Wales, South Africa and the reasons we love the World Cup

I know that Im a day or 2 late, and no doubt theres a plethora of the usual catch phrases and witty sounding comments like "winning ugly", "plucky wales", "lack of killer instinct" and my favourite "the top 2 inches".

well, let me start off by saying BAAAH HUMBUG!

Wales did all of the hardwork, they really took the fight to South Africa after an opening period that may have previously caused them to combust.

Priestland, tactically, was brilliant. Roberts was rampaging. Jon Davies made the half breaks when we needed him too. The backrow were outstanding, how long has it been since we saw a welsh 8 run into a gap, slip tackles and knock would be tacklers back in contact on his way to the try line?

But, as I feared going in to this match, the Springboks deserve no less praise than the welsh for their part in this match that sums up why I love the world cup.

They were staunch, resilient, tough, they relieved the pressure at crucial moments. They did everything you'd expect the world champions to do to get through a game where they were being beaten at their own game. The difference, the clinical finishing of the 2 tries and the points that were taken when needed. Wales didnt seem to be able to take their chances at points.

This game though had the underdog firing, the world champions "on the ropes" showing exactly why they are world champions, it had big hits, refereeing controversy and proves that the Welsh are no longer "plucky losers".

Devastated we lost, take nothing away from South Africa, but now for Wales the hard work starts all over again and their efforts from Sunday will be forgotten if we do not win the remaining 3 games in our pool. Make no mistake, those games are winnable, and we need to win well, no shakey performances, lets see this side progress.

If this game was the beginning of a Welsh side that has the ability, toughness and young abandon to challenge the top sides in the world with the expectation of getting a result, we need to be going into the quarter final of this world cup confidently on the back of 3 solid wins.

But lets not be bitter, lets take the defeat on the chin, congratulations South Africa. Bring on Fiji/Samoa/Namibia.

Cymru am beth.

missed the second half, as I was travelling to a BBQ. Thought the Welsh would either pipped it or be blown away in the second half, so much for hunches.

Personally I thought the French - Japan game was the most entertaining so far.

The French thought they were Rosbifs cos of their white shirts and the japs though they were NZ given they had all the support from 30mins onwards.

Re: Wales, South Africa and the reasons we love the World Cup
by damage_13 Today at 11:51

.missed the second half, as I was travelling to a BBQ.

yeah, 11-4pm at a country park

The fact of the matter is we lost a game in which we were the better team 90% of.

In my view you had 60% of the possession and 60% of the territory thus you could argue you were better for 60% of the time.

But then better boils down to execution and we scored 66% of the tries and you scored 33% of the tries.

Thus there is a 6% advantage to us and hence we won.

If you calculate it a little further 1 points difference devided by 16 points = 6.25%

So we actually short .25 of a point somewhere.

biltongbek wrote:In my view you had 60% of the possession and 60% of the territory thus you could argue you were better for 60% of the time.

But then better boils down to execution and we scored 66% of the tries and you scored 33% of the tries.

Thus there is a 6% advantage to us and hence we won.

If you calculate it a little further 1 points difference devided by 16 points = 6.25%

So we actually short .25 of a point somewhere.

Dont blame it on the good times, dont blame it on the moonlight, blame it on Wayne Barnes

biltongbek wrote:In my view you had 60% of the possession and 60% of the territory thus you could argue you were better for 60% of the time.

But then better boils down to execution and we scored 66% of the tries and you scored 33% of the tries.

Thus there is a 6% advantage to us and hence we won.

If you calculate it a little further 1 points difference devided by 16 points = 6.25%

So we actually short .25 of a point somewhere.

Did you realise that 87.2% for per centages were made up?

At the end of the day we were the better for the majority and we some how bottled it. Now we'll go on and beat the Samoans and the Fijians and lose in a close ish battle with the Ozzies and it'll keep all the valley boys happy as once again we NEARLY did well.

"Now we'll go on and beat the Samoans and the Fijians "

That's the spirit.

biltongbek wrote:"Now we'll go on and beat the Samoans and the Fijians "

That's the spirit.

To be fair, I said before the world cup id be bitterly disappointed to lose either of those matches.

After that performance at the weekend, i'll be kicking the dog if we dont win the rest of our pool games, with respect to the opposition, wales have the ability to win those games well.

And South Africa have found their World Cup hunger, that has to be worrying for everyone else.

Comfort wrote:

biltongbek wrote:"Now we'll go on and beat the Samoans and the Fijians "

That's the spirit.

To be fair, I said before the world cup id be bitterly disappointed to lose either of those matches.

After that performance at the weekend, i'll be kicking the dog if we dont win the rest of our pool games, with respect to the opposition, wales have the ability to win those games well.

And South Africa have found their World Cup hunger, that has to be worrying for everyone else.

don't let Greyghost read that, he is a undercover agent for the SPCA and an honourary member of "cruelty against animals" he had my dog removed by the SPCA for just mentioning that.

i swapped mine for a stuffed version (well the woman did) and as such, i can kick, punch, gouge, spear tackle and clear out from rucks however i like without being cited!

THUG!

It will be sweet to get the correct result in the Final if SA make it!

biltongbek wrote:In my view you had 60% of the possession and 60% of the territory thus you could argue you were better for 60% of the time.

But then better boils down to execution and we scored 66% of the tries and you scored 33% of the tries.

Thus there is a 6% advantage to us and hence we won.

If you calculate it a little further 1 points difference devided by 16 points = 6.25%

So we actually short .25 of a point somewhere.

SA scored 51.612903% of the points and I think that's the only way games are decided, I also think Wales were 3 points short somewhere along the line - but that's another thread.

The two closest matched games in terms of IRB ranking points so far were Wales v South Africa and Argentina v England. We shouldn't be that surprised that they were the two games decided by the fewest points, having said that, England did score 59.090909% of the points in their game so statistically speaking a better performance than it first appeared.

Statistically speaking though, 1 in 7 dwarves is Dopey.

I'm sure Wales will qualify from their group.

True but the value of one try vs two means you must multiply our percentage by 2 which then gives you an answer of 103.225806% which then implies we had a factor of 44.134897% surplus which is then devided by 59.090909% to give you a superior performance factor of 74.6898258%.

My head hurts.

Eh?

Stick a fork in me - I'm done.

Comfort wrote:

i swapped mine for a stuffed version (well the woman did) and as such, i can kick, punch, gouge, spear tackle and clear out from rucks however i like without being cited!

Was going to say you could have had mine- its a 2007 model, upgraded from 1999. I'm thinking of putting it in the shop next week for repair but I'll see how things go first...

PJHolybloke wrote: Eh?

Stick a fork in me - I'm done.

So what we really learnt from the SA/Wales game is that 31.64% of rugby watching/playing men around the world will swap their actual pets for stuffed versions in world cup years.

This lowers animal cruelty by 9.72% around the globe and makes Grey Ghost 0.8% happier, this is of course outweighed by the very sight of Wayne Barnes causing an upturn of 99.2% of pure anger.

South Africa is divisible by 3.

JUSTICE 4 COMFORT!

comfort, you should have stuck around here last night, myself, Pjholybloke and a few others had a blast, at one point i was considering opening a comedy club.

Oh and by the way, SA rugby team is divisible by 22.

There you go Bilton at one point on Saturday I bet the last thing you were considering was opening a comedy club

i always come in log on in the morning and realise ive missed the best part of a thread, typical!

AND their was numbers, i numbers!

maybe there should be a comedy club on here, theres a pub afterall! and perhaps it would entertain more inter-nation-relations and conversations about how Wales are surely now going to win the world cup?

Comfort wrote:

i'll be kicking the dog if we dont win the rest of our pool games,

hey, leave me out of it!!!

dogtooth wrote:

Comfort wrote:

i'll be kicking the dog if we dont win the rest of our pool games,

hey, leave me out of it!!!

its alright mate, if the kicking so far is anything to go by, ill either be way off target or there'll be a controversial decision deciding not to award me the points

RubyGuby wrote:There you go Bilton at one point on Saturday I bet the last thing you were considering was opening a comedy club

At that point i was considering a funeral home.

Comfort wrote:

dogtooth wrote:

Comfort wrote:

i'll be kicking the dog if we dont win the rest of our pool games,

hey, leave me out of it!!!

its alright mate, if the kicking so far is anything to go by, ill either be way off target or there'll be a controversial decision deciding not to award me the points

It's been like throwing tomatoes at a fan. all over the place