World Cup Final match thread

Bovidae

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="red terror" data-cid="538139" data-time="1446413217">
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I watched the match live with Brit commentary. Then the replay in Spanish. Later I watched the highlight packages with Nisbo and Meg, and have to say Meg sounded like the least impartial colour announcer ever. He didn't sound like a professional commentator, on those highlights he sounded more like a porn star having orgasms.
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Marshall has really made an effort to be impartial this year when commentating AB games, often taking the contrary view of the other commentators. But in the final the Mataura bogan got the better of him and he became a supporter like the rest of us. I'm sure we can forgive him. :mocking:

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="OzKiwi" data-cid="538136" data-time="1446412894">
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With all the talk of the 'pool of death', I reckon the AB's had a far harder path to win the World Cup than what the aussies did. 
The aussies had England, Wales, Scotland and Argentina on their way to a thumping in the final. 
The AB's had to beat each of the other semi-finalist to win the World Cup. Much harder track in my view.
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You're probably alone in thinking that.

Victor Meldrew

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="jegga" data-cid="538119" data-time="1446409050">
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This is the paper that's been printing the manatees cheap shots for 20 years or so right?
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That's the Sunday Times.
 
TBF, The other writers on the Sunday Times - Stuart Barnes, Fitzy, Lynagh & David Walsh are pretty reasonable

ACT Crusader

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Bovidae" data-cid="538128" data-time="1446410659">Enough for Messam to join Mils Muliaina as the only player to have won the full set of rugby medals/titles on offer:<ul class="bbc"><li>RWC winner</li><li>Super Rugby title</li><li>NPC title</li><li>Ranfurly Shield winner</li><li>Commonwealth Games Sevens Gold medal</li></ul>
And an Olympic Games Sevens gold medal is also a possibility. Not bad.</blockquote>
 
The greatest water boy in the history of international rugby......

ACT Crusader

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tordah" data-cid="538147" data-time="1446414841">Whitelock lucky when he (probably deliberately) tripped Mitchell as he dropped the ball for the Barrett try, very sneaky.</blockquote>
 
You know I've seen this mentioned a few times so had to go and watch it 3-4 times to see what people were on about. 
What a beat up. Whitelock makes a tackle and there is a collision of bodies. There was no ruck but just Mitchell falling over Sam. Nothing more to it.

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Bovidae" data-cid="538128" data-time="1446410659">
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Enough for Messam to join Mils Muliaina as the only player to have won the full set of rugby medals/titles on offer:
<ul><li>RWC winner</li>
<li>Super Rugby title</li>
<li>NPC title</li>
<li>Ranfurly Shield winner</li>
<li>Commonwealth Games Sevens Gold medal</li>
</ul>And an Olympic Games Sevens gold medal is also a possibility. Not bad.
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Needs to stick around for a sevens world cup.

kiwiinmelb

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="538140" data-time="1446413486">
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Do people not understand the concept of the 'pool of death'?
 
Even if we lost to Argentina, we were still through provided we were able to take care of the mighty Namibia, Georgia and Tonga. This gave us the luxury of cruising through pool play, so we only have to be mentally 'up' for 3 games.
 
Wallabies, England and Wales had to be 'up' from the get go or risk not leaving their pool.
 
That is a tougher road to the final then what the All Blacks had.
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Ted actually said before the tournament , he would prefer Australias draw than NZs , 
 
To come into the finals battle hardened , with 2 relatively easy finals, he thought would be better than an easy pool ,and then with what seemed like 2 more difficult finals in France and SA when you could be underdone .

dejo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="kiwiinmelb" data-cid="538163" data-time="1446416318">
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Ted actually said before the tournament , he would prefer Australias draw than NZs , 
 
To come into the finals battle hardened , with 2 relatively easy finals, he thought would be better than an easy pool ,and then with what seemed like 2 more difficult finals in France and SA when you could be underdone . 
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I can see the logic of that if you're coming at it from Ted's flawed strategy of smoking it up in the pools and expending vital physical and mental energy + telegraphing our gameplan for the world to see!
 
I thought Pocock looked exhausted yesterday.

Sambo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ACT Crusader" data-cid="538159" data-time="1446415671">
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You know I've seen this mentioned a few times so had to go and watch it 3-4 times to see what people were on about. 
What a beat up. Whitelock makes a tackle and there is a collision of bodies. There was no ruck but just Mitchell falling over Sam. Nothing more to it.
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too funny. First time i've heard this. Just looked at. How can anyone say that was a deliberate trip.....

rotated

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="kiwiinmelb" data-cid="538163" data-time="1446416318">
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Ted actually said before the tournament , he would prefer Australias draw than NZs , 
 
To come into the finals battle hardened , with 2 relatively easy finals, he thought would be better than an easy pool ,and then with what seemed like 2 more difficult finals in France and SA when you could be underdone . 
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The ironic thing is showing up battle hardened probably wasn't a prerequisite to play Scotland in the quarter final.
 
Contrary to the prevailing narrative Australia did not need to get up for the Wales game, England were gone, they chose to expend their energy on that. Why would they do such a thing? They wanted to avoid our side of the draw - the tougher side of the draw.
 
I agree with Ted's assessment at the beginning of the tournament. Australia's draw was ideal - if you can't win 1/2 games against tier 1 nations to qualify your team isn't much chop anyway. The reward of a possible quarter final against the worlds #10 ranked side is incentive enough.

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Sambo" data-cid="538166" data-time="1446416764">
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too funny. First time i've heard this. Just looked at. How can anyone say that was a deliberate trip.....
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His leg seems to move up a little, but he's in the act of making a tackle while hitting the ground. You'd be a good lawyer to make that work. I don't think Mitchell should have been back out there after his concussion test. He dropped a couple late and didn't quite pick the right line.
 
 
 
 
:lol: I am thoroughly amused how a few people here, after seeing the draw and wondering if Australia would even get out of the pool, are now saying we had it easy.
 
Hindsight fucking genius aplenty here. :lol:
 
 
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="No Quarter" data-cid="538140" data-time="1446413486">
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Do people not understand the concept of the 'pool of death'?
 
Even if we lost to Argentina, we were still through provided we were able to take care of the mighty Namibia, Georgia and Tonga. This gave us the luxury of cruising through pool play, so we only have to be mentally 'up' for 3 games.
 
Wallabies, England and Wales had to be 'up' from the get go or risk not leaving their pool.
 
That is a tougher road to the final then what the All Blacks had.
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To be fair NQ, do you not understand that people like OzKiwi are unlikely to give Australia or Australians any credit for anything? :)
 
 
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="538051" data-time="1446374582">
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Seriously Nick? Kaino had one head high, and Kepu had at least 4 dodgy acts. I feel a bit sorry for Kepu, he's usually a clean player but was obviously instructed or thought he needed to be the enforcer for the Wallabies and through share dumb luck he managed to not get binned.
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Read my response to Kirwan and come back to me. This isn't about comparisons or who got what - its about looking at refereeing decisions and consistency.
 
 
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="OzKiwi" data-cid="538055" data-time="1446375308">
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Through the refs mic (sports ears) it was Owens who referred it to the TMO to check that incident, whilst play continued. By time the TMO had reviewed it, Owens told him 'advantage over anyway' as play had progressed on. 
Next question.
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Wow. I heard the exact same thing on the TV. And described those very events in the post of mine that you quoted. Technology, eh? Will wonders never cease. ;)
 
My point was, its the first time I've seen at this RWC where they're identified an incident that is potential foul play on the run, and haven't gone back to look at it. There are some incidents that were missed completely by the ref and ARs that the TMO picked up, and they went back several phases for a neck roll or something similar.
 
I also can't remember the last time that advantage inside 40 metres - right in front - was given up a mere 15 metres later out against the sideline. There was a very minor territorial advantage, and no tactical advantage when judged against 3 points or a kick for touch on our throw (not that our lineout was an advantage for us). For an act of foul play, let's not forget, that wasn't actually dealt with by the officials.
 
Do you disagree with any of that?
 
 
This is part of the broader discussion about the role of the TMO as well.
 
We saw at the start of the RWC incidents like Peyper seeing the Fiji knock-on on the big screen after awarding it and reversing his decision. There was general head scratching and a bit of concern, particularly with the perception about home-town broadcasters.
 
For the consistent application of this sort of TMO setup, they need to set certain minimums. In the fishbowl of RWC they can guarantee the quality of the equipment they're using including the split-screen hawkeye thing for TMOs, and a required number of cameras and experienced operators at each game. However, is this the new standard? Pretty sure SANZAR and 6N are going to be able to handle that, but what about other nations like the PI or Georgia etc.
 
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In cricket, India refuse to use full DRS because of the quality of equipment cannot be guaranteed globally, as an example.

cyclopath

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Sambo" data-cid="538166" data-time="1446416764">
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too funny. First time i've heard this. Just looked at. How can anyone say that was a deliberate trip.....
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Really? Who did? In real time I thought Mitchell just slipped.
People need to let it go.

Bovidae

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ACT Crusader" data-cid="538156" data-time="1446415399">
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The greatest water boy in the history of international rugby......
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Messam has obviously got an endless supply of jokes to tell DC, unlike McCaw.
 
In all seriousness Messam was unlucky with the timing of his injury as he was meant to play vs Namibia and then wasn't available until the last pool game vs Tonga. Once Hansen decided to go with Cane and another loose forward in the reserves that was always going to be Vito with his greater height in the lineout. Hansen had a plan for the tournament, for example, Mealamu never started a game and only played a maximum of 20 mins off the bench.

Ben

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Sambo" data-cid="538166" data-time="1446416764">
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too funny. First time i've heard this. Just looked at. How can anyone say that was a deliberate trip.....
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It looked that way to me. Didn't look natural at all but Mitchell had knocked on by then so nothing doing.

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tordah" data-cid="538147" data-time="1446414841">
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In the subsequent scrum, the whole Wallabies back five disintegrated and became unbound, but no penalty advantage was played, which I thought was very weird, though it would have been advantage over, as NMS made quite a few metres before the Beale intercept.
 
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There were a couple of other scrums that went down, but I think Owens just wanted to get on with the game and called the side with the ball to use it.

Ben

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="538176" data-time="1446418380">
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There were a couple of other scrums that went down, but I think Owens just wanted to get on with the game and called the side with the ball to use it.
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You guys didn't get the rub of the green from the officials. Probably not game changing but I'd still find it fucking annoying if it was my side.
 
You've shown remarkably good grace. As did Noddy Lynagh on the box here in the UK. Commendable.

sparky

Nehe Milner-Skudder was named Breakthrough Player of the Year at the World Rugby awards.

Nepia

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Ben" data-cid="538178" data-time="1446418590">
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You guys didn't get the rub of the green from the officials. Probably not game changing but I'd still find it fucking annoying if it was my side.
 
You've shown remarkably good grace. As did Noddy Lynagh on the box here in the UK. Commendable. 
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While I think that the Oz fans on here have shown good grace I can't agree that they didn't get the rub of the green from the officials. The very fact that Kepu remained on the field for the whole game suggests they were getting a rub.

LagerLout

I had a funny feeling about that Kuridrani try so watched the Sky back on slo mo. Sure enough Foley is ahead of the kicker when Genia punts the ball forward. Not much in it, but Owens should have reviewed it. 
 
Lots of what if's on both sides.

canefan

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="LagerLout" data-cid="538186" data-time="1446419499">
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I had a funny feeling about that Kuridrani try so watched the Sky back on slo mo. Sure enough Foley is ahead of the kicker when Genia punts the ball forward. Not much in it, but Owens should have reviewed it. 
 
Lots of what if's on both sides. 
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They were in front of the kicker on the first kickoff and at least one other time as well. Problem was that Foley overkicked those restarts so the forwards couldn't take advantage

The Silver Fern

World Cup Final match thread