Rugby World Cup

[Jakenorrish]

Well, its upon us again. Who do you think will win?

My money for what it is worth is on Australia. New Zealand are favourites, but then they are every tournament until they bottle it in the Semi Final. I pick Argentina to get a shock win over France in the opening game. Think I'm nuts? Well they've beaten France four of the last five times they've met and are the only team to have ever beaten France in Marseille.

I can't wait, though I'm not holding my breath about Wales' prospects, as much as I'd love for us to do well.

For all of you people from the USA, your opening game is against England. I will be of course supporting the Americans!

[Fazor]

Well I thank you for your support! I'd rather see Ireland win, but mostly because when I started playing EA Sports Rugby for PS2, Ireland was the team I always played as. I usually make fun of my g/f for rooting for teams picked so arbitrarilly (usually uniform color for her).

I'll have to see if any of the games will be available for me to Tivo. Probably not; usually they only show them on the premium soccer channel and I'm not going to pay extra for that. Oh well, great sport.

[Doodler]

Well, its upon us again. Who do you think will win?

My money for what it is worth is on Australia. New Zealand are favourites, but then they are every tournament until they bottle it in the Semi Final. I pick Argentina to get a shock win over France in the opening game. Think I'm nuts? Well they've beaten France four of the last five times they've met and are the only team to have ever beaten France in Marseille.

I can't wait, though I'm not holding my breath about Wales' prospects, as much as I'd love for us to do well.

For all of you people from the USA, your opening game is against England. I will be of course supporting the Americans!

Will they be doing a web feed of the matches? I sincerely doubt anyone in the US will be carrying them live.

[Jakenorrish]

That's a very good question. They are screening on a channel called 'ITV1' over here. They are streaming the games live on www.itv.com but I'm not sure if that would be available to you in the States (or wherever else you may be!). If you go to their site now, the 'watch ITV now' frame is on the right hand side of their homepage. Test it, see if it works and let us know. If it doesn't at least you've got a bit of time to find an alternative.

I'm sure that you'll be able to find an overseas site which is showing them on an unprotected stream.

[Parrothead]

I'll be watching Canada vs. Wales on Sunday morning (8am EDT), meaning I'll have to tape the Italian GP. Canada is aiming to make it to the second round, this WC.

[Doodler]

That's a very good question. They are screening on a channel called 'ITV1' over here. They are streaming the games live on www.itv.com (http://www.itv.com) but I'm not sure if that would be available to you in the States (or wherever else you may be!). If you go to their site now, the 'watch ITV now' frame is on the right hand side of their homepage. Test it, see if it works and let us know. If it doesn't at least you've got a bit of time to find an alternative.

I'm sure that you'll be able to find an overseas site which is showing them on an unprotected stream.

I'll have to test it from home, no admin access to install the DRM upgrades the site wants me to have.

[Jakenorrish]

I'll be watching Canada vs. Wales on Sunday morning (8am EDT), meaning I'll have to tape the Italian GP. Canada is aiming to make it to the second round, this WC.

Yep, they sure have been talking a good game. I was there in the early ninetees when Canada beat us. Gareth Rees had a fantastic game that night.

I don't see Canada beating Wales this time.....

[toejam]

Will they be doing a web feed of the matches? I sincerely doubt anyone in the US will be carrying them live.

Bell ExpressVu will carry all matches live on satellite, but they want $199.00 for the lot & you can't buy individual games. And that's here in Canada, don't know if you can get it where you are, maybe friends in Buffalo/Niagara can tape them for you? :)

[Lianachan]

Portugal for us first, I think, on Sunday 9th. I'm fairly confident that we can win all of the matches in our group - except against the All Blacks, of course.

Not interested in rugby at all under normal circumstances, but I'd get behind Scotland at absolutely anything (except cricket) - even watch our Six Nations matches.

[PhantomWolf]

Well my heart says the Blacks can do it, and we probably have the best team in the world there, but.... We look like we're going to hit the Ozzies in the semis and we haven't beaten them in a World Cup semi yet. If the Blacks have an off day and the Ozzie's play out of their skins, well it might be a 3rd again. :(

[Jakenorrish]

TBell ExpressVu will carry all matches live on satellite, but they want $199.00 for the lot & you can't buy individual games. And that's here in Canada, don't know if you can get it where you are, maybe friends in Buffalo/Niagara can tape them for you? :)

The official Rugby World Cup site - www.rugbyworldcup.com - is doing it for $49.99 for the lot.

I reckon the All Blacks biggest threat is France if you get them later in the tournament. On the big occasion, the French seem to scare the living daylights out of you! The thing is, France are in the group of death with Ireland and Argentina so will have to play well to qualify. The Irish did look poor in their warm up games, my money's on them for a shock exit.

The Scottish will give the All Blacks a sterner test up front this time, but you'll beat them comfortably.

Anyway, one day to go, and I can't wait - its going to be a great tournament!

[mfumbesi]

Sorry guys, but South Africa is winning this one.
We won all our last four test, with some mind numbing scores (SA 105 - Namibia 13).:lol:

[Mellow]

Well, as an Englishman, I'm going to enjoy our last few weeks as reigning World Cup holders. I'd agree with mfumbesi, I think South Africa might nick this one, mainly based upon their ability to defend well against the all blacks.

I think England will do better than expected but worse than hoped!

[Jakenorrish]

Defences win world cups, and as such it looks like New Zealand have the best record in that area at the minute....

[PhantomWolf]

I'd agree with mfumbesi, I think South Africa might nick this one

While I'd never write them off totally, the Springboks don't travel well and didn't play that well against either Oz or us this year. I think they should make the semis, but will probably go down to France there.

[Jakenorrish]

Scotland thumped a decent Ireland team the other week, the Boks brushed Scotland aside the following week without any trouble. They looked strong, sharp and determined. Write the Springboks off at your peril, I reckon France would rather face the All Blacks than the Boks.....

[mfumbesi]

Whats all this talk about the broadcasters refusing to show the games.
Linky:http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/RWC_2007/0,,2-9-2187_2178608,00.html

[Jakenorrish]

That isn't broadcasters refusing to show games. I think that's about the amount of images that TV networks who don't have the rights to broadcast. Basically if a news channel wants to report from one of the matches, your link is talking about how much material they are allowed for nothing.

Anyway, it all starts tonight with France v Argentina (8.00pm British time). Always a great game between those two. My prediction is Argentina for a shock win.

[mfumbesi]

My money is on France.

[Doodler]

That's a very good question. They are screening on a channel called 'ITV1' over here. They are streaming the games live on www.itv.com (http://www.itv.com) but I'm not sure if that would be available to you in the States (or wherever else you may be!). If you go to their site now, the 'watch ITV now' frame is on the right hand side of their homepage. Test it, see if it works and let us know. If it doesn't at least you've got a bit of time to find an alternative.

I'm sure that you'll be able to find an overseas site which is showing them on an unprotected stream.

Only works in the UK...:mad:

[Jakenorrish]

Drat! Never mind, have a search on Google. I found a number of places which are streaming it, there'll be one for sure which works for you. The New Zealand rugby fan sites are a good starting point, one of them is bound to work in the States. once you hunt it down it'll be there for the whole of the tournament.

Failing that there'll be plenty of highlights popping up on Youtube, you'll get radio commentary on www.bbc.co.uk/sport (does work outside the UK).

[Doodler]

Sounds good, I'll sniff one out later. Thank you for that link, though. :)

[Jakenorrish]

My pleasure. I hope that you get to see it. Particularly tonight's game (or this afternoon's game for you I guess!). Its going to be a cracker!

[Jakenorrish]

I pick Argentina to get a shock win over France in the opening game. Think I'm nuts? Well they've beaten France four of the last five times they've met and are the only team to have ever beaten France in Marseille.

My god. I got it right. What a brilliant game of rugby. Argentina put in the best defensive performance I've ever seen. Hope a few of you saw it.

[captain swoop]

It was a terrible game! you are easily impressed!

[Jakenorrish]

It was a terrible game! you are easily impressed!

Not at all! The Argentinian defence was out of this world. It wasn't the flowing high scoring game people expected, but for us rugby purists, it was fabulous. Brilliant that the Argentinians pulled off the first shock in the first game!

[mahesh]

Hi guys and gals!

Spare a thought, kindly, for us cricket fans. The one-day match at Lords is gonna be such an amazing game, whoever wins. It's gonna be difficult to watch on TV for all this other stuff going on concurrently.

I am going to, boldly, ask for cricket channel, and get 'plastered' (as in 'of Paris' ) in my local watering hole! ....kidding!

I am sorry that I do not have an opinion (not an educated one like you folks) on rugby / football matches currently being played.

It will be fantastic though, if today's game at Lords is a tied match!
That really would be out of this world!

Lets all enjoy!

[Jakenorrish]

England seem to be bowling very well at the minute. Enjoy the cricket Mahesh!

Next rugby game New Zealand to beat Italy by 40 points.

[Jakenorrish]

A great comeback from Wales against a very spirited Canadian team. Very impressive.

[mfumbesi]

We came, we say, we thrashed Samoa (South Africa 59 - Samoa 7)

[Jakenorrish]

Yes, a very good performance against a determined team. It seems France are the big losers this weekend. England looked very poor against USA too.

[mfumbesi]

While I'd never write them off totally, the Springboks don't travel well and didn't play that well against either Oz or us this year. I think they should make the semis, but will probably go down to France there.
I couldn't resist ridiculing you since we are in the finals against the English (coincidentally we crashed them 36-0 a few week ago), the Springboks are set to win this one (our worst enemy is ourself at the moment).
The only thing on radio down here is the final.
If we lose this one, there will 40 odd million depressed people.

[Lianachan]

If we lose this one, there will 40 odd million depressed people.
45 million, if you include Scotland :)

[ChromeStar]

While I'd never write them off totally, the Springboks don't travel well and didn't play that well against either Oz or us this year. I think they should make the semis, but will probably go down to France there.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! YES!!!!! THE BOKKE TAKE THE CUP!!!!!!!

Well Done Boys!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okex-dClA_E