Egg chasing WC ‘23

[Tricky Trevor]

Good opener last night with hosts France deservedly beating the All Blacks.
Two blow-outs so far today and another, Oz v Georgia, likely to follow but England v Argies tonight could be a cracker.

[fidelcastro]

So that's why Corrie was shown the night before!

[kentonclaret]

So that's why Corrie was shown the night before!

That’s correct, and tonight you will probably be missing some repeat showings of “Celebrity Specials” which the channel will now be showing at a later date.

[Middle-agedClaret]

Good start for Ireland.
COYBIG!
And, of course - UTC.

[fidelcastro]

That’s correct, and tonight you will probably be missing some repeat showings of “Celebrity Specials” which the channel will now be showing at a later date.

Damn and blast.

[Shaggy]

At least it’s proper egg chasing and not the watered down M62 league version.

[Fenwick]

It's a world cup. Where's the reports of riots, chair and bottle throwing and mayhem?

[Tricky Trevor]

At least it’s proper egg chasing and not the watered down M62 league version.

Two great games. The only similarity being the shape of the ball.

[agreenwood]

Watched a bit of it. It seems so attritional these days.

Kick, catch, kick, catch, kick, catch, run, tackle, pass, kick, catch, kick, catch….repeat ad infinitum.

[Winstonswhite]

Two cracking drop goals though

[Spijed]

Why wasn't the Argentine player not sent off as he looked like he'd deliberately tried to hurt and take out the England player?

[agreenwood]

Why wasn't the Argentine player not sent off as he looked like he'd deliberately tried to hurt and take out the England player?

Dunno. Rugby’s rules are pretty hard to follow.

I watch bits of lots of sports and gradually picked up the basics. Rugby Union’s continue to allude me.

If you’d shown me both clips and asked me which was the most intentional, I’d have said the late hit on the kicker.

[Tricky Trevor]

Why wasn't the Argentine player not sent off as he looked like he'd deliberately tried to hurt and take out the England player?

I felt it was a worse offence than Currys.
Curry was stood upright on the ground and the Argie came down after the catch and heads did collide but zero intent.
The Argie that clattered Ford was jumping into him with zero possibility of winning the ball. That should have been a red.

[onewillieirvine]

It's a different game to the one I grew up watching in the 70's 80's.

[Tricky Trevor]

18-3.
3 scores up and the sending off has certainly galvanised this England team. They haven’t played this well for far too long.

[Lip]

At least it’s proper egg chasing and not the watered down M62 league version.

Must try harder. Scooby.

[LeadBelly]

I've watched all the games so far as they're all on ITV here in UK. I'm enjoying it but then- I do enjoy watching this game more than footy nowadays (Clarets excepted of course).

An unexpectedly good performance by England last night to beat Argentina despite playing all bar 13 minutes a man down. I've no idea why Curry's offence was deemed worse than Carreras offence but the former got a red card and the latter a yellow. Very gritty (and surprisingly intelligent) performance by England and Ford (fly half) was really excellent.

Ireland looked very good hammering Romania. Scotland to play South Africa today (16.45) and Wales to play Fiji (20.00). Scotland will do very well to compete for 80 minutes against the Boks but I'd think Wales will beat Fiji. I've got my day worked out around watching these (and Japan v Chile at 12.00) on TV. England's next game is v Japan next Sunday so it'll be interesting to see how they go today.

[kentonclaret]

I've watched all the games so far as they're all on ITV here in UK. I'm enjoying it but then- I do enjoy watching this game more than footy nowadays (Clarets excepted of course).

An unexpectedly good performance by England last night to beat Argentina despite playing all bar 13 minutes a man down. I've no idea why Curry's offence was deemed worse than Carreras offence but the former got a red card and the latter a yellow. Very gritty (and surprisingly intelligent) performance by England and Ford (fly half) was really excellent.

Ireland looked very good hammering Romania. Scotland to play South Africa today (16.45) and Wales to play Fiji (20.00). Scotland will do very well to compete for 80 minutes against the Boks but I'd think Wales will beat Fiji. I've got my day worked out around watching these (and Japan v Chile at 12.00) on TV. England's next game is v Japan next Sunday so it'll be interesting to see how they go today.

Curry received a Red Card in the 3rd minute so England played almost the entire game a man short making their winning effort even more laudable.

[dougcollins]

Well, technically he received a yellow card in the 3rd minute which was upgraded to a red 8 minutes after that.

But you're right in that he was missing from the game from the 3rd minute.

[dandeclaret]

It's a world cup. Where's the reports of riots, chair and bottle throwing and mayhem?

It’s a minority sport…. Nobody reports on anything about it.

[Tricky Trevor]

French still have no idea how to get spectators to the match and in for kick off.
Both Ireland and England had fans outside as their matches started.
After last years CL final disaster I’ve no idea how they’ll organise an Olympics but I do know that when it ends they’ll say it was the best games ever.

[LeadBelly]

Its not the only game that's been affected but, Brian Moore's little piece from The Telegraph today...

It’s quite easy as a sports journalist, you get your accreditation and access-all-areas pass and stroll about without much fuss. The experience of the people who really matter, the paying punters, is always more difficult but should not be as bad as it was at the Stade de Marseille on Saturday evening.

Lest you think is a mere whinge from a usually entitled hack, the following description of my fan experience has been confirmed to me by eight different sets of fans, all of whom had the same shambolic experience.

This was not a case of ticketless fans trying to get into the stadium or fans who turned up last minute and tried to barge their way in. We arrived at the ground more than two and a half hours before kick-off, to try and avoid any problems. At that point there were thousands of fans, of both teams, hemmed into the road that led to the main steps of the stadium. Some tried to disperse to adjacent streets, bars and shops to stop the crowding getting worse, but, given that many of the streets were blocked by police and barriers, they could not do so and had to stand in what became an ever-denser crowd.

The gates finally opened, just an hour before kick-off, by which time there must have been nearly 20,000 fans around the entry steps. It took nearly an hour to get through security which, whilst boring, would not have been a problem had the gates opened earlier. As they did not, it was a problem and one made worse by the frankly obtuse numbering system which meant many fans, and indeed stadium staff, did not know where fans’ seats were to be found.

After several exchanges of the ‘You’re sitting in my seat”, “Well, they’re sitting in my seat” variety, many fans just gave up and sat in the first free seat they could find. Thousands of fans missed the kick-off and hundreds ended up sitting in the concrete aisles having been unable to actually locate their seats at all.

Leaving the ground was not pleasant either, with narrow pinch-points where vast crowds were channelled into small walkways. Had circumstances been different there would have been serious trouble.

World Rugby have stated “While fans were able to take their seats, fan experience is paramount, and we are working with all stakeholders to establish the facts and implement measures to prevent such delays for the remaining Rugby World Cup 2023 matches at the venue.” They have subsequently apologised and vowed to increase both volunteers and announcements to assist fans into venues.

Just a few points on this platitudinous corporate-speak. Many fans were not able to take their seats, and many who were, were not able to do so without missing part of the game. If World Rugby and the French Rugby Federation want to learn how to run events, they should speak to the London 2012 organisers who had thousands of highly visible and well-informed staff and volunteers who genuinely did believe that the fan experience was paramount.

[dougcollins]

The more people that apologise, the more meaningless it becomes.

[MrTopTier]

Game of the weekend currently on now.

Wales 18-14 Fiji 30 minutes in.

[TsarBomba]

I’ve never really watched rugby, I have no idea what the rules are, but I am enjoying this Wales-Fiji game.

I have worked with a lot of Welsh lads over the years and they have all been absolutely mad for it.

[dougcollins]

Ref has been lenient so far, Wales seem to have too many with too much to say.

[Hibsclaret]

Incredibly lucky the Welsh. Should have lost one or two more to the sin bin for starters. Fiji very unfortunate but what a great game that was.

[bumba]

The game was in his hands at the end, great game to watch

[Caballo]

Incredibly lucky the Welsh. Should have lost one or two more to the sin bin for starters. Fiji very unfortunate but what a great game that was.

Baffled by the officiating, how many penalties in the red zone!!

[Hibsclaret]

It doesn’t matter what sport you watch but there is always a foul taste in your mouth when a game is likely decided by poor refereeing. There is no doubt that Fiji deserved to win that game and would most likely have done so if they had the numerical advantage based on the foul play of the opposition.

[Spijed]

It doesn’t matter what sport you watch but there is always a foul taste in your mouth when a game is likely decided by poor refereeing. There is no doubt that Fiji deserved to win that game and would most likely have done so if they had the numerical advantage based on the foul play of the opposition.

Certainly puts to bed the argument that Refs and VAR in rugby is far better than in football. They have been very poor so far. Even those doing the VAR are as bad as those in football.

[Tricky Trevor]

Certainly puts to bed the argument that Refs and VAR in rugby is far better than in football. They have been very poor so far. Even those doing the VAR are as bad as those in football.

Agree with how poor they have been but it’s a different system than football. TMO can only tell the ref about serious foul play that warrants a card. Otherwise the ref has to ask for advise. The decision for a yellow for persistent offending is solely on the ref and he was poor.
When he tells the Welsh captain next offence and a card is coming out then after more repetitions of the same offence tells him again he is not doing his job.

[LeadBelly]

Ive really enjoyed the games but there has been inconsistency in the refereeing certainly. There's always tended to be different rule interpretation southern v northern hemisphere. That's Ok when most of the games are played just within each hemisphere but you'd hope for a world cup the refs (and the off-field officials) had been thoroughly briefed to apply rules consistently.

The most obvious example so far is the head clash inconsistency.
Curry (of England v Argentina) yellow carded by ref (after his attention had been drawn to the incident) - then upgraded by off-field panel to red
Sigren of Chile (v Japan) yellow card by ref not upgraded by panel
Kriel of SA (v Scotland) not even yellow carded.

All three were careless and appeared very similar but with very different outcomes (In fact Curry's was probably the one with most mitigation).

The disciplinary panel hearing to review (determine suitable ban punishment for) Curry's red will be very interesting - I'd guess the England legal team will bring up the other two cases mentioned above.

As an England fan, Im not retrospectively too disappointed with the Curry card as it seemed to galvanise the team into one of their better performances.

[Quickenthetempo]

As a casual watcher of International Rugby Union, I've been a bit bored with all the kicking and as confused as most of you with the Red card situation in the England game.
Hopefully it improves.

[Tricky Trevor]

There's always tended to be different rule interpretation southern v northern hemisphere.

I’ve always had a down on French refs compared to UK & Ireland. They are consistent in their decision making but it is not what we are used to, purely down to interpretation.

[Clarets4me]

God only knows what the Welsh TMO ( Ben Whitehouse ) was doing less than a minute into the Scotland v South Africa game, still feeding his guide dog nibbles, I suspect ! The incident was virtually a carbon copy of the one that saw Curry red carded for England v Argentina ...

It's now becoming obvious that there is no consistency in the officiating and that certain officials, especially Jaco Peyper and Marius Jonker referee certain nations to a different standard than others ...

[Hibsclaret]

When he tells the Welsh captain next offence and a card is coming out then after more repetitions of the same offence tells him again he is not doing his job.

In fairness to him I think he gave a card for the next offence after the warning. The issue was it was for the team that had been playing fairly for the previous ten minutes rather than the one persistently fouling.