RWC SF: England v Springboks
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A bit scathing from the Guardian
There’s about an hour on the clock at the Stade de France, and the World Cup semi-final has gone missing. I mean this quite literally. The World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa is, simply put, not there. What the 80,000 people in the stadium are staring at in the meantime through the sheeting rain is not immediately clear. A mass of amorphous wet shapes. Lots of big men scrabbling around on the ground and then very slowly standing up again. Medics and support staff trotting on to the pitch and then trotting off. Lots of talking. Lots of substitutions.
The ball itself hasn’t been seen since about the 35th minute. This is sport as a kind of dark matter, an anti-spectacle, a curious ontological experiment into whether a game of rugby can exist if no actual rugby is being played.
If this is a practical joke on the part of Steve Borthwick and his England team, then it’s an excellent one. And perhaps the logical end point of what they’ve been trying to do for the last few weeks: a game that has been stripped back, and stripped back some more, until it physically disappears. This may well have been the first World Cup game with a negative ball‑in‑play time.
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I thought it was obvious in real time too. I was certain they would check and disallow the try
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@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
@Duluth @Dodge if it was so obvious, how could the ref, his ARs and the TMO miss it?
He did stand up. Do they believe he wasn’t held perhaps? Or did they just not think it was a penalty offence?
I have no idea.
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I'd want to see the rest of that image. Yes he's down then vunipola flings him over to try and turn him the wrong way (no immediate release by tackler). I just don't think the view I got from the far side of the field was that obvious.
What I mean is is see him up a bit but never his feet on the ground. Once again not saying it didn't happen but next time you see his feet they're off the ground, vuniploa still has hold of him -so dunno
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@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
@Duluth @Dodge if it was so obvious, how could the ref, his ARs and the TMO miss it?
He did stand up. Do they believe he wasn’t held perhaps? Or did they just not think it was a penalty offence?
I have no idea.
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I thought it was obvious in real time too. I was certain they would check and disallow the try
@Duluth said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
I thought it was obvious in real time too. I was certain they would check and disallow the try
Honestly me too live. But TMO checks every try and if there was an issue they'd have alerted the ref. Which makes me think we need to see the completed movement from that angle.
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I cannot work out what you’re arguing with. He’s tackled, held in the tackle and stands up. Nothing else is relevant
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@Dodge said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
I cannot work out what you’re arguing with. He’s tackled, held in the tackle and stands up. Nothing else is relevant
Does he?
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Peak Walrus. Comedy gold! England have made 4 finals. This wouldn’t rank in the top 10 England performances for me.
@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
Peak Walrus. Comedy gold! England have made 4 finals. This wouldn’t rank in the top 10 England performances for me.
played like the true England
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@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
Peak Walrus. Comedy gold! England have made 4 finals. This wouldn’t rank in the top 10 England performances for me.
played like the true England
@antipodean said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
Peak Walrus. Comedy gold! England have made 4 finals. This wouldn’t rank in the top 10 England performances for me.
played like the true England
Well done Walrus, I can’t ( and wouldn’t anyway ) read the rest but it looks like you’ve managed to surpass yesterday’s tweet for sheer sour, whiny, wankiness.
“Undeservedly won”…..what a cock. Like clockwork any sympathy I have for England is quickly eroded thanks to shit like this.
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@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
Peak Walrus. Comedy gold! England have made 4 finals. This wouldn’t rank in the top 10 England performances for me.
played like the true England
@antipodean said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
@stodders said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
played like the true England
Nothing to be proud of.
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Thoughts on the deciding penalty? Aerial view looked like the green shirt angling in a lot more than white?
@mariner4life said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
Thoughts on the deciding penalty? Aerial view looked like the green shirt angling in a lot more than white?
From where we sat Koch when in and up. Someone like Barnes might have penalised for not pushing straight.
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The old loose forward in me fucking loved that. Just a dirty shitfight
The English back row were so fucking good. In fact England won everything except....
The 2nd half scrums. And it killed them. Everything south africa either fashioned, or used to get themselves out of trouble, was off a scrum penalty. And that brought England back and rammed home their inability to turn pressure in to points.
Both teams could and probably should have just picked two extra loose forwards to play in th3 midfield for all they did. Game completely bypassed them.
Hard to call it a deserved victory, but in a game like that you just need to find a way to be in front at the end. South Africa found the scrum.
Seeing as they lost by one, I guess the loss can be put down to Farrell getting marched 10 for mouth. Lol.
@mariner4life said in RWC SF: England v Springboks:
The old loose forward in me fucking loved that. Just a dirty shitfight
I love that, I feel the same way. I used to love wet days, everyone slowed down to my pace.
