2023 world cup

[justinr73]

Healy’s injury meant that Loughman was picked, after initially providing cover whilst Kilcoyne rested his creaking limbs.

TOT was always in.

Most teams have gone with 9 front rows, although the Saffers have gone with 7 (with four who play scrum half and about 15 in the back row)

[justinr73]

Players knew before the Samoa game.

Stu in I reckon.

A stupid management decision to tell them before the match

Most squads were named ages ago.

Only Georgia and possibly Chile to go now.

[Bobbievee]

Players knew before the Samoa game.

Stu in I reckon.

A stupid management decision to tell them before the match

Most squads were named ages ago.

Only Georgia and possibly Chile to go now.

And JS staying with us but with hamstring problem! Thanks a bunch!

[Jetstream]

They were moaning on Munster fans about JS being in competition with Earls. Then about Treadwell being there instead of Kleyn. They are now saying Hendy shouldn't be there as he is in such poor form. Strange as he was my man of the match against Italy.
If AF had picked 33 Munster men in the squad they would be crying that he didn't pick 50
Ulster folk are lucky. At least we know our limitations

[jean valjean]

Henderson doesn't get the credit he deserves and is very quickly pointed out as the reason for all the issues against Samoa. The guy has been on 2 lions tours while the great white hope of Ryan has yet to be picked and consistently gets overpowered at the top level in Europe. Some are even calling for Mccarthy to usurp hendo from the 23. Complete nonsense and luckily farrell sees through it.
No one was calling out VDF for barely putting a shoulder on bealam at scrum time yet POM bound with both arms when he came on to fix the problem.

[Dharper]

More importantly SA are 3rd favourites at 4/1 on paddy power to win the WC, which I’d says pretty good odds.
Defending champs, very clever head coach/wc winner, peaking at right time, ridiculous squad depth, great set piece, monstrous pack and reserves, dangerous half backs, solid centres, fast / dangerous back 3. Despite the attritional draw, they are best suited to be able maintain quality to a final.

[Bobbievee]

Just running through your nine criteria of what makes a good team in the econd paragraph,

UR would have...............none?

[Bobbievee]

what's the reasoning behind the rush for the WRC draw to be made this morning? ie nearly 3 years early, and on last seasons performances/rankings.
so, eg Wales in Tier 1.
This time next year would surely have been sufficient, in the hope that a normal year of fixtures around the world might have happened.

The ridiculousness of this draw almost 3 years ago now confirmed. England probably in semis, Ireland out in QF

[solidarity]

Anybody else signed up for the RWC fantasy team thingy? I've never had a go at this sort of thing before but, being retitred now...

If a few of us have, we could put together a wee league.

[Jackie Brown]

Anybody else signed up for the RWC fantasy team thingy? I've never had a go at this sort of thing before but, being retitred now...

If a few of us have, we could put together a wee league.

I have, set the league up and I'll join. Maybe make a new thread to promote it?

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[solidarity]

A statistician's prediction of who'll win the trophy: https://theconversation.com/who-will-wi ... contenders Not surprisingly it comes from a University in Auckland.

[rumncoke]

Comment on France v New Zealand

The referee insured the hosting nation did not lose the first match penalising every NZ error within their own half quickly and over looking some French ones.

In those circumstances the errors mount due to frustration

Both sides looked beatable with the right referee

And in my opinion this will be a world cup where the winner will be the one who avoids a bad referee

[Lurgan Lad]

Totally agree with you Rum, the referee had too much influence on the game. I guess that might advantage Ireland

[justinr73]

Why are they ruining the anthems???

[justinr73]

Early contender for the most irritating commentator of the tournament….