Who are your favourites for the Semi Finals of the RWC at the moment...?

First topic message reminder :

The start of the Tri-Nations and an Ozzie loss to Samoa have added a few interesting permutations into the mix. ABs are still favourites by a country mile on current form.

Some people base their theories on History though and there are a few teams that have made semis and finals more often than others, will it all just be a little bit of history repeating?

The PI teams look stronger than ever, can they do it?

Is there an unexpected Dark Horse out there who could surprise us all...?

Pick Four Teams from the POLL of who you think will be the Semi Finalists.

Lies, damn lies and statistics

We can all be Humpty Dumpty - " 'It means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less"

Is that like the Curate's egg, good in parts?

Just out of interest, since the last world cup Neither of England, Scotland or Ireland has travelled to SA.

Wales played 2 away tests and France 1.

We played in europe 11 tests.

Obviously the British and Irish Lions were in SA for 3 tests.

Or as it would be phrased in the BBC:

"Despite losing to South Africa in the FINAL OF THE RUGBY WORLD CUP, England remain unbeaten in South Africa since 2007"

nottins wrote: I mean no offense, just trying to figure out why you guys have such unwavering confidence in your team"

I don't mean any offense either but I'd like to know were your confidence that you can win the WC comes from?

You haven't beaten SA or NZ since 2002. You have a single away victory against a SH team and 1 home win since the last WC. You lost your last game and failed to win a GS against a team that apparantly has no chance of reaching a WC semi final. In fact for all these boasts about how well England travel you have only 1 away victory against a top 5 ranked nation in the past 2 seasons.

Glas a du wrote:crying over spilt milk

Don't worry, the milk's safe.

Why such a narrow view nottins?

Most people would have a wider perspective but it seems you are not so generous.

3-2 since 2007 RWC would be a more accurate indicator; although it should have been 4-1 as I said before but Matt Giteau 'let you' have that one.

Glas a du wrote:Right, that's it. I've just been made a Moderator. Greyghost and Nottins the sexual tension between you is getting unbearable. I would tell you to get a room but don't know that the Premier Inn would be able to take the collateral damage. Rodders, don't make them worse. NOW SHUT IT OR ELSE

Glas a du wrote:Right, that's it. I've just been made a Moderator. Greyghost and Nottins the sexual tension between you is getting unbearable. I would tell you to get a room but don't know that the Premier Inn would be able to take the collateral damage. Rodders, don't make them worse. NOW SHUT IT OR ELSE

Linebreaker you Aussies are really nice. Thanks again!

Very nice of Giteau. Such a charitable bloke. He helped out the Scots too.

Ireland only on 33!!!

BATH_BTGOG wrote:Ireland only on 33!!!

?????

beshocked wrote:Linebreaker you Aussies are really nice. Thanks again!

Very nice of Giteau. Such a charitable bloke. He helped out the Scots too.

Of course we are mate. Anything to lift some dour and often depressed spirits. We have plenty to spare you know.

Just heard from a work colleague of mine that there has been a leaked memo from the NZRFU with the schedule for displaying the Webb Ellis cup during Nov and Dec!!!!

How do they know they're going to win?

Can't find anything on the web to confirm it?

roddersm wrote:

nottins wrote: I mean no offense, just trying to figure out why you guys have such unwavering confidence in your team"

I don't mean any offense either but I'd like to know were your confidence that you can win the WC comes from?

I quite clearly stated that was a quote from another poster. I also have never said that England would win the RWC 2011.

roddersm wrote:You haven't beaten SA or NZ since 2002. You have a single away victory against a SH team and 1 home win since the last WC. You lost your last game and failed to win a GS against a team that apparantly has no chance of reaching a WC semi final. In fact for all these boasts about how well England travel you have only 1 away victory against a top 5 ranked nation in the past 2 seasons.

I think you'll find that England beat SA in 2003, it was in the group stages of the RWC. Also they beat them in 2004 and 2006. I haven't made any boasts or predictions anywhere on this thread, you're the one that's doing that, do I need to remind you of this, "Well nottins we've an amazing record compared to England over the past decade " Which in actual fact you haven't. You were the one asking for how England and France had done against the SH sides since the last RWC. I provided the information that both countries had actually won away whereas Ireland haven't. I'm not aware of how providing the information counts as boasting ?

Linebreaker you aren't as charitable as the Indians in cricket though. You need to up your game!

Just wish the naughty Oirish would be as charitable the good old French folk and Aussies in rugby.

Huge losses to SA since 2006.

14-25
10-58
22-55
00-36
06-15
06-42
11-21
_____
69-252

Ooooops!

Linebreaker wrote:Huge losses to SA since 2006.

14-25
10-58
22-55
00-36
06-15
06-42
11-21
_____
69-252

Ooooops!

As a moderator, you shouldn't be "baiting" posters.

As a moderator, you shouldn't be "baiting" posters.

Yes, you and your nasty...erm...facts!

nottins wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:Huge losses to SA since 2006.

14-25
10-58
22-55
00-36
06-15
06-42
11-21
_____
69-252

Ooooops!

As a moderator, you shouldn't be "baiting" posters.

And world cup referees shouldn't be blatantly biased, but some times life isn't fair.

Baiting?

Just stating facts. Do you have a problem with that?

TheGreyGhost wrote:

nottins wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:Huge losses to SA since 2006.

14-25
10-58
22-55
00-36
06-15
06-42
11-21
_____
69-252

Ooooops!

As a moderator, you shouldn't be "baiting" posters.

And world cup referees shouldn't be blatantly biased, but some times life isn't fair.

Theres a different between biased and incompetant

True linebreaker it is painful but are those stats really relevant to the topic in this thread?

We would only realistically meet South Africa in the final.

Facts are the sworn enemy of the internet forum. Any decent moderator would immediately ban any poster using them.



However any unsupported claim followed by the word FACT (caps essential) must be accepted as truth.



So it is written, so let it be done.

incompetant

Glas a du wrote:

As a moderator, you shouldn't be "baiting" posters.

Yes, you and your nasty...erm...facts!

Have you got anything to offer other than following me round on threads, posting inane comments ?

Rodders said that England hadn't beaten SA since 2002. Clearly this isn't true so I provided information of the matches that England had won since 2002.

...end of

It's OK beshocked.

We let you have the Cook Cup... and The Little Urn to ease the pain.

Linebreaker wrote:Baiting?

Just stating facts. Do you have a problem with that?

Are they relevant on this thread ?

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:...end of

Touche Sir! The natural counter to FACT. I salute you!

By the way

"We're quite patriotic and feel moderately optimistic about our country's chances. ".

Riskysports wrote:By the way

"We're quite patriotic and feel moderately optimistic about our country's chances. ".

Don't worry mate, the Scots were among the innocent

Ding, ding, round 3.

The people have voted and they think it's NZ, Australia, South Africa and England are to be the semi finalists.

Can I point out again that this poll is broken in the context of the discussion? There are 4 semi-finalists.

So "likely semi-finalist %" shouldn't sum to 100 across all participants. As I said before.

Any comments based on the poll which is incorrect in this context are not valid.

Look Greyghost I think the facts are clear. Only 23% of people think NZ will make the semi finals.

3 out of every 4 people don't even see them getting that far.

TheGreyGhost wrote:Can I point out again that this poll is broken in the context of the discussion? There are 4 semi-finalists.

So "likely semi-finalist %" shouldn't sum to 100 across all participants. As I said before.

Any comments based on the poll which is incorrect in this context are not valid.

Correct. But if you multiply the percentages by 4 you should get pretty close (given the number of votes cast indicates that at least 1 person hasn't followed "instructions" and voted for 4 teams (that kind of thing happens in opinion polling all the time)

On that basis 92% of voters think NZ will make the semis. And so on down the list

I think it is all wrong, and the figures clearly show that Scotland are going to make it to the Semi finals, and also win the whole darn thing

(My maths is a little shakey)

There's a difference between the 4 strongest teams, and the 4 likely semi-finalists since any 2 could conceivably meet prior to the semi-finals.

x4 = strongest teams ascend to semi-finals with no conditionals.

I'd debate for some time if anyone could derive anything meaningful about popular concensus on that basis.

And Not just because it's nottins who is trying to do so.

red_stag wrote:Look Greyghost I think the facts are clear. Only 23% of people think NZ will make the semi finals.

3 out of every 4 people don't even see them getting that far.

But if 8 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas and Pi is 3.14159 (i hope that's right)........that would mean....they shoudl make the semis??!! Doesn't it?

Having read this thread, I'm convinced that Fiji and Romania will contest the cup because all the other fans will be too busy arguing.

I this thread cos its like a - 493 lives at least!!!

TheGreyGhost wrote:There's a difference between the 4 strongest teams, and the 4 likely semi-finalists since any 2 could conceivably meet prior to the semi-finals.

x4 = strongest teams ascend to semi-finals with no conditionals.

I'd debate for some time if anyone could derive anything meaningful about popular concensus on that basis.

And Not just because it's nottins who is trying to do so.

I doubt any statistician would consider a control group of less than 100 people worth looking at anyway.

More voters required!

Samoa to make the SF's. It would eclipse Argentina's 3rd spot last time out. I would love it.

Gibson wrote:Samoa to make the SF's. It would eclipse Argentina's 3rd spot last time out. I would love it.

Ya never know Gibson. Beat Wales for second spot in that group and then they'd most likely face the Aussies for round 2 (ding ding )! Stranger things have happened sure and it would be great to see. On the subject of great things to see, look out for Felix Jones on Saturday Gibbo! He'll be the lad scoring tries for the craic and doing aeroplane celebration's to symbolise the journey he's about to take to NZ

That's not how you spell 'crack'

I really think we're looking at a repeat of the 2007 final- Eng vs RSA.

No, I hate repeats. Especially when the original was terrible as well.