craig joubert

First topic message reminder :

As a neutral can I say thank you for ruining the RWC Final. Your inability to referee the breakdown, offer any degree of consistency, notice high tackles and allow competition at the scrum meant two attacking sides intent on running the ball were reduced to kicking and playing so much of the game in the centre of the pitch.

May you never be allowed near a final again.

red_stag wrote:Jeez Dub grow a pair, build a bridge and get over it.

Motion seconded by a third Irishman and a fellow Dub.

dublfcynwa wrote:

JDandfries wrote:

dublfcynwa wrote:

JDandfries wrote:

dublfcynwa wrote:Shocking reffing but being Irish im happy France got robbed and I was happy to see that little s h i t Parra crying on the touchline after he got smashed trying to tackle Nonu.

Classy thing to say! But I think you will find he was on the touch line after getting kneed in the head by McCaw!

Thank's. Well whatever Richie did knee him in the head but it's up for debate how he actually got the injury but who care's he got his karma anyway. Did'nt look very hard when he was crying on the sideline

What are you talking about, you sound very bitter?

This isn't the football forum!!

"This is'nt the football forum!!" No s h i t Sherlock Holmes how did ye work that one out?

I am bitter toward's him because he made some sad comment's about Ireland a while ago and I hate him.

Surprise...what Parra said about Irish ??? Most of the times, French like Irish , Scottish, and Walsh.

Sure that about English team, we have some regular troubles with them and it is always a big pleasure to bit them but like for Irish, Scottish and Walsh.

I am surprised about bad comments form Parra against Irish...it could happens after a game perhaps but I have never heard nothing about.

Of course, rugby is not football....and if you want to burn the french football team, I give you my best agreement to do ( and even more ) .

Nos na Gaoithe wrote:

red_stag wrote:Jeez Dub grow a pair, build a bridge and get over it.

Motion seconded by a third Irishman and a fellow Dub.

I am over it now. Thanks.

You've upset Stag, that takes some doing.

Sorry to be french ,

Ok there has been an unfair refereeing ,
this probably lead to AB undeserved win , and our unavoidable loss,
we french feel desappointed ,
I french feel humilated and shamefull and even isolated in my own country for these reasons :

Among many other faults ,there has been an AB Bloody Butcher on this field who stroke on his head side our 80 kilos flyhalf who was wellknown said to have weakness in his vulnerable neck .... this ABBB did , indeed.
Ok the coward Joubert and the false Roland decided not to see this injure
but ,
have you ever heard of corrida ? in this sport it's fair that the bull opponent is first hurt in the back before the final fight between this ugly beast and the brightling human warrior;
in this final ( and perhaps in many meeting between france and commonwealth ) we have been treated, from turkeys to bulls, like animals ... sad and humiliating feeling.
the AB butcher should have hidden hereafter ? not at all , why would he ? He kept on , making other faults under the referees' eyes , and after the meeting he paraded among his nation who praised him. It's even been heard that there are now complains about possible french brutalities against this precious hero during his honourfull crusade.
omg what to think and feel after such things?

Moreover,
all happened quickly :
quick knee on head,
quick blindness of poor ( if not paid ) referees,
quick and tremendeous joy of a nation, in a hurry to make forget what happened,
but,
a few days passed since ,
was the ABB cited ?
not yet I guess, but fortunately in the meanwhile was France fined by your IRB, for lack of respect to your most honorable, friendly haka with its so premonitory final slaughter mimic.
remember :
french Estebanez has been cited , banished from rest of WC,
wales captain has been cited , banished from rest of semi final and 3 extensive weeks,
just notice that in these two cases nobody was wounded,
this is shame for everyone.
after quick and individual injustice _ involving an ABB and two or three attendants _
we experience now worldwide, silent and long living other form of cynic injustice.

what a high dignity showed french side in the defeat, didn't they ?
they kept fighting head first like bulls ,
until the end ,
no complains against our welcoming hosts during their triumph, in their so famous jerseys we didn't even deserve to exchange with them.
And days after no claim for any citation ? what happened was hailed an outstanding success by our french chairman of your IRB, wasn't it ?
I feel far from these silent or flattering positions of my own country.
what's this ? high mental and sportive attitude , or fright of our so commonwealthy winners ?

nice to meet you.

sittingbull.

Nice pseudonym.

Perhaps I should change mine to

BrokenBok
CheatedSaffer
Lawrencevictim
CryingVictim
SadSpringbok

anyhoooo.

Sorry you feel that way.

That´s a priceless post Weepuwillow. You should post again TheRavenMcCaw. I look forward to seeing more KainoKnewItWasYouAllAlong.

Sittingbull it was the jersey they wore when they won the World Cup. Bonnaire understood. Plus the other time was McCaw's 100th. Very important jerseys so that's understandable. Bonnaire will get another chance.

I'm not condoning the referee not taking action and fully admit we were lucky but four years ago the positions were reversed. Swings and roundabouts and both refereeing performances were bound to be criticised. But we weren't good enough to make the ref's shocker not matter in 07 and you weren't good enough to do the same on Sunday.

I felt McCaw was charging in at 100mph and he the way he hit that ruck he was focused on the target and not Parra. Sucks he got injured. Also suck that Weepu apparently threw a punch. But Rougerie's gouge was by far the worst so get off your high horse calling McCaw a butcher.

The ref gave the correct call against Warburton but you could also count the French lucky as he had the cojones to do it-most people thought it was a yellow. Not to mention rubbish Welsh kicking giving you a leg up too, and ours in the final making the margin so close.

Plus blame the IRB for the haka fine not the NZRU and not us-we all loved it. Ask the All Blacks manager.

Si tu veux repondre en Francais je m'en fous mais c'est mieux pour tout le monde ici si tu ecris en Anglais.

Biltong has every right to feel aggrieved

english warrior wrote: I have to say that my Father was watching the game with us, and he knows little or nothing about Rugby and he remarked that the ref was one sided, and didn't treat France fairly. So, although Joubert was poor, i don't think that he upset the result, and of course Tran duch missed a not too hard penalty that might have given the French the World cup.

If your father knows little or nothing about the game how can he say that the ref was one sided? It´s like saying I´m blind but I don´t think that shirt suits you.

As for the Parra incident Cowshot, the thing that raises doubt is Parra lifting his head at the wrong moment. If his head had remained still then you´d have to think it´d be intentional but if you move at the last minute then there´s not much you can do to change your line of running. If he hadn´t moved his head, would his head have got clobbered?

The Parra injury was just bad luck in my opinion,I remember Paul O'Connell doing something similar to BoD in a 6 Nations match.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:
If your father knows little or nothing about the game how can he say that the ref was one sided? It´s like saying I´m blind but I don´t think that shirt suits you.

Because he was listening to an idiot commentator I would guess.

Kia even my old dad knows a travesty when he sees it and you don't have to know that much about Rugby to know when someone is brazenly favouring another team.

Experience of life should tell you that, and even you know what we are saying is true, but you continue to defend the indefensible!! Sad.

SittingBull wrote:Sorry to be french ,

Ok there has been an unfair refereeing ,
this probably lead to AB undeserved win , and our unavoidable loss,
we french feel desappointed ,
I french feel humilated and shamefull and even isolated in my own country for these reasons :

Among many other faults ,there has been an AB Bloody Butcher on this field who stroke on his head side our 80 kilos flyhalf who was wellknown said to have weakness in his vulnerable neck .... this ABBB did , indeed.
Ok the coward Joubert and the false Roland decided not to see this injure
but ,
have you ever heard of corrida ? in this sport it's fair that the bull opponent is first hurt in the back before the final fight between this ugly beast and the brightling human warrior;
in this final ( and perhaps in many meeting between france and commonwealth ) we have been treated, from turkeys to bulls, like animals ... sad and humiliating feeling.
the AB butcher should have hidden hereafter ? not at all , why would he ? He kept on , making other faults under the referees' eyes , and after the meeting he paraded among his nation who praised him. It's even been heard that there are now complains about possible french brutalities against this precious hero during his honourfull crusade.
omg what to think and feel after such things?

Moreover,
all happened quickly :
quick knee on head,
quick blindness of poor ( if not paid ) referees,
quick and tremendeous joy of a nation, in a hurry to make forget what happened,
but,
a few days passed since ,
was the ABB cited ?
not yet I guess, but fortunately in the meanwhile was France fined by your IRB, for lack of respect to your most honorable, friendly haka with its so premonitory final slaughter mimic.
remember :
french Estebanez has been cited , banished from rest of WC,
wales captain has been cited , banished from rest of semi final and 3 extensive weeks,
just notice that in these two cases nobody was wounded,
this is shame for everyone.
after quick and individual injustice _ involving an ABB and two or three attendants _
we experience now worldwide, silent and long living other form of cynic injustice.

what a high dignity showed french side in the defeat, didn't they ?
they kept fighting head first like bulls ,
until the end ,
no complains against our welcoming hosts during their triumph, in their so famous jerseys we didn't even deserve to exchange with them.
And days after no claim for any citation ? what happened was hailed an outstanding success by our french chairman of your IRB, wasn't it ?
I feel far from these silent or flattering positions of my own country.
what's this ? high mental and sportive attitude , or fright of our so commonwealthy winners ?

nice to meet you.

Brilliant, I am disgeezed as polocemin.

Thanks guys.
I'm a French supporter and spent the second half wondering was going wrong with Joubert, but concluded it was probably just me being biaised.
Everybody here is complaing about the unconsistency of the refereeing, but then again blaming the ref is certainly what we do best in France. Reading your comments make me think it might not just be
us being sore losers (English fans saying France got mistreated? It must have been daylight robbery!).
I feel France was stolen a great opportunity, and the AB were stolen a clear and undisputed victory. If you think about it, if Joubert gives the penalty with 15mn left to play, France transforms it or not, and then the AB can go back at playing beautiful rugby as they know, rather than spending the last 3mn managing the clock.
I disagree with comments about winning being what matters. I have my children play rugby rather than soccer to teach them that what's important is the game rather than the score, and to go celebrate with their opponent after the game whatever the score. Everybody was ashamed in France about the semi-final against Wales, everybody recognises we made it past the AB in 2007 thanks to the ref not seeing a forward, and everybody is proud of the game produced Sunday, whatever the score. I don't recall having seen any NZ recognising Joubert might have helped, at best a very few comments on France playing better for part or the game but running out of luck.
NZ image is rather shaken here: they went from the "fair-play guys who play better than us", to "actually not that better, and few, what a bunch of dickheads supporters and press".
Anyway, congrats to the AB on their overall excellent performance over the turnament, maybe though, before going to England in 2015, take some lessons from the English who know how to praise their opponent and recognise their own flaws whatever the result of the game.

I'm going to stick up for myself and say I did just that in a post the other day mate. Keep looking you'll find them. I think a lot of Kiwi posters here were magnanimous in victory as they probably felt they were told to suck it up in 07 and a lot of posts on here were about the travesty of losing and that Joubert was in the pocket blah blah blah. That put a downer on it really. We saw the game we know a lot of 50/50 calls were with NZ, but we weren't good enough to take those calls out of relevance in 07 and France weren't good enough to do that on Sunday.

Kiwis are a cold analytical bunch when it comes to rugby. We, well pretty much all the guys I know, always point out flaws in how we play regardless of result, that may be seen as arrogance by some who say we should just enjoy the win, then when we do we get accused of arrogance again. Sometimes I feel we can't win.

The press is full of idiots no matter which country. I read l'Equipe and Le Monde, and an English minority certainly prove your last sentence wrong. Don't tar us all with the same brush.

EW I wasn´t defending anything. I´m just curious how someone who knows nothing about the game can suddenly be enlightened. If you have the secret formula, please divulge as I´d love to get the Spanish missus involved.

it's lucky for nz that half the media in the nh consists of nz pundits. on almost every station there was an nz pundit. it was daylight robbery what happened to France. France were denied an obvious easy penalty toward the end. kaino was told not to touch the ball, he played it and the cynically knocked it on and how can 3 high tackles be let go. this is also ignoring mccaw who spent the whole game off his feet and coming in from the side but it's been clear for years that there are different rules apply for him.
I also thought it was poor form for Henry and mccaw to not even acknowledg the French effort. I would love to ask them why they did this?

Alex Cheney wrote:Thanks guys.
I'm a French supporter and spent the second half wondering was going wrong with Joubert, but concluded it was probably just me being biaised.
Everybody here is complaing about the unconsistency of the refereeing, but then again blaming the ref is certainly what we do best in France. Reading your comments make me think it might not just be
us being sore losers (English fans saying France got mistreated? It must have been daylight robbery!).
I feel France was stolen a great opportunity, and the AB were stolen a clear and undisputed victory. If you think about it, if Joubert gives the penalty with 15mn left to play, France transforms it or not, and then the AB can go back at playing beautiful rugby as they know, rather than spending the last 3mn managing the clock.
I disagree with comments about winning being what matters. I have my children play rugby rather than soccer to teach them that what's important is the game rather than the score, and to go celebrate with their opponent after the game whatever the score. Everybody was ashamed in France about the semi-final against Wales, everybody recognises we made it past the AB in 2007 thanks to the ref not seeing a forward, and everybody is proud of the game produced Sunday, whatever the score. I don't recall having seen any NZ recognising Joubert might have helped, at best a very few comments on France playing better for part or the game but running out of luck.
NZ image is rather shaken here: they went from the "fair-play guys who play better than us", to "actually not that better, and few, what a bunch of dickheads supporters and press".
Anyway, congrats to the AB on their overall excellent performance over the turnament, maybe though, before going to England in 2015, take some lessons from the English who know how to praise their opponent and recognise their own flaws whatever the result of the game.

Cheers Alex, and for what it's worth i supported you guys. I'm still reeling from a non-English poster singling us out for praise!

disneychilly wrote:I'm going to stick up for myself and say I did just that in a post the other day mate. Keep looking you'll find them. I think a lot of Kiwi posters here were magnanimous in victory as they probably felt they were told to suck it up in 07 and a lot of posts on here were about the travesty of losing and that Joubert was in the pocket blah blah blah. That put a downer on it really. We saw the game we know a lot of 50/50 calls were with NZ, but we weren't good enough to take those calls out of relevance in 07 and France weren't good enough to do that on Sunday.

Kiwis are a cold analytical bunch when it comes to rugby. We, well pretty much all the guys I know, always point out flaws in how we play regardless of result, that may be seen as arrogance by some who say we should just enjoy the win, then when we do we get accused of arrogance again. Sometimes I feel we can't win.

The press is full of idiots no matter which country. I read l'Equipe and Le Monde, and an English minority certainly prove your last sentence wrong. Don't tar us all with the same brush.

We love the underdog disneychilly. Probably a result of being so pants. There's a romantic quality to the French rugby team you have to love. People rightly talk reverently about the ABs, but the romance that people try and inject into the history etc. (i'm talking English pundits here as well) i just can't see. You're just too damn good. That's kind of my theory of why people were annoyed after this result but less the 2007 one. 2007 felt like the bully got a bloody-nose, 2011 felt like the bully was given a big stick to help him.

I have no idea what point i'm trying to make, just trying to make sense of people's responses.

Disneychilly is rewriting history as well as rewriting the average NZ approach to this win. In effect they couldnt give a flying f.. other than the result last weekend. The interesting part is that they now feel victimised because it was clear they were not good enough on the day and were beaten in all aspects except the scoreboard (where of course it matters) and this time the win was down to a helping hand from the ref and not their own usual brilliance....(50/50 call me arse).

These are the same posters screaming blue murder for 07 and Barnes. When in fact with the 07 game for once the French had a ref that actually refereed the game evenly (ask any French player they assume the ref will be against them before the game begins). The forward pass aside which was unfortunate but the amount of forward passes not caught is pretty high, for the rest of the 07 game it was 50/50...each alleged French discretion could easily be countered by a NZ discretion. In other words Barnes actually reffed the ABs as he would any team.

If anything last saturday should be remembered for the disciplined non confrontational (to the ref) approach by the French. They never once questioned Jouberts decisions - a particular one is Servats penalty in the first half when he counter rucked the counter ruck...the penalty was for playing the ball on the ground (which he didnt)...he was going to say something and was bundled away by other french players. It was only the last 10-15 mins when the French frustration with Joubert boiled over...and who could blame them.

At the end of the day a bunch of no hopers (according to the press) had the ABs on the rack in Eden park where they havent lost since...yada yada....lucky they got a helping hand.

kia: I've no complaint re the Parra incident. Think it was a genuine accident. You must be confusing someone else's response with mine.

(I've said elsewhere I think the job of ref is getting too big for one bloke. Maybe that's what misled you))

Good Day Everybody,

Like I am French, I am happy to know that my bad feeling about the final is not in my only French mind. And after reading many comments, I am sure that my bed feeling wasn't in my only mind.

I am still afraid to not be honest when french team is playing.

Concerning Craig Joubert, I can easily admit some mistakes during a game...that 's the human point of a game, and sometimes it is hard to assume. I can understand the feeling of NZ ppl during the world cup 2007 with the french try. I can understand also the disappointement for walshs with the red card what could be only a yellow card.

Anyway, Craig Joubert didn't made any mistakes during the final, he was the referee of one team and was playing with AB 's team against French.

Be sure, that I didn't get those type of feelings for each french's defeat.

When we have lost against English in 07, I thought that French were better than English, but English were more realistics. Nothing to say about the referee...

But I canno't understand if Craig Joubert will be still a referee in some others cups. That's OUTRAGEOUS if it happens.

Or Craig Joubert is dishonest ( what it is hard to believe...but who knows except himself ) or he canno't assume to be under pressure.

Anyway, I hope to never see him again like a referee in all my life.

Kym50, do you not agree that Craig Joubert gave france the benefit of the doubt with that try they scored?

I am talking about the ruck where the ball was kicked from.

If he was blowing for NZ, he could have easily called that back.

biltongbek wrote:Kym50, do you not agree that Craig Joubert gave france the benefit of the doubt with that try they scored?

I am talking about the ruck where the ball was kicked from.

If he was blowing for NZ, he could have easily called that back.

Be off with you bilton.

Balance and objectivity has no place here.

Ha nice one Biltong.

I myself am trying to figure out where I screamed blue murder for Barnes re DOD's post.

Kyrn 50
I said before the tournament ,during the tournament and after the tournament the Craig Joubert was/is the BEST REFEREE IN THE WORLD.
But I would be interested to hear who you think is and some possible reasons.

Yes quite DOD. Instead of hurling invective at Barnes, I remember writing my first post on 606 congratulating England on their achievement of getting to the final whilst being written off including by many of their own.

I wrote a post before the match warning against silly talk of runaway victories and congratulated the French after the victory. Don´t think there are 4.5 million GGs out there.

If all the 50 50 calls were going our way, Dusatoir, who was considered to be the tackler was allowed to play at the ball getting up from a ruck. That and the kick through from the ruck could easily be interpreted in other situations as penalties.

THAT SAID, I fully concede the breakdown was a mess and we got a lot of the rub of the green and I do feel for the French, much like I felt for the ABs in 2007 without the need to make death threats on Wayne Barnes or post that we were robbed and the French were in the pocket of Barnes and their response to the haka was disrespectful and that rugby had turned to the dogs.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:If all the 50 50 calls were going our way, Dusatoir, who was considered to be the tackler was allowed to play at the ball getting up from a ruck. That and the kick through from the ruck could easily be interpreted in other situations as penalties.

Ref can't see everything. He bound to give SOMETHING to French. I'm sure he's kicking himself for missing it

Kia- as said before that was Bonnaire..he was the tackler, ball was in open play..

I would agree with Hammer on his comment concerning the Rougerie poke of the ball in the lead up to the French try though. If Rougeries did not come through the gate it must have been miniscule....am sure if he had been on the other side he would have seen and blown up for it...

Wasnt the penalty in the lead up to the NZ try contentious as well, as was the penalty for Donald to make it 8-0 etc, etc...

maybe 0-0 would have been a better reflection and a replay...

Look to win a World Cup, you need luck. It would seem we got more luck than we deserved and the French got less luck than they deserved. But in the end each team had the opportunity to score a try and kick a few goals and NZ scraped by with a win. Not convincing and perhaps undeserving but no crocodile tears from me. Just relief and eventual jubilation. Believe me, we´ve had our fair share of anger and frustration. It sucks but sometimes life can be sweet. I´m not going to make it bitter because you feel France should be champs.

Well, it seems not so difficult to see what happens during the finale.

Craig Joubert was the referee of only one team. Mc Caw have cheated so much, but a player has the right to do. Just the referee didn't penalised one time all the cheat of Mc Caw. On rucks, he came so often by the size without any recation fo Craig Joubert. One time, it can happens but not during all a game. I don't want to speak about Parra injury, I just hope that was just an accident.

Concerning AB's try, it seems that AB made some big obstructions ( I am not so sure about that point, I have read it...)

Anyway, try to re-watch the final without any feelings, you will see that Craig Joubert did all his best for AB's team. AB's team is not guilty for this matter, just the World Cup is less valuable.

AB's team was certainly the best team of the tournament, and can wins in final even if they did bad but not with the connivence of the referee.

Be sure that I try to be honest, I am a fan of AB team from a long time. I have a shirt of AB team bought 15 years ago and I have still no shirt of France team. Craig Joubert has wasted the final, that's my poit of view and the point of view of many ppl in the world. If i was alone to think about or if there was only French, I will have some doubts in my mind...but even some English have the same view. And when you know how many English like French....

Whinge all you like mate just don't tell us to feel guilty about it. It's been done to death in the other posts by Kiwis as well and to be honest part of me wants to not read any more of this crap as it's kind of a downer.

disneychilly wrote:Whinge all you like mate just don't tell us to feel guilty about it. It's been done to death in the other posts by Kiwis as well and to be honest part of me wants to not read any more of this crap as it's kind of a downer.

Wouldn't worry disney, i remember plenty of people trying to tell me that the England team in 2003 was a dour 10 man outfit, that the final was dull and the whole tournament was devalued. I paid them very little attention, you're clearly perfectly entitled to do the same

Hood83 wrote:

disneychilly wrote:Whinge all you like mate just don't tell us to feel guilty about it. It's been done to death in the other posts by Kiwis as well and to be honest part of me wants to not read any more of this crap as it's kind of a downer.

Wouldn't worry disney, i remember plenty of people trying to tell me that the England team in 2003 was a dour 10 man outfit, that the final was dull and the whole tournament was devalued. I paid them very little attention, you're clearly perfectly entitled to do the same

A lot of those people were Kiwis though who thought rather snobishly that rugby should be played a certain way. NZ won this time playing ugly. How times have changed.

leinsterbaby wrote:

Hood83 wrote:

disneychilly wrote:Whinge all you like mate just don't tell us to feel guilty about it. It's been done to death in the other posts by Kiwis as well and to be honest part of me wants to not read any more of this crap as it's kind of a downer.

Wouldn't worry disney, i remember plenty of people trying to tell me that the England team in 2003 was a dour 10 man outfit, that the final was dull and the whole tournament was devalued. I paid them very little attention, you're clearly perfectly entitled to do the same

A lot of those people were Kiwis though who thought rather snobishly that rugby should be played a certain way. NZ won this time playing ugly. How times have changed.

There may be some truth in that. Though i try and tell myself they're not all as bad as TGG was.

...plus England had no help from the ref. Just saying.

go on the french website : lerugbynistere.fr you will jugde by yourself.


You can refferee by yourself...just you need to read frencn a little bit.

Nice site Kyrn50. Some interesting debate. Nice to see a bit of balance. Would love this to be on an English site so more people could do it.

Yep, that a good site.

Anyway, I let you, guys.

Be sure that the next time that French will meet AB ( in a tournament ), they will play again harder than this time. The bad feelings get from this final will be not forget so easily for many French and again more for our national team. It's just a fight, not the war !
But be sure that French never play so well than they are outsiders or when they have an extremely unfair feeling.
Next time will be more interesting...believe me

Thanks all to read my poor english, and if you come in France, contact me, we will drink a beer together

My email adress : kyrn50ahotmail.com

Saw it too. I also did the survey and saw mostly french penalties. My browser translated everything for me. Good site.

Kyrn50 wrote:Yep, that a good site.

Anyway, I let you, guys.

Be sure that the next time that French will meet AB ( in a tournament ), they will play again harder than this time. The bad feelings get from this final will be not forget so easily for many French and again more for our national team. It's just a fight, not the war !
But be sure that French never play so well than they are outsiders or when they have an extremely unfair feeling.
Next time will be more interesting...believe me

Though we might have our first choice 10 then, not our fourth.

...France will have a proper manager then too who might actually pick an outhalf rather than two scrum halves.

Kyrn50 despite the bad blood you may feel - and I don´t begrudge you that - nothing will change between these two sides when they next meet. The French players say they fear the ABs but that fear doesn´t prevent them from thinking they can´t beat them. Fear in a way helps you confront the situation in the right frame of mind.

Meanwhile the ABs respect the French side. They are the NH team with easily the best record against the ABs and the team fans fear meeting the most because of that.

Ça me ferait plaisir de boire un coup avec toi.

disneychilly wrote:

Though we might have our first choice 10 then, not our fourth.

why ?
haven't you got an ABBB Captain courageous to ruin the opponent first choice 10 ?
and an IRB that lets him do, and even rewards him afterwards ?
don't worry for your 10, come every day , even with your granny, we have no chance.

SittingBull.

Why...you...angry? Richie...put... gun...you...head? Me...no...understand...you...speak. You...more...bitter...lemon.

Kia- This is what i dislike about NZ Rugby, because it seems that anyone who disagree's with, or in any way questions the team has to be attacked and ridiculed. We don't agree with your team, and don't think they deserved their win on saturday, fair enough!!

Lets have no more sillyness

Get real English. Every country has fans who attack and ridicule those that don't agree with them. Kia is usually a really good sort. I was very suprised when I saw that from him. I guess he's feeling a bit out of sorts after so many people doing big downer on him when he should be feeling happy.
Personally I'm not to worried about the RWC in general so while winning it is good I was over it in about 10 minutes so the vitriol towards us isn't so annoying.
I am annoyed at the attacks on Joubert who I have always thought of as a very good ref. I don't know how people can rationalise the idea that refs from all over the world ref NZ incorrectly (in and out of WCs). Why do people think they would do that? NZ has bugger all money so we're not bribing them. We have less power than the Home Countries so we don't control the IRB. I just can't understand their thinking.

You'll excuse me if I'm somewhat sceptical of your objectivity English. It's amazing the AB's compete as well as they do given the prejudice that exists in the UK towards them. It's not surprising given that it is almost obligatory for any journalist to throw in a line about the all blacks being cheats. The typecasting flows onto the boards which is sad.

Was the game so bad? I think not. Here are Jouberts comments:

"I was really proud of my efforts and the feedback I had.

"The balance I felt I got right was that, while you have to be prepared to make tournament defining decisions when required, I always stuck to my pre-match mantra to referee the clear and obvious.

"The whole way through the tournament we have felt that marginal decisions should not dictate the outcome of games. I was ready to make a decision which would have been tournament defining if I'd had to. I refereed the whole 80 minutes like I would referee any other game."

I think I agree with him.

At the end of the day this was a close game. The final penalty count was 10-7 in the AB's favour. If you ignore the last few minutes where a desperate french side tackled players from offside positions it was 8-7. The AB's got the rub of penalty count in the first (which they arguably had an edge), the French by and large the second. The French had an opportunity to win the game through a penalty towards the end (hardly the act of a ref who want allow them victory).

Both sides could feel agrieved about the refereeing. Whilst potential AB infringements have been highlighted, the French could have been penalised for a large number of ruck, tackle, scrum and obstruction offences. The AB's could also argue that inconsistent refereeing directly to them being under pressure and resulted in French points.

For some reason people argue this is the worst refereeing in recent history. In my opinion there are a number of worse examples in this world cup. It's not even remotely comparable with the 2007 quaterfinal between the sides, which set records that will probaby stand for a long time.

You guys deserve better from your journalists.

Black the saying....well he would say that wouldnt he springs to mind...

Also as of yet while numerous AB infringements have beein identified plus the French being harshly judged on others, outside of one possible infringement (Rougerie not entering the ruck by the gate - by a fraction) that could have been blown non others have been analysed or shown.