First game just started, the hosts Japan taking on Russia. USA's first game is next thursday (26th) against England.
I signed up to Kayo last night... watched the first game, it was a tough match. I thought Russia did really well for a "non Rugby" playing country...lots of potential. Japan ended well but was struggling in the beginning, apparently the humidity is a shocker, the bigger Russians would have had trouble at the end of the match.... One of the commentators said some of the big South African forwards lost 5kgs in one match in this heat... Tonight is the All Blacks vs Springboks... I'll be sure to watch this one too. All Blacks are the favourites to win
Great match last night, New Zealand 23-South Africa 13...the referee sucked . Apparently the France-Argentina, and Australia-Fiji matches were good but unfortunately I couldn't watch them ok coming up today. Actually keen to see the Namibia vs Italy game SUNDAY22SEPTEMBER 14:15 LOCAL TIME ITALY V NAMIBIA POOL B Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka Prefecture, Higashiosaka City SUNDAY22SEPTEMBER 16:45 LOCAL TIME IRELAND V SCOTLAND POOL A International Stadium Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City SUNDAY22SEPTEMBER 19:15 LOCAL TIME ENGLAND V TONGA POOL C Sapporo Dome, Sapporo
France Argentina was a great game. It took a drop kick 3 mins from full time to get the win for France. Fiji pushed Australia hard and led for much of the game. Unfortunately I'm going to miss the England game tomorrow as I have to help with some threshing at the local steam rally. Will have to settle for listening to it on the radio. Should be a fairly easy win for us.
Italy looked good in this years 6 nations championships. Namibia shouldn't be too much of a challenge but you never know...
Good win for England yesterday but scrappy in places. It's a good schedule for us, we play the two 2nd tier nations first with the 2 more difficult teams last.
England make 10 changes to the team which will face the USA on Thursday. Resting players for the important France and Argentina matches coming up.
Funny video on South Africa's Rugby quotas... I noticed there were quite a number of south Africans playing for other teams... Japan's Lappies Labuschagne and in Ireland the man of the match had a South African accent. Affirmative Action in Sport
Bit of a shocker for Fiji. Rested all but 3 of the team that led Australia and paid the price against Uraguay.
Looking forward to tomorrow's game against the USA. Rugby has been a growing sport in recent years in the States and I'm interested in seeing how far they have come.
that's England vs USA tomorrow night... yes that should be quite good. Oh wait that's tonight my time... I'm in Thursday already
Team Japan's captain is a Maori and its ace player, who made three tries in a match, was born in South Africa. There is a young white South African player in the team, too.
Also, you can only play for one national team. No changing your mind once you've played for one country. Helps 2nd tier nations compete at the top level. Probably upsetting a few Irish fans right now but they're in an easy group so should still qualify for the knockout stages. If they can't beat Russia and Samoa they've only got themselves to blame.
Where's my schedule... ok today we have... Uruguay played well, I've not seen Georgia play...of course the Aussie game is a must see for me also. SUNDAY29SEPTEMBER 15:15 YOUR TIME 14:15 LOCAL TIME GEORGIA V URUGUAY POOL D Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, Saitama Prefecture, Kumagaya City SUNDAY29SEPTEMBER 17:45 YOUR TIME 16:45 LOCAL TIME AUSTRALIA V WALES POOL D Tokyo Stadium, Tokyo
So let me get this right. You're an Australian but you voted for New Zealand to win the rugby world cup? Isn't that a capital offence where you come from? I mean, there's realism, and then there's high treason. That would be like me voting for Germany to win the second world war.
oh it's far worse than that... I'm born South African who is now Australian... the vote for NZ is not mine but if you wrestle me to the ground I will concede NZ is likely to win again...wouldn't mind if Australia sneaks in and win it though.... South Africa on the other hand... can't see it happening for them, they are subjected to quotas and essentially their skill is a ticket out of a country that are collapsing.... your English cricket captain Kevin Pietersen was South African too btw, many of SA's cricketers also leave as soon as they can... and who can blame them.
OK, my apologies. I assumed you had voted and since the only non-NZ vote was me it seemed logical that you'd commited treason (since I didn't know you were an immigrant/refugee). I thought KP had played for England because he fell out with everyone in SA cricket. Turns out, he fell out with everyone in English cricket too but it was too late by then. Still, at least he didn't murder his girl freind and get away with it.
I think you're confusing OJ the juice Simpson with Oscar Pistorius, Oscar is in jail. As for Pietersen... suppose being good at cricket doesn't mean you have to have an agreeable personality... how did he end up as captain in England if he falls out with everyone?
Fair enough, I forgot his sentence had been increased to 13 years. Not quite getting away with it (but a bit lenient all the same). If I remember correctly, KP wasn't captain for long and his unpopularity was the reason. Still, he helped us win the Ashes for the first time in 18 years so nobody outside the team really bears him a grudge. I'm just getting the trash talk in early in case England has to play the Springboks.
Australia v Wales should be a good match. On current form Wales should win without too much trouble but they have a tendency to choke in World Cup matches so who knows. I should go to bed really, its 2am here and they're playing in less than 7 hrs. Georgia-Uruguay is only 4 hrs away so I'm not going to be watching that game.
Good game. Wales came close to throwing away a big lead. Australia should still qualify but as 2nd placed they'll get a tougher QF.