The Greatest Test Matches Ever?
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@Catogrande said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@Victor-Meldrew said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@MajorRage said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
Sat with a fantastic group of English rugby guys who represented every single thing that is good about England rugby.
Great to hear.
Had some bad experiences at Twickenham in the mid-late 2000's, but the RFU seem to have stopped the neanderthals and the atmos and behavior of the England suppers when i went last year was tremendous.
I've been to Twickenham many times and to be honest I've never seen much in the way of antagonism - from home or away fans, this is also true of the Principality Stadium. The issues I have with Twickenham are all to do with the money grubbing bastards that run it.
Have had 2 bad experiences. Once was a bunch of twats abusing the ref and the opposition like a soccer crowd and the other was in the late 2000's where a bunch of people were shouting racist abuse at Pasifika AB's. To balance that, the IRB Sevens at Twickehman have been bloody brilliant
All credit to the RFU for coming down hard on the loons who were starting to give it a bad reputation. They've done a great job
Yeah, MS is great and being almost in the middle of Cardiff, the craic in the bars is awesome. Best rugby stadium I've been to.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@Catogrande said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@Victor-Meldrew said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@MajorRage said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
Sat with a fantastic group of English rugby guys who represented every single thing that is good about England rugby.
Great to hear.
Had some bad experiences at Twickenham in the mid-late 2000's, but the RFU seem to have stopped the neanderthals and the atmos and behavior of the England suppers when i went last year was tremendous.
I've been to Twickenham many times and to be honest I've never seen much in the way of antagonism - from home or away fans, this is also true of the Principality Stadium. The issues I have with Twickenham are all to do with the money grubbing bastards that run it.
Have had 2 bad experiences. Once was a bunch of twats abusing the ref and the opposition like a soccer crowd and the other was in the late 2000's where a bunch of people were shouting racist abuse at Pasifika AB's. To balance that, the IRB Sevens at Twickehman have been bloody brilliant
All credit to the RFU for coming down hard on the loons who were starting to give it a bad reputation. They've done a great job
Yeah, MS is great and being almost in the middle of Cardiff, the craic in the bars is awesome. Best rugby stadium I've been to.
Was there last year to watch England chuck it away. The atmosphere was amazing and really good natured. The City afterwards was a thing to behold. I lost count of the number of pissed up Welshmen, stripped to the waist in the rain chanting Waaaales, Waaaales. Still all good though.
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I have had similar experience. Crowd always pretty good.
I do love it in Cardiff, when the roof is closed and the crowd is singing its magic.
Naturally a load of NZ centric suggestions above (which is no suprise to be fair as I am the same) curious if there are any that are so epic from other countries they stick out for you?
Been nice having my memory triggered on some epic matches.
I recall in the early 2000s South Africa coming to Twickenham an getting pumped. From memory they tried to go "thug mode" and it all.just went wrong.
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@Davesofthunder Well. It's usually the games that your team has won that stand out as "the greatest" and it is sometimes difficult to separate the tension and emotion away from the actual rugby being played. All my "greatest" test matches are when England have won. Either by playing bloody well or overcoming expectations. V wales in 1998 with Alan Bateman starting off like a train but England turning it round to hammer the Welsh. England v NZ at twickenham in 2012 and again in the RWC last year. All stand outs. But I guess the true test is looking at a game when you don't have a dog in the fight and that match NZ v Aus in the rain in about 1999 was pretty epic. The skills on display that day were brilliant.
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Gibbes scoring for Wales late to deny England the slam and I think the championship for some reason sticks in my mind.
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@Damo that was the one we came back from a decent deficit wasnt it?
I didnt watch live, and we were heading back to Whangarei from a 21st in Auckland and managed to avoid any results, we said we were leaving to go home and watch it, and my mates dad said 'you will be happy'
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@taniwharugby hate that. Just say nothing. Not a grunt. Not a smirk. Nothing.
Anyway @Damo was that the one with Frank Bunce's try? That one flashed into my memory this morning.
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@taniwharugby said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@Damo that was the one we came back from a decent deficit wasnt it?
I didnt watch live, and we were heading back to Whangarei from a 21st in Auckland and managed to avoid any results, we said we were leaving to go home and watch it, and my mates dad said 'you will be happy'
I can beat that story.
I was on a student exchange in Argentina. We didn't have the rugby at my house. My dad sent me the tapes of the games and I watched them without knowing the score. I saw that game about 3 months after it was played. No worries because I didn't know the score.
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@booboo said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@taniwharugby hate that. Just say nothing. Not a grunt. Not a smirk. Nothing.
Anyway @Damo was that the one with Frank Bunce's try? That one flashed into my memory this morning.
Yeah, Bunce got a couple of good tries in that game, one memorable one. It was a cracker of a game.
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@Damo said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
1997 v Boks at Ellis Park. Great game. Underrated and underappreciated.
Those two tries by Frank Bunce (end of video below). Something else. He wasn't the biggest or the quickest Centre but he was outstanding at seeing the gap in the defence and keeping going.
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@sparky they hang off him expecting him to pass. And he doesn't!
Loved it. When they had htat try on a sky sport commercial in 97 we used to fire up in the flat and yell at him to keep going. Keep going Buncy, don't pass it,a nd then go nuts when he scored.
I feel old, but it was awesome
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@sparky said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
@Damo said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
1997 v Boks at Ellis Park. Great game. Underrated and underappreciated.
Those two tries by Frank Bunce (end of video below). Something else. He wasn't the biggest or the quickest Centre but he was outstanding at seeing the gap in the defence and keeping going.
Don't you EVER denigrate the great man. Frank Bunce is the greatest centre in rugby history.
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@mariner4life Not criticising him but praising him.
Never seen a Rugby player do more with his natural athletic ability than Frank Bunce 1993-1997. Not even Richie McCaw.
Frank Bunce in the mid 1990s was off the scale in terms of nous, calmness, speed of thought and determination. Voodoo is right about his defence too. Won test after test for the ABs. A total team man and super humble with a wicked sense of humour to boot. Legend. One of my favourite ever All Blacks.
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@voodoo said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
Hold the ball in 2 hands.
Still seems like valid advice for a modern day centreThe best AB no. 13's this old bugger has seen are Bruce Robertson, Conrad Smith And Frank Bunce. They all held the ball it two hands and bewitched the opposition with it. None of them had any real weaknesses.
But Frank Bunce was the best of the lot
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@mariner4life said in The Greatest Test Matches Ever?:
Gibbes scoring for Wales late to deny England the slam and I think the championship for some reason sticks in my mind.
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ABs v Wales RWC 2003
Still a knock-on at 5.26 and forward pass from Marshall.
