England vs USA (Rugby World Cup)

The Anglo-American rivalry is rekindled today in a game that the world champions should win, but with France being beaten by the Argentines nothing can be taken for granted (very queer to be shouting for the Argies, but I was on the edge of my seat last night).

Rugby, a game that has put fear into the heart of many schoolboys on the playing fields of England in December, comes together for its four yearly world cup, with the gap closing between the nations, only the All Blacks stand out.

If any of the FulhAmericans across the pond watch the game listen out for the English crowd singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", a fav rugby anthem borrowed from you guys.

 

I remember a few years ago that Fox Soccer Channel was originally Fox Sports World and carried the Rugby world cup. Can't say I knew what the hell was going on, but it was entertaining. My guess is that's on a pay per view channel somewhere (sentanta)??

I do know that we stink now and will stink forever (we're like San Marino trying to qualify for the Euros) and if England doesn't crush us somebody might be getting fired immediately ('don't even bother even going back to the hotel, here's a plane ticket')

 

The US had to qualify, they are not the worse team in the world, that is Japan!

Argentina have been getting better and better over the last 4 years. They beat England at Twickenham, home of English rugby. They have beaten France in 4 of their last 5 appearences, but that was against a weakened team.

I don't think there will be any major upsets, but England are very poor at the moment so I don't expect them to hammer the US. I don't know if I should watch the world cup or England draw 0-0 with Israel.

 

England beat the US 28-10. A fantastic result from the professionals of England against the amatures of the US. How embarassed you all must be at the humiliation dished out by Blighty.

It could have been even more different without the trip early in the first half from England captain Phil Vickery when the Yanks had a good opportunity to score a try.

 

Is 28-10 lopsided in this sport? If there is a sport I've had zero exposure to its this one.

Not fair we never get to play you in basketball or ice hockey. Now that would be humiliation 8)

 

Yes, we are not quite sure how we will get over it.

 

In Rugby you get 5 points for a try (touchdown) 2 points for a conversion (extra point) and 3 points for a penalty (field goal). It would be like The Cowboys beating the Barcelona Dragons 28-10, or England beating Malta 1-0 in soccer. While the win is expected it was much closer than it should have been.

We were bad and the US were good, they played hard and went for the full 80 minutes. Normally you expect an amature team to tier and fall apart in the last 20, but the US were the better team at the end.

 

All in favor of no longer following the US rugby team raise hands!

Gee, we're getting just like the offal..

:roll:

 

When you put it like that I am quite proud of our showing ..... I think.

 

I remember watching the 5 nations match between England and Scotland in an Aberdeen pub in 1997 (wasn't 6 nations yet). I had a blast even though I had only a vague idea of what was going on. Just the atmosphere itself was outstanding.

Can't say I know anything about US rugby though. I figured we'd have an amateur team that wouldn't do that well. Are there any US players playing in the top rugby leagues overseas?

 

This has got me somewhat interested. Here's an article on our team.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.j ... rus107.xml

We have a few professionals who play in England, but most are amateurs. We actually won the Olympic gold in Rugby in 1924 but haven't mustered much since. In 1999 we lost to England 109 to 8. Quite an improvement I'd say. In another 8 years time we'll be kickin England's ass!

We play Tonga on Wednesday, you figure we can take em GBFC?

 

Tonga are an expansive team. They will take risks to score. I think the US will struggle to handle this style of rugby, although they lack the precision of New Zealand and the power of Somoa. If the US play with the commitment and passion that they did against England then they could win it. They need Hercus to play well again.

BC, the England vs Scotland match is the best atmosphere in the world. Rugby fans are different to football fans and will drinks and sing with each other and against each other all the way through the game. I have been lucky enough to go to a few Eng/Scot matches at Twickenham.

 

GBFC; to illustrate where rugby fits in to the american sporting landscape, I had to watch sky sports news to find out the score. The L.A. Times sportspage which is arguably the best in the country didn't have the score listed anywhere (even in the small print results section) in the 20 page Sunday edition. Beating our team by 18 while not disasterous has to be considered a poor result for England, no??

 

Hi SoCalJoe,

It is an appaling result for England. I am not sure my sarcasm has shone thorugh. When the US play South Africa I would expect SA to win by 70 or 80 points. This is not a reflection on the US national team, South Africa are a very good team.

Rugby is too close to NFL football to make it anywhere your side, in the same way that NFL will struggle beyond a neiche position in the UK as it is against both codes in rugby (League and Union). Although I enjoy it and am just watching the re-run of the cowboys vs the giants.

Just to clarify, England were very poor, but take nothing away from the effort and determination show by your boys. It is as close to a win as you will get against a mainstream team.

 

Unfortunatly amature does hold a different meaning these days, but not in skill levels. The main difference is between the fitness of amatures and professionals.

In cricket amatures (called gentlemen) use to have their initials before their surname and have their own dressing rooms, their faclities were much better than the pros (or players). It wasn't untli the 1960's when England had their first professional captain.

A bizard incident happened during a match when the announcer read out "For FJ Titmus please read Titmus, FJ."

There is a history in the UK of amatures being seen as better and more important than professionals, although this is on the wane.

 

The only thing I know about rugby is the famous Haka performed by the All Blacks.

I guess it would be similiar if the Irish national football team lined up and did the Riverdance before each match.

 

How did we live without google?? Low and behold there is a rugbyworldcup.com. It seems the U.S. lost to Tonga 25-15. Now I'm
sure it's the national sport in Tonga, but it goes to show that we must have beaten Bermuda or Belize to be able to qualify.

 

The US looked tiered, I think they had thrown everything at their outstanding display against England and had no reserves to throw at Tonga.

Rugby is a hard game for the fan as the best team almost always wins, so big upsets are rare.

The US are ranked 15 in the world out of 95 teams, however only Australia, South Africa, Argentina, France, Ireland, England, Wales, Italy and Scotland comprise the top level of rugby (and Argentia do not play in a regualr competition).

I don't think the US will make any in-roads against Samoa, they have some extra days to recover between games. Then they have a quick turn around before playing South Africa, where I think it could be a cricket score.