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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@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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@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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@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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@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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@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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@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.
