MS to host World Cup games.

According to the WRU:

The fixture schedule also confirms that Wales will play two pool matches at the stadium in Cardiff during the tournament.
The announcement has given Welsh rugby fans even more to celebrate after a series of massive rugby achievements in recent months.

Supporters are already celebrating:

* The inclusion of fifteen players in the British and Irish Lions squad
* A Welsh head coach and captain for the touring Lions party
* Seven coaching and backroom staff in the party as well
* Another RBS 6 Nations championship victory

The Millennium Stadium is the only venue outside England for the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament. The complete schedule for the Millennium Stadium is:

19 Sep 2015 Ireland v America 1
20 Sep 2015 Wales v Play-off Winner
23 Sep 2015 Australia v Oceania 1
01 Oct 2015 Wales v Oceania 1
02 Oct 2015 NZ v Euorpe 1
11 Oct 2015 France v Ireland
17 Oct 2015 Quarter-final
18 Oct 2015 Quarter-final

I think it's brilliant that we get to have the amazing atmosphere of the MS at the world cup. A full MS is the best advert for rugby.

Who are we likely to play in the final

Hopefully you play SA, we win there a LOT.

Great to see the Mods joining in with the WUMming!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?!

No Wum, it is the truth.

How you must see that post though is to look at a Jeff Dunham video, he has that purple little puppet, don't know his name, but when he says A LOT, it is hilarious.

WUMs can be the truth too Biltong, you know that! In fact, most WUMs have an element of truth, and that's what does the winding up bit of 'WUM'.

Mate, you need to get a sense of humour, you also need to assess from whence it comes.

rainbow-warrior wrote:According to the WRU:

The fixture schedule also confirms that Wales will play two pool matches at the stadium in Cardiff during the tournament.
The announcement has given Welsh rugby fans even more to celebrate after a series of massive rugby achievements in recent months.

20 Sep 2015 Wales v Play-off Winner
01 Oct 2015 Wales v Oceania 1

I'm Welsh and a rugby fan, and the rugby fan in me isn't celebrating this one little bit.

Only the hosts should have home advantage. How is this fair on our opponents in those two games?

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

rainbow-warrior wrote:According to the WRU:

The fixture schedule also confirms that Wales will play two pool matches at the stadium in Cardiff during the tournament.
The announcement has given Welsh rugby fans even more to celebrate after a series of massive rugby achievements in recent months.

20 Sep 2015 Wales v Play-off Winner
01 Oct 2015 Wales v Oceania 1

I'm Welsh and a rugby fan, and the rugby fan in me isn't celebrating this one little bit.

Only the hosts should have home advantage. How is this fair on our opponents in those two games?

Didn't fancy answering the question?

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Didn't fancy answering the question?

Why? As I see it you are in a very very VERY small minority. I do not ever see any other COUNTRY complaining. Anyway it was not the intention of the thread.

What was the intention of the thread?

Let's say we get drawn in a pool with New Zealand and France for the World Cup in Japan, but have to play New Zealand in Auckland. Would you be happy with that?

It would never happen, of course; only the 'lesser' sides get treated like that.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:What was the intention of the thread?

Let's say we get drawn in a pool with New Zealand and France for the World Cup in Japan, but have to play New Zealand in Auckland. Would you be happy with that?

It would never happen, of course; only the 'lesser' sides get treated like that.

OK you got me the intention of the thread was to wind you up and nothing what so ever to do with the fixtures in Wales which was at the time of posting breaking news.

Anyway we are a poor old Third Tier nation remember.

Come on guys, it is early Friday morning, let's just all play nice today please.

I don't have a problem with the Millennium Stadium hosting matches; I have a problem with us, non-hosts, getting home advantage. It's not fair on our opponents. That's it.

Biltong wrote:Come on guys, it is early Friday morning, let's just all play nice today please.

It's 7-30 PM Friday night for me, as it happens I have better things to do and I also find it it a totally pointless point that has been picked up on

Biltong wrote:Mate, you need to get a sense of humour, you also need to assess from whence it comes.

Biltong, I think you're missing the sense of humour in my posts! Hence my use of "!" !!! It was me who was joking. Lighten up!

Perhaps you only think it's pointless because we're expected to beat the two sides we'll be playing. But doesn't that make it worse? The odds are stacked against these sides as it is.

Good on Griff.

I haven't heard any Aussies moaning yet. playing against two home teams they have a right to moan.

We're not playing the Aussies in Cardiff.

But you still get the advantage of two home games.

VictorU3 wrote:I haven't heard any Aussies moaning yet. playing against two home teams they have a right to moan.

Only playing the bottom 2 seeds in the group.

I agree with Luckless though. Use the stadium by all means. After all it's closer to London than Manchester, Liverpool, the rest of the North, Birmingham (possibly?), etc. But I don't see the tournament/competition rationale in giving a non-host side home advantage too, even if it is against so called 'minnows'. That's not what a world cup is about.

Griff, it's worse that it's against 'minnows'. They're up against it as it is.

You can bet that their status was taken into account when they allocated the fixtures.

Western Samoa were minnows in 91!

wow, that killed it.

They'd have won more comfortably in '91 if we'd been playing them at a neutral venue!

Do you think the 'minnows' would rather play Wales in a half empty Brighton community stadium or would they rather experience a packed MS with all the atmosphere that goes with it? Not to be rude but these teams are here for the experience, they've already won their world cups by just qualifying. Give them the best experience possible.

Effervescing Elephant wrote:Do you think the 'minnows' would rather play Wales in a half empty Brighton community stadium or would they rather experience a packed MS with all the atmosphere that goes with it? Not to be rude but these teams are here for the experience, they've already won their world cups by just qualifying. Give them the best experience possible.

yeah because upsets never happen....

I think the "minnows" priority is to win.

Fiji are capable of beating Wales (or England for that matter) anywhere in a one off game, why not give them the stage to show what they've got? The other qualifier doesn't stand a chance no matter where they play. A busting full MS is a better advert for rugby than a half empty stadium elsewhere. We just need to make sure the MS is full, otherwise...

Effervescing Elephant wrote:Fiji are capable of beating Wales (or England for that matter) anywhere in a one off game, why not give them the stage to show what they've got?

Because giving them a stage which happens to be Wales's home ground makes their task harder!

Effervescing Elephant wrote:The other qualifier doesn't stand a chance no matter where they play. A busting full MS is a better advert for rugby than a half empty stadium elsewhere.

And putting underdogs at an even greater disadvantage by giving extra help to one of the big boys, is that a good advert for rugby?

This competition is not about making it fair for lower tiered teams and anyone who thinks that is naive. This competition is about wringing as much money out of the group games as possible before having a star studded set of finals. The best way to get more cash out of the group games is to rely on the fact that Welsh fans will come in droves to watch their team on the big stage (the MS). Ticket sales would suffer massively as the pink hat brigade isn't interested in coming to Sandy Park or Elland road. Rugby needs the money, the minnows need the money generated by the Welsh fan base simple as that.

And to hell with principles.

The principles of the world cup are to expand rugby around the world. This is in line with those principles.

Surely part of that expansion is to make as many nations as competetive as possible?

Remember the last World Cup, where the established nations were given twice as long to recover between group stage matches compared to the 'lesser' countries. How can they close the gap when we put obstacles in their way?

Effervescing Elephant wrote:This competition is not about making it fair for lower tiered teams and anyone who thinks that is naive. This competition is about wringing as much money out of the group games as possible before having a star studded set of finals. The best way to get more cash out of the group games is to rely on the fact that Welsh fans will come in droves to watch their team on the big stage (the MS). Ticket sales would suffer massively as the pink hat brigade isn't interested in coming to Sandy Park or Elland road. Rugby needs the money, the minnows need the money generated by the Welsh fan base simple as that.

Sorry pal but all very wrong. Welsh supporters travel more than any other UK or European Nation in Union, if not the world. That was also the case in NZ in 2005 when the Welsh out numbered the rest in support. As for the pathetic "Pink Hat Brigade", give it a rest, did you see the 'Nigel's' dressed in silver foil with swords recently? Answer YES.

Effervescing Elephant wrote:The principles of the world cup are to expand rugby around the world. This is in line with those principles.

And there was me thinking that the main objective was to make money and reinforce the glass ceiling.



Silly me!

Where's the guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

Duty281 wrote:Where's that guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

It was an open invitation with no malice meant - However; following recent events he now understands your reaction and reluctance far better and apologises profusly

Duty281 wrote:Where's the guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

Easy tiger.

Duty281 wrote:Where's the guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

Yawn!

And you wonder why everyone wants the England to lose when you use obscenities at the other home nations for no reason. It will be very funny when you fail to make it out of the group in your own world cup!

wanderingdragon wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Where's the guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

Yawn!

And you wonder why everyone wants the England to lose when you use obscenities at the other home nations for no reason. It will be very funny when you fail to make it out of the group in your own world cup!

Jealously I suspect.

Biltong wrote:Gentlemen I had to clean up three posts now, next one goes to the bin for 48 hours.

Sorry.

Duty281 wrote:

wanderingdragon wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Where's the guy that wanted England-Wales at the MS? Not happening.

Yawn!

And you wonder why everyone wants the England to lose when you use obscenities at the other home nations for no reason. It will be very funny when you fail to make it out of the group in your own world cup!

Jealously I suspect.

Biltong wrote:Gentlemen I had to clean up three posts now, next one goes to the bin for 48 hours.

Sorry.

If you think it is jealousy then you should change your user name to Clueless!

Fiji have had experience in humiliating the Welsh at a RWC. With the passion of the MS to inspire them surely they'd fancy their chances of another upset

bum bum bum...

And another thread bites the dust aaaaa!!!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Perhaps you only think it's pointless because we're expected to beat the two sides we'll be playing. But doesn't that make it worse? The odds are stacked against these sides as it is.

You're not that Welsh-Samoan guy I met at the MS Samoa game are you? Oh

dallym wrote:Fiji have had experience in humiliating the Welsh at a RWC. With the passion of the MS to inspire them surely they'd fancy their chances of another upset

Where as in the most recent RWC it was the Welsh that humiliated Fiji 66 points to nil, and a lot of those guys will be there in 2015 tournament. Did that slip your mind?