Rugby World Cup....Semi Final stage

[Symphony]

Well.....here we are at the semi-final stage of the competition and the last 4 standing are

Wales v France

New Zealand v Australia

As a proud Welshman, I'm delighted to see Wales reach a semi-final....and reach it playing fantastic rugby full of flair and passion. Congratulations to Warren Gatland, Sam Warburton and all the players and coaching staff.

Up to 4th in the World Rankings today as well......but let's see which French team turns up on Saturday. Mercurial genius or damp squib???

 

[Dan W]

Wales have got every chance, although the French finally turned up in the competition (albeit against a very poor England performance)

Would still expect NZ to win the whole thing, but the Aussies could knock them out

Not worth me predicting much though, since if I was correct, the semis would have been England-Ireland, South Africa-New Zealand

 

[Symphony]

James Hook replacing the injured Rhys Priestland is the only change for Wales ahead of Saturday. Hook is a mercurial player and I hope he brings his A game to the table

 

[Symphony]

Gonna be up in Cardiff visiting the folks over the weekend......could be quite an atmosphere depending on how the games goes.

 

[moleSG]

Aaah... went downstairs when I woke up this morning to see the last 10 minutes. Gutted for Wales, I hear there was quite an unjust sending-off earlier in the game too...

They were damn close with that last penalty too.

 

[Kingface]

The words "Rugby" and "Fucking Twat" are quite common on my Facebook News Feed at the moment from other peoples' statuses!

I don't follow Rugby but sounds like a major shame if the sending off was unjust. Instantly reminds me of a Footballing instance whereby the French benefited from an unjust decision, the Handball that helped them scrape through against Ireland to get to the last World Cup Finals.

 

[Dan W]

Despite the red card, Wales almost went through

As for that incident, I don't think any would have complained if Warburton had been yellow-carded. Personally, due to the occasion, I though it would have just been a warning. As soon as the French player went up, Warburton should have guided him safely back to the turf rather than release him, but at no point was it a definite spear which would have warranted a red

 

[Symphony]

I think that ultimately the most disappointing thing was that Wales should still have won even with 14 men. By far the better team in my opinion but.....missing 4 kicks cost us big time. With 15 men I have no doubt that we would have won comfortably.

If France end up winning the tournament.......I think it will be a travesty really. Hopefully NZ will sort that one out for us! lol!

Anyway......proud of the effort the lads have put in during the tournament and if someone had said before the tournament that we would have reached the semi-finals I probably would have taken that. A young side with a big future ahead I think.

 

[Dan W]

You would expect on form (and the earlier game between the two) that New Zealand should be taking the trophy on Sunday, but the problem is you never know with the French

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Damn. I missed England getting kicked out. Only by a handful of points too Still fair play to Wales they have had a cracking tournament and they should be proud of how they've performed.