Rugby

I blame old age and being retired.

I wondered if the local sports pub would be open to watch it live but having watched a Lions’ tour this way a few years back, having had a couple of pints and hit the fresh morning air at ~11-30am, my vertical hold setting was challenged ! Never again.

Had the same thing when we were in Canada, Aus v England in a Rugby WC game that started at 10.30am local time. England were favourites and lost. We left the bar at about 1pm drunk but very happy.

I was on a business trip in San Jose California for about 3 months in 1993. Arsenal/Sheffield Wednesday were in the FA Cup final. I decided to watch it, so went to the Red Lion which was then San Jose’s “English pub”, complete with red phone box outside. Starting the day at about half 8 in the morning with a pint of Bass wiped me out for the rest of that Saturday.

Morning/evening Eoink think it was a English pub we went to as well in Vancouver. There were most English supporters than us but oddly enough the locals were supporting the Wallabies. I can remember the English supporters going home wth about 20 minutes to go though.

Glad your up and about and hope all is on the mend. :+1:

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Smart ball to make debut in this autumn’s internationals.

Sometimes I wonder if this kind of stuff results in more non-player costs and turns the game in to a technical treatise, to the point it ends up like the apocryphal NHS rowing boat, where more ‘managers’ (coxes) replaced rowers.

…now if the ball could detect being kicked and there was a limit on kicks during the game, that would be a result :grin:

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I suppose metrics are here to stay - it is an obsession. The widget in the back of the shirt has been with us for some time, and I gather a gum shield version is being trialed - it might spot concussions sooner.

A while back there was a cricket ball with similar attributes. But don’t here much about it now.

In a few words: bring back the instinctive player! Sadly, it’s too late to stop the march of professionalism.

Applying the data to a real-life scenario, what is it likely to show other than England kick out of their 22 a lot (esp. off 9). I would submit the passage of the ball isn’t the issue, it’s how creatively (& instinctively as you say) it’s worked around the pitch which matters e.g. creating the overlaps et al.

As has been said about Broad & Anderson at times, their economy rates look good but it’s because they have bowled 5th/6th stump at openers. Rob Key called it ‘pretty bowling’.

One of the NFL commentators said, post a recent match where a very highly rated QB was on the losing side, that the QB didn’t look for throws which could have given his team a chance. Instead, he opted for the safer shorter passes, which burnished his stats.

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Black ferns looking ominously good in the RWC. Scotland didn’t get a look in.

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…nor did their men in the RL game v the Aussies last night.

It reminds me of inter-house matches at school where the ref (one of the rugby-teaching masters) would often stop a game at the end of the first half if the score had >45pts gap.

That was a blood bath apparently.

More points than minutes on the clock tells a story.

As much as one wants a spread of competing teams at these WC comp’s, one has to ask who gained from such a match-up. At least in the current T20 CWC, there’s a qualifying pool for the weaker sides. Last night was more a full contact training run for the Aussies.

It’s the same with the RWC at the moment — and it seems there’s some antipathy towards World Rugby for branding it as simply ‘RWC’.

The RL here has also filled up some nations with Aussie player with dubious passports and heritage. Whole things a joke just like their scrums.

Having watched NZ’s scores, the French ref needs a trip to SpecSavers, with a focus on their lateral perspective vision. Flats in the ITV studio was very diplomatic.

if I may- they all seem to have the same mentality and cell count too

I’m sure you’re correct but we better be careful we don’t stereo type the disadvantaged. :grin:

Agreed. I am sure I could throw a rugby ball behind me but still pass it 5m forwards if I am angled in the right way to the perpendicular. That was a clear forward pass and I can’t understand how the ref missed it. If I were Scottish I might have been v angry. Thank goodness it really didn’t matter as the game was one way traffic.

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Well you can’t say Union scums aren’t a joke. Just watching Clermont v Bordeaux, at every scrum the ball is thrown towards the back of the scrum. Surely that isn’t correct.

I have noticed that here this season as well and I do get your point but at least both sides are pushing. RL they’d all fall over if someone pushed and there’s absolutely no contest for the ball.

Maybe both codes should consider getting rid of them completely.