Rugby World Cup V RP/Rosters/Scores thread [Archive]

PopularFreedom

30-04-2006, 13:47

The Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints), of the now defunct Rugby Premier League (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Rugby_Premier_League) are representing the nation of PopularFreedom (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom) in the Rugby World Cup V.

Geographical location of Sacredicity:
The Sacredicity Saints play in the town of Sacredicity which is located 370 Kilometres north of the capital of Locke Harbour (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Locke_Harbour) on the east coast of the nation of PopularFreedom (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom).

Previous news articles on the team:
2006-Feb-21 Saints gear up for rugby tilt at home (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/2006-02-21-001.html)

Historical specifics on Saints entry into the RWC V:
The nation of PopularFreedom has an avid rugby history with the top league, the PRL (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom_Rugby_League), currently engaged in play (which the Saints will be joining in the 2007 season and playing their home games in Sacredicity at the awe inspiring Heavens Gates Stadium).
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Sacredicity's roster is as follows for World Cup V:

Coach: Albert Greenshaw
1 Julius Gates (Prop)
2 Erwin Manning (Hooker)
3 Terrance Pende (Prop)
4 Sam Oroi (Flanker)
5 Trevor Hughes (Lock)
6 Larry Graves (Lock)
7 Ben Collingwood (Flanker)
8 Denver Kirkland (8-man)
9 Yukon Thompson (Scrum-Half)
23 Donald Atkinson (Fly-Half)
24 Jerry Corin (Inside Centre)
12 Geoff Ryio (Outside Centre)
13 Ryan Kitchener (Winger)
14 Mark London (Winger)
15 Dennis Chatham (Fullback)

-----------------------------------------------

16 Wilbur Yankori (Prop)
17 Gregory Albertson (Lock)
18 Mike Zittler (8-man, Flanker)
19 Malcom Rivers (Winger, Centre, Fullback)
20 Troy Bommerson (Fly-Half, Fullback, Winger)
21 Jerry Tamo (Lock, 8-Man)
22 Greg McCoy (Scrum-Half, Winger)
11 Garth Williamson (Centre)

ROSTER CHANGES SINCE RWC V began:

prior to matchday 5
-#10 John Salmon (flyhalf) broke his leg during the Rugby World Cup V and is out of action until at least January 2007. He is replaced with #23 Donald Atkinson

prior to matchday 5
-#22 Clinton Pinn (flyhalf, scrumhalf) went AWOL on the team and has since been replaced by #22 Greg McCoy (Scrum-Half)

prior to matchday 8
-#4 Sam Oroi (flanker, 8-man) replaced by #18 Mike Zittler (8-man, flanker) after Oroi sprained his wrist.

prior to matchday 9
-#18 Mike Zittler (8-man, flanker) replaced by #4 Sam Oroi (flanker, 8-man) after Oroi given okay by doctors to play.
-#24 Jerry Corin (centre, winger) added to the lineup as a substitute. Lent from the Sacredicity Barbarians clubteam.

prior to matchday 10
-#11 Garth Williamson (centre) replaced by #24 Jerry Corin (centre, winger)
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My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP injuries to my players - N
Godmod injuries to my players - N
RP other events - Y as long as you don't kill or injure my players or make them appear as idiots

PopularFreedom

30-04-2006, 14:19

from the pages of the Camelot Free Press (http://invisionfree.com/forums/The_Heartland/index.php?showtopic=3783&st=14)

2006-04-30

RUGBY: WHERE ARE THE WASPS?
The Camelot Wasps, as of May 1st, are now the only team not currently playing. The question therefore is why?

International Report - With the arrival today of the Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) rugby club in the nation of Haraki to participate in the 5th edition of the Rugby World Cup, one can only scratch their heads at the silence emitted from the Camelot Wasps (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Camelot_Wasps) rugby club on why they are not involved instead.

With the national PopularFreedom Rugby League (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom_Rugby_League) in full swing, coupled with the rugby tournament being put on in the town of Brunstone, home of the Brunstone Avalanche (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Brunstone_Avalanche), plus the Sacredicity Saints participating in the Rugby World Cup, the Camelot Wasps, the best team for the nation in the Rugby Premier League (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Rugby_Premier_League) are now the only team not participating in a rugby tournament of any sort.

Obviously with Brunstone hosting their own rugby tournament for the region, one can understand how this laughable franchise (who went 0-7 in the Rugby Premier League) is able to get a tournament, though one can only guess what their pitiful record will be after the tournament. The Saints however are another story. This is a team who was outranked by the Camelot Wasps rugby franchise in almost every aspect in the Rugby Premier League and yet get to represent the nation at the World Cup instead of the Wasps. In fact the main difference between the two teams, apart from their records, is that Sacredicity have better ruckers and jumpers for lineouts while the Wasps have speed. Now some will argue that rucking and lineouts are more important than speed, however, you do not have to worry about rucking or lineouts if you can't catch the player in the first place. Further proof to this importance is the record of the Wasps at the Rugby Premier League verses that of the Saints. The decision to allow the Saints to represent the nation, at her national sport, instead of the Wasps therefore is a poor one at best.

The Saints are oxen standing upright. They are big and tough but have no speed if their life depending on it. My detractors will no doubt point out that the Wasps only won one more match then the Saints, however in most of the Wasps matches they were close affairs, while the Saints matches were blowouts.

Finally, the Saints have no true team leaders. The Wasps meanwhile have a number of veteran rugby players who have experience in playing internationally. Obviously with all this factual data one can only assume therefore that the only reason the Saints have been allowed by the nation to represent the nation at the World Cup of Rugby therefore is politics. Another eastern PopularFreedom town outranking in this case, a western PopularFreedom city. Though Wasp fans will no doubt wish our brothers from Sacredicity the best, one can only wonder exactly how successful they will be.

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OOC: There is a huge rivalry between eastern and western PopularFreedom cities and towns, and a huge hatred between Camelot and Sacredicity especially, so expect a rebuttal by a Sacredicity newspaper soon enough.

PopularFreedom

30-04-2006, 14:59

from the pages of the Sacredicity Citizen (http://invisionfree.com/forums/The_Heartland/index.php?showtopic=3875&st=0)

Sunday, April 30, 2006
SACREDICITY CITIZEN

RUGBY: SACREDICITY SAINTS (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) WHERE THEY BELONG.
Despite questions on their right to attend the Rugby World Cup, the Saints are the best team available for the job.

International Report from Haraki - The Saints are where they belong. The well rounded team from the city of over 100,000 Sacredicity faithful are gearing up for the World Cup of Rugby doing what they do best, practicing plays with their entire team and especially their pack.

Coach Albert Greenshaw had an interview with us earlier this morning and explained his philosophy to coaching. We include parts of our interview with him below.

Sacredicity Citizen: So there are some who would state that your view of coaching is wrong, that one needs to specialize in one area, whether it would be speed like the Camelot Wasps (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Camelot_Wasps), or rucking like the famed Locke Harbour Dragons (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Locke_Harbour_Dragons) of the PopularFreedom Rugby League (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom_Rugby_League) (PRL). What do you state to people such as this?

Albert Greenshaw: Well, one can look at the record of the Dragons and note that they are the most successful franchise in the PRL, however they have not been successful all the time, and the times they are not they have been horrible. You need consistency in all areas. Rucking, scrums, strength, speed, kicking, lineouts, mauls, tackling, all of it.

Sacredicity Citizen: You're not saying that one is excellent in all these skills?

Albert Greenshaw: No not at all. I am saying however that one needs to be competent in these skills. You look at the Camelot Wasps for instance, any team with good planning knows that as long as you keep the ball in the pack you have them beat cause they don't know how to ruck effectively. With the Locke Harbour Dragons, get the ball out to the backs all the time and you will win. Each opponent is different, therefore each match is different. Every battle is won before it is ever fought and therefore if your players are competent in all skills you can identify weakness on the other team and exploit it.

Sacredicity Citizen: An excellent strategy, however one will then ask why it was not successful for you in your matches in the Rugby Premier League.

Albert Greenshaw: We were a rookie franchise facing veteran squads at the time, however the experience we learned from that will make us better. Besides the Camelot Wasps were only marginally more successful than us, and as time progressed most teams adapted to their style of play and were able to beat them in the forwards. The same would happen at the World Cup, if not more so if they were to attend.

Sacredicity Citizen: So you're saying that the Saints are the better team to be at the World Cup?

Albert Greenshaw: Most definetly. We are more well-rounded, meaning that with our experience in the Rugby Premier League now behind us, we will be a difficult team to beat for most squads.

Sacredicity Citizen: What about the recent quote from a Camelot paper that your players are as slow as oxen?

Albert Greenshaw: Well compared to the Wasps we are slower, for certain, that is what they built their team around, speed. However compared to most teams we would be about average in comparison to them.

Sacredicity Citizen: What happens if you meet another speedy team on the pitch in the World Cup however?

Albert Greenshaw: Most likely they then have a front pack that is not as good as ours so we just make sure that all lineouts and scrums are won by us, in spite of whose put in it is to begin with.

Sacredicity Citizen: Do you really think you can count on that, your pack, to win you games.

Albert Greenshaw: No, we count on all our players to win games, just for each match we will have a different strategy and execute it to perfection to win.

Sacredicity Citizen: Well I thank you for your time Mr. Greenshaw.

Albert Greenshaw: Not to worry, please let them Camelot fans know we will not let them down, we will do a better job than their squad could do.

Sacredicity Citizen: I'll definetly quote those exact words sir.

For the most part, PopularFreedom fans have faith in the Saints and that faith will be put to the test tomorrow in their first match, verses the Snake Eaters.

Haraki

30-04-2006, 16:15

The Haraki Rugby Union Committee today announced its coach and lineup for the Rugby World Cup V. The coach, Allan Ferris, was announced in the morning (He had been told weeks earlier) and in the afternoon he announced the team he had chosen in secret talks with the players. They begin practices in Atherlon at their home pitch, Edward Benes Park, tomorrow.

The Harakian team, with no nickname yet, will be playing an aggressive attacking style with a +5 modifier. They will kick for touch only if trapped behind their own 22, but will frequently try drop goals and almost always take any kickable penalty as a kick for posts, trusting in Cannon's abilities.

1 – Brian Morris – Loosehead Prop – Vidaen Whites
A very large man, well over six feet, he is the best rucker on the team and very good at driving rucks over the ball and forcing turnovers. He’s also a great tackler and very fond of raking opposition team members during rucks. He’s perfected the art of raking players without the referee noticing. Quite often the driving force behind Vidaen’s scrum, which is one of the things that gets them into the top ten almost every year.
2 – Brad Winters – Hooker – Kiros RFC – Assistant Captain
The fastest forward on the team and the captain of Kiros RFC, the best rugby team in Haraki, he’s the best man at crash balling on the team. Can quite often steal the ball against the feed off of throw-ins to scrums, and often lifts his second foot off the ground during scrums to aid the take. Although it makes it more dangerous, he relies on the size of his props to support him and using both feet gives him an extra advantage that has helped him take Kiros RFC to the top of Haraki’s league two years running. Actually scores a large portion of tries, and is also a spectacular line-out thrower.
3 – Philip Lasnet – Tighthead Prop – Kiros RFC
Winters brings with him from Kiros RFC his tighthead prop, used to helping him in scrums. Not quite as tall as Morris, he is stockier and has no neck. With very strong arms, he almost always joins Morris in the ruck, and is the primary lineout lifter for Haraki’s first jumper in seven-man lineouts and the back lifter for four-man lineouts. Good at driving the scrum back and using it as a ground-gaining device rather than simply a penalty.
4 – Sid Galworth – Lock – Uses Raiders
Another of the team’s best ruckers, Galworth is the second jumper for Haraki when they are forced to run a seven-man lineout. Although moderately fast, his specialty is in the rucks and scrums, where his powerful legs can be put to good use driving the opponents back. He plays for the Uses Raiders, who were defeated in the last season 17-12 in the playoff final against Kiros RFC. Mysteriously enough, he is also a magnificent tactical kicker and actually takes a lot of drop goals for his team. When deep in the opposition’s end, sometimes when he calls for a crash ball instead of running it he kicks a drop goal, almost unheard of coming from a forward.
5 – Kevin Lanning – Lock – Dragons
Hailing from the [North Atherlon] Dragons, Lanning is the tallest man on the team and Haraki’s first jumper for lineouts. Not as talented at kicking as his companion, he specializes in tackles that make the spectators wince. Has racked up more injuries against other players than any other in the Harakian league over the last season.
6 – Michael Benes – Blindside Flanker – Caltis Union RFC
The son of the famous Victor Benes, Michael follows in his father’s footsteps by playing professional and international rugby. He is the best tackler on the team and usually does not enter rucks, choosing instead to post along the outside of them to catch those running on the other team and bring them down. He also often crashes the ball, and is good at advancing and gaining ground on the field, although he usually does not capitalize on offensive plays to score tries. Stands at the back of lineouts to catch long balls.
7 – Nick Renset – Openside Flanker – Susa Black and Reds
A quick man, any fly half on an opposing HRL team would be ready to tell you of the many times they have been battered silly by Nick Renset, tearing off the side of scrums to come straight at them. He has become famous in the media for his diving tackles, often just as the opposition is making a kick, quite often forcing a knock-on. He chooses to wear a scrum cap ever since a concussion last season following a straight-arm to the face from an opposing prop and subsequent raking on the ground.
8 – Thomas Gerryin – Number Eight – Liusu Griffons
Quite fond of the pick and go, he seems almost to hold the team backs in disdain, as he will instead choose to gain ground by picking the ball out of a ruck, scrum or maul and trying to sprint it past the opposing flankers. However, he is also fast enough that often in loose play he joins the back line to create an extra man so they can exploit holes in the defence. He is well-known for his tendency to take opposition players into touch rather than wrapping and taking them down.
9 – Carl Thint – Scrum Half – Arkia Pirates
The best ball handler in the HRL, by far, and one of the best passers. He is small and quick, rushing into the back of rucks to pick the ball up and recycle it to the back line or crashers before the opposition forwards can free themselves from the ruck. He is also fond of picking the ball up right out of the ruck and running it through the defence himself, gaining significant ground due to the other team not expecting it. He also manages to be a good punter, and when trapped behind his own 22, often picks it and punts it far down the field into touch. The best scrum half in the HRL, far and away, he is multi-talented and has definite star factor.
10 – James Keay – Uses Raiders – Team Captain
As fast as a wing and as talented as a fullback, Keay (Pronounced Key-ay) is very fond of running the ball as far as possible before passing it down the back line, and is famous for his sidestep around opposing players, including fullbacks. Keay himself is fond of running the ball rather than kicking it, and if at all possible will try to run it up the field and pass down the back line instead of making a kick for touch. He is a talented punter, but not as talented at drop goals or goal kicks. He almost always runs plays with the backs, and usually also uses his speed to circle back once he has passed the ball and rejoin the backs further down the line, creating an overlap where his team outnumbers the other and can exploit holes in the defence.
11 – Daniel Virlan – Left Wing – Susa Black and Reds
Has the best catching hands on the whole team, even better than the fullback. Any punts on his side of the field are always caught by him, and his strategy then is to run as far and as fast as possible without passing at all, choosing instead to get taken down and have it rucked out over him. Very fast, he is too selfish to make any other position but wing or fullback, and his passing is worse than it should be. As such, he never passes, due to inability and selfishness. Good with a punt if trapped behind the 22, especially as he is always so close to the sideline.
12 – Nathan Cannon – Inside Centre – Isasi Lions – Goal Kicker
He usually plays fly half for the Isasi Lions, and is the best kicker in the league, especially compared to James Keay. If Keay needs the ball kicked, he passes it down the line to Cannon and shouts at him to kick. Cannon also takes all the team’s kicks for posts and is especially good at drop goals. He is most famous for one in the latest season in which, after his forwards forced a turnover deep in their own end, he kicked the ball over sixty metres down the field and straight through the posts on full time for a game winning goal. However, despite his excellent kicking, he is also a great runner, sprinting through holes in the defence to score tries himself.
13 – Adam Farreley – Outside Centre – Arkia Pirates
The second fastest player on the team, he is most often found playing right wing for the Arkia Pirates. However, due to differences between the coach and his players, he was instead assigned to outside centre. He still acts a lot like a wing, though, exploiting holes in the defence and his outrageous speed to make his way to the try line. However, his speed is now coupled with the ability to draw off the fullback and pass off to the wing for a perfect try.
14 – Sam Davies – Right Wing – South Atherlon RFC
Undoubtedly the best player to come out of the South Atherlon team, one which usually has all its talent sucked away by the Dragons, whom they are forced to share a city with. He is the fastest player on the team, and coupled with Farreley they are a nearly unstoppable combination. However, even on his own Davies can take off and score tries by running past the entire other team before they can even begin to pursue him.
15 – Xavier Walker – Fullback – Pethic RFC
Born and raised on a farm outside Pethic, Walker is small but very powerful. Not as fast as some fullbacks, he evens out that disadvantage with very powerful hands and feet. He can catch nearly any deep kick and kick it right back out to the rest of his team or into touch. He also makes devastating tackles, usually to the knees, and can pilfer the ball quite readily by simply leaping to his feet again, quite nimbly, and taking off towards the opposition end.

Reserves

16 – Ian Halvith – Hooker, Prop – Barbarians
The [Ferria Borderlands] Barbarians’ hooker manages to make his way onto the World Cup team for Haraki. Built like a prop with the leg speed of a hooker, once he wins the ball he helps drive the scrum as much as either of his props. Nearly impossible to injure, he is a good choice to fill in any injured or tired front row players.
17 – Neil Higgins – Lock – Isasi Lions
Higgins is a tall man, renowned in the league for his adeptness at lineouts. As the Isasi Lions run a four-man lineout system, Higgins is their only jumper and almost always manages to take the ball. Part of that is his long arms and incredible height – He stands over 6’8” tall – but much of it the speed with which he gets into the air, before the other team’s jumper even starts to jump. Higgins is fairly slow, though, but strong as a push in a scrum, ruck or maul.
18 – Joseph Vaughan – Number Eight, Flanker – Vidaen Whites
The Whites bring onto the team their eight man, Joseph Vaughan, as a reserve for the sides and back of the scrum. He’s fast, strong and nimble, and although his passing isn’t great, he’s still an all-round great player. Often joins the back line beside the wing during loose play to create an overlap.
19 – Adam Halsey – Scrum Half, Wing – Kiros RFC
The fact that he is a tiny man should not be taken against Halsey. Standing barely 5’3”, he is the shortest player on the team. However, he is a fantastic passer and runs like the wind. When playing scrum half he tends to pass more, although the national team coach, Allan Ferris, has also picked him for wing as he is fast and an excellent ball handler o catch kicks or long passes.
20 – Kyle Ennisby – Fly Half – Dragons
The Dragons’ fly half comes to the team as a reserve. He is their goal and tactical kicker, and most likely the second best in the league, after Nathan Cannon. Should Keay or Cannon take an injury or fatigue overcome them, Ennisby would take over for Keay, who would be relegated to Centre if Cannon was injured, to get Ennisby on the field where he could take goal kicks from. He’s not as fast as some fly halves, but has the passing ability of a scrum half, making up for it with long passes to outside centres and wings.
21 – Jasper Hull – Centre, Fullback, Fly Half – Liusu Griffons
Playing centre for the Griffons, with Thomas Gerryin as Number Eight, he sees the ball less than some other players. However, when he does get it, he’s a devil. A good tactical kicker and very fast, had Ferris not placed Cannon as a centre to get his kicking ability on the field, most likely Hull would have been chosen. A devastating tackler as well, famous for diving tackles to the knees for players that the crowd are sure is on a try-scoring breakaway.
22 – Brad Weckit – Wing, Fullback – Unsigned
Currently not signed to a football club, Weckit is just out of a four-year college degree and graduated too late to be included in pre-season free agent signing. With no experience on clubs, he played for both his high school and college teams, and the third-ranked Caltis Union RFC have entered talks to at least sign him for a trial period. Allan Ferris has been criticized for signing such an inexperienced player, but he responded with only the words “Raw talent” and left it at that. Weckit’s exposure on the national team should make him a rare commodity in the League, and as such a bidding war over his contract should not be ruled out.

Coach – Allan Ferris – Uses Raiders
The coach of the Uses Raiders brings his wisdom and expertise to light as coach of the national team as well. He has chosen an all-star team to represent the nation, spread out over all of Haraki’s top twelve Division One teams. The other teams in Division One and all those in Division Two have expressed their indignance at their exclusion from the team, but have been mostly ignored. Ferris coaches a very aggressive offensive game, and has taken the Raiders almost to the top two years in a row, only to be defeated by Kiros RFC both times, first in the semi-finals and then in the finals just last season. This season, under his watchful eye, the Uses Raiders have a perfect record – except for their one season loss against Kiros.

Ferris himself once played for the Dragons until his retirement at age 32. During his tenure (He played fly-half), the Dragons won the championship five times and were at the top of the division tables eight of his eleven years. However, that was in the time nearly a decade ago when the Dragons had a nearly unbeatable team, until they aged. Many retired, many received career-ending injuries, and following their exit from the team three of the star players went on to coach domestic clubs. Ferris has been the most successful of those three. The Dragons today still hold the fourth-place spot in Division One and are a force to be reckoned with, but another team, Kiros RFC, has stolen their thunder. The Dragons have a cadre of good, younger blood, but they have lost the outstanding team that won them so much.

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y (But don't make Cannon look too bad)
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - N
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP minor injuries to my players (Requires substitution for the current match but none after it) - Y
RP/godmod major injuries to my players (Requires substitution for more than one match) - N
RP other events - Y

Silage

30-04-2006, 22:50

The SRFU are proud to announce the following players have been selected to represent their nation in Haraki.

1. Regius Zandenburger (Borders)
2. Evan Markwell (Avoncroft)
3. Mark Tesk (Clamp Cougars)
4. Perot Etazon (Hobgoblins)
5. Glen Slocum (South Park)
6. Zebo Zeilland (Highlands)
7. Finnan Rozana (Clamp Cougars)
8. Cleitus "Kizzy" Jabot (Hobgoblins)

9. Gilbert Ridgeway (Vipers) Captain

10. Elwillo Bellman (Ashlawn)
11. Hamish Coley (Old Newtonians)
12. Tesk Kodiak (Borders)
13. Jacob Barnkamper (Avoncroft)
14. Mark Henkeseen (Clamp Cougars)
15. Astar Hillaway (Highlands)

16. Olaf Netherton (Harriers) - Prop
17. Tesk Rubytom (Hobgoblins) - Lock
18. Hector Wiveton (Greenacres) - Flanker/hooker/No.8
19. Drysgol Gavroche (Old Newtonians) - Scrum/fly half
20. Beau Brookdale (Clamp Cougars) - Centre/wing
21. Fenrose Drifter (Borders) - Fly half/Centre/wing
22. Holim Tornedo (Bilton Bears) - Full Back/Centre

Coach Donor Mountain said " We feel that this is our best team available, our forwards excel at winning the ball in set pieces especially Line outs and mauling. They may not be the most mobile pack but they are tenacious in defence. Our backs prefer a more open running game if we can win enough ball then we can compete against the best the competition can offer. Admittedly there are teams with better kickers of the ball, don't expect too many drop goal attempts."

My opponent if they RP first may:
Choose Point Breakdown - Y
Choose Point Scorers - Y
Hand Out Yellow Cards - Y (Do you mean "Sin binning for ten minutes?)
Hand Out Red Cards - N (Are you Serious? this isn't soccer you know!)
Minor injuries to my players - Y
Major injuriesto my players - N
Other Events - Y

Haraki

30-04-2006, 23:13

Hand Out Yellow Cards - Y (Do you mean "Sin binning for ten minutes?)
Hand Out Red Cards - N (Are you Serious? this isn't soccer you know!)

OOC: Oh, they exist. A yellow card is sin binning for ten minutes, and two yellow cards gets you a permanent ejection from the game with no replacement. One red card does the same. I've never, ever seen a red card handed out, but I know they exist anyway. I assume you'd get one for intentionally breaking someone's neck or something.

Rorysville

01-05-2006, 02:27

Rorysville Is proud to announce it's squad for the RWC V

Coach: Don Sitller
1 Jordan Staal (Prop)
2 Erik Sodderstrom (Hooker)
3 Rick Majhal (Prop)
4 Ian Ross (Flanker)
5 Rory Barclay (Lock)
6 Lawrence McCarty (Lock)
7 Ron Dilles (Flanker)
8 Levon Truuie (8-man)
9 Craig Higgins (Scrum-Half)
10 Rod Cullen (Fly-Half)
11 Patrice Lafleur (Inside Centre)
12 Jeff Stillman (Outside Centre)
13 Ryan Scotts (Winger)
14 Kirk McCarty (Winger)
15 Alexei Yagouden (Fullback)

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16 Adam Huet (Prop)
17 Scott Lokerty (Lock)
18 Doug Greenleay (8-Man, Flanker)
19 Aaron Evans (Winger, Centre, Fullback)
20 Mike Staal (Fly-Half, Fullback, Winger)
21 John Swartz (Lock, 8-Man)
22 Max Evenall (Scrum-Half, Fly-Half)

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My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP injuries to my players - N
Godmod injuries to my players - N
RP other events - Y as long as you don't kill or injure my players

Milchama

01-05-2006, 03:24

Due to the fact that rugby is not widely played in Milchama makes it hard to find a team but we managed to throw one together and it doesn't look to be too bad.

Here it is:

1. Marian Luppers
2. Ray Koremary
3. Lyle Floosher
4. Kevin Gilbert
5. Ulton Fennerborough
6. Melech Giles
7. Kenny Parks
8. Danny Limeron
9. Jonny Romeman
10. Terry Cormack
11. Raveed Shulman
12. Makos Jurosh
13. Bobby Sachkani
14. Terry Daneski
15. Corey Battenpush
Subs:
16. Yoni Fleen
17. Jacob Torbinski
18. Yaacov Machnochi
19. Thomas Dulen
20. Perry Flortenson
21. Chester Millar
22. Tucker Midel
23. Miles Cherren
24. Bob Tuuuune
25. Leo Faziz

and for easy reference the rugby newspaper of Milchama:
Swooton Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram

East Lithuania

01-05-2006, 03:53

East Lithuanian drew to 1st Group in RWC V!!!

After about 3 years, Dictator Scharfetter was convinced by Mr. Otero, head of sports, to bring together the rugby team and compete in the Rugby World Cup. After coming back from the U21 World Cup, Coach Ray Discolo has been informed that he will coach the Rugby team, again. While many East Lithuanians forgot how the game is played, they hope that the team will move on to the playoffs, instead of always ending up lossing to like, everyone. So here are the rosters for this years Rugby World Cup:

all starters in bold

Coach: Ray Discolo

Props:
#41 James Grabow 25 years old

#3 James Fruman 24 years old

#13 Robert Poli 20 years old

Flankers:
#23 Mark Sellini 24 years old

#10 Brian Beecher 24 years old

#22 Joe Sampson 19 years old

Hookers:
#69 David Higgans 21 years old

#65 Andrew West 23 years old

Locks:
#33 Luigi Napolitoni 21 years old

#40 James Furman 20 years old

#30 Oliver Khouri 20 years old

8-Man:
#24 Mike Santoro 22 years old*

#50 Alex Miller 22 years old

Scrum-Halfs:
#42 Mariano Rivera 26 years old

#36 Tino Martinez 26 years old

Fly-Halfs:
#18 Mike Decaro 25 years old

#15 Sam Minetti 24 years old

Inside-Centres:
#4 Kevin Archilla 22 years old

#1 Eric Villhauer 21 years old

Outside Centres:
#69 1/2 John Osi 23 years old

#44 Andrew Robinson 18 years old

Wingers:
#20 Mario Mancuso 21 years old

#66 Marc Sofield 22 years old

#55 Oren Robenowitz 23 years old

Fullbacks:
#34 Jibreel Weaver 21 years old

#12 George Bass 20 years old

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP injuries to my players - N
Godmod injuries to my players - N
RP other events - Y

AMW China

01-05-2006, 09:10

China Rugby Union announces team for RWC V

The long awaited roster for the Chinese rugby team was announced in a press conference by CRU head Richard Branson this morning, as well as new appointments to coaching staff.

Graham Hart, the coach who led a largely unfavoured league side to the finals in the now defunct world rugby league series, has been appointed as head coach. Criticised during the league competition where he was accused of "too much style, not enough substance", Hart successfully implemented the attacking backline on a team that was regarded as too inexperienced.

James Liang has been hired as the forwards coach and faces the big task of getting the Chinese scrum up to world standard. The CRU has in the past faced problems up front with a tight-five that was club level. Liang's first task is to increase the depth of the front row.

Overall, rugby analysts have rated the Chinese as a dark horse, with players such as No 10 Carl Spencer capable of igniting the backline with his ability to run and who had shown superb form in club rugby. Fullback Jay Chen is also a steady kicker and is highly regarded for his blinding speed and kicking vision, kicking 85% accuracy last year. The new debutants on the wing, Bayer and Chou, have shown remarkable ability. Bayer has already been likened to a young Jonah Lomu. He certain has the size and the pace. However, there are lingering doubts as to depth in key positions such as No 10 and winger.

Analysts expect the Chinese to do well if forward woes are sorted early in the season.

Fullback - Jay Chen
Winger - Jonathan Bayer
Winger - Mark Chou
Centre - Peter Lee
Centre - Andrew Hui
5/8 - Carl Spencer
2nd 5/8s - Alan Peng
Halfback - Xiao Ming
Hooker - Derick Wong
Prop Forward - Lim
Prop Forward - Woo
Second Row Forward - Marshall
Second Row Forward - Collins
Lock - Everly
Lock - En

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - N
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP minor injuries to my players (Requires substitution for the current match but none after it) - Y
RP/godmod major injuries to my players (Requires substitution for more than one match) - N
RP other events - Y

Haraki

01-05-2006, 23:21

Matchday 1 Scores:
(Using 4 points per win, 2 per draw, 0 per loss, and 1 bonus point for losing by 7 points or less. 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in the match will not be included as the amount of tries scored is subjective by the team, and therefore could be exploited. A lot.

Tables will be added later.)

Group 1:
Virginia Nova (3 - 14) AMW China
Rubicon States (19 - 22) Milchama
East Lithuania (19 - 20) Harlesburg

Group 2:
Rorysville (17 - 20) Chicanada
PopularFreedom (14 - 7) Snake Eaters
San Haven (21 - 12) Artitsa

Group 3:
Prolestan (10 - 22) Haraki
Silage (24 - 14) McPsychoville
Gwazzaria BYE

Group 4:
MeusDomus (25 - 20) Karullia
Larkinia (3 - 10) Sarzonia
Starblaydia BYE

Rorysville

02-05-2006, 01:15

Rorysville Rugby Central on Sportsnet RV
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3189/sportsnetrv9bw.png

Rorysville Drops a close one in the Opener to Chicanada 20-17. Rorysville will be looking to bounce back as coach Don Sitller had this to say."Well for our First ever International Contest I think we did somethings very well but there are areas to work on. Our ball possesion needs improvement as well as our aggresivness when on Defense. All that said I think our creativity shoed through I think y the end of this tournament you will be much happier with the product on the pitch as they can on;y get stronger with the experience gained in each game"

Rorysville Rugby World Cup Schedule as follows
MD 1:Chicanada L 20-17
MD 2: Snake Eaters
MD 3: @PopularFreedom
MD 4: @San Haven
MD 5: Artitsa
MD 6:@Chicanada
MD 7:@Snake Eaters
MD 8:PopularFreedom
MD 9:San Haven
MD10:@Artitsa

Tacualteu

02-05-2006, 01:41

The Cauthaqua Inquisitor - Sunday Edition
"If no one's dead or maimed, it isn't news."
Visit our website at www.cauthaquan-inquisition.co.gw!

Gwazzaria's recent rugby fevor, caused by the local successes of the Woardetin Irons, has culminated in the Irons' entry into the fifth Rugby World Cup. Their coach, Daragh Naleskiny, says that the Irons are, quote, "going to smash those [expletive] foreign [expletiving] pansies into the God-forsaken [expletiving] ground,". He went on to express hope that this international tournament will strengthen ties between countries through sportsmanship.

Ironically, the Duke (himself reportedly a rugby fan) has in an unpopular decision denied any sort of government funding for competitive sports teams. It was expected that with the World Cup and the recent economic explosion, public funding would be a given. Government analysts say the beginning space race in Hyper Nordica, and the Duke's own scientific roots, are probably the main cause of his decision.

Also in rugby news, Woardetin Irons player Piotr Erstgolt was recently expelled from the team. The former Lock-position player was reportedly involved in a bar brawl of epic proportions. According to the police, nearly four dozen were injured in the fight (in addition to 34,000 GDM of property damage). Erstgolt is being charged with 23 counts of assault, including 11 with a deadly weapon (one victim is pushing for 23 assaults with a deadly weapon and classification of Erstgolt's body, specifically his face, as such). Erstgolt's lawyer has stated that they will be pleading guilty in court, while Erstgolt's only personal statement was "Eraaghagh,". Rumors of possible steroid abuse are still abound. Ian Estes will be replacing him for the upcoming World Cup.

---------------------
Roster:
Fullback: Sven Argylesson
Winger: Ivan Ruslan
Winger: Klein Gattrich
Center: Frederick York
Center: Patrick Phimister
5/8: Elliot Avlington
5/8: Bridge O'Bailiqua
Halfback: Eirin Ivanova
Hooker: Sam Galedon
Prop Forward: Tycho Farragut
Prop Forward: Adolph Bailivick
Second Row Forward: Johannes Wallace
Second Row Forward: Polly Kennedy
Lock: Duncan Goldstein
Lock: Ian Estes

Team History: According to local history, the Woardetin Irons was the first rugby team in Gwazzaria, originating from the historic Woardetin district in Cauthaqua. 'Irons' refers to the ironwork Woardetin produced, having been a blacksmithing district as long as Cauthaqua had been around. The dirt around Woardetin is notoriously infertile, and quite red from all the iron oxide present.

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP minor injuries to my players (Requires substitution for the current match but none after it) - Y
RP/godmod major injuries to my players (Requires substitution for more than one match) - Y
RP other events - Y

PopularFreedom

02-05-2006, 02:52

from the pages of the Sacredicity Citizen...

Monday, May 1, 2006
SACREDICITY CITIZEN

RUGBY: SAINTS PROVE THEIR WORTH IN WORLD CUP PLAY
Victory over Snake Eaters first proof that Saints best team to represent the nation.

International Report from Haraki - The Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints), despite the rants and raves from those in the nation, especially those from a certain town named Camelot, went out and proved themselves today on the rugby pitch in a close 14-7 victory over the rugby squad representing the nation of Snake Eaters.

'We did ourselves proud today', noted a excited coach Albert Greenshaw of the Sacredicity Saints. Indeed, there was much at stake in that a loss and the naysayers from Camelot would be hounding the Saints until their first victory. However the Saints were able to fight and win most of the battles in a well fought match.

The Saints opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when after a lot of rucking back and forth, the Saints flanker Sam Oroi was able to bust a hole through the Snake Eaters pack and rumble 30 yards in for a try. The convert by flyhalf John Salmon was good and that put the Saints ahead 7-0 in the opening half.

The score stayed that way until the 38th minute when closing in on halftime the Snake Eaters were able to spring their backs who were able to cause an overlap with some good speed from their flyhalf. The result was a break in the Saints back line which the Snake Eaters took advantage of. A 70 yard scamper later they were in for the score and with the convert had tied it up 7-7 entering the half.

In the second half the Saints came out with a ton of heart, and began to continually wear down the Snake Eaters pack with their constant ruck and roll maneuvers. In fact for most of the second half, the Saints backs didn't even touch the ball as the pack controlled much of the play.

Then in the 73rd minute, on the Snake Eaters 10 yard line, after a few fake blindside winger runs, the Saints again pulled their blindside winger over to overload one side as they prepared to put in the ball on their scrum. The opposing winger instantly followed suit. Meanwhile the Snake Eaters pack prepared for another 8-Man crash as had been the case for the last 30 minutes or so. Instead however Saints 8-Man Denver Kirkland sold them on the fake to the strong side as Saints Scrum-half Yukon Thompson passed the ball to flyhalf John Salmon who was bolting in on the blind side. Able to avoid the blind side flanker he quickly reached the tryline and touched the ball down before the Snake Eaters could react quickly enough to tackle him. A beautiful, yet difficult, convert by Salmon then made the score 14-7.

For the remainder of the match the Snake Eaters tried to get the ball out to their backs however the Saints pack constantly did everything they could to mess up literally all the scrums. In the end the Snake Eaters ran out of time and with the final whistle, the Saints had their first victory at the Rugby World Cup with a final score of 14-7.

After the match, in the Saints dressing room, John Salmon found our reporter and made sure he noted, 'you tell them Camelot Wasps (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Camelot_Wasps) fans that despite their speed they would have never pulled off that play [where Salmon scored the winning try] in a million years cause they don't have the brains to do it'.

The Saints however best not get too cocky as their next tilt is against an Artista squad who are none too happy after their 21-12 loss today. Should make for an interesting match especially if the Saints continue playing as they did today.

Silage

03-05-2006, 00:12

By our World Cup Correspondent

Westfield Park, Liusu

Coach Donor Mountain professed satisfaction at the 24-14 scoreline. "I have to say that McPsycoville were very much an unknown quantity for us and we have to be pleased at the final score, it represents a solid start for us in the competition."

A not quite capacity crowd braved an evening kick-off, many had come to see for themselves what the capabilities were of two of the less well known teams in host nation Haraki's group. Nevertheless the Silage travelling support made themselves audible by constantly clanging their cow bells. This may have slightly unnerved the McPsycoville fly half when he failed to kick an early penalty chance from 35 metres. As is so often the case Silage struck back with the first of their tries with Coley intercepting a pass and jinking through to score next to the posts. Questions have been asked about the Silage teams kicking, but there was no trouble converting that or indeed either of the other two tries. McPsycoville came back strongly and a period of sustained pressure was rewarded with a try in the 38th minute with a fine dummy being sold to Etazon and the McPsycoville inside centre putting down midway between the posts and the corner flag.

With all to play for in the second half both sides were unrelenting in the tackle. This suited Silage well and by the 62nd minute McPsycoville were beginning to fade. Two tries followed in quick succession one for Tesk crashing through the line and the other a breakaway run by Henkeseen. McPsycoville showed great spirit and continued to fight back with a fine try by their full back upon receiving a cross kick from the opposite wing in the 76th minute. Silage ended it by scoring a penalty from 28 metres in the 80th minute.

Haraki

03-05-2006, 03:45

Allan Ferris was satisfied with his team's performance on Matchday One. An away game in Prolestan had ended up in a solid victory. Prolestan had taken an early lead with a try in the fifteenth minute followed by a conversion, and Haraki's only comeback was a drop goal by Sid Galworth, the remarkable kicking flanker from the Uses Raiders, at thirty-three minutes. The half ended with Prolestan up 7-3, but they had been playing hard trying to win crowd support and Haraki were still fresh on their feet. Two of the more tired players were removed, Thomas Gerryin at half by Joseph Vaughan and Jasper Hull just before half in for Adam Farreley, who with combined factors of exhaustion from advancing the ball and a bleeding nose from a high tackle by a Prolestan player had been removed.

Haraki, still energetic, took the field, receiving the kickoff and managing to pull off a magnificent try right under the posts by Brad Winters on a crash ball through the opposition lines at forty-four minutes. Nathan Cannon made the conversion easily and Prolestan prepared to kick off again. However, in a spectacular feat of speed, Daniel Virlan caught it from the kickoff and ran it all the way, eighty metres up the field for a try again, complete with two straight-arms and a sidestep to get around defenders. He touched it down in the corner, though, and a gust of strong wind contributed to Cannon missing the convert at forty-five minutes.

With Haraki suddenly up 15-7 only five minutes into the second half, Prolestan pulled all their efforts together to try and get another try to bring them into the running again. However, their efforts ended up only in a penalty kick at sixty minutes, easily made and giving them a deficit of only five points, within range of a try. However, it was put out of reach when a three-on-one offensive overlap by Sam Davies, James Keay and Xavier Walker against only the opposition wing culminated in a try by James Keay off a pop from Davies during the tackle. Cannon made the convert, putting Haraki up 22-10, a lead which they held onto for the rest of the match.

Haraki play at home against Gwazzaria on Matchday Two.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 3
James Keay: 5
Nathan Cannon: 4
Daniel Virlan: 5

Haraki

03-05-2006, 04:32

Matchday Two Scores:

Group 1:
AMW China (3 - 24) East Lithuania
Virginia Nova (21 - 20) Milchama
Rubicon States (12 - 14) Harlesburg

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Harlesburg 2 0 0 34 31 3 0 8
East Lithuania 1 0 1 43 23 20 1 5
Milchama 1 0 1 42 40 2 1 5
Virginia Nova 1 0 1 24 34 -10 0 4
AMW China 1 0 1 17 28 -11 0 4
Rubicon States 0 0 2 29 36 -7 2 2

Group 2:
Chicanada (15 - 17) San Haven
Rorysville (13 - 13) Snake Eaters
PopularFreedom (17 - 13) Artitsa

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 2 0 0 38 27 11 0 8
PopularFreedom 2 0 0 31 20 11 0 8
Chicanada 1 0 1 35 34 1 1 5
Rorysville 0 1 1 30 33 -3 1 3
Snake Eaters 0 1 1 20 27 -7 1 3
Artitsa 0 0 2 25 48 -23 1 1

Group 3:
Haraki (31 - 19) Gwazzaria
Prolestan (8 - 10) McPsychoville
Silage BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 2 0 0 43 29 14 0 8
Silage 1 0 0 24 14 10 0 4
McPsychoville 1 0 1 24 32 -8 0 4
Prolestan 0 0 2 18 32 -14 1 1
Gwazzaria 0 0 1 19 31 -12 0 0

Group 4:
Karullia (8 - 7) Starblaydia
MeusDomus (17 - 10) Sarzonia
Larkinia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
MeusDomus 2 0 0 42 30 12 0 8
Sarzonia 1 0 1 20 20 0 1 5
Karullia 1 0 1 28 32 -4 1 5
Starblaydia 0 0 1 7 8 -1 1 1
Larkinia 0 0 1 3 10 -7 1 1

Artitsa

03-05-2006, 05:24

ooc: Thats great. I went from finishing third in the last tournament, to last.

ic:
Artitsan National Team off to Bad Start!
Two terrible matches have dropped the Artitsan National Team to last place in their grouping, losing to PopularFreedom in their second match. The Artitsans were no stranger to that paticular side, and certainly regret the loss. Things are expected to pick up, as a new fitness coach has been brought in. There aren't many new faces to the team, but military deployments have been attributed to lack of cohesion within the team for a few days, but the kinks are being worked out. Many players are still serving professionally as a career, but all have military experience. The majority of non-career military players play Rugby professional for a disgustingly large amount of money with the Artitsan Super League. National players also earn a large sum of money.

ANNOUNCED ROSTER
1. Kameron Spraggon
This man played for the Galway Luctonians, as loosehead prop. He has played for fourteen years, six of those professionally, and three internationally. He is a traditionally strong scrummager who lacks physical weight but has immense strength due to prior amature wrestling experience. Tackling is excellent.

2. Dale Fitzpatrick
This hooker has been playing for the majority of his life, successfully in University and for the Kamskgrad Crusaders. Scrummaging is excellent as is running abilities. His throw-in can be shaky at times.

3. Tyler Robbins
A very good technical tight-head prop; He has been renowned for his technical abilities in the scrum. Tyler Robbins is currently a member of the Artitsan Special Armed Reconnaisance Task Force (Special Forces) for a number of years. He has played for the Artisagrad Lightening, Bantry Blues, and Montgomery University Stampede. Ball running is superb as is scrummaging.

4. Dale Newstead
Tall lanky fellow has played for the Navy Side for the past 6 years during his tour of service. A hard player, but lacks awareness. Second Jumper.

5. Luke Raccine
One of two identical twins who are absolute Giants. Both have served in the Military for a long period of time in the 948th Airborne. Both have served in Belem and Ironblood. Good Tackler, Great Awareness, Great runner.

6. Mike Loney
Another hard player, this young man does not play professionally. He has played for several military teams, and is currently a Chief Warrant Officer in the 1st Rifles Division. He has consistantly borne the highest amount of tackles in each international game.

7. Andrew Mathers
This young man has played for the Artisagrad Lightening for a number of years. He is a paticularily excellent rucker.

8. Andre McCalmont
This eight-man is actually the first jumper as well. He is moderate in size but quite agile and very tenacious. He is generally known to go after the bigger players to prove his abilities. He has served with the Airforce for a number of years in their special operatives unit.

9. Jesse Halonen
Typical scrumhalf.

10. Kyle Robinson (C)
Kyle Robinson is an exceptional player. Often seen juking and dummying his way down the field, this young man has played for the Bantry Blues, Arklow Badgers, and the Dorislav Poison. He is currently serving with the Artitsan Special Armed Reconnaisance Task Force (SARTF) alongside Tyler Robbins. Unfortunatly all actions in regards to these two are classified.

11. Chris Porter
A wing with a centers power but a wingers pace. Excellent runner, poor discipline.

12. Kyle Buckley (K)
Excellent goal kicker, superb dropgoal kicker. Often hooks up with Kyle Robinson for excellent try scoring opportunities. One of the top point-collectors on the team.

13. Cole Raccine
The second brother; Almost the same as Luke, but faster and a Backs frame of mind.

14. Alex Gioia
This man is one of the youngest on the team; He is very muscular and has been playing professionally for two years. He has served in the Military with the 215th Guards Division. He enjoys stiff-arming poor backs and forwards alike his mis-read his age for inexperience.

15. Steve Orban
This character is actually quite secretive. Not much is known about his past but he is a very smart player always picking the gaps and exploiting the smallest mistake of his opponent. Mr. Orban has been connected with OASIS; Artitsa's Foreign Security Intelligence Service, in paticular, its field command.

16. William O'Connor
17. Alex Steeves
18. Danny Gioia
19. Rob Inkster
20. Alex Chomyn
21. Noel Barker
22. Chris Beech
23. Alex Perin
24. Richard Busato

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP injuries to my players - Y
Godmod injuries to my players - N
RP other events - Y

PopularFreedom

03-05-2006, 05:34

Coach Albert Greenshaw of the Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) was looking over the tapes of the Rorysville vs Snake Eaters match when he was interrupted with a knock on his hotel door.

Albert Greenshaw: Come in

Clinton Pinn: Greetings coach

Albert Greenshaw: How are you Clint?

Clinton Pinn: I wanna play tomorrow coach.

Albert Greenshaw: Where?

Clinton Pinn: Come on coach, you know I am the best flyhalf you got.

Albert Greenshaw: Actually as far as I am concerned, John Salmon is the best flyhalf I have at the moment. He scored another try today for crying out loud, plus made good on both his converts and got a drop goal.

Clinton Pinn: Yeah but I would have done better.

Albert Greenshaw: Look I don't need this right now, I am looking at the tape of our next opponent.

Clinton Pinn: I am pumped and ready for our next opponent, I tell you I will hit every single Silage player who even thinks of getting the ball.

A slight silence fills the air before the coach speaks again.

Albert Greenshaw: Silage is not even in our group, so you obviously need to do some work. Do you even know a single play?

Clinton Pinn: I know all the plays!

Albert Greenshaw: What's a blue doublemint 23.

Clinton Pinn: A switch between inside centre and outside centre

Albert Greenshaw: Wrong, it's the play Salmon used to score the first try over Artitsa today. Thompson tosses him the ball from the scrum and he runs sideways either faking it or passing it to the inside centre who he crosses across, then same to outside centre assuming he still has the ball, and assuming he still has it after that the winger has already moved over one slot creating an overlap.

Clinton Pinn: Yea I knew that.

Albert Greenshaw: You didn't know.

Clinton Pinn: Look if you think I am so bad then why am I on the team.

Albert Greenshaw: Cause Calen Taylor is injured and he was suppose to have your spot. You were the first guy I could find and we needed another flyhalf. You are suppose to be good according to your club coach, just you think of yourself as too good and you don't have much in terms of brains.

Clinton Pinn: I don't need this.

Albert Greenshaw: Screwball

Clinton Pinn: Screw yourself I'm outta here.

Albert Greenshaw: The play, 'screwball', what is it?

Clinton Pinn: What?

Albert Greenshaw: Oh gosh, look kid, until you know the plays there is no way you are getting on the field, got it.

Clinton storms out while Albert just shakes his head before switching the game tape to the Saints victory earlier over Artitsa.

Watching the tape he could only shake his head as he watched Salmon's first try at the 7 minute mark.

Albert Greenshaw talking to himself: Yea right Clint, you could do that, sure.

He then watched the convert and later the drop kick by Salmon in the 23rd minute.

Albert Greenshaw talking to himself: Yea sure Clint, I wonder if you even know what a dropkick is.

The coach then fast forwards to the second half where he watches the rest of the scoring, first Artitsa's tries via a blindside play, then another try via a penalty play that tied up the match at 10-10.

Coach Greenshaw shakes his head as he watches the play again. 'Not bad', he states while admiring the play of the Artitsa forwards who were able to freeze the Saints forwards for a split second, just long enough to score the try that tied up the match in the 53rd minute.

As the coach fast forwards to the last try of the Saints, in the 74th minute, where 8-man Denver Kirkland just barrels through the Artitsa pack, Greenshaw has a hearty laugh. 'GOOD GOOD', he exclaims to himself as he watches both it and Salmon's convert after the fact.

Then of course the Artitsa drop goal in the 79th minute to make it 17-13. Greenshaw cringes as he watches Salmon completely miss the tackle on the Artitsa flyhalf who seconds later hits the dropkick from the 35 approx.

Greenshaw pulls out the sheet detailing the info on Clinton Pinn.

Clinton Pinn
Age 22
Nationality: PopularFreedom
Hometown: Sacredicity
Birthplace: Workers Point, PopularFreedom
Club Years Experience: 5
Positives: Tackling, Speed, Kicking
Negatives: Cockiness, Lack of Knowledge, Boneheadness
Primary Position: Flyhalf
Secondary Positions: Scrum-half

Greenshaw can only help laugh as he reads the last point under negativeness.

Albert Greenshaw notes to himself, 'yea that is all I need out there playing against a team like Rorysville, someone who does not know what they are doing.'

Greenshaw sighs to himself then begins to think.

Seconds later he makes a long distance phone call.

Albert Greenshaw on the phone: Terry McKnight please.

pause

Albert Greenshaw on the phone: Terry? *pause* Yea it's Greenshaw, how you doing? *pause* Look, do you have anyone else on your squad who can play flyhalf, I am thinking of dumping Clinton, he is... *pause* yea yea, I know you told me so, look enough of the lecture all right, this kid came in here and just ticked me off asking for a shot to play flyhalf. *pause* Of course I told him about John Salmon, look, I gotta watch tape of our opponent next game so just listen will ya. I need another flyhalf if possible. *pause* Well check for me will ya, what about that Kirk Thelon kid. Whadya mean he is injured, what you doing to these kids man? *pause* Yea yea, okay just look for me will yea.

Albert slams down the phone. Frustrated he sets up the Rorysville tape to watch again to prepare for tomorrow's match against them.

Rorysville

03-05-2006, 06:05

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3189/sportsnetrv9bw.png
Rugby Central

MAtchday two in the Rugby World Cup Five is done and over with and Rorysville earns a 13 all draw with Snake Eaters."Well we were definitly a bit more aggresive on defense as we needed to be now we need to continue to work and build into a form that will be unstoppable I think a couple scrums that we list cost us a win in this game but that comes with inexperience in these kinda situations."-Coach Sitller after the match.

Well with this we are still in good shape a notable performance from winger Kirk McCarty earns him our Sportsnet RV Rugger of the Day award.

Now the rest of Group 2's Scores:
Chicanada (15 - 17) San Haven
PopularFreedom (17 - 13) Artitsa

Group 2 Standings after Matchday 2:
Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 2 0 0 38 27 11 0 8
PopularFreedom 2 0 0 31 20 11 0 8
Chicanada 1 0 1 35 34 1 1 5
Rorysville 0 1 1 30 33 -3 1 3
Snake Eaters 0 1 1 20 27 -7 1 3
Artitsa 0 0 2 25 48 -23 1 1

AMW China

03-05-2006, 09:50

Chinese team running hot and cold

East Lithuania bt AMW China (24-3)
East Lithuania : 2 tries, 1 conversion, 4 penalties
AMW China : 1 penalty (Spencer)

Fresh from their 14-3 victory over Virginia Nova where the backline showed their class, the Chinese entered the game against East Lithuania as favourites, only to be routed by a stronger side.

The Lithuanians dominated possession for much of the opening half, while stiff Chinese defence kept the scores locked at nil-all until a poor pass by 2nd 5/8s Alan Peng was intercepted by the opposite five-eights 6 minutes before half time who ran to score right between the posts. The try was converted, and the East Lithuanians would take a 7-0 lead into the changing rooms.

The Chinese seemed to hit back two minutes into the second half, with winger Mark Chou recovering a brilliantly weighted kick by fullback Jay Chen and then sidestepping two defenders to score in the corner. On video replay however, the try was disallowed as it appeared that Chou had put a foot into touch.

The Chinese managed to steal the resulting lineout and retain possession, with a penalty being given against the Lithuanians two minutes later for an offside. Spencer added a vital 3 points to the scoreline and it seemed the Chinese revived for the next few minutes, but were unable to break the opposition defence. Fullback Jay Chen recovered a clearing kick and attempted a drop goal which would have made the scores 7-6, but was deflected by the post.

From then on, the floodgates opened. The Chinese scrum, which had been weak all game, was pushed over their own tryline from 4m out in the 70th minute of the game. The conversion failed, but the assault continued, and the Chinese were pinned in their own half for the rest of the game while the penalties mounted and the game gradually slipped from their grasp.

Captain and No 10 Carl Spencer, was disappointed by the defeat but promised that they would bounce back.

"We need some work - we lost the game through our scrum and our discipline. For 60 minutes, the game could have gone either way. We will definitely take this to heart and learn those lessons. We'll be back, stronger and smarter than before."

Rugby media were scathing about the performance upfront and the scrummaging, with one website giving them a 2/10. The general consensus was that the rest of the team performed fairly well given the circumstances. Fullback Jay Chen recieved "Player of the match" award for excellent kicking and defence all game.

Coach Graham Hart is expected to test new forwards next week.

Haraki

03-05-2006, 16:34

Haraki was finished and ready for their bye day with a victory over Gwazzaria an astonishing 31-19, in stark contrast to the smaller-scoring matches all around them. It seemed the Hawks' aggressive offence was pulling through well, although Gwazzaria also managed some nice touch kicks when pressed deep into their own territory, and one particularly spectacular try.

Haraki had the kickoff against the Irons, short and high, culminating in Nathan Cannon jumping into the air to grab the ball as it came down, giving Haraki an early offensive drive. The Harakian team continued to push the ball down the field, driving rucks back through the sheer force of Morris, Lasnet and Galworth. Scrum Half Carl Thint had a fairly easy game as he never had much to do except pass since the rucks were almost always driven over nicely by his forward. Only ten minutes into the game, Nathan Cannon sprinted over the try line and touched it down beside the posts, giving him an easy conversion to make and giving Haraki a lead of 7 points.

However, the Irons came back fairly quickly, with a series of kicks bounced into touch giving Haraki a lineout right on their ten metre line. The maul which formed after Kevin Lanning caught the ball in a four-man lineout was pushed over Haraki's try line by the Irons and then collapsed, giving the Irons a five metre scrum which they won with the feed. Although they only pushed the scrum about a metre down the field, it was enough for an eight-man pick to get in and across the line, despite the desperate tackling attempts by Thint. Elliot Avlington made the conversion and tied the game up. Haraki's kickoff, again trying for short and high, drifted in the wind and was caught by Cannon only eight metres away from centre, although Haraki proceeded to steal the scrum against the head and James Keay made a good punt down the field and into touch near the 22. Lanning stole the lineout and Haraki managed to push the maul far enough for a series of passes to give Daniel Virlan another try which was converted by Cannon.

Coming off a long kickoff, the Irons managed to push the ball back into the Hawks' end, and a drop goal by Avlington followed by a penalty kick from thirty metres out brought the Irons within striking distance with the score at 13-14 for the Hawks heading into half.

The second half appeared to belong to the Harakian team, at home in Atherlon. With the crowd cheering for them quite loudly, Sam Davies made a try right in the corner which Nathan Cannon somehow managed to convert, using the wind to great advantage. With the score 21-13, the Irons tried their best to come back, but all their efforts could not get themselves a try. Another penalty brought them up three points, but it wasn't enough. The Hawks took it back down the field with a remarkable breakaway by Adam Farreley, and a last-minute pass to Davies on the right side got the ball past the Irons' fullback and Davies ran to right under the posts and touched it down. Cannon easily converted the try, and a penalty kick a few minutes later which Cannon got in gave them another three points to bring them up to their end-game total of 31.

The Irons tried their best to get the ball back down the field, but culminated only in another succesful penalty as play got dirtier due to tired players. By the end of the game, when the ball was cleared by fullback Xavier Walker for the endgame whistle, the score was 31-19, thanks to four Harakian tries and a penalty, and one Gwazzarian try, one drop goal and three penalties.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 3
James Keay: 5
Nathan Cannon: 20
Daniel Virlan: 10
Sam Davies: 10

Haraki

04-05-2006, 04:40

Matchday Three Scores:

Group 1:
East Lithuania (8 - 10) Milchama
Rubicon States (15 - 14) Virginia Nova
AMW China (21 - 20) Harlesburg

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Harlesburg 2 0 1 54 52 2 1 9
Milchama 2 0 1 52 48 4 1 9
AMW China 2 0 1 38 48 -10 0 8
East Lithuania 1 0 2 51 33 18 2 6
Rubicon States 1 0 2 44 50 -6 2 6
Virginia Nova 1 0 2 38 49 -11 1 5

Group 2:
San Haven (17 - 8) Snake Eaters
PopularFreedom (8 - 24) Rorysville
Chicanada (14 - 21) Artitsa

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 3 0 0 55 35 20 0 12
PopularFreedom 2 0 1 39 44 -5 0 8
Rorysville 1 1 1 54 41 13 1 7
Chicanada 1 0 2 49 55 -6 2 6
Artitsa 1 0 2 46 62 -16 1 5
Snake Eaters 0 1 2 28 44 -16 1 3

Group 3:
Gwazzaria (8 - 10) McPsychoville
Silage (8 - 19) Prolestan
Haraki BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 2 0 0 43 29 14 0 8
McPsychoville 2 0 1 34 40 -6 0 8
Prolestan 1 0 2 37 40 -3 1 5
Silage 1 0 1 32 33 -1 0 4
Gwazzaria 0 0 2 27 41 -14 1 1

Group 4:
Starblaydia (26 - 17) Sarzonia
Larkinia (22 - 6) MeusDomus
Karullia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
MeusDomus 2 0 1 48 52 -4 0 8
Larkinia 1 0 1 25 16 9 1 5
Starblaydia 1 0 1 33 25 8 1 5
Karullia 1 0 1 28 32 -4 1 5
Sarzonia 1 0 2 37 46 -9 1 5

PopularFreedom

04-05-2006, 05:25

At Haraki International Airport.

Clinton Pinn prepared to board an international flight bound for Locke Harbour, then he would transfer to a domestic flight for Sacredicity. Still fuming at having been benched during the match against Rorysville, he was rather glad that the Saints had been pounded in the match. 'Bunch of bums, 24-8', he mused while refering to the score of the match. 'Could only get one try against them, and even then could not even get the convert', he noted outloud as he went through the security check prior to boarding the plane.

A security asked him if he had anything to declare.

Clinton Pinn: Yes sir I do, I am the best flyhalf that ever existed in the world.

The security guard just shook his head as he allowed Clinton to pass.

OOC: plan to write more tomorrow since about to pass out currently

PopularFreedom

04-05-2006, 12:35

At exactly 7:30am coach Albert Greenshaw had flyhalf John Salmon called to his hotel room.

In the background as John was called in, he could hear a rugby match being played on television.

John Salmon: Hey coach, what match is that?

Albert Greenshaw: Yesterday's match between Chicanada and Artitsa. Look I called you in to tell you that I am a bit worried about your play yesterday.

John Salmon: Don't worry, I'm gonna play better today.

Albert Greenshaw: Look, that kid Clinton been hassling me that he wants a chance to play so I am gonna give him his chance to day.

John Salmon begins to chuckle

Albert Greenshaw: I'm serious John, lets give this kid a chance and see what happens.

John Salmon: It's not that coach, its just the fact that Clinton Pinn apparently left the hotel late last night and someone said he was headed on a flight back to PopularFreedom

Alberta Greenshaw: WHAT?!

PopularFreedom

04-05-2006, 21:28

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

deary diary...

well yesterday just sucked and today is not turning out much better either. We lost yesterday to Rorysville. The reason we lost was not cause we were not the better team but cause of the strife in the locker room. Before the game the new guy, Clinton Pinn, states he is gonna play flyhalf today. Well John Salmon was pissed at him you could tell and who could blame him since he has done an awesome job as flyhalf until now. Well not sure if that is what screwed him up but then of course Salmon goes out and plays a horrible game. Missed a ton of tackles, missed an easy convert not to mention a few drops. So you figure Clinton is gonna get put in for him, but no, coach is ticked at Clinton so despite the fact that intelligence would tell you to stick Clinton in, Salmon stays in as flyhalf. So what was it, 10 minutes in and them Rorysville guys bowl over Salmon on route to their first try. They get the convert and it is 7-0. Okay so no problem. Then a second try against us in the 14th minute, again cause Salmon could not tackle at all. Coach did nothing. By now I have still yet to see the ball as Salmon is hanging onto the ball way to long. At the 21st minute Salmon tries to boot the ball and gets creamed. I gotta say, I probably had the best vantage point of it at inside centre and it looked awesome cept of course it was against my own player. The referee called a penalty against their flyhalf but still after that John was outta it for the rest of the game. I even mentioned to the coach while they were looking at John who I still say got a slight concusion from the hit that they should put Clinton in for him but no, coach was ticked at Clinton about something. Like I don't get it, we all heard that this Clinton kid had issues and attitude and yet cause coach only wants players from his club on the Saints we have to take him. Just dumb. That ain't strategy, that is just stupidity. Coach has interviews with the Sacredicity Citizen paper talking about intelligence when he is as dumb as a doorknob sometimes. Anyhow so John Salmon finally gets back up and they keep him in and of course you know what is happening next. Next play they win the put in and their 8-man does a pick up and comes straight at John and flattens him like a freight train. Then the guy kicks it over the fullbacks head and well we were done cause as everyone knows when it comes to speed we suck. 21-0 before 25 minutes in, just disgusting. Finally they pull Salmon, though they said it was a bloodspot, but they put Dennis Chatham from Fullback to fly and Troy Bommerson on as fullback. Don't get me wrong, I like Chatham, but a flyhalf he aint. When I did get the ball it was a split second before I was getting creamed by my opposite. Anyhow Rorysville scores a penalty kick before half time making it 24-0. We managed to claw our way back in the 2nd half a bit. Denver Kirkland, our 8-man was able to do a blind side run through their blindside winger. Then of course we watch as before the convert they put Salmon back on, and of course Chatham goes back to fullback and Bommerson goes off again. I guess if Salmon had hit the convert one would know why coach put him on but he shanked it, completely. 24-5 the score was then. We got one penalty kick near the end but still we were not really that competitive in the game. So of course we get ready for the game today, we wake up and find out Clinton is gone. Apparently he went home. Like seriously, how do you leave during the World Cup of Rugby. I hope I play against that punk one day, I am so gonna stomp on him when I get the chance. Coach apparently finally called another club in Sacredicity and we finally got a real backup flyhalf to join us (though from what I hear from the club that sent him he expects to be starting). Oh well, more conflict in the dressing room I guess. The coach better do something about this cause if this continues we are not gonna be able to concentrate on game preparation at all. Oh well, hopefully we win today.

Snake Eaters

04-05-2006, 21:35

OOC: Oh f**k. I completely missed the opening because of school, and now have lost all matches in quick succession because of it. Chances of qualifying for next round - virtually none. Oh f***king brilliant. Could this day get any worse?! Right, someone, please, where should I start?

IC: "I dunno what the hell has happened to you lot, but this is ridicoulous! Three straight defeats, for all it's worth.... this is not going to go down well when we get home. We're sitting at the bottom of the group, and two wins... well, even if we manage it, we'll be lucky to get anywhere near the play-off stages."

"But coach..."

"NO excuses! We've got to pick up our game. I'm changing the line-up, as of right now. This is our new line-up..."

Loose-head Prop: James Stampson
Hooker: Tom Fletcher
Tight-Head Prop: Robert Sheardown
Left Flanker: Gavin Purvis
Right Flanker: Andy Devine
No 8: Micheal Tudor
Scrum-Half: Adam Yates
Fly-Half: Callum Northwell
Inside Centre: James Williams
Outside Centre: Steven Arnold
Right Winger: George Sanders
Left Winger: Tom Corner
Full-Back: Ben Staton.

The revised Snake Cobras are a resonably balanced team, with a heavier pack than before. Previously, the team was more focused on speed and agility, but having seen the quality of the teams involved, it has become clear that a slight more defensive line-up has to be selected. By including the heavier pack to increase pushing power in the set-pieces, along with a slightly bulkier back-row than before, the team retains the pace and power that could lead to it making a mark before it's run ends.

Callum Northwell has been noted for his impressive kicks, especially in difficult conditions. However, his accuracy sometimes suffers, but this lapse is becoming less frequent.

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my point breakdown - Y
Choose my point scorers - Y
Hand out yellow cards to my players - Y
Hand out red cards to my players - N
RP injuries to my players - N
Godmod injuries to my players - N
RP other events - Y

AMW China

05-05-2006, 00:59

OOC: PF, I'm really enjoying your stories :)

5 minutes of pleasure, 75 minutes of pain

AMW China 21
Spencer try, Peng try, one cnv (Spencer), 1 drop goal (Chen), 2 penalty (Spencer)

Harlesburg 20
HT 0-14

"We dodged a bullet this time," Captain Carl Spencer said to waiting media as he left the field. Down 20-0 with twelve minutes of play remaining, the Chinese looked dead in the water with Harlesburg dominating possession and territory for most of the match. In the space of 5 minutes however, the Chinese scored 18 unanswered points, stunning the crowd and silencing their critics.

The Chinese started the match weakly - Spencer had been benched last minute after complaining of headaches during warmup and replacement No 10 Daniel Liu would replace him.

A defensive lapse by winger Mark Chou saw the Harlesburg No 10 scored a try 2 minutes into the match and converting. The Harlesburg side dominated possession and territory for the rest of the half, with only excellent defence preventing a whitewash during this period. 4 minutes before halftime however, the Harlesburg side were able to push the scrum over the tryline and convert, taking a 14-0 lead into halftime.

The second half begun in similarly sad fashion - Halfback Ming missed a tackle in the 65th minute and the Harlesburg centre crashed through some momentarily sloppy defence to score between the posts. Fortunately for the Chinese the try was disallowed for a forward pass, but the onslaught continued, with two quick penalties against the Chinese bringing the score to 20-0. At that moment three substitutions were made, and Spencer headed out to the field along with two new forwards. And then the floodgates opened.

In the 67th minute from 35m out, Spencer left the opposition midfield dumbfounded as he made a reverse pass to No 12 Peng, who slide off a tackle, sidesteped another, and ground the ball between the posts. Spencer converted and made the score 20-7.

A minute later, Spencer intercepted a sloppy pass and evaded two defenders to score on the wing, but failing to convert to make the score 20-12. The Chinese were back in the game, but victory was by no means secure yet.

A quick penalty after the restart against a Harlesburg centre saw the gap narrow to 5. The Chinese were on the attack and would spend the rest of the match camped in the Harlesburg half, who were beginning to become frustrated and gave away another penalty seconds after the first, taking the score to 20-18.

Try as they might, the Chinese could not score another try. So after the hooter had gone, Fullback Jay Chen recieved the ball and popped in a field goal from 45m out, his second drop goal of the season.

The look on the faces after the match was that of relief, victory and elation. They knew their effort had lifted them to within one point of the top teams, that if they continued to play well, they would make the semis.

The forwards had a marked improvement from last week, delivering a lot more quality ball, but were unable to match the Harlesburg scrum. Coach Graham Hart was pleased with the effort but would no doubt demand more.

Haraki

05-05-2006, 03:39

Matchday Four Scores:

Group 1:
East Lithuania (31 - 15) Virginia Nova
AMW China (24 - 21) Rubicon States
Milchama (17 - 13) Harlesburg

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Milchama 3 0 1 69 61 8 1 13
AMW China 3 0 1 62 69 -7 0 12
East Lithuania 2 0 2 82 48 34 2 10
Harlesburg 2 0 2 67 69 -2 2 10
Rubicon States 1 0 3 65 74 -11 3 7
Virginia Nova 1 0 3 53 80 -27 1 5

Group 2:
San Haven (13 - 13) Rorysville
Chicanada (31 - 17) PopularFreedom
Snake Eaters (19 - 12) Artitsa

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 3 1 0 68 48 20 0 14
Chicanada 2 0 2 80 72 8 2 10
Rorysville 1 2 1 67 54 13 1 9
Snake Eaters 1 1 2 47 56 -9 1 7
PopularFreedom 2 0 2 46 75 -29 0 8
Artitsa 1 0 3 58 81 -23 2 6

Group 3:
Gwazzaria (14 - 15) Prolestan
Haraki (24 - 7) Silage
McPsychoville BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 3 0 0 67 36 31 0 12
Prolestan 2 0 2 52 54 -2 1 9
McPsychoville 2 0 1 34 40 -6 0 8
Silage 1 0 2 39 57 -16 0 4
Gwazzaria 0 0 3 41 56 -15 2 2

Group 4:
Starblaydia (15 - 13) MeusDomus
Karullia (15 - 24) Larkinia
Sarzonia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Larkinia 2 0 1 49 31 18 1 9
Starblaydia 2 0 1 48 38 10 1 9
MeusDomus 2 0 2 61 67 -6 1 9
Sarzonia 1 0 2 37 46 -9 1 5
Karullia 1 0 2 43 56 -13 1 5

Milchama

05-05-2006, 04:15

Swooton Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram

Sports Section

Milchama is doing well?

We here at the Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram still don't get it but somehow whenever our rugby team plays they do well. Currently they are top of their group after 4 games. With 3 wins and one loss and one bonus points which puts them one point above the retread Warriors AMW China. The Warriors right now are led by Jonny Roseman who has been a marvelous scrum half for them as he played the quarterback roll for the team. Marian Luppers and Corey Battenpush have also been great as their bruising runs and great tries have helped the team get over the hump in a few of their games. Coach Federick the Good said, "We have played very well right now. I think we might be playing over our heads but it will not matter as I think that we can continue to play like this. A lot of these guys have played sports similair to rugby and have already competed in one Rugby World Cup already. They are now experienced and understand the intracacies of the game much better. We could do very well this cup."
Now onto the match report against our most recent foe, Harlesberg:

The Warriors in their bruising and hard hustle style which has become their trademark because of the fact that many of the suicide footballer players just hit hard out of habit and can't get past the two tacklers that most teams throw at them. The only time they weren't able to control the pace was against Virginia Nova and that game was their only loss. Anyway the Warriors started to control the tempo and the ball as they slowly drove up the field without taking any long kicks until Terry Cormack tried a kick and chase that was not fielded by him but Kevin Gilbert, Gilbert then ran past two Harlesberg players before throwing the ball crossfield to Raveed Shulman who continued putting it to the wing and the sub Leo Faziz. Faziz then skipped around one man and kicked the ball forward to an onrushing Kenny Parks who scored the first try and gave the Warriors the lead. After that the Warriors continued to attack and scored again in the first half on a penalty by the Falcons. Cormack converted it nicely and Milchama took a 10-0 lead into halftime. A bad foul by Terry Daneski made it 10-3 but it never looked like Harlesberg was going to put a serious challenge on the Warriors espiecially after Danny Limeron blocked a kick and returned it in for a try to give the Warriors a 17-3 lead. The Falcons would score more one more time but it would not matter as the Warriors cruised to a 17-10 victory and first place in the group.

Gwazzaria

05-05-2006, 05:04

"Damn them!" The Duke flung the newspaper against the wall in frustration. It was mostly forced frustration at this point - it's hard to be angry about rugby scores when you have something like Danteri on your hands. "Three games lost so far, bugger it!"

"Don't get in a snit," the Prime Minister said while flicking the Duke's cigar butts out of the ashtray into the trash bin, often missing and sending ash across the floor. "It's still early enough, we might pick up. Besides, this last loss was only by a point."

"That makes it worse, though," The Duke said, taking another cigar from his box. "If it's by a mile - sure, that's degrading, but you know where you stand. If it's by some moderate amount - fine, just a normal loss. But by a point? You start questioning every little thing, wondering what tiny mistake cost you it."

"Oh, do shut up," the PM flicked a cigar butt at the absolute ruler of his country. "I hate these damn rants you start into."

---------------------------------------

The Irons are getting more and more madly offensive as they lose, and they were already a pretty offensive team to begin with. Their defense is currently suffering quite heavily, if it's present at all. Surprisingly, though, the actual players of the team have been pleasantly sportsman-like in their conduct. The coach, on the other hand, has been on the verge of getting into fist-fights with reporters.

Snake Eaters

05-05-2006, 08:03

Snake Eaters record first victory!
It had been billed as the dark day in Snake rugby when this revised team left the changing room at ten o'clock. Having lost two and drawn one match so far, their record didn't stand them in good stead. Conditions could also have been better, with a steady left to right crosswind and occassional light drizzle making the pitch less stable than might have been wished for by the squad.

Artisa won the kick-off, but this seemingly useful advantage was nullified thanks to the tenacity of the reformed pack in the defence. Both sides ground each other to a standstill for much of the first half, the monotony only broken in the twenty-ninth minute by a well played overlap by the Artisan squad, resulting in a converted try to put them seven points up at half time. Snake Eaters dug their heels in to defend well, and their strength in the set-pieces resulted in a converted try just prior to half-time, when they won an Artisan line-out. Score at half-time: 7-7

It would seem that Coach Norman Fletcher gave his team the pep-talk to end all pep-talks, as within five minutes of the second half starting they chalked up their second try of the match, the centres linking up well to open a hole for Tom Corner to sprint through and touch the ball down. However, Callum Northwell easily converted this try, due in no small part to the wind, which had now picked up and was blowing in favour of the twenty year old fly-half from Oured.

This good luck seemed to have continued when Snake Eaters won a scrum on their opponents five-yard line, James Stampson touching the ball down in his first try of the tournament to date. However, Northwell failed to deliver the conversion, bringing the score to 19-7 with fifteen minutes left to play.

The Artisans, to their credit, did not give up, and scored a well deserved and well played try, a sprint from the fifty yard line not being halted thanks to Ben Staton slipping at a crucial moment. Play was suspended briefly to investigate a suspected ankle injury to Staton, but was soon resumed with him retaining his position. By now, ten minutes were left, and with the conversion also missing, the score was set at 19-12. Both sides tried in vain to break the deadlock that then ensued, which resulted in a warning for Robert Sheardown, but thankfully nothing more came of it.

When the final whistle blew, there was a might cheer from the Snake Eater section of the stand, for they felt they had won a well deserved victory. Both sides were applauded for what had been a good match in difficult conditions, with Coach Fletcher saying of the Artisans,"I really thought they had us for a while, and I think we were lucky in some of our scoring. Still, I do believe we throughly deserved this victory, and the lads should be proud of themselves for it."

No-one can be in any doubt that there is much celebration going on among the fans both at home and abroad.

PopularFreedom

05-05-2006, 13:04

OOC: Thanks AMW China, digging your RPs too. Actually digging everyone's RPs. :) Good to see so much activity from most. :)

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

Wow I woke up this morning and am still sore from yesterday's match. Chugcanada, Chicanada can't remember their name who we played. Still wondering how they got into the RWC actually. They didn't even post their roster. Well they are good sorta, though again our minds were outta it yesterday, so maybe that is why but still I wanna know their roster so I can punch out that one who stomped on me yesterday as I think I still have cleat marks in me.

So anyhow we show up for the match yesterday and well our minds are still on the Clinton Pinn thing. Then of course first 5 minutes what you know John Salmon our flyhalf goes down with an injury, nasty thing too. His leg snapped under the weight of a collapsed maul and went through the skin. He is done for the RWC and for the year if you ask me. Absolutely nasty though that. The referee looked like he was gonna upchuck from looking at it. So anyhow after Salmon was taken off on one of them golf trucks or whatever, to carry injured people off we restarted.

Well actually they restarted, we were still in a daze. Anyhow not that it mattered cause their backs run like the wind, or maybe it is just cause we are slowpokes. Anyhow 10 minutes in they passed it out to their strong side winger and before we knew it the guy ran around our whole team and touched it down for a 7-0 score for their side. Kinda sucks that Dennis Chatham was no longer at fullback but had been put at flyhalf after Salmon went down. Troy Bommerson may have a cool last name but he is totally clueless as a fullback. Apparently he told me after his best position is flyhalf, so of course I am wondering what coach is doing. But anyhow. Oh yeah and that is another thing. Had Clinton Pinn been here Chatham would have been playing fullback and Clinton would have been playing fly and then this crap would never have happened.

So anyhow they got speed so we adjust, but then we find out they got kicking abilities and they are kinda decent at it too. They got one guy on their team who then hit 3 drops in a row so that by the 30th minute it was 16-0 for Chicanada and we are like what else could go wrong.

Then of course someone tells us that a reporter from the PopularFreedom Ticker (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/), our national newspaper, is watching the game and taking notes. Well that just ticks me off. You know we are here busting our butts and until now there has been no coverage in any of the papers save our town's Sacredicity Citizen, and the occasional rant in a Camelot tabloid. Now they finally show up and of course we are losing. Bah, makes me so angry. Why can't some politician die or a business type kill another or something on days like today so we can lose in peace.

So the game is totally going in Chicanada's favour. Anytime they get it out to their backs we are a total mess and well again in the 35th minute they score a converted try off their winger running again around our team. I wanted to just curse cause we have no speed, on days like this I think that the Camelot Wasps (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Camelot_Wasps) actually would have done better then us had they been chosen to go.

Oh well at least we know we would do better then the Brunstone Avalanche (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Brunstone_Avalanche). Apparently they were celebrating in the streets after their first win a few days ago in some regional tournament back home. I heard they got creamed yesterday though 33-0. Hmmm wonder how sad this is when I look back on it, that I am comparing us to Brunstone. Will probably think to myself when I look back on my diary, wow we really musta sucked.

Anyhow so it was like what now 23-0 at the 35th minute when we finally caught a break. We booted the restart and they tried to catch it just outside their 5 metre line but one of their forwards totally missed it and knocked it on. Denver Kirkland, our 8-man, can be so serious sometimes. He goes up to our scrum-half, Yukon Thompson, before the put in and notes to him that 'if you even think of touching the ball I will shove your hands down your throat got it'. Well I found it kinda funny. Anyhow Kirkland as soon as the ball came through from the hooker, picked it up and literally smashed through one of the opposing flankers who tried to tackle him before diving into the tryzone for our first try. I don't know what was better the try or looking at that poor flanker still dazed and bleeding on the ground. Looked like Kirkland straight armed him and gave him a bloody nose in the process. Anyhow with the convert it was 23-7 and we were figuring we might be able to get back into it as halftime came upon us.

Second half however we started flat. They booted it to our backs and were on us in a second. Picking up a loose ball, one of their locks ran to the corner and in for a try and a 28-7 lead on us. Luckily they missed the convert so we could console ourselves with that we only needed 3 converted tries to catch up. Sounds like a lot but the reassurance helped as on the restart they again muffed the catch giving us a scrum outside their 22. Kirkland was really starting to talk it up now, noting to the other team stuff like, 'I'm getting the ball', and 'there's a train coming through'. So funny cause they all rush him as soon as the scrumhalf touches the ball and well our scrumhalf passes it out to us backs. I don't know how but I think their backs musta bought the fact that Kirkland was gonna get the ball so they seemed not as spread out as they should. It was beautiful, we passed the ball down to winger Ryan Kitchener who touched the ball down in the corner to bring us closer 28-12. We missed the convert but you know what we had some confidence. The next bit of time we seemed to start getting more and more confidence as we were beating them even in the backs. Wasn't long before we scored our third try of the match to make it 28-17 in the 79th minute. We missed the convert again but still we could feel it. Then of course on the restart we get the ball and a ruck ensues. I still don't know what Kirkland did but the ref was furious with him. I thought at first it was just his mouth but then our flyhalf noted that the ref caught him raking someone on a ruck. Either way Kirkland got a yellow card and well we seemed to die after that. They got a penalty kick which they fired through and we were short one as Kirkland was sin binned. Minutes later it was done. I'm still ticked cause you look at the score 31-17 then you look at their squad and I am like how did we lose. Well I know, we had mindgames in our head with the whole Clinton thing, plus losing Salmon was huge, then Kirkland going off. Ah nevermind I know why we lost.

Anyhow, apparently we get the new guy from Sacredicity today for our match today. I still don't even know his name or what club he is from, just that he expects to lead, which to be honest we kinda need now, especially in the backs. I just hope he don't have jet lag.

Rorysville

05-05-2006, 17:29

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3189/sportsnetrv9bw.png
Sportsnet RV Ruggers Central
Another Draw in THe Rugby World Cup V After a Solid Victory in Matchday 3 the Moose drew a draw against San Haven a 13 all draw is not what was expected.But It's better than a loss.
"Well we played them tight but again we need to push ourselves to the next level as we had oppertunities but didn't capitalize on them a few bounces on way and we dominated this game but again thats the way the ball bounces. Now onto Matchday 5's oppenent Artitsa."--Coach Sitller

Other Scores from Group 2
Chicanada (31 - 17) PopularFreedom
Snake Eaters (19 - 12) Artitsa
And other MD 4 Scores from around RWC V
Group 1:
East Lithuania (31 - 15) Virginia Nova
AMW China (24 - 21) Rubicon States
Milchama (17 - 13) Harlesburg
Group 3:
Gwazzaria (14 - 15) Prolestan
Haraki (24 - 7) Silage
Group 4:
Starblaydia (15 - 13) MeusDomus
Karullia (15 - 24) Larkinia

Standings after Matchday 4
Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 3 1 0 68 48 20 0 14
Chicanada 2 0 2 80 72 8 2 10
Rorysville 1 2 1 67 54 13 1 9
Snake Eaters 1 1 2 47 56 -9 1 7
PopularFreedom 2 0 2 46 75 -29 0 8
Artitsa 1 0 3 58 81 -23 2 6

Rorysville Rugby World Cup Schedule as follows
MD 1:Chicanada L 20-17
MD 2: Snake Eaters D 13-13
MD 3: @PopularFreedom W 24-8
MD 4: @San Haven D 13-13
MD 5: Artitsa
MD 6:@Chicanada
MD 7:@Snake Eaters
MD 8:PopularFreedom
MD 9:San Haven
MD10:@Artitsa

Starblaydia

05-05-2006, 17:47

I Give My Opponent Permission
(and actively encourage them) To:
====================
Choose My Scorers
GodMod Any Scoring Events
Sin-bin Card Players
GodMod Other Events for Humourous Intent
====================

Style:
Starblaydia's Style is based around power and stamina. Most of the tries will tend to be shared out between numbers 6 through 13 (back row, halves, centres)

Note:
I actively encourage, nay nearly demand, that if you RP first you pick my points scorers (if any).

Starblaydia Rugby Union Team Unveiled
Three Cups Three Semis, No Finals. Fourth Time Lucky?

From: the wiki (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Starblaydia_Rugby_Union_Team)

Front Row
Dwalin Khuzdul (Loosehead Prop), Dagnir Tumunzahar (Hooker), Grisk Chugo (Tighthead Prop)
Surprisingly this is an entirely Dwarven front row and you can be sure they'll be hard and low in the tackles, as long as nobody has the sense to jump over them. Their stocky frames provide a perfect battering ram in the scrum, and once they've got the ball it's hard to get it off them. Tumunzahar is somewhat of a streak thrower, however, his lineouts come in patches of either very good or very bad throws.

Second Row
Rano Calamari (Lock), Antonius Lucretior (Lock)
These are some very, very big men, both former soldiers. Near-silent Lucretior gets on with the job in a slow, plodding manner, while Calamari is a whirlwind of power and strength.

Back Row
Melchior (Openside Flanker), Vincenzo Verdi (Blindside Flanker), Septimus Furion (No. 8)
Usually a Number Eight, Melchior is moved to Openside for his sheer presence on the pitch. Faster than he looks, expect him to get among the tries. Verdi, on the other hand, is much smaller and uses his comparative agility to make the breaks. Furion's sheer muscle mass and ferocity is sure to keep the forwards moving.

Halves
Binky O'Brady (Scrum Half), Magnus Khanasan (Fly-Half)
Strangely enough, O'Brady is half-Halfling, making him rather small and incredibly agile. Quite where 'flings live in Starblaydia is another matter entirely, but we have one represented in our dinky Scrum-Half. Khanasan, on the other hand, is a big, powerful, bearded man, equally at home as a playmaker and a place-kicker. His defensive abilities aren't too hot, though.

Backs
Rafael Jongbloed (Left Wing), Maximillian Raffiki (Inside Centre), Jools Sturmdrang (Outside Centre), Jaritharak Sinnikar (Right Wing), Cam de la Huerta (Full-Back)
Mostly this set of backs are gifted with innate speed and good hands. The only real power is provided by Sturmdrang, though de la Huerta and Jongbloed are not too shabby in the tackle.

http://www.starblaydestudios.co.uk/Images/RugbyTeam.jpg

Haraki

05-05-2006, 21:07

Haraki's team was happy. Very happy. From their home field in Atherlon, they had secured another victory in front of a sold-out crowd of screaming fans. It had been a good game against Silage, but the Harakian team had come out on top.

They had opened the gates at only twelve minutes in, following a long punt from centre by Nathan Cannon which bounced into touch just beside Silage's ten metre line. The maul formed from the ensuing lineout was pulled into touch by Brad Winters on the side, causing another lineout, in which the Harakians faked a second jumper and Michael Benes ran around from the back of the lineout to catch it, straight-armed the opposing hooker, shoulder charged the scrum half into the ground, and touched it down in the corner for five points. Nathan Cannon missed the convert to the right, and play restarted with a Silage drop kick from centre.

The Silage forwards were on the top of their game, aggressively driving over rucks, but when Haraki's backs got the ball they could get it far down the field thansk to speed and agility. A breakaway on Haraki's thirty metre line by Adam Farreley and Sam Davies almost resulted in a try, but Davies ran it into touch only fifteen metres away thanks to a sprinting fullback catching up with him from the side.

It seemed obvious that Haraki were dominating the running end of the game, and Silage's fly half began playing a kicking game, punting for touch at every opportunity and turning it into a duel between the two teams' kickers. Off a long punt which Xavier Walker foolishly decided to run, he was tackled by the opposing hooker, who pilfered the ball and ran to touch it down under the posts for an easy conversion, giving Silage a lead at thirty-three minutes. But Nathan Cannon wouldn't stand for it, taking the ball from James Keay off a ruck when Carl Thint, the team scrum half, was on the ground, and kicking a drop goal from thirty metres out and off to the left side. With the absence of wind, it sailed straight through the posts to put Haraki up by one heading into half.

The second half clearly belonged to Haraki. With a Silage kickoff, the Harakians worked it down the field, recycling it well to the backs and running a remarkable scissor play that gained significant ground, until the Silage team killed it in a ruck and gave Cannon an easy penalty kick. Three more points to Haraki, followed by another penalty only four minutes later from offside, made right beside the touch line from forty metres from the posts by Nathan Cannon, redeeming himself for missing the first conversion and making the score 14-7.

This was followed by a try by James Keay, exploiting a gap in the Silage defence where their fly half had been taken into a tackle and ruck. Keay ran through the defence, sprinted past the fullback, and touched it down midway from the posts to the touch line. Cannon made the conversion for a 21-7 Harakian lead.

In the seventy-seventh minute, Haraki made their final points with a drop goal by Sid Galworth, shouting for a crash near the twenty-two and slotting it home. The game ended when Daniel Virlan was tackled into touch after eighty minutes, with a Harakian victory 24-7.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 6
Michael Benes: 5
James Keay: 10
Nathan Cannon: 31
Daniel Virlan: 10
Sam Davies: 10

McPsychoville

05-05-2006, 21:20

OOC: I do apologise for the lack of roleplaying on my part, but with a whole load of other things I'm in at the moment, I haven't had much time for the forums here, let alone this.

PopularFreedom

05-05-2006, 22:29

OOC: I do apologise for the lack of roleplaying on my part, but with a whole load of other things I'm in at the moment, I haven't had much time for the forums here, let alone this.

It's cool, trust me I think we all understand. There are some months I completely disappear from this thing too. Just even a few lines when you can but if you can't all good.

Haraki

05-05-2006, 23:38

OOC: No problem, McPsychoville. Anything you can manage to post is enough. Remember that any kind of RP at all (Even a one-sentence game summary) as long as it's in character, will warrant you an extra attack, giving you five instead of six as a 0.00 team. After that, you'll be given a +1-5 bonus to your random numbers, making you that much more likely to get good results (Higher numbers mean better stuff).

Of course, this by no means guarantees victories. Just look at PopularFreedom. Even with the max RP bonus, still he's lost some.

In any case, you haven't been doing too shabbily and there's still six matchdays to go.

Artitsa

06-05-2006, 00:12

Riots in Artitsa!

For the first time in Artitsan history, people took to the streets shouting for the blood of the National Team coach, Doug Seed.

Rugby is an intense national sport played in Artitsa, starting from the age of 6, often associated with military service. Therefore, the majority of citizens do play (lawls 5 Billion!) and it has been suggested that Former President O'Ryan was not re-elected after uttering that he did not care for the sport. However, such zeal has never culminated into such violence.

Effiges of Mr. Seed were being burned and lynched, while crowds howled for his blood. A replacement coach is on his way to begin a new training regiment with the National Team. The team itself is still continuing to gel together, but must get themselves in order before their challenging game against Rorysville.

The Artitsan National Squad came off incredibly close loss to Snake Eaters 19-12. While Riots may be occuring in regards to International Rugby, the populous has nothing but respect for their opposing foes.

Scores were made by Steve Orban, taking advantage of an overlap, with Kyle Buckley Converting from 44m out. Kyle Robinson broke the line with a well-placed dummy pass sprinting towards the corner, attempting to outpace the opposing fullback. Unfortunatly the fullback was able to keep the pace and Robinson had to resort to a juke. Both players slipped, and Robinson was able to roll and pick the ball up, while Staton, the fullback appeared to have rolled his ankle. The conversion was unsuccesfull.

The entire Artitsan team congradulated the Snake Eaters team for the excellent performance and will look forward to playing them once more.

Haraki

06-05-2006, 02:09

Matchday Five Scores (Halfway mark):

Group 1:
Rubicon States (17 - 3) East Lithuania
Milchama (0 - 24) AMW China
Virginia Nova (22 - 6) Harlesburg

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 4 0 1 86 69 17 0 16
Milchama 3 0 2 69 85 -16 1 13
Rubicon States 2 0 3 82 77 5 3 11
East Lithuania 2 0 3 85 65 20 2 10
Harlesburg 2 0 3 73 91 -16 2 10
Virginia Nova 2 0 3 75 86 -11 1 9

Group 2:
PopularFreedom (28 - 21) San Haven
Snake Eaters (31 - 7) Chicanada
Rorysville (33 - 19) Artitsa

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 3 1 1 89 76 13 1 15
PopularFreedom 3 0 2 74 96 -22 0 12
Snake Eaters 2 1 2 80 63 17 1 11
Chicanada 2 0 3 87 103 -16 2 10
Rorysville 2 2 1 100 73 27 1 9
Artitsa 1 0 3 58 81 -23 2 6

Group 3:
Silage (19 - 17) Gwazzaria
McPsychoville (13 - 26) Haraki
Prolestan BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 4 0 0 93 49 44 0 16
Prolestan 2 0 2 52 54 -2 1 9
Silage 2 0 2 58 74 -16 0 8
McPsychoville 2 0 2 47 66 -19 0 8
Gwazzaria 0 0 4 58 75 -17 3 3

Group 4:
Larkinia (7 - 22) Starblaydia
Sarzonia (26 - 20) Karullia
MeusDomus BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Starblaydia 3 0 1 70 45 25 1 13
Larkinia 2 0 2 56 53 3 1 9
MeusDomus 2 0 2 61 67 -6 1 9
Sarzonia 2 0 2 63 66 -3 1 9
Karullia 1 0 3 63 82 -19 2 6

Collonie

06-05-2006, 02:27

Swooton Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram

Sports Section

See what happens when we face a good team?

We played a good team in AMW China and lost 24-0, and we only have one thing to say OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOC: Count this toward Milchama, sorry about that.

Harlesburg

06-05-2006, 05:09

(OOC)Arrgh since Monday i haven't on much and today i helped my sister move into her new flat.:headbang:

Does anyone have a link to the old World Cup?
'Cause search ain't working.

Artitsa

06-05-2006, 06:01

ooc: Wow.

AMW China

06-05-2006, 07:29

Chinese put Warriors to the sword

AMW China bt Milchama 24-0

AMW China 24 (Spencer x 2 try, Bayer try, Chen try, 2 conversions)
H 0-5

Captain Carl Spencer was ecstatic at today's victory, as was Coach Graham Hart. For Hart, the axe that was hovering over his head after a dismal start to the series was gone. For Spencer, it was sheer joy and satisfaction at having the well-oiled engine that finally clicked into gear. Regardless, the Warrior fans were stunned at being beaten by a team many analysts regarded as "half-cooked".

Last week it was made clear by the selectors that the tight five were on thin ice. This seemed to spur a hunger in them, and the raw energy of the new blood in the team seemed to spark a form reversal as out of form players showed displays of pace and dynamicism reminiscient of their younger days. As the forwards got their act together for the first coherent game ever, the backline ran riot in a 24-0 thrashing of the Milchama Warriors by the Chinese.

The scrummaging effort was much improved today, as were basic ruck and mauls. The Chinese managed a superb effort close-in, driving opposition forwards back and providing the backline with excellent quality ball and plenty of space. No 10 Carl Spencer savoured this and put on one of his best displays of football in his career. Fullback Jay Chen and No 12 Alan Peng also displayed excellent skill.

The Chinese drew first blood 3 minutes into the game. 2nd 5/8s Alan Peng partially charged down a clearing kick by the opposition fullback and the loose ball was regathered by winger Jonathan Bayer who crashed over the tryline in the corner to score his first try of the season. Spencer unfortunately failed to adapt to the windy conditions and pushed the conversion wide.

The rest of the half saw intense midfield wrestling, with the Chinese making several promising line breaks but unable to apply the finishing touches. Winger Mark Chou scored in the corner after regathering a punt by fullback Chen, but was ruled to have put a foot in touch. The Milchama scrum was unable to dominate the Chinese like their previous opponents, and was at times struggling against a passionate chinese scrum effort. Fullback Jay Chen also pulled off a try-saving tackle to shut down the only clean break the Warriors managed.

After halftime, the floodgates opened, and the increasingly confident Chinese would score three more tries. In the 57th minute Spencer sidestepped four defenders in the midfield, scored between the posts, and converted the try easily to bring the score to 12-0. Fullback Jay Chen scored a 80m try between the posts in the 63rd minute after intercepting a pass and outrunning a winger, and with Spencer converting, put the Chinese in a very dominant position at 19-0. Centre Hui bowled over a waif-like defender in the 72nd minute and flicked a clever cut-out pass to Spencer, who evaded another defender to score in the corner. The final score was 24-0, AMW China's biggest win.

"We proved our biggest critics wrong tonight, but we won't let this get to our head. We will keep doing the basics right and celebrate after the finals." Hart said.

McPsychoville

06-05-2006, 11:05

Arr

Bleedin' typical. The Psychos start playing well, so they pack me off to Haraki for the coverage, and in the first bleedin' game, we lose to the home team no less. A thirteen point loss, no less.

Our points were hardly stuff to be proud of - a touchline scramble opened the door for Byron Lasek to dive and score a try, and Sean Damon's conversion put us 7-0 up, but from there on in Haraki just brutalised us. We had to make do with two late penalty kicks to get a scoreline even approaching respectable.

McPsychoville - 13
T: Lasek, C: Damon, PK: Damon (2)
Haraki - 26

Starblaydia

06-05-2006, 11:54

Starblaydia Get Into Group 4 Gear
Most experienced team beginning to show class

Starblaydia's Rugby Union team have been trying for the last three cups to prove they're the best in the world:

Rugby World Cup 2: Starblaydia finish fourth, losing to Aust.
Rugby World Cup 3: Starblaydia finish third, beating Aust.
Rugby World Cup 4: Starblaydia finish third. Aust win the Championship, by the way.

When looking at all the other teams in the hunt for the trophy, Starblaydia are by far the most successful and experienced team in the entire competition. They didn't start off well, however, giving Karullia their only victory so far. Starblaydia just weren't paying attention, it seemed, both on the pitch and on the TV screens at home. The home audience suddenly realised that Starblaydia were competing somewhere on Matchday Three, which proved to be a glorious win over ancient rivals Sarzonia.

Starblaydia's game was getting into the swing of things and after a two-point win over Larkinia the top of Group four was getting very congested, with three teams on nine points. Starblaydia stretched out their lead with a revenge defeat of Larkinia, smashing them 22-7, and now sit proudly on top of Group Four, with all teams having played four matches.

Can Starblaydia go, this time, all the way to the Final? Looking at undefeated hosts Haraki, or even AMW China, the answer has yet to be decided.

Link to Starblaydia Roster (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10900932&postcount=38) (with new RP permissions box!)

Starblaydia

06-05-2006, 12:06

OOC: Harlesburg, here are some handy links.

Rugby World Cup 2 Thread (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=386712)

Rugby World Cup 3 Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=393985)

Rugby World Cup 4 Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=446035)

Harlesburg

06-05-2006, 13:57

Harlesburg Squad
Starters

Forwards
1)Toby Anderson 28 5'8" 96kg Harlesburg Rugby Football Club
2)Hammish Findles 32 5'10" 92kg Harlesburg Rhinos
3)Christopher Handel 28 5'11"112kg Port Royale Fusilers
4)Charles Williams 24 6'5" 102kg Platamonian Oranges
5)Christopher Danist 29 6'3" 96kg Barrymoore City Boulders 2nd cup
6)Craig Macdonald 32 6'2 98kg 2nd cup
7)Micheal Frederickson 27 6'3" 102kg 2nd cup
8)Harold McNaught 28 6'2" 104kg Castleford Knights

Backs
9)James Hargreaves 26 5'8" 84kg Manawhenua Titans 2nd cup
10)Manu Walker 26 5'11" 88kg Manawhenua Titans
11)Benito Lombard 27 5'11" 87kg 2nd cup
12)Ricky Gervais 25 5'10" 92kg Castleford Knights 2nd cup
13)Patrick O'Halloran 28 5'11 87kg
14)Fedor Chenescu 19 6'2" 94kg
15)Peter Pounchescu 29 5'11" 92kg 2nd cup

Reserve Bench
16)Butch Dykes(Hooker) 26 5'9" 95kg Harlesburg Warriors 2nd cup
17)Garrick Williams(Prop)33 5'8" 87kg StrongBadia Homestar Runners 2nd cup
18)Patrick Tobt(Lock) 28 6'6" 104kg 2nd cup
19)Walter Danielson(Loose forward) 27 6'4" 99kg
20)Stephen Randel(Halfback) 29 5'9" 89kg 2nd cup
21)Micheal Stains(First-Five) 25 6'1" 84kg
22)Mathius Spritzer(Wing/Fullback) 29 6'0" 88kg 2nd cup

Squad Members
23)Barry Hampster(Prop) 27 5'11" 89kg
24)Thomas Norton(Hooker) 29 5'11" 107kg 2nd cup
25)Micheal Slazer(Loose Forward) 28 6'2" 96kg 2nd cup
26)Johnathan Thomas(First Five) 29 5'10" 87kg 2nd cup
27)Antonio Delilo(Centre) 32 6'0" 88kg 2nd cup
28)Andreo Faliciano(Fullback) 30 6'3" 89kg 2nd cup

(OOC)I can't remember most of my city names i know i wrote them down somewhere and i blame Keith!
As i remember or find them i'll update.

Snake Eaters

06-05-2006, 18:12

Snake Eaters (31 - 7) Chicanada

"... and in the Rugby World Cup, Snake Eaters recorded it's second successive win, with what could be described in moderate terms as a rout of the Chicanada team.

The match took place in favourable conditions for both sides, the pitch much drier than the previous match, removing the chances of losing points like in the previous match, when Staton's crucial slip cost them five points.

The scoring was opened quickly, with the Snake kick-off being taken against the wind, as James Williams caught the ball in mid-air, off-loading to Corner who managed to swiftly chalk up the first try of the match within the first minute, dodging three opposing players as he did so. Callum Northwell scored an easy conversion to put Snake Eaters 7-0 up. This lead only increased when Northwell was brutally put down by a high tackle, resulting in a scrum on the 22 yard line, which was hard-fought by both sides, but resulted in Staton breaking through to score the second try of the match at thirty-six minutes. Northwell's conversion served them well, putting them 14-0 up, with only three minutes left in the first half. This euphoria was short-lived however, when Fletcher fumbled the ball in the line-out, allowing the Chicanadan forwards to power over the line to touch the ball down, which was converted to bring the score to 14-7 at half time.

As the second half started, Snake Eaters were still in high spirits, as shown by their determined defence against the deep kick-off. This defence paid off as Williams broke away to sprint 70 yards, being almost put into touch by the full-back, but managing to slither past and score his first try of the tournament, which Northwell again converted. The scoreline now stood at 21-7, which was extended once more within five minutes to 28-7, thanks to a well executed set-piece that put the scrum-half over the line, with Northwell again converting.

The match settled into a stalemate soon after this, and the two sides were at loggerheads until Northwell gained space to place a drop kick between the posts, taking the scoreline to it's final total of 31-7.

As the match ended, Snake Eater fans roared their approval for the team, as well as lamenting the loss of the opponents. Norman Fletcher said,"They fought hard, but I guess at the end of the day the better team won. Still, they gave us a good run for most of the match."

Sarzonia

06-05-2006, 18:50

Portland Press Herald

Anson Lee

Galaxians continue to surprise

HARAKI, 6 May 2006 -- For a country that barely has an organised structure in place for rugby, the Sarzonian national team is certainly not embarrassing itself in the Rugby Union World Cup. The team has a mark of two wins and two losses, and only the matchup with Starblaydia could count as a blowout, and even then the margin of victory was nine points.

"I guess we have more of a sporting heritage than you might expect," said former rugby team star Mike Cole, now playing with the national football team in World Cup XXVIII. "We showed well in the third Rugby Union World Cup, but we didn't compete in the last one. We'll have to see where the team's success or failure leads the sport in Sarzonia."

The team has had minimal coverage in the newspapers or the wire services, a fact which could be attributed to very few Sarzonians even knowing the slightest thing about rugby. In addition, most Sarzonian newspapers frown on printing wire service reports from other countries and the Associated Sarzonian Press was late in obtaining press credentials from Haraki.

"That's too bad," said one patron at The Brig, a popular watering hole in Portland who declined to give his name. "Rugby's pretty much viewed as a niche sport here in this country, so there hasn't been much attention paid to the sport. Especially when the Stars are playing. Even the women's national footie side gets more coverage than rugby does here."

Of course, the women's national team lost its only match in the inaugural Women's World Cup to Liverpool England in the finals, so winning its first seven matches may have had something to do with generating excitement among fans. Charlie Hunt, the lead bartender at The Brig, said the crowds for women's football viewing parties were "almost as big as what we get for the men's games," but said the first viewing party for rugby was cancelled for lack of interest.

"Only three or four people even RSVP'd," he said. "It wasn't worth it to bring in lots of employees for that because we didn't get much of a response. If we'd had a few more responses, we might have gotten a passable walk-up crowd."

However, Hunt said there was a strong walk up crowd when Sarzonia faced Starblaydia on Matchday Three. He said the fact the team was facing one of its biggest sporting rivals and a nation with whom relations were approaching the hostility reserved for Doomingsland was a bigger draw than the match itself.

"Starblaydia were the only team to really blow us out of the water during World Cup 3," Hunt said. "We even beat Aust back then, which was a surprise." Count the 1-3 record of Artitsa as another surprise, considering the Sarzonian ally has a long tradition of playing rugby. Whereas the record led to rioting on the streets and calls for Artitsan coach Doug Seed's head, the Galaxians' losses led to reactions of mostly, "meh" in Sarzonia.

"If we ended up winning the World Cup, I bet you'd see much more attention paid to rugby," Cole said. "This country loves a winner. You saw that with the Women's World Cup. Their run through to the finals got them a large audience they didn't have at the very beginning. Now they'll get serious media coverage when the second World Cup gets going. That might be what will happen here if the Galaxians do well in the second half of qualifying."

And newspapers might start looking for beat writers and columnists who know something about rugby for their sports pages.

McPsychoville

06-05-2006, 20:18

Psychos (R) Roster

And I've only just got my copy meself. Fine, we're hardly a rugby nation, but how am I supposed to do my bleedin' job without knowing who's playing?

Starters - Forwards

1) Anatoly Lanik, Carson City
2) Emil Novak, Ellis Island
3) Todor 'Teddy' Tomas, Ellis Island
4) Greg Bacon, Triela
5) Byron Lasek, Cednia
6) Calvin Miller, Carson City
7) Andris Kotalik, Tanguay City
8) Dirk Degler, None

Backs

9) Anchjo Sevak, Tanguay City
10) Erik Strong, London
11) Bendik 'Benny' Vojacek, Triela
12) Harry Trevor, Carson City
13) Sean Damon, Port Alberni
14) Dean Simon, Port Alberni
15) Ivan Janek, London

Haraki

06-05-2006, 21:42

The Harakian team took to the field to cheers from their devoted fan section, up against McPsychoville, a team with two wins and one loss, and the Harakian fans were hopeful for a victory.

The Psychos opened the account with a rushed try by Byron Lasek up the right side of the field. Harakian fullback Xavier Walker dove to try and get him, but Lasek touched it down before he could tackle him. A conversion by Sean Damon put Haraki down by seven, but soon they came back strong and hard.

The forwards dominated play, advancing the ball more often than the backs. A sixty-metre kick for touch from behind the 22 by Nathan Cannon brought play up, and the Harakians held up the maul formed from the ensuing lineout until a scrum was called. Brad Winters hooked it back easily and they pushed it nearly to the try line when the push finally stopped. Thomas Gerryin, the team's Eight-Man, picked the ball up and tried to sprint it over, only to get tackled by the opposing blindside flanker, at which point Gerryin handed it off to Michael Benes, Haraki's blindside flanker, who rushed through the hole in the defence between the scrum and the wing to touch it down. Nathan Cannon easily converted it.

One thing to be said for the Psychos was that they played very cleanly, taking very few penalties throughout the game. However, they did forfeit a try through a knock-on only fifteen metres out from their line, when an up and under kick by James Keay was fumbled by Byron Lasek on the catch. The resulting scrum was pushed over the line right beside the posts, and Gerryin simply touched the ball to score the try, once more converted by Cannon.

That was the end of the first half, with Haraki up 14-7. But the second half only brought more of the same, as seven minutes in Adam Farreley caught a breakaway, sidestepping his opposing centre and straight-arming away another player diving at him. He stepped out of the fullback's tackle thirty metres out and made his way all the way to touch it down under the posts, once again easily converted by Cannon.

What followed was poor play by the Harakians. A long kickoff was fumbled by James Keay on the catch, giving the Psychos a scrum ten metres from the Harakian end, which they won. Keay was so eager to make up for his fumble that he took off before the ball was out, tackling the fly half just as he caught the ball, and got an offside penalty called, which Sean Damon got in. Mere moments later, Nathan Cannon was injured by a high tackle after catching a high and short Harakian kickoff, and coach Allan Ferris had to bring on #21 Jasper Hull for Inside Centre, making Xavier Walker the goal kicker.

Hull made good work of his time on the field, catching the ball from Keay off a Harakian lineout and sprinting his way for a try in the corner, which Walker missed the convert for. With five minutes left in the game, the Harakians once again screwed up in their own end, with Kevin Lanning entering a ruck offside and giving the Psychos Degler's penalty which he made, but it was too little, too late. Haraki had won, 26-13.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 6
Michael Benes: 10
Thomas Gerryin: 5
James Keay: 10
Nathan Cannon: 37
Daniel Virlan: 10
Adam Farreley: 5
Sam Davies: 10
Jasper Hull: 5

McPsychoville

06-05-2006, 22:06

Re-Cap Re-Cap Re-Cap! (To Be Sung With Appropriate 'Easy'-Style Hand Actions)

Aye, recaps. Since I've just nicked some tapes of the matches you lot at home'll be getting some scores, and you'll be grateful f'rem.

Silage 24-14 McPsychoville

Feckin' crap performance. Lasek and Kotalik got tries, and Damon converted the both of them, but then the bleedin' team went on holiday and let Silage score 21 points unanswered in the second half.

Prolestan 8-10 McPsychoville

Great on the defence, shite on the offence. That was the story in a nutshell - Lanik scored a try early on, Damon missed his conversion, Prolestan went 8-5 up before Lanik bundled over a try off a four-yard scrum to win 10-5. Damon was feckin' awful wi' his kicks.

McPsychoville 13-26 Haraki

Lasek try, Damon conversion, whole lot of points from Haraki, Damon kicked two late penalties, end of story.

Scorers
Sean Damon - 12 (3 Conversions, 2 Penalties)
Anatoly Lanik - 10 (2 Tries)
Byron Lasek - 10 (2 Tries)
Andris Kotalik - 5 (Try)

Haraki

07-05-2006, 04:17

Matchday Six Scores:

Group 1:
East Lithuania (24 - 26) AMW China
Milchama (10 - 10) Virginia Nova
Harlesburg (8 - 28) Rubicon States

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 5 0 1 112 93 19 0 20
Rubicon States 3 0 3 110 85 25 3 15
Milchama 3 1 2 79 95 -16 1 15
East Lithuania 2 0 4 99 91 7 3 11
Virginia Nova 2 1 3 85 96 -11 1 11
Harlesburg 2 0 4 81 119 -38 2 10

Group 2:
San Haven (14 - 22) Chicanada
Snake Eaters (7 - 19) Rorysville
Artitsa (13 - 9) PopularFreedom

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rorysville 3 2 1 119 80 39 1 17
San Haven 3 1 2 103 98 5 1 15
Chicanada 3 0 3 109 117 -8 2 14
PopularFreedom 3 0 3 83 109 -26 1 13
Snake Eaters 2 1 3 87 82 5 1 11
Artitsa 2 0 3 71 88 -17 2 10

Group 3:
Gwazzaria (20 - 20) Haraki
McPsychoville (15 - 18) Prolestan
Silage BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 4 1 0 113 69 44 0 18
Prolestan 3 0 2 70 69 1 1 13
McPsychoville 2 0 3 62 84 -22 1 9
Silage 2 0 2 58 74 -16 0 8
Gwazzaria 0 1 4 78 95 -17 3 5

Group 4:
Starblaydia (27 - 13) Karullia
Sarzonia (26 - 14) MeusDomus
Larkinia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Starblaydia 4 0 1 97 58 39 1 17
Sarzonia 3 0 2 89 80 9 1 13
Larkinia 2 0 2 56 53 3 1 9
MeusDomus 2 0 3 75 93 -18 1 9
Karullia 1 0 4 76 99 -33 2 6

Rorysville

07-05-2006, 07:15

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3189/sportsnetrv9bw.png
Sportsnet RV Ruggers Central
With another solid performance on the pitch Rorysville has moved to first place in group 2 avenging the loss on matchday 1 to Chicanada puts them in a great position to run the rest of the table
"A victory like this leads to great things as we have started to string things together and execute our key plays.If we can keep playing like this I see good things down the road for the Sport of Rugby in the Nation of Rorysville the Goverment Sports Association has shown Intrest in starting a National Rugby League in Rorsyville and with Performances like this it just shows that a National League will only help us build into an even better Team. Our Next oppenent is Snake Eaters and they play a real tough style we were lucky to get a Draw against them last time."--Coach Sitller

Other Scores from Group 2
MD5
PopularFreedom (28 - 21) San Haven
Snake Eaters (31 - 7) Chicanada
MD6
San Haven (14 - 22) Chicanada
Artitsa (13 - 9) PopularFreedom
And other MD 5 Scores from around RWC V
Group 1:
Rubicon States (17 - 3) East Lithuania
Milchama (0 - 24) AMW China
Virginia Nova (22 - 6) Harlesburg
Group 3:
Silage (19 - 17) Gwazzaria
McPsychoville (13 - 26) Haraki
Group 4:
Larkinia (7 - 22) Starblaydia
Sarzonia (26 - 20) Karullia
MD 6 Scores from RWC V
Group 1:
East Lithuania (24 - 26) AMW China
Milchama (10 - 10) Virginia Nova
Harlesburg (8 - 28) Rubicon States
Group 3:
Gwazzaria (20 - 20) Haraki
McPsychoville (15 - 18) Prolestan
Group 4:
Starblaydia (27 - 13) Karullia
Sarzonia (26 - 14) MeusDomus

Standings after Matchday 6
Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rorysville 3 2 1 119 80 39 1 17
San Haven 3 1 2 103 98 5 1 15
Chicanada 3 0 3 109 117 -8 2 14
PopularFreedom 3 0 3 83 109 -26 1 13
Snake Eaters 2 1 3 87 82 5 1 11
Artitsa 2 0 3 71 88 -17 2 10

Rorysville Rugby World Cup Schedule as follows
MD 1:Chicanada L 20-17
MD 2: Snake Eaters D 13-13
MD 3: @PopularFreedom W 24-8
MD 4: @San Haven D 13-13
MD 5: Artitsa W 33-19
MD 6:@Chicanada W 19-7
MD 7:@Snake Eaters
MD 8:PopularFreedom
MD 9:San Haven
MD10:@Artitsa

Harlesburg

07-05-2006, 13:44

Losing Streak Continues
Harlesburg 8- Rubicon States 28

On the back of a string of loses after a good start to their campaign Harlesburg were looking to get things back on track with a win against Rubicon States.

However the match never lived up to expectations for Harlesburg as a team and both sets of fans all 67,000 of the mwho turned up at Harlesburg Air Stadium in Harlesburg, Harlesburg.

After an early 3 point lead after Rubicon States had hands in the ruck 38 metres out Manu Walker slotted the penalty with a good 8 metres to spare.

But from there things started to go badly Rubicon States scored 2 quick tries both converted and by the end of the half lead 21-3.
Rubicon States 3 tries were all scored out wide 2 to the Right-wing the first being a well worked midfield play which left a massive two man overlap for him to easily glide around the second a bustling run where he beat two defenders before crashing over the line still fending off the little halfback James Hargreaves.

The final try of the half went to the number 2 driving from a 5 metre lineout ball from a penalty after Harlesburg had been called offside just inside the Rubicon States 40 metres the resulting kick was a beauty chewing up 60 metres.

At the begining of the second half possesion began to even up but territory was still a problem and Harlesburgs only real attacking chance resulted in Ricky Gervais crashing over the line 7 metres in from touch after running 25 metres and breaking 3 weak tackles.
Walker could not convert.

57th minute Rubicon States took a Penalty shot at goal from 46 metres out but the shot fell just short and the scores remained 21-8.

Then in the 72nd minute with Harlesburg trying to get back in the game although belatedly a Fedor Chenescu inside pass to reserve fullback Mathius Spritzer was intercepted by the Number 13 for Rubicon States and he raced away 85 metres to score under the dot, with the conversion made succesfully the score eventually finished 28-8 to the visitors.

Harlesburg didn't deserve to win on the performance shown but the intercept pass was a brave move that stopped a certain try and caused a 14 point turnaround.

Can Harlesburg do better?

Summary
Walker(1/2), Penalty 7th(Har)
14, 2 Tries 15th, 19th(Rub)
2, Try 29th(Rub)
Gervais Try 52nd(Har)
10(3/4) 3 Conversions

PopularFreedom

07-05-2006, 21:26

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

Wow I still do not feel good. I got a concussion in practice just prior to the match against San Haven so could not play on Friday. Apparently I was out for about 10 minutes and they took me to the hospital and I missed the entire thing which just sucks. Malcom Rivers played for me and apparently he played quite well with the new flyhalf, can't even remember his name. So I am back yesterday and well it was as if the heavens came down on us. It rained the entire first half and well maybe monsoon is a better word for it since the score was 0-0 at the half. I think that is the first game this Rugby World Cup without a score in a half, not that we are proud of that.

Anyhow we come out second half and instantly get scored on. Opening kickoff, we kicked it to their forwards who passed it out to their backs. They had they lined up with forwards on one side and backs on the other then switched them. Well we were asleep so by the time we reacted one of their wingers ran it in for a score and a 7-0 lead with the convert. Think his name was Gioia, Alex Gioia that's it. Man that guy is fast. Then again compared to us anyone is fast but that guy is really fast!

So our new flyhalf gathered us together after the try, he didn't even bother with us getting together to try and block the kick, he just told us, he didn't want to lose so just give the ball to him inside their 40.

So we did, after about 10 minutes into the half, after Kyle Buckley, had hit a drop goal for Artitsa to make it 10-0 for them against us we finally found ourselves in their 40 for the first time in the 2nd half. Off our put in to the scrum we pass it out to Donald Atkinson, our new fly half, and he drills a beautiful drop goal through the uprights. It was virtually perfect. Even the Artitisa players were impressed with that Buckley guy pointing to Atkinson as if to say, 'watch this'.

Anyhow on the kick off they boot the ball straight to Atkinson who is able to weave through a few broken tackles before again, under heavy pressure at their 35, hit another drop which again makes it through the posts to cut their league to 10-6. After the kick Atkinson yells at Buckley, 'beat that', with a big grin on his face. Buckley just shakes his head in an almost respectful fashion. I gotta say I kinda like Atkinson at this point of the match, almost forgetting that John Salmon, our former captain and leader is gone for at least the next 8 months if not more.

Next play it looks as if Buckley, who is now doing the kickoffs for the Artitsa squad, is gonna kick it again to Atkinson. He even yells at Atkinson, 'you ready?', which Atkinson just gives him the thumbs up sign. Then Buckley turns, and kicks a bullet at Julius Gates, one of our props standing at our 40 who has hands of stone. Well he knocks it on, while their pack is rushing and they get the ball while a ruck ensues. Moments later while I was still looking at the ruck waiting for the ball to come out, I see the ball being booted by Buckely, who had someone gotten it via their scrumhalf, from the 40 and through for a dropkick for Artitsa and a 13-6 lead near the 70th minute mark.

Oh wow, so I figured Atkinson woulda been ticked but he was clapping at Buckley before he came over and while still smiling spoke to our pack saying, 'you drop a ball like that again I will stomp on you myself'.

I almost burst out laughing but he quickly looked at me with these eyes of a madman and but his finger to his lips to motion me to shutup.

I must say I am really impressed with the guy cause even though I have only played with him one game he led us well.

Next play, with it starting to rain again, Atkinson kicks a short yet high up and over to their backs. As Artitsa Inside Centre Chris Porter goes under to catch it, Buckley tried to call him off but I guess the guy was stubborn. So I managed to reach over the guy as he was about to catch the ball and literally steal it from him cause he didn't even jump for it while I did. A split second later, just before I think it was Buckley actually who drilled me, I passed it to an onrushing Atkinson who made no mistake and fired another drop through the uprights from around 40 metres out to make the score 13-9 for Artitsa.

To be honest I never did see Atkinson make the kick as I was flatten a split second after making the pass, I just know it was him cause when I got up I saw the ball going through, and Atkinson smiling at Buckley with the thumbs up sign.

I think Buckley told off Porter over the play too cause there seemed some tension between them. Didn't matter though as the sky opened up again and the rain was upon us again. Could barely see anything within minutes and the entire play ground down into rucking and mauling. We got close to their try line but could not punch it in at the end, leaving them with a 13-9 win. Atkinson and Buckley seemed to chat it up big time after the match, well for about 15 seconds or so. Almost like they respected one another big time. I gotta say, I really dig Atkinson, great leader, I hope they make him captain soon since with Salmon injured, he is just, 'acting captain' for now.

Haraki

07-05-2006, 22:00

Keeping the Streak Alive!
At least a draw is not a loss.
From the Atherlon Times

Pete Vans, Gwazzaria. The Harakian national rugby team played a tough game last night against bottom-tier Gwazzaria, giving the Gwaazzarians their first game that was not a loss, and giving Haraki their first game that was not a win. The score was a 20-20 tie.

Haraki's defence was off throughout the whole game, with Xavier Walker playing terribly, missing several crucial tackles and ultimately ending up with Allan Ferris replacing him with Brad Weckit at halftime. However, the Harakians were the first on the scoreboards with a penalty, taken by Nathan Cannon, for handling in the ruck. Out thirty-five yards in heavy wind, Cannon kicked high and too far to the left but the wind carried it between the posts, leading Cannon to try and say he'd intended for that to happen.

However, this was followed by an easy Gwazzarian try under the posts. Harakian fullback Xavier Walker was on the wrong side as the Irons passed quickly down the backline to get it to the opposite side, touching it down near the posts for an easy conversion. Only twelve minutes later they scored another try, when wing Ivan Ruslan straight-armed Walker away and touched it down in the corner for a kick missed by the kicker. Only moments before half, they scored once more but missed the convert, giving the Gwazzarians an imposing 17-3 lead at halftime. Then, as if to mirror the Harakian team's spirits, it started raining. The Gwazzarian stadium, of course, was cheering for what they thought would be the Irons' first win.

Allan Ferris made a few changes at half, with Weckit taking over for Walker and Adam Halsey taking over as scrum half to get the ball to the fly half faster for quicker offensive plays.

Haraki managed to make a comeback as a sudden downpour began turning the pitch into muck, as Nathan Cannon caught James Keay's kickoff, shrugged off a tackle, and managed to slot a drop goal home from forty metres out, just barely making it over the crossbar for three points.

Following the Irons' kickoff, Daniel Virlan caught it and took off, with Cannon on his right-hand side running with him and James Keay behind him there. Virlan managed to get the ball up to half, before passing to Cannon just before he got tackled. Cannon proceeded to make the greatest run of his career, halfway down the field shrugginf off four tackles on the way and leaping over the diving fullback, in order to touch it down between the posts. He easily made his own convert, to bring Haraki up only four points behind the Irons, at 17-13 with twenty minutes to go.

Haraki was still desperate to get points. Cannon missed a drop goal from thirty metres, but Thomas Gerryin caught the 22-metre dropout and went on a long run, passing to Adam Farreley who touched the ball down midway between the posts and the touch line. Cannon made the convert, and with five minutes left Haraki were up three points, having made a desperate and scrambling comeback.

The Irons, desperate not to get another loss, made a drop goal by Elliot Avlington right on full time from thirty metres to tie the game and end it at the same time. Not the result the Harakians wanted, but their not-losing streak has been maintained, for the time being.

Nathan Cannon was awarded the Man of the Match award by Allan Ferris, for his role in Haraki's comeback, scoring fifteen points all by himself.

Pete Vans is the Atherlon Times' leading rugby commentator.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 6
Michael Benes: 10
Thomas Gerryin: 5
James Keay: 10
Nathan Cannon: 52
Daniel Virlan: 10
Adam Farreley: 10
Sam Davies: 10
Jasper Hull: 5

AMW China

08-05-2006, 00:02

AMW China makes it three from three

AMW China bt East Lithuania 26-24

AMW China 26 (Chou try x 2, Bayer try, Spencer try, 3 conversions)
East Lithuania 24

HT 5-3

Just how much the Chinese had improved up front since a few weeks ago was evident in today's game against East Lithuania, who were beaten 26-24 by the same team they demolished three weeks ago. The Chinese scrum was under pressure at times, but was able to hold their own largely, standing up well against the highly rated East Lithuanian pack, a reversal from the situation of three weeks ago.

Although these are still early stages of the competition, several rugby analysts are already commenting on the possibility of AMW China entering the semifinals, and perhaps even the finals. Coach Graham Hart hasn't commented on this apart from stoically saying "We'll think about it when we get there."

A long cut-out pass by Spencer to winger Jonathan Bayer resulted in the first try at 17 minutes after a period of midfield tussling, with Spencer failing to convert. The East Lithuanian No 10 hit back with a drop goal after the halftime hooter sounded, bringing the score to 5-3. The 2nd half continued in similar fashion, with neither side dominating and an exchange of tries. In the final 15 minutes though, the Chinese had a 2 point lead which was enough to get them the win.

Artitsa

08-05-2006, 01:37

Victory!

The losing streak has been broken it seems, with Artitsa narrowly pulling away from Popular Freedom, top contenders in our division. The match could only be described as "champagne rugby" with much praise for our opponents. More on the game tomorrow!

Haraki

08-05-2006, 04:49

(Due to a clerical error, the teams matched up were those meant for Matchday Seven, not Matchday Six. The Matchday Six pairings are here, and games will resume as intended on Matchday Eight.)

Matchday Seven Scores:

Group 1:
AMW China (26 - 24) Virginia Nova
Milchama (10 - 7) Rubicon States
Harlesburg (18 - 13) East Lithuania

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 6 0 1 138 117 21 0 24
Milchama 4 1 2 89 102 -13 1 19
Rubicon States 3 0 4 117 95 22 4 16
Harlesburg 3 0 4 99 132 -43 2 14
East Lithuania 2 0 5 112 104 2 4 12
Virginia Nova 2 1 4 109 122 -13 2 12

Group 2:
Chicanada (3 - 26) Rorysville
Snake Eaters (27 - 27) PopularFreedom
Artitsa (8 - 14) San Haven

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rorysville 4 2 1 145 83 62 1 21
San Haven 3 1 2 103 98 5 1 15
PopularFreedom 3 1 3 110 136 -26 1 15
Chicanada 3 0 4 112 143 -31 2 14
Snake Eaters 2 2 3 114 109 5 1 13
Artitsa 2 0 4 79 102 -23 3 11

Group 3:
Haraki (21 - 12) Prolestan
McPsychoville (7 - 14) Silage
Gwazzaria BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 5 1 0 134 81 53 0 22
Prolestan 3 0 3 82 90 -8 1 13
Silage 3 0 2 72 81 -9 0 12
McPsychoville 2 0 4 69 98 -29 2 10
Gwazzaria 0 1 4 78 95 -17 3 5

Group 4:
Karullia (6 - 13) MeusDomus
Sarzonia (20 - 21) Larkinia
Starblaydia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Starblaydia 4 0 1 97 58 39 1 17
Sarzonia 3 0 3 109 101 8 2 14
Larkinia 3 0 2 77 73 4 1 13
MeusDomus 3 0 3 88 99 -11 1 13
Karullia 1 0 5 82 112 -40 3 7

Sarzonia

08-05-2006, 05:34

Secondary school student and budding sporting fanatic Kieran Baker was reading the sports page of his local paper and glanced at the agate for the Rugby World Cup V standings and results. He noticed that Sarzonia's record in Group 4 was 3-3, but he also noticed that the team was ahead in points of other teams with the same number of total wins.

"What the Hell is this," he said out loud, not noticing his mother standing behind him. She raised her eyebrow, lifted her hand and... pointed to the BP section of the standings with a smirk.

"The Galaxians lost by a point Kieran," she said. "Teams that lose by one point get a bonus point for falling short of victory. They got two such points, thus they're within a win of passing Starblaydia for first place in the group if they actually beat Starblaydia in the head-to-head."

Most people would have been surprised that the mother of a sports fan would be making such a point, but not Kieran. After all, his mother nearly made the World Cup III team and was invited to training camp for World Cup V. However, she had to take care of her ill father and couldn't make it to the camp.

"Hah, that's interesting," Kieran said as he continued his scan of the sports page and his mother turned back to preparing a meal of Sarzonian Fried Chicken. The fact Sarzonia's team lost to Larkinia 21-20 wasn't a big deal to them, but if Sarzonia were able to make an impact in the tournament, the budding Rugby Union league might actually get some media coverage. As it stood, she was also awaiting word on her audition tape for a broadcasting job as an analyst for rugby for the local cable network.

AMW China

08-05-2006, 12:20

Can anyone stop "King Carl"?

AMW China 26 - Spencer x 3 try, 1 conversion (Spencer), 2 penalties (Spencer), 1 drop goal (Chen)
Virginia Nova 24

HT 6-0

Even a weakened squad this week was unable to be stopped by the Virginians as No 10 and Captain Carl Spencer scored 23 points in 25 minutes to wreak havoc on a virginian side in shock and awe. Only a period of defensive inattention late in the 2nd half gave them a measure of respectability.Two players were unable to make the game this week after complaining of concussion. Big winger Jonathan Bayer was moved to centre, William Chou, brother of Mark Chou, made his debut on the wing, and former league player Robert Lam was brought in as blindside flanker. The Virginians started the game showing excellent defence and despite Chinese efforts, the half was kept tryless. The Chinese were able to recycle possession and spent almost the whole half camped in Virginian territory. Eventually, the Virginians began to crack, giving away two penalties for basic rule infringements to end the half six down.

The second half began with a bang as the forwards began to play with better cohesion and No 10 Spencer began to turn on the heat on the opposition with the quality ball from the forwards. He dished up a full rugby buffet, seemingly breaking the line at will with excellent kicking and sidestepping, scoring three tries in eight minutes, with the most spectacular one scored from deep inside the Chinese half after Fullback Chen and Spencer combined to evade what seemed to be the entire Virginian team.

Amidst all the excitement, the Chinese team seemed to suddenly fall asleep, with two quick tries to the Virginians giving them a 1 point lead over the Chinese in the 70th minute. It took a last minute drop-goal by Chen to restore the lead and some balance to this topsy turby game.

PopularFreedom

08-05-2006, 12:53

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

Lost another one yesterday, player that is, not the game the game we tied against the Snake Eaters but we lost Sam Oroi our starting flanker to injury. Looks like his wrist when he went into a ruck. Not sure though as since I am in the backs I can't see everything. Apparently it is just a sprain but still coach is rather conservative on these things so I assume he will probably be gone for the next game at the least. Mike Zittler played okay for him, I hope they do a true analysis Oroi soon though and find out whether he is truly gone for a game or not cause I don't trust Zittler to be as good as Oroi as Zittler is more of an 8-man than a flanker.

Anyhow we tied Snake Eaters yesterday as I noted before. Their backs are pretty decent as they beat us. I kinda blame myself as the rest of our team had a good day but I missed 3 key tackles. Oh well, just hope coach don't bench me next match. Actually now that I think about it, I hope he does if I play like I did today. That should have been an easy win cept for my miscues.

Anyhow we can out strong today and were rucking a lot as always. They seem to have a stronger pack then they did last match against them the Snake Eaters do. Also they appear not as fast though they still have one speedy winger unfortunately who did a ton of damage to us this game.

Still we came out strong and by the 15 minute mark we had punched a hole through their pack for a 7-0 score with the convert. To be honest that is the first try in a long time for our prop Julius Gates so I was proud of him.

32nd minute we were back rucking through their pack and again we scored. Sam Oroi got the try, a good thing too cause he got injured minutes later and was gone for the game so good to see him get some points. Atkinson, our flyhalf, missed the convert though. Wow was he fuming, he even told me to take the kicking duty from then on, which I did. Hmmm, now that I think about it I wonder if that is why coach kept me on now.

Anyhow they managed to get 2 drop goals from their inside centre James Williams to make it 12-6 at half.

Second half we go out and we kick to them. I still don't know why I felt it would be smart to kick to the backs. Anyhow that was my first mistake. Then I saw their inside centre James Williams running towards me. Now he wasn't going that fast but he made as if to kick it by me with a grubber. I don't know how but it just froze me for a second, enough that he could get by me. Then he fired a pass out to his winger, the speedster guy, Tom Corner, who literally flew in untouched. With the convert they took a 13-12 lead and wow I felt bad. Could not fault our fullback either as he had tackled Williams a split second after he passed it so he was outta the play so that was my fault totally. Atkinson looked ticked too, though until I am writing this could not figure why he was practicing kicking near the sidelines. Shoot, so that is why they kept me in.

Anyhow we managed to change the momentum on the kickoff to them as one of their players, think it was one of their locks, knocked on the kick. We got the put in and just started pressing them down the field before Denver Kirkland picked up the ball and ran blind side. Gotta love him when he runs, could hear him yelling, 'COMING THROUGH' from my position. He had to touch it in the corner as their fullback, had cut off the angle to the centre of the tryzone. I hit the upright on the convert attempt but it bounced out for a 17-13 lead for us. Atkinson noted not to worry about the convert since it was from the corner but still I wish I could have that one again.

We got the ball back on the restart and moments later I found myself with the ball on their 40 with them sitting back waiting for me. So I booted a drop goal through their uprights for a 20-13 lead. Atkinson high-fived me for that one. Even coach complimented me noting, 'good thinking, make them pay for assuming we can't kick'.

Course seconds later on the restart I muff the catch and Williams is able to pick up the ball and whip it out to their winger Tom Corner who again burns it into the tryzone and touches it in the centre. With the convert it was 20-20. I went to coach after the play and told him to pull me, however he refused even though Atkinson looked like he agreed with my analysis of my play.

The next few minutes were uneventful as both of our packs tried to our ruck the other it seemed. Then it went out into their backs again around the 76th minute. Sure enough Williams is running towards me. I make sure I got him lined up, then of course he kicks a grubber right by me, so I tackle him cause the kick was moments before he passed me. Our fullback picks up the ball but the whistle is blown. As I get up from the ground I see the ref running towards the endzone and awarding a penalty try on the play. Wow was I pissed, I finally made a great tackle and was penalized. Atkinson calmed me down so I didn't do something stupid, and yea I know most who saw the replay say I had enough time to avoid him, but I am telling you I didn't.

Anyhow, with the convert it was 27-20 for them and we were in trouble. It's funny though on our team, cause with the characters on it you never know who is gonna step up to save the day. Our 8-man Denver Kirkland yells at me just before the restart, 'HEY, REMEMBER ME'. He then mouthed, 'kick their 8-man the ball'. Not one to disobey orders, especially with the crap game I had been playing, I kicked a nice up and over to their 8-man. The guy caught the ball and was promptly drilled hard by Kirkland. Well that seemed to send their pack spiralling into disorder as our pack started to ruck and roll all the way to their zone where our other flanker Ben Collingwood touched it down in the corner to make the score 27-25 for the Snake Eaters.

As I lined up for the convert, Atkinson came by me and whispered in my ear, 'hey Garth, just do your best on the kick, if you miss it just means you suck that is all'. I looked at him as he walked away. Moments later I drilled the convert through the centre of the uprights to tie up the match.

As I jogged back to midfield Atkinson clapped his hands stating, 'nice kick, I knew you could do it'. The rest of the game was uneventful as it ended 27-27.

I asked Atkinson after the match what would have happened had I missed that final convert, to which he responded, 'ah I woulda had to kill you that's all'. I looked at him to see if he was joking which to be honest I was not sure. I still like the guy as our flyhalf though not sure on how sane he is. Oh well hope I never find that out.

Harlesburg

08-05-2006, 13:30

Harlesburg Break Streak
Harlesburg 18 East Lithuania 13

Harlesburg after a 3 game losing streak finally got their campaign back on track with a 77th minute drop goal to Walker to extend their small lead from seven to ten points and this turned out to be very handy as East Lithuanias reply from the kick off was perfection to say the least.

The restart was over a medium range but the EL 4 got to it first high up in the air and from the mass of bodies around him a maul was formed, a maul that pushed for 25 metres before the backs were unleashed first the 10 then the 12 the 13 was skipped up came the Fullback to take a beautiful no look pass right in the bread basket he fended one dummied sidestepped past a weak tackle on the wing from the lonely and exposed Chenescu and dotted down just inside the tram lines.

79th minute kick to come, up it goes and oh he's hooked it to the left!

But they still have time Harlesburg are running the clock down as much as possible taking an age to get to the half way line, the hooter goes but the ref says 'play the kick' Walker kicks long and into the hands of the Right wing just inside the 22 he runs up straight into a wall of Harlesburg defenders and is smothered.
The Ref blows the whistle what will he call?
Held in the ruck Game over!

Walkers try was off of a 5 metre scrum after the East Lithuanian Fullback had fumbled a bomb, Hargreaves skirted around the side beating the tackle of the number 8 before going straight between the 12 and 13 drawing both in for the tackle and givin Walker an easy dot down under the posts.
He made the simple kick.

Hargreaves after some strong forward work from the pack fends off his opposite before passing to Gervais who after running 12 metres is brought down but not before passing back to Hargreaves now running on the outside to score 5 in from the corner.

57th minute...
35 metres out 7 in from touch East Lithuania are penalised for not releasing the tackeld player Walker makes the kick succesful after it hits the up right.
Harlesburg
Walker: Try(22nd), Conversion(22nd), Penalty,(57th), Drop Goal(77th)
Hargreaves: Try(38th)

77th...
Walker in the pocket gets a pass from Hargreaves and drills the ball between the posts from 35 metres out.

East Lithuania
4: Try(29th)
10:Penalty(37th)
15:Try (77th)

Haraki

09-05-2006, 04:44

Matchday Eight Scores:
There will be no tables today because I'm strapped for time IRL. They will be updated as of Matchday Nine tomorrow.

Group 1:
Milchama (25 - 15) East Lithuania
Virginia Nova (21 - 10) Rubicon States
Harlesburg (19 - 17) AMW China

Group 2:
Snake Eaters (15 - 17) San Haven
Rorysville (10 - 35) PopularFreedom
Artitsa (20 - 19) Chicanada

Group 3:
McPsychoville (26 - 8) Gwazzaria
Prolestan (17 - 7) Silage
Haraki BYE

Group 4:
Sarzonia (27 - 22) Starblaydia
MeusDomus (7 - 10) Larkinia
Karullia BYE

Harlesburg

09-05-2006, 13:28

Harlesburg topple Leaders
Harlesburg (19 - 17) AMW China

Harlesburg were hosts to current Group 1 leaders and inform team AMW China at the 'Tabletop Stadium' in the Harlesburg city of Charlston in front of a boistorous capacity crowd of 58,000 fervent fans as many as 4,000 making the journey from AMW China or at least being local fans.

Harlesburg lost the toss and were forced to kick off first and straight from the kickoff they showed they wern't going to be a push over Benito Lombard on the left wing snaffled the ball high in the air off of a short kick off of 15 metres and ran 6 metres before being brought down by the burly Lim but the oncoming forwards with much enthusiasim cleared the ruck and made sure Hargreaves had good quality ball to feed to the backs.

This he did passing to Walker who began running across the field towards the right goal post before passing a behined the back flick to Centre Patrick O'Halloran who found himself with a handy gap created by the angle Walker ran and the delayed pass, he ran 12 metres and almost looked like he would get past the fullback before the Loosie, Collins got a hand to his jersey and dragged him down 7 metres short, Frederickson the number 7 quickly secured the ball and gained another 2 metres before he was tackled the Harlesburg forwards came in and the Lock Danist made a surge but was held up but a maul was formed and the weight of the Harlesburg pack was too much for the AMW China team and the try was scored by Number 8 Harold McNaught.

After this early setback AMW China regained their focus and went to work, the kick off went down to Walker and he was happy to put it into touch 8 metres on the AMW China side.
Wong's throw was straight and was firmly grabbed by Everly who went to ground and had a maul formed around him this went forward 3 metres before Ming took the ball and darted at the defence he was tackled by Lock Charles Williams AMW China held on and made another run forward through Andrew Hui he was tackled by Danist, who stayed on his feet and tried to win the ball on the ground but the ref had called the ruck.
Spencer opted to go for the side instead of the availabe 3 points and kicked the all into the corner.

Ming again threw well finding Marshall at the back who ran 3 metres before Gervais stopped him dead.
Ming probed right but was denied and the play swung back to the left thorugh Woo who was brought down 4 metres out Ming again went forward but this time passed to the winger Chou who was tackled justinches from the line after a bit of rucking the ball was freed and Lim went forward aided by Wong and En who pushed him onwards the ball spilled out the side quite possibly by a Harlesburg hand illegally, Handel was slow to react and the centre Lee pounced over the line.
Spencer sliced the kick from 15 in after allowing for the wind.

The Harlesburg lead was now only 2 but once again AMW China let themselves down by not retrieving the restart, Frederickson tipping it back for McDonald who rushed forward was brought down and had Hargreaves off like a rocket he passed to Gervais who straightened up and went straight for the diminutive Ming broke through the tackle and found clear space ahead with only the Fullback Chen to beat with Lombard on his outside he simply took the tackle and passed to him.
A beautiful set up that allowed Lombard to run around the goal to dot it down under the posts.
Walker made the kick no trouble and extende the lead to 14-5

Summary
Harlesburg
Walker (2/3)Conversion 4th, 19th
McNaught Try 4th
Benito Lombard Try 19th
Butch Dykes Try 69th

AMW China
Lee Try 17th
Ming Try 55th
Spencer Try 63rd, Conversion 55th

havent lost since 2
Beat us on matchday 3 21-20
Matchday Eight Scores:

Group 1:
Milchama (25 - 15) East Lithuania
Virginia Nova (21 - 10) Rubicon States
Harlesburg (19 - 17) AMW China

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 6 0 2 155 136 19 1 25
Milchama 5 1 2 114 117 -3 1 23
Harlesburg 4 0 4 118 149 -31 2 18
Rubicon States 3 0 5 127 116 22 4 16
Virginia Nova 3 1 4 130 132 -2 2 16
East Lithuania 2 0 6 127 129 2 4 12

Fullback - Jay Chen
Winger - Jonathan Bayer
Winger - Mark Chou
Centre - Peter Lee
Centre - Andrew Hui
5/8 - Carl Spencer
2nd 5/8s - Alan Peng
Halfback - Xiao Ming
Hooker - Derick Wong
Prop Forward - Lim
Prop Forward - Woo
Second Row Forward - Marshall
Second Row Forward - Collins
Lock - Everly
Lock - En

McPsychoville

09-05-2006, 17:19

Mixed Fortunes

Aye. A seven-point loss against Silage on MD7 were followed by a rout of Gwazzaria, 26-8. Lasek were in bloody good form - he got the try against Silage, then another two against Gwazzaria - n'he were made captain for the Gwazzaria game. Silage basically ripped us t'pieces; they scored a try, converted it, we scored a try, converted it, they scored a try, converted it. No questions asked 'bout that.

Gwazzaria scored a try and messed up the conversion, then got a drop goal, then the Psychos went nuts on 'em. Lasek got his first try, Damon went wide off the conversion, then Lanik and Kotalik both got tries and Damon converted them both. Sevak got himself sent off for fighting, but the other bloke got sent off as well so it's all good; Lasek finished off by scoring from the scrum, and again, Damon converted it.

Scorers
Byron Lasek - 25 (5 Tries)
Sean Damon - 18 (7 Conversions, 2 Penalties)
Anatoly Lanik - 15 (3 Tries)
Andris Kotalik - 10 (2 Tries)

Sarzonia

10-05-2006, 01:21

Woodstock Daily Mail

Galaxians stun Starblaydia

by Dave Aiden
Daily Mail Staff Writer

9 May 2006 -- It wasn't supposed to happen, not after the two previous meetings between Sarzonia's rugby union club and Starblaydia's ended in decisive Starblaydi wins. Not after Sarzonia struggled to defeat a newcomer side in the previous match. And certainly not in a World Cup that has seen Sarzonian ally Artitsa struggle mightly.

But happen it did, to the tune of a 27-22 upset win by Sarzonia that drew the teams level in points atop the Group 4 standings, although Starblaydia have the better won-loss record overall and a better point differential. However, to most Galaxians supporters and to many Sarzonians who were watching the match because it was Sarzonia v. Starblaydia, that was of little concern.

"We beat those bloody wankers," yelled Jeff Cummings, 24, a graduate student at Joe Gibbs University who was visiting his aunt in Portland and watched the match at The Brig, a famous watering hole along The Pier. "We won a match against Starblaydia. That's what we care about," he said after he calmed down following the impromptu post match rally outside the bar. "It didn't matter what sport it was or how ugly the result was. We got a result against Starblaydia."

"It was a brilliant match by our lads," former Galaxian and current Stars defender Mike Cole said. "They still have some things to work on but they'll get there. They played hard for 80 minutes and that's all you can ask."

The Galaxians (4-0-3, 18 points) finally managed to overcome their inability to earn tries, notching four against a Starblaydi team that held the stingiest defence in the group until Sarzonia scored 27 against them.

"I'd like to say we were better than them tactically," said fullback Les Crandall. "I'd like to say we outmuscled them. But we just wanted it more than they did. That's where it all boils down in the end. We just worked harder than they did for this win and you saw the results."

Sarzonia have a bye for Matchday 8 and will likely use the time to celebrate and prepare for their final match of the group stage. Only this time, they'll prepare for it with a real chance to advance past the group stage. Even though most pundits dismissed the team's chances of earning a slot in the next round and other analysts questioned the effect qualifying would have on rugby's future in Sarzonia, even the most hardened skeptic would have trouble minimising the effect that beating Starblaydia would have.

"A win against Starblaydia is a win against Starblaydia," said Morris Collis, a longtime newspaper columnist and rugby critic who publishes morriscollins.srz, a popular sports-related blog in Sarzonia. "That's going to mean more than making it to the next round. About the only thing that would dwarf that is advancing to the finals."

Matchday Seven Scores:

Group 4:
Sarzonia (27 - 22) Starblaydia
MeusDomus (7 - 10) Larkinia
Karullia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Starblaydia 4 0 2 119 85 34 2 18
Sarzonia 4 0 3 136 123 13 2 18
Larkinia 4 0 2 87 80 7 1 17
MeusDomus 3 0 4 95 109 -14 2 14
Karullia 1 0 5 82 112 -40 3 7

PopularFreedom

10-05-2006, 01:47

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

I gotta say I am so mad. Our national newspaper, The PopularFreedom Ticker (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/), has yet to write a story about us in the Rugby World Cup, even though rugby is the national game of our nation.

I gotta say I hate Locke Harbour (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Locke_Harbour) our capital as well since well they write the national paper in their city. If they had one of their teams in the World Cup they would be focusing on it, but naw, their teams suck. Last and second last in the PopularFreedom Rugby League this season (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/2006-prl.htm), and I am glad for that!

Today for instance, I have yet to see a story about us in the national newspaper yet or on their website even though we crushed our opponent. I am glad too cause they beat us bad the first time we played so great that we were able to return the favour.

I have to say I was worried entering the game though. The loss of our flanker Sam Oroi in the last match was a blow to us but Mike Zittler played okay though he did have a few 'moments' which again makes me wonder about coach's decision to seek primarily guys from our rugby club team. Like don't get me wrong, I am loyal to our club the Wanderers, but still we need the best of the best on our team, not just cause he happens to be part of the Wanderers. Then again I guess no one will notice cause we won today's match that Zittler was not the best flanker out there.

The match started off decently. One positive was that it was sunny today with next to no wind. Our flyhalf, Donald Atkinson, had fun with that, booting the ball everywhere. I gotta say that guy has an awesome kick. Never ever seen someone so accurate. Too bad we lack the speed to take advantage of it at times but still he was kicking that ball and having it bounce out between the tryline and the enemy's 5 at least 10 times in today's match. Ten times! I doubt even John Salmon, our old flyhalf, could have done it more than 3 times even in practice.

It was actually off one of those kicks that we scored our first try of the match. Atkinson booted the ball and had it bounce out at the Rorysville 1 yard line. They throw it in and Trevor Hughes, one of our jumpers steals it, tosses it to our scrumhalf who wires it to Atkinson who barges through for a easy 7-0 lead with the convert at the 9 minute mark of the match.

Rorysville quickly countered however. I knocked on the kickoff, yea yea, I know my kid is gonna see this diary probably one of these days and wonder why I would even record it but hey if you are reading this Peter, just being honest. Anyhow what was I saying, oh yea, so I knocked on the kickoff and they got the scrum. Their hooker won it clean and their scrumhalf passed it to their inside centre who kicked a wicked dropkick that made it through to cut our lead to 7-3. I don't know what was worse, dropping the ball or looking at Atkinson after they scored the drop goal.

Anyhow we booted the ball to them and well Atkinson decided he would kick it to the backs. A nice up and over to that same inside centre who had scored the drop goal. Think his name is Patrice Lafleur, anyhow the guy catches it and just is drilled by Atkinson and I mean drilled. Looked like he got hit by a freight train as Atkinson just crunched him. I was right behind him and picked up the loose ball and started running with it. Their fullback eventually caught up to me but with their backs all a mess from the confusion after the kickoff, I just gave a quick pass to Geoff Ryio, our outside centre who easily walked in for a try. At least I was told he easily walked in. Never did see it as moments after the pass I got crunched myself by their fullback, Alexei Yagouden.

We missed the convert which left the score at 12-3 at the 20th minute mark.

Off the restart Atkinson again kicked a high up and over this time to their forwards. You could hear Denver Kirkland, our 8-man laughing out loud seconds before he ran over the Rorysville forward who caught the ball. Our pack then went to work. Rucking over it and giving the ball to Atkinson. Atkinson then booted another kick that found touch after a bounce at the Rorysville 3 yard line.

Rorysville again set themselves for the lineout, and again we stole it, this time our second jumper, Larry Graves grabbed the ball out of the Rorysville player's hand. Came down with it and then dove into the tryzone, touching the ball down for a 17-3 lead. Atkinson hit the convert for a 19-3 lead before it was 25 minutes in.

After that try Rorysville started to play a bit better for the remainder of the half, while we seemed content to sit on our lead. We entered the half with a 25-3 lead with the help of two late Atkinson drop goals.

In the second Rorysville came out strong. I got drilled on the opening kickoff and was pulled by coach as a 'precautionary' move. I doubt it was actually due to precautions but still I don't blame him really since my last few outings have not been my best.

Coach put Malcom Rivers in for me and he played okay, though it was cause of him why Rorysville got their try next try. Very next play actually in fact, after I was pulled, Rorysville won their put in to the scrum and passed it out to their backs. Atkinson of course hit his opposite hard, however Rivers completely missed Patrice Lafleur, their inside centre. Lafleur then was off to the races and ran around our fullback and into the tryzone for a score. With the convert our lead was reduced to 25-10.

Prior to the ensuing kickoff you could hear Atkinson on the pitch chewing out Rivers. Coach was laughing cause he noted, 'see, good thing I pulled you, you don't want that Barbarian yelling at you now eh'.

I kinda smiled at the comment but sorta didnt cause I know I would not have missed the tackle Rivers did.

On the ensuing kick off we booted it to the Rorysville forwards who took it well and set up a maul. Atkinson tried to ruck through them but failed and the ball then was passed out to their backs who made their way down the field. Luckily before they could cross the tryline Atkinson had run back to help in a ruck that erupted just before the tryline.

Never seen our team work like that, we stopped them from scoring a try with the most impressive push by forwards and a few backs I have ever seen our team do.

Atkinson after was pumped, talking up our team at how well they did in preventing Rorysville from catching up. On the ensuing play Atkinson then booted the ball far downfield which seemed to drain some of the momentum from the Rorysville players.

The play then turned into a kicking affair for most of the remainder of the match with them trying to kick and run, while we, and specifically Atkinson, were just booting for touch. By the time the final whistle had gone we had a 35-10 win off a late drop goal by Atkinson, plus a try by our scrumhalf Yukon Thompson off a blind side run he did near the end of the game.

I gotta say I was impressed with how our team played today though I had better step up my game at inside centre, just grateful in a way that Rivers did not play that well either.

AMW China

10-05-2006, 02:01

Shock defeat for the Chinese

The Chinese suffered a setback today in their road to world cup success as they were upset by a passionate Harlesburg team and undone by a return of their forward pack problems. Spencer also had a bad day at goalkicking, being unable to adapt to the conditions, managing only 1/3 conversions.

The Harlesburg pack showed their skill early on, performing a brilliant rolling maul against a struggling Chinese pack who struggled with the strength of the Harlesburg forwards, who were able to score through McNaught in the 4th minute

Centre Lee scored in the 17th minute after a period of Chinese attacking and a mistake by Handel. The next two tries were scored through Ming and Spencer in the 55th and 63rd minute.

Fullback Jay Chen reported an ankle strain after the match and may possibly be rest for the next match against Rubicon States. It is also likely that several other players will be rested in the next match and new players be bought into the squad.

Haraki

10-05-2006, 05:18

Matchday Nine Scores:

Group 1:
Virginia Nova (24 - 10) East Lithuania
Rubicon States (19 - 21) AMW China
Harlesburg (24 - 20) Milchama

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 7 0 2 176 155 21 1 29 Q
Milchama 5 1 3 134 141 -7 2 24
Harlesburg 5 0 4 142 169 -27 2 22
Virginia Nova 4 1 4 154 142 12 2 20
Rubicon States 3 0 6 146 137 9 5 17 E
East Lithuania 2 0 7 137 153 -16 4 12 E

Group 2:
Rorysville (3 - 12) San Haven
PopularFreedom (29 - 19) Chicanada
Artitsa (5 - 19) Snake Eaters

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
San Haven 5 1 2 132 116 16 1 23
PopularFreedom 5 1 3 174 165 9 1 23
Rorysville 4 2 3 158 130 28 1 21
Snake Eaters 3 2 4 148 131 17 2 18 E
Artitsa 3 0 5 104 140 -36 3 15 E
Chicanada 3 0 8 150 192 -42 3 15 E

Group 3:
Prolestan (20 - 15) Gwazzaria
Silage (21 - 20) Haraki
McPsychoville BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 5 1 1 154 102 52 1 23 Q
Prolestan 5 0 3 119 112 7 1 21 Q
Silage 4 0 3 100 118 -18 0 16 E
McPsychoville 3 0 4 95 106 -11 2 14 E
Gwazzaria 0 1 6 101 141 -40 4 6 E

Group 4:
MeusDomus (17 - 22) Starblaydia
Larkinia (24 - 12) Karullia
Sarzonia BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Starblaydia 5 0 2 141 102 39 2 22
Larkinia 5 0 2 111 92 19 1 21
Sarzonia 4 0 3 136 123 13 2 18
MeusDomus 3 0 5 112 131 -19 3 15 E
Karullia 1 0 6 94 136 -52 3 7 E

AMW China

10-05-2006, 06:48

(OOC: Q and E?)

Chinese survive scare

AMW China 21 - Chou try, Peng try, Bayer try, 3 conversions Chu
Rubicon States 19 (3 tries, 1 conversion)

HT 0-14

A decision by Coach Graham Hart to name five changes to the side which lost to Harlesburg last week in order to rest key players almost blew up in his face today. No 10 and Captain Carl Spencer was rested, with No 10 Steven Chu taking his place. The forward pack was also reshuffled, with three new faces. Fullback Chen also started on the bench. Giant centre Jonathan Bayer returned to his previous position as Winger.

The Chinese started poorly, and the Rubicon halfback virtually ran through the Chinese line untouched after 7 minutes. It seemed the Chinese side were struggling to put together phases and inadequately prepared with the new team members, and the Rubicon team dominated both possession and territory for the first half. The Rubicon team scored two tries in that period through a winger and a centre. In the later stages of the half, the Chinese began to work more cohesively, the forwards delivering qualilty ball, but were unable to score and ended the half 14-0 down.

After some harsh words in the changing room, the team really started to work. Fullback Chen was sent into the game to address the leaky defence. The first of three Chinese tries was scored in the 55th minute. Fullback Chen caught a high bomb and opted to run it to the left wing, managing to sidestep a couple of players. Chen produced a superb chip kick but was taken out with a stiff arm to the face, while Chou dived onto the ball to score in the corner. Chen converted the try to bring the score up to 7-14.

The Rubicon team struck back immediately after pushing back a weak Chinese scrum from 3m out who had problems all game but failed to convert, giving them a handy 19-7 lead with 20 minutes remaining. Victory seemed close for the Rubicon States.

No 10 Chu showed a moment of class in the 62nd minute after playing poorly all night. The attack started deep in the Chinese half. Chu probed and sidestepped in the midfield, taking a tackle from the Rubicon halfback, but offloaded the ball so subtlely that many of the opposition players stood back, thinking he had dropped it. No 12 Peng caught the offload and ran into a gaping hole in the defence, running 70m to score a try between the posts that would narrow the lead to 19-14.

The Chinese nailed the coffin shut with another try in the 76th minute. 5/8s Steven Chu made a kick from inside the 22 but was partially charged down and retrieved by centre Lee. Big winger Jonathan Bayer seemed to appear out of nowhere, taking a pass from Lee and smashing the way through five midfield players to score between the posts.

Coach Graham Hart said after the match that this game exposed the lack of depth among the forwards, and the team would work on that over the week.

Starblaydia

10-05-2006, 11:48

(OOC: Q and E?)

OOC: Qualified & Eliminated.

Harlesburg

10-05-2006, 11:48

Harlesburg Return To Form
Harlesburg 24-Milchama 20
After two early away victories to start their campaign followed by 3 away loses and then in their first home game another loss this time to Rubicon States 28-8 after they had edged them out 14-12 in Rubicon States.
But how things have changed, three wins from 3 games has propelled them from last in 'Group 1' to 3rd on the table behined AMW China and Milchama both teams Harlesburg have beaten in consecutive games 19-17 and 24-20 respectivly.

A few changes have been made to Harlesburg's normal lineup, Barry Hampster comes in at #1 for the stocky Toby Anderson, Micheal Slazer takes up position at the back of the scrum for Harold McNaught replacing power with more pace Micheal Stains gets a bit of match experience at First Five-Eight giving Star Manu Walker a rest and Garrick Williams gets taken off the reserve bench.

Harlesburg Lineup
1)Barry Hampster
2)Hammish Findles
3)Christopher Handel
4)Charles Williams (C)
5)Christopher Danist
6)Craig MacDonald
7)Micheal Frederickson
8)Micheal Slazer
9)James Hargreaves
10)Micheal Stains
11)Benito Lombard
12)Ricky Gervais
13)Patrick O'Halloran
14)Fedor Chenescu
15)Peter Pounchescu
Reserves
16)Butch Dykes(Hooker)
17)Toby Anderson(Prop)
18)Patrick Tobt(Lock)
19)Walter Danielson(Loose Forward)
20)Stephen Randel(Halfback)
21)Manu Walker(First-Five)
22)Mathius Spritzer(Wing/Fullback)

At Harlesburg's 'Harlesburg Stadium' in Harlesburg 'City' 78,500 fans sensing a great oppurtunity for Harlesburg to edge closer to a Quarter-finals spot came out to eagerly watch Harlesburg play Milchama.
Milchama kicked off and Frederickson recieved running the ball up using all of his 104 kg frame to break the tackle of Lyle Floosher before a joint effort from Danny Limeron up high and Ulton Fennerborough brought him down, Hargreaves recycled the ball and fed Stains who kicked to touch.
Captain Charles Williams plucked the opposition line out ball before being taken in the air illegally by Kevin Gilbert with the penalty awarded Stains opted for a shot at goal from 38 metres out but the kick went wide.
Milchama restarted from the 22 and Chenescu got the ball 10 metres inside the Harlesburg half he ran it back before putting up a 'bomb' which Bobby Sachkani easily 'marked' in the 22.

Milchama broke the deadlock in the 13th minute, Makos Jurosh put a kick into the corner and Pounchescu could do little but kick the ball into touch giving Milchama the lineout ball.
Ulton Fennerborough was lifted high and claimed the ball and with great teamwork Milchama formed up around him and pushed him over for the try.
Cormack converted.

Not until the 26th minute did Harlesburg find a reply and put some points on the scoreboard.
Jonny Romeman was penalised for hands in the ruck, Stains kicked to touch and 15 metres out Danist won the lineout tapping it down to Hargreaves who spun it wide to O'Halloran who was taken in the tackle by Makos Jurosh, Gervais ran onto a Hargreaves pass and skip passed Prop Handel, MacDonald recieved fended off Terry Daneski before colapsing over the line with Corey Battenpush holding on.
Stains Converted.

31st minute Danist was penalised for a high tackle on a falling Corey Battenpush who had to go off for a bleeding nose, Cormack made the shot.

The game again tilted Milchama's favour when in the 35th Tucker Midel 'subbed' on for Corey Battenpush who was in the Blood-bin, intercepted Hampster's pass intended for Micheal Slazer who was in free space on the left wing.
Midel ran 75 metres and scored under the posts an easy shot for Cormack to convert giving Milchama a 17-7 lead.

This would have been heartbreaking for any team going into the break but Harlesburg after the Oranges were soon back in the game when in the 44th minute Chenescu scoring the first of his two tries ran through some weak defence and then put on the afterburners before diving over the line far out on the right hand side, Stains missed the kick but Milchama's lead had been reduced to 17-12.

Milchama struck back in the 49th minute kicking a penalty from 44 metres out after Centre O'Halloran had been called offside. Milchama 20- Harlesburg 12.

Left-wing Benito Lombard was given free space after a well worked Centre Halves setup between Hargreaves, O'Halloran and Gervais cut the defensive line to shreds, Gervais was taken in the tackle but quick play by Hargreaves and then onto Stains who fired a long pass out to the wing where Lombard ran 35 metres to score in the left corner being harrassed by Daneski who very nearly knocked the ball out of Lombards hands it had to go up to the Try Match Officials who awarded the try.
Stains again missed the kick.
Milchama 20 Harlesburg 17 in the 54th minute.

Then in the 68th minute Harlesburg took the lead, Walker who had come on for Gervias linked up with Stains on the Milchama 10 metre line ran at the defence and was brought down but not before off loading to Hammish Findles who gained another 3 metres, Harlesburg went forward again this time it was Mathius Spritzer up in the offensive line and on for Pounchescu who left th field in the 63rd minute with a sprained ankle, Spritzers fresh legs proved the better of Marian Luppers and he skirted around him before linking up with reserve Hooker Butch Dykes who passed to Walker, saw the defense was up and flat put a grubber kick in and Chenscu followed it up, the bounce being cruel for Dulen hitting the padding and Chenescu got the loose ball.
Stains converted his 2nd and Harlesburg finally led 24-20 a lead they would hold for the rest of the game.

Summary
Harlesburg 24
Micheal Stains (2/4) Conversions (0/1) Penalties
MacDonald Try 26th
Chenescu 2 Tries 44th, 68th
Lombard Try 54th

Milchama 20
Terry Cormack (2/2) Conversions (2/2) Penalties 31st, 49th
Ulton Fennerborough 13th
Tucker Midel back 35th

Matchday Nine Scores:
Group 1:
Virginia Nova (24 - 10) East Lithuania
Rubicon States (19 - 21) AMW China
Harlesburg (24 - 20) Milchama

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 7 0 2 176 155 21 1 29 Q
Milchama 5 1 3 134 141 -7 2 24
Harlesburg 5 0 4 142 169 -27 2 22
Virginia Nova 4 1 4 154 142 12 2 20
Rubicon States 3 0 6 146 137 9 5 17 E
East Lithuania 2 0 7 137 153 -16 4 12 E
In their final game Harlesburg must beat Virginia Nova and have either a Milchama loss to AMW China or a draw between the two teams but with Harlesburg winning by 21 points or more.
AMW China destroyed Milchama 24-0 in Milchama in round 5 and with AMW China at home this should be an added advantage and could tip the scales even more in their favour.
So a Harlesburg win by 21 and a Milchama draw, a Harlesburg draw and a Milchama loss by 21 points or a Harlesburg win and a Milchama loss should be enough to see Harlesburg go through.
Harlesburg Group 1 Schedule:
East Lithuania (19 - 20) Harlesburg W
Rubicon States (12 - 14) Harlesburg W
AMW China (21 - 20) Harlesburg L
Milchama (17 - 13) Harlesburg L
Virginia Nova (22 - 6) Harlesburg L
Harlesburg (8 - 28) Rubicon States L
Harlesburg (18 - 13) East Lithuania W
Harlesburg (19 - 17) AMW China W
Harlesburg (24 - 20) Milchama W
Virginia Nova ( - ) Harlesburg

Harlesburg

10-05-2006, 13:45

(OOC)My For and Against should be -27 not -37...

Haraki

10-05-2006, 16:41

(OOC)My For and Against should be -27 not -37...

My apologies. Fixed.

Haraki suffered their first defeat of the Cup today, as they went down 21-20 to Silage. Haraki took an early lead as a long bouncing punt into touch by James Keay gave Silage a lineout just outside their own 10 metre line, which they won and passed back to the fly half, inside their own end. His indecision eventually ended with James Keay rushing up and tackling him to the ground, giving Haraki a 5-metre scrum, which the forwards pushed over for a try by Thomas Gerryin, which Nathan Cannon managed to convert fairly easily.

This was followed ten minutes later by James Keay trying his first drop goal of the Cup, managing to get it in from the 22 and get an extra three points for Haraki. But Silage came back with a nice try that Xavier Walker seemed unable to stop, right under the posts for an easy convert. The half continued with another Silage try later on, again converted, although only three minutes from the end Haraki had advanced the ball so well that Silage's hands in the ruck gave Nathan Cannon an easy kick for three points, making the score 14-13 for Silage at half.

Haraki managed another drop goal by Nathan Cannon five minutes in to bring them into the lead again, and off the kickoff managed to take the ball quickly down towards the opposition end. When Silage finally won a ruck, it was on their own five metre line, passed back to the fly half who tried to kick, but had the punt smothered by Adam Farreley. The ball sailed high into the air and came down, skittering towards the corner bouncing. Although the entire Silage team was sprinting for it, James Keay got there first and managed to dive onto it for a try near the touch line, which Cannon missed the convert for, bringing the score to 20-14.

But Silage were determined, eventually coming back in the 73rd minute for another try past Walker, who seemed to be playing terribly for some time now. The crucial convert was made, and Silage had the win.

The Haraki coach, Allan Ferris, has announced that Walker will be sitting on the bench for the next game, putting Brad Weckit on in fullback position.

James Keay was announced Haraki's Man of the Match, for superb play. Long punts, devastating tackles, and ultimately also eight points. Ferris called it a well-earned title.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 6
Michael Benes: 10
Thomas Gerryin: 10
James Keay: 18
Nathan Cannon: 63
Daniel Virlan: 15
Adam Farreley: 15
Sam Davies: 15
Jasper Hull: 5

McPsychoville

10-05-2006, 17:51

OOC: So why have the Psychos got such a low points total? It's, like, the second lowest and since we're supposed to be an attacking team, I find it odd and curious.

Haraki

10-05-2006, 19:16

OOC: So why have the Psychos got such a low points total? It's, like, the second lowest and since we're supposed to be an attacking team, I find it odd and curious.

The best answer I can come up with is 'Shit happens'. Also remember that since Group 3 had five teams instead of six, you had two less games to score points in than more than half the teams in the Cup.

Sarzonia

10-05-2006, 19:37

Portland Press-Herald

Last day critical for Galaxians

by Anson Lee
Press-Herald Staff Writer

10 May 2006 -- Most observers would have predicted that the final qualifying matchday for the Sarzonian rugby union side would be a meaningless opportunity for the players to audition not just for their jobs, but for the sport itself to have a future in a football-mad nation. Most would have told you that the Galaxians would have little to play for but pride.

However, nothing could be farther from the truth for the Galaxians. After their shock defeat of Starblaydia, the team have the opportunity to win their way into the second round of World Cup V if they get some help from their ancient rivals. Starblaydia and Larkinia face each other in a pivotal match for Sarzonia, while the Galaxians battle last place Karullia.

Should be easy, right? Not so fast. If Starblaydia win their match by seven points or less, Larkinia would end up with 22 points, which would be identical to Sarzonia's point total if they defeat Karullia. By point differential or head-to-head results, Sarzonia would be left out in the cold.

If Larkinia win by seven points or more, Sarzonia would be level with Starblaydia in points, but likely far behind in point differential. So the scenario for Sarzonia to advance is this: They must defeat Karullia and have Starblaydia defeat Larkinia by eight points or more.

"It's not easy and it's not something we should expect going in," said fullback Les Crandall. "More important, we need to take care of business ourselves. None of the Starblaydia-Larkinia match will mean anything if we don't do our part."

Even if the Stars fail to advance, word from potential investors in a rugby union league for Sarzonia is that they are on the verge of inking a deal to establish a six team professional league in the country. They said the team's upset win over Starblaydia led television networks to call them for coverage.

"We had maybe one local access channel in West Wilmington (Somerset) express interest" before the Starblaydia match, said C.J. Morgan, a lawyer who is thought to be the favourite to serve as the first commissioner of the new league. "After we won that game, I must have gotten six calls from major networks. I also got three offers to use larger stadia than we'd been targeting." Teams will likely be placed in Woodstock, Portland, Nicksia, Tacoma, Wilmington, and one city to be determined. The league will allocate national team players to the league and an entry draft will fill out rosters.

"Even if the Galaxians fail to advance, they've got a bright future ahead of them," said former Galaxian and current Sarzonian national team footballer Mike Cole. "It's a wonder what a little taste of success can do."

PopularFreedom

11-05-2006, 00:29

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

Well today is huge. Okay yesterday's match is huge, but today is really huge! Just looking at the paper, or should I say papers.

I gotta say I just love this World Cup experience. I am finding papers from nations all over the world here.

Today for instance I am reading the *checks paper name* Portland Press-Herald. Not even sure where it is from *checks paper again* oh wait a second, from the nation of Sarzonia, way cool. Actually I think I have read one of their papers before today *checks a pile of papers on his hotel desk* yep yep, here we are the Woodstock Daily Mail, another paper from the same nation. Funny, cause all the players from these nations take these papers for granted but I have never seen these before. Sure I can get my rugby fix from the Sacredicity Citizen (http://invisionfree.com/forums/The_Heartland/index.php?showtopic=3875), but really there is something kinda cool about reading a foreign paper and see your name, or your city, or your nation in it.

See right here in the Haraki paper. Says my name, 'Garth Williamson', and my picture scoring the first try in our game yesterday against Chicanada. That was a sweet try too since it put us ahead 7-0 with the convert. That is so cool they got my picture in here. Got another paper from today too, the Swooton Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram. Talk about a long name, anyhow that paper is from the nation of Milchama. They got a picture of us in here too. Shows Denver Kirkland, our 8-man scoring our second try with the title, 'a possible threat'. I gotta show this to Kirkland, he will get a kick outta it. Just trying to remember, oh yeah he scored that try in the 23rd minute of the match to make it 14-0 with the convert.

Kinda cool about all this since when you look at each paper they have a different event from this match. Not sure why, seems each paper had a big rugby section where they noted different games and well pictures from our match got posted, specifically from our team. Way cool!

Here is another one, the next try we scored at the 35th minute. That was a beauty as off a penalty we ran a deception type play where half our pack went left, half our pack went right, the ball went right and their pack just froze long enough so we could score easily to make it 21-0. Can't even tell that that is Larry Graves our lock scoring that try. Horrible picture of him, makes him look like he is having a constipation problem with how his face looks. I gotta cut this out and put it over our team door today with the words 'concentrate' on top of it! The team is gotta laugh!

It's funny cause there are no pictures of the Chicanada players, wonder if that is cause their team is eliminated as you would figure they would have gotten pictures of their two tries before half. I got pulled by coach due to the last one though that wasn't my fault though one of the guys noted it was cause of the 1st one I got pulled just coach waited a bit.

Anyhow it was 21-14 entering the second half when we got the kickoff and my replacement Jerry Corin catches the ball. Well shoot, he is like speedman as he just burst through their team like he was on fire. He had to touch it in the corner, which made it hard to get the convert, which hit the upright so a minute into the second it was 26-14.

Chicanada, hey wait a second, the Atherlon Times from Haraki. I am looking at the front page now and in the bottom left corner it has Corin's try. How the hell did he get put in there? Wow.

I gotta say Haraki loves their rugby. They got more pictures of all the teams then even today's Sacredicity Citizen does.

So anyhow where was I, oh yea the match, so anyhow our flyhalf Donald Atkinson was able to hit a dropgoal around the 60th minute mark to up our lead to 29-14, which was a good thing as moments later Chicanada scored a try of their own though their kicker shanked the convert to cut our lead to 29-19.

After that we just hung on as there were two occasions where Chicanada were within 5 metres of our tryline but just could not score. Great defense if you ask me.

Anyhow today's game is gonna be big. Verses San Haven so gotta be up for that. I heard rumours I may not start but for now I expect I will so gotta prepare. Ah you know what, gonna read one more paper.

*Garth cracks open a copy of The Cauthaqua Inquisitor from Gwazzaria for a few minutes before he prepares to leave for the match today*

OOC: I tried to get everyone who has used a name for a newspaper in this one. Will request that everyone gives their news reports a name so I can add more info from your nations in my RPs (if you want) in the future. :)

Starblaydia

11-05-2006, 00:35

OOC: So why have the Psychos got such a low points total? It's, like, the second lowest and since we're supposed to be an attacking team, I find it odd and curious.

OOC: Perhaps your team just isn't very good, lol.

PopularFreedom

11-05-2006, 00:47

OOC: Perhaps your team just isn't very good, lol.

IC: I disagree. I have seen his team play and they are a well tuned team, though during matches they seem to follow the lead of their opponent and play along their line of play. To be honest it helps since their defensive totals are amazing but of course playing more defensively has hindered their offensive abilities.

OOC: bullying/poor sportsmanship isn't necessary here.

PopularFreedom

11-05-2006, 01:00

from the pages of the Sacredicity Citizen...

Wednesday, May 10, 2006
SACREDICITY CITIZEN

RUGBY: WILLIAMSON OUT, CORIN IN.
Coach Greenshaw gambles on starters for final game.

International report from Haraki - In probably the biggest decision in the life of coach Albert Greenshaw, he has pulled reliable passer Garth Williamson in place of the speedster Jerry Corin.

Coach Greenshaw was unavailable for comment however fans of the Sacredicity Saints (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10867784&postcount=4), have been noting for a while that something has to be done about their defense. Whether pulling Williamson is the answer will be seen today in their match against San Haven.

It is definetly a risky move and an usual one for coach Greenshaw. Those familiar with the rugby scene in Sacredicity will know that normally Greenshaw will choose members of the Saints, which represent the city, primarily from his club team the Sacredicity Wanderers Rugby Club. Williamson has been a long standing member of that club. Corin on the other hand comes from the enemy Sacredicity Barbarians Rugby Club. Again for those from the northeast side of the city the barbarians are of course not the enemy however it is common knowledge that the coach of the Sacredicity city squad normally only takes his own.

'It's how it has always been since the beginning of this game in the nation', noted one sports commentator. This decision therefore and the outcome of the match will therefore set a huge precident for both Sacredicity and rugby within the nation as well.

Stephen O’Malley, a writer for the PopularFreedom Ticker (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/) noted, 'what you're talking about here, if the Saints are successful, is an example of how a team has been successful at the international level by not using this method'.

Though most doubt that it will have such far reaching impacts upon the nation, we have only a few hours to see what fortunes this decision might have on the Saints making the Rugby World Cup V playoffs.

AMW China

11-05-2006, 01:50

The Final Countdown begins
RugbyChina.com

As the last round-robin match continue, the Chinese team find they have already qualified regardless of the result. Even if Milchama win heavily in the last match, they will still be a point behind the Chinese side.

Coach Graham Hart has taken the chance to experiment with his side, retaining rookie No 10 Steven Chu despite his weak debut to give Spencer a rest. Alan Kwok returns to number 15 after last week, and Michael Chiang plays at No 12 replacing Alan Peng.

The new look Chinese side is expected to play a different style of game based on Chu and Chiang's performances in their club games. Compared with Spencer and Peng, the two new players are more defensive and favour a kicking game as opposed to Spencer's midfield running style. Chiang and Chu were both club players at Beijing Union, who won the national title two years ago.

In other rugby news, RugbyChina.com analysts believe the Milchama side will trump Harlesburg to the last semi-finals spot. Local betting agencies have Milchama as hot favourites to grab the last spot at $1.20, with Harlesburg coming in at $3.50.

Coach Graham Hart believes however the Harlesburg side to represent the stiffest competition.

"They have one of the best packs in the competition and a fairly well endowed backline."

Looking back, analysts believe the chinese forwards have improved substantially, outperforming expectations, but still lacking depth. Spencer has ignited the backline and at times seems on the verge of leaving a legacy like former Wallaby Stephen Larkham and Wilkinson, and the final performance rests heavily on him.

Haraki

11-05-2006, 03:33

Matchday Ten (Final Day) Scores:

Group 1:
East Lithuania (20 - 21) Rubicon States
AMW China (15 - 13) Milchama
Harlesburg (18 - 19) Virginia Nova

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
AMW China 8 0 2 191 168 23 1 33 Q
Milchama 5 1 4 147 156 -9 3 25 Q
Virginia Nova 5 1 4 173 160 13 2 24 E
Harlesburg 5 0 5 160 188 -28 3 23 E
Rubicon States 4 0 6 167 157 10 5 21 E
East Lithuania 2 0 8 157 174 -17 5 13 E

Group 2:
San Haven (17 - 28) PopularFreedom
Chicanada (17 - 10) Snake Eaters
Artitsa (15 - 14) Rorysville

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
PopularFreedom 5 1 3 202 182 20 1 27 Q
San Haven 5 1 3 149 144 5 1 23 Q
Rorysville 4 2 4 172 145 27 2 22 E
Snake Eaters 3 2 5 158 148 10 3 19 E
Chicanada 4 0 8 167 202 -35 3 19 E
Artitsa 3 0 6 119 154 -35 3 19 E

Group 3:
Gwazzaria (17 - 21) Silage
Haraki (12 - 24) McPsychoville
Prolestan BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Haraki 5 1 2 166 126 40 1 23 Q
Prolestan 5 0 3 119 112 7 1 21 Q
Silage 5 0 3 121 135 -14 0 20 E
McPsychoville 4 0 4 119 118 1 2 18 E
Gwazzaria 0 1 7 118 162 -44 5 7 E

Group 4:
Starblaydia (17 - 21) Larkinia
Karullia (20 - 28) Sarzonia
MeusDomus BYE

Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
Larkinia 6 0 2 132 109 23 1 25 Q
Starblaydia 5 0 3 158 123 35 3 23 Q
Sarzonia 5 0 3 164 143 21 2 22 E
MeusDomus 3 0 5 112 131 -19 3 15 E
Karullia 1 0 7 114 164 -60 3 7 E

Congratulations to all teams that made it. Playoff schedule is as follows, with all teams on neutral ground in Haraki:

Ist Day (Quarter-Finals):
1. AMW China vs. San Haven
2. Milchama vs. PopularFreedom
3. Haraki vs. Starblaydia
4. Prolestan vs. Larkinia

2nd Day (Semi-Finals):
1. Winner of 1 vs. Winner of 2
2. Winner of 3 vs. Winner of 4

3rd Day (Final and Third Place):
Winner of 1 vs. Winner of 2
Loser of 1 vs. Loser of 2 (For Third place)

Good luck to all teams involved.

OOC: And for a post-cup ranking system, for qualifying I'm thinking the following:

Half (Or full, or double) your overall point total, with 4 points added to each team for each bye date, with the restriction that this cannot take them past the best team from their same spot in the tables (i.e. 3rd place with 24 points and two bye dates cannot exceed the best 3rd place with 27 points and so will cut off there).

Add to that your point difference multiplied by 0.1, which will give you your overall ranking points for qualification stages.

I'm still working on the system and don't know what we'll do with the post-qualifying stages for ranking systems, so I'm open to any suggestions.

Haraki

11-05-2006, 03:58

This is what the rankings would look like after qualifying for this Cup with full point totals used. I would be using rankings for three years, so the next year the new rankings would be fully counted and these ones would be worth half. The next year these ones would be worth a quarter.

Of course, if there are going to be other tournaments as I was planning on having, these may have to be cut down some so the others could count and we wouldn't be having ourageously high totals. But until then, these should work.

This is also including the bonus points for teams with byes. Note that the top teams got rather unusually high ones because AMW China did so freakishly well.

1. AMW China - 35.3
2. Larkinia - 35.3
3. Haraki - 35.0
4. PopularFreedom - 29.0
5. Starblaydia - 28.5
6. Sarzonia - 26.1
7. Prolestan - 25.7
8. Virginia Nova - 25.3
9. Rorysville - 24.7
10. Milchama - 24.1
11. San Haven - 23.5
12. McPsychoville - 23.1
13. Silage - 22.6
14. Rubicon States - 22.0
15. Harlesburg - 21.2
16. MeusDomus - 21.1
17. Snake Eaters - 20.0
18. Chicanada - 15.5
19. Artitsa - 15.5
20. East Lithuania - 11.3
21. Gwazzaria - 10.6
22. Karullia - 9.0

Harlesburg

11-05-2006, 07:31

My apologies. Fixed.

OOC: So why have the Psychos got such a low points total? It's, like, the second lowest and since we're supposed to be an attacking team, I find it odd and curious.
OOC: Perhaps your team just isn't very good, lol.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/flightrisker/lol.jpg
:fluffle: -Yes a Fluffle in NS/NS(It's for McPsychoville)
Sigh if i had only RPed once more...

Snake Eaters

11-05-2006, 07:53

Brief News Report
"A dissapointing first few matches, combined with a collapse in form in the latter half of the tournament following a streak of wins, have led Snake Eaters to be eliminated from the Rugby World Cup. The team is even now being flown back home, but will continue to follow the tournament to find out who wins."

"Coach Fletcher has been following every other team, and has publicly stated his good wishes to every team that qualifies, whilst making sure that they know that, next time, Snake Eaters will be back, and they will be much much better."

Rorysville

11-05-2006, 08:13

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3189/sportsnetrv9bw.png
Sportsnet RV Ruggers Central
Well as we were off the air due to programing conflicts we return with our Unfourtunate early exit from World Cup play. Now our Rugby World Cup Recap for Rorysville. THey started off looking shaky but around matchday 4 they turned into an almost unbeatable team. but as the Group play drew on the unbeatable got overconfident and less disciplined as such they ended up dropping the last three and went from first to third just a mere 1 point out of the playoff spot.The big positive out of Rorysville's performance was the impact at Home as the Rorysville Department of Sports and Athletics in the RV govenment has Boosted the Government Funding for development of the National Program along with Construction of a National Rugby Stadium to be built in either RV City,York,Scotsdale,or Highlands. The RVDSA also is Funding a Professional Rugby League they will annouce the plans soon here on Sportsnet RV as such you bet this program will be on more now with all this Rugby News in Rorysville. We salute the effort in our First ever Rugby World Cup.
"Well I think our downfall in the end was the lack of Finishing ability we showed signs of Brilance and the ability to dominate I think those are the things we have to continue to build off of for Future International events with the newly Funded National Program I think this team will only get stronger."--Coach Sittler

Final Group 2 Standings
Nation W D L F A PD BP P
---------------------------------------------------------------
PopularFreedom 5 1 3 202 182 20 1 27 Q
San Haven 5 1 3 149 144 5 1 23 Q
Rorysville 4 2 4 172 145 27 2 22 E
Snake Eaters 3 2 5 158 148 10 3 19 E
Chicanada 4 0 8 167 202 -35 3 19 E
Artitsa 3 0 6 119 154 -35 3 19 E

Rorysville Rugby World Cup Schedule as follows
MD 1:Chicanada L 20-17
MD 2: Snake Eaters D 13-13
MD 3: @PopularFreedom W 24-8
MD 4: @San Haven D 13-13
MD 5: Artitsa W 33-19
MD 6:@Chicanada W 19-7
MD 7:@Snake Eaters W 26-3
MD 8:PopularFreedom L 35-10
MD 9:San Haven L 12-3
MD10:@Artitsa L 15-14

AMW China

11-05-2006, 08:33

OOC: How will the points from the ranking be applied to future tournaments?

All eyes on the Future - China and Milchama qualify
RugbyChina.com

AMW China 15 Chou try, one drop goal (Chu), one conversion (Chu), Bayer try
Milchama 13

The Milchama Warriors made a brave stand but were eventually pipped by a mere two points by a Chinese team that fielded 2 new backline debutants in key positions.

Chu was dangerous all night with the boot all night - the first Chinese try resulted from a Chu grubber in the 30th minute that neatly sliced between the Milchama forwards and bounced just right for Jonathan Bayer to dive on and score. Chu pushed the conversion wide.

The Warriors hit back two minutes later with a try to Winger Bobby Sachkani after some slick running from the No 10 who slipped through a Chiang tackle and threw a very wide pass to the winger, who managed to slip through a waif-like fullback Alan Kwok. The conversion was made, and the score would be 5-7 at half time to Milchama.

Chu nailed a drop goal almost immediately after the second half started to give AMW China 1 point lead. The Chinese halfback was penalised for a forward pass a minute later, taking the score to 8-10, and another penalty was given to Chu for killing the ball. At 8-13 down, The Chinese were still in the hunt, but only just.

The final try of the match began deep in Chinese territory in the 77th minute after a period of Milchama dominance. The Chinese managed to turn over the ball after surviving sixteen phases, and immediately the counterattack began. Halfback Ming threw a pass to No 12 Chiang who opted to run instead of kicking. He was brought down 10m later, but not before he had created significant overlap and offloaded to Mark Chou, who ran the remaining 60m to score between the posts, and Chu converting for a full-time score of 15-13.

Hart was pleased with the effort. "I think our newer players really stepped up this game from last week, but we have to look ahead. The cannon fodder rounds are over."

Looking at the tables, it seems the excellent effort from the Chinese team has pushed them to the top of the IRB rankings. Larkinia is 1st equal, and the dangerous teams of Haraki and PopularFreedom follow closely behind. Milchama has qualified from Group One despite today's loss.

Starblaydia

11-05-2006, 11:20

OOC: bullying/poor sportsmanship isn't necessary here.

Erm... right. Thanks for that. Now, on with the show! Oh, btw, the Starblaydi newspaper is the Jhanna Chronicle.

Loss Eliminates Sarzonia
Starblaydia through to play hosts

So, my friends, it appears that Starblaydia will not make the Semi-Finals of the Rugby World Cup for the fourth tournament in a row. The tough boys in white and purple will play hosts Haraki in the Quarters, and despite the similar statistics of the two sides in Group play, Starblaydi Scrum-Half Binky O'Brady believes home support will give Haraki the advantage.

"Unfortunately the RWC just doesn't bring the hundreds of thousands of fans in like the [Association Football] World Cup does. Admittedly we were one of the favourites coming into this tournament based on our previous record, but Haraki's percentage of supporters here - naturally - completely overwhelms everyone else's. With that huge support behind them in the stadia, they have the edge. For the first time in years - we're the underdogs."

Eight hard games so far for Starblaydia, with - hopefully - three more to come. Whether they can hurdle the hosts in the Quarter-Finals to keep their incredible Last-Four record going has yet to be seen.

PopularFreedom

11-05-2006, 12:15

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

Wow that just sucked! So I find out I am not playing not cause the coach tells me, but that the afternoon edition of yesterday's Sacredicity Citizen prints this article (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10934475&postcount=88).

I am happy we won, and I don't mind being pulled but still to find out in such a way just sucks. I had reporters coming up to me asking me what I thought about not playing in the biggest game in the history of the Sacredicity Saints and possibly PopularFreedom (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/PopularFreedom) Rugby and I was looking at them with this dumb look on national television. I know that too cause I saw the late news and saw my face looking like a spacecadet when I was told I was not starting.

Anyhow I guess I should be happy. We did win, and wow what a huge game it was. Currently watching the Sportsnet RV Ruggers Central (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10936621&postcount=94) from Rorysville on satellite television. Kinda feel bad for them since they played so well. Then again what nation pulls a rugby show because of television scheduling conflicts during the World Cup. My gosh that is all that is on our television 24/7 it seems. Rugby, rugby, rugby! Can't fault their rugby team for that though. At least with their strong play they got a boost in federal funding and from what I hear they are gonna get a national rugby stadium. Possibly we might play them in an exhibition in the future as really think their team has potential.

Interesting cause then you contrast that nation though with a nation like Starblaydia. Talk about rugby, their newspaper is AMAZING! Well at least the Jhanna Chronicle is, haven't seen any other papers from them yet but wow. They got a full spread of their team, their opponents. Pictures, details. They even got stuff on my team. My picture is in here. Very impressive! A good sporting nation they are I must say.

Of course haven't seen anything from AMW China but they got this one website, 'RugbyChina.com', well I might as well be reading rugby in our nation with all the facts and insights they have. Their team is impressive too, ranked tied for #1. Ours is #4 ranked right now which is impressive. Looking forward to our match verses Milchama in the quarterfinals today. Just wish I could play but looks like Jerry Corin will be starting again. Oh well, hopefully he plays awesome.

Anyhow I may add more to this entry later, I wanna see what our sports papers at home have to say about us making the Rugby World Cup playoffs! :)

PopularFreedom

11-05-2006, 12:54

from the pages of the PopularFreedom Ticker...
TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE POPULARFREEDOM TICKER WEBSITE (http://www.geocities.com/PopularFreedomTicker/2006-05-11-001.html)

May 11, 2006

SAINTS INTO THE RUGBY WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS
Huge win over San Haven yesterday propels them forward.

International Report by: Simon Montelo
PFT News, HARAKI

The Saints are through! After a nail-biting first half the Saints burst through in the second half scoring 3 tries to outlast a tough San Haven team to take 1st overall in their grouping in the Rugby World Cup V.
Led by the speed of newly acquired Jerry Corin at inside centre, plus the rucking of their entire pack. The Saints silenced their critics proving that they truly did deserve to be at the Rugby World Cup.

'Awesome!', yelled a inspired Denver Kirkland, starting 8-man for the Sacredicity Saints.

The game itself started poorly for the Saints with San Haven getting the first try at the 8 minute mark as their backs momentarily froze the Saints outside centre Geoff Ryio with a switch. When Ryio finally came out of his stance their backs were gone for a try and a 7-0 lead for San Haven.

At the 25 minute mark the Saints were finally able to get even with the San Haven squad after the Saints mighty pack was able to continually pound the opposition with ruck after ruck until Kirkland was able to burst through their tackling and touch the ball down which with the convert tied it at seven a piece. The tie however would be short lived as minutes later at the 29 minute mark the San Haven squad hit a dropkick through for a 10-7 advantage.

...

Haraki

11-05-2006, 16:05

OOC: How will the points from the ranking be applied to future tournaments?

Every ten points gives you an extra attack. That's an arbitrary bonus, though, applied to every game. Then, the difference between the two rankings is taken. Half of that is taken off the worse team, the other half is added to the better team, to represent being better at offense and defence. The extra attacks are to represent more scoring opportunities.

So a 10.00 team facing a 0.00 team would be five points better at offence and five points better at defence (Represented by making the other team five points worse at offense), with one extra attack. A 35.30 team against, say, a 20.00 team, would be eight points better at offence and eight points better at defence. The 35.3 team would have eight attacks to the 20.00 team's seven.

Which makes me think all these rankings are too high, especially as once you get to 50.00 points, you're as good as you can get against 0.00 teams, and getting better after that only adds more attacks. Which means ... Instead of being full point totals, the ranking system will go by half your ranking points plus one tenth of your point difference. The full score from that will be counted to the next cup, half of it will be counted for the cup after that, one quarter will be counted for the cup after that, and none of it will be counted for the fourth cup after you get the ranking points.

Some may think this means qualifying becomes next-to meaningless, as it can only get you to about 25 maximum points over the course of three cups. But playoff scores will count more, and I'm planning on implementing two more tournaments over time (One a round robin with a small amount of teams and no playoffs, like Six Nations and the other either no groups single elimination brackets or groups followed by best of three playoffs). I plan on making both of these count for ranking points, albeit significantly less than the World Cup proper. So don't despair at low point totals.

Also, byes will now count as only two points with the new system, added onto final score (Or four points added in, then divided by half with the others).

The current ranking tables for the new system (Half ranking points plus one tenth point difference plus bye points) are as follows, with ties simply ranked in alphabetical order:

1. AMW China - 18.8
2. Haraki - 18.8
3. Larkinia - 18.8
4. PopularFreedom - 15.5
5. Prolestan - 15.0
6. Starblaydia - 15.0
7. Rorysville - 13.7
8. Sarzonia - 13.7
9. Virginia Nova - 13.3
10. McPsychoville - 13.1
11. Silage - 12.6
12. San Haven - 12.0
13. Milchama - 11.6
14. Rubicon States - 10.5
15. Snake Eaters - 10.5
16. MeusDomus - 9.6
17. Harlesburg - 8.7
18. Artitsa - 6.0
19. Chicanada - 6.0
20. East Lithuania - 4.8
21. Gwazzaria - 4.00
22. Karullia - 4.00

Haraki

12-05-2006, 05:31

Quarter-Final Scores:

AMW China (26 - 16) San Haven
Milchama (20 - 17) PopularFreedom (17-17 AET)
Haraki (24 - 9) Starblaydia
Prolestan (5 - 13) Larkinia

Semi-Final Fixtures:
AMW China vs. Milchama
Haraki vs. Larkinia

AMW China

12-05-2006, 07:06

China makes the semis - World Cup overview
Taipei Times

The Chinese Rugby Football team has made the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup after an amazing run in the pool games and a 26-16 smashing of the San Haven side.

The game was broadcast live throughout Taiwan and China on CCTV3 at 1am in the morning local time and attracted more viewers than any other sports event, the first time a rugby match has ever been broadcasted live in the nation or made the mainstream news. Rugby fever has infected the nation, with many youths abandoning the table tennis rackets for a rugby ball and boots. All over the country, merchandise stores have reported record sales of world cup memorabilia. No 10 Carl Spencer has suddenly become a tabloid darling, his girlfriend Melanie having been offered million dollar deals for modelling contracts.

On the field, the Chinese team now face the Milchama Warriors, a formidable side that qualified second from their group who upset heavy favourites Saints from PopularFreedom.

Coach Graham Hart said he believed the Milchama side, having played the Chinese side twice, may be even stronger than last week.

"We've played them twice, they are beginning to know our style and our players." Hart said.

Hart will field a full strength squad next week as Spencer, Peng, and Chen return from their rest periods.

RWC 06 Semifinal overview
RugbyChina.com

AMW China 26 - 4 drop goals (Chu), Bayer x 2 try, 2 conversions (Chu)
San Haven 16

The Chinese side won decisively today, holding a ten point lead from the 50th minute and suffocating a San Haven side that struggled to get possession and keep it.

The San Haven side showed excellent defence - Four times in the first half the San Haven side withstood Chinese siege and eventually Chu opted for the drop goal. The Chinese forward pack were powerful and aggressive, rolling over mauls and turning over the ball frequently.

The two tries of the match were scored by Bayer, one through a long pass by fullback Alan kwok that outflanked the opposition and another through a cleverly weighted grubber by Chu.

The Chinese play Milchama next and enter the game as heavy favourites to win the game. Haraki is currently the favourite to win the tournament.

PopularFreedom

12-05-2006, 12:35

OOC: Congrats to Milchama on the upset. Will have a diary from Garth later today as have to run to work. Good tourney Haraki. :) Oh and will probably have a news article from some Camelot paper on how the Saints lost to a former football squad just to continue the long standing tradition in the nation that if your own team (in this case meaning the Camelot Wasps Rugby Club) are not included then that is why the nation didn't win. :P :)

Haraki

12-05-2006, 14:17

Into the Rugby Semis
From the Atherlon Times

Pete Vans, Kiros. Haraki's national rugby team played yesterday in Kiros against Starblaydia for a berth in the semi-finals, and were at the top of their game for quite some time. Having finished the group stage with a somewhat disconcerting tie followed by two losses after a straight run of wins comparable to Group 1 Champions AMW China, many were doubting Haraki's performance, fearing that they may capitulate under pressure. However, Allan Ferris' team proved them wrong. Starting fullback Xavier Walker had the bench today, replaced by the inexperienced Brad Weckit.

The Harakians had the kickoff with strong wind in their favour, with Keay launching it far and to the right and wing Sam Davies taking off after it. Starblaydi Left Wing Rafael Jongbloed caught it and began to run, but Davies was right there, making a devastating tackle to the knees that threw Jongbleod on his back. Davies leapt to his feet, pilfering the ball, and with only twenty metres to go to the line took off like a shot, touching the ball down still within the first minute and giving Haraki an auspicious lead of seven points as Nathan Cannon made the conversion from right beside the touch line. For a moment it appeared to be going out, until the wind swept around and carried it back between the posts, a grinning Nathan Cannon running back to centre.

He followed it up with a drop goal ten minutes later from forty metres out, the wind carrying the ball straight down the field and between the posts just above the crossbar. The Starblaydi kickoff brought the ball down the field, and Harakian hands in the ruck on the 22 near centre gave Starblaydia a penalty kick, which Fly Half Magnus Khanasan made easily. Harakian scrum half Carl Thint claimed he wasn't in the ruck and was picking it up to pass, but the referee overruled him, saying the ball had not been brought out yet.

Haraki carried on the rest of the half with an agressive kicking game by James Keay, bouncing kicks into touch multiple times down the field, and eventually coming out with an up and under kick on the 22 that went sailing into the Starblaydia endzone. Nathan Cannon ran in under it, leaping into the air to try and catch it and fall down for a try, but Cam de la Huerta, the Starblaydia fullback, did the same thing first, getting his team a 22-metre dropout which they used to best advantage to get the ball away and give themselves some breathing room.

The half ended, right on forty minutes, with a drop goal by Khanasan, bringing Starblaydia up another three points and putting the score at 10-6 for Haraki, with a sold-out stadium cheering them on.

The Starblaydi kickoff in the second half didn't go ten metres despite the help of the wind, and Maximillian Raffiki catching it gave Haraki a scrum back on centre which Brad Winters took easily and the Harakian forwards pushed fifteen metres down the field. Thomas Gerrying, who had turned 8-Man Picking into an art form, grabbed it and ran another ten metres before getting tackled, and then a pass out to James Keay from the ruck gave Haraki some breathing room. The Starblaydia backs were lined up for a good defence against Haraki's backs, but fullback Weckit appeared in the line as an overlap, and Keay gave him a long looping pass over Cannon, who ducked down to let the pass go over his back. Weckit caught it and took off like a man on fire, running past the opposing centres and de la Huerta, looping back in for a try under the posts, which Cannon converted.

With fifteen minutes left on the clock and Haraki up 17-6, the audience thought it mostly hopeless for the Starblaydia team, and Harakian team merchandise was selling for twice regular price. This was only accentuated even more by Keay trying the up and under kick again, with Cannon running in and grabbing the ball in the air over the Starblaydi endzone in the 72nd minute. Despite de la Huerta's attempts to carry Cannon into touch, he managed to touch the ball down for another try which he managed to convert to bring Haraki to 24 points.

Magnus Khanasan managed another penalty kick for James Keay being offside, but it was much too late for it to make a serious difference in the game. The score was 24-9 for Haraki when the game ended, giving them a pass to the semi-final against Group Four champions Larkinia.

Point scorers:
Brad Winters: 5
Sid Galworth: 6
Michael Benes: 10
Thomas Gerryin: 10
James Keay: 18
Nathan Cannon: 77
Daniel Virlan: 20
Adam Farreley: 15
Sam Davies: 25
Jasper Hull: 5
Brad Weckit: 5

OOC: The AMW China-Milchama semi-final will take place in the Victor Benes Stadium in the city of Kiros. The Haraki-Larkinia match will take place in the city of Caltis in the Caltis Stadium.

The final will take place in Haraki's capitol city of Atherlon, on Haraki Field, the home of the Dragons, one of Haraki's premier rugby clubs. The third-place match will take place in the city of Uses at Trinity Stadium.

All these stadiums are huge. Each is unique, with Trinity Stadium being a particularly extraordinary feat of modern architecture managing to house over two hundred thousand spectators, financed by the city to replace its old one, which was destroyed in a fire. Haraki Field has slightly under 175,000 seats, in three balconies plus lower seats, with all four levels completely encircling the field. I would give you pictures of real life ones, but I dislike giving pictures of real stadiums for fake ones.

Sarzonia

12-05-2006, 15:43

Woodstock Daily Mail

Missed it by that much

by Dave Aiden
Daily Mail Staff Writer

12 MAY 2006 -- For all their efforts as the Sarzonian national rugby team surged in the second half of qualifying, things didn't turn out their way. Starblaydia's loss to Larkinia officially eliminated the team from the fifth World Cup. Even though the team didn't advance to the next round as they had in World Cup III, several fans and players agreed the team had much to be proud of.

"They played some quality opponents and their largest margin of defeat was nine points," said former Galaxian Mike Cole. "For a team that didn't have a professional league and barely had enough professional players to fill out a starting unit, this team has something solid to build upon."

The team's biggest strengths, according to those familiar with the team, was in its tenacity and determination; however, coach Ed Randall said the team needed to improve its depth.

"Once we got past our starting lineups, we were in trouble," Randall said. "Most of that has to do with the fact that we only have a small semi pro league here in Sarzonia and only six of our players have made at least three league starts in their respective leagues. If we're able to develop a professional league that can gain financial support enough, we should improve next time. If there is a next time."

The uncertainty over the future of the sport in Sarzonia, once a dominant topic of discussion among people who actually bothered to discuss the sport at all, took a step toward being resolved after the Galaxians defeated Starblaydia, a result that caused several potential advisors to ring up league organisers and discuss sponsorship of the league. Several reports indicate that two financial institutions are prepared to offer low-interest loans to help the league as a start up business.

"The future looks bright," said First Somerset Bank chairman Leo Aguilar, the first financial institution to offer a loan to the league. "This sport has potential to catch on in Sarzonia and the win over Starblaydia just gives us additional incentive to follow it up. Even beating Aust two Cups ago wasn't this much of a boost."

Sources familiar with First Somerset's loan offer said the terms include $500 million Sarzonian with five percent interest payable over 10 years. If the league makes a profit after five seasons, interest payments would be waived from that point on. Other financial institutions are in negotiations for the remaining $250 million needed to fully finance the league for three seasons. The league is also looking for investors and has received approval from the Federal Trade and Commerce Committee to allow foreign ownership.

"This isn't a critical industry that is vital to national security," said FCTC Chairman Lyle Cheneyworth. This is a start up league for a sport that hasn't had much attention in Sarzonia. Some potential investors in Sarzonia might be nervous about purchasing a team because starting up a new league in any sport, let alone a sport that has had minimal media coverage in this country and even less fan interest is a risk. If foreign investors see Sarzonia as having potential for being an important rugby nation, they certainly should not feel like their investment in teams would be unwelcome."

Cheneyworth said the proposed price for individual teams of $50 million Sarzonian was "more than reasonable, especially given the fact that the Sarzonian dollar is still on the mend from the Panic of 2006." He added that when the league started, he'd buy season tickets.

"I love rugby," he said. "I bought a satellite dish to get Starblaydi league matches. That's how much I love the sport. Now I can go down the street [to Bryan Marshall Stadium] and watch games. That's the biggest thrill." Cheneyworth wouldn't comment on rumours that he was considering purchasing the Woodstock entry in the league, but a source close to the chairman said it was "all but reality."

"He's got the money. He's willing to recuse himself from any FCTC decisions involving the rugby league if that's what it takes," the source said. "He really wants to see the league succeed."

PopularFreedom

12-05-2006, 22:48

The personal diary of Sacredicity Saints (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Sacredicity_Saints) Inside Centre Garth Williamson

I cannot believe it is over. What really sucked though was I really did not get a chance to play in the playoffs. Oh well. We're heading back to Sacredicity early this evening apparently. I would have liked to stick around for a bit, apparently we have some scouts who may but besides that the team is suppose to fly back tonight. Apparently we have three flights to take too which just sucks. One back to the Heartland Region (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/The_Heartland). Not even sure which nation in the Heartland it is gonna land in, just know it is not ours. Then from there to Locke Harbour (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Locke_Harbour) our capital. Then we have to bus it down the lovely highways of Locke Harbour to Locke Harbour North National to take a flight back to Sacredicity. I just wanna get home, stopping so many times is gonna be stressful enough but going through Locke Harbour is gonna be a pain. Oh well, apparently we had a more direct route through Camelot so maybe I should not complain. I would not be surprised if they came to the airport just to make fun of us since well what else is there to do in that town cept watch cows standing in a farmers field.

Well I gotta go, took to long to write this and I figure our bus is leaving for the airport soon. Oh well, one bright side is I got a ton of papers from all across the globe to read on the flight back. Think I'll start with the Woodstock Daily Mail. They got an interesting article by Dave Aiden on their rugby team. Kinda cool reading another perspective of this tournament rather than just the ones from my nation if you ask me. :)

PopularFreedom

12-05-2006, 23:23

Friday, May 12, 2006
SACREDICITY CITIZEN

LOCAL: LUXURY HOUSE BURNS IN EAST SIDE FIRE.
House belonging to former Sacredicity Saint Clinton Pinn burns to ground, arson suspected.

Sacredicity - Firefighters were called at around noon to a fire in the luxurious northeast side of the city, where a home worth in the millions went up in flames earlier today. The home, belonging to the infamous Clinton Pinn, formerly of the Sacredicity Saints rugby squad, was said to be under renovation, however firefighters at the scene noted that the fire appeared to be cause by arson.

http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/4737/20060512sacredicitycitizen5pm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The fire earlier this afternoon.

The fire marshall is currently investigating the scene of the fire which destroyed the 4 story luxury home.

Haraki

13-05-2006, 02:12

Semi-Final Results:

From Victor Benes Stadium in Kiros ...
AMW China (17 - 14) Milchama

And from Caltis Stadium in Caltis ...
Haraki (20 - 17) Larkinia

Next and final matchday:

Final:
Haraki vs. AMW China at Haraki Field, Atherlon

Third Place Match:
Milchama vs. Larkinia at Trinity Stadium, Uses

Milchama

13-05-2006, 03:38

OOC: Apologies but I barely know rugby, being an American it's hard to RP when you're making up stuff about a sport you barely know. Oh and PF its Suicide Footballer, there is a difference.

IC:
Swooton Herald-Picayune-Update-Dispatch-Dominion-Star-Register-Telegram

Sports Section

What the hell?!

That's got to be the reaction that casual Milchamian fan had today after seeing a new sport on the television that was not soccer or baseball. One fan said, "I was all ready to watch the Sparrows game today but then I looked and saw this weird sport on. It kinda looked like Suicide Footballer but they didn't throw the ball forward and there were no half goals."

Another fan said, "They took the Sparrows game off the air for this! This foreigner sport, I can't believe we even play this crap." We are thankful to say he was soon beaten up by others who started enjoying this new sport called rugby.

The biggest seller of rugby has been the Milchama Warriors rugby which despite many of the players only having a few games of experience beat the heavily favored Scarcedity Saints of PopularFreedom in the quarterfinals in the extra time on a drop kick by Danny Limeron. The creativity of Limeron has been just one of the assets of the Warriors. The other has been the Suicide Footballer backgroud which tought them how to use the kick and run game effectively, as well as have the heart to keep possesion for long stretches of time. It was actually a kick and chase that led to the first try as after a pass by Limeron found Jonny Roseman, Roseman quickly kicked the ball high and put on a chase that was won by speedy #4 Kevin Gilbert. Gilbert then beat the Saints down the sidelines for the first try. The second try was caused by the other strenghth of this team, the need for long periods in possesion. As after an interception by Makos Jurosh on the opposing 22, instead of kicking it the Warriors kept possesion and advanced little by little until a fake pass by Marion Luppers got a Saint player off guard and he ran past him for the try. These tries though were not enough as even with the conversions the Saints led 17-14 near the end of the game. Then a dumb penalty given up by Sam Oroi from 53 yards out. Captain Limeron made risky choice to have fly half Terry Cormack kick off from that far out. The ploy worked though as Cormack made it and sent it into overtime and the rest, as they say, is history.

Against AMW China the game started very well for the Warriors as in there third matchup this tournament the smart Jonny Roseman figured out a key weakness in the earlier numbers and exploited that to full affect as Marion Luppers ran rampant scoring the first two tries in the game in the first 15 minutes of the game to give the Warriors a 14-0 lead. After that though the offense went stagnant as the Chinamen stopped Milchama from getting Luppers the ball and the creativity of Limeron and the power of Shulman also got stopped. With the big attackers of the Milchamian offense out China started to attack and despite the attempts of the Milchamian defense they could not stop them from getting 10 before the break. The second half the game started to swing the other way espiecially after the Warriors got a throw in at about the 10 on the China side of the field. The throw was terribly off line from Bobby Sachkani and China took over and took advantage of the dissaray to score a try to take the lead and win the game.

Now Milchama play the third place match against a tough team from Larkinia who have been about as silent as we have been throughout this tournament.

Larkinia

13-05-2006, 06:05

Now Milchama play the third place match against a tough team from Larkinia who have been about as silent as we have been throughout this tournament.

((LOL sorry about that everyone, the RWC hit during finals week and graduation. I'll have a post up later tonight or tomorrow, after graduation))

AMW China

13-05-2006, 13:20

AMW China makes it 3 from 4
RugbyChina.com

AMW China 17 - Peng try, Chou try, 2 conversions (Spencer), one penalty (Spencer)
Milchama 14 - Luppers try x 2, 2 conversions

The chinese fought back bravely after falling 14 points behind at one point to win the semi-final against Milchama 17-14. The Chinese team has now won 3 out of 4 encounters against the Warriors, and face Haraki in the RWC finals.

All across China rugby fever is raging. The team that four years ago would have struggled to beat weak opponents is now vying for either the #1 or #2 spot in the world. Airlines have reported record ticket sales to Haraki, with some rugby fans even making the 40hr journey by car.

An error-strewed first half saw Marion Luppers score two tries in quick sucession after the Chinese line was stretched by some excellent tactical kicking, putting them 14 points behind. The Chinese forwards then took control, suffocating the Milchama side of possession and giving the backline the space to attack. The first Chinese try was scored by wing Jonathan Bayer who managed to intercept a pass from Roseman and put the try in the corner, with Spencer converting. A penalty was awarded to the Chinese a few minutes later and Spencer converted, reducing the lead to 4 points.

China began to exert dominance over the Milchama side in the 2nd half, spending long periods camped inside their 22. The Milchama defence held strong, and the final and decisive try was scored in the 76th minute as Hooker Hui stole a Milchama ball and began a rolling maul to score in the corner, putting them in the lead for the first time in the game. The Warriors were getting desperate but were unable to leave their own 22, to the point of attempting a 75m field goal that went wide.

The Chinese play Haraki in the final next week. All eyes will be on the long-awaited contest between Carl Spencer and Nathan Cannon, whom many will agree on as being the best two No 10s in the competition.

Analyst John Wilkenson, former Chinese coach, believes that the outcome of the final will be decided by the No 10s and the forward pack.

"The Chinese forwards have improved substantially since the group games, with players such as Hui and Lee giving it a real go and stepping up their game. However, the Haraki pack has a weight advantage and more importantly, have more experience in the scrum, one of China's weaker areas. Rucking and mauling has generally been fine, barring a few inconsistent games midseason. The Chinese lineout has been solid so far. Hui has been a good thrower, but again lacks experience against the more senior Haraki players."

"As for the backline, the Chinese have some of the fastest players in the tournament, but defensively has come under pressure from the high bomb, as we saw last week against Milchama. Fullback Chen is a great defender and a brilliant runner, but he has no suitable replacement if he is injured. As always, Spencer has been a great goalkicker and runner, and he will need space from the forwards and quality ball to set the backs on fire. The wingers Bayer and Chou have also shown good form but there are question marks over Bayer's defensive abilities."

Betting odds
TAB betting agency

Haraki are the favourites at the moment, with most punters from China betting on a Haraki win by 1-12. Currently, a Haraki win is paying out $1.50, with a Chinese win paying out $1.80.

Chinese Win - $1.80
Haraki Win - $1.50

China win by 20+ - $5.50
China win by 1-12 - $2.20
China win - $1.80
Draw (considered a draw if equal points at the hooter) - $12.00
Haraki win - $1.50
Haraki win by 1-12 - $1.95
Haraki win by 20+ - $8.00

NationStates Jolt Archive

Rugby World Cup V RP/Rosters/Scores thread