Despite the performances by Argentina over the last few years this result is still a big surprise. France- 12 Argentina- 17 If France go out at the group stage it would be a serious blow for the competition as a whole, their half backs and full back were awful. Argentina deserved it though, they made very few mistakes and were pretty creative going forwards.
great defence by argentina, i agree they deserved it, they missed a bit too many kicks but so did france, it'd be really great if france go out after the group stage, ireland is very talented and unpredictable, they could even steal a win.
note: argentina missed a penalty at the end, and france scored a bonus point for being within seven, has huge playoff implication, assuming france wins v. ireland and argentian loses to ireland
Wow! I was sure France was going to win. Great effort by Argentina, they showed a lot of heart. France seemed like they were not ready, maybe the pressure got to them. Now the match against Ireland will be key. But, they should not overlook Georgia. They can play.
England 28- USA 10 The USA England game has been discussed in another thread and I'm too depressed by what I saw of England's performance, (which wasn't all of it, because the England Israel football match was on simultaneously) to think about it. Good on the US team though, for amateurs to finish the game stronger and fitter is highly impressive. Australia 91 - Japan 3. It appears that contary to what I've been told by many women in the past, size really does matter. The Japanese teams looks technically ok, but Australia was about 20% larger per player and were just cutting through the Japanese team after a promising first quarter of an hour. New Zealand 76 - Italy 14 Italy had a disasterous opening 20 minutes where they shipped about 40 points. We know from the 6 Nations that the Italians have a reasonable side and in the middle 40 minutes they demonstrated it, but the All Blacks had spells at the beginning and end of the game when they were scoring tries for fun. I suspect that when NZ play Portugal we could see a RWC scoring record broken.
Scotland beat new boys Portugal Hard work: Portugal made life difficult for ScotlandSAINT-ETIENNE, 9 September - Scotland scored four second half tries to overcome Portugal 56-10 brought tears to my eyes seeing our boys singing and crying to our anthem and lots of Portuguese in the crowd what a game what passion our boys showed, they stuck 2 fingers to all those people who said that minnows should not be allowed to play in the world cup.
Argentina 33 Georgia 3 Tough match for Los Pumas in the first half. Georgia came out playing hard. They took a 3-0 lead, and the half ended 6-3 for Argentina. But Georgia got worn out in the second half, and things began to open up for Los Pumas. It wasn't pretty, but they managed to score the four tries needed to get a bonus point, with the important fourth try coming as time was running out. Now, after two wins in four days, Los Pumas get eleven days to get ready for Namibia. Things are looking good.
They were superb, their kicking in particular was brilliant, they looked as if they could have stepped up a gear if they needed to as well. England were plodding and uncreative once again, the only exception was Jason Robinson but his career now seems to have ended with the hamstring injury.
Like many a train wreck its hard to focus on one thing........England were just, well just, I mean, they were..................I don't even know. Words fail me. At no point during that disaster did I ever feel, that England could win this. Ben Kay who at 6'6" gets the ball and (I am not making this up) tries to kick over a RSA back instead of running through him or passing. Ben proved to everyone that he can kick about as well as I can speak Chinese. Right now they are probably even money to lose to Somoa, that might be an insult to the Somoans too, who at least put forward an effort. A 'dads army' of the 2003 side would have had more heart and fight than this today.
oh what a cracking game Portugal did Portugal proud. ok we lost 108 - 13 but like I said before if we kept the score down to 150 it would of been a good day, and in the end we did better the all blacks just went over the 100 mark in the last 2 minutes of the game. I was praying at the end of the game for them not to go over the 100, so close. it just showed the difference between professional and amateur teams we had good spells in the game but the fitness at the end of each half got to us, that's how they made their points at the end of each half. again they brought tears to my eyes seeing them sing the anthem with passion and standing up to the hacker, not like the Italians in the last match. FORCA PORTUGAL you can get a first win at this world cup. just love this quote Quote: Yes it was sixteen tries to one. Yes it was one hundred points plus. But Portugal's try against New Zealand and courageous display in the 108-13 defeat will linger long in the memory. all blacks coach Quote: When asked if the All Blacks expected to score more than 100 points against Portugal, Collins said: "If we start thinking about how many points we want to score, we'll forget how to score. The score will take care of itself if we play the way we want to." He also defended the Portuguese right to be at the tournament. "You only get better if you come to the tournament. Everyone has earned the right to be here, so they deserve credit and everyone will get behind them."
great spirit shown by the portuguese nice quote from Jerry definetly the best player on the pitch in that game
Ireland 14, Georgia 10 Georgians almost had the game-winning try with 3 minutes left. It's a good thing the pool games between the Home Nations and the minnows are entertaining, cause the way things are looking the quarterfinals will be over in 20 minutes.
Los Pumas 30 Ireland 15. Quarterfinals are set: Saturday, October 6 Australia v England, Marseille New Zealand v France, Cardiff Sunday, October 7 South Africa v Fiji, Marseille Argentina v Scotland, Paris
I feel sorry for France that they have to play New Zealand in Cardiff! How does that work lol? I don't think there should be any games played outside the host country. If the game was played in Paris, France might, just might have a chance, but not now. France's discipline is light years ahead of what it was in 1999, but unfortunately the flair is no longer there. Australia will defeat England handsomely, and the Boks will murder Fiji. Argentina should be too strong for Scotland (congratulations to Pumas fans btw). That Juan Martin Hernandez is a genius.
It's odd that France has to play in Cardiff. Even if they have some games outside France, you'd think they would make the schedulle so that any game that could possible involve France would be played in France. But, perhaps the organizers were sure France would finish first in the group. I agree with the above predictions. I see South Africa and Australia advancing easily. New Zealand will have problems with France and but they will come ahead. And, I think Los Pumas will beat Scotland, but it will be a close one. So, I think we're looking at an all-Southern hemisphers semifinals. And the final should be New Zealand over South Africa.
I never like watching les Bleus playing in the Stade de France - the fans are far from the ground so the atmosphere is poor. Besides the pressure is always huge when they play there. I don't think they like playing there too. It's not really a rugby stadium like the Parc des Princes or the Stade Velodrome which are noisy places with great atmospheres. So paradoxicaly playing on a neutral avenue without pressure could help the French. Besides France are traditionnaly better when they're underdogs... They also sometimes play stunning games when everyone think they will get smashed... So why not ? I think it will be a closer game than everyone think.
The group phase has been great this year, there were far more upset or near upsets than I can recall in recent tournaments. The supposed minnows have made a very strong case against the idea the IRB is considering of reducing the number of teams to 16 next time round. If there had only been 16 teams this time around then the likes of Tonga or Georgia who came so close to beating South Africa and Ireland .might not have even qualified to be there.
In Argentina the public is really getting behind Los Pumas. To such an extent are people behind Los Pumas, that this Sunday AFA decided to change the starting time for futbol's Superclasico, Boca vs River, which is the biggest sporting event in the country. Because, they didn't want the game to overlap with the match between Los Pumas and Scotland. This run by Los Pumas is great for Rugby in Argentina.
well, props to england, this year's first semifinalist...they really turned things around after south africa...even if they aren't playing at their best yet.....australia played like crap, though.
Haha Australia got battered in the rucks. I think the low score was definitely attributed to the wind though, Wilkinson and Mortlock weren't at all kicking well. Matt Giteau getting slammed at the end made my day though!