19-09-2003 04:04									#33
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Interesting betting market published this morning.

England's finishing position in the World Cup:

Runners-up: $2.45
Winners: $3.00
Exit semi-finals: $3.75
Exit quarter-finals: $6.00
Exit after pool games: $81.00

Mmmmm. $10,000 at 81/1 should just about buy me my house in France or Italy.

	19-09-2003 04:48									#34
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So...how do you plan to nobble Wilko?

	19-09-2003 05:22									#35
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I expect Phillip Ruddock to consign him to a detention camp.

	19-09-2003 14:17									#36
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There are two ways to nobble Wilkinson. One is to deliberately "follow-through" on him, and is illegal. The other, however, is to use crash ball runners in the tight areas where he INSISTS on trying to be an auxillery flanker and tries to put in big hits. Okay it might be 50-50 whethter he injures himself or the other player but this is his only major weakness.

	19-09-2003 14:37									#37
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Harassment by custom officers would be much more efficient, a 40 days long quarantine could be enough.

	19-09-2003 14:45									#38
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Yeah, true that is a more elegant plan.
I change my vote for nobbling Wilkinson to quarantine and move to have the English rugby team expelled for trying to use an unfair advantage.

Edit: Or importing illegal meat. You know, the type scrums and mauls. Evil beasts and not welcome in Aus.

Last edited by flipside on 19-09-2003 at 14:56

	19-09-2003 15:01									#39
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As far as France is concerned all kind of English foods are somehow considered as illegal, Havak's pork pie seems especially gruesome.

	19-09-2003 15:14									#40
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quote: Originally posted by Tamerlin As far as France is concerned all kind of English foods are somehow considered as illegal, Havak's pork pie seems especially gruesome.

I'd rather have a pok pie than snails

	19-09-2003 16:41									#41
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I have a French mate who claims that eating snails causes 'anal leakage'. Is this true Tamerlin?

	19-09-2003 18:27									#42
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I don't know I have never eaten snails.

The simple idea to eat snails sounds like a strange thing to most of the French I know. As far as I am concerned they are cooked with a lot of garlic so there is no chance I taste this kind of things.

	20-09-2003 00:36									#43
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Guys:
What do you think of the current status in that "zurich world rankings" that appear in the planet-rugby website?

Attachment: tabla.jpg
This has been downloaded 42 time(s).

	20-09-2003 03:23									#44
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This status seems right to me, England is obviously the best team in the world closely followed by New Zealand. IMO South Africa is a bit over rated, the RWC will demonstrate the real rank of this team along with those of Australia, Ireland and France.

	20-09-2003 03:30									#45
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SA probably is overrated, but I would say that's because of the influence of their past successes on the Zurich table.

	20-09-2003 04:21									#46
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Again, I agree, especially with the tendencies.

I would have:

1) NZ and Eng. The best teams.

2) France and maybe Aus. Strong teams that can pose the best problems.

3) Ireland , probably SA and on their day, Arg. Good teams that can cause an upset.

The only thing that I would say is missing is the consistancy of the teams. A team like France can hit heights that very few teams, even Eng/ NZ can match, but you would still back them to lose, at least half of the time, to a strong (2,8,9,10,15) team like Ireland or Arg.

	20-09-2003 04:44									#47
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I would like to know which half-back pairing that Argentina are going to use. The Pichot/Contemponi or Miranda /Quesada question is a very difficult one

I would have :

S/H Pichot
F/H Cont
I/C Ques
O/C Cont
As the natural continuity of Pichot and Contemponi, with their running and defensive skills could then be balanced with the place kicking and field kicking skills of Quesanda, who could rotate as first receiver as necessary.

	20-09-2003 04:52									#48
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These ranking systems are always potentially dodgy because of their purely statistical basis. Look at the cricket ranking system that recently had South Africa the top Test nation in the world - in front of Australia - despite Australia having whitewashed South Africa a few months before.

Anyway, IMHO, the top two teams stand out. No argument. I don't know where Australia stands relative to France at the moment. No one does, not even Tamerlin, because they haven't played for so long

I can only assume that the Boks are where they are on the basis that they beat Australia in one of the Tri-Nations matches, and pushed the ABs in another one. OTOH, in the other two matches against Australia and the ABs, the Boks were thumped. Personally, I'd slot Ireland ahead of the Boks.

The Pumas, I think, are the wild card. They could, on their day, beat at least one of the teams above them.

Ultimately, I find these ranking systems an utter waste of time. The only way teams can be compared is by playing each other.

	20-09-2003 05:22									#49
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quote: Originally posted by finbar Look at the cricket ranking system that recently had South Africa the top Test nation in the world - in front of Australia - despite Australia having whitewashed South Africa a few months before.

That was the funniest thing of all time and showed so much about how the ICC is run.

The point about ad-hoc sampling is totally valid, however, and goes to show how only certain tendencies are indicated and that these are no indicator of how any one match may go.

	20-09-2003 05:51									#50
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quote: I would like to know which half-back pairing that Argentina are going to use. The Pichot/Contemponi or Miranda /Quesada question is a very difficult one

I read in the newspapers that, after the loss of Arbizu, Felipe Contemponi would take his place as a centre.

So, we are going to use:

S/H Pichot
F/H Quesada
C Contemponi

	20-09-2003 06:06									#51
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Ummm...............

Why break up such a natural parternership?

Is it to do with Quesanda's defensive problems being exposed or just to do with Contemponi's greater flexability?

	20-09-2003 06:49									#52
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quote: Is it to do with Quesanda's defensive problems being exposed or just to do with Contemponi's greater flexability?

In my opinon, it has to do with (as you said) Contemponi´s greater flexibility plus Quesada´s better field kicking skills

	20-09-2003 19:36									#53
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quote: Originally posted by flipside The point about ad-hoc sampling is totally valid, however, and goes to show how only certain tendencies are indicated and that these are no indicator of how any one match may go.

You'll notice - or you might already have noticed - that Havak is the only one amongst us who takes notice of the rankings.

	20-09-2003 22:10									#54
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The day Australia will be ranked at the first place, which is obviously not for tomorrow ( ), I am pretty sure you will suddenly realize the meaning of the Zurich ranking system.

	21-09-2003 06:00									#56
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quote: Originally posted by Tamerlin The day Australia will be ranked at the first place, which is obviously not for tomorrow ( ), I am pretty sure you will suddenly realize the meaning of the Zurich ranking system.

Nuh. Any statistically-based ranking system is only a reflection of its statistical means. I'm not remotely interested in them. Never have been, never will be. England deserve to be called the beat team in the world because they've beaten everyone else. The ABs deserve to be called second best because they've beaten just about everyone else. Beyond that, who knows?

	21-09-2003 07:07									#57
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quote: Originally posted by finbar Beyond that, who knows?

Zurich's computers...

	21-09-2003 08:34									#58
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quote: Originally posted by Tamerlin

	21-09-2003 15:54									#59
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I was reading the paper yesterday and in it David Campese was discussing his current world first XV.


Playing fast and loose is key to forward thinking

I was interested at how he choose a young, ball handling, set of forwards.

IMHO an exciting blend but not necessarily able to cope in a tight forward battle. The bonus abilities are great but I think that some core forward skills are performed better by other players.

Last edited by flipside on 21-09-2003 at 16:02

	21-09-2003 16:10									#60
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Finbar risks a heart attack if he reads this article, the names of David Campese and Martin Johnson on the same web page and the first praising the second could be too much for him.