After the highs of Friday, was yesterday ever going to live up to that match? Well today we have an off the boil Japan, an upstart Scotland, and a Wales team that most want to forget already in the valleys. Hopefully we see some more great tries (looking at you England), a few less handling errors (back at you Argentina), and some flair (not just mullets Australia)

Home Time (UTC+1) Away
Japan 1200 Chile
South Africa 1645 Scotland
Wales 2000 Fiji

Weather today is hot. Expect more sweat, more drenched towels in water breaks, and do we need to bring back handling gloves?

Have a great Sunday, mines begins today with Rugby Tots for the 2 year old. Please, anyone out in France: post a picture!

  • SportsRulesOpinions@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    My grandmother and I are betting on today’s games. I let her pick which teams are hers since it would be unfair if I picked. She’s picked Chile, Scotland, and Wales. I like my chances for at least 2 out of 3, but I have my fingers crossed for a sweep. She correctly picked France for the opener and we didn’t bet on yesterday’s games.

    • SportsRulesOpinions@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Well shit.

      SHIT.

      I blame God. God clearly interfered and caused that knock-on so that I, specifically wouldn’t get the trifecta over my grandmother.

  • Olap@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    What a finish! What a game! Happy world cup a’body, what a fantastic weekend. Reaction thread up in the morning

    • SerpentEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      That last 15 minutes was hard watching for me. Some shocking decisions made it very difficult for Wales to close the game out.

      Fiji are good but, as a Wales fan, I think Caleb Muntz being injured might have been the difference here.

  • SamC@lemmy.nzEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I really hope this is the WC where the Pasifika teams become genuine playoff contenders and not just teams that cause a few upsets and maybe sneak into the quarters

    • TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nzEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I think with refereeing like Fiji experienced in their match against Wales it will be difficult. Its difficult to know what to put that down to really.

      Some of it, like an insta yellow for a maul falling over is probably due to the refereeing dictates which put all the responsibility on a maul staying up on the defending team - despite there be sometimes upwards of 14 players pushing and shoving and pulling and struggling. Its just one of the reasons the maul is such a big try scorer and its far too OP this cycle.

      But when you couple the recent judiciary decisions against the Pacific Islands it does start to make you wonder if Rugby collectively has some form of unconscious bias. Whether that’s NH - SH, or Tier 1 - Tier 2, or Coloniser - Colonised, or whatever I think there really does need to be some kind of reckoning as to how Wales got away with infringing on their line for so long before the referee belatedly did something about it.

      For some reason, WR’s referee appointments process has mythologised the qualities of English referees - such that somehow at this World Cup they represent 1/3 of all the match day referees. There is simply no representation for any 2nd tier country other than Romania. I mean christ, just cast your eye over the faces of the entirety of the match day official line up and its just not good enough: https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2023/match-officials

      I get that people want some form of measuring stick to ensure the best referees are at the cup, but the truth is that the laws give so many choices as to who did something bad at any play, which means so much of rugby comes down to interpretation on the day and there can be wild differences from referee to referee anyway that you may as well just pick them randomly & hope the teams can adapt.

  • Olap@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Not many nails not left here already. Happy to still be in it at half time

      • Olap@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        And we are matching currently. Bench the difference I fear. But this is it for Scotland now. It’s go big here or go home

  • 80HighDefinition @sh.itjust.worksMEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Good match from Chile, they had there opportunities but got overwhelmed by the Japan but overall a good first ever RWC match for Chile.

    • Olap@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      They did themselves proud. But Australia are going to rip them to shreds