starts next Friday the 18th hosted by England



The New Zealand All Blacks are your favorites to repeat, although I get the sense they're not as dominating a favorite as they were 4 years ago. Australia beat them a couple months ago in Sydney, and England also have a decent side, but they're drawn in the group stage together along with the injury-laden Welsh and the always tough Fijians. South Africa have had tough times this year and some politicians in the country are making political points off them at the moment. Argentina have improved a lot with regular top competition but would be happy to make the semifinals. Ireland has made some shouts recently to be a credible contender but I don't see it. France are an abomination as always but can appear out of nowhere with a fantastic game.

Champions:

Quote :

"1987 (held in Australia and New Zealand) - New Zealand 1991 (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France) - Australia 1995 (South Africa) - South Africa, dramatized by the movie Invictus 1999 (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France) - Australia, first professional World Cup 2003 (Australia) - England, first and only time a Northern Hemisphere country won 2007 (France) - South Africa 2011 (New Zealand) - New Zealand"

The U.S. national team has been in a retched slump since about 2006 in my eyes, but it seems to have picked up for the better in the past year. The captain Todd Clever was recently dropped by coach Mike Tolkin in favor of English-based fullback Chris Wyles. Our team is full of guys that can hit hard and tackle, but are poor technically at the scrum and lineout. The fly half (the one position most resembling a quarterback in rugby) has been poor since our last good one retired in 2009, but they've domesticated an Irishman MacGinty earlier this year who has performed decently in the warmup games. Put forth a solid effort against an Australian B-team in Chicago this past weekend where they were only down 14-10 at halftime before succumbing 47-10.

We're definitely losing to South Africa (Tolkin has said he'll put out the 2nd-string), and we should lose to Scotland and Samoa. The winnable game is Japan which is a 50/50 contest in my opinion.

TV schedule (outside of online streams):

On big NBC will be one of the two semifinals on October 24th and the Final on Halloween.

On Universal Sports live will be:

Quote :

"9/18 - England vs. Fiji 9/20 - USA vs. Samoa 9/27 - USA vs. Scotland 10/7 - USA vs. South Africa 10/11 - USA vs. Japan 10/25 - Semifinal 10/30 - Bronze Final"

And although our national team sucks, one of the best tries ever in the Rugby World Cup, scored by the USA Eagles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1g6Oeyx1Q8

[Edited on September 9, 2015 at 12:43 PM. Reason : /]

9/9/2015 12:32:15 PM

So basically don't get too beat up in the first 3 and then beat Japan would be a good WC for the US?

9/10/2015 4:00:28 PM

Strong fighting performances vs. Scotland and Samoa where we keep the loss inside 10-15 points and scare them, and a win vs. Japan.

The Scots outside of the Italians are the weakest of what would be considered "the big countries", those in the Six Nations or The Rugby Championship, but for some reason whenever we've played them we just don't do well. How we played against Australia was a style of rush defense, and a sharp fly half which the Scots have would be able to punish that by just kicking over the oncoming defense's heads.

Samoa are the best of the Pacific Island countries (Fiji and Tonga are the others) and they're kind of a poor man's New Zealand minus the overwhelming technical skill (which is still pretty good), but have a lot of bash in their team and games with them are physically bruising.


The Eagles are very good at defense but lack the set piece prowess and creativity in the backline, which means a bad offense.

[Edited on September 11, 2015 at 9:54 AM. Reason : /]

9/11/2015 9:48:54 AM

England already up 15-0 on Fiji 23 minutes into the match.

9/18/2015 3:33:25 PM

They won 35-11, but were only up 18-11 midway through the 2nd half, and scored two tries very late to make the margin look better than it really was. Not England's best game by a longshot.

USA lost to Samoa 25-16. Played a hard solid game, but we had a pedantic ref that penalized us mightily.

Highlight of the weekend though if you want to see what can be great about rugby is Japan's shocking upset of South Africa 34-32. One of the biggest in international rugby ever.

Pool A:

-England 35, Fiji 11
-Wales 54, Uruguay 9 (Wales though lost 2 more starters to injury. It'd be miraculous for them to beat England or Australia and just make the quarterfinals at this point. And then they have Fiji as well to play.)

Standings: Wales 1-0 5pts, England 1-0 5pts, Australia 0-0 0pts, Fiji 0-1 0pts, Uruguay 0-1 0pts

Australia open against Fiji on Wednesday. England play Wales next Saturday. And then Uruguay are up against the Aussies next Sunday.

Pool B:

-Samoa 25, USA 16
-Japan 34, South Africa 32

Standings: Samoa 1-0 4pts, Japan 1-0 4pts, South Africa 0-1 2pts, Scotland 0-0 0pts, USA 0-1 0pts

Japan and Scotland play Wednesday in a match that suddenly has more importance. South Africa play Samoa next Saturday in what is now a desperate match for them, and the USA play Scotland at 9am next Sunday. Japan's win has thrown this group wide open.

Pool C:

-New Zealand 26, Argentina 16 (All Blacks had to work for it and come from behind, but did the job. However, they've always been critical of the group stage as they never get a challenge to prepare them for the knockouts, so here they got one.)
-Georgia 17, Tonga 10 (Mild upset. Georgia are a team of big guys and no speed, so they're all defense and big hits with little to no attacking creativity. Take 1950s Nebraska football and you have Georgia.)

Standings: New Zealand 1-0 4pts, Georgia 1-0 4pts, Tonga 0-1 1pt, Namibia 0-0 0pts, Argentina 0-1 0pts

New Zealand play Namibia Thursday at the Olympic Stadium in London in a game that will likely be largest victory this World Cup. Namibia are kind of a very poor man's South Africa. Argentina play Georgia Friday.

Pool D:

-Ireland 50, Canada 7 (Canada in the past year have gone completely shit. Irish should win this game but the Canadians were very poor. Ireland did look very good.)
-France 32, Italy 10

Standings: Ireland 1-0 5pts, France 1-0 4pts, Romania 0-0 0pts, Italy 0-1 0pts, Canada 0-1 0pts

France play Romania Wednesday. Italy vs. Canada next Saturday. And Ireland-Romania next Sunday.

[Edited on September 21, 2015 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]

9/21/2015 8:45:06 AM

how the fuck did RSA lose to fucking Japan????

9/21/2015 9:23:03 AM

^ watched the game last night, Japan were awesome combined with South African slow ball service and some of their players are past it, this game was "Miracle on Ice" stuff, Japan's scrum was 120lb lighter than South Africa's (15lb per player smaller) and they were technically sound in the scrum able to push back South Africa, Japan's 2nd try to tie the game with 10 minutes to go is one of the more beautiful you'll ever see.

1st half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J6TVWzIfaw
2nd half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO9O91ELiZE

Japan at the end of the match twice turned down going for the tie opting to risk the loss and go for the win.

[Edited on September 22, 2015 at 8:08 AM. Reason : /]

9/22/2015 8:02:52 AM

Quarterfinals this weekend. Highlights:

-England were knocked out with a game to go in the highest-profile case ever of a big country not making it out in the group stage. Following a close loss where England bottled it against Wales 28-25, Australia comprehensively beat them 33-13 and knocked them out. A joyless romp over Uruguay then followed, and England will likely be looking for a new coach soon.
-Japan's fairy tale run ended with a great win vs. Samoa 26-5, and against the USA 28-18. Due to three teams going 3-1, they were the ones going out, but provided the moment of the tournament vs. South Africa and they have a great platform to build on when they host the next Rugby World Cup in 2019.
-The USA went 0-4. Played solid in defeat to Samoa 25-16, led Scotland at halftime until they blew us out in the 2nd half, ran out the B-side and South Africa dismantled us 64-0, and then the game we were aiming to win, Japan, we lost, because Japan turned out to be a better side than we were expecting. Disappointing World Cup cycle for the USA in my opinion, 1of 2 teams next to almost entirely amateur Uruguay that failed to score a point. Hopefully we get a new coach, don't have that high an opinion of the current guy.


Quarters:

New Zealand vs. France (NZ's bogey team, but this would be a massive upset because this French team just isn't that good)
South Africa vs. Wales (South Africa after the Japan shock loss have won 3 in a row pretty well, and Wales are dismantled by injuries, you'd have to back SA but Wales have been playing the underdog pretty well)

Ireland vs. Argentina (game of the round, either team can win and both have played very well for themselves)
Australia vs. Scotland (Scots have played well but it ends here, at this point I think it's either Australia or New Zealand winning the World Cup)

[Edited on October 14, 2015 at 12:39 PM. Reason : /]

10/14/2015 12:36:38 PM

European rugby is shit. So why USA Rugby consistently seek to emulate English rugby is beyond me.

Quarterfinal results:

South Africa 23, Wales 19
New Zealand 62, France 13 (largest winning margin and most points ever scored in the knockout rounds)
Argentina 43, Ireland 20
Australia 35, Scotland 34

Semifinals:

Saturday, New Zealand vs. South Africa, will be on NBC in the afternoon
Sunday, Argentina vs. Australia


South Africa in spite of winning did not look that good. Them making the Final would surprise me. I'm far more enthused about Argentina's result than Australia's, but I'd back the Aussies.

10/20/2015 8:15:46 AM

holy fucking new zealand ....

10/20/2015 9:24:23 AM

Seems familiar

10/20/2015 9:33:40 AM

Will the All Blacks choke in the semis again? Who they playing?

10/20/2015 9:59:36 AM

you serious ? it's literally 3 posts above yours

10/20/2015 10:04:41 AM

10/20/2015 10:19:58 AM

All Blacks and Wallabies Saturday in the Final. The winner will be the first country to win the Rugby World Cup a third time.

10/27/2015 10:39:07 AM

WAIT TILL NEXT (CUP) YEAR



[Edited on October 27, 2015 at 10:43 AM. Reason : .]

10/27/2015 10:41:34 AM

34-17.

11/2/2015 12:24:01 PM