Rugby World Cup 2011

[RabbieBurns]

Not sure if there is a thread about this yet, I cant find one..

Being held in NZ the kickoffs are a much more sociable time than the northern hemisphere!

The hosts got off to a cracker last night, and Scotland managed to get a win this morning, just.. Romania looked like they come back from 21-11 down and let 24-21 with 10 mins remaining but we managed to score 2 in the last 10 mins!

Argentina are showing England up just now, should be more ahead than they are...

Really tempted to head accross for the Scotland Vs England game on the 1st October to Aukland but flights, ticket, accommodation, etc would cost over $1000 (about 800 quid) so I really cant justify it..

@SYNACK, you going to any games?

[Millgate]

I can believe how poor England are playing. Far too many mistakes and what's with Wilkinsons penalties???

Hope this improves. COME ON ENGLAND!

[nephilim]

I have a ticket for a semi final, will be flying out in a week or so to adjust my body clock

[RabbieBurns]

I have a ticket for a semi final, will be flying out in a week or so to adjust my body clock

Nice one mate well jealous. Couldn't believe the ridiculous prices for me to get over there.. Its normally < $300 return for a flight from sydney to aukland, theyve bumped them up to $700.,. And the tickets to the match are $200..

Ill just put that $900+ towards my HD sports subscription for the year and a few cases of Heineken and just watch it from home..

[nephilim]

I got it through the England RFU. Including flights, hotel and ticket, total was £1300

[jdoyle]

very poor performance by England. If the Argentinians had been putting the penalties over........

[RabbieBurns]

I got it through the England RFU. Including flights, hotel and ticket, total was £1300

Well good price.. We get ripped off down here for prices. Cant see past the tri nations for the last 4, not sure who the 4th team in the semis will be yet what you reckon?

[RabbieBurns]

very poor performance by England. If the Argentinians had been putting the penalties over........

aye their misses cost them the game.. That Jonny somebody from england missed a fair few too though..

[nephilim]

Only reason it was a good price was because I bought them in 2009!!

[mattx]

Could not afford to go over but got tickets and flight booked for Rome next year for six nations. The ref for the England game today was one of the worst I have seen and I have seen hundreds of games.....

[teejay]

England will improve, they often have weak opening games. To pull that one back from the brink of defeat shows a lot of bottle.
Was anyone else unimpressed, to say the least, of the coverage by ITV? No atmosphere, rubbish build up, rubbish analysis and even worse commentators. As for the adverts, Vauxhall ad supporting England football during the break, WE'RE WATCHING RUGBY FFS!
We often have rants about the BBC licence fees on here, but you compare the quality of the 6 Nations coverage to the ITV World Cup coverage and the BBC are in a different league. Maybe it's time we allowed the BBC to set up a subscription sports channel, tenner a month say, to allow them to compete with the commercial channels, especially Sky. I'm sure they would get a massive following for it and the big events which have to be on free to air they could simultaneously cover on subscription and fta, but give more in depth coverage on the subscription channel. But no, we can't run anything in this country how the consumer would really want it, we have to cow tow to big business.

[SYNACK]

@SYNACK , you going to any games?

@RabbieBurns - despite my proximity (3/4 of an hour away from the Auckland venue) I'm not really that much of a Rugby fan - unlike much of the population - and so have not made any plans to go to any as yet.

Certainly feeling the effects though, the Tongan team had a public meeting just around the block from me and so it took me around ten minutes to get the other end of my street by car (1km) due to the massive traffic. The whole city/town also got clogged with parked cars the day/night of the opening.

I did have a nice quiet couple of hours at one of the places that I work though as one of the All Blacks was there to talk with the school which helpfully emptied the rest of it .

[mattx]

England will improve, they often have weak opening games. To pull that one back from the brink of defeat shows a lot of bottle.
Was anyone else unimpressed, to say the least, of the coverage by ITV? No atmosphere, rubbish build up, rubbish analysis and even worse commentators. As for the adverts, Vauxhall ad supporting England football during the break, WE'RE WATCHING RUGBY FFS!
We often have rants about the BBC licence fees on here, but you compare the quality of the 6 Nations coverage to the ITV World Cup coverage and the BBC are in a different league. Maybe it's time we allowed the BBC to set up a subscription sports channel, tenner a month say, to allow them to compete with the commercial channels, especially Sky. I'm sure they would get a massive following for it and the big events which have to be on free to air they could simultaneously cover on subscription and fta, but give more in depth coverage on the subscription channel. But no, we can't run anything in this country how the consumer would really want it, we have to cow tow to big business.

The ITV coverage is quite embarrassing I have to say - the commentating was a joke this morning. The main commentator [ can't remember his name ] even sticking up for the pathetic ref who to me treated like a club match with double standards all over the place. England player yellow carded because of too many penalties, then he warns the Argies, next thing they give away a penalty but no yellow card. The ref also need some serious lessons on mauls after lineouts and his interpretation of the offside rule did not give any common sense leeway and when an England player did go in on the side he ignored it. He was way way out of his depth and really should not be looking after such a fixture. Not once did the commentator pick up on this. So in all, crap coverage, crap game, crap ref. Still looking forward to the next one though.

[nephilim]

Thing is, they are clamping down on the rules in a drastic way. Did you not watch the Scotland game? The ref was worse there and lost Scotland some opportunities. I think its good that they are clamping down.

Teams will stop getting lax and take the mick. Teams that go overboard with offsides and fouls are France and South Africa when they are rattled, Scotland make a fair few mistakes, England made a lot in their game, Japan made a few. Bring it on I say.

However I have to agree with @mattx about the coverage and commentating!

[kearton]

Go the AB's!!