Rugby

Good from Japan so far. They’re lightening quick.

At this speed, I think they’d give a lot of teams problems; including England.

It's showing up to be a cricket score atm.

Fucking hell Samoa!! Should have just ended it at 81 minutes.

The bp would have left them still in the hunt (well, at least a mathematical chance). So they had to go for it.

I was amused by the Five Live comms team keeping calling Michael Leitch "Jack Leach" - just imagining him getting up after a ruck and cleaning his specs...

I am sore tonight, 80 minutes spent trying to hold up a scrum against a loose head who was aggressively boring in on me the entire game.

I wouldn't normally mind but the ref, who was being assessed, couldn't spot it even after the oppo captain shouted at his loose head for repeatedly boring in when stood in front of the ref. I've never seen anything like it.

Oof. Feel for you, dude (ex-hooker here. So I don't quite know your pain, but not far off!). Which level was this?

Only merit table. Really enjoy playing social rugby like this but find the only downside is you have to plan for having a shite, or in some cases dangerous, refs.

England are so formulaic and they do not deviate from their plan. My pal and I opined that's one of the reasons we rarely smash teams, unlike the ABs etc who will sometimes score 70+. England will rarely play 'what's in front of them' which may be because they feel running tries in from deep with multiple off-loads, high-risk, Vs staggered defence is not going to happen against the stronger nations so it's more beneficial to treat games like training to refine the team's patterns and systems. I don't know but I wish we'd be a little more adventurous; I mean what the hell are we going to do if we go 14-0 in a knockout game?

Glad you played again - nice one. I dusted off the boots for a 10th anniversary match to commemorate a former teammate's passing (walking home in the road drunk after we celebrated a big win) so much tears, a few of sadness but mainly of laughter and great memories, were had.

Just watched the game and England were pretty ordinary; no real offloading à la NZ et al, 60 minutes against 14 and a better team would’ve buried the opposition. They’ll get smoked against more dynamic teams I reckon.

I mean what the hell are we going to do if we go 14-0 in a knockout game?

Kick the percentages. Again, and again, and again.

I do agree that England appear a little over-coached, formulaic etc. Probably been proven by the fact that they can't react when things take a left turn, i.e. Scotland 6 nations, SA tour*

*Didn't do very well at 14-0 up there

TBF the South Africans aren't hugely expansive either and play in a similar way to England, are more than happy to kick and play the power game.

These occasions are always tough to deal with emotionally.

I once played in a vets tournament to celebrate the life of a guy who died on a mini-tour in Brighton. The guy (not from our club) had got really pissed and then became separated from his team mates. He couldn't find his way to the hotel and decided to bed down for the night in a biffa bin. Sadly the bin was collected the following morning with him in it. Speaking to the guys he used to play with in the bar afterwards it was obvious they still blamed themselves a number of years down the line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96xYyxdu2Rs

TJ Perenara's try the other day was absolutely outrageous.

Well fuck a duck. Reminds me of my playing days......

This is grim for the Canadians. Bonus point up in 17 mins. Reinach with a hat-trick after 20...

Biggest score of the WC coming up...

Gotta beat 63-0

The comeback begins...

Scotland set up a do-or-die vs Japan then.

Wales vs Fiji was a cracker, the Welsh players will be very sore tomorrow.

Especially Biggar. Still not sure how he walked off! Must have jaw made of concrete to get up from that.

Could be an automatic 0 - 0 draw if the weather gods send a typhoon at the wrong time. If so Scotland crash out automatically. There is a press conference at 4.00 am our time to announce contingency plans but as things stand if the typhoon comes in at the wrong time both Ireland and Scotlands matches could be affected.

Yes, I heard that too. Some in the press announcing already those matches (Jap vs Sco, Eng vs Fra) have been cancelled.

If they are cancelled there will be an almighty hullabaloo. Especially in Scotland after we were robbed of a semi final spot last time out due to the world's most incompetent ref. (Still haven't got over it).

I feel your pain. Joubert was dreadful that day (and several others also). But the rules and structure of the tournament were defined up-front. So rehashing it now won’t look great. They are a bit between a rock and a hard place with this.

Italy also robbed of their chance to dump out NZ with a bonus point win...

England - France game cancelled. Hoping the Scotland and Ireland games still go ahead; reckon Scotland will beat Japan but they’ll get a bonus point and we’re oot.