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On February 28 2012 09:04 Deadeight wrote:Anyone been watching 6 nations? England vs Wales was a nail biting game. Spoiler containing results: + Show Spoiler +I really thought beforehand England were going to get rolled by Wales. Wales had looked really good in their previous two games and I hadn't been impressed with Englands play, even though they'd won both their games. England did well to step it up and I could have sworn were going to win, but then it just got snatched at the end 
Yeah, wales and england was the only game i was able to catch, damn close one down to the end! (still dominating my six nations league, sexton and tommy bowe really helped out ^_^
And holy shit shipperly was fast as hell for the Reds last weekend.
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Wales looked GREAT, but England seems to have plenty of good up and coming players (Farrell !!!)
France vs Scotland was pretty good too. Dusautoir making big plays as always.
Italy was a bit disappointing but Ireland played really well in the second half.
Overall i think that it is a very good year, we get to see TONS of new young players and this is pretty exciting :p
Wales is the obvious favourite but i wouldn't be too surprised if France wins.
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South Africa4316 Posts
On February 27 2012 20:00 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2012 15:12 decafchicken wrote:On February 15 2012 08:46 Daigomi wrote:On February 15 2012 08:10 decafchicken wrote:On February 15 2012 07:58 Daigomi wrote:On February 14 2012 11:01 decafchicken wrote:On February 13 2012 03:44 Daigomi wrote:Sevens started again. Japan currently playing well against Canada, but I think Canada will take it. USA played well against Australia (much better than they played yesterday), but just couldn't quite win. Does anyone know why Australia is so poor this season? I know they're generally not the best at sevens, but this season they've been way below average. Looking forward to the later games tonight  EDIT: Gah, shit game vs. the All Blacks. They played well as always, but we played the worst match we've played this tournament. Too many players getting snapped up for super 15s maybe? Commentators mentioned the coach usually gets a lot of guys right out of college for a little bit then they get contracted to super rugby. On the bright side, i'm in first place for my six nations fantasy :D My spring season begins in two weeks can't wait to fuck some shit up. Nah, I don't think so. In fact, I didn't see any players missing from our roster. I was surprised to see Stephan Dippenaar playing for the Sevens squad, as he's a regular for the Bulls in Super Rugby. I think our performance this tournament was just a case of you win some and you lose some. We played poorly in the last two games, but not for any particular reason. I was glad to see Kenya and Canada win the Shield and the Bowl though. Great results for both of them. Also, England almost losing to Italy was a shock. They've won both their games but they haven't looked convincing in either game. As England look now, I would say their remaining three opponents are all favoured against them. Congrats on your fantasy! I've never played rugby fantasy, how does the scoring work generally? http://espnscrum.fantasyleague.com/Article.aspx?id=155Basically how much you play (full 80, partial or sub), tries, assists, drop goals, man of the match, and you get 1 designated kicker for points. Cards are negatives. Interesting. I might give it a try for super rugby this season. I've always found fantasy to be an awesome way to get to know the players. I've only played fantasy twice (for two cricket leagues) but both times I ended up making massive spreadsheets to improve my decisions which ultimately resulted in 2 hours a day spent analysing possible trades. Hopefully that won't happen this time :p Is there a super rugby version anywhere I can have a look at? Yeah there should be, my friend from south Africa said he wants to do one with us. Check ESPNscrum or Google it. And yeah I've definitely learned a lot more about players between fantasy and playing Jonah lomu rugby on xbox. The Europeans still kknow way more than us though lol http://superrugbydreamteam.sportal.com.au/This is the one that I'm part of. Was in NZ twice for the world cup (was staying in Melbourne for 6 months). I played national level in Korea way back when (hooker) and played for a social touring Expat team after I graduated, captain was South African with some kiwis and aussie and a few American/Canadians as well. I got my right ankle crushed back in 2007and basically ended my career. But now I'm 37, I'm going to go for a master league next year and get back into shape. My game weight use to be 87kg (I'm 178 cm), but now I'm 109kg (and I was at 118kg up to a month ago). I'm hoping to cut down to 98 or so and give it ago. It has literally taken 5 years for my ankle to somewhat heal, I didn't get an operation on it because there really wasn't one to be had, part of the bone at the front part of the ankle joint has disintegrated so the bone actually slips forward. I have had a lot of physiotherapy on it, so as long as I tape it up, I should be able to play one last glorious season before I'm crippled for life. ^^ So I'm probably going to relocate to Singapore next year and join the club scene there, if I can go for 3rd division I'l try. Beat on some young punks lol. I'd say, if you guys in America have never watched a lot of rugby, Super Rugby or Tri/Quad Nations is where it is at; the games are just so much more intense and dynamic than northern hemisphere games. Also, I was never a big fan of league, but after living in Melbourne I've come to really like it (still can't get into Aussie Rules/AFL though)- so you guys should check out NRL. Season also is starting now. I find that getting my fitness up will take about 2 months at my age, body just doesn't adapt the way it use to. But I'm going to just cut my weight down to about 95kg by diet first then just do full length sprints about 70% across the pitch, then walk behind the field goal posts then repeat until I pass out. And I'll just keep doing that until I can get up to 10 lengths without passing out at my max sprint. And I'll mix it up with 10 meters then one push up, 10 meters, one push up for the length of the pitch. I don't know if this is too old school, anyone got any tips to getting back into rugby fit? lol.
You seem to lead a very interesting life And I agree with you that Southern Hemisphere rugby is where it's at. I enjoy watching Six Nations, but only when there's no Super Rugby on.
What's the rugby scene like in Asia? I always support Japan when they play RWC, since they are such massive underdogs, but I haven't heard much about teams from the rest of Asia.
Regarding fitness, I know people say HIIT is one of the most effective ways to get fit, which is basically sets of getting your heart rate up to 90% of max for 30 secs (e.g. sprinting at full speed) and then cooling down for 90 secs (e.g. jogging slowly). That said, I haven't worried about fitness in years (I don't play rugby) so maybe someone else can give you more specific advice
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Only helpful thing I can recommend is to look at a bit in the Q&A thread about this ish:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=261901¤tpage=47#926
Starts a bit earlier than that though. You could probably google HIIT and LISS etc and find some info.
As for 6 nations I'm just hoping for a win against France. I'd like to see Wales win now, and I'd like to see us help them by knocking France down a game. As long as we play like we did against Wales and not like we did against Scotland I reckon we could do it.
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So, what's the future of SH rugby? I read some articles on the NZ provincial level being bankrupt. The Otago province is closing doors?
And what about South Africa? Is it true they are going to suppress the Cheetahs to make room to a new team? The Southern Kings? I read they have a lot of blacks players, and that they drain a lot of black fans, but are they any good, at least better than the Cheetahs (arguably, one of the worst teams in Super 15)?
The Six Nations matches were all shit, i saw all three of them and was deeply disappointed.
Ireland/Italy was a mediocre match. Italy made a good showing for 30 minutes. They have a good pack, a world class 8 (Parisse) some decent backs (Massi, Canale). But Bates must be the worst international fly-half i have ever see. Without a decent 9/10 association, they don't stand a chance. Ireland was as unimaginative as usual, nothing to say besides they are getting old.
Wales/England was bad. At least England showed some heart, but Wales choked as usual. Under heavy defensive pressure, they always made shitty choices, instead of playing in their 22, they should just use some strategical kicking.
France/Scotland was another shitty match. Scotland looked good, they don't deserve the wooden spoon. France was shit. The defensive system is not bad, but they were so many tackling mistakes... specially from the more experienced players (Rougerie, Harinordoquy, Szarzewski). The Fly-half still plays as he was a center, kind it nullifies the use of one of most talent-full players (Fofana). The line-out was horrid.
Still, there's so much talent in the french team and so much stupidity in the welsh team i think we could win, but frankly, the TOP14 is killing our players "à petit feu".
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South Africa4316 Posts
On February 28 2012 23:06 legaton wrote:
So, what's the future of SH rugby? I read some articles on the NZ provincial level being bankrupt. The Otago province is closing doors?
And what about South Africa? Is it true they are going to suppress the Cheetahs to make room to a new team? The Southern Kings? I read they have a lot of blacks players, and that they drain a lot of black fans, but are they any good, at least better than the Cheetahs (arguably, one of the worst teams in Super 15)?
The Six Nations matches were all shit, i saw all three of them and was deeply disappointed.
Ireland/Italy was a mediocre match. Italy made a good showing for 30 minutes. They have a good pack, a world class 8 (Parisse) some decent backs (Massi, Canale). But Bates must be the worst international fly-half i have ever see. Without a decent 9/10 association, they don't stand a chance. Ireland was as unimaginative as usual, nothing to say besides they are getting old.
Wales/England was bad. At least England showed some heart, but Wales choked as usual. Under heavy defensive pressure, they always made shitty choices, instead of playing in their 22, they should just use some strategical kicking.
France/Scotland was another shitty match. Scotland looked good, they don't deserve the wooden spoon. France was shit. The defensive system is not bad, but they were so many tackling mistakes... specially from the more experienced players (Rougerie, Harinordoquy, Szarzewski). The Fly-half still plays as he was a center, kind it nullifies the use of one of most talent-full players (Fofana). The line-out was horrid.
Still, there's so much talent in the french team and so much stupidity in the welsh team i think we could win, but frankly, the TOP14 is killing our players "à petit feu".
I'm not sure about NZ rugby clubs but I find it hard to believe that the NZ Super Rugby clubs would go bankrupt, their matches usually have a very good attendace rate. Regarding the Cheetahs, as far as I know they are not getting replaced, the Southern Kings are just being added to the tournament next season. I haven't seen much from the Southern Kings. They did play against the British and Irish lions in a warm-up match in 2009, the score was something like 16-21 for the B&I Lions. At that time, the SK team seemed to consist of a strange mixture of good sevens players and young up and coming players. I can't comment on what it looks like right now though.
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Wtf man the matches were good... many mistakes yea but definitly enjoyable.
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On February 28 2012 23:36 Boblion wrote:
Wtf man the matches were good... many mistakes yea but definitly enjoyable.
Yeah i enjoy watching the 1 a week we get here in the states. And wales didn't technically choke seeing as they won :p
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
We have the rugby 5 asian nations HSBC, it sucks; generally Rugby in Korea is like that in the UK/AUS where it is an upper class sport. But the gap between Korea and Japan is as huge as Japan and say Fiji, so the level of rugby here sucks. But if youre looking for fun social touring rugby, it is the best with 10's tournies in Manila and Cambodia.
Hong Kong 7's though is probably the biggest highlight of the year by a light year, if you can go to HK during that time, it is well worth it, just madness. And the Asian teams are far more competitive in 7s, namely HK, Japan and somewhat Korea (at least compared to 15s).
Club rugby is big in Singapore and HK with a mix of locals and ex-pats, while Korea has a national league of universities and army teams, and Japan has the same plus a professional club league (I believe that to be true).
Generally for the good players in Korea, we've trained overseas like in SA, NZ or OZ. Otherwise the Korean domestic elite players are basically the ones that were big and weren't good enough to be footballers.
And thanks for the heads up on the HIIT training, I guess same difference in sprinting the pitch and walking then sprinting. Well it's always worked before, just wondering if there were any new school things. When I saw the boks warming up, I was pretty blown away with how technical the warm up was. Times have changed a lot in rugby for sure.
I'm thinking of sending my boys to nudgee college in brisbane when they're older for rugby. Was thinking of SA, Durban, but every year I think SA is getting more unstable (no offense), so I've kinda moved away from that idea.
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South Africa4316 Posts
On February 29 2012 05:09 MightyAtom wrote:
We have the rugby 5 asian nations HSBC, it sucks; generally Rugby in Korea is like that in the UK/AUS where it is an upper class sport. But the gap between Korea and Japan is as huge as Japan and say Fiji, so the level of rugby here sucks. But if youre looking for fun social touring rugby, it is the best with 10's tournies in Manila and Cambodia.
Hong Kong 7's though is probably the biggest highlight of the year by a light year, if you can go to HK during that time, it is well worth it, just madness. And the Asian teams are far more competitive in 7s, namely HK, Japan and somewhat Korea (at least compared to 15s).
Club rugby is big in Singapore and HK with a mix of locals and ex-pats, while Korea has a national league of universities and army teams, and Japan has the same plus a professional club league (I believe that to be true).
Generally for the good players in Korea, we've trained overseas like in SA, NZ or OZ. Otherwise the Korean domestic elite players are basically the ones that were big and weren't good enough to be footballers.
And thanks for the heads up on the HIIT training, I guess same difference in sprinting the pitch and walking then sprinting. Well it's always worked before, just wondering if there were any new school things. When I saw the boks warming up, I was pretty blown away with how technical the warm up was. Times have changed a lot in rugby for sure.
I'm thinking of sending my boys to nudgee college in brisbane when they're older for rugby. Was thinking of SA, Durban, but every year I think SA is getting more unstable (no offense), so I've kinda moved away from that idea.
Yeah, it's similar to the sprinting you mentioned. The only difference being that you have to sprint for 30s (which should be two lengths of the pitch, not one). Supposedly, the last 5-10 seconds are incredibly hard, and it's those seconds leading to the most fitness gain. Once again, I'm not an expert on this so you should see if you can find a better source.
Regarding SA, it's interesting to hear you say it's gotten more unstable. It's difficult for me to judge for me. Politically, it feels like it should have gotten more unstable. Mandela was a good president, Mbeki was an innocuous president, and Zuma now is the first black president which has been treated with almost unanimous suspicion. However, Zuma has been an ok president so far, and racial tension has definitely decreased in SA over the last ten years. Crime is also down recently from what I've heard. That said, the ANC (our ruling party) has been unstable recently with tons political backstabbing. All in all, I'm not really sure if things are getting more or less stable. Compared to Australia, SA is crazy unstable of course :p
Any specific reason you'd send the boys to Durban? Durban is generally considered to be one of the less pleasant cities in SA (compared to places like Cape Town and Pretoria at least). Generally, Cape Town is seen as the place to be in SA. It's the safest large city and the University of Cape Town is the most prestiguous university and pretty good at rugby, while the neigbouring University of Stellenbosch is as good at rugby but a tiny bit less prestiguous. Durban just seems like a strange choice, it's a bit like the SA equivalent of Detroit.
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A kid we play rugby with tells us some crazy as shit from when he was an EMT in Durban...not the first place i'd pick in SA. He loved it though and he got to play with/against a ton of players that are now international caliber.
Didn't think rugby was so big in asia! Pretty cool. Yeah any form of HIIT should work, i'll do anything from 20x 50m sprint 10-15 second rest to 4x 100m jog 100m sprint 100m job 100m sprint, then rest and repeat.
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South Africa4316 Posts
Since this weekend will be my first weekend of fantasy, I'll post my team here and see what you guys have to say. I chose most of these players before the games on Saturday last week, hoping I could get points from those games still, so it's a bit heavy on Stormers, Lions and Cheetahs. I'll try to balance my team a bit more with trades as the season moves along.
+ Show Spoiler [Outside backs] +15. K Beale - Beale's been the most dangerous fullback in Super Rugby for a while. Not happy about him being a rebel, but perhaps they do better this season.
14. G Aplon - I honestly think he is one of the players most likely to score tries in the tournament. Also, I think the stormers will do well this season.
11. C Jane - Impressed me a lot in the RWC. Not that happy with him as a Hurricane though, since he might not get as many points from his team winning.
+ Show Spoiler [Centres] +13. Kahui - A very strong attacking centre in my opinion. I'd maybe prefer Nonu over Kahui, but I can't afford everything I want.
12. F. Venter - A cheap purchase. He played damn well in the first game against the Sharks. Also, playing for the Bulls should guarantee some points. We'll have to see if he can score tries though.
+ Show Spoiler [Flyhalf and Scrumhalf] +10. M Steyn - Best kicker in the tournament in a team that depends on kicking for most of their points. Should earn me a lot of points.
9. S Pretorious - A fairly cheap purchase. Most South Africans feel Pretorious has been unlucky to not get a place in the national team. Also, I'm hoping the Warathas kick some ass in the Australian conference.
+ Show Spoiler [Loose forwards] +8. K Read - I wanted to have a few Crusaders in my team, and there aren't many better loose forwards. Swapped him in for Schalk Burger who's out with an injury for the next 4-6 weeks.
7. J Strauss - The Lions' captain. Very cheap and a really strong player. Will probably have to trade him away at some point since I doubt the Lions will get that many wins.
6. H Brussouw - After McCaw, Brussouw is probably the best player in the world at getting turnovers. Might have to trade him because he's a Cheetah.
+ Show Spoiler [Locks] +5. A Bekker - A Stormer, a fairly good runner with the ball, and a damn good player overall. Choosing locks who are likely to score points is damn hard, so we'll have to see how this goes.
4. D Mumm - Part of my Warathas contingent, Mumm is one of the best Aussie locks, so I'm happy to have him.
+ Show Spoiler [Front Row] +3. A Strauss - I wanted to have more hookers, since they tend to be a bit smaller and quicker and more likely to score tries. Strauss is about as quick as they come, but I might have to trade him because he's a Cheetah.
2. B du Plessis - One of the best hookers in the world. He also scores tries occasionally, and assists with tries regularly.
1. CJ van der Linde - Awesome player, but I might transfer him as he's a lion.
+ Show Spoiler [Substitutes] +22. J Mogg - No idea who he is, one of the few players I could afford.
21. S Mortlock - Very cheap, and one of the few Rebels that looks like scoring.
20. G van Aswegen - Cheap purchase. It's hard to choose a substitute flyhalf when you don't get points for kicking.
19. A Ellis - A good scrumhalf and a crusader. He looks like scoring quite regularly, so hopefully I'll get points from him.
18. W Palu - My final Waratah, he's generally good so I'll see how he does.
17. S Whitelock - Great player, but once again it's hard to choose locks that score points.
16. W Kruger - A nice strong prop from the Bulls, hopefully he does well.
All in all, my team is very SA heavy. It's difficult to choose players when you don't know them that well. As the season progresses, I'd like to swap out some of my SA players for players in the top NZ and AUS teams. We'll have to see how it goes until then.
EDIT: I've decided it might be a good idea to list some players here that I might trade in future. This is mostly for my own use, as I can never remember everyone that's impressed me at the end of the weekend:
+ Show Spoiler [To be watched] +Impressed
14. Nanai-Williams (Chiefs)
14. Basson (Bulls)
12. Carter (Warathas)
10. Harris (Reds)
10. Jantjies (Lions)
9. Hougaard (Bulls)
9. Kerr-Barlow (Chiefs)
6. Liam Messom (Chiefs)
5. Horwill (Reds)
Not impressed
10. Cruden (Chiefs)
5. Ali Williams (Blues)
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On February 29 2012 05:44 Daigomi wrote:
Any specific reason you'd send the boys to Durban? Durban is generally considered to be one of the less pleasant cities in SA (compared to places like Cape Town and Pretoria at least). Generally, Cape Town is seen as the place to be in SA. It's the safest large city and the University of Cape Town is the most prestiguous university and pretty good at rugby, while the neigbouring University of Stellenbosch is as good at rugby but a tiny bit less prestiguous. Durban just seems like a strange choice, it's a bit like the SA equivalent of Detroit.
Lol, didn't know that about Durban,
its just that I had some friends from Durban and they were telling me that their program was very good and it seemed to be so, so I just had in my mind that Durban was a good place to send them an as I was googling for the name of the rugby program, I came across this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371485/Ex-South-African-rugby-star-murders-3-axe-gang-rape-revenge.html
So, um I guess no Durban at all lol.
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+ Show Spoiler +Pretty understandable, I can't honestly say I'd act any better.
EDIT: Sorry, de-rail.
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I'm hating sevens at the moment. We've just switched and I much prefer fifteens.
I'm actually doing OK but I'm not strictly playing it properly, I'm just trying to run through people. It gets really frustrating having to dance around, and playing it any other way you kind of just lose, at least in my limited experience at my level.
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haha so i take it youre not much of a back? :D I love sevens, i'm great at breaking the line and then usually just a pass or two from scoring. It helps that i've played sevens with the same guys for the last 4 years so we play really well together.
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Good god Dupuy + "Joey" was so awful, wp England though.
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Definitely not a back. I guess I'm a typical number eight, I'm quick but I just don't have the footwork and am not agile enough. Some of our quicker backs can just change direction on a whim, it's a bloody pain. Though that's probably because I need to get better at it.
I mean you have to be agile for fifteens so you don't get stepped, but today I had a winger run at me, pretend to step, start running backwards then run a big loop around me; you wouldn't get away with that shit in fifteens! And then later on I'm up against the same guy on the wing but I have possession, and I just run and he goes low, and my knees just break through him (I run with fairly high knees). I feel like it's really unforgiving for any weaknesses in a player.
A coach suggested doing some exercise which I've forgotten the name of, but it basically sounds like a sideways lunge with a barbell on your back. i.e. step right foot wide to the side and slightly forwards and bend the right knee, then reset. I'll look into it, bit sceptical at the moment though.
+ Show Spoiler [England v France] +England v France today was a pretty good match, France weren't playing as good as usual though. Didn't seem to be putting England under much pressure and their defence wasn't that good.
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Club team has been on tour in scotland for four days now. Damn, the pictures I'm seeing. If only I'd had 3 grand just chilling around, would have been a great trip, and some great opportunities to play rugby.
They're going somewhere else two years from now - maybe I'll make it as an alumni.
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Caught the wales/italy game. Wales just too much ~~ Italy's defense looked pretty good for how much it had to put up with.
On March 12 2012 10:14 phyre112 wrote:
Club team has been on tour in scotland for four days now. Damn, the pictures I'm seeing. If only I'd had 3 grand just chilling around, would have been a great trip, and some great opportunities to play rugby.
They're going somewhere else two years from now - maybe I'll make it as an alumni.
Never pass up on a rugby tour. Even if you have to take a loan.
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EPT
