Not sure how you can come to the conclusion that New Zealand are head and shoulders above their rivals after an 8-7 win. It’s not as if the All Blacks were playing all the rugby and France were playing a negative game trying to close it down and grind out a result – if anything it was the other way around. If you were watching that game without knowing which team was which, for me you would say the French were the more skilful and athletic team

I'm not just talking about this mornin, I'm talking about the past few years and of course it's just my personal opinion. It looked to me that NZ were more concerned with not losing than going out and winning the game.

Ok, fair point, the All Blacks have been the best team of the last 4 years. I do get frustrated watching them play a lot of the time as they have some very talented players and yet very rarely cut loose as they should... although much of that can be put down to the constraints of the game itself than the players

considering Sonny Bill can not get into the first 15. What is the point of him staying in Rugby Union?

Na he took a big wage cut when he left Toulan to go and play in NZ. He took that wage cut cos he wanted to play for the All Blacks. Now the world cup is over he can wait 4 more years or move back to Sydney (which he wants to do) and get paid more playing League.



A french Union side could pay him loads but like I said he wants to live in Sydney so unless a Union Side in Sydney can pay him some big money I think SBW could be back in the NRL.



As for the game. Utter rubbish. A close final but boring. Any other Test environment the All Blacks would of thrown the ball around and dragged France all over the place but as usual what we see in Union in world cup knock out stages is a reluctance to be expansive and the laws of the game allow you to win by being anything but expansive.



There is nothing in that game that League doesnt have but RL has just been slow to promote the game. There is no way that product is better than League.

Just out of curiosity I watched the Union WC Final this morning.



I am sorry but if that is the best that they can come up with it just shows how bias the media are towards union.



Shocking game and I will admit the rules of the game I am not to sure about but God the way the AB's played the game was a joke to say the least,roll on the 4 Nations and we can watch some real rugby(well from NZ and Aus anyway).

Just had a quick sken at some of Monday's back pages and I've yet to see even a mention of the rugby union world cup final.

according to the stats he made 14 tackles - a RL forward would be sacked after putting in that kind of shift (i accept there are 2 more forwards to share the work around but 14 seems pretty low to me)

It's impossible to compare. League and union may have their similarities but in general they are worlds apart.

I'm sort of glad NZ won (I actually wanted France to win near the end just for a laugh), but they came really close to freezing again. They played like they expected France to fall apart, and had no Plan B when they didn't.



On the comments re the other top southern sides, SA have been on a slow decline for a while because they decided a couple of years ago to come to this World Cup with an ageing (but experienced) team. As a result in a number of positions they haven't replaced players they otherwise would have. Australia were just very poor all campaign. Some of their players - notably the halfbacks Genia and particularly Cooper - really underperformed.



The final for me summed up WHY RU works at international level - because you can use safety-first tactics to keep a game tight. Whilst as a free-flowing spectacle it may not be good to watch, tight contests keep interest all the way through. In RL you simply can't do that. Sadly England will have to give on Australia the ball 50% on average.



BTW one tactic which I think a lot of RU sides ought to review is the high kick midfield. I think I saw it work twice or three times during the WC, out of hundreds of attempts.

Let's play adjectives.



"Well it's not beautiful, Nigel"

"It's not, Hugh"

"It doen't have to be, Nigel"

"Absolutely, Hugh"

"But it is thrilling"

"Immense"

"Awesome"

"Huge"

"Enthralling"

"Fantastic"

"Colossal"

"Massive"

"Super"

"I've loved it, Nigel"

"Loved every minute, Hugh"

France captain Thierry Dusautoir named IRB player of the year.

Really?



Saturday October 29 – England v Wales

Saturday November 5 – England v Australia



Which of these 2 games on the BBC will get better ratings than the 6.6 million for the Wales v France semi-final from the RWC?

You can come up with figures as much as you want GF but it is still true.



To be honest if we get half that amount I would be quite happy but we will wait and see.

Figures are what control things like TV deals and the amount of media exposure a game will get. The BBC show 6 nations games over the weekends of the tournament and an average of 4.5 million people tune in.....the BBC will show the 4 nations over the coming weeks.......it's not their fault or anyone elses in the media that less than 2,000,000 will tune in.





To be honest, unless there's a friggin major snow fall and everyone is trapped in their houses, you have no chance of seeing an audience of 3.3 million





As for your pictire Catalancs....WTF?



I have no axe to grind, but I am sick sore and tired for the woes of TGG being blamed on everything other than the apathy of the fans who are supposed to love it?



I can't wait to see the thread on the VT during the double header bemoaning the empty seats at Wembley, typed by armchair fans and keyboard warriors who couln't be d to part with a tenner and go to the Live event.

Relax fella. It's called 'a laugh'. What I don't get is why you've started lowering yourself to the level of some other contributors by bringing up rugby league and coming out with stats and figures to make comparisons. I think you've spent too much time chewing the cud with our convict descendants over on the NRL board

Sadly when it comes to the BBC and 6 Nations they advertise that all over the place. Has anyone seen anything yet by the bbc to advertise a fact they are showing Rugby League 2 weeks running rather than Murder she wrote.

Union calc out again. Ive been having a look at the figures and I dont see union anywhere in this list.



ITV1

w/e 16 Oct 2011

Millions

1 THE X FACTOR RESULTS (SUN 1959) 10.84

2 DOWNTON ABBEY (SUN 2103) 10.16

3 THE X FACTOR (SAT 1944) 9.90

4 DOC MARTIN (MON 2100) 9.45

5 CORONATION STREET (MON 2029) 8.69

6 CORONATION STREET (MON 1933) 8.49

7 CORONATION STREET (FRI 1932) 7.76

8 CORONATION STREET (FRI 2029) 7.55

9 CORONATION STREET (THU 2031) 7.31

10 EMMERDALE (MON 1901) 6.96

11 EMMERDALE (WED 1900) 6.85

12 EMMERDALE (TUE 1901) 6.80

13 EMMERDALE (FRI 1901) 6.80

14 EMMERDALE (THU 2000) 6.71

15 EMMERDALE (THU 1900) 6.68

16 MIDSOMER MURDERS (WED 2003) 5.67

17 DCI BANKS (FRI 2100) 5.19

18 HARRY HILL'S TV BURP (SAT 1913) 4.21

19 JOANNA LUMLEY'S GREEK ODYSSEY (THU 2102) 3.88

20 THE JONATHAN ROSS SHOW (SAT 2154) 3.43

21 ALL STAR FAMILY FORTUNES (SAT 1815) 3.42

22 ITV NEWS (TUE 1830) 3.25

23 ITV NEWS (MON 1830) 3.10

24 ITV NEWS (FRI 1830) 3.03

25 ITV NEWS (WED 1830) 2.97

26 WILD BRITAIN WITH RAY MEARS (FRI 2002) 2.94

27 ITV NEWS (THU 1830) 2.91

28 LITTLE ENGLAND (MON 2002) 2.81

29 ITV NEWS AT TEN (MON 2201) 2.70

30 NEW YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED! (SAT 1745) 2.52



And even the week before the highest was 4.8

Oh dear. How thoroughly embarrassing. What's going to be next week's made-up fact?

[url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/rugby/article-24002593-rugby-football-union-face-england-player-revolt.do?Rugby Football Union face England player revolt[/url

Nope.....



Oh dear how stupidly embarrassing.....maybe you should have checked before you touched your keyboard.....I don't make it up as well you know.



[urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/17/rugby-world-cup-wales-itv[/url

[urlhttp://www.imdb.com/news/ni16799987/[/url

[urlhttp://www.europe-current-events.com/2011/10/17/rugby-world-cup-loss-for-wales-scores-itv1-a-ratings-boost/[/url



Which of the 2 BBC Live games will rate as well as this one?

[urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/28/six-nations-rugby-tv-ratings[/url

GF do you get some satisfaction from all this.



You say that I am daft for hoping we get half the audience of 3.3 million,maybe but I live in hope and we will finally see some good rugby on terrestrial TV at last,instead of that mind numbingly boring bo11ocks that the nation has had to endure for the past few weeks or so.

None whatsoever.....but neither do I get any satisfaction from people putting their heads in the sand and imagining that by slagging of another sport, it will somehow sort out Leagues many many problems.





as mad as a bag of spanners....but hey, that's fine, especially on here







Are you suggesting that BT called all 6.6 million viewers of Wales v France as some form of nasty prank.....saying, "now we've woken you up, watch the rugger"......as I said above, a bag of spanners