a game in the world cup is worth double ranking points and you get extra credit for losing to a team positioned above you.... hence the reason we jumped up after beating ireland and, hence france did the same. Extra points are awarded if you beat a team by 15 points. Therefore, if we beat Oz , and NZ beat France .... next week we go to 4th probably next week. If you are bored and have degree in bullshit..... http://www.irb.com/rankings/explain/index.html
therefore when you beat Oz Swimer i am sure you meant. deans is giving sharpe his 100th cap then i think he will retire (sharpe that is). i truly hope you do beat us as it will be a great boost for welsh rugby
might as well give the bloody all blacks the cup now.. if this lasts more than 20 minutes as a competative game i will be most surprised
I'm still absolutely devastated, and damn near cried at full time. Those boys deserve to be in the final.
wales are not in the final because they were not good enough on the day, they had enough chances and did not take them, the french were rubbish but not rubbish enough to scrape home by a point. whether our skipper should have been sent off or not is immaterial, he committed a potential serious foul and some refs will give a red and some a yellow. We just did not execute our chances when we had them and there were many that would have put some distance between us and the french. the french side was the poorest iv seen in a long time, but congratulations to them reaching the final yet again..
Let's call a spade a spade. We fought our way back into the game after losing Warburton and lost the match because Hook (again) and Jones (again) missed routine kicks at goal. 1/2p has nailed his type of kick in the past but a more difficult kick given the distance. Parra got 3/3 - France are in the Final. This is not to dilute the decision made by the Frenchman because had Warburton returned I am totally convinced that we would not have needed kicks to win the match.
Interesting video to be found on "Wales Online" (Western Mail) showing a tackle made by England's Tom Palmer on Dan Lydiate of Wales. This was during this season's 6 Nations game at The Millenium. This tackle is very similar to that of Warburton's. The tackle went unpunished. The referee? No prizes, it was France's very own Monsieur Alain Rolland. Yeah, I know you IRB sycophants are going to chant that perhaps DL was dumped two inches, or whatever, closer to the ground than was Le Clerc but you can't deal in such fine lines in rugby. Either Palmer should have walked or Warburton should have stayed is my opinion - Rolland can't have it both ways. What do the rest of you guys think?
you cant say this Ivor... This is not to dilute the decision made by the Frenchman because had Warburton returned I am totally convinced that we would not have needed kicks to win the match. how would we know???? what we do know is that even with 14 players we were the better team and we created enough chances. so when i see people saying (not you) that we should be in the final and not the french and things like i hope the french get stuffed etc etc etc then its wrong...the fault is ours as we never took our numerous chances even with 14 players to win the game against a very poor french side.....good luck to them i say....
Dai, I can say it and I did say it Of course, as ever, I was expressing an opinion and always accept that others might differ. Given that we gave them such a tough time and had them hanging on with just 14 men, I felt it was reasonable to assume that we would have finished them off with 15 players. Anyway, history shows that we didn't and I paid due acknowledgement to our own errors that also eventually cost us. Moving on, what did you think of that tackle by Palmer? Seems like double standards to me.
You can also find a video of Rolland sending off Florian Fritz in a European Cup game for a similar tackle. The ref has form for this type of thing and Warburton took that gamble as soon as he lifted the player.
Agreed, the mans a walking contradiction. The players would know though he's a card happy, wanna be the no 1 ref in the world and star of the show type. His next Magners game will be interesting!
we will see on friday if wales deserved to be at the final.. i think they would have given the abs a harder game than the french.. will wales be putting out a full strength team or are all the bit part players going to get a run
Kiwi, some players not available but I understand we are putting out as strong a side as we can muster. I hope the best team wins without any undue influence. Should be a great game!
please log in to view this image I AM A CHEAT, AND SHOULD NEVER REFEREE AGAIN! Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kL3fLm7oXc
How is he a cheat???? he refereed a good game, its not his fault we messed up and not his fault we never took our chances as he gave us plenty (or is that ok then) He was fair throughout the game and did a good job.......If wales had a problem that he was Irish with a french father and they did not want him to referee then why did they not say so....they had plenty of time too.......I tell you why not.... its because he is one of the top refs in the rugby world that's why. we all saw the incident and it was dangerous and could easily have maimed the player for life. some not as experienced refs would have let it go but having seen it over and over again the right choice was made.......but even that did not stop us from winning the game as we had chance after chance after chance and we did not take them. so dont have sour grapes as it was our own doing that lost us the best chance of reaching the final....the ref did an excellent job and was fair to both teams on the day......
I completely agree with SS99. The referee did NOT cheat,and to allude to that is very disingenuous. It was a dangerous tackle,and got what it deserved. Had a Frenchman done the same,and got sent off,how many complaining Welsh supporters would have said the referee was a cheat? Exactly. The irony,(sorry Jager),is that Wales had enough chances to win,and had one of the missed kicks gone over,Mr.Rolland wouldn't have been a cheat then either.
Now this is where your wrong Vetch, any decent Ref would have passed over this fixture because of the obvious issues with his French connection, and he tried to do his damnedests in the Samoa game, he's one of the worst referees in my view and how he is selected for these games is beyond me. Secondly the fact that Wales missed some kicks has nothing to do with how he ruined this game, the man is a buffoon of the highest order, and I hope he is never allowed to officiate another Wales game again!...................... please log in to view this image
