I thought we'd have a thread for this, as we have a cricket thread and one for the athletics championships. I won't sticky it, so if us rugby fans want it to stay on the front page we'll have to keep posting. England kick off the tournament at 8pm this evening with what will be a bruising opener against Fiji. With Australia, Wales, and Uruguay also in Pool A the first aim will be to get through the group games, with a tasty encounter against Wales next weekend possibly a decider for second place. Ultimately it's hard to see past New Zealand winning the Cup yet again, although shocks can happen.
As a boy i had a 101 great goals video which i loved so i bought a 101 great trys video expecting it to be finger tip saves and 40 yard strikes rattling off the cross bar i have never been so disappointed.
I'm missing tonight's game because my good lady has booked us a meal tonight, can't get mad at her because she's also brought me bronze final tickets as a birthday present.
Looking forward to the game tonight I must say, particularly Fiji's massive Lomu-esque winger. England should of course win, but hell, it's a banana skin in the making...(plus it's always fun watching Fiji).
Exactly, the fun part of rugby is when there are a pile of blokes on the ground! Why take that out of the game?
I don't usually watch much rugby, but I do quite enjoy it when I do. I'll watch England at the very minimum in this tournament. (That was REALLY boring from me)
There's an 18 year old playing for Georgia who will be the youngest ever player to play in a World Cup. He's meant to be very highly rated so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.
Please God (and the RFU) let us have consistent refeering, pulling up of crooked feeds, no talking back to the ref (this is NOT football) and a sensible view to the video ref (not going back 5 minutes from a try just in case something happened ......) I'm looking forward to it (think it'll be a southern hemisphere team - I hate to say it, but it could be the Aussies) but I'm worried I'll be screaming at the TV because of the above ..............
I do know what you mean, and if a game ends up being played mostly as a forward battle it can be very dull. But on the other hand, a series of quick rucks with forwards driving through to suck defenders in and create gaps for the backs to exploit: now that's exciting rugby. I do like League as well, and in some ways they aren't comparable, except that the basic skills are transferable between the codes.
All Blacks may be favourites but they have only ever won the WC on home soil. Mind you all my Kiwi mates are telling me that there are enough of them in this country these days for Twickenham to count as home ! England are in a very competitive group, need a great start tonight in both style and result.
I've always liked both codes of rugby, from way back, and have to say, in recent years, I have enjoyed watching England RFU international games more than England football games. The excitement is greater and I feel engaged, and find myself evading tackles from the comfort of my own sofa.