Rugby

At some point, the whole haka thing has to just stop.

Ooo - inverted arrowhead/V - interesting?

Hate the haka, but they'll never stop it. Way too marketable.

tonga are playing very well
come on great britain lions you can do it

I don't mind the haka but what pisses me off is that they can issue a challenge using the medium of aggressive interpretive dance, yet the team who is receiving the challenge has to just stand there and get shouted/danced at. I think the old days of being able to show them you aren't intimidated should be allowed again.

https://youtu.be/9hOZRHpleH8

Congrats to England.

Calling it now. Wales champions.
Good solid match today though. First time I’ve really enjoyed watching England for an age.

Yup, hate to lose to the poms but you properly outplayed us. Congrats.

Massive performance. Congrats England.

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Amazing game!

Stupid TMO

Hahahahahahahahaha

Just no.

SA will go through to the finals.

Sorry England for next weekend too.

Amazing

What galled even more today was that the refs were coralling the england squad to stand in specific positions.

Just no.

Not a fan of England, but wow congrats that was very entertaining.. and I will forgive the kiwis for the occasional sloppy play, poor discipline and a handful of forward passes. England made the All Blacks look second rate.

Bokkies vs The Taffs.. come on you Wales

They've been doing this for about 6 years, I think, in an effort to stop people doing what Cockerill did or similar. Basically these days under world rugby bye laws you have to stand at a pre determined distance, face to haka, not moving or challenging it in any way. If you don't do this you apparently disrespect the haka.

Edited because it could be taken the wrong way.

Oops.

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Bokke not bokkies

Lol... Bokke is plural for bok which is an abbv of springbok or springbokke

But I guess bokkies works as well as its the juvenile form of bok. A young bok.

Hahaha

Why?

Look t the guys doing it the 60s 70s 80s not sure whts marketable bout tht, wht bout Smo ,Tong n iji

Well one to England, the B's were completely outplayed/dominate

Keybor is ropping letters everywhere, I'm not hving gret night. Poo

Agreeing with the points taken above regarding the haka. I'm not even an england supporter but come on, you're letting the AB make their own rituals, why forbidding the opposing team to react the way they want? It is not even fair in terms of sports equity to prevent anybody reacting the haka the way they want. It should not even be a thing, if you're bothered with how pepole deal with the haka then drop it ant all is settled.
Regarding the match, not a great game, mainly because england was so good it made the AB look like France not so long ago: no idea where to go and what to do, except giving the ball away. So many poor plays and so many errors

Outstanding performance of the pack, Curry and Underhill played the game of their lives. Would have thought england second row would be outsmarted and outplayed by the opposite second row, well fuck was I wrong. However could anybody explain to me how the fuck Jonny May did not go past Scott Barett??? ha ha ha

The Haka is fine, it's just a bit of tradition that doesn't really affect anything.

Respect the fact it's tradition for the island nations, respect the fact it's a ceremonial dance for the Maori's and represents issuing a challenge to the opposition, accept it the right way ( a little aggro is fine).

5 seconds into the game no-one is thinking about the Haka. It's a big non-issue.

Given he came off and the strapping possibly not 100%??

Issues around the Haka are thin between respect and offering a rebuke.
Thought England’s approach today was interesting. Was it Marler being the wind up merchant getting the referee involved over getting a response from the All Blacks.
Most opponents seem to relish facing it.

England were very disciplined today. Very few penalties, none in dangerous areas.
Was surprised how little the ABs committed at the breakdown, given when they had there were disruptions if not turnovers. This didn’t seem to change through the course of the game. It was very apparent they had no plan B.

Well, at least it seems one thing can be guaranteed now, and that's that the NZ ref - 'young' athletic fella (Ben something?) can ref the final. Owens (and his team) missed a few obvious forward passes today and my god that TMO really seemed to want to punish England (the disallowed tries were right calls and no one could have argued either way) but the way he kept showing the same replay of Slade, clearly legally from just one viewing, bundling Reece into touch was as if he was trying to convince Owens (and himself) foul play had occurred.