Argentina semi finalists in two of the last three World Cups starting down the barrel at the prospect of elimination in the pool stages after opening match defeat this morning.
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Fiji v Australia was exciting. Fiji were terrific in the first half. Didnât see New Zealand v South Africa.
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Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Did a quick google search and the same source that claimed Ireland has 153K registered rugby players claimed England has 340K, thatâs England with a population of 56 million versus Irelandâs 5 million.
Iâd say most of the registered Irish rugby players are GAA players who also register with a rugby club.
I signed into the fathers thread a while back boxty. 6 months ago today actually
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so if the figures donât support your argument they must therefore be wrong?
I like to see the source of any figures, data or evidence before I consider believing them. TFK generally isnât a great source for accuracy.
so it was TFK you googled then?
No 
I looked up two sources, you are claiming 194K, the other two sources were 153K and 95K. There are roughly 200 rugby clubs in all of Ireland, if your number is correct each club has an average of 970 players.
Seems a lot.
The figure of 194k registered rugby players in Ireland includes tag, womenâs and computer rugby players, which are all counted separately
So Gordon DâArcy and the Eimearnator are each counted twice in that statistic
Being honest I just typed this post because I wanted to write the words âthe Eimearnatorâ
My word, that bypassed me entirely. Well done to all, seemingly you donât feel the need to update the thread with every fart or dose of the runs the baby gets which is admirable.
Clearly youâre managing matters superbly. Belated congrats again.
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Christ what a fucking crank
I see Ewan shared this as well earlier. Its a ridiculous effort from Hooper and he breaks about 5 different rules. But it was already an australian penalty advantage and the fijian was binned for the initial offence
Congrats julio
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A point Iâve been continually making about Englandâs chances in this World Cup is that their fixture schedule is nightmarish and greatly reduces their chance of winning the tournament
They have to play their two main rivals, Argentina and France, on October 5th and 12th respectively, ahead of a potential quarter-final against Australia or Wales on October 19th or 20th
The quarter-final history of teams who have had to play punishing matches against a big rival on the final weekend of the group stage is not good
England perhaps got slightly lucky today with Franceâs victory, as they may now have a chance to rest players against France in the final pool game if both teams are already qualified
The below is a list of final weekend group matches between âbig 9â teams, ie. the four main Southern Hemsiphere teams and the traditional Northern Hemisphere Five Nations, and how they got on in the knockout stages
None have won the World Cup
Only Australia in 2003 and 2015 have reached the final
There is a notable knockout stage performance disadvantage for teams who play another big gun on the final pool weekend - England play two big guns on the final two weekends
In my view theyâll need to beat Argentina and for themselves and France to play scratch teams in that final pool game to have a chance
If they lose to Argentina, theyâre goosed
1995:
Ireland 24-23 Wales
France 22-19 Scotland
France had 7 daysâ rest
Ireland had 6 daysâ rest
France beat Ireland 36-12 in the quarter final
France lost 20-16 to South Africa in the semi-final
1999:
Three play-off winners (England, Scotland, Argentina) all lost their quarter-finals four days later
England lost 43-21 to South Africa
Argentina lost 47-26 to France
Scotland lost 30-18 to New Zealand
2003:
Australia 17-16 Ireland
New Zealand 55-37 Wales
Quarter-finals:
Australia beat Scotland 33-16 - Australia had 7 daysâ rest, but Scotland had also had to beat Fiji 22-20 to secure their qualification over the Fijians - and they also had 7 daysâ rest
France 44-22 Ireland
New Zealand 29-9 South Africa
England 28-17 Wales
Australia went on to reach the final where they lost in extra-time to England
2007:
Ireland 15-30 Argentina
Argentina had 7 days rest and struggled over a fresher but poor Scotland team 19-13
Argentina lost the semi-final 37-13 to South Africa
2011:
England 16-12 Scotland
England had 7 daysâ rest and were abysmal in their 19-12 defeat to France in the quarter-final
2015:
Australia 15-6 Wales
France 9-24 Ireland
Australia had 8 days rest and were very lucky to beat Scotland 35-34 via a highly debatable late penalty
Wales had 7 days rest - they struggled manfully against South Africa with 7 daysâ rest but were worn down and lost 23-19
France had 6 daysâ rest and were obliterated 62-13 by New Zealand
Ireland had 7 daysâ rest and were comprehensively beaten 43-20 by Argentina
Australia did reach the final where they lost 34-17 to New Zealand
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I donât know why you canât allow lads like me just watch and enjoy the rubby world cup. Surely you should be happy that the sport is in the limelight? Whatâs with all the exclusivity?
You can copy and paste anyway mate.
Perspective eh.
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