Category: Rugby World Cup

England Coach Stuart Lancaster acknowledges that his team have been drawn in a tough group for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, but believes that they should be excited about the challenge. (more…)

The Junior Springboks bounced back from their shock first round defeat to Ireland when they beat Italy 52-03. After a day of upsets, the South Africans are back in with a chance of making the quarterfinals.

Day 2 Results

Fiji 15 v 03 Samoa
France 30 v 29 Scotland
South Africa 52 v 03 Italy
Australia 03 v 15 Argentina
New Zealand 06 v 09 Wales
England 20 v 15 Ireland

A nightmare start to the Junior Rugby World Championships could see the Baby Boks fail to progress out of the group stage at their home tournament, after being comprehensively outplayed by their Irish counterparts in Stellenbosch yesterday.

Coach Dawie Theron put the defeat down to “small errors” on the part of his team, while captain Wiaan Liebenberg blamed the referee “I think there were several calls that didn’t go our way. I was frustrated with that, especially with their bodies lying all over the ball.”

Neither coach nor captain took responsibility for their team being dominated at the breakdown, destroyed in the set-pieces and simply being outplayed and out-thought in all facets of the game. The game plan appeared to be the standard bash it up and kick possession away that has become the staple of South African coaches. The Baby Boks play England next but face an almost impossible task to progress in the tournament.

All the results from day one:

Monday June 04 2012

South Africa 19 – 23 Ireland
France 15 – 18 Argentina
New Zealand 63 – 0 Samoa
England 64 – 5 Italy
Wales 44 – 18 Fiji
Australia 67 – 12 Scotland

Zinzan Brooke talks about how his All Blacks team was poisoned before the 1995 World Cup Final against the Springboks. Scott Quinnell’s lucky underpants. How Lievremont has outhought Graham Henry. Moustaches – Will Carling: “South Africans never do anything that’s funny”

French captain Thierry Dusautoir was named 2011 IRB Player of the Year. New Zealand was named Team of the Year, while their coach Graham Henry was named Coach of the Year.

The full list of award winners is as follows:

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The All Blacks narrowly defeated a French side that had come to play, winning their second Rugby World Cup title.

All Blacks 8 (5)
Try: Tony Woodcock
Penalty: Stephen Donald

France 7 (0)
Try: Thierry Dusautoir
Conversion: Francois Trinh-Duc

MOTM: Thierry Dusautoir (France)

Match details

Date: Sunday 23 October 2011
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 10.00 SA 21.00 NZ (08.00 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant refs: Alain Rolland (Ire), Nigel Owens (Wales)
TMO: Giulio De Santis (Italy)

Teams

New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Richard Kahui, 10 Aaron Cruden, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Brad Thorn, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Ali Williams, 19 Adam Thomson, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Sonny Bill Williams.

France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Morgan Parra, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 20 Francois Trinh-Duc, 21 Jean Marc Doussain, 22 Damien Traille.

Route to final

New Zealand

Friday, September 9: beat Tonga 41-10, Auckland (pool match)
Friday, September 16: beat Japan 83-7, Hamilton (pool match)
Saturday, September 24: beat France 37-17, Auckland (pool match)
Sunday, October 2: Canada 79-15, Wellington (pool match)
Sunday, October 9: Argentina 33-10, Auckland (quarterfinal)
Sunday, October 16: beat Australia 20-6, Auckland (semifinal)

France

Saturday, September 10: beat Japan 47-21, Albany (pool match)
Sunday, September 18: beat Canada 46-19, Napier (pool match)
Saturday, September 24: lost to New Zealand 17-37, Auckland (pool match)
Saturday, October 1: lost to Tonga 14-19, Wellington (pool match)
Saturday, October 8: beat England 19-12, Auckland (quarterfinal)
Saturday, October 15: beat Wales 9-8, Auckland (semifinal)

Recent results

2011: New Zealand won 37-17, Auckland
2009: New Zealand won 39-12, Marseille
2009: New Zealand won 14-10, Wellington
2009: France won 27-22, Dunedin
2007: France won 20-18, Cardiff
2007: New Zealand won 61-10, Wellington
2007: New Zealand won 42-11, Auckland
2006: New Zealand won 23-11, Paris
2006: New Zealand won 47-3, Lyon
2004: New Zealand won 45-6, Paris

Based on Ou Grote’s predictions, those of international rugby experts, and Oddschecker which combines the odds of the world’s top 22 bookmakers to give the most likely result.

Predictions
Hear the predictions of Will Carling, Zinzan Brooke, Scott Quinnell, Rob Henderson and Matt Burke:

Rugby World Cup Final
Sunday 23 October 10:00 SA – New Zealand v France (Auckland)
OuGrote: New Zealand by 16
Joel Stransky: New Zealand by 24 (33-09)
Allister Coetzee: New Zealand by 14 (32-18)
John Mitchell: New Zealand by 17 (28-11)
Garth Wright: New Zealand by 15 (25-10)
OddsChecker: New Zealand by 13+
SuperBru overall average: New Zealand by 14

Prediction: NEW ZEALAND

Third place playoff
Friday 21 October 09:30 SA – Wales v Australia (Auckland)

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