UptheCream wrote:Our Eric's thoughts on rugby union, a more constructive form of bashing rugby's inferior boring posh orientated code! http://upthecream.co.uk/chomley-club-er ... apes-crap/ Eric, I spent quiet a few minutes reading your article and having a good laugh until you mentioned the Ref who made a balls up with the decision that could have cost Scotland a chance to go into the semis in their match against Australia. You said it was a French Referee, in fact it was Craig Joubert of South Africa. Sorry for being a bit of a nit picker Eric, its the way I am, always seeming to pick holes in things, Sad I know.

UptheCream wrote:Our Eric's thoughts on rugby union, a more constructive form of bashing rugby's inferior boring posh orientated code! http://upthecream.co.uk/chomley-club-er ... apes-crap/ Eric, I spent quiet a few minutes reading your article and having a good laugh until you mentioned the Ref who made a balls up with the decision that could have cost Scotland a chance to go into the semis in their match against Australia. You said it was a French Referee, in fact it was Craig Joubert of South Africa. Sorry for being a bit of a nit picker Eric, its the way I am, always seeming to pick holes in things, Sad I know.

Do you think there is an RU gut out there blogging on the RL international series?

My guess would be no.

Seems quite a sad obsession and quite ironic when you read stuff like;

.

Plenty of talk from people on here who hate the sport, but the media is obsessed....

We may talk, but it's the media that does the damage.... I think that the point thats being made.

Time i have spent/wasted watching this RU World Cup has only reinforced my view that it's a game with very poor core skills, and the slow play suits the slow thinking of it's fans. Plenty of time to chat or nip to the bar while the dull, interminable scrums are set, and who has a bloody clue what's going on amidst a heap of bodies on the floor. I also noticed they are quite rightly talking about head injuries, many of which could be caused by blokes running around bent over, chasing a bouncing dropped ball...

This is the big problem for me. I too have watched quite a bit of this tournament, and I've seen hardly anyone in any of the British teams who I thought would get anywhere near a SL team, let alone the NRL. Okay, that doesn't mean they couldn't be knocked into shape over a period of time (as Inga was), but that's never going to happen any more because these guys and the media who constanty laud them seem to think they are already world-beaters.

The England team in particular seem to lack any kind of basic rugby skills, awareness, etc - which is puzzling given the presence in the English RU set-up of Farrell and Mike Ford, but then maybe they're just part of that select club of quality ex-players who also happened to be clueless as coaches (and perhaps this is why they aren't coaching in RL).

And I don't think it's just us. I strongly feel that wider interest in this tournament has now petered out. Easy to explain at a superficial level, perhaps, with England bowing out so early. But the public aren't daft. Aside from the odd highlight, like Japan beating South Africa, this has been nothing like the spectacle that was promised. Even the world football authorities know better than to extend their own World Cup past two weeks.

Yep... I have a few friends who are RU fans, and they are seeing the light... But i don't expect them to fully agree with me any time soon...

[quote="Cruncher"]This is the big problem for me. I too have watched quite a bit of this tournament, and I've seen hardly anyone in any of the British teams who I thought would get anywhere near a SL team, let alone the NRL.

I'm all for a bit of light hearted Union bashing but the above statement is patently ludicrous. There is much wrong with Union and the acres of press coverage it garners is irritating but slagging off the quality and fitness of the players makes us look at best chippy and jealous, at worst blinkered and stupid.

Let's be honest, whilst our club game is a bigger deal, we couldn't produce something to rival the Six Nations let alone the World Cup in our wildest dreams. Even if the New Zealand series exceeds everyone's expectations, it will sadly be the very definition of "after The Lord Mayor's Show"

Well, not really. Although there's a case to be that because of the nature of the game, they are less important (!), I don't think there's much doubt that core skills in Union are way behind SL, never mind the NRL. Testament to the fact is that when an unremarkable back-line move results in the try in the corner, the commentators inevitably start banging about 'wonderful' and 'brilliant' it was. Brought up as we are on the skills of the likes of Tuivasa-Sheck, Nofoaluma, Joe Burgess, etc etc, it seems remarkably tame. But if that's all they know...

As I remarked elsewhere on a RUWC thread, the ABs are the best side by a distance simply because they have something approaching NRL-standard ball skills from 1 to 15. The other sides, especially the NH ones, just don't.

Of the admittedly little I've bothered with the games, it strikes me that the only time there's any real flow or continuity is when they apply League tactics. A case in point is that offload in the tackle from SBW that led to the try in the first half. The ra-rahs had no clue what had just happened, they were getting ready to roll about on the floor again. But a League brain instinctively getting the ball away caught them napping.

Got me ticket (finally) for London this morning. C'MON ENGLAND

I watched the final yesterday and thought it was a great Game. I'm always going to prefer the 13 man code but if more RU was played with the pace and style that the Ausi and Kiwi teams put on show yesterday, I'd enjoy watching more RU. But the fact that the commentators having lowered expectations about how dynamic the game would be, raved about the fact the 5 trys were scored in a final, say a lot about how dull most RU is to watch. I thought the Welch Ref was brilliant, great rapport with both teams, communicated his expectations and let the game flow.

I agree with all that, you do get the occasional good contest like the final, but they seem to be few and far between. The ABs barely play the same sport as the NH sides.

Right, now lets bring on the Kiwis!