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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:30
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quote:
And i can´t wait to see Fiji´s victory over France |
Yeah, the problem is the Fiji can win...
As expected, the NZ-Italy match was very entertaining. I think Carter and Marshall have made a very good game, and the pack has been very good, both in scrums and open play. As for the Italians, I believe they have shown some good things. Their try was well deserved, but they just spend too many players in the fight phases so they left themselves open to counters. With their best side, they may make it out of the pool stage.
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Andydog
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London
Jan 2001
time: 05:30
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In fairness to Carlos, he took a very big hit that saw him limping for the rest of the game. Before that hit, he'd only had one conversion, a moderately straight forward one which he just missed. After that hit though he didn't look comfortable at all, just as well Carter was able to step in, and what a great game he had.
NZ seemed to lack a bit of structure in the first half. Italy defended admirably, really taking it to NZ and forcing errors.
On the positives, as I hoped Mitchell gave our subbies a good run, and boy did they step up to the task. The depth of our reserves is quite remarkable. Nonu, who stepped in for Umaga, had a blinder - being just as effective as Umaga he could have been his twin brother.
Richie McCaw had a fantastic game, I still don't know how he manages to be in every place at once. Mealamu played superbly, NZ winning every lineout except for one at the start of the game. And how about that NZ scrum! Our forward pack were all over the Italians, our mauling should have impressed even Mr  ! 
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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:30
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Umaga's knee. Hopefully it's not serious. |
Apparently, they said here it was serious and he might be out for the rest of the Cup.
Ireland - Romania 45 - 17.
Expected Irish victory but Romanians behaved better than most expected. Hickie on the Irish wing showed a lot of class, as usual.
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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:30
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quote:
Heh. The best England did in the 6 Nations was beat Italy 40-5 at Twickenham, so the ABs did pretty good to put 70 past them. |
Yes, but then this team wasn't Italy's best team. Kirwan was very explicit about it: Since they had no chance to win, he wouldn't risk hurting his best team.
France 61 - 18 Fiji
A good game for the French, marred by a few errors in handling and defensive organisation.
Magne also had a brainfade once, when he kicked the ball into the hands of a Fijian player. He looks like he's going to have one such brainfade every match. Last time it was a chistera, now a kick. What next?
There was a little fight that erupted following a neck_high tackle by Fijians over a French player. If I saw well, they tackled the head after the ref had whistled. This resulted in 2 yellow cards and a jaw injury for Magne, thanks to a punch from Caucau. It's sad that the winger lost his temper, he's a great player, scored a 80 meter try all by himself.
I have found Dominici to play very well in this game. I really like it when small players like him manage to get the better of bigger guys.
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Tamerlin
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Toulouse (South-western France)
Apr 2002
time: 06:30
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quote:
Topic raised by finbar
Something unusual in the SH, Mr Roland is penalizing the Fidjian scrum under pressure... better late than never! |
I am now complaining this is not often enough!
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Oh, and Mrs finbar thinks Les Grenouilles are the cutest team she's seen so far. She likes their Gallic looks... |
An educated man can only live with a woman that has a good taste. 
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Though she thought the replacement from Toulouse - Labit? - was too old to have blonde tips in his hair!  |
Not Labit but... Mister Labit please!
About this afternoon game, I must admit that for the first time since one year I have had some pleasure to watch at the French team. Though the French players have made some handling errors the runners have at last demonstrated some skill.
Dominici has played surprisingly well, Fabien Galthié, Frédéric Michalack, Jauzion and many others have made a good game. Moreover, the team has played cleverly (that which it was not able to do since at least one year) doing things in the right order:
Mauls and spontaneous scrums to tighten the defence and then ball sent to the wings (and to the right one) with players able to come back towards the centre of the field when it is necessary to play again with the forwards. 
Another encouraging thing is that the French players have managed to play like this for almost 80 minutes. I know that they were opposed to a minor country but they were unable to play consistently against Romania a few weeks ago (the second half was a real nightmare).
Very surprising and... pleasant!
Mr Roland... though you are sometimes lenient you can come back when you want!
On the bad side, there are still too many handling errors, I have not found Nicolas Brusque very good and Olivier Magne... well, hmmm... has been... well... equal to himself. He is able to be one of the best players of the world but he is sometimes experiencing severe brain failures. He seems to forget he is a forward or/and that he is playing a game called Rugby. 
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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:30
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quote:
Originally posted by Tamerlin
I am now complaining this is not often enough! |
Tapdanced your way out of that one, didn't you!
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An educated man can only live with a woman that has a good taste. |
She asked me if you were as cute as some of Les Grenouilles. I said it was highly unlikely! Even with those blonde tips in your hair!
quote:
Not Labit but... Mister Labit please! |
Listen, Mister Tamerlin, I only use the term Mister for people I respect! With those blonde tips, at his age, Labit looks like one of those guys who hangs around pedestrian crossings outside girls' schools waiting for a strong gust of wind!
quote:
Dominici has played surprisingly well, Fabien Galthié, Frédéric Michalack, Jauzion and many others have made a good game. Moreover, the team has played cleverly (that which it was not able to do since at least one year) doing things in the right order:
Mauls and spontaneous scrums to tighten the defence and then ball sent to the wings (and to the right one) with players able to come back towards the centre of the field when it is necessary to play again with the forwards. |
Absolutely right. They went out there with a method. There was some scintillating handling. That impeccably bred grenouille, M'sieur Marais, made a wonderful comeback.
quote:
Another encouraging thing is that the French players have managed to play like this for almost 80 minutes. I know that they were opposed to a minor country but they were unable to play consistently against Romania a few weeks ago (the second half was a real nightmare). |
Yes, this is the problem in these pool matches - putting performances against lesser teams into perspective. It's so hard to know what it all really means. Of the matches thus far, I thought the French the most impressive. They never really lost concentration. The ABs did. So did the Wallabies, on top of their appalling handling. I watched quite a bit of the Springboks -v- Uruguay last night, and even though the Boks racked up a lot of points, they did it the hard way.
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Mr Roland... though you are sometimes lenient you can come back when you want! |
What's his background? Irish, but seemingly comfortable speaking French?
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On the bad side, there are still too many handling errors, I have not found Nicolas Brusque very good |
Is he the #14? He made a big mistake early, though credit has to be given to the Fijian chasers who arrived very quickly to put pressure on him. Other than that, I was impressed.
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finbar
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Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy
Jan 1970
time: 06:30
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Sounds like bad news for the ABs this morning. They're reporting that Umaga's knee will keep him out of the tournament, and Rokocoko's hamstring isn't looking good either. Hopefully the reports are wrong.
Edit. Now confirmed that Umaga's tournament is over. Rokocoko's hammy apparently not so serious.
Last edited by finbar on 12-10-2003 at 07:34
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11-10-2003 01:05
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