world cup rugby-hooray for England
 

Wow!! who's watching this? All of England are jumping up and down tonight after a thrilling match against France- absolutely brilliant:blob1::blob2:(way better than my home team-NZ..what a bloom'in disaster that was, over confident and big headed...) so roll on the final, next weekend. Hope Prince Harry wears his lucky jersey again, certainly seems to be working :thumbsup:

I'm still getting over the shock of the best teams being knocked out. Who would have thought that England could possibly do it twice in a row? I'd like to see them get anywhere without Wilkinson though. I have to say I'll be going for South Africa or Argentina but I hope it's South Africa.

You know Ruby, I think every team has it's "star" and for England it just happens to be a guy with a good left foot, and if he can bring on the points then I guess it dosn't rreally matter.What I admire the most about england is their sheer determination and drive to win, it wasn't pretty but they beat those Frenchmen, in Paris and it was so exciting.They'll be going to that final with real utter desire to win and I really think they could..although I suspect unlike you, it may be the old "enemy" Argentina.Whoever it'll be, we'll be watching, for sure. Hope you enjoy it too:D

Yeah in the end it doesn't matter because in the end the score is all that matters. But outside of England it is seen as not proper rugby and not very sportsman-like, forcing penalties and kicking goals. It's not what rugby really is. But he is their star and any other team would use it to their advantage too.It's just that teams like the All Blacks (and sometimes the Wallabies) have been able to dominate the entire sport with a fully rounded game, strong in every area not just the short-cut area. The All Blacks obviously dominated with Jonah Lomu, the greatest ever but have been able to continue to dominate long since. I don't have loyalty to any of these other teams but when it comes to the ability to play rugby I have to admire the All Blacks and to a lesser extent the Wallabies whereas I can't say the same for England. Using shortcuts to win by using the one guy who can kick the ball. It takes away from the fun of the game really. Wales nearly beat England in a knockout round of the last world cup by playing proper rugby but in the end it came down to England forcing penalties again and almost came across as a little pathetic because Wales earned that one. But at the same time we do like to see the English go nuts because they won a sporting event, in a friendly kind of mocking way. Remember the response last time? It's cute. I don't want to sound too hard on them. But anyway, go the Springbok!

hey Ruby, out of general curiosity, are we South African? You seem so keen to see them in that final :D (hope it happens for ya). Can I just say, though how dreadfully disappointed I was by the All Black performance against France (saying they were big headed is about as nice as I can be here). I'm not a fan of much French,(as some Ledgies know...) but I thought they played much better and deserved to win on the night, but hey there you go, it would be boring if one team totally dominated things forever and a day (haha...a bit like F1 really) so at the moment, I'd say England do stand a great chance,as theyr'e very hyped up, guess we'll see soon, the other semifinal starts shortly....

What nonsense:laugh: says an Englishman! The best teams are still in it and the very best team will win it. New Zealand are always brilliant between world cups but so what - it's about winning the cup that matters and the Kiwi's always 'bottle it'. Australia were poor - in fact the only reason they did reasonably well is that they have poached the best players from Aussie Rugby League.

England could well win again and good luck to them. If all they do is win 6 or 7games every four years - it'll do for me :laugh:. Winning is about winning and they can be as negative and boring as they like!:laugh:

Text message received last night...
 

...Sales of condoms in Paris plummeted tonight, when the English rugby team proved that to shag 15 frogs you only need one Johnny

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

...god I hate the French! We stole the Olympic games off them and have now ruined their world cup :laugh:. It's their own fault for drinking red wine warm and pulling the legs off frogs!!!

An Englishman who thinks sport is all about winning......you must be suicidal! come on there's no getting around it, the All Blacks are the greatest team ever and despite losing one game the other night they're still the best team of this era. Plus it's not just about the world cup, there's the bledisloe cup and the tri-nations

I'm not South African actually, I'm from Edinburgh but I have been living in Melbourne for the last 3 years. Rugby isn't big here in Melbourne but in this part of the world in general the emphasis is all on the wallabies, the all blacks and the springboks but South Africa always gets sort of left out and it's interesting to see that the supposed weaker one of the lot is the only one left and now are in the final!

I predict that England will win because so long as Wilkinson is there they're going to do what they always do, but I would love to see South Africa win, or see England win by scoring trys.

All this hate for the French! lol.

There ya go Ruby, you got your wish, it'll be a cracking final, those Springboks sure look ready to go..very impressive match, last night and esp that winger who took off half way up the field. I must say, I'm not fanatical enough about rugby to get into some sort of arguement about it, I just enjoy a good sporting match, so Stew, I hope you enjoy it no matter which team is the "greatest"...As for hatred of the French ...I don't HATE them, I just don't care for them particularly as a nation (15 years of living there sorted that out for me), BUT...I do like some of their food/countryside and some of their family values, as with alot of European countries esp towards the elderly, are somewhat better than I've seen in other countries elsewhere (not that I'm elderly myself !!...not yet anyway :))
Anyway, looking forward to a riveting final (apparantly 12 million Brits, watched the last 5 mins of the match on Sat according to the web!!)

Just curious what it is about France that you don't like in particular.

:laugh::laugh: Good one Pip! LOLOLOL..- I'd LOVE to see England win here, and I SOOOO understand the feelings for the French (no offense to anyone) My boyfriend is from Newcastle, England, and has pretty much explained those feelings, and summed them up pretty well! My Parent's have been to Paris a couple of times as well, and didn't have the best "greetings" over there. I guess - us being from Texas, are all very "hospitable" to pretty much of everyone, but not everyone feels that way! LOLOL

Well to make a long story short..after living there for quite a long time, we never ever felt terribly welcome, they don't make room for anything or anyone unless theyr'e 100% French (perhaps you could look at it as being extremely patriotic!!).They are a world unto themselves.... Oh, I did forget to mention, on my good list however, that the health system is excellent and given the choice, I'd go there any day for treatment.

I see. I haven't lived there like you so I wouldn't know as much. I thought it was just the old England-France hatred and the Scots don't really have that but I thought it would have to be something more than just that because that's kind of meaningless nowdays anyway.

Meh...I'm not even British so I don't qualify for the old English-French rivallry thing..haha..no...but occasionally we like to go for the old Aussie jugular :laugh:..(just kidding!)

Hey!!! Watch it! I have Aussie friends, and them, there are fighting words! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

lol My fiance is Australian but I just live on their turf and occasionally I do the same so no offence taken. They're so obsessed with Aussie Rules here in Melbourne, or skinny men running in circles wearing tiny outfits 3 sizes too small, as I refer to it. It's hard not to make fun of their obsession with sports. It's all in good fun though, that's the good thing about it here and it's the same back home really, they don't take themselves too seriously.

oh, now Aussie Rules....thats an exciting (but brutle) game. Is that how you spell brutle? ?? You think rugby is hard, I'm certain this is harder! I'm sure "skinny" really means super fit and solid (you'd need to be with all those hard knocks!) Good stuff to watch though :blob1:

Two ways of looking at it really. There doesn't seem like there'd be much more scary than one of those scrums against any team but particularly those top teams. They nearly trample each other to death and the thighs on those guys...wow! ANd just tackles in general, the player gets stomped on by about 6 giants whenever he gets the ball. But in Aussie Rules it's more that they have to run backwards and forwards over that giant field (it's the cricket fields they use so that's some distance). Backwards and forwards like basketball except over giant distances. I don't know how they keep it up.

Here you go then..for all those Ledgies lurking on this thread...


A little bit of action and a very cool song from a very cool band (always makes me smile to think that the lead singer is a Geordie!) :blob1:

I saw NZ play South Africa in Wellington. It was a thrilling game. I also saw the sevens, where multiple teams played. I never realised how tough (brutal) a rugby game actually is. We Americans are wussies! haha...

BrutAl...I knew it had an A in it somewhere!! Thanks for that. Yes, South Africa, sure look pretty formidable. There was a thing on Sky news yesterday, showing their winger (the African guy) racing a cheetah over 100 metres...boy is that guy fast (he was the one who ran half way down the pitch on Sunday and scored). Will be interesting to see how sheer brute strength and fast pace are going to work..or not.

Well done South Africa and they leave the tournament as the very best side in Union. I would have liked England to win but South Africa were better on the night - good effort to make the final though.

Yay! That was brilliant. I'm so happy they won.

yes, it was a good match..enjoyed it. Well done SA, they were the best on the night for sure.I didn't quite understand though, how the English try wasn't awarded (the rules have changed so much and theyr'e so technical, theyv'e taken the fun out of it a bit), I suppose there'll be some sort of national debate about it now!! :lol: Anyway, a good game.