<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Canadian_Rugger @ May 4 2009, 12:31 PM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ May 5 2009, 04:48 AM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Canadian_Rugger @ May 4 2009, 06:27 PM)
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this is championship rugby the semi final they should be playing until the deadlock is solved... having shootouts like that is fine during the regular season but in a championship game it should never come to that. Was very stupid.[/b]
at what point though do you say enough is enough, it's far from stupid, to continue playing till kingdom come would be more daft.
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Maybe my North American sporting bias is showing a bit here but over here we don't like games settled by ties. In both Ice Hockey and Baseball it is impossible to have a draw during the regular season as well as in the playoffs, while in all the major American sports its impossible to have a tie as well.
This tie should not be broken by something as ridiculous as a penalty kick competition. The National Hockey League has refused to put in any such clauses in the Stanley Cup playoffs, as such games are played until one team scores a goal. The game alone is 60 min stop time while the extra overtime periods are 20 min each until someone scores. The game between Anaheim and Detroit was decided last night after 3 extra overtime periods. It was an epic struggle and Anaheim finally exposed Detroit late in the third overtime.
In Baseball extra innings are played until one team breaks the deadlock some games going 15 innings. In American Football the game is played in sudden death until one team scores. In the NBA the players continue to play for extra overtimes until one team has more points then the other at the end of overtime(s)
Now some may call these playoff games dire affairs but for hardcore fans and players of the game this is the only suitable way to win.
The Stanley Cup is considered the hardest trophy to win in professional sport over here as teams are forced to play 4 best of seven series to win the cup. Now imagine being in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals and having just played the best game of your life the winner is determined not by one team emerging as a victor out of pure dominance but out of the individual skill of a few select players. This would be totally unacceptable to any hockey fan and I don't know how Cardiff fans don't find this totally unacceptable
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I agree...The shootout thing is retarded. I don't very often, if maybe never on this forum, sound the horn of excellence for North America, but it's one thing I think we've got right. No fan, no player, no coach wants to see a match or competition end like that. Sudden death overtimes at 10-20 min intervals seem most fitting. Even if they did what the NFL does and start them out nearer the goal line (try line in our case). Say, each team is given posession from a scrum at the 22 metre line...they either must score and retain possesion...they can either go for drop goal or try...if the possesion is lost from a turnover then the other team get's it on their 22 metre line....okay...maybe that's too gridiorinish now that I think about it, but something better than what happened.
