Sports Rugby

23 October 2011

Final of the Rugby World Cup 2011  – New Zealand lead France by 5 –  0 at half-time

France over for a try right under the posts with the score now 8 – 7 to the All Blacks.

The All Blacks have won the Rugby World Cup 2011 final against France by 8 -7!!!!!!!!

22 October 2011

Bronze Final of the Rugby World Cup 2011 – Australia beat Wales 21 – 18

Auckland 16th October 2011

New Zealand beats Australia 20to 6 at full time in the second Semi-final for the Rugby World Cup 2011

The young All Blacks are playing well with Israel Dagg and Aaron Cruden having a great game.  A fast paced game with amazing intensity.

Auckland 15th October 2011

France beat Wales 9-8 and go on to the final in an amazing game where Wales were reduced to a 14 man team early in the game after captain, Sam Warburton, was sent off for a dangerous tackle and has been suspended for three weeks by the IRB.

8th October 2011

Wales beat Ireland 22-10 played in Wellington

France beat England 19-12 played in Auckland

9th October 2011

Australia beat South Africa 11-9    That game is definitely one for the history books with South Africa dominating possession and territory yet the Wallabies getting the points.  WHAT A GAME!!!!

New Zealand beat Argentina  33 – 10 in Auckland

 Rugby World Cup 2011 Pool Results

The New Zealand vs France game of the Rugby World Cup 2011 has just finished with the All Blacks beating the French team by 37 points to 17.  New Zealand put the first points on the board and it was a comprehensive performance by the them.  5 tries to 2.

France dominated the first phase of play yet unfortunately for them they did not put any points on the board at that stage.  There was lots of action in the game.

Territory was even and in position there was a very slight advantage to New Zealand.  Richie McCaw was quite pleased with the match in his 100th test appearance.  He is the most test captain in New Zealand rugby history.  Has scored the most points for a forward in the All Blacks.  Richie was awarded a white All Blacks cap for being the first ever All Black to play 100 test matches.

Graham Henry definitely ranks Richie McCaw as his number 1 player.  He leads by example and is a very popular player with everyone.  Congratulations Richie!

The Rugby union has a standard bonus points system to encourage attacking play throughout a match, to discourage repetitive goal-kicking, and to reward teams for “coming close” in losing efforts.

#  No team can get more than 5 points in a match

#  No points are awarded for losing, unless bonus points are involved

*  4 points for a win

*  2 points for a draw

*  1 bonus point for scoring 4 tries (or more)

*  1 bonus point for losing by 7 points (or less)

Well tonight we saw a major upset for the Rugby World Cup 2011 when Australia, the number two seed for the cup, lost to Ireland.   There were no tries in the game.  Ireland won by 15 points to 6.

It looks like Ireland will win Pool C, with wins against Italy and Australia and games to play against Russia and USA.  Of course anything can happen in rugby.

The Irish bars will be humming in Auckland tonight…

Yes – it started with a mediocre performance by the All Blacks to beat Tonga by 41-10 at Eden Park, Auckland.  Israel Dagg and Richard Kahui were two of the best performers on the night.  More detail on the starting game of the Rugby World Cup.  Here are video highlights of the All Blacks game against Tonga.

Japan put up a great challenge against France only losing by 47-21 in their first game being played in North Harbour, Auckland.

Scotland managed to pull off a win against Romania with a score of 34-24 at Rugby Park, Invercargill.  Nine minutes before time the score stood at 24 All.  These video highlights show Romania looking much better than expected.

England struggled to a 13-9 win over Argentina in their first game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Fiji held off Namibia 49 to 25 in a game with plenty of tries.

To view video, please click on the post title

Great rugby tries Rugby World Cup 2007

Duration : 0:2:44

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I want to know where rugby ranks among all professional sports around the world, as far as popularity is concerned.

Murphy and Dangerous do provide valid points in terms of countries where rugby is played. Contrary to ambiguous retort, it is the Third Largest Sporting event globally watched by television viewers. Of course we are talking about the Rugby World Cup.

In terms of popularity, we would have to define popularity as meaning to say total numbers in each country that play the game. These figures I do not have available but there are websites that provide indicative numbers in addition to the traditional playing countries. I refer to players that are registered with their own home own Union.

I have coached Handball at the German Bundesliga in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany and whilst this sport is popular in Europe, Asia (China, Japan and South Korea), North and South America (USA & Brazil) in terms of popularity its most likely to be on par with Rugby but only within those countries where it is play at international level.

Rugby has a good following in Germany with a structured National Competition, the areas around Munich/Muenchen, Bavaria/Bayern have strong clubs with several universities like Erfurt where the game has a good base. Rugby League also has a good base particularly northern Germany where a few years ago when residing in Eisenach I had an opportunity to implement development programs. All Blacks and Kiwi Fan Go the Warriors and the Hurricanes