I’ve been well into rugby since I went to Northgate Grammar School For Boys in Ipswich, mid '70’s. It was their main sport, and football was just something to fill in the time during the off-season.
Anyway, as the next rugby world cup is this year, the usual autumn internationals have been dropped and instead a number of summer games have been scheduled instead. Can’t wait - a great taster to get us in the mood for the world cup - some tasty looking fixtures here:
I started playing about the same time when I was eight for Kokohuia Primary School (New Zealand). And continued for the South Brisbane Magpies after we moved to Australia when I was 12 until I was 15.
Still a die hard All Blacks supporter so no prizes for guessing what Jersy I will be wearing while I watch the World Cup games
The All Blacks is a team I was always happy to watch down the years. I only used to watch my home team to start with, but after seeing them playing a couple of times I kept watching their games. Now I often watch other teams playing - I think it was the 2003 world cup that opened me up to watching most games (only internationals, though, I’m not as interested in the league games) and I think I’ve watched every game in that world cup multiple times since - I have it on VHS and converted to DVD.
I really like specifically watching the Pacific Islands teams playing and enjoy watching some of the lower order teams coming up through the ranks over the years - like Italy and Georgia.
I’m loving it! It’s the only time I get to see other nations playing, apart from when they are in the autumn internationals, and even then there aren’t many.
Been some great games up to now - just a shame about the David and Goliath ones where David gets crushed.
I was just saying to the Mrs at the weekend that I was massively impressed by the captain of Georgia’s team in 2003 (might have been 2007) when they got thumped by the Aussies and he said that it didn’t matter - they were there to learn and to enjoy it and it was a real pleasure to experience playing top teams at their best.
3 possibly exciting games coming up today, tomozz and Friday. The easy one should be NZ v Italy on Friday, but with the Kiwis being a bit off-form and Italy doing quite well, it might not be so clear cut. It’s also pretty much a group decider, with Italy actually ahead of NZ as it currently stands in the pool. This is effectively a knock-out game, so I expect NZ to pull up their socks and do the business.
I haven’t seen anything other than our local TV. There may be some dodgy sites (I know a couple ) that will show them if you’re willing to risk it - otherwise there are usually highlights on YouTube (rarely more than 5 minutes).
Thanks @Johnny - ITV to the rescue, I was looking for somewhere that would allow me to use a VPN to get around Geoblocking (which isn’t illegal in my jurisdiction )
You’re welcome, but I will forewarn you that so far all the Italy games have had a female commentator (part of the big feminist/equality agenda on UK TV) and she is pretty awful - not only yakking about all manner of stuff instead of what is happening on the pitch, but also when she gets excited it sounds worse than a severe nagging!
I turn my volume down to 1
I don’t know why they won’t just let us switch off all commentary - and there have been a fair few complaints about the quality of some of the male commentators, too - and let us just listen to the ref, players and fans if we want to!
I remember when the BBC covered the RWC there was an option to listen to the referees instead of the commentators - that was excellent and I’d probably pay to be able to do that again!