Minnows In The Shop Window - Who's Looking Good

OK so not the teams but from what people have seen which individuals have looked good and put themselves in the shop window.

I thought the two bearded monster fron Canada looked very good day and despite being behind a beaten pack I though the 8, 9 and 10 of Georgia looked good.

Really looking forward to seeing some of the Russians play and get a contract at Dave hopefull

Not knocking you bedford but the term minnows gets under my skin developing sides would be better in my opinion.

How old is that bearded Canadian ?

Developing sides????

This is meant to be the pinnacle of the sport, the RWC needs to be re-worked to oust teams that aren't up to the job.

The early rounds are pointless and dull IMO.


Nearly as bad as the womens RWC , 6 Nations etc...

Hersh by your definition very few teams are up to the job. I completely disagree with you of course.

These developing sides have some very classy players.

The rugby world cup has the word "world" for a reason Hersh. I know you think the world revolves around Bath and England but it doesn't.

In more constructive way...

So HERSH you clearly don't agree with growing the game. These smaller rugby nations need the opportunity to compete against the bigger ones or the game will stagnate and never develop. What you've suggested is cutting them off fromever being able to play the bigger teams. A game like Canada v Tonga wouldn't be able to happen if it was up to you and that would be a massive shame for rugby. You only have to look at some of the results from the last 3 world cups to see how these teams have developed.

Interesting interview on BBC with Kingsley Jones. Apparently when he took over coaching Russia they had 70 registered players and now they have something like 14,000.

Ok the bigger teams like NZ, SA, Aus and Wales don't need to play the developing nations like Namibia, Georgia, England and Russia but they need to play us in order to grow

mckay1402 congratulations you just went down to Hersh's level.

Thanks I was pleased with it. Obviously I don't really think like that but I couldn't resist it. Sorry

Look at the football world cup, how many games have to be played to weed out the rubbish, who wants to see Brazil vs San Marino!

the world cup pool stages is a waste of time, always has been.

when will the IRB change the format?


As for all the personal abuse its nice to see what some of you are really like, what brave men you are sat behind your keyboards!

i thought mckay1402 response was good

mine wasn't

I thought 606v2 was locked down for these type of obviously WUM posts?

PS: my point stands about the womens RWC, i thought the play was pretty good and the passing and running game sublime at times.

sorry hersh but football is a totally different game and the minnows and tiny nations still scare the bigger ones due to the way the game is played (passing forward, ability to score within 30 yards)

Rugby is far harder to win, but teams like Canada and Japan can still find ways to play harder at different phases of the game and still be competitive and emerge winners.

Mckay1402 I can understand you being annoyed with Hersh. He is annoying but I just perceive him as a buzzing fly.

Irritating but harmless.

Hersh it's different though as football is more boring than rugby.

Rugby is also our sport of choice. We want to see more competition.

I would agree it would be ludicrous if you had for example a Kazaksthan rugby team but there isn't.

Most of these sides in the rugby world cup have taken part before.

The likes of Russia,Japan and USA are potential huge markets largely untapped.

Apologies for the personal attacks. I will ignore in future but I would say that if you don't want this to descend into the type of nonsense that the old BBC 606 did then you might want to have a word with WUMs like this. I was under the impression that this was meant to be a WUM free zone

foe feature..?

if I can't see the opposition how can I take them out with a legal tackle

Define minnow kiwireddevil.

E.g. would you call Tonga a minnow?

I personally don't really like the term.

Where is the wumming in what I said?

I don't rate womens rugby and I think the IRB need to change the format of the RWC.

beshocked wrote:Define minnow kiwireddevil.

E.g. would you call Tonga a minnow?

I personally don't really like the term.

Fair point beshocked. I only used it because it was already used in the thread title and it was a bit lazy of me. I guess some of the debate is to define the term. How does "Tier2 Nations"* sound instead?


*as defined by the IRB

HERSH

If the early rounds are pointless and dull in your opinion then don't watch them. So far you're the only one who has that opinion so let us enjoy the early rounds while you go and play some golf or something

Or countries that don't have representation on the IRB?

First point, the FOE feature works like a charm, you can ignore nonsense.

Back to the players who have impressed me of the "minnow" nations.

Namibia

Their captain, and their no. 13.

Japan

No 10

Don't know all the names though.

Japans right wing was quality as well. real pace

Tier 2 nation is indeed more accurate kiwireddevil.

France used to be a tier 2 nation - look at them now.

Every side needs an opportunity to shine. You only improve if you play better opposition.

Biltongbek it is hardly surprising you are impressed by Namibian's captain,Jacques Burger. He is their best and most high profile player by a long way. He plays for the current English champions Saracens if you didn't know.

mckay1402 wrote:HERSH

If the early rounds are pointless and dull in your opinion then don't watch them. So far you're the only one who has that opinion so let us enjoy the early rounds while you go and play some golf or something

But that’s the point Mckay when I do sit down to watch the knockout rounds the top teams will be missing some of the best players due to injuries incurred against poor teams, therefore it is no longer the pinnacle of the sport with some of the best players missing!

It needs to be looked at, as the standard of rugby on show in the RWC is poor at the moment.

Name a team that didn't already have injuries before the tournanemt started. Nonsense argument.

So if there were no "developing sides / minnows" in the WC it would be an 8 team competition and you may aswell just have the AI's.

Having all the other teams...in gives them a chance to play against the top level and to see what THEY need to do to match them.

And lets not forget many of those so called minnows have put in some blinding performances over the years.

Samoa / Fiji ??? Anyone.
Georgia gave Ireland a right battle...etc
etc

Yeah, Beshocked, i heard the commentators talk about it in the fiji game on the weekend, do you know if their 13 plays professional rugby?

I don't think he does. Is he very good? If so Saracens could do with another outside centre....

Well if standard of rugby is the criteria then the worst game I've seen so far has been between two "tier one " countries (work it out for yourself) whereas games like Fiji v Namibia and France V Japan have been highly enjoyable.

It seems to me as many players get injured in training these days as playing or sometimes in the warm up. I feel really sorry for Sheridan for instance but his shoulder injury would seem to be something that could occur using a scrummage machine !

Finally it's already been said it's a World Cup and it's meant to develop the game planet wide.

If he plays with a good team he should be rather impressive, i think his name is Van der Merwe, not sure, but he had two good games thus far, good offloading and strong.

Japan's number 10 James Aldridge has certainly improved since playing for the Dragons.

biltongbek wrote:First point, the FOE feature works like a charm, you can ignore nonsense.

Back to the players who have impressed me of the "minnow" nations.

Namibia

Their captain, and their no. 13.

Japan

No 10

Don't know all the names though.

Biltongbek,

Thank you, the only one who bothered to stick to topic.

Minnows or developing whatever you want to call them who has impressed.

Munkian,

Agree with you on Arlidge he never played like that for us when at Dave

I saw him playing and thought I know him, Im sure, but can't be him because hes playing too well

how did the georgians do against scotland this morning? any untapped potential in their front five that us dragons could use? or they all already signed up?

GavinDragon wrote:how did the georgians do against scotland this morning? any untapped potential in their front five that us dragons could use? or they all already signed up?

I think that 13 out of 15 of their starting line up play in the top 14 in france!

Yeah 13/15 starters play in France. And apparently from reports the Scots dominated up front.

The Namibian Captain is Jaques Burger (Saracen) aint it? Hardly an unknown player.

The Canadians beat Tonga however...they must have had a few noticeable newbies...

The Canadian bearded monsters were very good, Clever from the USE to but he's been around a bit I think.

The Scots did dominate today which was a bit of a surprised but the Georgian No8 looked good