Australia is in the grip of Rugby World Cup fever. The competition starts Friday night with Australia vs Argentina. There are matches are being played all over Australia with the final being played in Sydney. The are 20 teams competing including USA & Canada.
Tickets for the matches Australia are in are very hard to get. I going to New Zealand vs Italy on Saturday. It will be a pretty one sided game in New Zealand's favour but the All Blacks are always good to watch. I could not get a ticket for the Australia vs Ireland as itsold out very quickly

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/RugbyWorldCup/

Just an FYI, A.B., the Aussie-Argie game wasn't broadcast in America till Monday night.

New Zealand - Italy was a good game, though unevenly matched, it did showcase some good talent. Daniel Carter is going to be a good player.

I'd be interested in what others of the rugby nations think are the good players to watch for in this world cup.

Teams to watch are England, New Zealand, and Australia (maybe France). Players to watch are Jonny Wilkinson (England), Chris Jack (New Zealand), Richie McCaw (New Zealand).

Not true: Rugby World Cup is broadcast live in the US on Setanta, a satellite channel some bars subscribe to. I saw a opening ceremonies and the Oz v. Arg match early Friday. www.setanata.com for locations.

Fox Sports World also has the games on tape delay.

posted October 14, 2003 06:27 AM
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Just an FYI, A.B., the Aussie-Argie game wasn't broadcast in America till Monday night.

USA last night nearly caused the upset of the competition by losing by 1 point against Fiji.
They had a chance of winning the match by missed a kick for goal in the last minute.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.js...&storyid=342060

Most people will read that as U.S. losing to a minor player, but Fiji is a respectable rugby nation. In our office polls, I picked the U.S. losing by a good margin but was very surprised they held their own and came so close to winning. Fiji is not a lightweight. This weekend New Zealand will beat Canada--I'd guess but about 50-point margin. The game to watch is England - South Africa.

Aussie Bomber--have any more players come out since Ian Roberts? If so, what was the reception? And, if you know, what is Roberts up to now?

Go Engerlund!

Question for AB and Tom: I spend time on a board based in England and they talk about the different "codes" of Rugby. There's Union, League and Rules. Is there a website (I Goggled but didn't have much luck) or a brief explanation about the differences between the three? It seems that Union is the pro game, popular in the north of England; League is more the amateur game popular in Wales and Scotland and Rules is a bunch of hunky Aussies beating the snot out of each other. Am I close?

TomFord

No other player has come out since Ian Roberts. Ian is now training to be an Actor. Recently there was a story about him & his boyfriend on 60 minutes.

Jim
Union is the most popular of the rugby games. It was orginally an amateur game. It only turned professional in the last few years. League broke away from the union in the 1920's to become professional.
Australian Rules is a completely different game that is mainly played in Australia.

As for Union and League Rugby I found this site where the question was answered by posting a very informative article. Excerpts concerning the rules:


In summary:
In more detail:
There's also a point-by-point list of other rules comaparisons, inculding the above.

Now I know why it's so hard for an outsider like me to tell the difference. I thought the Union players were just bulkier and the game slower with only miner rule differences. Seems to be the case. But the class difference seems to endure somewhat with some bitterness between advocates. Witness this advocate for Rugby League as the true bearer of the Rgby tradition.

As for Aussie Rules, your summation:
pretty much does it for me. I'd only add that Aussie Rules seems to allow a lot more kicking and throwing (forward and otherwise) and is a lot more exciting to watch - for many reasons. wink

Good summary SportinLife. Aussie Rules is derived in part from Gaelic football. It makes me think of rugby, soccer, basketball-style, all played on a cricket oval.

Also, union was more based in public school sport while league is more working class.

I was told that most U.S. schools play union.

More trivia, a popular sport here is touch rugby which is more related to league than union similar to softball to baseball.

England's Wilkinson has not yet missed a single kick in the cup!

Tom

The pool matches have now been completed. The quater finals start next weekend

New Zealand vs South Africa
Australia vs Scotland
France vs Ireland
England vs Wales

Aussie, I presumed being from Melbourne you didn't follow union much but if you do, who do you pick for this weekend?

I pick
New Zealand in a tight one over S. Africa
Australia easily beating Scotland
France beating Ireland
England dumping Wales

The New Zealand - S. Africa is the game to watch this weekend.

I'm suprised not a word from the U.S. people about the win over Japan or credible performance in second half against France.

[ November 02, 2003, 10:50 PM: Message edited by: Tom Brooks ]

I was on a flight from San Francisco to LAX the first of October with the US World Cup Rugby Team. They were on there way to Austraila. They were the greatest bunch of guys. I talked with one on the short flight. He was very chatty. They play for the fun of it, very assuming. They should have beat Fiji and glad they finally got a win against Japan. It was a long time coming. Did I mention that these guys were hot,hot,hot. O Dios Mio!!!!

MiamiDr, i'm crazy jealous!!

You would think that Rugby's contrasting mixture of an elitist image and blue-collar contact might appeal to us in the USA, but we tend to be squeamish, if not downright Puritan about the kind of public display of male flesh touching that you see routinely in a line out. Before the "modern era" Rugby was quite popular here, the first game being played in 1874. Surprisingly the USA won a world championship as recently as 1924. But the hero of the win against Japan was actually Australian-born.

The historic win

Curt,You ought to be jealous..these guys were incredible. I sat next Mike, who still has his Aussie accent.

Tom

Even though I live in Melbourne I do follow Rugby.
My predictions are
New Zealand over South Africa
Australia over Scotland
Ireland over France (That's more hoping)
England over Wales

It's going to be a big weekend watching Rugby.

Also, I a bit plain today, getting over the Melbourne Cup partying yesterday

Aussie, we both got this week right--though it should have had no surprises.

New Zealand was confused in first half; looked good in second half against S. Africa.

Australia certainly won but didn't look that strong.

Tom

Australia's effort against Scotland was not very impressive. It's going to be very interesting this Saturday. I think the All Blacks are going to give Australia a hiding. I think France are a dark horse & could win the competition.

Heah Aussie, I was going to say that to you. France has people scared now and in the past have pulled these upsets--it was France that upset New Zealand in the last world cup semi-finals.

This weekend I'm saying:
* New Zealand beats Australia because Australia already feels beaten.
* France pull upset to beat England UNLESS France racks up penalties, in which case my man Wilko kicks England to a close win.

I've been saying and wishing all along for a northern-southern hemisphere final with England and New Zealand, but now France steps up the standards.

Tom

What can I say? It was a fantastic win by Australia. New Zealand were never in the game. After be written off before the game, everybody is back on the bandwagon.
It was also a good win by England over France.
So it's the big one on Saturday night Australia vs England. It's going to be great.

Don't worry Tom, the pain will go away in a couple of weeks