unfortunately it's now 6 3 to the frogs, atbh the french do have 16 players (15 + ref) compareed to the 14 welsh (1 sent off - undeservedly)

I'm not watching, but good luck to Wales.

We were all watching at my house (after I'd caught up with BB...had to get up a little earlier for it to watch it in peace) and it was heartbreaking. Wales played so well 

wales were so much better than the french, that sending off was just stupid.

 

i dunno how a  team that has lost two games  can be in the final over  teams that have lost one game.

 

ello suzy  

 it would be sods law now that france win the final and end upp undeserving  world champions...

 

I feel sorry for the Welsh team as they have played well throughout the tournament but, apparently, the referees were told before the World Cup started to deal with players guilty of 'tipping' tackles severely and that did look a very dangerous tackle.  The Welsh re-grouped well and could have gone on to win the match but they missed their kicks. (I was going to put 'C'est la vie' here but thought better of it)

 

I'm hoping for a Wallabies win tomorrow over the All Blacks

i hope new zealand win tomorrow and then slaughter the french in the final

Marvellous! I backed France ew at 14/1 after NZ beat them.

tippin some one up without malice  is a  yellow card offense, because  he got the red card out the ref is saying that it was dangerous, which it was, and that it  was deliberate, which it wasn't and  done with malice, which i seriously doubt.

 

but if they had kicked  their points they would have won.

 

 still a bad decision i reckon..

Can you explain why France would be undeserving World Champions? I doubt very much that they will win but I'm intrigued by your views.

a- they are french.

 

b- they are inconsistent.

 

c - they are french.

 

6 - they have lost two games and  still made the final.

 

9 - they are french.

I like the French.

I'm told that the rules regarding the 'tipping' thing differ between tipping someone up and then hanging on to them as you lower them to the ground or doing what Warburton did and just letting the player drop. I'm not saying that it was malicious, I'm sure it wasn't, but the bloke could have broken his neck.

 

exactly how I saw it Avalon and I'm not surprised he was pinged then sent off for it 

He realised what he was doing though and let go and didn't piledrive him in to the ground, which is a send offable offence *Agrees with Jackson* 

I don't understand! The French have played a good competition. They did sufficient to qualify. They didn't need much effort to beat a crap England team but were perhaps lucky to beat Wales, who I expected to be Ireland!! They were great odds to get to the final, a great e/w bet, and it doesn't matter who wins now, we've turned a profit

I remember Brian O'Driscoll being on the receiving end of a similar tackle in a Lions match a couple of years ago, Pengy, (against the All Blacks, I think) only there was more than a hint of malice in that one.  O'Driscoll got a nasty injury and, as a result, there was such an outcry about 'spear tackles' that the refs were told to exercise zero tolerance regarding them.

it wasnt a spear tackle tho, that is when you drive some one's head into the ground.

 

 thats a red  card offense.

yesssssss the all blacks are in the final, can't wait for them to bury the french

Considering they've been odds on to win right the way through, not a big surprise.

I'm hoping for a French win (but my hopes are not that high)

No, it wasn't a spear tackle as he wasn't forced into the ground but  the laws also state that, when a 'tipping tackle' occurs and the lifted player is dropped to the ground with no regard to the player's safety then a red card should be issued.  I assume that means the tackler is meant to hang on to the player and lower him to the ground rather than just letting him drop onto his head/neck.

 

 

Maybe that's how the ref saw it.  Who knows?

I've been following the RWC, and there have been other tackles in previous matches, like the one Warburton got sent off for, and the ref hasn't blinked an eye. It should have been a yellow, not a sending off.

 

I think it's a bit suspect that an Irish ref with a French name happened to be officiating on the Wales-France semi-final.

 

Still, we can all look forward to next Sunday when the French get crushed by the All Blacks

 

I'm quite interested. Does anyone on here like rugby? Or is it a vehicle for socially acceptable bigotry? My school didn't entertain it and the general feeling was that it was a game for clumsy oafs who weren't skilful enough to play the beautiful game!

I prefer to watch rugby - its more entertaining and team orientated than football, there is very little dissent with the ref - what he says goes,  one of the pe teachers at my school was a rugby fanatic and the woodwork dept designed and made a structure for making scrums against

i used to play  Joe,  then one day i was layin  face down squashed into the mud,wondering if if it was possible to breath mud instead of air, with 8 hairy arsed blokes trampling all over me.... i tried cricket after that

 

cannot watch football and the bunch of nancyboy ,prima donnas that prance about squealing' its not fair'  for 90 minutes,every Saturday.

Bigotry? Seems like you've grown up accepting your school's idea of the game rather than challenging that blinkered view so I guess it does cause a kind of socially accepted bigotry, a kind of inverted snobbery perhaps. I like rugby, and I like association football too.

Not at all Suzy.

I was questioning the fact that it seems OK to refer to my French pals as Frogs. ^^^

Fellow scholars asked for the opportunity to play Rugby but that was the school's or probably the staff's  attitude. Hence there was no tradition of Rugby round my home.

who called them frogs!!

I don't know about the Frog talk Joe, it's not something I'd take part in, but European rivalry and banter has never really bothered me as I've always seen it as a two-way, more equally balanced thing. It's more tongue in cheek to me, especially after I hear what the French think and say about Brits all the time. Same as when you joke that the Americans are not sophisticated enough to appreciate and discern quality drama so we export music hall and period soap opera like Downton Abbey to them, it' can be amusing.

 

edit...hiya Jacko 

 

Was it you, ya oaf? 

I had to scroll back and I don't think he did Kaff 

Suzy      Nah.. I know... truth be told, I just fancied calling him an oaf.      I think 'oaf' is much neglected word... I'm going to use it more. 

And just for the record, I hope the All Blacks pulverise Les Bleus  Kaff,  

Moi aussi.

Oui, oui d'accord! The All Blacks have made the game look like pure poetry in motion at times during this World Cup, and they are more deserving of victory, imo.

But if I win my bet. It's champers (virtual) all round.

I did!  and i apologise if it caused offence,  *please do not watch Flushed Away as the "army" are frogs/toads and speak with a french accent