Excellent, I hope you do keep that tiny little world cup, as long as we have the big silverware ;)

But seriously, I hope they cast a giant cup, bigger than the Bledesloe out of solid gold to be the new World Cup, the current one is hilarious, my new kettle is bigger than it is.

hehe

Good luck to you guys on Thursday, Spartak! I'll be down at the pub cheering for you.

Strategy suggestion for Saturday: Send Joe Roff on in the first 5 minutes to go for Wilkinson's knee, and bugger the card.
(Better yet, have someone in Sydney this week 'drop' a hammer on his foot...)
:p

But as long as we're tipping, Zubrin, I'll say Australia by 9, England to have a score exactly divisible by 3.

LOL!!!
funny cos its true...

haha.
that reminds me of a story i heard about some S.Africa vs NZ game many years ago... the boks had some absolute wrecking ball of a prop who just laid waste to everything in range... so, on hearing that this guy was on the way to NZ for a tour, the Blacks called up some massive unit who was playing for some local club or some equivalent... anyway, they put him up in the opposing front row of the scrum, and during the first scrum, this bok wrecking balls head suddenly shot up, then he fell down unconscious... then the kiwis immediately subbed their new guy... who also turned out to be the local heavyweight boxing champ...

whattya say about subbing in Anthony Mundine or Kostya Tszyu for a few minutes, just to deal with jonny?

nah, we don´t need that.
we can win anyway.

Hahahaha, the old All Blacks were a cunning bunch, I remember seeing a doco about a tour of the UK in the 70s I think.

Anyway the AB's were losing to England (I think) by 2 and it was approaching fulltime, and New Zealand got a lineout on about the English 30. The legend is, the ABs in the lineout just looked at each other and jumped out as soon as the ball had been released, looking like they have been pushed. They did such a good con-job that they fooled the ref into giving them a penalty, which they ended up converting and this beating England.

Sneaky, sneaky :D

Finally saw the match, I was away for the weekend, luckily someone got pay per view and taped it for me. Let me say this. You may hate me for it, but Australia did not deserve to win. That Mealamu "knock-on" was a try. Mortlock was offsides for his try, look at it, slow it down, he is blatantly offsides. Two of the penalties conceded for points (offsides ones) should not have been called because the players that were called offsides were not affecting the play anyways. The ref was horrid and did not call ruck when one was formed. There was a forward pass that was called, that wasn't. The score should have been 17-6 in favor of New Zealand. So now, I really could care less who wins the World Cup, Australia doesn't deserve it, and I can't freakin' stand England. Just a frusturating deal all around. If the ref had called it the same way for both sides, and the Wallabies won that way, then I would have been ok with it. Yet, the ref controlled the match and basically drained all the flash from the All Blacks, even Cees Meeuws looked distraught, he never does, that man is crazy, he never, ever, shows any other emotion than pissed off. This is ridiculous, I am disgusted with the poor quality of refs in high stakes matches like this, the IRB needs to wake up and do it soon.

oh, poor Archer...

LOL!!
excuses, excuses... your words.

as for your excuses...

Australia did deserve to win.
going in to this cup campaign, NZ only had ONE game plan, just as Spencer said after the match. Australia shut it down... that done, Spencer couldn´t pull anything else together... especially with Australia defending as well as they did.
they put the pressure on, and NZ made mistake after mistake... Rokocoko´s dropping the ball into touch is a great case in point.
Mortlock was NOT offside... that was a magnificent, and risky intercept... look at the replay, if he didn´t pull that off, there would have been three NZ backs running around him.
that disallowed try WAS knocked on... and his elbow was in touch if i remember correctly. Tuqiri´s tackle was too strong.
There are always forward passes... this is because refs are not able to always stay at a decent angle of the play... this happens all the time...
it wasn´t the ref who drained the ´flash´ from the blacks, it was the Wallabies.
Kees Meeuws ought to have been distraught... he put Ben Darwin in hospital, possibly ending his rugby career, oh, and his world cup dream had just died.

as for Australia not deserving to win the cup... LOL!!

both England and Australia deserve to win the cup.
why?
because when it counted, they played the best rugby.
if England wins on Saturday, it´ll be because they´ve been able to play the greatest rugby around, and that they´ve mastered the rules...
to take advantage of the kicking aspect of the game in the way that they do (masterfully, i should add), even if heaps of people think its boring (myself included), shows that they are well and truly deserving of the cup.

if Australia wins, well its because they are the best, and that when it counted, they´ll have outwitted two supposedly better teams.


for an American, you don´t seem to be taking a Kiwi defeat very well.

^What he said.

Great-great grandparents are Kiwis. Well, were, considering they're passed on now.

Bring it on. I cant wait for the aussies to crush the poms in yet another sport.

I heard that the Womens Refuge Society in New Zealand issued a statement saying that domestic violence jumped very sharply the night the aussies beat the Kiwis.

Yeah, the economy also collapsed and the suicide rate incrased sharply...

Don't believe the hype.

i noticed the Kiwi dollar was up yesterday against the Aussie dollar.

things can´t be all that bad. after all, the Kiwis still have most of the good (and large) silverware.

You southern hemisphere lot are so bitter and twisted. Yes we have the best boot in Rugby, so why not use it. I'm damn sure if you lot had Jonny you'd do exactly the same as England.

Any "one" person willing to have a gentlemen's bet. I'll bet that England do indeed score a try, who will bet against me? The stake is I'll buy the first Aussie I meet in a pub a pint of lager (or bottle if hes a weirdo) if I'm wrong. If I'm right you have to buy the first English bloke you meet in a pub a pint (or bottle). And you have to explain why.

I still stick by my original assessment. England by 10 points (which isn't divisable by 3 :P).

ok zubrei. you´re on.
gentlemens bet it is.

i´ll buy the first Englishman i see in the pub a pint if England scores a try.

thats not to say i don´t think they´ll try for a try.
with Coen and Robinson, why wouldn´t they try to spread it wide once in a while?? especially when everybody is expecting everything to be going to jonny. a running rugby tactic may be a smart move. esp is Australia is preparing for a kicking game.

like i said a few posts above, Wilkinson/England may be boring, but they have mastered a great aspect of the game. this should be interesting. the best kicking squad against the best running squad.

good luck to the Poms. LOL - they´ll need it!!!

i just can´t help but remember back to the semis of the 1999 cup.
that yarpie Janni De Beer (sp?) was kicking drop goal after drop goal (5 in a match is still the record) - what was the very typical and brilliant response by the Aussies??
thats right, Steve Larkham went and kicked a drop goal to beat them.

btw Aussies, starting Friday, i hope everyones going to be getting around in gold. esp on saturday night.
the poms are a very vocal, annoying crowd... they´ll all be in white all 20000+ of them... so just like when the lions were last here in 2001... lets just get every aussie in gold.

England divisible by 3.
Australia to win.
close match.
esp if they run it a Wendell and kick it at Rogers. (which is what i reckon their plan will be).


oh, and come on New Zealand for tonight.

Nah, despite my bitterness towards Australia right now, they're a much better all around footy team, Australia by 7.

England by a couple of drop goals.

They have too much experience and a solid, still unbroken gameplan, if things get too tough up front they are more than happy to give it to Johnny and let him have a go. While they also have some speed on the field, namely their fullback (Robinson ?) is a fast little chap.

They are also masters at bleeding the clock dry as well as other assorted means of "gamesmanship".

And it worked for them this far, it even worked for them when they had to come back from behind to win.

OK, it's still scoreless, and I haven't seen any of the game, so this tip isn't really cheating:
France by 3

(I want NZ to win, but think France will)

Damn...I said ^that exactly 30 seconds before the first try :p

Bundy it's a deal.

Good first 20 minutes, crap second 20 minutes. France just aren't using the ball. Mind you it's annoying that france are using a basically 2nd string team.

I won tickets to the final, im so freakin pumped. I'm gonna get wasted, and watch the aussies roll the pommies!!!!!!

Opened my mouth before I found out France had fielded a B side. Don't I feel like a dickhead!

Enjoy the final, shaydee!

you lucky bastard!!!!
enjoy it mate.
i´m venturing into the city on saturday night. i know that theres going to be fireworks... so a bunch of us are going to try to get to the rocks or to luna park.
what a massive night it´ll be.

Bloody English. :P

That's all I have to say.

All I have to say is:

YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and in case you missed it we also scored the same number of tries as Oz.

What a bloody great game! The outcome was unfortunate, but the Poms just played better rugby. You couldn't ask for a better RWC grand final!

Dammit, I wanted the drop goal shootout, honestly, how cool would that have been ?

Wilkinson, imo, should be the tournament's MVP, without him England probably wouldn't have moved past Wales.

Wilkinson was possibly England's calmest and maybe best player. But my vote has to go to Martin Johnson, the man is immense and didn't stop for the full 100 minutes today, and his performences in the previous games. The way he puts his body on the line is an inspiration to the rest of his team mates. Put it one way I wouldn't like to disapoint him.

AWESOME GAME!!!!

well done England... what a fucking unreal game (would have been better with a different outcome though - haha)...

hey zubrei, i did buy some pom a pint after that Robinson try ... man, just don´t ask me to remember his name... way too much to drink... still hungover...

poetic justice that it all came down to Wilkinsons boot... i mean, after all that pressure, from the press, from the wallabies, from the poms, and from himself, he still managed to pull it off when it counted....

utterly infuriating for us, but still great job.

thats so true...
brilliant game... even though we lost, everyone in my bar took about ten minutes to reflect, then just got up again and kept on partying... best atmosphere...

i´ll say it once again... well done England...

oh, and btw, you poms might need some advice on what to do when your team wins something.... cos it hasn´t happened for a while hey... well, yall just get mighty good and drunk... and sing heaps... haha....


on a more serious note...
i think thats the last bit of silverware out of our cabinet. even though we put up a bloody great fight, we´ve managed to lose all of our trophies.
time to start a new era of great Australian rugby... maybe...

Good move by Aussie in keeping their coach, that shows great solidarity imo.

Not unlike NZ, who are now making Mitch re-apply for his own job.

Clive Woodward said it best, he won the bledisloe and the tri-nations, won all those other games and then lost just one game to Australia.

I mean it was only his second year as coach, and he did it with a team of youngsters in key positions (2nd five - Mauger, FB - Muliana, Wing - Rokocoko, Daniel Carter - utility back kicking machine), many of them getting their first All Blacks caps.

The country went from hating him, to loving him, back to hating him.

PS was it just me or did the guy who handed out the silver medals to Australia looked REALLY pissed off ?

yeah, he looked pissed off... so did John Howard... that pygmy runt who calls himself our prime minister... he just shoved the cup into Johnsons hands, and walked off...
that was an embarrassing moment for Australia, having our prime minister show what a bad loser he is...

Spartak, you´re so right about the youth in the NZ squad... Mauger, Carter, Muliaina, Rokocoko, Howlett, Jack, Brad Thorne, So´aiolo, Nonu ... these guys (plus more) will be giving us headaches for many many more years to come.

(interesting to compare this youth to the old pensioners in the English squad - lol!!)...

Extremely overated!!! hahaha....congratulations to the entire england squad! arise sir johnny wilkinson!!! a knighthood should await this chap!!!!

its great to see the aussies eat their words, especially after all that crap in the sydney daily telegraph...advocating people to make loads of noise outside the english hotel before the final??!?! if thats how they want to try and win...by all means...or u could concentrate on rugby! ;)

I stand by my earlier remark 100%, the All Blacks are the best all round rugby side in the world in my (unbiased ;) ) opinion.

Face it, England won the cup in ET, and only because Johnny (1 person) was keeping them in the game the entire time, hardly decisive.

And don't even get me started about their soft WC schedule.

The IRB did name the All Blacks the team of the year.

can it really be true?????

are the kiwis actually whinging more than the poms?

j/k

yes, the kiwis are a sensational squad... they play entertaining, quality rugby... but, as we all know, they didn´t play great rugby when it counted... they fell apart when they had their one and only game plan shut down...

yes, the poms have a great team... yes they have a great 5/8 who is able to win games (when it counts) if the rest of the team feeds it to him... yes, the poms won when it counts... they just won the World Cup... they are the best squad atm.

are you kidding??
it was Elton Flatley who was keeping Australia in the game... we were the ones having to play desperate catch up...

Just have to say that now the world cup has finished, the aussies have been very gracious in defeat. They have showed great sportsmanship, I don't just mean the players but the fans and media as well.

So fair play to Bundy and his countrymen, oh and great stuff on buying the englih bloke a pint. I'll reciprocate with the resident aussie down at my rugby club, mind you that is an excuse to carry on drinking :)

Another thing, from the beginning the aussies were slagged off unmercifully by the press and some of their fans. But when it came down to the final stages they showed their true competitive spirit and their will to win. Great side and they made a great final, far better than the 3rd/4th place playoff.

Meh, at least we got 3rd place this time round, it's an improvement as far as I'm concerned ;)

Oh yes - the Aussie prime minster REALLY didn't like having to hand out those medals to England.