Rugby World Cup 2011

[davegrady1]

Scotland vs Romania was good to watch, Romanian forward pack dominated for a good period of the game and got it to 24 all with a few mins left and then the scots just threw it around and got the 2 late tries. If the Romanians had a few decent backs who could run the ball and catch a ball for that matter I think they could have got the upset. Namibia vs Fiji was interesting too... should have stuck to there tactic of kicking drops goals at every opportunity.

[Cormack74]

Disappointing news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14907616.stm

England prop Andrew Sheridan has been ruled out of the Rugby World Cup after injuring his left shoulder in the opening match against Argentina.

Sheridan has had two operations on the same shoulder and returned from right shoulder surgery for England's final World Cup warm-up against Ireland.

The Sale loose-head, 31, will return home for further treatment.

"It's sad for Sheri, he's been unlucky. We brought five props so have options," said England boss Martin Johnson.

England will decide on a replacement in due course but under World Cup rules Sheridan will not be allowed to rejoin the squad in New Zealand.

Matt Stevens and Alex Corbisiero will compete for Sheridan's starting spot, while Northampton prop Paul Doran-Jones and Wasps' Tim Payne are the most likely options to replace him in the party, having been included in England's initial 45-man training squad.

Sheridan, a member of the 2005 and 2009 British and Irish Lions squads, is considered one of the world's most powerful props and won his 40th Test cap in the 13-9 win over Argentina on Saturday.

But after damaging his left shoulder against the Pumas, scans were sent back to the specialists in the UK who operated on him following a dislocation in October 2009.

In liaison with Sale, it was decided that the injury was significant enough to return home for further medical investigation, subject to the approval of the World Cup medical director.

Sheridan, who played in the 2007 World Cup final, won his 37th cap when England beat Wales in Cardiff at the start of the 2011 Six Nations but missed the subsequent match against Italy because of back injury. On his return against France, he strained a calf muscle and missed the final two Six Nations matches.

Following further surgery to his right shoulder, he was not selected for England's first two World Cup warm-up games against Wales.

Johnson also confirmed England that anticipate squad captain Lewis Moody will be available to face Georgia in Dunedin on Sunday.

Moody has not played since limping out of England's first World Cup warm-up with knee ligament damage.

"We are hopeful he is going to be good to go," said Johnson. "We talked last week that he wasn't far off being fit. Another week is always better when you've been injured for a long time but, at some point, you've got to go and we are hopeful."

Johnson is planning to rotate much of his squad for the Georgia game to expose most of his squad to World Cup action.

"We need to get the bulk of the squad on the field starting a game if we can because they need to be ready to play," said Johnson.

"You can't sit them out for a few weeks and then say 'this is the biggest game of your life on Saturday - how are you fixed?'

"We will make our decisions before the Scotland-Georgia game."

[Chazza]

Video of Mike Tindall out on the smash

full version of 12mins has been removed

I wonder if that had the Dwarf throwing in it

http://www.3news.co.nz/Video-CCTV-ap...6/Default.aspx

[Cormack74]

Got no problem with our boys on the piss. It hasn't stopped them getting to the last two finals.

[mick the click]

The ****e that's being written about players going out is uniquely English.

[mick the click]

If there's an uglier sporting team than the English rugby team then I've yet to see them.

Don't watch much rugby then do you

[Liverpel]

Not for Ireland.

Half time and we're up to our usual shenanigans, making life difficult for ourselves.

Do you fancy us to upset the Aussies tomorrow morning?

[jono]

I much prefer Rugby League myself, but don't mind watching the Rugby. The AB's will be very hard to beat at home, but as has been mentioned they do choke at the RWC. As an Aussie I'm hoping that the Wallabies do well, but since the elimination finals at the 1991 RWC between Ireland and Australia at Lansdowne Rd I've been partial to Ireland. It was a sensational game.

The Aussies will be favourites this evening but it is definitely not a fargone conclusion. They will need to be on their game and Ireland will be up for it.

I think the winner will be from the Southern Hemisphere. SA, NZ or AUS.

[RichC]

Ireland with a deserved win over the Canary yellows today, very impressive!

[Zapater]

****, what a set of games. Very crowd friendly, what an upset right now.

[Chazza]

Great performance from Ireland, especially the forwards

Might set up a South Africa v Oz quarter final, which would be tasty

[certifiable]

VERY Proud of my little nation.

We played them brilliantly, they made mistake after mistake.
We actually deserved to have won it by a larger margin, but we'll take it.

Now , why is there no leprechaun rocking smiley on this, it's a travesty

[dww]

Ireland with a deserved win over the Canary yellows today, very impressive!

[badpiggy]

Massive win for Ireland! Amazing to see us with such a good scrum. We started shakily again with lots of individual errors but we frustrated the **** our of the Aussies. That choke tackling really ****ed them up.

[Liverpel]

A fantastic and well-deserved win for Ireland today. With a possible quarter-final against Wales or Samoa to come we have a great chance of making the semis this time.