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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 17:44 - Oct 11 by perchrockjack
Phil.
Few modern day props would have sorted price Charlie or Windsor if they were of same era.
Bad loser ? I wish we all were bad losers.
Sadly kids are becoming soft and it starts in school.
It's a tough world out there and there are winners and losers.
Finally, talent wise , every single one of our great 70 era players are better than what we have now
Most modern day forwards would smash any 70/80s forward. The impacts now are massive and the strength and fitness of modern players would overwhelm the Pontypool front row at their prime. If you played at any reasonable level at that time and get pitch side today you would be shocked at the power and sound of the impact.
Most 70/80s forwards were thugs and the success of your forwards depended on that thuggery, professional referees and change in the line out and scrum mean that foul player has been virtually eliminated and physical power would rule.
It was a golden era of amateurs this is the era of power, the entire Welsh back line last night was heavier than the entire 1987 ABs World Cup winning pack to put it into some sort of perspective.
I was at my local Rugby club last night and the photos of the recent sides compared to my era are an illustration even at that level.
[Post edited 11 Oct 2015 18:46]
Life is an adventure or nothing at all.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 18:50 - Oct 11 with 1879 views
The ruck is totally different now, no one in their right mind would have gone in like say Tipuric does against the Pontypool pack of the 70's and 80's!!!! McCaw would have been retired years ago!!!
The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 18:50 - Oct 11 by dickythorpe
The ruck is totally different now, no one in their right mind would have gone in like say Tipuric does against the Pontypool pack of the 70's and 80's!!!! McCaw would have been retired years ago!!!
Not just the ruck area Dicky the line out now with gaps, lifting etc to my era of banking elbowing, ball grabbing and general mayhem is so far changed from the restart of today.
I can only have my haircut to a certain length as I look like I have had brain surgery otherwise. Why the hell I kept playing I have no idea, obviously born dull.
Life is an adventure or nothing at all.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 19:47 - Oct 11 with 1852 views
Nothing on Gods earth would have got me in a ruck when I played, nor to tackle or be tackled come to that if I could help it and there was anyone I could chuck it to on the pitch or, if not, off the pitch. Luckily at FH at the time I wasn't really expected to.
Bringing back proper rucking and the breakdown is immediately sorted and its the end of Ireland as a rugby team.
The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 19:47 - Oct 11 by monmouth
Nothing on Gods earth would have got me in a ruck when I played, nor to tackle or be tackled come to that if I could help it and there was anyone I could chuck it to on the pitch or, if not, off the pitch. Luckily at FH at the time I wasn't really expected to.
Bringing back proper rucking and the breakdown is immediately sorted and its the end of Ireland as a rugby team.
Do t think so Ireland have always been a nuisance at breakdowns as Willie John McBride is quoted as saying "kick ahead, kick ahead kick any head"
Life is an adventure or nothing at all.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 20:23 - Oct 11 with 1825 views
I was lucky enough to play with Alan Reynolds, the scars that man has on his head and chest from opposition rucking (plus Dicky Moriarty)is incredible!
Good shout about line outs they could be lethal!
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 20:48 - Oct 11 with 1801 views
The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 18:44 - Oct 11 by Pacemaker
Most modern day forwards would smash any 70/80s forward. The impacts now are massive and the strength and fitness of modern players would overwhelm the Pontypool front row at their prime. If you played at any reasonable level at that time and get pitch side today you would be shocked at the power and sound of the impact.
Most 70/80s forwards were thugs and the success of your forwards depended on that thuggery, professional referees and change in the line out and scrum mean that foul player has been virtually eliminated and physical power would rule.
It was a golden era of amateurs this is the era of power, the entire Welsh back line last night was heavier than the entire 1987 ABs World Cup winning pack to put it into some sort of perspective.
I was at my local Rugby club last night and the photos of the recent sides compared to my era are an illustration even at that level.
[Post edited 11 Oct 2015 18:46]
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 21:58 - Oct 11 with 1778 views
Morrison: An open letter to the RFU and those diehard England fans England and their captain Chris Robshaw didn't have the answers when it mattered against Wales at Twickenham. REUTERS England and their captain Chris Robshaw didn't have the answers when it mattered against Wales at Twickenham.
OPINION: An open letter to the RFU: Dear gentlemen,
Terribly bad luck on your early exit from your own World Cup, old beans. It's a shame. You brought something a bit different to the party with your 1980s style of play and that intoxicating mix of over-confidence and under-performance.
I thought you might like to know where you went wrong and how you can avoid a repeat in Japan in 2019. Indeed, how you can be one of the title favourites. It's quite simple, really.
1. Sack Stuart Lancaster. Immediately. If he hasn't fallen on his sword after a mighty win against the Uruguay Amateur XV overnight, throw him on it. Then jump up and down on him. He has done a sterling job in turning 2011's dwarf-tossers (you can actually delete the "dwarf" part) into polite, well-behaved young men. But they're still ordinary at rugby. And blaming his "inexperienced squad" is ridiculous. He picked the bloody squad! That's like me blaming the smooth road for my speeding ticket (which doesn't work, by the way). Sack Andy Farrell while you're at it. Nepotistic twerp. And Mike Catt. Just for the hell of it.
2. Find a No 7. Any No 7. Find the third-best opensider in New Zealand or Australia, pay him £100,000 a year (which is about $NZ45 million) to play in the UK for the next three years and then select him on residency. Job done. Or change the rules and select overseas-based players such as Steffon Armitage, who can get to at least one ruck before the fulltime whistle. Michael Cheika changed the rules to get Matt Giteau back in, and that's not exactly backfiring on him.
3. Sack your back row. Australia ripped you a new one last weekend because they had two No 7s out there. You had none. Tom Wood, Ben Morgan and Chris Robshaw looked like three arthritic sloths jogging through a knee-deep field of peanut butter. Robshaw made NO turnovers. My mother made as many turnovers as he did against the Wallabies, and she wasn't even in the country. And she's, like, 70-something. Robshaw was as much use as Anne Frank's big-band record collection.
4. Take the captaincy off Robshaw. It makes it so much easier to not select him.
5. Sack anyone who had anything to do with Brad Barritt's selection. A coach putting Barritt in the midfield is not trying to win the game. He's simply trying not to lose it. Which pretty much sums up English rugby at all levels. Ditto Owen Farrell. He kills a game faster than Rob Andrew.
6. Send Sam Burgess back to Bath to learn how to play union. Selecting him in the squad may have sold a few tickets early on but it's not going to help sales in the knockout stages. Because he's watching it on the telly.
7. Stop selecting players with the surname Youngs. It's not working.
8. Find all the England fans who left Twickenham when there were 10 minutes left in the Australia game and ban them for life.
9. Get rid of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. It's embarrassing. The world is laughing at you. And fans only know the words to the first two lines.
10. Slap Mike Brown. Hard.
11. Get Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi back in ASAP. They've got the discipline and intelligence of a three-year-old with ADHD (or whatever naughty children are being "diagnosed" with these days), but at least they can play rugby at the highest level.
12. Ignore Clive Woodward. On everything. His coaching credentials were emasculated in 2005 when his 500-strong Lions team were smashed by an All Blacks side who didn't have to get out of second gear.
Lastly, hire a foreign coach. Someone who can do the above without getting all emotional and British about it.
Kind regards,
Someone who followed John Hart's All Blacks in 1999 and — until last weekend — didn't think anyone could cock up a World Cup campaign quite so spectacularly.
The hair and the beard have gone I am now conforming to society, tis a sad day
The b*stards are coming back though
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 08:55 - Oct 12 with 1689 views
Not seen Hook play for a few years, but most believe he is crap?
I'd like to see North back on the wing, and we need someone alongside Roberts, that can do more than bash it up. If not Hook, Tyler Morgan?
I think Hook is a risk there, but I haven't seen enough of Morgan to know if he's an even bigger risk. What I do think is that we can't have North alongside Roberts again, it was painful to watch. The usual upside of watching Roberts endlessly failing to beat the first man on the crash ball is that you know Davies or Scott Williams (especially) is capable of some magic with ball in hand. Watching North play the exact same way as Roberts was depressing.
On the subject of North, for me one of the defining moments of the game was his failing to score when we produced one of our only good passing moves and gave him a one-on-one on the wing. The North of old would have gone for the corner and backed his pace and strength to get him past the defender. Instead he cut inside and brought an Aussie who'd already given up on catching him back into the game and he assisted in making the tackle! Cuthbert's chronic lack of form (and lack of other options) has taken the focus off George, but he's looking like a shadow of the player who destroyed the Aussies with the Lions.
Given the injuries and amount of players out of form, I thought we did very well. If we beat South Africa on Saturday, I think it would be one of our best ever results personally. With a full-strength team, I'd be very confident and even quietly positive that we could really push the Kiwis in a semi-final.
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don't help.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 09:38 - Oct 12 with 1647 views
The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 09:28 - Oct 12 by JackSomething
I think Hook is a risk there, but I haven't seen enough of Morgan to know if he's an even bigger risk. What I do think is that we can't have North alongside Roberts again, it was painful to watch. The usual upside of watching Roberts endlessly failing to beat the first man on the crash ball is that you know Davies or Scott Williams (especially) is capable of some magic with ball in hand. Watching North play the exact same way as Roberts was depressing.
On the subject of North, for me one of the defining moments of the game was his failing to score when we produced one of our only good passing moves and gave him a one-on-one on the wing. The North of old would have gone for the corner and backed his pace and strength to get him past the defender. Instead he cut inside and brought an Aussie who'd already given up on catching him back into the game and he assisted in making the tackle! Cuthbert's chronic lack of form (and lack of other options) has taken the focus off George, but he's looking like a shadow of the player who destroyed the Aussies with the Lions.
Given the injuries and amount of players out of form, I thought we did very well. If we beat South Africa on Saturday, I think it would be one of our best ever results personally. With a full-strength team, I'd be very confident and even quietly positive that we could really push the Kiwis in a semi-final.
Spot on.
We were achingly predictable and one dimensional against Oz. Hook could fück up spectacularly or produce something unpredictable to win the game.
With our injury list it's worth a punt.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 09:42 - Oct 12 with 1646 views
... AND IN REPLY TO PACEMAKER, I still go to the odd Rugby League game and the hits are big there too and more of the as the ball is in play most of the time whereas in union its often not the case. However that would take us into the interminable Union v League debate which has been done to death.
I could put forward a team with a bygone era of forwards NOT being thugs. First players I thought of were dear old Dai Morris and Delme.
The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 09:38 - Oct 12 by perchrockjack
That is a very good post JS.
Before the game, we were hoping the North Roberts axis would smash through OZ leaving holes.
SADLY it didn't come off but
Aye, there's a fair bit of 'Monday morning quarterbacking' in my post to be fair. Had Roberts and North broken the gain line a few times, tying up defenders and creating space for the other backs, we'd all be singing their praises. After all, the old Warrenball tactics worked pretty well for the Lions against the same opponents. I just get frustrated that we don't seem to know any other way to play anymore, especially when the game was crying out for some width with 2 men in the bin.
Same goes with failing to score against 13. The ref had the bottle to send off 2 Oz players in quick succession, so had we kept going for the lineout and rolling maul, we could have seen more go. As Bryn said, I also thought we reached a point where having not scored a try in that period of the game, we should have taken the 3 points and really gone after them from the restart against 13 men, but again that's easy to say with hindsight.
I was bitterly disappointed at the time, and still am annoyed at the tactical choices/failings, but a few days on, I'm more sanguine. With a huge injury list and being forced to play players who would be dropped if we had other options, we pushed the Aussies all the way and gave them a real scare. SA are favourites for Saturday, but I don't think they'll be looking forward to it.
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don't help.
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The Official Rugby World Cup Thread on 10:36 - Oct 12 with 1618 views
That is how I feel and frankly was truly irriated after the OZ game as I saw it as an opportunity wasted. Oz were there for the taking and I stand by what I said as regards mental weakness. You just know the all blecks would have made them pay.
Still, its Monday, we re still alive and kicking, we re half way to decorating the guest room for visiting fans and Lady P looks just lovely as does our new car she s just hovered after my visit to the Tip..
We ve not had any squabbling as yet and Wales have qualified for something at footy..
Finally, the Pie Eaters lost Grand Final which is always good to see
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