Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports Good job! The irish finally played up to their potential. With their talent and experience could they be the dark horse of the tournament?
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports I don't know enough about rugby to give an answer but I'd like to know how a 41 - 10 victory can be described as a failure. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/14965366.stm
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports The game was a little bit closer then the score indicated....georgia's forwards also played well and they missed over 5 penalty kicks. Also, england didn't play well together and lacked a lot of intensity. Having said that 41 to 10 is 41 to 10 and georgia are a good up and coming side.
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports I notice that most of the Eagles are still affiliated with (what I assume are) amateur clubs in the states. I'm kinda surprised at that. I would have thought by now that we'd have a few guys playing professionally overseas. Are there not as many lower divisions in rugby, so maybe fewer opportunities to make decent wages? Are we just that far behind?
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports Ireland's win against Australia really has the world cup turned upside down. It looks like now that South Africa (who were very impressive against Fiji) will play Australia in the QF (aslong as Ireland don't mess up against Italy) That would mean that the big three SH teams will be on the same side of the draw in the knockout stages. as of right now Italy are 17-0 up against Russia with 18mins gone.
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports Italy 38-7 Russia Russia got there first try in world cup history, nice for them. Though there defence is awful, and are useless at the scrum and Italy achieved the Bonus point after 25 mins and Italy have scored 6 tries in the first half.
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports Italy 53-17 Russia better preformance from Russia in the 2nd half but to be honest it could only get better. 2 tries for Russia in the 2nd half and three in total. Italy with 8 tries in this game. Will be interesting to see how many points Ireland or Australia put past Russia.
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports They played well and stuck to their plan: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...e-way-to-victory/story-fn8ti7yn-1226142938214
South Africa 87-0 Namibia Biggest scoreline win of the world cup so far and will probably stay that way It's also South Africas biggest win in world cup history So easy for them.
Re: 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cups to be Broadcast on NBC/Universal Sports There's 38 top flight rugby clubs in Europe. Of those some clubs prioritize domestic players over international players so the international player has to be that much better to get playing time (Ireland, Wales, Scotland), and to play in Britain I think they only give you a work visa if you don't have British parentage once you've had 10 international caps. South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia are similar to the Irish/Welsh/Scottish system. The French and English are most open to bringing in foreigners and giving them playing time. We have a decent number of guys in each country.
We are playing some of our bench players ourselves, who might be trying to make a point after the Ireland debacle.
Hope the Aussie player is ok. I thought it was only NFL players that tried to tackle with their head.
Since you brought up the NFL, do you think there would be any current NFLers who would make good ruggers?
It depends if you are talking 7s or 15s? 7s is easier to pickup, but requires a lot more speed. I think most NFL players have the talent to be top rugger, but they lack the rugby skills and understanding of the game that you develop at an early age. To answer your question I would love to see Michael Vick give 7s a try.
I am talking about in both forms. 67 is far enough away from 100, so at least I got a half-century prediction right.
I saw a program on the Travel Channel where an NFL player, whose name escapes me, travelled around the world trying different sports. He did well with rugby but lacked the stamina to play a whole game.
That's more like it! Argentina 13-Scotland 12. Best game of the cup so far, a brawl in the pouring rain. We were a bit lucky, I have to admit. Respect to Scotland.
I read an article not long ago where an All Blacks trainer talked about NFL vs Rugby and where the athletes compare. Basically he said that while American-Football athletes don't train for stamina like rugby athletes do, the Caucasian vs Polynesian vs African American genetics puts the Polynesians at a disadvantage for size/speed combination. While Polynesians can be quite large and strong, it's not as common to have the combo come with great speed, like you see with a lot of AA NFL players. Caucasians being the "tweeners". He said that New Zealand is really working hard to make their athletes bigger and faster, and compared the average size/strength/speed ratio to players from 20 years ago and said it really isn't close on average. He said because of their training programs, players like Sonny Bill Williams, who are 6'3" 235lbs with ~4.4 speed in American terms, are going to become more commonplace in the future, for the All Blacks at least. He also said some obvious things, such as players the size of offensive lineman, that are upwards of 300lbs, would never be seen in rugby. Basically, his conclusion was that African Americans incredible athletes that would certainly do well in rugby, while, currently, the average rugby athlete might find it difficult in the NFL because they may lack the necessary size/speed/strength combination. Personally, I think he put too much emphasis on speed in the NFL. There are a lot of really good players that aren't clocking 4.4s and under. A lot of rugby players would fit in quite well. I think the transition would be easier from rugby to football than the reverse.