[2018 Rugby Championship] Round 2: New Zealand v Australia (25/08/2018)

[FrenchFan]

- world domination....... and probably forever.

You can have your world domination. It's a small world getting smaller.

It's become harder to win the Heineken Cup than the RWC

9 teams out of the 20 competing in the next Heineken Cup can genuinely win it. 3 from France - 3 from England - 2 from Ireland - 1 from Wales

In Japan World Rugby do NOT have 9 genuine contenders for the ***le - 4 or 5 at most.

 

[mania]

It's become harder to win the Heineken Cup than the RWC

maybe but who wants to watch the HC vs a worldCup?
ABs didnt win the WC for 24 years. the world called them chokers. the only answer to that is winning the WC for the next 24 years. 6 tournament winning streak.

 

[mania]

hooper was funny in the first 15 mins. he mustve been asking gardiner for a card and angus replied "this is your first penalty in the 22"

 

[mania]

Keep kidding yourself. The All Blacks are going to win themselves into irrelevance. It's already cooked in Aus. Haven't a single mate who still watches. I watch because i'm hopelessly rusted on by i'm at the end of my tether.

and this is the allBlacks fault how? so aus suck badly and its up to ABs to lose to help rugby survive? wow.
so nothing about anyone else maybe trying to get better?

im sorry kiwi's enjoy rugby. not only do we enjoy rugby but we understand it and i mean the deep deep philosophy of rugby. this obviously works against us and the international game but we cant help it. its such an awesome inclusive game to play.

sorry

 

[smartcooky]

You can have your world domination. It's a small world getting smaller.

It's become harder to win the Heineken Cup than the RWC

9 teams out of the 20 competing in the next Heineken Cup can genuinely win it. 3 from France - 3 from England - 2 from Ireland - 1 from Wales

In Japan World Rugby do NOT have 9 genuine contenders for the ***le - 4 or 5 at most.

I wonder how many teams would be genuine contenders to win the Heineken Cup if there weren't all those New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans and Argentinians playing in it.

How many rugby teams in Europe can claim a genuine world-wide following. In soccer, there is Manchester United, but there is no equivalent in rugby. The reality is that no-one outside of Europe (other than ex-pats or genuine rugby tragics) cares two figs about the Heineken Cup. Personally, I haven't watched a single HC/RCC game in about 10 years (since that ass hole McCafferty came along and stuffed it up).

 

[FrenchFan]

I wonder how many teams would be genuine contenders to win the Heineken Cup if there weren't all those New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans and Argentinians playing in it.

Moot point. The nationality of the players involved is irrelevant to many fans. I have watched for instance Prem teams involved in HCup. I have no idea if so and so is English or England-qualified or else. Who cares. It doesn't add or take away from the sporting contest (passport control is some boring job...)

How many rugby teams in Europe can claim a genuine world-wide following. In soccer, there is Manchester United, but there is no equivalent in rugby. The reality is that no-one outside of Europe (other than ex-pats or genuine rugby tragics) cares two figs about the Heineken Cup. Personally, I haven't watched a single HC/RCC game in about 10 years (since that ass hole McCafferty came along and stuffed it up).

Nobody is claiming that the Heineken Cup has reached universal appeal. You're addressing a point I didn't make.
Also, on crowd attendance, I didn't think you'd bring that up when you look at the turkey SR has become. You can't fill any of your stadiums in SR! We don't have that problem here. HCup is hugely popular and draws some of the biggest attendances.

All I'm saying is from a rugby point of view it's become harder to win the HCup because it's got more competitive than the RWC itself. The club game has got better and more competitive over here.
At the RWC you've got to get thru all those pool games with disjointed opposition. The bigger sides smashing the smaller nations. The teams involved in the HCup are more evenly matched. I have genuinely no idea who is going to win the next one. Whereas it's hard not to look past NZ for the next World ***le.

The predictability of NZ winning the next RWC and the dwindling number of genuine challengers make it less appealing as a competition.

This is an unavoidable fact. Competitions with predictable winners are less attractive. The HCup doesn't have that problem...

 

[All Black]

Geez the Heineken Cup is good.

 

[mania]

The predictability of NZ winning the next RWC and the dwindling number of genuine challengers make it less appealing as a competition.

i hope no other country has this attitude.
everyone's got a chance of beating the ABs. they're only human, same as 8 billion other people out there.
as they say in the NFL "any team can beat any other team on any given sunday"

 

[Derpus]

I wonder how many teams would be genuine contenders to win the Heineken Cup if there weren't all those New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans and Argentinians playing in it.

How many rugby teams in Europe can claim a genuine world-wide following. In soccer, there is Manchester United, but there is no equivalent in rugby. The reality is that no-one outside of Europe (other than ex-pats or genuine rugby tragics) cares two figs about the Heineken Cup. Personally, I haven't watched a single HC/RCC game in about 10 years (since that ass hole McCafferty came along and stuffed it up).

There is no Man Utd in rugby yet. But as you point out, the confluence of factors present in Football(soccer) that allowed the club game to surpass the international game are present in Rugby. More money from clubs than national sides and a general exodus of the better players to Europe will eventually see the only interesting rugby being played at club level.

Look at the Argentinian and Brazilian leagues. Produce the best talent in the world (generally) but have fairly weak domestic leagues and are no longer the dominant forces they once were internationally.

So when NZ stroll to the RWC and the rest of the countries realize that they won't ever have a realistic chance of competing for the ***le the exodus of fans and players to club level will only accelerate.

 

[Derpus]

i hope no other country has this attitude.
everyone's got a chance of beating the ABs. they're only human, same as 8 billion other people out there.
as they say in the NFL "any team can beat any other team on any given sunday"

Everyone takes this attitude.

I was in England for the last RWC and the English were almost universally supporting Aus (which is anathema to the pommies) because no one wanted to see the ABs win yet again.

 

[Dan54]

You've only mentioned individuals, this doesn't translate to team sports. The Bundesliga was far more popular when Dortmund were challenging Bayern, Ligue 1 has always struggled for viewers due to Lyon's and then PSG's dominance, no one watches international rugby league, the NBA finals this year had terrible viewing figures due to the Warriors dominance. Fans do lose interest.


.

Yep Alpha , but if you go back to mine you will see where I mentioned Italy etc packing out grounds to watch ABs play, same as Scotland etc. I agree it hurting Aus because ABs play them so bloody much, it's what they seem to keep seeing is the ABs winning again.

 

[mania]

Yep Alpha , but if you go back to mine you will see where I mentioned Italy etc packing out grounds to watch ABs play, same as Scotland etc. I agree it hurting Aus because ABs play them so bloody much, it's what they seem to keep seeing is the ABs winning again.

agree , in SA particularly Soweto , the ABs have a huge following. agree that 3 bled games is too much. the next one in tokyo? is a dead rubber and pretty pointless as far as points or trophy's go.

 

[Derpus]

agree , in SA particularly Soweto , the ABs have a huge following. agree that 3 bled games is too much. the next one in tokyo? is a dead rubber and pretty pointless as far as points or trophy's go.

Should just be in-built into the championship, and they should be rotated. As in, Aus don't have to spend an hour trekking it out to homebush to watch the ABs smash em 40 nil for the first match of the year every year.

 

[mania]

Everyone takes this attitude.

I was in England for the last RWC and the English were almost universally supporting Aus (which is anathema to the pommies) because no one wanted to see the ABs win yet again.

i find that hard to believe Derpus. pommies are always in for it and they always believe that they should win whatever tourney they're in. they would've had absolute belief at the beginning .

anyway more importantly none of the players would believe that the ABs have the WC all sewn up. even the ABs dont believe that.

 

[Derpus]

i find that hard to believe Derpus. pommies are always in for it and they always believe that they should win whatever tourney they're in. they would've had absolute belief at the beginning .

anyway more importantly none of the players would believe that the ABs have all sewn up. even the ABs dont believe that.

Part of the trick. If they became complacent maybe they would actually lose a match. See bled 3 last year.

 

[mania]

Part of the trick. If they became complacent maybe they would actually lose a match. See bled 3 last year.

and thats the trick isnt it? never underestimate an opponent and never take the result of the game for granted

 

[Derpus]

and thats the trick isnt it? never underestimate an opponent and never take the result of the game for granted

Maybe as a player. As a casual observer it's kinda hard to look at a 95% win rate and say 'oh but anyone can win on the day hur dur'.

 

[Derpus]

i find that hard to believe Derpus. pommies are always in for it and they always believe that they should win whatever tourney they're in. they would've had absolute belief at the beginning .

anyway more importantly none of the players would believe that the ABs have the WC all sewn up. even the ABs dont believe that.

I was talking about the final.

 

[mania]

Maybe as a player. As a casual observer it's kinda hard to look at a 95% win rate and say 'oh but anyone can win on the day hur dur'.

can you imagine the euphoria for the next team that beats the ABs? itll be massive.

 

[mania]

Maybe as a player. As a casual observer it's kinda hard to look at a 95% win rate and say 'oh but anyone can win on the day hur dur'.

i played gridiron. when i started we were undefeated for 2 years. on my 3rd season we lost to a team on the first game and then again to them in the 2nd round. they were bigger, badder, faster and they really hated us. half our team were newly promoted juniors, playing against adults.
we met them in the finals and we were outgunned and out muscled. however thru some quick thinking and experience of the rules we took the lead and managed to pull off a massive upset thru some rock solid defence.
to this day it is the sweetest victory ive ever had.
belief goes a long way

ps - it was the juniors that stepped up and got us thru that finals. the new blood that was underestimated by the adults. made it that much moire sweeter