Rugby World Cup 2011 Thread
 

With less than a week to go until the big kick off, I thought this deserved its own thread. Really can't wait for this, and if it's anything like as unpredictable and exciting as 2007, we're in for a hell of a 6 weeks. I love how the groups are set up this year, with Pool A being the only one where it's clear who's going through. From a personal stand point it's great to see Wales hitting some form going into a World Cup for once. I can't see anyone stopping New Zealand this time though. It's been said time and again and they've choked, but on their home turf they'll surely put their World Cup demons to bed.

Pool A:
Canada
France
Japan
New Zealand
Tonga

Pool B:
Argentina
England
Georgia
Romania
Scotland

Pool C:
Australia
Ireland
Italy
Russia
USA

Pool D:
Fiji
Namibia
Samoa
South Africa
Wales

gonna be a huge thread this

though i may post during england games

Shhh. Some of us do actually talk about rugby here!! I remember back in the day there was a RWC 2003 thread and it was huge. WTF happened?!

Also being in America, I got really excited when NBC announced they had the rights to the World Cup. Then they released the schedule of matches and all they're showing is the opening game and then all the USA games :| What a great way to promote the sport over here... :roll:

ITV Player on my laptop in the middle of the night it is for me then.

Rugby World Cup 2011
 

With 2 days to do, I thought it was time to make this thread.
Will anyone else be watching besides me, newstead, and dowunder?
Australia looking strong, South Africa, England and France area always there or there abouts. NZ at home will be tough to beat.
Thoughts on what's about to unfold?

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fi...poolstage.html

Draw for pool stage.

already a thread

The Kiwi can host the thread if he likes, I guess it's rather fitting ;) Someone delete one or merge them or whatever.

you just don't want to be the idiot who created a thread no one cares about. ;)

There'll be plenty of activity once it kicks off trust me ;)

I've actually just checked the schedule finally on itv and seen that there's 4 games in a row in the morning. I'm actually looking forward to it now! Though its a football weekend so how long i stay up for it we shall have to see! lol

Weren't you ragging on rugby last time?
Anyway, All Blacks Tonga tonight, well in 6.5 hours, should be some massive hits!

Can't wait for the opening ceremony and first kick off. 4:30am for me, but well worth it.

Its not an overly exciting sport to me but i do like to watch the world cup if the coverage is good. Dunno if you mean last time by the last rugby thread on here, don't think i was posting in that at all.

Typical All Blacks vs minnow game, boring blow out. Watched the first half before I retired to bed. Fucking ITV online is doing my head in. Awful.

We should finish 2nd in our group, which then means we play South Africa more than likely followed by New Zealand in the semi-finals and Australia again in the final...so that won't be happening.

Bloody Jocks are being taught a lesson by Romania

Wish I had bet on Romania now, I thought they might run them close (Within 20 points).

Romania were awesome. Even Namibia leading Fiji for a bit was awesome. Enjoying the Japan v France game right now, if Japan can keep the ball in hand a bit more then they will do fine.
Game last night was horrible. All Blacks looked like they'd never heard of set piece. Was schoolboy rugby.

Looking forward to England v Argentina tonight, and South Africa v Wales tomorrow should be awesome too. Pretty much gonna watch every game I can.

Holy shit Japan v France. 20mins to go!

There is a rugby world cup!? :p

johnny's lost it lol

Come on you Argies!!!

Come on you Argies!!

streaker :lol:

Good thing i've only just woken up and not caring too much about this score atm :D

"panic" over :D

lucky lucky england!

Hah. That's how England do when they don't have a guaranteed goal kicker. Jonny needs to get his head out of his ass if they hope to go beyond the quarters. Of course they'll just be happy with the opening game win and move on. Horrendous performance by England but such an epic game. Felt like a knock out game already :D Love it.

Awesome full day of games though. Watching the Scotland game with a Scot was hilarious, and loved Japan's spirit, genuinely thought they and Romania could pull it off at one point.

Didn't see the other games but i assume scotland won? Oh i remember seeing that the japan/france score was close at one point...

Gonna go out on a limb and say Italy knock out Ireland on the last day of group games. Haven't been impressed with the Irish this year unless they're holding something big back for the RWC...

Tomorrow's game is huge for Wales. Pretty much decides whether we're going further than the quarter finals or not. Can't wait to find out if we can finally beat those South African bastards after coming so close countless times. Always suspected Gatland's had something up his sleeve for the World Cup and here's the time to see it. The warm up games have gone great and the fitness is incredible, and for once there's some strength in depth with the squad as the bench looks superb. The young guys have delivered and even the ones that lack quality make up for it with their work rate. Quietly confident but nervous as hell. Don't think I can stumoch another agonising loss to them.

Yeah Scotland won but were losing with like 8 minutes left. Japan rattled the fuck out of France, was great to see.

Ha, atleast we weren't the only big team struggling.

This has lightened my mood and given me a nice chuckle :D Doubt any of you will get much of it but what the hell:

<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eE_jofIa5Pk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

just seeing highlights of the scotland game, seems like a classic.

Some of the play in the 6 Nations was great, but inconsistent, looked like it was just waiting to click properly and it did in the last game vs. England. But in the summer series warm-up games it looks like they went backwards rather than forwards, so not holding out much hope. Still, I don't think we'll lose to Italy.

Gutted for David Wallace. I was at that England and that was easily the worst part of a very shit day.

First off a lot of these big Teams will be having opening game jitters.

I think next weekend a lot of bigger teams will do a number on the smaller teams by bigger margins. Also the depth in bigger squads is a lot better and I think a few smaller teams (Romania, Japan) played there finals yesterday. They left it all out on the field and might struggle to match that intensity again.

That said I think cricket scores against smaller nations may be a thing of the past, a lot of the smaller nations have players from Heineken cup, Super 15 etc so there conditioning and professionalism is so much higher than 10 or even 4 years ago when a lot of the smaller teams were at sometimes 90% amateurs playing pros.

Its an awesome progression for the sport.

fucking pissed i can only watch these games on pay per view

or on stream? http://www.vipstand.net or http://myp2p.eu

Italy v Australia on right now, 6-6 at half time. Hope Quade Cooper gets killed.