A Land Far Away

Honestly I can't believe we are in final against the All Blacks.

I want to dream that we can win the cup

Awesome match of the all blacks today (I cannot say the same for France).

Wales lost because their kickers are too bad and their captain has been stupid.
All blacks kickers obviously aren't that good (they miss Carter too much) maybe that's a key of the next match.

We'll see.

It'll be interesting to see.

I must say it is a shame we are not playing against Wales. They really deserve to be here. They (and Ireland) are the one team that has really been playing consistently good the whole time. It would have loved one of those two to win the cup.

The French on the other hand...

At least neither of you have a team more interested in getting drunk, messing around with blondes, throwing dwarves and smuggling balls than playing the damn game properly.

Of all the home nations Wales demonstrated the most consistent and joined-up game throughout; it's just a shame that France got through - again - with sub-standard play.

Hey-ho.

Wales and All Blacks would have been a good final. Who'd have thought the French would get up over Wales? The Wallabies need to reinvent themselves as competent, seemingly having lost concept. Pockock and O Connor notwithstanding, a very ordinary affair. Still, the bronze medal playoff against Wales should at least be entertaining.

Good luck Hialmar, and Rotku. At least you're in it.

The Aussie-Wales match will definitely be a good one to watch. Odds are in Australia's favour, but I do love the idea of Wales winning.

Well, there we go.



A one point victory - what a perfect way to end the cup!

I was worried we'd walk right over the French like during the pool matches, but I must admit that they played better than us tonight. Although they were bloody lucky to come this far - hell, they were bloody lucky to get out of the pool stages, after their Tongan game - they really made the cut tonight! Go France! I do think we deserved the cup, however the French deserved the match.

Anyway, I'm off to go raise a few beers and celebrate. Holiday tomorrow!

Completely with you on your analysis.

I just would have liked a better work of the referees.
Craig Joubert's refereeing was awful.

The All Blacks choked. Again. Stephen Donald is being hailed as a hero, but his winning penalty kick was right in front of the goal posts and he almost missed...

Fortunately we managed to hold out against the French, who really picked their game up and were just 1 drop kick away from winning. Perhaps only second to the South Africa vs Australia game in the differece between domination of the game and the final score. But, at the end of the day, it's the score that determines who deserved to win.

We're getting a lot of negativity from the French at the moment about the referee being on our side (a lot of complaining about the referees all around in this World Cup). I didn't see it myself, but I wasn't looking from the French perspective. I wonder how much they complained when they only got past Wales by the grace of the referee, and in 2007 when they defeated us due to some dodgy refereeing then? What goes around, perhaps?

PS, the French rugby team worked out at the gym across the road from my work and I bumped into them a couple of times (they delayed my spin class by 10 minutes! ). Lots of people from work got photos with Wolverine.

NickD wrote:I wonder how much they complained when they only got past Wales by the grace of the referee, and in 2007 when they defeated us due to some dodgy refereeing then? What goes around, perhaps?

Honestly I don't remember the 2007 match.

As for Whales-France (quoted from Wikipedia):

Try: Phillips 58' m
Con: S. Jones (0/1)
Pen: Hook (1/3) 8'
Halfpenny (0/1)
Drop: Hook (0/1)
S. Jones (0/1)

That's 4 penalties against us that only one was scored.
The referee was running for us ? You must be kidding.
If they don't know how to kick it's their goddam issue (and it's why they lost the 3rd place final as well by the way).

Now look again the final and count the number of fouls made by McCaw in rugs and the number of fools that caused penalties. And post again here.
Craig Joubert's refereeing was awful. Full point.

Hialmar wrote:Now look again the final and count the number of fouls made by McCaw in rugs and the number of fools that caused penalties.

I won't doubt you. McCaw is well known for pushing the limits. He has admitted in the past that he tests the referee to see what he can get away with, and considers it a necessary part of adaption to each game. Evolve or die, as it were.

It's something us Kiwis like to turn a blind eye to in All Black games (not so much in regional). We like to villianise Quade Cooper (hence the disgraceful booing of him throughout the cup) for punching and kneeing McCaw in the head in past games, and I suspect the same will happen with Aurelien Rougerie for eye gouging him in the final last weekend. But I'm sure those are just (over) reactions to frustrations due to what Ritchie gets away with.

C'est la vie.



PS. I think fining the French team for stepping over the line during the haka is absolutely ridiculous! Any team should be free to face the challenge as they see fit.

Meh. Rules are rules. If they have been told not to step over, they shouldn't step over. However, $5000 fine seems stupid. At worst they should be asked to donate $100 to a charity or something.

I am really starting to get the feeling that the IRB had a target to reach in fine money. Like the organisers have been told they need to bring in 50k worth of fines or they don't get their bonuses.

I see a lot of booing coming for the future hakas in France...

If the players can't act then the supporters will and it won't be very nice.

Stupid rule.

Edit: oh and culturally all rugby matches in France ended with a global fight. I wonder why they kept hakas and not global fighting...