Sports

[PKMKII]

Here's one for Eendje: Netherlands wins the Baseball World Cup. They beat biannual favorite Cuba for their first-ever Baseball World Cup win, and the first European team to do so since Great Britain in the first one back in 1938.

[Uther]

Break out the champagne my arse...break out the Welsh Cakes...Wales are in the Rugby World Cup Semi Final.

Commiserations to England.

And jumping forward.... WALES WAS ROBBED by a dope Irish referee
And I had a Welsh Flag on my car and one in each had..... I could do no more

[black bart]

Break out the champagne my arse...break out the Welsh Cakes...Wales are in the Rugby World Cup Semi Final.

Commiserations to England.

And jumping forward.... WALES WAS ROBBED by a dope Irish referee
And I had a Welsh Flag on my car and one in each had..... I could do no more

Well said Uther, well said. I wish there wasn't a Sports thread just the sight of it makes me feel down.

Swansea lost 3 - 1 at Norwich as well.

But...looking on the bright side I won Euromillions!!!!!!! There was an e mail saying exciting news about your Euromillions ticket click on the link .... £2.80...£2 frickin 80 frickin pence!!!

[DavidH]

Blimey! Grog's on you, then, Bart.

[black bart]

Blimey! Grog's on you, then, Bart.

Sorry, I've already blown the loot on a box of Kleenex.

[DavidH]

Sorry, I've already blown me nose on a box of Kleenex.

Fixed that for you, Bart.

[daftbeaker]

Pah, it was a spear tackle and he then stuck his hand in the guy's face when he was on the ground. If you're going to do things like that in a competition where the players have been warned about dangerous tackles you deserve a telling off.

I remember Jonathan Davies (the Welsh commentator on the BBC) complaining that someone had charged down a man in the air and deserved a yellow card. The fact that the charging down had happened by someone sticking his face into an airborne boot and was led off covered in blood didn't stop Jonathan insisting he be sent off once he was fit to come back on

[black bart]

I don't think you'd be saying that if it had happened to England...it's the sort of thing that happens to England Football teams though...at least Warburton was able to start the match, unlike Wayne Rooney who's got himself banned from a tournament before it's even started.

[daftbeaker]

I don't think you'd be saying that if it had happened to England...it's the sort of thing that happens to England Football teams though...at least Warburton was able to start the match, unlike Wayne Rooney who's got himself banned from a tournament before it's even started.

There wasn't this much whining when England were denied a goal they'd scored in the (football) World Cup, a much clearer case. Back to rugby, Dan Cole got sin binned and there wasn't the whining. Courtney Lawes was banned for two matches for dangerous tackles but I didn't see the uproar over that decision potentially costing England the group stages.

Players and referees were reminded that spear tackles are not allowed and must be punished. Warburton speared someone and got punished. Am I missing something here?

And yes, Rooney is an idiot with rather talented feet.

Edit - http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/wales-expands-seething-resentment-empire-201110174430/

[gronank]

spear tackle? are they hoplites?

[black bart]

Talk about England not whining...that's all they ever do (ahem...when they're not actually winning the World Cup that is of course).

Still the World Cup is hardly as important as the 6 Nations and you might as well give that to Wales now.

[Uther]

It was nothing like a "spear tackle" Similar tackles with a player lifted happen in most (top level) rugby games!!

The whinging poms have been pussifying rugby rules over the last 30 years so that their little blossoms don't get savaged by real men playing proper rugby.
The damned Irish have never gotten over Brian "O'me frecken Shoulder" getting "spear tackled" (Lions Tour 2005)
Any Ref other than an Irish one would have, at most, given a yellow card.. and even THAT would be a travesty.

[daftbeaker]

It was nothing like a "spear tackle" Similar tackles with a player lifted happen in most (top level) rugby games!!

The whinging poms have been pussifying rugby rules over the last 30 years so that their little blossoms don't get savaged by real men playing proper rugby.
The damned Irish have never gotten over Brian "O'me frecken Shoulder" getting "spear tackled" (Lions Tour 2005)
Any Ref other than an Irish one would have, at most, given a yellow card.. and even THAT would be a travesty.

A player being lifted past the horizontal and dropped onto their head/shoulders is a dangerous tackle. It's outlined in IRB rulings which clearly state "referees were advised that for these types of tackles they were to start at red card as a sanction and work backwards." Regardless of whether you like it or not (I dislike the fact that the clock isn't stopped during scrum set ups which can easily cost five minutes of gameplay), those are the rules and the referee made the correct decision.

Argue for a change in the rules, don't blame the referee for playing according to the rules he was given.

Edit - Or you could petition for an Aussie rules World Cup

[Uther]

It was an incorrect decision... that is agreed to by EVERY commentator and follower of the game, Rugby world wide... even pommie ones.

Look at it again... its no spear tackle.. even by your superficial reading of a line of rules out of context... he was NOT dropped on his head or (Fecken shoulder)... He was let go gently and fell on his BACK.. his head then hit the ground (as it would) with very little force... he was not injured ... Not a spear tackle at all. "INTENT" comes into the assessment, as well as "Driving the player into the ground" and all agree there was no maliciousness in that tackle and that generally, Warburton is NOT a vicious player. Its a world cup MENS rugby semi final.. you expect men to tackle HARD and with passion... its not a girls Tupperware party.

To alter the outcome of a World tournament 4 years in the making with a stupid ruling is just plain silly...

[daftbeaker]

It was an incorrect decision... that is agreed to by EVERY commentator and follower of the game, Rugby world wide... even pommie ones.

Not by me, the touch judges or the referee for a start

Look at it again...

Have you got video of it? I had a quick look on google and youtube and couldn't find it. I'm going from memory of the replays I saw and it looked to me like Clerc was picked up and dropped on his shoulders.

even by your superficial reading of a line of rules out of context

It's the rules about that sort of tackle, I fail to see how it's 'out of context' "Tackles involving a player being lifted off the ground and tipped horizontally and were then either forced or dropped to the ground are illegal and constitute dangerous play." It doesn't get much more in context than that.

To alter the outcome of a World tournament 4 years in the making with a stupid ruling is just plain silly...

Again, if you don't like it argue for a change in the rules, don't blame the referee for applying them correctly. I agree that Warburton, in the spirit of the game, didn't deserve sending off but the rules clearly state that he should have been.