[RWC2019][Pool B] Round 2 - France vs. USA (02/10/2019)

[bushytop]

Poor AJ lost the bap in the second half there. Odd watching France turn potential disaster into a routine win.

Extremely!

 

[TheOvalBall]

French just being fashionably late. I expect a bit of haranguing about it but really it'll make no difference at all if/when they play a knockout game.

Please don't spoil my fun

But you are correct.

 

[die_mole]

Alright. Checked my betting slip and I took France -22.5. Gonna need another French truck here.

 

[TheOvalBall]

Much better from France. I'm happy in the end.

 

[Scotty]

So gutted for USA good tier 2 team and stopped france for much of this game. Let some simple ones in but now just look out on their feet. Did want to see them go to the corner not for the 3 before to try to get a try/france YC to give them last 10 min advantage.

 

[bushytop]

Unlucky to the USA but at least you gave a better account of yourselves than the other day against England. Play like that and you 'should' beat Tonga.

 

[Reiser99]

Shame for USA, they gave it a really good go. I think they needed to go for tries, because France always had those scores in them and they were never going to win with penalties alone.

France can barely put together 20 minutes of good play together let alone 80. Most confusing side.

 

[Goodey]

France can barely put together 20 minutes of good play together let alone 80. Most confusing side.

I think the idea that they're unpredictable/confusing is still sort of there because of their weird coaching and selections, but mostly they are just a bit crap. Not being able to put together more than 20 minutes of good rugby isn't something they do inconsistently. They do it a lot.

The whole 'you don't know which France will turn up' comes from the 90s/2000s where France would always be a wild card for world cup knockouts and six nations ***les, but they haven't really come close to being that side since 2011.

 

[D0m3]

Now it's pretty clear that no miracle is happening for this world cup. Still the same french "team" with very little strategy and tactic.
Our only chance will be defence and then wait for individual brillance from dupont or penaud

 

[Ferrari333SP]

Now that the U.S. finally has a stable professional league, that appears to be growing quite well in teams and stature, here's to hoping that in 4 years time at the next RWC, the U.S. can submit a much better team, that hopefully is in the top 10 in the world at that point.

 

[FrenchFan]

Les Bleus have regressed to a 40' proposition. 44' without scoring. Same script as in the Argentina game but against weaker opposition. 8 penalties (13 against Argentina!). They play part-time. When they play. They're the part-timers of test rugby!

This is the result of 4 years of sub-standard coaching and a mickey mouse selection policy.

Credit to the Eagles who fought to stay in the game until the 65th. But on any given day Toulouse or Clermont would clatter them rain or shine.

Les Bleus saving grace is they're still in the easiest pool. In every other pool they'd be packing their bags.

Pool A 3 defeats to Japan Ireland Scotland - 4th place
Pool B 2 defeats to NZ SA - 3rd place
Pool D 3 defeats to Australia Wales Fiji - 4th place

 

[TheOvalBall]

I actually hope the USA bids for and gets the 2027 Rugby World Cup. It would be tremendous for the sport in that country.

 

[die_mole]

so i'm a little disappointed in our decision making. I wish we'd be like our early oughts soccer team and just play super ******* hard no matter what. We need to be the team that goes for the corner instead of kicking goals, we need to believe in our set piece. If we go to corner, we just need to beat France once to get the lead. Going for points meant we had to make the kick and then beat France again from midfield. I just don't think the math would support a team in our situation kicking for points.

I am very happy however that our level of play is clearly much higher than it was four years ago. We ran into a very good England team with something to prove and they really handed it to us. I'm hoping that's going to be our last ever hiding.

 

[Goodey]

Les Bleus have regressed to a 40' proposition. 44' without scoring. Same script as in the Argentina game but against weaker opposition. 8 penalties (13 against Argentina!). They play part-time. When they play. They're the part-timers of test rugby!

This is the result of 4 years of sub-standard coaching and a mickey mouse selection policy.

Credit to the Eagles who fought to stay in the game until the 65th. But on any given day Toulouse or Clermont would clatter them rain or shine.

Les Bleus saving grace is they're still in the easiest pool. In every other pool they'd be packing their bags.

Pool A 3 defeats to Japan Ireland Scotland - 4th place
Pool B 2 defeats to NZ SA - 3rd place
Pool D 3 defeats to Australia Wales Fiji - 4th place

In other pools they would take the place of the 2nd seed, not the minnows.

This is comfortably the hardest pool and I think you know that. It's the only pool where France were in real danger of going home early, with the possible exception of Japan challenging them. They also wouldn't definitely wouldn't lose to Fiji.

 

[Ferrari333SP]

I actually hope the USA bids for and gets the 2027 Rugby World Cup. It would be tremendous for the sport in that country.

I feel like the 2027 RWC the USA could have their "Japan stunner" moment, like Japan is experiencing now, or what they did in 2015, where they've finally broken through and slayed a major Tier 1 nation. With continued growth in the MLR, I could really see it happening

 

[OneBlackEye]

You're not allowed to mention the R word, the Welsh/Kiwis get angry

Haha, are you 2 being ironic?

You know everyone can see your posts complaining about referees all the time right?

Keep slapping each others backs though boys.

 

[FrenchFan]

In other pools they would take the place of the 2nd seed, not the minnows.

This is comfortably the hardest pool and I think you know that. It's the only pool where France were in real danger of going home early, with the possible exception of Japan challenging them. They also wouldn't definitely wouldn't lose to Fiji.

Yes the seeding protects them. But hypothetically if they had to qualify out of each of the other 3 pools they wouldn't.
They lost at home to Fiji last year. Japan beat Ireland they would easily account for the Brunel brigade. They carried the same lack of shape, game plan and leadership from the last 6N into yesterday's game. England will quite easily take the pool.

 

[FrenchFan]

France win by surviving onslaughts with cynical play and we refuse to take chances. Kicking away possession too many times and afraid to run at them inside their 22.

Ben O'Keeffe should have shown yellow. Les Bleus escaped yellow in each of their game after multiple warnings for repeated offside. I don't know why refs at the WC are shy in showing cards. The downside of it is that teams know they're going to get away with infringing. So they keep infringing anyway.

 

[Brigantine]

Don't be a Pussy, go for the corner.

Story of this game, right there.

That, and kicks for territory going straight to defenders all the time.

Les Bleus saving grace is they're still in the easiest pool. In every other pool they'd be packing their bags.

Pool A 3 defeats to Japan Ireland Scotland - 4th place
Pool B 2 defeats to NZ SA - 3rd place
Pool D 3 defeats to Australia Wales Fiji - 4th place

By that logic, Pool C 3 defeats to England France Argentina - 4th place

 

[Al Bangor]

It wasn't as bad as the thumping England gave us, but it was still an underwhelming performance by the USA. France's lead was never in doubt.