England out first now followed by the other home nations. Southern Hemisphere clean sweep in the semis, so disappointing, I dared to believe that the sweaties would get through but they choked at the end. My faith has been tested.
Well the Radio 5 commentators seemed to think that the Scots were victims of a dreadful refereeing howler at the end, or at least a decision that should have been checked properly. As to the rest -- well, never mind. At least we've been busy beating the Southern Hemisphere at cricket.
There's losing and there's losing, though, right? Scotland's last-minute 35-34 loss to a side heavily rated as better than them is a different style of losing from England's 13-33 to the same side. The end result may be the same but I don't think Scotland can be said to have disappointed. For many, they exceeded expectations.
i'm not saying the Scotts disappointed, they played well and I was hoping they would win, how many Scots would say that about England eh? Anyway it's just that as a whole, the northern hemisphere are perennially disappointing. Occasional small wins against the big 3 is about all we can manage. We have a nation of 60 million why can't we get 15 on the pitch to give the big 3 a decent game more often.
It might help that the southern hemisphere teams all come from one large country each whereas we produce 4 teams (including Eire), that also seem to hate each other - at least the other 3 teams' supporters all hate England.
//at least the other 3 teams' supporters all hate England.//
The poor English have to share their 'disdain' around. Time they picked a single hate figure. Now let me think.
“But with time running out referee Craig Joubert called a deliberate offside when replays seemed to indicate the ball had come off a Wallaby player”…”The referee was almost the only man among the 80,000 who did not realise an error may have been made.”
Above are two quotes from the BBC sports web-page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34550876
We wuz robbed, TTT! One has to wonder why the ref actually scampered off the field at the end,
I'm sure the Scots love how it panned out. Rule 1 in the game of RU. Never criticise the referee. Look at what happens in football. Its strange, that when England suffer the tenuous decisions ,it a opportunity for a few sly winks and nudges, with thumbs up all round. The Scots will be blowing on the embers of their resentment for years to come, which is of course a default setting.
I heard Gareth Hasting gleefully saying that Twickenham had become Scottish for the day. That must be it. Perhaps the ref, in the heat of the moment, couldn't help penalising the 'home' team. He thought Scotland were England and oops.