Someone should do a retrospective series of articles on their personal memories of the best games, upsets and other special games, throughout the history of the RWC and republish it here on The Fern in the lead up to the next world cup (looking forward to writing about the Ireland QF).
Definitely.
France/Tonga in 2011. Japan pops up multiple times. Samoa/Wales going back further.
A personal favourite is Uruguay / Fiji in 2019. Their captain's interview afterwards was epic.
It's odd to me when people bring out the argument that World Rugby need two years to plan everything. As mentioned, FIFA can do it in half that time so surely World Rugby can, especially with the difference in scale.
Perhaps the argument is that FIFA knows every game sells out many times over so they don’ t need to give a toss about travelling fans. (I have no idea if the soccer pool games sell out though)
Ignoring NZ for a moment - they have absolutely shafted the pool stages. It's clear who will be the top 2 in each pool with possible exceptions for Italy/Georgia and Japan/Samoa.
Some of the best matches in history happened in the pool stages and actually provided some jeopardy with big teams not making out of the pool. England in 2015 (knocked out by Wales), Scotland in 2019 (knocked out by Japan) and Aussie in 23 (knocked out by Fiji/Wales). Now it's just a parade and in some cases beneficial if you lose your game against the other big team in your pool.
Plus the permutations of round of 16 and 1/4s path is way too confusing. Should be able to summarised in 2 sentences.
@No-Quarter said in England Vs All Blacks:
Another chance to be a broken record about out idiotic media
"The 25 year old's return sees Wallace Sititi demoted to the bench"
Sititi has NOT been demoted. Repeat, NOT demoted, he has been put on the bench because he is an absolute fucking weapon for us at the back end of the game. You know, the part of the game where matches are won and lost? If he had been DEMOTED as this absurd article suggests, we wouldn't be fucking trusting him with winning us the game at the end would we!!
Jesus H Christ when will these idiots learn that modern rugby is a 23 man game?!?
Yup, we’ve (Ferners) realised it, the smart teams have realised it and one of the trends of 2025 is that it is creeping into mainstream/casual fan rugby thinking. Looks like Stuff journalists are missing the trend!
FFS Borthwick is deliberately putting 4 of his better players on the bench for the last 20 mins. Players who are highly probable to be better than their starting equivalents. SAF has been playing around with the optimal bench composition for years – and they have the requisite squad buy-in to do it.
Please just run Bobby V at Prendergast’s channel all night!
@Mauss said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in England Vs All Blacks:
It would be interesting to do a detailed season-wide analysis of catching high balls to verify who is best (and worst). Not just a raw score of catches and drops - but, looking at catches in traffic and outcomes compared with expected outcomes - some sort of rational scoring system and commentary.
Unfortunately, it would probably require "someone" to watch all the games again. Maybe he (or she!) can do it next year!
That sounds like an awful lot of work for whoever you’re referring to.
Anyways, speaking of unpaid labour and the exploitation of the working class, this whole high ball-discussion reminds me of a recent Gary’s Economics-video where he’s talking about the rising housing prices. He makes the point that everyone thinks their specific city has a housing crisis while, in reality, it’s a global issue, necessitated by the growing inequality between the ultrarich and the working poor. [Just in case I happened to have piqued someone’s interest, this is the video I’m referring to: youtube.co/watch?v=BTlUyS-T-_4]
I think a similar misconception is at work in the high ball-discussion. The reality is that it’s not just the All Blacks who are experiencing a high ball-crisis. All teams are currently struggling with defensive kick receipts: Welsh fans are about ready to lynch Blair Murray, Freddie Steward shelled multiple high balls against the Wallabies on the 1st of November, Tom Wright didn’t catch a single attacking bomb against the Boks at Ellis Park, and, for the All Blacks XV, 6ft3 Chay Fihaki couldn’t deal with the England A aerials. Whether you're a tall high ball-expert or a scrumcapped Bok midget, the results will most likely be the same: you're going to drop more balls than you're going to catch.
100% on the money. Listening to Irish/Aussie/English specific podcasts and they are ALL bemoaning that their team can't deal with high ball effectively. It’s not just us. As you point out Steward bombed multiple chances in the Aussie game. I caught an interviewe by the BBC rugby podcast with him and he pointed to the escort rule having a big impact on him. He said the coaching staff are emphasising the positioning of other players around the point of the catch to pick up on the scraps, go for a turnover or kick it again to a backfield out of alignment.
With the way game is going (if in doubt - boxkick it), I think this area is getting to be one of the core elements of the game on par with scrum/breakdown etc.
We had this to a lesser degree in 2009 with the ELVs which prompted teams to want to play without the ball. Henry/Hansen realised this after the 2009 disaster and started picking fullbacks on the wing or players with decent highball skills like Dagg, Jane or Kahui.
It is a positive that they are working on it - see Jordie moving to the back to deal with the odd one but it will be tested to the nth degree with the England gameplan.
Thank you Catogrande and Sparky for the detail about the English players. I know most of the regular players by reputation but appreciate getting to know more about the newer squad members.
Is it fair to say Borthwick has deliberately packed the bench with typical starters / stronger players – specifically front row and Curry?
I’m worried about this one. England have genuine depth in most positions and overwhelmingly so at the loose forward position so the breakdown maybe a long night.
Their strength – kicking and chasing contestable kicks is our weakness. In the Aussie game they created a semicircle of 3 player around the kick contest to cleanup the intentional tap-backs or get a jackal if it goes the other way. (A decent strategy I’d like us to do.)
We know what they’re going to do all night - I’d select our team with this in mind.
@taniwharugby said in Scotland v All Blacks:
Very rarely does BB ever take the ball at pace, usually static or at a slow jogging pace then shovelled along, it is just odd how he is playing, and more confusingly, his continued selection.
Makes it so much easier for the defence knowing he isnt really a threat with the ball.
It’s sticks out now like a sore thumb and has become progressively worse over the last 2 seasons. It impacts the forward carries generated off that let alone the backline. Contrast it with Mckenzie (or anyone else) hitting it at pace and still throwing a wide ball at full tilt.
Remember how we were getting it wide at will in the last 10 against Ireland? That’s where the space came from. The defense has to fix and see if Mckenize is going to run it rather than just aggressively closing up on the outside options.
The coaching was there – the backline shape ‘looked’ ok but when you’re operating with slow ball and no punchy forward runners it doesn’t actually achieve anything. Then they have to throw extra forwards in to win the breakdown and in a few phases you have more defenders than attackers on their feet and quickly run out of options.
It is sad and I genuinely feel for the supporters.
My Dad tells a story about going to Cardiff Arms Park with an All Blacks scarf on back in the 80s. We trounced them and after the game he had a queue of Welsh fans shaking his hand and congratulating them on the performance. Their fans are top tier and there isn’t exactly light at the end of the tunnel.
Wow, Italy close it out.
Well played Italy - showed some guts. And skill!
@Steven-Harris said in Italy v Australia:
That’s about as screwed up as it gets , despite the strip the ball goes forward out of Wilson’s hands but the referee sees no knock on ..
Am I missing something.?
I was surprised by that one. Italy goes for the strip, doesn't quite get it, then Wilson knocks on. Though it was clear and would be a quick overturn by TMO, but ref was adamant.
Also nice to see the Italians heads not to go down after that one.
2 minutes to go and up 7!
On the loosies, Lakai was deliberately positioned very wide last week. I assume Wallace will take the wide role now he's back and Lakai has some more involvement closer in, as I rate his heavy traffic carrying.
LF and QT (rightly) gobbled up most of the wide ball runs last week.
I was gobsmacked to see VDM not in the side. A big weapon and genuinely worldclass on attack. Even more surprising was the acceptance about this selection from the Scottish media – as though they half-expected it. On the BBC Scottish rugby podcast , the sentiment was that the All Blacks will be disappointed to not see him there as they would have loved exploiting his defence.
I don’t follow URC enough to know but didn’t think he was that bad! He was a monster against England in the 6N.
@Grooter said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
@Richie8-7 to be fair we were looking unlikely until the 59th minute when the herculean flying Dutchman pounced on the Irish 10 Crowley and then Tupaea won the turnover, hopefully sky sport show the world rugby awards at months end as I wanna see Fabian receive his world breakthrough player of the year medal
On this particular play - I didn't catch it at the time but Holland absolutely busts his guts chasing the kick - full sprint after it from the instant Jordan kicks it. Real effort play which you don't always notice.
One thing with Tupaea and Lester whenever they touched it – I felt they were always making yards or at least bumping off the first tackler from shit situations and looked more dangerous with a bit of space. (I never really got that feeling of that expectation from Proctor.) Can’t find the run metre stats yet.
Surprised how poor Ireland were in the second half. 0 line breaks, 3-4 lineouts lost in a row and won just 69% of their own ball, scrum issues. Their lineouts are a killer as they launch a lot of their plays off of them.
They were the peak of strategy and execution a few years ago - looks more and more like the short passing, multi-phase strategy has been dated. It doesn’t help that they’re struggling to refresh the team, especially with explosive type athletes which they rarely produce. Will be interesting to see how they trend against Aus and SA.
Murray Kinsella and Bernard Jackman had a decent conversion about the NZ/IRE game on the 42.ie rugby podcast. Most of it's about Ireland (+ URC) which is a good listen by itself but they go over out the state of the NZ team and the coaching. It's interesting hearing a neutral perspective from the outside.
About the NZ rugby public:
"They're very hard to please - they're quite cynical and that's because they know so much about rugby." Ha!
I don't agree with it all (Robertson called 'very bright guy') but worth a download.
So Wales has Argentina, Japan, NZ and SAF. I'm looking forward to the Japan game - was highly entertaining series earlier in the year.
What's a decent result this Autumn for Wales?
From the outside - beat Japan, closeish against Argentina and just taking the medicine for the last two?
@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe II:
How the hell Tamati Ellison still has a job I do not know. We are regularly shipping 30+ points. His track record wasn't great - failed at the Crusaders last year, so elevated to the ABs. It's a symptom of 'people I know' rather than 'the best person for the job'.
Go through that coaching team sheet and figure out how many hadn't worked with Razor before. It's almost zero. Working with people who you know is the opposite of a high performance mindset.
Where are the new ideas going to come from? God knows.
What I find wild is the shift from 'drop Croczilla for the final' ruthlessness to "BB can play till he's 40, or we get RM back'. That is such a 180 I cannot get my head around it. And fuck the world I re-watched the last 40 of the SA test this week. BB gets a prime attackign opportunity towards teh end and just ... cross kicks the ball. IT's like his one trick that surely catches the opposition by surprise this time. I mean, it's not on every fucking tape you get of him doing stupid, low percentage miracle plays that will look good on the Insta.
I cannot remember being as disappointed in a coaching team as I am right now. We are fucking up the fundamentals over and over, and no one cares. Your captain is chipping on his 5 m line and no one cares. Here's the thing. If you dno't respect possession, the opposition will and they will thump you. That's where we are right now. It's awful to watch and hard to support.
Fuck Robinson, Robertson, Tamati, Scott, Beaudy, Scooter, Ardie, TJ, Last season Cane and RM. Jesus it's frustrating.
Edit. I feel better after that vent. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Would upvote this twice if I could. The glaring structural issues with the coaching should have been flagged and rectified by the High Performance Director. (Unless Robertson had them over a barrel.)
Agree with the general sentiment about the makeup of the loose forwards. But individually I thought Lakai was fine if in the last game. He made post contact metres in heavy traffic, his detail around ball presentation and body positioning was spot on. Granted he got limited chances but seemed up to the physical stuff in that sample. Let's how he goes against the bigger bodies the Wobs have returning this week.