Rugby World Cup Finals!

This is my last post about the Rugby World Cup 2007. I now have to wait another four years for the next one. Sucky.

Anyway, Argentina ended on a high note in the Bronze Final! They defeated France 34 - 10 to take THIRD place! W00T!! Go Pumas! They have now proven themselves to be a force in the world of rugby, defeating France not once, but twice during the tournament. Unprecedented. This was Argentina's first trip to the Finals and they performed beautifully. France only managed to score one try late in the game to Argentina's five tries. Argentina maintained control during the match, taking advantage of every mistake France made. France just could not match them technically. Argentina played a magnificent tournament, and they were rewarded with a first ever trip to the Finals and a history making World Cup overall. YAY! [visualize me doing a happy dance around my living room]

In the Final, England took on South Africa. But, much to my joy, they just couldn't pull off the win. South Africa took the Webb Ellis Cup with a low scoring 15-6 defeat over England. Not a single try was scored, all points came from kicks. England missed both of their attempted dropped goals, but scored twice on penalty kicks. But it was the penalties that did England in...all of South Africa's points came from penalty kicks. Wow.

Thus ends the 2007 Rugby World Cup. South Africa won, England took second, and Argentina took third! Overall, it was certainly a tournament filled with surprises.

Rugby World Cup Semi Finals!

This weekend was the Semis for the Rugby World Cup. The losers from the two rounds play in the Bronze final for 3rd place and the winners compete for the Webb Ellis Cup in the Final next weekend.

Saturday was the France vs. England match. I'll be honest, I wanted France to win, purely out of revenge. Yes, I know that Australia screwed up (they just couldn't hold it together in the scrums and their forward pack was a mess), but that didn't stop me from wanting England to lose out of pure spite. At halftime, it looked promising. France was ahead 6 to 5. Like so many other of the matches this World Cup, this game was a kicking game. And neither team's kicker was doing all that well. And while England scored a try, their kicker missed a penalty and several drop goals. Ultimately, though, it was the missed kicks that did France in. France missed all four of their attempted drop goals, and while they did hit their penalty kicks, it wasn't enough. They lost 9 to 14. A low scoring game decided by the kickers. So England gets a chance to win the Cup for the second time. Bummer. Needless to say, I will be cheering against England no matter who they play in the Final. I just want them to lose. Pure revenge and all that.

Which brings me to their opponents in the Final. Argentina put up a good fight, but they were no match for South Africa. The Springboks are one of the best. They played a solid game, scoring multiple tries and getting the conversion points on all of them. Argentina just doesn't have the same breadth of skill and experience. This is the first time ever that Argentina has made it to the Semi Finals in the World Cup. South Africa, on the other hand, consistently reaches the top four. And while Argentina did score a try and several penalty goals, it wasn't enough to beat South Africa and they lost 13 to 37. But kudos to Argentina for doing as well as they have, and no matter what, they are one of the top four teams in the world.

So the Bronze Final (for third place) will be between France and Argentina. This, if you remember, is a repeat of the opening World Cup match the beginning of September. Argentina beat France in a surprising upset then. Needless to say, France is going to do everything they can to prevent that from happening again. Should be an interesting game. And of course, I want Argentina to repeat their victory over France. Go Pumas!

And the big Final championship match is South Africa versus England. Traditionally, South Africa is one of the main rivals of Australia, being one part of the Tri-Nations (the other being New Zealand). So I should be cheering against South Africa. But my desire to see England lose is winning out over the long standing rivalry. I just want England to lose. Period. Petty? Maybe. But I don't particularly care if it's petty. I'll still be sitting on my couch cheering for South Africa to win the Cup next weekend.

GO Argentinian Pumas!!

As you all know, I had to placed all my hopes in Argentina to do well in their game today versus Scotland after my Australian Wallabies crashed and burned against England.

I was not let down. My hopes have been restored. Argentina beat Scotland 19 to 13. It was a tight game, but the Pumas held on. They survived the knock-out round. Yes!!

So next weekend Argentina is playing in the Semi-finals against South Africa. The SEMI-FINALS, people. It's amazing. So whether they win or lose, they are one of the top 4 teams in the world. If they win, they'll go on to play in the championship final. If they lose, they'll play for 3rd place in the Bronze final against the other Semi-final losing team. This is historic and incredible. This has definitely been an interesting Rugby World Cup. And it's not even over yet.

England plays France on Saturday. And then Argentina plays South Africa on Sunday. You all know where I will be. Parked in front of either my TV (if they games are aired live) or my computer watching the action minute by minute.

This week is going to feel very very long. I can already tell.

Rugby shocker

OMG.

England just defeated Australia, knocking them out of the World Cup tournament. Australia was up 10 to 6 at half time, but apparently England's fly-half is an excellent kicker (kicking 4 goals (3 pts. each) during the match) and Australia ultimately lost 10 to 12.

What happened to my Wallabies?!?!! My team has been eliminated. How could this happen? Why, Australia? Why? You let England defeat you...you were supposed to win to pay England back for beating you in the 2003 Final.

I now place all my hopes on Argentina. Tomorrow they play Scotland.

Wow. Just wow. This was not expected.

UPDATE: And France has ousted New Zealand. This is historic, people. Historic. New Zealand was one of the favorites in the tournament. So now England and France will meet in the Semi-finals next weekend.

Again, wow. Really really not expected. This Rugby World Cup has taken some very interesting turns.

Rugby World Cup Quarter-finals!

We are now through the pool phase of the tournament. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina all came out on top. The second place teams were England, Fiji, Scotland and France.

The competition for first and second place in Pool D was tight. France, Argentina and Ireland all had a shot at first and second place. Ultimately, France beat Georgia, securing second place. It came down to the match between Argentina and Ireland. I was torn. Who do I cheer for? My family background is very strongly Scotch-Irish, so there's a certain amount of loyalty I feel for both Scotland and Ireland. But I have an affinity for South America, specifically Argentina, after years of study and living in Buenos Aires for a bit. Ultimately I cheered for Argentina. The desire to see an underdog team do well beat out the family heritage loyalty. They've never made it this far in a Rugby World Cup, and it's very very exciting.

The Quarter-final matches are this weekend. This is a knock-out round. If you lose, that's it, your quest for the Cup is over. The slate for the weekend is as follows:
Australia v. England
New Zealand v. France
South Africa v. Fiji
Argentina v. Scotland

Well, I feel fairly safe predicting that the Tri-Nations teams (Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) will win and be moving on to the Semis. And my predictions are based on history. Of the last 5 cups, one of those three teams has won four of them. And unfortunately I don't think Fiji has a chance against South Africa. But France and England should give their opponents a run for their money which will make for some exciting rugby. The Australia-England game could be described as a grudge match. England beat Australia to win the cup in 2003. So Australia is out for blood (well, at least to redeem themselves).

And once again, my family heritage loyalty is being pitted against the underdog. Crap. But again, I think my desire to see the underdog do well is going to beat out that loyalty again. Regardless, the game will probably be close. Argentina has won all their matches, but the point spreads have not been large, creating some serious nail-biting moments.

So you all know what I will be doing this weekend. I'll be watching rugby, and probably doing my fair share of yelling at my TV. And hockey started up again this week (go Detroit Red Wings!) so I have a fantasy team to manage. In between matches, I'll be working on refining my roster. I already have one player out on injured reserve...not a good sign. I need to fix that this weekend.

Rugby news update

Stop the presses!! Team USA actually earned a point! We no longer have zero points in our pool...now we have: ONE. Yes, one. One point because while we lost the match against Samoa 25-21, we lost by "7 points or less" which results in a "bonus point" for not being total losers. Whoopee. Not that we have a chance in hell of making it to the next round, but at least we no longer have zero points. Only Namibia has that dubious honor now, and since they aren't scheduled to play this weekend, have no chance of earning any points and have ended their 2007 Rugby World Cup experience at the bottom of the barrel. Sucks to be them.

This coming weekend is the last weekend of the pool phase. Whomever is in first and second place in their respective pools at the end of play on September 30th moves to the quarterfinals. Currently three teams have already been declared winners in their pools, basically because there's no way anyone can earn enough points to beat them. Tie them, maybe, but beat them, no. Australia (pool B), South Africa (pool A), and New Zealand (pool C) have all emerged victorious from their respective pools. For anyone that knows anything about rugby, this is not surprising. The Tri-Nations teams tend to kick butt. Now the race for second place is in full swing.

In pool A, England and Tonga are vying for second place. Their match on Friday will determine which one of them moves on in the tournament. Should be a good game. In pool B, Wales and Fiji are tied for second. Their match is Saturday. In pool C, it's a tight race, with Scotland having a slight edge over Italy. Which could change when they play each other on Saturday as well. A lot at stake for these teams, which always makes for good rugby.

Pool D is up for grabs. Argentina, France, and Ireland all have a chance. Argentina is currently in first. All three play on Sunday, along with Georgia, who's trailing a bit too much to have a shot but could make life difficult for France if they play well. I say, this is quite the Rugby World Cup this time around. [now imagine that sentence with a very bad British accent...]

Should be an exciting weekend!

Monotony

Yes, more radio silence. But this past week has really been quite monotonous. Students are back. I'm in the midst of several projects, project proposals, and daily work. Most of my week was spent trying to come up with a way to normalize edits to records in a set across different sets so we wouldn't have to re-write the script to edit each different set. The frustrating part is that try as I might, I had exceptions for just about every set of records. Dammit. Ah well, it's the exceptions that make the rules, right? In good news, my work is no longer being reviewed by another librarian. I've been granted "independence." If you ask my parents, they'll tell you I've been independent since I was an infant...but that's another story.

Most of my free time has been spent watching the Rugby World Cup. I'd post regular updates about it, but I realize that most of you probably don't care, but for a moment please just pretend. It will all be over the end of October, I promise. Suffice to say, the US team sucks. Royally. We're in last place in our pool and have zero points. The most exciting thing about this World Cup is that Argentina is still doing well. They've won all their games and are in first place in their pool! Go Argentina!! Per usual, Australia is doing excellently and is comfortably in first place in their pool as well, serving match after match of beat-downs to their opponents. In general, there's been some good games, and some surprising upsets in matches.

Next weekend is the last weekend of the pool phase, so the matches this week and into the weekend will determine who moves forward. I can comfortably predict that the US team will NOT be moving on. This is not a surprise. If things keep going well for Argentina, they should make it to the quarterfinals, which would rock.

So that's what's up. Rugby. Work. More rugby. More work. Etc. Etc. Monotony. But in a good way. I'm certainly not complaining.

Rugby World Cup update

Indulge me here, people. It is only for 2 months once every four years. And since we in the United States just don't have non-collegiate national-level rugby (i.e. the equivalent of the NHL or NFL or any of the other national sports leagues) outside of the World Cup, I go a bit nuts during World Cup time. So just indulge me and pretend like you care.

The USA rugby team is, per usual, doing abysmally. Not as bad as some other teams (poor Japan got their butts kicked by Australia...I felt sorry for them as they had a distinct disadvantage to begin with just due to the physical size of their players), but still doing badly. Truly. Truly. Badly. At this point I would be surprised if they could bounce back and make it out of the pool phase. So I've given up on them. Watching them play is almost painful at times and I just can't stand it.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other teams to cheer for. Obviously, as I stated before, I will be cheering for Australia. But this World Cup there is a new "dark horse" team: Argentina. They are continuing their winning streak, surprising everyone. Currently they're first in their pool, but they aren't slated to play this weekend, so we'll see how the points stack up at the end of the matches between the other teams in their pool (remember, the pool phase is all about number of points earned for each match). Hopefully they'll still be in first or second place.

In other surprises, England, the defending champions from 2003, got served. South Africa gave them a beat down, winning 36 to zero. That's right, zero. England didn't even manage to score a goal on a kick, much less a single try. Ouch.

This weekend promises some good matches, with Australia playing on Saturday. So I'll be ticking things off my personal to-do list while watching games. And it's supposed to rain on Saturday, which means I won't have to feel guilty for spending the whole day inside with the TV on. Bonus!

[Caution, the following links may be offensive to some people] To get you all in the mood, here's a couple of websites of rugby drinking songs: http://www.rugbysongs.net/ , MIT Women's Rugby, the San Francisco Fog RFC (explains the song singing traditions/procedures at the after match party) and the Idaho Women's RFC the Black Widows (used to play with them sometimes as a sub, and frequently played against them in college). And no, I'm not going to publish the words to my college women's team song (the Motherruckers!!). Caution,the words to these songs are not exactly safe for work and are certainly not safe for small children. Everyone together now!: If I were the marrying kind... or, if you prefer, So...drink a little bit... (from the song known as Follow the Band)

Rugby rugby rugby!

So the official NFL season kicked off this past week. I have but one thing to say about that: who cares? The football season is long, and right now there are much more important sports events going on.

It's the 2007 IRB Rugby World Cup!!

I played rugby union in college and grad school. I eventually had to quit after a car accident (I was a passenger) injured the nerves in my left arm. If I get hit wrong, I can permanently lose function. Being a lefty, this is not an option for me, so no more rugby playing. But I love the game. It's a rough sport, but I do love it so.

Needless to say, I'm quite excited about the Rugby World Cup. It's only every 4 years, so the last one was in 2003. Back in 2003, I had no option to see any games on TV. The cable company I was with didn't offer any international sports channels. Fortunately, things have changed. I get to watch a whole bunch of Rugby World Cup games LIVE. Yes, live. W00T!!

Last night was the opening ceremonies (live!) from France and the first match of the round robin in the pool phase. Quick lesson: the first phase is the pool phase, with 4 pools of 5 teams each. For each match, teams earn points that ultimately determine their ranking in the pool. This phase will last the entire month of September. Next are the quarter finals, where the winner and runner up from each pool compete. The quarter finals are knock-out rounds, so if you lose, that's it. The semifinals determine who plays for the actual Webb Ellis Cup. The winners of the semis play in the championship match, and the losers play in the Bronze Final. The championship Final match is scheduled for October 20th. Got all that? Good. Moving on.

The first match last night was France, the host team, versus Argentina. Back when I lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a few months as an intern after college, I had the opportunity to see Argentina play Wales. I was not all that impressed. But that was 1999. Since then, Argentina has stepped it up and become an international powerhouse of a team, but they've never made it past the pool phase of the tournament. France has always been strong. They're often in the quarter finals. So imagine the surprise when Argentina won!! What an upset. It was a big win for Argentina. They essentially dominated the game, helped considerably by the errors made by France that resulted in turnovers in Argentina's favor. But the score was still close (12 to 17) so wow was it an exciting game.

Today I watched the USA Eagles lose to England. OK, they didn't just lose, they got pounded and lost 28 to 10. This is not surprising. One, because England is the defending World Cup champions (a big deal...first Northern Hemisphere team to win...usually the Southern Hemisphere teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand dominate). Two, team USA kind of sucks. Rugby is not a big US sport at all, so our national team is a bit neglected. We just don't have the depth or breadth of players to pull together a powerhouse team. It's sad. But as a nation we tend to focus on football (that's "gridiron" for the rest of the world), and we're starting to focus a bit on soccer, too. Rugby just doesn't get enough interest from us as a nation for us to really compete in the international arena. That's too bad.

Ultimately, my favorite team is the Australian Wallabies. So GO AUSTRALIA!! Redeem thyself after your disappointing loss to England in the finals in 2003. I have faith in you.