All in all, a pretty good world cup. The knock out stages featured some close and exciting games even if they weren't great spectacles of running rugby. Knock out competitions are like that ( Read more... )

I've been resisting going to the pub to watch the games live on PPV for some exorbitant fee but the final is the final etc. Rumour had it that Scallywags would be really, really busy and Rumour was spot on. I got there at 1230 for a 1500 KO and got a decent seat but only because they had reserved a section for the Nomads (they are our main ( Read more... )

NSFW

( England 12 Australia 10 :
France 20 New Zealand 18 )

... and boy am I glad. Both sets of Southron sheepshaggers are going home. This may be a bad omen for Scotland but what a semi it's going to be.

I'm not seeing much reason to change my prediction of an all southern hemisphere semifinals. Ireland were pretty dismal against France and Argentina are sticking it to Namibia. I really fancy Argentina to win the group which would give them a quarter final against Scotland or Italy, both of whom I'd expect them to beat ( Read more... )

All teams but the minnows have now played and it's quote hard to see a Northern hemisphere team making the semis. NZ and Australia efficiently disposed of weak opposition. South Africa beat the dangerous Samoans quite comfortably. As for the 6N countries, their performances ranged from unimpressive to woeful. France lost to Argentina, Scotland ( Read more... )