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Sat 10 Sep 2011 | 11:54
Rugby World Cup Daily - Super Saturday

23
Comments

Super Saturday kicked off in the early hours of Saturday morning for most of us, with four matchestaking place on what has been dubbed as Super Saturday. There were nearly a couple of upsets, but overall things ended the way most would have expected.

Scotland 34 - 24 Romania
Romania gave Scotland somewhat of a scare as the Scots needed two late Simon Danielli tries to take them clear of avoiding an embarassing upset. Romania led the game before Scotland pulled things together.

"We had to come back, we were in a tough situation with about 10, 15 minutes to go and we dug it out," said captain Alistair Kellock.

Fiji 49 - 25 Namibia
Namibia put up a spirited performance against the flying Fijians in Rotorua. Namibian flyhalf Theuns Kotze took them into the lead with an incredible three dropgoals, but the pacific islanders came back, with Vereniki Goneva becoming the first Fijian to score a World Cup hatrick. He ended with four tries, only the 11th ever player to accoplish that feat.

France 47 - 21 Japan
France also found themselves in a bit of trouble in North Harbour stadium as Japan played some inspired rugby to get themselves without five points at one stage, looking as though they were in control of the match. Hot on attack, John Kirwan's had France sweating, but it didn't last long as the talented French backs scored a few tries from turnover ball, maybe the final scoreline a lot more flattering than it perhaps could have been.

England 13 - 9 Argentina
In what was touted to be the game of the day, England and Argentina contested a heavyeight battle in Dunedin's impressive new Otago Stadium. Poor kicking was the order of the day, as both sides struggled, with Jonny Wilkinson in particular having what was probably his worst every goal kicking performance. He said afterwards that the only thing to blame was himself, not the ball, nor the stadium.

"The difficulty was that I felt I was hitting the ball well and expecting to see it go where I wanted it to go, but when the ball moves a bit how do you correct something that didn’t feel wrong," said Wilkinson

"Christ, I didn’t even know how many I missed. I’d say I’ve probably had days like that but not for a while. The blame is on me," he added. England will be relieved to have won the match however.

Match highlights
We're restricted by what we can show in terms of highlights at this stage, but you can see them all on the official Rugby World Cup website. Rugby World Cup highlights

Tomorrow's lineup
Australia v Italy
15:30 local, 03:30 GMT

Ireland v USA
18:00 local, 06:00 GMT

South Africa v Wales
20:30 local, 08:30 GMT   

Below is the daily updates show, which runs through the games, features Buck Shelford, and includes Springbok coach Peter De Villiers sounding quite eloquent. Yes, you read that correctly.

Posted By: Grant Constable

23 Comments

  • rugbydump
    10:08 PM 13/09/2011

    We can hope, and continue to do our best to keep things improving

  • brookmcg
    5:01 PM 12/09/2011

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/sep/12/courtney-lawes-cited-england-argentina
    there is an update on the Lawes citing, and it does seem like the tournament has been quite clean in a sense of cards or anything of the sort. But as you said, he does have a case on his hands for both incidents and is being followed up on one (tad bit of karma perhaps?). But I also think he is a fine young player with such an immense future considering he is 22 and playing lock as he is just means he is going to get better with age, and if Simon Shaw has proven anything, locks have a long shelf life.

  • hughmadbrough
    4:41 PM 12/09/2011

    It just goes to prove, even without a quality no.10, we (Scotland) can still win matches when it counts. The Wallabies twice, the Argies twice, the Saffers once, the Samoans once and now the Romanians, all in a space of 3 years. It was obvious the Romanians were going to tire in the last 15 minutes, just like the other minnows, and it was essentially just a case of waiting for them to crack.

    Good job Scotland and well done on the bonus point.

  • stroudos
    1:11 PM 12/09/2011

    ElTigre & RD, The registration requirement seems to have had exactly the effect I'd hoped it would - ie got rid of the trolls, stirrers, first-merchants and shitheads.
    Looks like we may be back to quality over quantity and thank Christ for that.

  • stroudos
    1:06 PM 12/09/2011

    http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/news/newsid=2050216.html
    As a Lawes fan, I was really disappointed by that - thought it was a totally unnecessary cheap shot. I don't think he's got any previous though, (usually an abrasive but honest player, which is why I like him), so wouldn't be surprised if it's just a two-week ban. No case to answer apparently for his marginally late tackle on Tiesi. (I think that's the correct decision, but gutted for Tiesi, who's had his tourny ended by a tackle that didn't really need to be made).

    I'm surprised Haskell's gouging accusation isn't being investigated. He seemed pretty unequivocal that he'd been gouged at the time (bit of an understatement there!) and did seem to have a puffy eye after the game. Gouging's about the most heinous offence in rugby, so if it's happened the culprit needs a long ban. *Conspiracy theory alert*: the only reason I can think why it's not being followed up is maybe an England player did it in a case of mistaken identity!??

    RD - will we be seeing this incident on the site? Would be interesting to have a second look.

  • brookmcg
    12:50 PM 12/09/2011

    Any word if the citing commissioner will be coming down on Courtney Lawes? The running of his knees into the Argentine prop as it was malicious and knocked him out, it certainly deserved a red, or 3-4 weeks at the least. Or of any other potential incidents because the world cup so far has been pretty clean with this match proving to the the ugliest (bar the awesome defence by Wales and SA)?

  • rugbydump
    11:17 AM 12/09/2011

    Actually you'd be surprised to note that site traffic is exactly as it was before. Feel free to visit other websites if you'd prefer though - nobody is forcing you to stop by the graveyard

  • frenchie
    8:20 AM 12/09/2011

    What was the kiss of Thomson on Ledesma (?) about? What a crap & ugly show put on by some English players! Hope Thomson kisses asses next time!! And Haskell should keep is big mouth shut.

    I almost soiled my pants watching the France vs Japan game. Great perf from the Japanese. And typical from the French. When things got tough Dussautoir was mute, nobody was talking...rubbish team spirit.

  • ahimes
    5:15 AM 12/09/2011

    Is anyone else having trouble with the RWC Website's video player? Mine hasnt been working all day.

  • tuumeke
    3:24 AM 12/09/2011

    OMG im loving this RWC so far, GO the minnows , the Japanese have earnt a massive fanbase in NZ after there display on Sat, there my new second team :)
    LOL @ that funny song .

  • paimoe
    12:18 AM 12/09/2011

    I don't think it was explicitly "over the horizontal", just over the horizontal + dangerous/driving/careless.

  • colombes
    2:40 PM 11/09/2011

    pretty agree with most comments above.
    there is definetly not small teams during the rwc. when u watch the romania forwards and japan backs display, u can really feel that "small" teams have made huge progresses!

    concernin the "favorites" as they're called ;) no one have really been impressive despite the all blacks 1st half and the aussies last 30 minutes. england and france were quite approximative: France were sufficient and stop to defend after scoring 3 tries, england was too classic and stereotyped


  • moddeur
    8:55 AM 11/09/2011

    France were not awful, France were just typical France: once ahead 20 ponts on the scoreboard they always stop playing, having no killer instinct. It's pretentious and leads to dramatic situations. And Japan were quite outstanding in open field attacks too! Romania seems to be good at all the forward basics, and Namibia played with the heart.

  • 8:20 AM 11/09/2011

    a couple of thoughts on this world cup so far.

    1. underdogs are all giving a good showing. me thinks professionalism is narrowing the gap.

    2. it is no wonder NZ is the best team around. if they can learn to play expansive rugby in this shit weather...they can play anywhere.

  • coops2403
    5:06 AM 11/09/2011

    that being said, in johnny could've put the penalties away, england would have had an extra 15 points also.

  • 4:47 AM 11/09/2011

    Does that make you a necrophiliac?

  • eltigre
    4:23 AM 11/09/2011

    comment sections are dead, just like this site

  • eggman
    11:18 PM 10/09/2011

    Great to see the small teams giving the big ones a run for their money. I didnt expect to enjoy Japan vs. France as much as I did.

    England played pretty hopeless... I wonder if Wilkinson will still start if he keeps on kicking like that.. However, they I'm pretty sure that they will improve during the rest of the group games, and can get some confidence against Romania and Georgia and will be a threat in the knock out stages as they're always are. (I'm aussie, I should know)

    All in all a very enjoyable day of rugby, as the England game was at least close and thus interesting, although the rugby was not spectacular.

  • mpc-33
    10:37 PM 10/09/2011

    Namibia, Romania & Japan : Surprisingly good & many good signs for the futur. Japan won't stay a "minor" nation for long if they go on this way.

    England, Argentina, Scotland & France : worrying and sometimes awful (especially for England and France).
    England were lucky. If they go on this way, i wish they get kicked out in the quarter-finals. They are a real pain to watch, you have to expect better from a former WC winning team. I know they are not spectacular, but they are usually efficient...
    And France... So close to get caught by Japan... And the French TV commentators talking about the ABs weaknesses... Look at yourself first.

    Fidji has to improve in defence if they want to reach the quarter-finals.

  • iecapici
    10:31 PM 10/09/2011

    Calling Argentina "minor" rugby nation it not accurate at all!! I'm still thinking about that penalty that the ref "saw" just before the try of England! I can't see it, but maybe i'm not being objective...
    Great match anyway, Pumas!!!

  • 10:09 PM 10/09/2011

    Really was an awesome day for the underdogs. The only way it could've been better is if they'd won, but still...Romania giving it to Scotland, Argentina coming close against England, and Japan! Man, Japan almost took out France! How cool was that?

    Great to see "minor" rugby nations showing what they've got against the top teams.

    On a side note, it's strange, compared to how well Argentina seem to be at the game of kicking the round ball, that they have been pretty awful at kicking points in rugby the past few years...hopefully they can someday find a flyhalf who can get those valuable 3 points when it's needed...

  • themull
    9:48 PM 10/09/2011

    England were extremely lucky to get out of that one with a win....There was one point where Argentina could have went 18/15-3 up...Unfortunately for Arg they didn't have a kicker to put those penalties away...If they had of, it would of been game over...

    Superior fitness paid off in the end though as in the last 10 minutes England were all over their opponents and almost cored a second try...

  • rugbydump
    9:25 PM 10/09/2011

    Over 1000 RD regulars registered accounts within a few days of the new platform going live. Make sure you do the same now if you'd like to discuss matches, interact, and create your own profile page. Register now (Yes, of course its free)

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