Rugby World Cup Warm Up Matches

avatar

I actually think they are stupid and pointless. If a coach doesn't know his strongest squad a month out from the World Cup then he shouldn't be a coach. More can be achieved playing shadow rugby against a local club side. There is less chance of an injury as shadow rugby is still contact, but you don't follow through with it.

Scotland lost the services of Sam Skinner at the weekend in their "friendly"against France. The problem is no one has finalized their final 31 squad for the World Cup yet and players are pushing for places. Skinner was a first choice lock for coach Gregor Townsend and now he has to find a replacement. I feel sorry for Skinner as you only have so many World Cups as a player and he has been robbed of one now.
_108493022_19227781.jpg
source
Scotland play georgia this weekend in their final warm up match in Georgia. This is not going to be fun or a walk in the park. This is the biggest game Georgia have ever played as it is the first home international against a top international side. The Georgians may lack the skills, but they don't lack brute force and the Scots won't escape away with this one injury free. As expected the stadium in Tbilisi is sold out already and the 50 000 crowd wont welcome the Scots with an easy ride.

Rugby is not like football even though they call it a contact sport. Honestly football is like a bunch of ballerinas prancing around compared to rugby. A footballer would last 5 minutes and wouldn't roll around like Neymar because his own team mates would flatten him for play acting. If someone goes down in rugby it is normally serious and there is a genuine injury.

Adrenaline normally covers the injury unless it's really obvious like a broken bone or a ripped muscle and you don't even know until the following day. I have woken up the next day in agony hardly able to walk. To this day I have a lump in my chest like a third boob which is a broken rib with scar tissue that has formed around it and I honestly can't recall breaking it. I think I know when it happened during one of the games , but the x rays show trauma to my rib as it has healed over the years. I have heard that breaking your rib is painful and luckily it wasn't for me as I didn't even know.

I am hoping that amongst all the players that are playing in these stupid games that there are no more injuries. I heard today that there is a cloud over Johnny Sexton and hope it isn't the case as Ireland have no chance without him.



0
0
0.000
12 comments
avatar

To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That is kind of stupid. It kind of makes me think about some of the college football bowl games lately and how a lot of Seniors sit them out because they don't want to get hurt before they make it to their pro career. You are your own best advocate so you need to do what you can. In such a high impact sport as rugby it seems you would want to protect your players as much as possible.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I agree with the guys wanting to sit out of games that have no importance. Why risk your career as that is what they are doing.

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is quite strange I agree with you @cryptoandcoffee that if a manager cannot finalize his final steem he is not capable of been a manager

0
0
0.000
avatar

A game is very interesting when all key players are available to play in a particular match but when the issue if injury occur it's under probability especially when the manager don't make the right choices

0
0
0.000
avatar

You have some points and i hope sexton is ok as we badly need him for the world cup.

You do need to warm up players properly for the tournament though. They wouldn't have played together as a team for a long time without these games and it's important to have them ready to go from the first match. Playing full blooded games against real rivals is the only way to get them there. We might lose a few players but rugby is a tough game and you need to have strength in depth to compete.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I get that and agree with keeping players sharp but what Scotland are doing this weekend is suicidal.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Nothing to do with coaches not knowing their team. Its real match practice. The teams have all their drills learnt over the summer so these friendlies are only a way to blow off the cobwebs as some countries haven't played together since March. Even without Sexton Ireland are a threat. He was injured when a ruck fell on top of him at Carlton House but it is not public yet.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I get that but not playing them 3 weeks before the tournament starts. Match practice can happen behind closed doors against a b team. The game I watched last weekend was a shambles with nothing to play for and everything to lose.

0
0
0.000
avatar

As an American i was never really a spectator of this sport in the states because well, it wasn't on. When i moved overseas some South African friends went with me to a bar and patiently pointed out the rules etc and it was a lot of fun after that.

I returned the favor soon afterwards during the Super Bowl... haha

0
0
0.000
avatar

You got a 15.06% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @cryptoandcoffee!

@ocdb is a non-profit bidbot for whitelisted Steemians, current min bid is 2 SBD and max bid is 12 SBD and the equivalent amount in STEEM.
Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.

If you like what @ocd does, consider voting for ocd-witness through SteemConnect or on the Steemit Witnesses page. :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hi @cryptoandcoffee!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.185 which ranks you at #3221 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 3 places in the last three days (old rank 3224).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 128 contributions, your post is ranked at #61.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • Some people are already following you, keep going!
  • The readers like your work!
  • Try to work on user engagement: the more people that interact with you via the comments, the higher your UA score!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

0
0
0.000