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So, I can’t be the only Dakkite interested!

A great start to the tournament so far in the opening games. Both France and the Wallabies got frights from Argentina and Fiji respectively, Japan had a great first game win against Russia (including a hat trick of tries to Kotaro Matsushima) and the Springboks and All Blacks had a typical physical battle - and its still just pool play!

This cup is wide open with probably 6 teams with a realistic chance. I’m watching the Scotland-Ireland game now - I’d pick Ireland to win and be real contenders for the final.

So, who’s your pick? Who’s standing out and what heroics/controversies have you seen so far?

As a Yank it is my national duty to back the Eagles at RWC.

However, my realistic pick(s) are a toss-up between Ireland, England, and NZ.

I think this edition's group breakdowns were quite interesting and are what have given us this brilliant opportunity for several legitimate champions.

I think grand final will be England/NZ, with Ireland/Wales an outside shot of making it. Australia to burn out immediately after groups, same as SA. France to make semis, Japan may make it because of a somewhat weaker pool but they'll join us in the stands just as quickly. Argentina to do something I guess, as a rugby cup nation, but won't make it far past groups if at all.

Other nations just there for numbers.

I would guess England will meet NZ in the semifinals and the final is either going to be England/Ireland or NZ/Ireland unless Wales beat England in the quarterfinals, which is quite possible. One off matches of the late stages of a tournament can be very unpredictable. (although I may have got my maths very wrong). As much as I hate to say it, my money is on Ireland.

I wanted to get out to Japan to see it in person, but alas it was not to be.

Have to back Ireland of course. No question.

So, its been roughly one round of matches, and already there's a Sir in some hot water.


Apparently Jerome Garces is in the rugby press for all the "wrong" reasons. Funny thing is tho, I've always thought him to be among some of the poorer international refs, so I'm not at all surprised people aren't happy with his handling of the match/whistle.

Yeah, it's good to see the refs being hauled up for some shoddy performances. It's really critical they are on top of the game and are consistent in their decisions and interpretations of the rules.

The teams and players have given too much (and the punters paid too much) to have games decided by poor refereeing.

Still, wish I was there in person...

I’m curious about the refereeing; I’ve only been able to watch the England match so far and the referees in that match were absolutely spot on with their decisions IMHO.

To be fair, we haven’t seen anything too terrible from the refs so far - mostly inconsistency with some rulings (treatment of high tackles for example). If the refs get a serve now to ensure we don’t have any problems as the tournament progresses, that must be a good thing.

Feel for our winger. Poor bastard didn't deserve 3 weeks for that.

Pretty subtle red card offence there on Farrell

God I love the guts on Japan. Outstanding

Yeah, wowsers - what a weekend! Japan and Wales have really sparked up the tournament.

Some, ah, interesting referee calls in those games. I think the right teams won, but boy, I can understand some fans feeling a little aggrieved. Still, wouldn’t be the World Cup without some controversy!

What do you guys think of this whole cancelling games debacle?
World Rugby claims it cant control the weather - well duh but you do have full control over contingency and backup plans should this sort of thing happen i.e. where were those plans?

Are they seriously claiming that moving the games to a different venue/on a different day is going to cause "chaos"? Cmon people

 Ratius wrote:
What do you guys think of this whole cancelling games debacle?
World Rugby claims it cant control the weather - well duh but you do have full control over contingency and backup plans should this sort of thing happen i.e. where were those plans?

Are they seriously claiming that moving the games to a different venue/on a different day is going to cause "chaos"? Cmon people

Well. . . on the one hand, with a typhoon inbound, is it really the best idea to have 2 teams plus staff traveling across the country? Is it really the best idea to tell fans "ohh, sorry you paid for those tickets, but the venue is now over here" when many of them may not have the ability/means to get to new venue? And that's just the travel aspect. Then, you can look at the venue options. There could be fewer seats available, thus screwing over some of the fans, assuming they ALL made the trek.

Then there's the grounds, even if they aren't being directly hit by the typhoon, I'd bet they are still getting a ton of water on the pitch, which may bring back fond memories for fans, but may present "dangerous risks" to the players (yea yea, I too think they ought to play in any weather, and that the grounds these days are too perfect and it just gets silly).

From Italy's POV, I get it, they still had a (very) slim chance of making out of group stages and that's been taken from them, but lets be honest for a moment. I don't see Italy even on their best day beating NZ with their current team setups.

I guess they really coulda gotten both teams together and said, "right. . . why don't we play the match a day or 2 early, and if there's still major risks, lets agree to 30 minute halves, good?" as I suspect, based on social media I've been seeing, most of the fans who woulda been in the stadium on matchday, are already in the area trying to soak up the local pub's of their beer supply.

It’s unfortunate, but the right call; the alternate venues are lined up for other matches, so their local accommodation will be full of fans for those matches, plus you’re not just trying to move supporters, it’s the teams, support staff, referees, TV, etc., etc.

Don’t see why they couldn’t nip down the local GW and buy 15 sets of Blood Bowl; settle it the old fashioned way

 Jadenim wrote:


Don’t see why they couldn’t nip down the local GW and buy 15 sets of Blood Bowl; settle it the old fashioned way

It's professional rugby, they coulda hopped down to a local pub and just had a massive boat race

edit: nevermind

It's a farce and has now tarnished an otherwise impeccably run event.

That they promised 'stringent contingency plans', without qualification or limitation to knock out stages, is going to see this end in legal pursuits and reflect far worse on world rugby than the potential of empty stadia.

If the reports of some are correct, and NZ refused to move their Italy game when all other sides were on board for rescheduling then it's all the worse. Parisse is right. If NZ needed points, the games would be on.

An absolute embarrassment for the sport.

I don’t believe the reports that it was down to one team’s preference; it was well reported yesterday that the tournament rules specifically state that if the game can’t be held on the date specified (for any reason), then it is cancelled and awarded as a no score draw. The teams knew that going in and agreed to the terms and conditions; now, in hindsight, probably not the best choice and I imagine future competitions will have an adjustment, but it’s pretty black and white for this one.

We also have to bear in mind that apparently this is the biggest typhoon in 60-years and hitting at the end of the season, when there wouldn’t normally be any.

It is rather disappointing that contingency plans do not seem to have been sufficient, although Jadenim makes a good point about the scale of the Tylhoon - some events simply cannot be planned for. I really feel for all the teams and fans affected, Scotland in particular - going out of the cup this way is pretty rough.

As for the utter tosh that the All Blacks refused to play on an alternate date, that has already been proven false by the tournament organisers. Let’s not forget the whole rumour started with the perpetually biased Brian Moore interviewing his keypad on twitter and subsequently being unable to support his own nonsense with actual facts. The man is an idiot.

I agree it’s hard on Scotland ,but could anybody see them going anywhere in this competition ? If it’s gets to point where Scotland have to use legal representation to advance in the competition that’s embarrassing for Scotland and not the tournament organisation .

Well it's on so the immediate question is dodged.

By the look of the current score Scotland are gone anyway.

Go Japan!

Pretty sure after match will be

'something something. Disturbed preparations for game something something'

Hold on,news just in.....Scotland are not going home.


Nicola Sturgeon has asked them to play again and get a different result

About ready to rage-lock this thread. Bloody Scotland letting me down. Wallabies are already an embarrassment, I just wanted one nice thing! Dammit.

Wow Japan! This cup has everything - upsets, threatened legal action, whining coaches and more red and yellow cards than you can shake a stick at.

Sympathies to the people of Japan in the wake of the typhoon. Puts everything else into perspective.

 motyak wrote:
About ready to rage-lock this thread. Bloody Scotland letting me down. Wallabies are already an embarrassment, I just wanted one nice thing! Dammit.

Cheer up buddy, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom as a team to wake up and smell the thistles. Scotland will rebuild and be stronger because of it.

I`m a Wales fan(yes I know we all have our problems) and we reached rock bottom in 2007 losing to Fiji. Turned out to be a good thing after some real hard soul searching.

On the plus side Scotland beat San Marino at football, six nil.

Mr. Burning wrote:By the look of the current score Scotland are gone anyway.

Go Japan!

Pretty sure after match will be

'something something. Disturbed preparations for game something something'

You're thinking of English sporting excuse-making. As standard, Scottish rugby fandom has been pretty consistently 'we were poor, they were good, well done to them. They'll give South Africa some trouble again'.

I did enjoy the press conference when the wallabies sent 3 forwards to talk to the press. That went as smoothly as expected haha