How much wetter is it today vs yesterday, because this is some of the most ambitionless rugby i've ever had the misfortune of watching.
England didn't play this negatively 4 years ago; and South Africa didn't play this negatively last week. Hence i'm wondering how much wetter it is.
First time I see the English playing. Are they always playing this football-wrestling luke warm vomit?
Awwww were there not enough adverts for the poor wittle amewican? Or maybe you'd like them to have crash helmets and padding like a special needs kid at a park lol
Watching rugby for the first time this year, I genuinly like how it is shot with pristine picture and a real feel of both speed and intensity. This game was aweful for 60 minutes though
Head: Boks by 20.
Heart: Boks by 1.
Arse: 399 - 170
Edit: LOL even a stopped clock...
Were SA on the piss last night? Some shocking decisions. Blind side on that line out the pits
England. You're on a game a plan, and you're up for it. A master class at being an even bigger shit houser than SA with how slow this game is
Dumbass hypothesis: they're all in the same boat as Heinrich Klaasen - never fully recovered from covid and their recovery time from last weekend's exertions is longer than expected.
I think the medical staff wouldn't let him come back out to field. And who could argue after that effort?
Ah shit. Just realised I forgot today! Been travelling, weather shit, father about...
Thank you @Fridge@lemmy.one
England playing some great attritional stuff
Great game for drama, but that was really some pretty terrible rugby all round, with the occasional flash.
England playing ten man rugby, as they’ve largely done throughout with the exception of drubbings against the minnows. Given the turmoil in the set up over the last year,and the conditions on the night you can’t hold that against them but it doesn’t make for a great spectacle from a neutral point of view (drama aside, obvs).
South Africa were clearly hungover after last week. It was telling how the game shifted with the subs later on. I’m sure a lot of the discourse around that will be around the depth of the Saffa squad, but it looked to me more like a knackered starting fifteen playing a relatively fresh one. Ox and Kwagga the point of difference for the second week in a row imo.
Suspect the ABs win number four next week, but that way this tournament is going it’ll probably be England with a chair off the top rope.
My heart is going for the ABs of course, but I'll be waiting to see the referee appointment & the weather forecast before making a pick with my head.
I think South Africa are favourites for now, and everybody thinks that the game is going to be really close. I'd say there's just as much chance that the game could be quite decisive one way or the other, as it going right down to the wire again. It really comes down to whether one team can dictate the way the game is played for a long time or not, and that's influenced a lot by the officials and whether its wet or dry.
NZ has probably played their best 15 for more minutes than SA, but SA has probably had to play more minutes at a higher intensity for longer with tough games against Ireland, Scotland, France, England, then a final. NZ really had one tough match against France, then reasonably manageable intensity until Ireland, and then a step down - but still enough to keep the edge honed against Argentina.
French crowd is cheering for England way more than I thought they would, even w RSA as reason for their exit.
I have some (English) friends there and they've been pleasantly surprised by the support from the normally anyone-but-England crowd:
french fans are whistling every time Sa are on screen
true story a welshman came up to me in a bar, a wales tattoo on his forearm and said - I cannot believe I am saying this but i hope England win good luck boys.
The French love to boo. It’s all pantomime, but it’s the same in pretty much every sport. Heck, even the fancy pants Rolland Garros crowd will cheer/jeer based on basically the following order:
Locals
Underdogs
Pantomime villains based on a historic sleight that nobody even really remembers anymore.
Based on the above, I don’t find it strange that England were the fan favourites for the local crowd.
I know Pollard kicked the winning points, but I feel like the biggest impact players were Ox and Kwagga again
Kudos to England bucking the expectations! You know the Boks are going to be fired up in the second half. Expecting England to try and play it safe.
England is playing football at best, wrestling most of the time. No hand pass, no try, nothing. A boring game
Hand pass in wet nono. Kick good make mistake opposite. Kick point. Still lose by 1 though...Bokke!
On a side note, what is it with teams spending 70 minutes kicking the ball to Freddie Steward and expecting to get anything from it?
What a final few minutes at least! Go Bokkes, I reckon NZ will tear you apart and the France, Ireland and Scotland games took too much out of yous though. Time will tell!
It's a shitty game. Springboks were real devels against France and now they run like my Granny. English team had regional level games all the way to the semifinals and now they are fresh like a morning catch.
Makes you wonder if these special world cup balls have worse wet weather performance than normal eh.