'd be remembered for years to come; I don't get that from anyone in the current team.

There's a "yet" in there, of course, because almost all of them have plenty of time.

There's a flipside to this, though...none of them are individually be the best in the world, but my god do they work well as a team.

scrumhalf

I think the defence is approaching world class, but we don't have backs who will scare the shit out of anyone.

Yet.

digitalscream

scrumhalf said:

I think the defence is approaching world class, but we don't have backs who will scare the shit out of anyone.

Yet.

On that we can agree. I don't think I've seen any team who could've weathered that particular storm and only let 7 points through. Australia quite literally threw everything they had at it, and England collectively had a Gandalf moment.

To be fair, I'm not entirely convinced that England themselves could do it again

lloyd

Great performance by an upcoming Englans side-they'll dominate Europe for the next few years no foubt.

Helped by some poor decision making in kicking goals IMO and a loot of handling errors, though a lot of them down to great defence of course.

I'll have to throw in a chopy Welshman comment and add that this Australia side needed reffing through Scotland 9 months ago

Congrats guys, well deserved, you can enjoy some time in the sun now.

To have the depth of bench is amazing-especially at lock.

I think you'll trouble New Zealand at HQ next year.

scrumhalf

Apparently Haskell and Nowell are crocked and are doubtful for next week. Who will Hooper chuck sand at if The Brand is sidelined?

fretmeister

Different angle on Hooper.

http://www.sportsjoe.ie/rugby/michael-hooper-sand-throw-james-haskell/83277

He didn't throw it at him.

scrumhalf

I read that there were two incidents.

kjdowd

One interesting point and perhaps indicative of the North vs South mindsets. When Aus went for the 3 in order to try and win the match with 4 mins remaining, rather than going for the corner and the draw, the general reaction was positive from crowd and commentators. When Robshaw did exactly this against SA in the autumn internationals a couple of years back, he was pilloried...