The Rugby World Cup 2007
Yet again I’ve managed to be in the opposite hemisphere to the Rugby World Cup. Last time, I was at university, and managed to only watch the last 10 minutes of England’s historic Jonny Wilkinson inspired victory, as it was played at about 7am on Sunday morning… This year will be no different.
Having originally intended to put something about the competition up a little earlier, I have failed resoundingly due to a week of landscaping (which has helped me develop a healthy tan) and a weekend of R & R, which largely comprised of visiting vineyards and wineries here in the Adelaide Hills, and drinking wine. This is perhaps more understandable when one considers that the house we now live in is owned by a local restauranteur and wine-maker.
So here it goes, my belated and somewhat uninspired prediction:
UPDATES IN RED!
Winner:
New Zealand – Wrong!
Runners Up:
Wales – Wrong!
To Do Well, but not quite well enough:
Australia - Wrong (they were awful), England (lets wait and see, eh?), Ireland – Wrong
To Underachieve:
France – Wrong (in Semi-Final), South Africa – Wrong (have been excellent)
Man of the Tournament:
Stirling Mortlock – not least because he has the best name, he is also a great player, whom I have enjoyed watching in Super 14s.
There you have it, that is my tuppence worth. I’m not going to be making any bets, and I’m pretty sure that the market will largely reflect my opinions in any case – add a comment if ou agree / disagree…
The form book seems to have flown out of the window. As always, ability is nothing without attitude to match. The teams who are left are those which have the most belief, and more importantly, those who play without fear. Sports psychologists will tell you that the number one way to lose a knockout game is to fear losing – pressure of expectation comes into this – but, most of all, it is pure simple belief and confidence in one’s own ability to get the game won (this applies to whole teams, too) those that have it are still in the tournament. Those that don’t have gone home. Who cares how good you are if you’re on the plane home?
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we watched all the first matches this weekend, from France losing to Argentina on Friday night, through the others on Sat culminating in England v USA, and Scotland on Sun.
England were poor and the Americans courageous. Yes, a win for England, but so sloppy, with numerous errors. If they are to get anywhere, they will have to go a great deal better.
Ditto Ireland and Wales. Scotland, too, had too many unforced errors for comfort, but of the Home Lot, were the least poor.
Well done, the underdogs. Argentina, of course, won. Italy were plucky, the USA did well against Eng. Namibia were amazing for a nearly-all-amateur side, full of lawyers (hehehe). Japan were very brave.
My prediction is the All-Blacks to win, with Argentina the surprise package throughout.
The best match of the whole weekend was Friday night when Dad and I enjoyed France lose to Argentina… a fast moving game, full of scores, and quite good fun to watch. Dad cheered the Argentines, even though he’d had a punt on France to win!!!
Jo/Mum
PS had a head to head tipping competition at REdcar as reported in e-mail to you, honours even!!!
x
rugbyworldcup.comHey Rob:
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for your predictions, with the amount of injuries thus far it’s a toss-up- in the meantime wanted to flag a cool company (that I coincidentally also work with!) called MediaZone that provides high quality, 24-hour delay On Demand coverage of ALL 48 matches, as well as live audio feeds, match previews, halftime and fulltime highlights and Interviews. You can check out this action for FREE for a limited time to watch France vs. Argentina and New Zealand vs. Italy duke it out by going to this site & entering the promo code:promo code: KEY77GHY.
If you’re an ardent rugby fan like myself that doesn’t want to miss the action yet is constrained by televised hours due to work, all the details on RWC Plus that is produced in association with MediaZone can be found here: http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/video ;. In addition, there’s the MediaZone Rugby channel that offers over 250 rugby matches in 2007-08 such as Tri-Nations, June Tours and Currie Cup. Let me know what you think and here’s to some more salivating clashes in the coming days.
Most of the matches are at fairly anti-social hours for us in Australia, so if I’m not asleep I’ll be watching on Foxtel or normal TV.
Thanks for the link though, will defo check it out. Are there any fees involved? I’d get behind a free service more than a paid one. A few million regular viewers of a free service is worth far more than a few thousand paying members – you also have more scope to diversify.
Miles out with that Wales call by the way…
[...] The Rugby World Cup Final for 2007 takes place this Saturday, 20 October, at 21:00 CET (8pm UK time, or 5am Eastern Australian Time) between England and South Africa. It is time for the final match preview of RWC 2007. [...]