RWC: FRA v ITA (Twickenham) Pool D

[RugbyReg]

Match news to come

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Ref: Joubert
AR's: Lacey (!) & Berry (!!)
TMO: Veldsman (!!!)

Shouldn't be too many problems, Uncle Craig doesn't take much notice of his AR & TMO most've the time anyways

Wesley Fofana probably won't be fit in time:

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_80003,00.html

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Alexandre Dumoulin, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Frédéric Michalak, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Damien Chouly, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Nicolas Mas, 19 Bernard le Roux, 20 Alexandre Flanquart, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Rémi Talès, 23 Gaël Fickou.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_80378,00.html

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Samuela Vunisa, 7 Francesco Minto, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Joshua Furno, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (c), 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Valerio Bernabò, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Enrico Bacchin

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_80373,00.html

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Jesus wept: they have to do something about this woeful TMO'ing

 

[Inside Shoulder]

FFS - presumably the AR called that: should have been a penalty to Italy.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

No try blatantly in front of Michalak.
The officiating is making a farce of it.

 

[Bairdy]

There really is a lot of spice to these Franco-Italian games (and Franco-Argentinian to be fair). Both packs going at it hammer and tongs

 

[Quick Hands]

Even the English commentators becoming frustrated at the cynical breakdown infringements by the Italians.

Much of this game has resembled greco-roman wrestling. Add to that the number of mauls used as attacking platforms and the TMO impact and it's not a great advertisement for rugby. What do the Italians have to do to get a yellow card?

 

[Quick Hands]

France would be reasonably happy with that performance. Solid scrum and they looked quite good with ball in hand. A few too many little errors but it's only game 1. Lots of cyncial infringements by Italy took much of the attacking momentum away from the match.

 

[Highlander35]

France should have had a bonus point and then some. Italians were just bad.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Planet Rugby are reporting that Yoann Huget's Cup is over.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_81057,00.html

 

[Dismal Pillock]

France looked very sharp early. Everything done at pace. Sharp hands. Tough as fuck. And a relatively svelte bleck prop who handed Castrogiavani not only his arse but also both bollocks, his nutsack, and his retirement plans.

Castro looked like he'd been preparing for RWC by dining out on his own reputation. Had his tuff guy schtick turned around, shoved back down his throat, pushed down along his spine, and then oops I think it may have just popped out of his anus.

No wonder his expression looked like he'd just shat in his shorts but was trying to keep it quiet about it.

OLD.

It was how OLD people play.

How half the bokkes played.

Half a step behind the action and lacking the torque of youth.

HELLO, NZ.

"1991? No, no, that won't happen to us. We have a mix of youth and experience."

FUCKING BETTER C**T.