Rugby World Cup 2015

Blazzok said:
I wen't somewhat with my heart, and somewhat with knowledge of past outcomes and current team form; however I am not super knowledgeable about the composition of all teams, player stats, etc.

I just like rugby and follow the game semi casually :)
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I'm very knowledgeable and oh so modest! "whistling: But in the end World Cups tend to not go as one would expect them to. So knowledge and past outcomes and current form only counts for so much. In the end a referee can make all the difference. I'm looking at you Bryce Lawrence.
 
Solitude said:
I'm very knowledgeable and oh so modest! "whistling: But in the end World Cups tend to not go as one would expect them to. So knowledge and past outcomes and current form only counts for so much. In the end a referee can make all the difference. I'm looking at you Bryce Lawrence.
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Hahaha, we should make your next title Mr. Modest :p

Yeah you raise valid points. However current form (form before RWC) is the best indicator to use in terms of how they might do, also you can look at past performances in the hemisphere, since the fields "up there" don't drain so well when it rains and become mud pits, which is totally different form most souther hemisphere fields. Also northern hemisphere referees tend to blow differently than their souther counterparts. So a lot also comes down to how quick and well a team can adapt to the style of the referee as well as the playing conditions.

Unfortunately from past games, the boks always look like they struggle to adjust to a referee when he starts blowing differently to what they might have expected. Something I have seen Australia and NZ adapt to quite quickly and use to their advantage.

One can look at these things and make best guesses, but ofcourse injuries and the odd fluke can throw things way out :P
 
After hearing what Nick Mallet had to say about the RWC, I've ammended many of my opinions about the different teams. Here are some points he raised.

Our team is at a huge disadvantage as we are taking many A team players with little to no game time, and we are hoping for the first round of games for them to get fit. There is no indication that they are on top form, or if they will be able to reach top form before the knock-out games. It's a big concern

We are sitting with, and I'm paraphrasing from Nick himself, "dinosaurs" in the team that serves no purpose other than being a safety net for Heyneke. In positions where he is not all that comfortable, he would rather take people based on past experience rather than current form, and that caused many inclusions of players that really don't deserve to be there. Yes, I'm talking about Victor and Morne, and to a lesser degree even Juan.

England fields are not the mud pit they used to be, and most of the games will be played without any rain, as it's historically not a rainy time of year for Britain. Also, all the fields they are playing on are state of the art and have much better drainage. The old idea of mud pit rugby hasn't happened since 1956, so we should really be getting our minds out of that thinking. The games there will be quick and the field will be hard under foot, which will determine exactly what type of rugby is going to be played. Look at the brand of rugby Ireland and England are playing now. They are not playing rugby for "wet field" conditions.

We as the Boks have always been extremely "unlucky" when it comes to the refs. And why is that? It's because other teams like NZ, Aus and England employs retired refs in the team management to analyse each and every ref, and they coach their teams to play according to the ref on the day. They are more prepared for the ref than for line-outs in many cases. Jonathan Kaplan confirmed that the Bok team has never gone to a ref to help them with the on-field calls. It doesn't make sense why they don't utilize a resource like that. It's the main reason why we are always on the receiving end of the referees wrath.

These comments were eye-opening to hear from a guy very close to the rugby world, and unfortunately it sounded like there wasn't too high hopes for a Bok win this year. But as we all know, anything can happen.
 
That's very interesting DieGrootHammer and makes me worry a bit because everything is true and makes sense.
 
Solitude said:
That's very interesting DieGrootHammer and makes me worry a bit because everything is true and makes sense.
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Indeed it made me a bit worried as well. Obviously the matter of quotas was also discussed, and it seems that the panel all agreed that Heyneke could have chosen a far more diverse team and still keep quality, but he stuck to stalwarts due to loyalty and promises made a few years back. I personally see us progress right up to the semi-finals against NZ, but stats is against us then. In our previous 4 encounters with the All Blacks, we've lost 3 of the 4 games. Not a good sign, but on neutral ground we do still stand a chance if the team comes together and find the form Heyneke is hoping for. But the final, playing against either Ireland or England in a final at Twickenham, well that is a much more difficult prospect, regardless of what team is playing in the final. This RWC is certainly not as clear cut as the previous one.
 
Nice report ther Hammer. i really wish we could get Mallet as a coach again, although i doubt he would want to be the coach with all the issues regarding selections these days.

I Really hope the rumours of Heyneke' contract being extended to 2019 are not true.

i dont think he is the right coach to take us forward in rugby. he likes playing blue bull rugby and as is testament of their performances in the past 2 years with super rugby you can see they are seriously lacking.

lets hope it will be raining, cause at least we can stand some chance with our forwards
 
Wenzdayz said:
Nice report ther Hammer. i really wish we could get Mallet as a coach again, although i doubt he would want to be the coach with all the issues regarding selections these days.

I Really hope the rumours of Heyneke' contract being extended to 2019 are not true.

i dont think he is the right coach to take us forward in rugby. he likes playing blue bull rugby and as is testament of their performances in the past 2 years with super rugby you can see they are seriously lacking.

lets hope it will be raining, cause at least we can stand some chance with our forwards
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Have to disagree with you there Wenz, and most shark and WP supporters have that attitude. Go look at how the boks game have changed compared to Bulls rugby and vice versa. Thing that most people forget in this current time is that HM is being pressured by government to make certain selections. it's not by choice i can promise you now if there was no government interference what so ever, Our springbok team for this year would have looked very dangerous.

If he had the freedom he had at the bulls we would be a force to reckon with sure he plays some old players but some of them still preform. some even better than the younger ones. hes a good coach and i think he's one of the best in the world when it comes to communicating with his players. Talking about performances you go loose basically a 30 man squad of your top players in a span of 3 years and lets see if your still the top team around. And TBH frans was a kak coach :p

But he makes selections according to what is outlined for him i think he is the most restricted coach SA has had thanx to the Government.

But that is my opinion
 
Mister 44 said:
I logged my picks for the MyG/MyBB RWC competition after a lot of mental arithmetic. There may have been some Excel spreadsheets, with weighted averages, involved as well, but you will never hear the truth from me :D

So you guys and girls that picked your teams already, how much thought did you put into your picks? Did you go with gut feel or did you analyse previous results, logged possible outcomes and figure scoring margins into your picks?

tl;dr (honestly? Was that too long for you? Pffft!): Did you pick with heart or brain?
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I worked backwards... who would be in the final, semi-finals, quarter-finals?

Then take the QF teams and work back to the pools to see who they were playing and predict some scores.

Then work out if it is worth picking a team that will most probably make the SFs but won't score as many points as a losing QF team !!

Best part? I cannot win the comp as I'm the administrator of it! :cry:
 
MickeyD said:
I worked backwards... who would be in the final, semi-finals, quarter-finals?

Then take the QF teams and work back to the pools to see who they were playing and predict some scores.

Then work out if it is worth picking a team that will most probably make the SFs but won't score as many points as a losing QF team !!

Best part? I cannot win the comp as I'm the administrator of it! :cry:
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If you win we'll send you a congratulations card with a picture of a cat on it. :p
 
Blazzok said:
If you win we'll send you a congratulations card with a picture of a cat on it. :p
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After what happened Friday in the Currie Cup, I think [MENTION=8179]MickeyD[/MENTION] already has a bigcat skin throw rug :( So the card should go nicely with that.
 
I'm not even registered on myBB so i think i'll miss out on a few things for the WC but i;ll gladly do the myGaming comps for it. And only 2Days 13 hours and 57 minutes for the rugby spectacle to kick off :D
 
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