Rugby Union refs...

It's refreshing how they try and coach and want to see the perfect flowing game. Harsh but fair.

 

The communication between ref and players in rugby is excellent. It helps when the players aren't screaming profanities at him though, so no chance of it in football.

 

The ref warned the Argentinians about coming in sideways for the maul before the first New Zealand try.

 

Angus Gardner has had a shocker so far this evening. Only reffing one team.

 

He's only had to ref one team. Argentina have been well off it.

 

I disagree, I think they've had three or four poor decisions go against them. The knock on near the end of the first half is a case in point, he called advantage over when they hadn't gained a yard in field position.

 

Well ref aside. This game is over. Can we beat South Africa?

 

To be fair the refs are all consistent in that they only play a couple of phases for a knock on advantage, they don’t play anywhere like as long as they would for a penalty advantage.

It was quite unfortunate that he called the advantage over and they knocked it on themselves after two passes - but that isn’t on the ref.

Argentina’s discipline at the breakdown has been woeful and I reckon the ref has been quite kind in keeping fifteen players on the field.

The fact remains that Argentina have been poor in all respects tonight. The ABs have been good but haven’t had much to face. They’re subbing off players to rest them for next week; with that and the extra 24 hours rest, they will start favourites next week no matter who wins tomorrow.

 

Can we? Yes.

Will we? I don’t think so but it’d be nice to be wrong.

 

Can't see it tbh, I think it will be a repeat of the 2019 Final when South Africa just hammer us in the scrums to get penalty after penalty. I don't think our pack can stop that happening.

 

I disagree about the knock on advantage.. its nothing to do with time or number of passes, it's about gaining an advantage from it, and without seeing it again Argentina only seemed to go backwards from the All Black knock on.

 

Well they are at least consistent with it.

He’s just done exactly the same the other way round against NZ!

 

The development of Rugby Union refs has led us to produce the second greatest living Englishman - Wayne Barnes.

 

Even talking Rugby Union you manage to get in a double entendres

 

I nearly posted the same.

 

When an AB / Wallaby / Bok team gets a ref from one of said countries it’s game over. They very much look after each other.

New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe has tomorrow’s game. England May as well not bother turning up. The referee appointments make very interesting reading when it’s a game that really matters……

 

To be brutally honest, and I'd love to be proven wrong - but we have seen the gap in quality between both sides of the draw last night. England beat Fiji by 6 and Samoa by 1 in their previous ganes, the Boks would take both to the cleaners.

Similarly to Argentina all England have going for them is the underdog tag and the fact that the shackles are off, they can really go after the Saffa's with nothing to lose, but need to keep their discipline much tighter than the Argies did.

I think England's biggest issue is the predictability of their attack, I just don't see how they can/will stress this Saffa defence, they'll be knocked back phase after phase or kick the ball away, both will inevitably lead to a bok set piece, which is exactly what they want and where they'll turn the screw.

 

The other side of it though, is that why should the game’s elite need coaching and warnings from the ref and when to ‘use it’? Surely they know the rules and should play to them as in any other sport without constant intervention from the officials.

There also appears to be a creeping propensity to challenge the ref’s decisions in this tournament and even encouragement to have opponents shown cards.

 

The Springboks and the all blacks are on a different level .

I really can't see England beating them.

On the plus side it will be a hell of a final if the Springboks overcome England v the all blacks.