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Thats was a close one!
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2012 IRB Junior World Championship
- Thread starter William18
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Im late, but congratulation Junior Wales!
O. M. G.
I completely missed that and all. Wow!
Massive congratulations to the Taffs...
Tribesmen-ce-123
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Who stood out in the Ireland game, i missed it fortunately?
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Most performed a lot better in the first half. Hanrahan, Conan (who's great of the the back of the scrum), Marmion, Daly, Beirne and Henderson were the stand outs for me.
Hmm. This makes things interesting.
I don't think anyone's going to bet against NZ reaching the final as the best 2nd placer. That is virtually assured by now.
Which - for all this is a weaker than usual NZ side - makes qualifying as top of group a rather dubious award.
And - having just considered the matter closely - I think there's a rather strong possibility you'll get to prove this was no fluke in rather short order, if you catch my drift...
Still! Massive kudos to the Taffs. And the Argies. And of course, our valiant foe the Mini Micks.
Darwin
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WOW....just wow.....
I was enjoying all the upsets in this tournament.... right up until when we got upset! Great to see Argentina continue their winning ways, and it looks like the Scotland v France game was very close.
Anyways, onto the NZ game. The conditions obviously played a big part in the match - I haven't seen a ground so cut up (and hence players so covered in mud) for ages! Wales defense was epic - they thoroughly deserved to win in my opinion. Though NZ generally dominated possession (and had a big edge in territory too) Wales were the ones playing far smarter rugby in the conditions. New Zealand tried to play too expansively at times, but the real issue was their kicking game. NZ first-first Eade has a massive boot on him, but the problem was that barely any kicks he (or anyone else in NZ made) were remotely contestable - all NZ was doing was giving the ball straight back to Wales. In contrast Wales were far more intelligent with their kicking - nearly every kick they made was a high bomb, most of which were contestable (resulting in numerous NZ knock-ons, with Wales regathering a number of kicks themselves). Though Habberfield used the box-kick a bit too much, it was a much better tactic than NZ was using.
Hard to identify too many standout players given the conditions. Wales' scrum was particularly impressive, having the edge in this department throughout the match. The Welsh number 8 (Baker) certainly has some size, while Habberfield controlled the game pretty well from halfback (apart from box-kicking too much). Dixon at 12 looked solid, and I was really impressed with Prydie on the wing - he seemed to just make the right decisions all of the time. Prydie's goal-kicking was also key for Wales: he kicked 2/3 (from reasonable range) after taking over from Morgan (1/4).
Hooker Nathan Harris was a standout for NZ - he is a very good ball runner around the base of the breakdown. Taufua also really impressed - he has some explosive power from No. 8, but does need to be careful about getting up and going again once tackled (he was penalised once, and probably could have been another 2 times). For the second game in a row I haven't been impressed with Bryn Hall - he came into the tournament with big wraps, but his kicking, passing, and leadership were pretty poor in this match. Eade has a big punt, but his kicking wasn't very accurate, and his goal-kicking let him down (2/5). Hanley was the pick of the backs - looks more of a wing than a centre to me though, while Proctor looked solid on the wing. McKenzie really struggled at fullback, though Wales did a great job of putting a lot of pressure on him.
Overall a very well deserved win for Wales. The NZ team now needs a big win over Fiji to sneak into the semi-finals. They will be hoping that the weather conditions improve soon though, as they certainly didn't look comfortable playing wet weather rugby!
I was enjoying all the upsets in this tournament.... right up until when we got upset! Great to see Argentina continue their winning ways, and it looks like the Scotland v France game was very close.
Anyways, onto the NZ game. The conditions obviously played a big part in the match - I haven't seen a ground so cut up (and hence players so covered in mud) for ages! Wales defense was epic - they thoroughly deserved to win in my opinion. Though NZ generally dominated possession (and had a big edge in territory too) Wales were the ones playing far smarter rugby in the conditions. New Zealand tried to play too expansively at times, but the real issue was their kicking game. NZ first-first Eade has a massive boot on him, but the problem was that barely any kicks he (or anyone else in NZ made) were remotely contestable - all NZ was doing was giving the ball straight back to Wales. In contrast Wales were far more intelligent with their kicking - nearly every kick they made was a high bomb, most of which were contestable (resulting in numerous NZ knock-ons, with Wales regathering a number of kicks themselves). Though Habberfield used the box-kick a bit too much, it was a much better tactic than NZ was using.
Hard to identify too many standout players given the conditions. Wales' scrum was particularly impressive, having the edge in this department throughout the match. The Welsh number 8 (Baker) certainly has some size, while Habberfield controlled the game pretty well from halfback (apart from box-kicking too much). Dixon at 12 looked solid, and I was really impressed with Prydie on the wing - he seemed to just make the right decisions all of the time. Prydie's goal-kicking was also key for Wales: he kicked 2/3 (from reasonable range) after taking over from Morgan (1/4).
Hooker Nathan Harris was a standout for NZ - he is a very good ball runner around the base of the breakdown. Taufua also really impressed - he has some explosive power from No. 8, but does need to be careful about getting up and going again once tackled (he was penalised once, and probably could have been another 2 times). For the second game in a row I haven't been impressed with Bryn Hall - he came into the tournament with big wraps, but his kicking, passing, and leadership were pretty poor in this match. Eade has a big punt, but his kicking wasn't very accurate, and his goal-kicking let him down (2/5). Hanley was the pick of the backs - looks more of a wing than a centre to me though, while Proctor looked solid on the wing. McKenzie really struggled at fullback, though Wales did a great job of putting a lot of pressure on him.
Overall a very well deserved win for Wales. The NZ team now needs a big win over Fiji to sneak into the semi-finals. They will be hoping that the weather conditions improve soon though, as they certainly didn't look comfortable playing wet weather rugby!
Darwin
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They still need to beat England though to have a chance of making it into the semi-finals. There will certainly be some interesting games in the next round!
Yup, which will be a tough one. Honestly would love a SA vs NZ final, can't beat that really. Both teams with losses in the pool stage, but make the final.
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SA vs England will be a proper battle - can't wait!
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With any luck SA will win by a few, meaning we'd effectively have to beat England's score against Italy to qualify.
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Just on personal preference I'd like Ireland to be in the final. Out of interest which comes first points scored or head to head?
Yeah, this.
Ridiculous in a pool with Fiji and Samoa not to play your best team against Wales, especially when only the top team from the pool is guaranteed entry into round 2. Complete disrespect shown to Wales and they deservedly beat us. Very disappointing.
Darwin
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As I mentioned before, NZ have used basically the same tactic of rotating their squad throughout the pool stage (no matter who they have played) in almost every tournament, and it has been pretty successful thus far! I don't see it as disrespect, but rather a tactic that has served them very well in the past, so I can see why it has been persisted with.
In any case I honestly don't think picking a top team versus Wales would have made a huge difference to the result! The likes of Emery and Kerosema (who I'd consider as definites in the top team) would not have been able to make an impact playing in backs anyway. Indeed probably the best player on the park (along with Taufua) was Nathan Harris, who I would have though was definitely a 'B' team player before this match (not so sure about that now!). Out of curiosity, which of the NZ players that missed out do you think could have made a big difference?
Head to head is the first criteria used for ranking teams within pools (if two team are tied on points)
Pool B is certainly very interesting - there is the potential for Ireland, South Africa, and England to all finish on 10 points. You are right that Ireland needs South Africa to win, but you don't want them getting a bonus point for 4 tries (though if the weather remains the same it is probably unlikely!).
Last edited:
Rhys Llewellyn.
