2008 Rugby League World Cup

[jordox]

This opening ceremony is terrible.

God....

 

[CortezTheKiller]

14-6 to the Roos at the break. Kiwis hanging in there, but think the score will blow out in the second half.

Caught last 15 minutes of Scotland/France, was all France for the bit I saw. Bosc the French 5/8 is a useful footballer.

 

[aussie1st]

Bosc was highly rated when I was reading the player reviews.

Thought they Kiwis would provide more of a challenge, their defence didn't have much answer to the Aussie wave of attack. Geez it's great having Inglis back out wide, he causes so much havoc and then you have Falou on the other side. Monas had a good debut too, didn't get any chances in the air as well so we still have more room for improvement.

 

[CortezTheKiller]

It's stating the bleeding obvious, but Australia are clearly the team to beat. I thought NZ defended stoutly, but were just outclassed. We'll have to raise our game by 100% to even compete. I'm hoping we just underestimsted PNG and will have our big game heads on for Sunday.

Enjoyed Ireland/Tonga today too. Was rooting for the Irish so mildly gutted by the result, but they gave a good account of themselves. Tonga more talented (Jennings looks a real gem in the making), but awful discipline. Could (and maybe should) have cost them the game.

 

[aussie1st]

Tonga have one of the better squads in the WC. They have a number of NRL stars that can make an impact. Didn't see the match but sounds like the usual indiscipline seen by Pacific island teams.

 

[Magz]

Internation League is a farce and always will be unfortuantley. There isn't enough world class English players, a lot of the best SL players are Australian/New Zealander/Pacific Islanders etc.

If Australia beat NZ 58-0 last year there isn't much hope of anyone beating them.

 

[Left_Hander]

That is what I was saying. If 1 can beat 2 by 24 points, what chance to the rest of the countries have?

 

[CortezTheKiller]

That is what I was saying. If 1 can beat 2 by 24 points, what chance to the rest of the countries have?

You know we (well, technically Great Britain, but all the squad was English) beat New Zealand 3-0 in the test series last year, right?!

No doubt the Kangaroos are no.1, but England must be bloody close to second if not actually there.

 

[Ponting_14]

Shame about PNG getting beat so badly tonight by the Kiwis.

 

[Leicester Fox]

England are going to get battered tomorrow. Hopefully they won't lose so badly they lose the belief they can beat NZ.

 

[aussie1st]

Fiji and Samoa certainly look promising. It's a shame only one of them can make the final 4. If they keep their performance up they could certainly run the top 3 teams a run.

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Beating England is so enjoyable to watch.

Or should i say demolishing England. 52-4

 

[Leicester Fox]

My not exactly bold prediction coming true. This tournament really doesn't have much point other than boosting the Aussies already inflated egos.

 

[aussie1st]

Well the poor other sides are probably coming up against Australia's best ever side. There just isn't any chinks in the side, from 1 to 17 the players look dangerous.

England looked more competitive than NZ but they really needed to convert the pressure they put on the Aussies in that 15 minute period. Since they didn't the Aussies just blew them away when they got into the English half.

 

[CortezTheKiller]

Pretty galling stuff, really. The trouble is that (aside from that brief quarter haour after the Aussies' second try) our forwards were beaten. Obviously our backs were never going to match up (Inglis & Folau are just scary good and Lockyer is like Peter Pan it seems), but I thought we'd have a shot at parity up front.

Our halves are shocking tho. Pryce; what's the point of him?!?