Rugby World Cup 2011

I might as well post this, for play starts on 9 September and runs through much of October in New Zealand.

This means some of us will get a fix between CFL and NFL games during the week, but really this is so much at once with now a slow August just starting.

Grant it, the game is often not as exciting as football if a game with constant penalties. However, if the game is moving more often, it does get exciting.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/standings/index.html [url=http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/poolstage.html]http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtu ... stage.html[/url]

The laws of the game will probably change more than normal after this event in order to promote more play and less stoppages as have plagued the game considerably since the last World Cup.

Note there are 4 pools of 5 teams each with the top two advancing to the quarterfinals.

Canada is in Pool A with top sides New Zealand and France but also Tonga. If Canada is going anywhere further, Canada will have to win at least 2 matches of the first 3 and then get some help because match 4 is against home team New Zealand.

Team USA is in Pool C with top sides Ireland and Australia but also Italy, so that's also a rough go.

I'm envious of your viewing options in Canada on TSN: http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/news/ ... 44460.html

Down here in the US, it looks like we get on the Team USA matches free and otherwise it's the typical program of screw you pay up on PPV.

Of course some of us know what to do to catch the action otherwise online for free.

Paolo, is this true that at one time American football was once called "stop and start rugby with padding"?

[url=http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/26966-TQIT-Sports-News-Network/page4]http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/thre ... work/page4[/url]

I don’t know the answer to this question, but it seems that Canadian football (the modern down-and-distance kind) was referred to as rugby for quite a long time after it stopped being a minor variant of true rugby. So I wouldn’t be surprised if what you said were true.

I never heard that before about American football Earl and PiCat so who knows, but I guess the name fit.

Also it was not until after the turn of the century that American football went to four downs from three amongst other changes.

Yes, it was 3 downs to make 5 yards from my understanding.

I see Canada and the US are playing rugby at BMO Field. I bet the soccer TFC fans won't like that as it could mess up the playing surface that they were mentioning why they didn't want the Argos playing there.

Well, we started off on the right foot, with a 28-22 exhibition win against the US.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/canada-beats-us-in-rugby/article2121995/]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/c ... le2121995/[/url]

i think they play again in two weeks.

The toronto FC just makes me annoyed.

Canada 27 USA 7

You kicked our butts the second time for sure and have a fine side.

I'm going to cheer for you guys in your pool against especially France and against Tonga and would love to see you make the quarterfinals. :slight_smile:

So awesome that TSN is covering every single game of the World Cup. I've never really watched much Rugby but I think i'll be following this very closely. Nice to see Rugby FINALLY getting some respect here in Canada! :rockin:

How is everyone enjoying the tournament so far? What are you hopes for Canada?

Haven't watched any of the games yet, since I don't have cable. I just saw that TSN does have the games on TSN On Demand, so I'm gonna take a look at the New Zealand vs Tonga game right now over my crappy internet connection.

I don't watch enough Rugby to speak with any real authority about Canada's chances, but based on what I do know, I'd expect Canada's wins to come from the games against Japan and Tonga. Seems like New Zealand is the world's best at rugby, and France also has a very strong team. I'm not expecting Canada to make it out of the group stage, but we'll see.

I'm going to try and catch some matches tomorrow morning over the internet for my first games. The time difference of apparently -10 hours from the US East Coast and much of Eastern Canada really sucks.

It looks like the best games so far were the ones with Scotland and Fiji as winners in matches with both teams putting up solid points.

England cut it really close against Argentina and almost lost it in a defensive battle.

If you think a defensive gridiron battle is boring to watch, well a defensive rugby battle is more boring than even some 0-0 soccer matches in my opinion.

Australia, Ireland, and South Africa are the favourites tonight, but we'll see how much trouble Italy, USA, and Wales give them respectively.

Canada beats Tonga 25-20.

Story here: http://www.tsn.ca/rugby/story/?id=375758

Game can be watched here Video - TSN

Whoops. This link only takes you to the game summary video, but it’s easy to find the actual game video once you click that link.

TSN's also gonna replay it tonight at 8 PM. I laughed when I saw the headline. Serves Tonga right.

Congrats Canada! I hope you beat especially France!

Check out this mean-looking dude and hero of the day, Jebb Sinclair, of Red Deer:

[url=http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/teams/team=50/player=35161/index.html]http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/teams ... index.html[/url]

And here apparently was the blood spilled today en route to victory:

[url=http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/teams/team=50/photo/index.html?2051021]http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/teams ... ml?2051021[/url]

I erred earlier on the time difference -- 14 damn hours makes life difficult for a rugby fan!

Our boys played VERY well against Tonga. Defence was not unlike a stone wall once Tonga got down field. They have quite the uphill battle coming up against France though.

1-0 so far! :rockin:

Did anybody else wake up early (or stay up late) to tune in to the France vs Canada game? It's 10-10 in the 22nd minute...

I didn’t, but I watched the replay of the game, which followed the Win @ Mon game. Canada put up a good fight against France throughout most of the game. They did better than I expected. Hopefully Canada can take Japan and get 3rd place in the group stage. This gets them into the next world cup and I heard one of the commentators say today that it would also set them up to participate (be invited to?) more international matches against top tier teams. Getting playing experience against the “big boys” would improve their chances for future world cups, I imagine.

On another note, I think the team needs a better nickname than the Canucks or the Maple Leafs (and I really hope “beardos” doesn’t catch on). One is just a nickname for Canada, so it’s boring. “The Canadian Canucks, huh? Well aren’t you a thrill a minute?” The other crunches when you step on it. It’s fun to step on crunchy leaves, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t want rugby players who crunch when you step on them.