West Ham Online

Not a massive fan of this sport. Seems everyone forgets the rules when on the pitch and give away stupid penalties. One thing thoug I'm pretty sure it was meant to be played in 30C temperatures. Those big guys will be collapsing in this heat.

"The best way to improve rugby union, in all honesty, is to get rid of scrums as they have them now. Maybe have five-man scrums (two in the front, three in the back), with the idea being the ball gets pushed in and released very quickly - and there are far fewer fat blokes falling down all of the time. Also easier for refs to get the players to engage etc. Then, as you say, reward tries more heavily than now - or reduce points for kicks (other than drop goals, which seem to be quite an art form from open play). Place kicks should be a point. Two at the most. That would have forced England to run the ball last night - and at least made it entertaining. Instead it was just Pen-Farrell, Pen-Farrell, Pen-Farrell etc... They need the game to flow more. It is desperately, painfully, time-wastingly dull for far too long. If you're a back and well away from the scrum, you could genuinely have had a soggy lie down last night in the middle of a semi-final and nobody would have noticed."

"The best way to improve rugby union, in all honesty, is to get rid of scrums as they have them now. Maybe have five-man scrums (two in the front, three in the back), with the idea being the ball gets pushed in and released very quickly - and there are far fewer fat blokes falling down all of the time. Also easier for refs to get the players to engage etc. Then, as you say, reward tries more heavily than now - or reduce points for kicks (other than drop goals, which seem to be quite an art form from open play). Place kicks should be a point. Two at the most. That would have forced England to run the ball last night - and at least made it entertaining. Instead it was just Pen-Farrell, Pen-Farrell, Pen-Farrell etc... They need the game to flow more. It is desperately, painfully, time-wastingly dull for far too long. If you're a back and well away from the scrum, you could genuinely have had a soggy lie down last night in the middle of a semi-final and nobody would have noticed."

"That's 20ft sideways, btw. The ball barely moved forward or backward at all - in a 12/13 minute passage of play."

The rules do seem obscure to layman and there does seem to be a culture of forcing the other team to infringe rather than taking the game on. Would also suggest to improve the game that tries should be worth 10 pts to encourage positive play. And dont quite understand gaining an advantage by kicking the ball off the pitch. Any kick out of the play should see the ball come back to where the kick was and put the ball in the hands of the opponents. You're welcome Suspect NZ will win comfortably next week

"Give you an example of how bad union is... There was a point in the game last night where the ref inexplicably called a scrum. The players protested and wanged on, like they do (they're no different to Man Utd in that regard), then finally started to set up for the scrum. It took several minutes of fannying about, with the ref getting all tetchy. Then the scrum collapsed. Then they set it all up again, and it collapsed again (or there was an illegal move, it was hard to tell). Then they went a third time. Immediately, there was another penalty. The lineout took an age, then the ball moved around 10ft sideways. Then the ref called another scrum and that took two more efforts before, finally, some cսnt kicked the ball off on the full. The whole passage of non-play ate up almost 12 minutes. Of a World Cup semi final. And the ball genuinely moved about 20ft during the whole time. And they wonder why the crowds and sponsors don't flock to the game in quite the same way as football."

"FWIW, I think New Zealand will win next week. But more pertinently, I couldn't give much of a shit. It's a really dull sport for posh blokes who might wear chinos and a blazer."

"at least when Jonah's boys choke next week, he will disappear again and stop boring us."

"Willtell - got to agree with that, fella. I get so bored watching rugby union. The amount of time wasted in setting up scrums, re-taking scrums, and letting scrums fall down over and again is just so fucking dull to watch. Even the line-outs take too long and should be hurried up. The whole game should be, not just the kicking. Rugby league is a significantly better version of the sport, as it is more free flowing and attack-minded. And even that bores me a bit. Rugby union seems designed for wannabe fat blokes who want to do very little for 80 minutes but say they've done some exercise. Which, ironically, is how the game was allegedly invented anyway. It ain't football and it will never get close."

I’ve come to the conclusion that rules in sport mean that the managers and players play to exploit the rules and ultimately put the decision onto the referees who can be manipulated. This is particularly true in evenly matched team sports where a rule needs the ref to make a decision. In my opinion the ref is and always will be the problem.

Three of my mates into their rugby WhatsApp'd me to watch the game last night. I didn't play it at school so really don't understand the game which is key to enjoying it. I started at about 20 mins into game and England were 6-0 up so OK. I'll have another go at watching. Apparently it was a kicking game but I could tell that when SA got the ball on the deck they were electric. So it proved in the last couple of minutes. All I'll add is that I saw the England captain effectively give away a 3 point penalty by back chatting the ref and so the ref moved the ball 10m nearer goal. The congratulations between players for getting penalties in critical situations was a clear tactic. Rather like continental players and Jack Grealish diving for pens... Far too complicated rules make Rugby a minority sport.

"Leroy: if you've been to NZ you will know that there are entire suburbs in the Auckland area with ""islander"" majority populations (as distinct from Maori), which include many recent migrants. The All Blacks squad for the 2023 Rugby Championship, features 10 players who were born outside NZ. Eight out of these 10 players (including Finlay Christie incidentally, born in Scotland) moved to New Zealand early in their lives, and are products of the New Zealand rugby system. That's very different from importing ready-made players as the Scots and Irish have done."

"England were magnificent but you can’t win a game at this level on set-piece technique and forward play alone. If we had scored a try and played like that, we’d be in the final. Oh and yes, the ref promoted their style of play."

"An example of his hypocrisy is the stopping the constant ""Water breaks"" that both teams were employing, but letting the Saffas come in late to the line outs. He rightly pulled their hooker early for not throwing straight, but as the game went on, he ignored it. Small details, but enough to turn the tide. You could see how frustrated the English were with him, by the response of Farrell (He is a cock), but was right on a few of the decisions. Farrell cost us 3 points arguing with the ref, and conceding 10m."

"As per below, nobody understands the game. The players all fall on the floor, ref blows his whistle and nobody has a clue which way it’s gonna go."

I bet he's happy he doesn't have to ref the game next week. Probably can't decide who to support.

The problem with rugby is that the games are always decided by the refs. Northern and southern hemisphere refs intemperate the game differently. The ref last night decided the result. If that was a French ref he would not of pulled our scrum to pieces like the NZ ref did. He was trying to speed up the game all the time. Always happens. That's why i don't watch it too much!!!

Ark at half pint chirping up again.

"Jonah, but you don't get your players from those 150k registered players. You are like the Scotland or Ireland rugby team, you get your players from other countries, south sea islands in your case"

Eh don’t really know what ye mean there to be honest. I go to every Ireland home game and a few away ones. We’re shite but I still go.

collyknob you probably have same outlook with football

"Ah lads, I’m only taking the piss. I literally do not care about rugby in the slightest. I didn’t even want the Irish team to win. They’re all private school posh wankers. Their fans are all fat snobby arseholes as well, who’ve never kicked a football in their lives. And as vexed says nobody knows the rules."

"Not a big rugby fan and as Vexed says nobody knows what the fuck is going on out there, but was disappointed when I saw the result this morning and even more so after reading how tight it was. A big shame and must be devastating to big Ruby people in England."

"Not a big rugby fan and as Vexed says nobody knows what the fuck is going on out there, but was disappointed when I saw the result this morning and even more so after reading how tight it was. A big shame and must be devastating to big Ruby people in England."

"Let's get some perspective on this eh. In England all the talented sports kids play football. Just a load of toffs and big blokes who can run take up rugby. The countries that really excel at Rugby are those where the football is not significant in any way.. Countries like Australia, NZ and SA call it soccer for fucks sake. No shame in going out to a country that has very little else to shout about."

Really thought we had that. Unlucky.