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Really suprised by the result last weekend, would have really thought England would crush SA. Seems like they had too much pressure making unusual mistakes. They must have played their final against NZ (too early!). Only Itoje Curry Underhill out of the water, the rest were complete garbage (Youngs, Daly, Cole, etc.).
To me big errors were also made by E. Jones, as much as he is competent. Bringing only two scrum half, because sub was injured in semi final so was forced to call someone back and thus couldn't take the risk of making him play on the final (too short notice) and thus had to leave Youngs on the field who was on a very terrible day. Moreover, bringing Slade on direct elimination games after no time play during pool stages was a mistake IMO, had a very average first game with errors (lost balls on contact), and he kept him on the bench for the rest and he did make the same mistakes on saturday losing the ball leading to Kolbe's try. I think it would have been interesting to rely more on Joseph but maybe it wasn't the best option either.

To be fair, usually totally dislike the drestruction rugby culture of SA, but I must say, those saying it was dull must remember that A) it was a final and B) the try on the blindside with Mapimpi/Ham was a complete beauty of flair and technique (instant pass by Marx, chip and chase, support, etc.).
Last try by Kolbe come from an error of Slade and you can't give him space otherwise in one vs one he is impossible to defend against.

Overall congratulations to SA, they played the right game with intelligence in line-outs, strong scrum, good defense, and relevant attacking choices. England has made a good tournament and can be proud of most of their games. Looking forward to the next world cup that will be at home!!

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

Thanks for the feedback!

Probably a dumb question but will this fork , which is for a 26 inch wheel, be able to go with 650B wheel?
I read axle to crown is 440mm and given the bead seat diameter for 650B is 584mm, I think it could cope with this type of wheel. Anyone wanting to help me understand the relationship with axle to crown and wheel diameter?

Yes I think Barett is here to bring density but moving him to the back row is kind of a bold move, England pack is pretty strong but they have some very quick players too. An Cane isn't know for being skinny too, but I think due to Savea intense activity it is not necessary to have Cane also on the field and I believe if Hansen did it he must be confident in the organization of the AB defensive system (I would be too tbh haha). I agree moving Tuilagi to 13 is a good move though!

Kolbe is out for sunday, that's too bad even if he did not get many ball to express last sunday

Buy @Fixedwheelnut's 318i E30 touring when his 335i will be repaired
(I know, might be a bit too much outside the box, but ticks petrol/manual/touring haha)

Strong choices on both sides: Cane goes on the bench, Hansen places Barett on backrow (would be interesting to know why) ; Jones install back Ford-Farell-Tuilagi and slade goes back to the bench.
Apparently Slade did not entirely convince jones! They have pretty similar bench combination on both sides. Looking forward to the game

Wasn't that much into cars a few years ago and just have been driving for 5 years now anyway!
But yes prices have gone up like crazy. One of my best friend had his dad scrap his perfectly working E30 320i maybe 10 or 15 years ago because he didn't know what to do with it and it was a "second" car.
I love mine but would definitely have the exact same in same spec but Touring!
And regarding mods, already did some adjustments but in france rules make pretty much any modification illegal

I also have an E30 318i, but the 4-door sedan. Would have loved to have a touring, they are my favorite car! Definitely have to find bbs basket rim for it though, I have the basic steel rims, this would be a nice addition.
EDIT: what size are yours? 15"?

Lambey, he is indeed playing for Lyon. Considered in the squad during the WC preparation but dropped and not taken into the squad afterwards. I quire rate him I think he's not the strongest and would suffer against a very strong pack, but has a great mindset and has good ball carrying, passing and line-out skills, and compensate with good tackle technique quite low.
I thought it was a pity to drop him and keep Leroux as I am really not a fan of Leroux, but he did surprise me yesterday I have to admit, he played a strong game.

We have some second row that are good club players, but I think not many that can pretend to be constantly international-level players.
Another example to illustrate both our lack of important second row players and our great managing ideas, Brunel made Iturria who is a very good player change position at Clermont last season 2018/2019 (from second row to backrow), with mostly success as he was pretty good ; then during the WC preparation considered him back in second row to end by judging that he's not good enough at second row... a position that they asked his club to make him change.
Similar to insisting on trying regularly players on the wing that are not wingers (like Fickou for example, whereas as an example he was good at his position of centre yesterday).
Tbf they also had good ideas as they are the ones that made Penaud switch from centre to wing (and he was good but I guess he also would have been at centre position)

Our people seem to focus on the picture from Peyper to try and forget the fact that we completely fucked up the game OURSELVES with poor tactics and blatant errors. We could have won any day even with the red with a little more brain. I bet someone like Serge Simon is so irritated to realize we're fucking dumb that he tries to blame the referee for something that insignificant. It is not like Joubert that robbed both France and Scotland on 2 world cup isn't it?

Personally I'v got no problem with the picture at all, if it can help our players in general to be less dumb regarding to game plan, game management, and player situational/ tactical awareness then I'm happy it came out.
Very dumb and poor error from Vaha, just hope that it will benefit him in the future and that not everyone will try to bury him, he's not that disciplined when he plays but I am not sure it is a player that is as mean/limited as Lavanini for example who seem to get a red almost every year. We don't have many options on second row, and even less with his profile, so just hoping he will progress and that's all!
Most of us ourselves did not think we would reach quarter finals anyway, why everyone's being so angry?

IMO Vahaamina is not fully responsible for the loss. It was stupid for sure, but it wasn't him that hi the posts on two shots, that gave the ball for an easy try for wales, and certainly wasn't him that chosed to keep the scrum with 7 men in front of our own tryline that lead to Wales' try
EDIT: I was saying earlier that NZ was probably not in best form, was stunned in front of the game against Ireland. If Slade is in better form or if they align Ford with Farell on 12, maybe England will be even better than on saturday. Quite like Underhill and Curry, strong pair! It will be a huge game NZvsEng

Thanks for the feedback. There aren't many orders so I am not sure I am 100% ready to make the jump. We'll see!

I agree, I believe England will beat Australia. However Australia is pretty unpredictable in my opinion, can be truly great on the good day, but they also can be completely transparent and show nothing at all during a game. Forwards-wise, England I think is more complete despite Hooper/Pocock on the other side (better bench also), Backs-wise I think England offers more options and can bring interesting things on all fronts (power, speed, kicking, set-pieces) if they're all on the same page ; Australia have quality player with Koroibete and Kerevi, and some unpredictable dangers (both for them and for the opponent) with Beale, Foley, O'connor, Genia, etc. but the latter ones seem more to be on the danger side for Australia lately.

I believe NZ despite not showing their best form will beat Ireland, and we will have ENG/NZ in semi-final.

On our side (France), I hope we win the game as I have the feeling that we can succeed against Wales when they're not at home. But if we show same high penality rate in scrum, same clumsiness to catch a ball, and same irregularity and moments of game plan absence we showed for the last 5 years even if it is better recently, we will not win agains Wales. So I guess reluctantly I will predict 60% chance Wales beat us.

Regarding SA-Japan, soooooo looking forward to this game. I genuinely can not decide on a winner, SA will try to kill the memory of their loss last RWC and will be highly motivated, they have huge forwards (a little on the opposite side to Japan) and some interesting fast players on the back, but I have the impression that they can show limited strategy sometime. On the other hand, Japan is very very fast in execution, have good strategy and are very organized and structured and play possession game. They showed to have various tools (hands, speed, kicking, etc.) to win and choke the opponent, have good adaptation but they can be tired by the pool stage and will have to deal with SA forwards which is never easy.

England/Australia and SA/Japan are the games not to miss on the weekend (desperate to say that I am not even mentioning my own country but France has been really disappointing for me for quite some time). Have a good rugby weekend you all!

Anyone has knowledge on "Tsunami" on Aliexpress? quite tempted by this:
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4000005564976.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3d2841e6AOzgzz&algo_pvid=3152e39c-cca0-4e1c-84bf-98a6e99f226f&algo_expid=3152e39c-cca0-4e1c-84bf-98a6e99f226f-6&btsid=3b277618-804c-4597-a340-826057983a9d&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_10,searchweb201603_55

it's mentioned here the "Wolf Pack" defense, can't remember the article I found but it detailed the specificities of this defensive system. Might have changed since though!
As you mention, I think the key is preventing Australia to attack, they have good attacking players such as Koroibete or Kerevi

I think agressive rush defence used by farell was set up initally by one of the saracens defense coach of whom defense system basically relied upon taking up the space, i.e. event if you miss your tackle if you take the space quickly it destroy many of the best option of the attacker. But it does require that the all team defensive system is on the same page, and the back row has a lot of work with this system but I believe Burger and other teammates from Saracens didn't mind having to defend haha

Not too tall (174cm) so I thought briefly about 26", that's a great idea. Thanks for the suggestions, yours seem great really (like your other bikes haha)!

haha alright. Looking forward to this weekend games anyway!

I wasn't questioning Ford's intentions in defence, I was never thinking he was scared or anything when I saw him play, far from it, but more in his physique that might lead (rightly or not) Jones to think he needs "topher" players.
It's one thing that has been bothering me for quite some time, many players are disregarded because they seem to be lacking physical aptitude or anything, but Rugby value shouldn't be dictated by who's the biggest or anything like that, you can always adapt your system to protect a player. I think Australia did something sismilar to protect Giteau last world cup with switching players in defense with Hooper at 10 and Ashley-Cooper who is bigger closer to him, and placing Giteau or Foley (can't remember) on the inside wing.
If you take the example of Kolbe, he is definitely ridiculous compared to someone like Etzebeth, Whitelock, or even Tuilagi, but good luck catching him and I am certain that any player attacking against him will try going straight through him, which is the most incredible way of letting someone defend easily (maybe it will be difficult in terms of impact etc., but defending a player going straight through you is easy compared to one that is trying to go past you avoiding contact)

Did not know where to ask so sorry if not in appropriated thread.
What would be the closest affordable frameset option (hardtail and straight fork) if it exists to @Hulsroy stunning MTB?
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14932383/
EDIT: in steel

That makes sense regarding Ford. I quite like Slade though, and as you said the combination Farell-Tuilagi-Slade is very complete and if they are in line with each other, they will be very hard to either attack or defend against.
But if Hooper and Pocock play their best game, this will be needed. I was quite surprised by Australia's hooker, did not knew him and find him to be good during pool stage.
Both teams have interesting line-ups, and also interesting bench choices so very much looking forward to the game!!

Did not follow carefully the pool games of England, but was under the impression that Ford was installed on 10, and Farell on 12 ; now Farell is back on 10 and Slade on 13. Did Slade play during pool stage?
I think Slade is a very good option but isn't it risky to move Farell constantly between 10 and 12 despite his competence, and mostly to install Slade if he hasn't play much? If they 10-12-13 association are on the same page, England's lineup is pretty scary I must say because the pack seem already very strong and backline combine kicking, high impact, and good speed overall.
Maybe Jones is scared for Ford's defence if he's got to defend against Kerevi, Koroibete etc. or if he's under pressure with Hooper and Pocock? Australia is pretty unpredictable so it will be interesting.

I agree. Pick Georgia for example, I am not convinced that they are not capable of beating Italy or event another 6N side with proper regular good oppositions. I believe it is not by chance that E. Jones made england train with Georgia some time ago

Definitely agree with you. I can understand that we (France) set-up academies in New Caledonia or Wallis&Futuna for example, which are French territories.

But setting up academies (like Clermont and Stade Toulousain I think, I'm sure for the first one at least) in Fiji to steal young talents, and tell everyone about it as "saviours" or "opportunity givers" blows me away. How the fuck did they allow that? And don't tell me we do not have any player reservoir in France, our U20 win world cup twice recently.
If you take the wingers for example, Toulouse made a former U20 from the first world title play a lot last season (Tauzin), he pretty much destroyed every opponent in 1vs1 during last season. And that's not by picking foreign players on a specific position that you will find local talents for this position.

It is not a new point of view, but I remain convinced that with more organisation, more structure, and none of their players "stolen", pacific teams islands would pretty much butcher half of the top ten nations. I believe it is part of the reason no one is funding them or anything, it would jeopardize too much other nations.

On your idea to authorize switch of nations for unused players, that is a great idea. There were plenty of examples of naturalized players "secured" with 1 cap, and never picked again. Building a "far-from-home pacific center" in Europe where they manage their teams, support their players overseas, offer structure etc. would be a killer idea IMO and would help them progress a lot.
Inherently (physically and with individual technique) they are already above almost any nations, it's crazy when you watch them play sevens it must be a nightmare to play against.