All right, sounds good! Camel bar for the match and back to Slice of Heaven to celebrate the All Blacks win. If the unlikely occurs and the French win I will be going home to cry for the next week :-) But I might be able to squeeze in a pie to comfort me anyway
Hate to say it at Samoana the atmosphere is good but the internet is a bit too unreliable for the finals. I would go mad if the internet cut out and we couldn't watch!
So is this the plan? Everyone head to Camel bar?
Hey !
The connection is quite good at camel bar-restaurant,
and we've already tell people that we could gather there for the final !!
GO GO France :)
see you mates .....
Congratulations NZ
I'm stoked, hungover, absolutely fucked up but very happy.
France in many ways I thought you were the better team - I don't recall the ABs having the ball in the 2nd half. Great final
Congratulations NZ
I'm stoked, hungover, absolutely fucked up but very happy.
France in many ways I thought you were the better team - I don't recall the ABs having the ball in the 2nd half. Great final
France the better team? Hmmm... tough to make a call there.
France got lots more ball in the 2nd half due to NZ's game plan falling a bit to pieces, mostly due (I think) to Donald coming on and kicking the ball back to France every time he got it - not really the ABs rugby style as they usually hold the ball and run with it. Rather than the French being awesome and therefore holding possession it was more a case of "here ya go, have the ball" from the All Blacks. The French couldn't capitalise on all the possession though - I think a team with better attacking players probably could have scored a couple of tries as the ABs defence was only just able to contain the French. Just having the ball isn't enough, capitalising on the possession is just as important.
The ABs showed a lot more attacking flair in the first half though, a number of their backline moves would have been tries had their timing been spot on. They also missed so many shots at goal as the French gave away too many penalties within kickable range.
Unfortunately as shown by almost all the games in Semi finals onwards, RWC finals matches are won with brute force grinding play with the occasional lucky or clever try with the winner decided by kicking. I say unfortunately because it would be great if the winner won 6 tries to 5 in extra time with the players still able to break the line and more free flowing rugby. Which would be more entertaining and hence better for the game?
I say the rules should be changed - 3 points for a penalty, 2 for a drop goal, 3 for a conversion, 5 for a try. That way, penalties have a bigger effect than drop goals which are boring (and 3 penalties will beat a converted try still, punishing naughty teams) and teams will be more willing to go for a converted try (which means more attacking play/line breaks etc and more interesting in-goal play as players will really really try to get close to the posts). Can anyone really argue that the drop goal is an exciting element to the game or that it should be worth the same as someone doing something really naughty close to the posts?
In rugby league the droppy is worth 1 point - 17% of a converted try. In Rugby its worth 3, 42% of a converted try. A penalty is worth 2 points in league, 33% of a converted try while in rugby its 42% again. In many ways league is more fun to watch than rugby, mostly due to teams wanting to score tries (due to the points advantage) and coming up with really clever back line moves to do so. Until that happens in rugby finals matches will be decided by luck, kicking and brute force rather than entertaining and exciting play. You only have to look at the NRL grand final (in which 6 tries were scored) to see the difference.
