Arena 2011 Rugby World Cup

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It's that time again.


Last time 'round, I was in France (the host country) and actually got to go to one of the matches. Now, it's in New Zealand, and will actually be broadcast in the US.


USA is in Pool C, with Australia, Ireland, and Italy. My goal for them is that they could beat Russia, or at least not loose badly.

Scotland, who I arbitrarily decided to support last time, is in Group B. It's fairly tough, as well, with Argentina, England, Georgia, and Romania. I like their chances a lot more than than the US's.


Anybody else excited?

 

I was hoping I wouldn't be alone in being excited about this.

The US will be lucky to win anything, let alone keep it close. That Churchill Cup campaign was absolutely brutal, and they couldn't keep up with Canada in that home-and-away series. Hopefully they can improve during the World Cup pool play and keep it exciting.

 

Yeah, it's going to be tough sledding for the Eagles. Russia's going to be their best chance for a "good" result. They are ranked higher than Russia, for what it's worth.

 

At least I can hope they will do well.

When does it all start? I'm thinking the 7th, but I haven't heard anything about the schedule in a while.

 

The whole thing starts on the 9th.

 

I'm excited as I like rugby at the country level. I'm not sure how much I'll get to see due to the time zone differences.

 

I missed out on making this thread but I'm going to include my post here anyway.

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The second biggest football tournament in the world is here once again, running in New Zealand from 9 September to 23 October. 32 teams will fight it out for the coveted William Webb Ellis Cup.
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After an extensive qualifying process we have the following pools:

Pool A:
Canada
France
Japan
New Zealand
Tonga

Pool B:
Argentina
England
Georgia
Romania
Scotland

Pool C:
Australia
Ireland
Italy
Russia
USA

Pool D:
Fiji
Namibia
Samoa
South Africa
Wales

Pool matches run until the 2nd of October, with the quarterfinals (and New Zealand's elimination) occurring the next week, leading up until the final at the legendary Eden Park on the 23rd.

I will update this with results as we go on. Icons are available for all teams, even the Namibians (most famous for the 142-0 thrashing Australia deposited on them in 2003.) For those that know nothing about rugby, it is almost certain that the winner will come from Australia (2x winner), South Africa (2x winner, defending champs), New Zealand (1x winner, 5x choker (hi jp)) or England (1x winner) and that the USA will not win a single game.

Australia is in good lead up form, having won the Tri Nations (contested between South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) for the first time in 10 years. Still couldn't win back the Bledisloe Cup though.

First match is on Friday. Let the games begin Any of our resident NZeders attending any games?

 

I definitely want to follow this. I watched rugby in Australia and thought it was quite fun. So will need to figure out how to watch it in the US.... is it regular channels having it, or the fancy ones?

 

Guess I beat you to the punch, Marcus.

Lowie, I believe that it's on the NBC family of networks.

 

In the UK, the ITV channels will be covering it. Most matches will be on regular channel ITV1 but some with teams not expected to survive the group stage will be on ITV4, which is cable/satellite. All of the UK teams will be on ITV1 but some of the US ones are on ITV4.

Start times are anywhere from 1am-9:30 am UK time. So not that time-zone friendly.

 

I think the NBC broadcasts of the games might be tape delayed to be played in prime time. That's what they've done in the past, especially during the Churchill Cup.

 

Chances are they'll do it live here with highlights later. England's first match is against Argentina Sep 10 with a 9:30 am (UK time) start. That won't be too bad as I'm normally up by around 8am to get the papers. I think the local pub is opening early for the match. First USA match is Sep 11 against Ireland with a 7 am UK start. I might try to catch some of that since I'm a US expat.

 

Makes sense, I guess. I read that they'll have the games available across a variety of mediums, so presumably, they'd be online in some capacity, as well.

 

Seeing as how I would be interested in how team USA does in a house cleaning contest, I'll have at least minimal interest in this. Can't say rugby has ever really grabbed my attention, though, despite a couple of good friends playing club rugby in college.

 

That's what got my attention, too. Watching the last World Cup pretty regularly certainly helped a lot, especially with figuring out the rules.

 

Went down to the city today to look at the new developments. Rugby, rugby, rugby...

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Considering going back down on Friday for the free concert (Finn Brothers, yay) & fireworks, and big screen showings of the opening ceremony and first game (NZ vs. Tonga).





I turned the billboard shots into a Reaction Guys strip;

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I'm still trying to figure out all the rules. But, I'm getting better as I go.

 

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I don't even know most of the rules.

 

I get most of the plays and basic concepts, but I'm not sure about all penalties and smaller strategy things. Oh well. Guess I'll learn by watching enough games.

 

I probably forgot most of the rules that I'd figured out, and I have no clue about strategy. Still fun to watch, though.

I'll need to bust out my "Scotland - Home of the Bravehearts" scarf pretty soon.

 

Flashmob haka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dc0Gf5Ql1U

 

That was pretty cool.

 

First match is tomorrow - NZ vs Tonga on ITV1 at 9:30 am UK time. I should just be about done cleaning the flat by then.

 

I did some digging and found the tv schedule for the US. Most of the games are online only (and pay, I believe) while a few are on tv. Most of those, however, are on Universal Sports (a digital subchannel) with only 3 on NBC. They'll broadcast them live, as well as on tape delay.


And here's a quick refresher on the major rules.




Edit And, of course, I don't get Universal Sports. I called my cable company to request that they add it, but I doubt that they'll do anything about it soon. It's over the air, which is great, unless you don't have an antenna...