Right, although the yellow card itself was a product of the fact that the Wallabies started playing much better, keeping it simple and not making unforced errors. Once Australia got within a point of Fiji, I was reasonably confident of the outcome.
Still, the Aussies were terrible in the first half, making some basic errors and some really bad decisions, like the quick lineout throw right on their own try line. And the Fijians were inventive in attack, running hard, and tackling like absolute monsters. There were some real crunching hits out there. In the end, Australia’s organization and depth made a difference. And, like in Auckland, I thought that the Wallabies improved considerably with Will Genoa at scrum half.
If Australia play like their first half performance against Wales or any other top tier side, they’ll get thrashed. And even their second half performance might not be good enough against a side with more depth and quality.
Three good games. I think Australia did well to come back against Fiji and hold them scoreless for the last quarter. Argentina must be furious about how their game ended. NZ v South Africa was a hell of an arm wrestle.
Ireland v Scotland will be the pick of the games today. Ireland should win comfortably on form but I hope Scotland come through and make a good game of it. Italy v Namibia is a bit skippable though.
Yeah, three very entertaining games, with some excellent rugby.
I was cheering for the Pumas against France, and I really thought they were going to do it with their excellent second-half performance. A real shame that long-range penalty kick didn’t go through, and I also thought the ref, who had a pretty good game, missed a French forward pass that allowed France to get deep into Argentina’s territory late in the game.
Wasn’t really sure who to cheer for in the last game, but it was great to watch. South Africa had the best of the first twenty minutes, but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard, and the Kiwis were all over them in the in the 15 or 20 minutes before half time. Wasn’t a good game to watch for a Australian supporter. While the Wallabies did well to come back against Fiji, I think they would have been crushed by either New Zealand or South Africa today.
After tonight’s Ireland/Scotland game, barring some unbelievable upset, there’s not really another game with interesting quarter-final implications until Wales and Australia meet next Sunday. Basically every other game for the next week is either an entirely predictable win for a top-tier side (Wales v. Georgia; England v. USA; South Africa v. Namibia), or a (possibly interesting and fun) contest between a pair of second-tier sides.
That’s the trouble with World Cups - the gap between the Tier I sides and the rest is so big that half the games are effectively training sessions. Commentator during England-Tonga today “I think Steve Borthwick [England defence coach] will be happy that England gave away that scrum penalty - gives them a chance to practice their line-out defence”.
Ireland looked good today putting Scotland away. England didn’t - they spent the first half giving away penalties at the breakdown and the second half dropping the ball (also Ellis Genge is a walking scrum penalty).
Reece Hodge has been cited for a tackle he got away with on the pitch. Australia were too good for Fiji but took way too long to get started. Argentina will be kicking themselves - France gave them enough chances but while they had plenty of honest grunt they didn’t have much of a cutting edge.
it’s similar to American Football, but you can only pass sideways or backwards
it’s good to be further up the pitch (and to have the ball)
play is continuous until the ball goes out of play or a player commits an offence
scoring is 5 points for touching down over the opponent’s back line (plus a chance for a 2 point bonus kick); or 3 points for kicking the ball between the posts
there are specialist positions with names (e.g. the ‘fly-half’ or ‘standoff’ is like the quarterback)
Another resource are analysis videos from various people. Here’s Squidge Rugby’s take on Japan v Russiafor example. In between all the awful puns and dad jokes there’s some pretty astute observations going on.
Ireland did it pretty easy. I was disappointed in Scotland; apart from some early pressure, they were never really in it.
I thought it was a bit hard to draw too many conclusions from the England game. I agree with what you say about them, but they were never really troubled in the game, and sometimes teams make more unforced errors when they’re not under too much pressure.
Scotland were awful, living up to the second part of Baron Greenback’s prediction above without getting anywhere close to the first part. The only saving grace is that our most obvious route to qualifying didn’t rely on beating Ireland so this should be a manageable loss. However, I can’t imagine Japan or Samoa watching our performance with anything other than rising optimism.
And congratulations to Uruguay, who manage the first significant upset of the World Cup, scoring a couple of highlight-reel tries along the way. Fiji looked nothing like the side that dominated Australia in the first half last week, and proved once again that even if you can score five tries, you still can’t win without a kicker.
Five tries but only 27 points. One of the worst displays of goal kicking I’ve ever seen. Uruguay were immense though, really rising to the occasion. It was a great game to watch, with both sides attacking with abandon.
Italy v Canada and England v USA to come. Dare we hope for another upset?
Not as dominant from England as the scoreline might suggest. But considering only a third of their starting XV was the same as the last game, and they were clearly experimenting with a few things on the field, I’ll take it. World Cups aren’t about blowing every team away, developing and building towards the KO stages and avoiding injury are much more important. This sort of planning should be a strength of the Jones set-up, I think.
Great game between Uruguay and Fiji. Despite the fact that Fiji scored five tries to Uruguay’s three, and probably should have won if they had gotten some decent kicking, the Fijians never looked anywhere near as good as they did against Australia last week. Uruguay were great; their third try was fantastic, and they tackled well and were enthusiastic and committed at the breakdown from the first minute to the 80th.
Assuming that none of the Tier 2 sides can manage a win over either Australia or Wales, Uruguay can guarantee themselves a place in the 2023 World Cup with a win over Georgia.
I think they did pretty much exactly what they set out to do, no risks at all. That was a pretty good score against the USA and would have been a good bit higher without the slippy handling (not sure what that was, just greasy and sweaty I suppose).
First red of the tournament and I have to say it couldn’t have been clearer. Took a little while to confirm it but really? It wasn’t that tough a decision.