[RWC2023] Scotland vs Romania (30/09/2023)

[spursindevon]

This is what the rugby world cup is all about, seeing Romania get absolutely smashed, not buying the "it happens in other sports as well", 2 out of the 3 games today were over before they even started. The gap between the have and have nots is getting bigger and my fear is, if not Australia 2027 but USA 2031, a large number of these games will be played in empty stadiums, with less and less media interest

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Graham is so good to watch.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

This is what the rugby world cup is all about, seeing Romania get absolutely smashed, not buying the "it happens in other sports as well", 2 out of the 3 games today were over before they even started. The gap between the have and have nots is getting bigger and my fear is, if not Australia 2027 but USA 2031, a large number of these games will be played in empty stadiums, with less and less media interest

You are so dull

 

[Al Bangor]

84-0 with 42 points each half.

Well done Scotland.

 

[IT157]

You are so dull

As dull as Scotland beating Romania 84-0.....

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

This is what the rugby world cup is all about, seeing Romania get absolutely smashed, not buying the "it happens in other sports as well", 2 out of the 3 games today were over before they even started. The gap between the have and have nots is getting bigger and my fear is, if not Australia 2027 but USA 2031, a large number of these games will be played in empty stadiums, with less and less media interest

Nah, people love looking at train smashes. Schadenfreude and all that.

 

[OldSchoolRugga]

This does the sport no good.

 

[BPM]

Jim Hamilton is such a ****

You just realised this?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Nah, people love looking at train smashes. Schadenfreude and all that.

Occasional train smashes are fine but we've seen too many. In some of those games the T1 countries haven't even been fielding their strongest teams. Most bar the NZ v Ita result could have been predicted before kick off.

And that's before you even think about the 20+ point wins that would normally be considered a thumping.

Not even like T1 is at an all time high. If not exactly the worst ever, the Eng / Wal / NZ / Aus teams are far from vintage.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

It's not great but your man is just around to post in every thread once a team hits the 40 point mark.

It's just where the sport is, you can't force a team to be good at rugby. WR needs to look at this world cup and focus on countries with potential, Uruguay, Portugal and maybe Chile are the standouts. After that, manage the eligibility rules better, Romania shouldn't have got a sniff at that world cup and while the Spanish union have to take on a bit of blame WR should be looking into the eligibility of players before they get on the pitch. Bin Africa 2 and add it to the repechage as well and all of a sudden the 80 and 90 point scorelines become 50s and 60s.

But honestly, there's only so much WR can do. It's a less popular and far more technically difficult game to learn than soccer, basketball and cricket. Numbers and high quality coaching is needed and very hard to produce.

 

[spursindevon]

It's not great but your man is just around to post in every thread once a team hits the 40 point mark.

It's just where the sport is, you can't force a team to be good at rugby. WR needs to look at this world cup and focus on countries with potential, Uruguay, Portugal and maybe Chile are the standouts. After that, manage the eligibility rules better, Romania shouldn't have got a sniff at that world cup and while the Spanish union have to take on a bit of blame WR should be looking into the eligibility of players before they get on the pitch. Bin Africa 2 and add it to the repechage as well and all of a sudden the 80 and 90 point scorelines become 50s and 60s.

But honestly, there's only so much WR can do. It's a less popular and far more technically difficult game to learn than soccer, basketball and cricket. Numbers and high quality coaching is needed and very hard to produce.

I may be a bore, but I am voicing what people are saying, "I watched the first 20-30 minutes then turned off" and this is people who love their rugby and not occasional viewers. People get frustrated with the progress of Italy, but we have to remember the game is behind not only football, but basketball, handball, volleyball and alpine sports in popularity so it's a long process. The game is not planning organic growth, we binned off the European shield, and thought let's expand the Premiership. Guess what, the Premiership has shrunk and we are now inviting teams binned off previously back to the challenge cup. I want the game to grow, having a world cup that is too big does the game no good

 

[Hankstrom]

It's not great but your man is just around to post in every thread once a team hits the 40 point mark.

It's just where the sport is, you can't force a team to be good at rugby. WR needs to look at this world cup and focus on countries with potential, Uruguay, Portugal and maybe Chile are the standouts. After that, manage the eligibility rules better, Romania shouldn't have got a sniff at that world cup and while the Spanish union have to take on a bit of blame WR should be looking into the eligibility of players before they get on the pitch. Bin Africa 2 and add it to the repechage as well and all of a sudden the 80 and 90 point scorelines become 50s and 60s.

But honestly, there's only so much WR can do. It's a less popular and far more technically difficult game to learn than soccer, basketball and cricket. Numbers and high quality coaching is needed and very hard to produce.

Totally agree with that. Teams like Namibia, Romania are getting smashed okay, but other teams are making key progress and giving their players visibility. Portugal/Georgia was a stunner!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I may be a bore, but I am voicing what people are saying, "I watched the first 20-30 minutes then turned off" and this is people who love their rugby and not occasional viewers. People get frustrated with the progress of Italy, but we have to remember the game is behind not only football, but basketball, handball, volleyball and alpine sports in popularity so it's a long process. The game is not planning organic growth, we binned off the European shield, and thought let's expand the Premiership. Guess what, the Premiership has shrunk and we are now inviting teams binned off previously back to the challenge cup. I want the game to grow, having a world cup that is too big does the game no good

You're not saying anything new is my issue. A team hits 40 points, take the template out.

I don't see many around here championing the 24 team world cup, most realise its way too soon. ERCC are frankly a shameful organisation, they killed rugby in Germany over such a non-issue and have shown minimal effort to build. But that has **** all to do with the world cup.

 

[Which Tyler]

That 10 minute period of pressure on Scotland's line - wonder if Scotland would have been better advised to let Romania score, and use that time to score 2-3 more of their own?

 

[spursindevon]

You're not saying anything new is my issue. A team hits 40 points, take the template out.

I don't see many around here championing the 24 team world cup, most realise its way too soon. ERCC are frankly a shameful organisation, they killed rugby in Germany over such a non-issue and have shown minimal effort to build. But that has **** all to do with the world cup.

I think it does, how will the teams in Europe improve:
1. By being invited to play in an expanded club competition which exposes them to better players
2. By having a four yearly European championship - to start.
Clubs are part of the issue because they are shortsighted, a healthy World Cup will feed down into the club game and vice versa.

Organic growth of the game in the next four years should focus in 3 areas:
1. Europe - as above, get Georgia, Portugal and Spain involved in the European club competition and create a European Championship
2. Pacific - get Japan and Fiji in the rugby championship (as many have advocated), and get a proper super rugby team for Tonga and Samoa.
3. South America - at least one of the six nations A teams to tour Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil every summer (there is massive potential for growth in this area)
This would give the next world cup 12 to 14 competitive teams (they may not all win it, but we want close games where both teams could win in the last 10 minutes)

 

[die_mole]

30-40 point victories happen. If they meant a team doesn't belong in a competition the six nations would need some reshuffling. It's interesting romania qualified through Europe while Portugal had to go through the repechege. Would have been dull to see Spain and romania as the European teams.

Namibia just shouldn't be here. I don't think they'll qualify again anyway as Algeria will continue to have better and better diaspora as the French leagues grow.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think it does, how will the teams in Europe improve:
1. By being invited to play in an expanded club competition which exposes them to better players
2. By having a four yearly European championship - to start.
Clubs are part of the issue because they are shortsighted, a healthy World Cup will feed down into the club game and vice versa.

Organic growth of the game in the next four years should focus in 3 areas:
1. Europe - as above, get Georgia, Portugal and Spain involved in the European club competition and create a European Championship
2. Pacific - get Japan and Fiji in the rugby championship (as many have advocated), and get a proper super rugby team for Tonga and Samoa.
3. South America - at least one of the six nations A teams to tour Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil every summer (there is massive potential for growth in this area)
This would give the next world cup 12 to 14 competitive teams (they may not all win it, but we want close games where both teams could win in the last 10 minutes)

You're attacking the symptom rather than the cause. The Lions is a far bigger obstacle to developing nations than being hammered at the world cup. One is blocking exposure, the other is at least offering it, although not in an optimal way.

You want a European championship, you have to have it in the, you have to take that Lions block back otherwise it'll just be used as a developmental competition that fans won't really buy into. Not much better than that COVID comp that they ran.

I don't think a Euros is very exciting for 6n fans though, a creative and global solution is probably the answer.

 

[die_mole]

I don't know how a euro tournament once every four years is going to help anything. The countries that have made strides have made strides cause they have guys playing competitive rugby every week. We need more nations doing that.

 

[die_mole]

You're not saying anything new is my issue. A team hits 40 points, take the template out.

I don't see many around here championing the 24 team world cup, most realise its way too soon. ERCC are frankly a shameful organisation, they killed rugby in Germany over such a non-issue and have shown minimal effort to build. But that has **** all to do with the world cup.

Germany isn't even in the RESC. That's what that decision did to the sport. Including the super cup teams in the challenge cup would be such a simple thing to do. It would give them a way to benchmark their progress and higher level games every year. I get ERCC is a business but you think they'd want to tap in to new market.

 

[spursindevon]

Germany isn't even in the RESC. That's what that decision did to the sport. Including the super cup teams in the challenge cup would be such a simple thing to do. It would give them a way to benchmark their progress and higher level games every year. I get ERCC is a business but you think they'd want to tap in to new market.

Exactly, the shield competition (working with Rugby Europe) started to do that, but got binned off because the clubs knew better. Now all of a sudden they don't have enough teams have have invited the Georgians back. Imagine if these teams had four years of competition against quality club teams