Sacrebleu what a start with Argentina beating France 17-12 :eek:
The official site is http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/
Number 1 ranked All Blacks start their campaign tonight against Italy…GO THE AB’S 
have you seen the game?Argentina always find a way to resiste the bleus…what an intense game…
All Blacks look awesome - they deserve to win due to their prepartion, planning and desire.
I only saw he last 20 minutes but they have certainly stepped up a level the last few years.
Steve, that first 30mins was the best the ABs have played all year. Yes they looked good but they have done so at other times and not won the cup. 
go you good things 
See the Poms got a damn good pasting from the Boks 36 - zip :eek: 
Beaten, bloodied England a big fat zero
Injury and insult were heaped upon defending champions England at the Rugby World Cup this morning as they were humiliated 36-0 by South Africa.
It’s hard to say who would take more out of this Springbok annihilation of the defending world champions in Paris - the England side decimated in clinical, contemptuous fashion; or the New Zealanders who have been served notice that this World Cup is now officially a two-horse race, at the very least.
That was the abiding feeling as you digested a highly impressive, extremely efficient performance from Jake White’s South Africans as they ran in three tries and got 18 points from the unerring boot of Percy Montgomery to very much put their mark in the sand at this World Cup.
It was a significant victory, too, in many ways, the South Africans leading 20-0 by halftime and blanking the world champions with an impressive defensive effort to boot. It puts the Boks on the other side of the draw from the All Blacks and leaves the two heavyweights of the southern hemisphere game on a potential collision course for the final. Of course the Wallabies may yet have something to say about that.
But there’s no doubting this Boks performance will have the tournament oddsmakers frantically reassessing their numbers. It will also do wonders for the confidence of these South Africans who haven’t always been the most convincing of performers away from their homeland strongholds.
This was an emphatic display that said these South Africans can produce World Cup-winning rugby on foreign territory, and it’s one that will have every team sitting up and paying attention. None more so than Graham Henry’s All Blacks who now face the very real prospect of having to knock off their Tri Nations rivals on consecutive weekends to win the title.
England, on the other hand, looked the rabble we all suspected them to be. They offered little to the match, looked a side bereft of skill, confidence and nous and look appear to be headed for a quarter-final exit at the hands of the Wallabies. On the strength of this display it’s hard to see the Australians needing to raise a sweat to get past their “challenge”.
“We’re very disappointed about the game and the performance,” England’s stand-in captain Martin Corry told ITV television. “We’ve got to get over this game first and we’ve got an incredibly tough match against Samoa coming up.”
Springboks captain John Smit said his side’s emphatic performance was the cumulation of years of work.
“It was a clinical first half and that sort of led into the second half,” Smit said. “It’s taken four years for us to get this clinical.”
South Africa took less than six minutes to draw first blood in the pivotal pool A encounter at Stade de France, flanker Juan Smith finishing a superb blindside break from wing JP Pietersen for an early 7-0 lead.
With the stadium packed, mostly with optimistic England fans clinging to the vain hope that their defending champion side could snap out of its four-year form funk and rise to the occasion in a contest that would decide the group, the atmosphere in Saint Denis was electric.
But it was the South Africans who sparked to life in the opening 40 minutes, the early mark laid down by Smith’s try. The Boks had sized up the situation perfectly off set piece from deep in their half, Pietersen steaming through a non-existent blindside defence and then finding outstanding halfback Fourie du Preez as the link man.
When du Preez was able to scramble back to his feet as England’s cover defence hit batten-down-the-hatches mode, he found Smith who was steaming up in support, as all good opensides should be, for an uninterrupted run to the line.
But any thoughts the early setback would spur the English into life were soon allayed. They offered little, if anything, to the opening stanza of this match, playing their limited, one-dimensional game in fairly uninspiring fashion. What’s more, the defending champions appeared to be bereft of energy, enthusiasm and especially anything resembling the nous to launch anything of any threat on attack. As is the way, they reverted to putting boot to ball more often than not.
On the other side of the coin the Boks were at their clinical best. After striking early to set the English on their heels, they added a couple of penalties through the middle stages of the half (one each to Percy Montgomery and long-range specialist Francois Steyn) and then book-ended a fairly emphatic first 40 by grabbing their second seven-pointer in the shadow of halftime.
It came via another long-range strike, turnover ball at the ruck (where England were at their abysmal worst all match) enabling du Preez to gather an unpromising pass and slice through some woeful England defence, putting his wing Pietersen in for an easy run to the line.
Any hopes of an England second-half comeback were snuffed out by a couple more Montgomery penalties in the third quarter and when Pietersen added his second touchdown, 23 minutes into the second stanza, it was all over bar the shouting.
That try came off another clinical piece of Bok attacking play, Steyn taking ball into the setup and du Preez again working the blindside brilliantly to put his wing over.
That, effectively, was that, just another Montgomery penalty to be added as the South Africans were happier to keep their northern rivals stranded on zero than they were to push for a bonus point they will not need to top this pool.
Du Preez had a brilliant all-round match, highlighting his status as the best halfback in the game, while two-try Pietersen and Bryan Habana were all menace as they showed where the Bok strikepower lies. Montgomery was a cool customer at the back and did not miss a shot at goal, while Steyn produced a useful effort in midfield.
But it was an impressive display right through the Bok lineup, particularly from the loose trio who dominated the breakdown area. Victor Matfield led a strong lineout for the Boks, while the scrum was probably the only area where England could claim any sort of parity.
Jason Robinson was England’s sole attacking threat and very much a lone ranger on the danger front, but when he pulled up lame with a hamstring injury just shy of the third quarter it told the story of the match.
The defending champions, like their gifted fullback, almost certainly limped out of this tournament.
South Africa
Tries: Juan Smith, JP Pietersen (2). Conversions: Percy Montgomery (3). Penalties: Francois Steyn, Montgomery (4).
England 0
The AB’s have been served notice, the Boks’ are serious contenders. What a performance yesterday!
Boks and Aus were always serious contenders, Poms were always going to be woeful 
The Poms were not that bad, they were just physically bullied into submission last night. This is how I believe SA will be able to beat the AB’s. Hurt them as much as you can.
Do you think Samoa can upset the Poms?They 'll give them a hard time…since they are so physical
They can but I think it will be like the Eng US match. Samoa will contain them for 60 minutes and then Eng will take control. The big thing is individually Samoa can be physical, but as a pack they are not. SA last night hit the poms two or three to one pom, which is the big thing. If Samoa can work as a pack they have a chance.
I wasn’t downplaying SA’s performance as much as it appeared but let’s face it this is a pretty ordinary English side. I doubt Samoa will beat them though.
I’d be the guy by Jerry Colins’ feet as in the pic above. I’d shit myself if I had to face the AB’s.
…me too
How would you like to have to stop or be tackled by Sebastian Chabal of France? :o
His hit on Chris Masoe :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrbp1ASVhCg
The only way to stop him (temporarily) is to do what the Namibian no.8 did. Jump in the air and hit him in the head as hard as you can, and then pray you get a red card.
Former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga regarded his Ireland skipper Brian O’Driscoll as a sook'' for his bitter reaction to the tackle which put him out of the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand, Umaga says in his autobiography published today. O'Driscoll suffered a dislocated shoulder in the opening minute of the first Test at Christchurch when he was heavily tackled by Umaga and All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu. The Irish centre did not play again on tour and the Lions lost the series 3-0. Mealamu and Umaga were cited over the incident but a South African citing officer, appointed by the International Rugby Board, found neither had a case to answer and no disciplinary action was taken. Umaga says in his autobiography Tana Umaga - Up Close’’ he found the media campaign waged against him by the Lions, and perpetuated by the O’Driscoll, hard to believe and harder to stomach. You don’t want to take it personally but it’s almost impossible not to when another player, a guy you had some respect for, attacks your character in the most direct and damning terms,’’ Umaga says.
My first thought was geez, don't be a sook; there's no use crying about it, man, it's over. On the other hand I could understand how bitterly disappointed O'Driscoll was. He would have been just like me: buzzing with anticipation, really up for it, and desperate to make a point on the field.'' O'Driscoll complained Umaga made no effort on the field to find out how he was, when he was clearly seriously injured, and had not contacted him afterwards to apologise. Umaga said he attempted to contact O'Driscoll through the Lions media staff two days after the match but his call had not been returned. At first the kerfuffle didn’t really bother me,’’ he said.
It was a case of, oh well that's the way it is. But it just snowballed and O'Driscoll kept going on about the fact that I hadn't rung him to say sorry. I'd actually tried to get hold of him on the Monday via the Lions' media liaison person but I never heard back.'' Umaga says a later telephone conversation with O'Driscoll ended with the players agreeing to disagree.’’
Fabulous Fijians dump Wales out of Cup
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Fiji created the biggest shock of the World Cup so far with a sensational 38-34 win over Wales today to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 1987.
The Pacific Islanders produced a wonderful opening period to lead 25-10 at the break and put themselves on course for the runners-up spot in pool B behind Australia.
Two tries by flanker Akapusi Qera and one each to lock Kele Leaware and prop Graham Dewes meant Fiji will travel to Marseille for next weekend’s quarter-finals.
Wales started well in the nine-try classic and took an early lead when Stephen Jones slotted over a penalty after three minutes.
Fiji hit back and their increasing pressure told in the 14th minute when Qera took Seru Rabeni’s pass to finish under the posts. Nicky Little added the conversion.
The sevens specialists opened up and extended their advantage four minutes later when the dazzling Rabeni broke out of his own half before offloading to wing Vilimoni Delasau who claimed his own chip to beat Mark Jones to score.
Fiji were in complete control when they scored their third try of the half after Qera’s lung-bursting run. His pass found lock Leawere who powered over and Little’s conversion gave the Fijians a 25-3 lead.
Wales were desperate to get a foothold in the match and, after a succession of scrums, Alix Popham was able to claim a simple pushover try.
James Hook took over the kicking duties from Jones and converted. But he missed a handy penalty on the stroke of halftime which would have narrowed the gap further.
With Qera languishing in the sin-bin, Shane Williams scored a wonderful solo try after the break. The little wing took Tom Shanklin’s pass and side-stepped past Isoa Neivua’s tackle.
Skipper Gareth Thomas celebrated his 100th cap in style by rounding off a fine move involving Hook and Jones to score in the right corner. Jones got in on the act himself after 51 minutes to put Wales into the lead for the first time.
Little responded with two penalties to hand Fiji the lead again and the islanders could have sewn up the match when Ifereimi Rawaqa was halted only by Thomas’s marvellous last-ditch tackle.
Flanker Martyn Williams then intercepted Little’s pass to put Wales ahead again before Dewes’s match-winning try was awarded by the television match official.
“We’re devastated. We look at the video and we made some serious errors,” Thomas told interviewwers afterwards. “Our defence wasn’t up to standard, we turned over the balls in the wrong areas.”
“On a day like today it’s down to the 80 minutes and if we don’t perform for 80 minutes then we’re on the plane home and unfortunately we’re going home.”
It was the third time Wales have lost to a Pacific Islands side at the World Cup after they were beaten by Samoa in 1991 and 1999.
Fiji 38: Akapusi Qera, Vilimoni Delasau, Kele Leawere, Graham Dewes tries; Nicky Little 3 cons, 4 pens.
Wales 34: Alix Popham, Shane Williams, Gareth Thomas, Mark Jones, Martyn Williams tries; James Hook con; Stephen Jones 2 cons, pen. Ht: 25-10. – Reuters
What a great game. Seru Rabeni and Vilimoni Delasau were marvelous. Certainly one of the greatest RWC games ever.
Also hats off to the wonderful Argentine side. They deserve a spot in the semi’s and even further. Hernandez on current form, for me, is the greatest rugby player in the world.
Press Release
International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby World Cup 2007
Following complaints to the IRB about the All Blacks being allowed to motivate themselves by performing the ‘Haka’ before their games,
other nations were asked to suggest pre-match rituals of their own. The IRB Rugby World Cup 2007 Organizing Committee has now agreed
to the following pre-match displays:
-
The England team will chat about the weather, wave hankies in the air and attach bells to their ankles before moaning about
how they invented the game and gave it to the world, but no one appreciates them. -
The Scotland team will chant “You lookin’ at me Jimmy?” before each of them smash a bottle of beer over their opponents’ heads.
-
The Ireland team will split into two, with the Southern half performing a Riverdance, while the Northerners march the Traditional
route from their dressing room to the pitch, via their opponents dressing room. -
Unfortunately the Committee was unable to accept the Welsh proposal to form a choir and sing Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”.
-
Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own “Las In-Goals-Areas” and have to be
forcibly removed by the match stewards. -
Two members of the South African team will claim to be more important than the other 13 whom they will imprison between
the posts. These two will then go about selecting the best parts of the pitch to settle on and claim that they have been there for centuries. -
The Americans will not attend until almost full time. In future years they will amend the records to show that they were in fact
the most important team in the tournament and Hollywood will make a blockbuster fi lm called ‘Saving Flanker Ryan’. -
Five of the Canadian team will sing La Marseillaise and hold the rest of the team to ransom.
-
The Italian team will arrive in Armani gear, sexually harass the female offi cials and then prepare pasta dishes, which they will fl og
to the crowd for a fortune. -
The Japanese will shock fans buy demonstrating how to capture a whale for scientifi c research buy harpooning an opposition prop.
-
The French won’t have a pre-match display and will simply hide in fear in the dressing room for the whole match.
-
The Australians will have a BBQ on their side of the fi eld and invite the opposition over before the game. The food and alcohol
will be in abundance and by the start of the game no-one will remember what they came to the stadium for. After some
streaking, the singing of dirty songs and the occasional chunder everyone will go home thoroughly convinced it was a bloody
good night. -
The Moroccan team will quietly pray during the fi rst half and then launch suicide attacks against the opposition after the break.
Unfortunately, this strategy works well for the fi rst game only, after which Morocco is forced to withdraw from the Rugby World
Cup due to lack of players. -
Samoa will prepare a huge feast in the middle of the pitch by digging a large hole and fi lling it with burning embers. They invite
the opposition over by saying, “We’d like to have you for dinner”. It’s only when the opposition get to the pit that they realize
there is no meat and that they are the dinner!
Hopefully, with these policies now in place, further problems is this area of the game should cease to exists.
Regards,
Syd Miller
IRB Chairman