2015 Rugby World Cup **Potential spoilers**

[AndyRM]

No, i'm not right. Great! It's live on ITV.

Yup. All games on ITV or one of the variants. Looking forward to the tournament immensely.

Bit miffed that Scotland's first game is a Wednesday afternoon though.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Oh dear, England have just ensured that New Zealand will be detemined to utterly crush them (if they don't get crushed by any of the other Pacific nations who have similar hakas):

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

 

[Bollo]

"Swing Low" is the new Vuvuzela.

 

[Billy Wizz]

England in all red,...

It don't look right.

 

[swee'pea99]

Too much sloppiness, too many turnovers, and the lack of conviction in the scrum was ominous, thinking of some of the opposition to come, but having said that, they held their nerve well under serious sustained pressure from a proper team, kept their powder dry, and seized their opportunities against tiring opposition. Not a classic performance, but they ground out a result against tough competitors, which is what winning teams do. Have to say I felt for Fiji when their first 'try' was ruled out - it was a cracker! What's next?!

 

[Aperitif]

Lots of TMO action...'He who Peyper calls plays the tune etc'. For a first game, it was an impressive display by the camera crews who seem to have everything covered. There will be a beautiful film that comes from all this 'footage' I'm sure. It also puts ALL players and officials on alert from the outset. Any stray finger, boot, fist or jersey pull etc will probably be picked up and sanction applied. Are you watching, FIFA? "F.A. to do with us" they replied... And what an atmosphere! With the genial John Inverdale in charge, I liked Jonny Dropp's insightful comments too. Woodward..Hmmm...didn't appreciate him so much. Roll on today's matches!

Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

 

[Deleted member 1258]

It was a bit of a scruffy performance but I enjoyed it, perhaps now the first ones out the way they'll settle down a bit, I think they need to clarify the use of the TMO a bit better, refer to the TMO before awarding the try not after.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Was going to watch it.

First few scenes I caught were long distance zooms of a married couple I vaguely recognise and some ginger bloke. Then every now and then the camera (director) would cut to them in the crowd for some inexplicable reason.

Then the teams came on and sang their respective anthems.

The Fijian team then started to perform their 'Cibi' -Great I thought - really looking forward to this, adds a certain panache to the whole game.

Oh no. Thousands of frankly pig ignorant England 'fans' chanted 'Swing Low' effectively drowning out the 15 Fijians.

I then switched off and watched changing rooms and location, location. location instead.

 

[AndyRM]

It was a bit of a scruffy performance but I enjoyed it, perhaps now the first ones out the way they'll settle down a bit, I think they need to clarify the use of the TMO a bit better, refer to the TMO before awarding the try not after.

Agree with all of that.

Mike Brown is some player. I think he'll be vital if England are to have any success.

 

[AndyRM]

You been drinking?

Ireland's not a bad shout.

But suggesting NZ are duff is stretching it. They've only lost 3 games since winning the thing!

 

[Billy Wizz]

The winner of Pool A, will be hammered and up for it..

I have never been a gambler..
a believer...

 

[psmiffy]

I thought England played well in parts – however they seemed to be a little ponderous – the forwards continuing with moves/ploys for too long allowing the Fijians to get organised – they also didn’t deal with the Fijians counter rucking very well – difficult to say whether that was due to the South African referees take on the rules

Luckily Mike Brown was immense – seeming to be everywhere on the pitch and energised beyond what seemed normal – Ford and Youngs were pretty anonymous for most of the time they were on the pitch - the rest of the backs didn’t really seem to get much space to work in and often went a pass too many before going into the tackle

But a win is a win – pretty brainless of Vunipola not knowing about bonus point – you would think that a few basics on how the tournament works would have been higher on the curriculum during training or maybe someone on the pitch might have had a word when they had three.

Im a great fan of the instant replays – should be automatic for try decisions – there is a break in play anyway – but early on there just seemed to be too many and too long – second half was better – maybe both the ref and the players understood better how it works

Who’s going to win? – I watched most of the northern hemisphere games in the lead up – and a few of the Tri nations matches – If France play their A game throughout the tournament they maybe have a chance of going deep – the other northern teams – there isn’t that spark – New Zealand are still ahead of the Aussies and the Saffers despite having only a 21-18 record in the tri nations since 2012.

Going to have to ration what matches I watch – otherwise I might lose the use of my legs – today – Saffers versus Japan – not seen much of the Saffers

 

[TVC]

Really not liking the TMOs, It further breaks up the game that is sometimes difficult to keep flowing. Most worrying is what happened with the Fiji try. The ref was quite happy until the stadium video screen showed the ball leave his hand and the crowd reacted, then he called for a review. This means that the video operator can now influence a match by deciding what gets shown on the big screens.

 

[Aperitif]

Nice 'associated article' written by Martin Pengelly in The Guardian today. Good on Georgia too - with the 18 year-old scrum half, Vasil Lobzhanidze becoming the World Cup's youngest player.
As I always harp on about...tonight's game betwen Italy and France features the two best anthems in world rugby.

Ahhh...