Rugby Union -All Blacks game, Were England Robbed?

[Harryflashman]

I thought it was a brilliant win by Ireland and they’ve cemented their position as a top class side . I topped off a great days rugby , I really enjoyed the Scotland South Africa game .

I think it at least indicates we’re going to have a competitive World Cup with a a real chance of northern hemisphere teams being in the mix .

 

[toffeejack]

Although i agree, Ireland do indeed have a chance of unseating New Zealand, although home advantage is absolutely massive in Union, and at this moment must be rated second in the world, it would have been perhaps even more remarkable for a very much weakened and scratch England team without the services of up to sixteen players, to have pulled off a similar victory.

The fact they almost managed it and, almost entirely due to the heavy number of withdrawals and players injured, New Zealand had gone in as 1/5 favourites, made it all the more galling for the All Blacks.

New Zealand had just barely scraped to a very fortuitous victory over a massively weakened opposition, and even that thanks to a last gasp TMO decision chalking off an England try, and now have followed that up with a perhaps more expected defeat, but their prospects going forward do look far bleaker than might have been supposed before these Autumn tests.

and losing to SA recently as well, with a last gasp win in another game vs the boks. It wasn't a knock at england, just thought it was a tad disrespectful to ireland who have show a lot more to be ranked as 2nd best than england have. Obviously the last time they played all the black in a double header they beat them without home advantage too, even though neither had home advantage.

Right now though, there's no real clear favourites for the world cup, which is brilliant.

 

[toffeejack]

I thought it was a brilliant win by Ireland and they’ve cemented their position as a top class side . I topped off a great days rugby , I really enjoyed the Scotland South Africa game .

I think it at least indicates we’re going to have a competitive World Cup with a a real chance of northern hemisphere teams being in the mix .

definitely, wales beating australia, scotland just falling short again, they do have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot here and just can't make that step up. In my opinion they try to be a tad too brave instead of playing the situation. I mean, they had a pen to draw level and they decided to go for the corner. Hogg tried a really ambitious long throw out wide inside their own 22, then a minute later SA are turning the ball over and scoring a try. Then there's also that laughable sin bin for SA where scotland lost 3-0 in those 10 mins. They had chances to make a real statement, but they do have that attendance to do that often.

and with ireland beating NZ and winning in aus, there does seem to be the closest gap between south and north that i can remember. That's why wales v SA will be so intriguing.

 

[Harryflashman]

definitely, wales beating australia, scotland just falling short again, they do have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot here and just can't make that step up. In my opinion they try to be a tad too brave instead of playing the situation. I mean, they had a pen to draw level and they decided to go for the corner. Hogg tried a really ambitious long throw out wide inside their own 22, then a minute later SA are turning the ball over and scoring a try. Then there's also that laughable sin bin for SA where scotland lost 3-0 in those 10 mins. They had chances to make a real statement, but they do have that attendance to do that often.

and with ireland beating NZ and winning in aus, there does seem to be the closest gap between south and north that i can remember. That's why wales v SA will be so intriguing.

That penalty decision seemed mad to me ,I couldn’t believe it personally

 

[Chris O'Connor]

and losing to SA recently as well, with a last gasp win in another game vs the boks. It wasn't a knock at england, just thought it was a tad disrespectful to ireland who have show a lot more to be ranked as 2nd best than england have. Obviously the last time they played all the black in a double header they beat them without home advantage too, even though neither had home advantage.

Right now though, there's no real clear favourites for the world cup, which is brilliant.

Yes I agree, although tbf I think Guscott, if it was indeed him, may have been taken aback that such an understrength England would have beaten the number one ranked team in the world but for a very contentious and perhaps wrongly disallowed try.

It's easy to see that England would normally have been far stronger especially in the forwards and it was possibly an immediate reaction in the afterglow of the event rather than a considered one.

I think In the back to back series referred to, Ireland won in Chicago although New Zealand won relatively comfortably in the next one in Dublin. They did lose to RSA in the rugby championship recently but did get their revenge at home and ended up winning the southern hemisphere championship once again.