Wow. What a weekend of rugby. Was that the best weekend of rugby ever? Like when has that ever been topped? I'm not sure if it has. And I'm going to try my best in this video to go through all of the games, all of the action talking points and my reflections. Let's get into it. So what's going on everyone. My name is TJ. I'm the guy behind rugby muscle. We do strength and conditioning for amateur rugby. players and semi professionals and stuff too, but if you're watching this, you're probably an amateur rugby player, um, and Probably need to do something to get into the best shape that you can, find that stuff in the description below But for now, let's just talk, let's just talk about this weekend, man. What a absolute barnstormer I'm gonna take my last sip of coffee because I don't think I need any coffee My adrenaline is still Kind of, kind of pumping, you know, that was Ridiculous as you can see from this. I'm i'm currently in asia. So i've been Watching these in them. Well, I watched i've been watching the early fixtures live and then I went and woke up early to watch his hours all of them pretty much with crazy finishes with my heart just absolutely pounding so I mean Absolutely ridiculous. We'll get into Uh how I predicted them and how I basically got all of them wrong We might even get into the fact that Does this mean that England are the best team in this World Cup so far, or left in, as they're the only team that won their group, the only unbeaten team left in there, um, only Northern Hemisphere team, no one predicted this going in. I mean, I got quite close, if you've seen my predictions from a couple months ago. I got horrendous, if you see my predictions from this weekend, so we'll get into the, we'll go through it as a, you know, direct timeline. So we'll save the France South Africa game. Ugh, till the end of this video, we'll try and go through them quite quickly. I'm going to miss some talking points here, um, just because I don't want this video to last forever. But, I want to review every game, and I don't want to make separate videos. For the semi finals, you want me to make separate videos, if, if, if you prefer watching it that way, let me know in the comments below, and give me your thoughts on this weekend's action in the comments below as well. That, that would be massively appreciated. I always enjoy reading your comments, no matter who you're cheering for, no matter how badly you think I am, or how bad you think I am, and my predictions and my analysis, because I'm going against your team. I try to be as unbiased as possible, and actually, in every single one of these games that took place, My, uh, missus asked me, uh, who do you want to win? And I didn't, I didn't care. I, uh, I answered, like, completely honestly, I didn't care who, who won. And apart from, obviously, the England game, but then even then, it would have been a really cool story for Fiji to make the semi finals. Um, they haven't, and I'm happy with that. I'm happy with England still being in there. Basically, the only, uh, only team that, in football and in rugby and maybe Man United, it, in, uh... in football sometimes, but not anymore. They're like the only teams I actually, I'm invested in. I watch, I watch sport, particularly rugby. I watch it just because I enjoy, I enjoy it. I enjoy the contest. I don't have a dog in a fight. Um, so it was interesting watching this first game. Um, I thought after 20 odd minutes of this game that, uh, Wales were pretty much gonna, not necessarily run away with it, but just stay in control. But, Wales did. What I've been saying to do in all of my videos so far on this World Cup is Taking their threes penalty after penalty, you know, and they Just taking their three points. They chip away. They go from I think it was 13 nil down We can we can scroll all the way down here and see it. It was uh, 10 10 nil down 10 3 10 6 10 9 12 10, you know, and yes You can argue From some of the other fixtures that, you know, if you do go for it, you make your tries and that does make up, you know, if you get converted, try, that's, that's more than two penalties, but I've not seen a team that's consistently scored and converted those, those opportunities into points, like even in the other games, like Island did it. Island fell for this mistake, South Africa did not, and France did not. They all took their points and I think. That's the way to do it. Um, because even if you do score, a lot of times it takes at least two goes. So, it's not comparing seven against three, or five against three. It's seven against six, because you missed an opportunity previously, right? So that's one, you'll stand down another time, and that would have been six points. You've gone and taken the, the, the kicker for the corner, or the tap penalty. And eventually sometimes, yeah, these teams do score, but often the case is not, it's not 7 vs 3, it's 7 vs 9 or 6 points that they would have got instead. Um, I think Wales did it a few times, but, man, there was a, I think it was interesting in this game that the biggest substitution of this game, I believe, well, was probably Nicolas Sanchez coming on and just steering the ship, they had a lot of experience on the bench. They had, uh, not just Nicolas Sanchez, they had, um, who is he? Uh, they had Augustin Krivi come on. I mean, Matias Alemano. That's Moroni as well. Like, these are really experienced guys. When you look at the Welsh bench, just a lot of, like, there's no experience here at all. Maybe Dowie Lake. But from the rest of them, they're all good players. Maybe Thomas Williams as well. But the, like, this is, they, they've gone from, So, like, where you've got Argentina that are finishing this game with all the experience and a calm head, you've got Welsh in this trying to basically force it. And that's what they did, and the intercept try from Sanchez sealed it on the 77th minute, otherwise it was still kind of close. But, uh, wow, yeah, I didn't expect that. And now, Argentina go on, and I didn't predict this one, right? I mean, I didn't predict this one correctly, as you can see here. In fact, 83% of people predicted that, or on this Super Brew app, that whale were gonna take it. We were all wrong. We were all wrong. Uh, this map, this fixture wasn't a fixture in my predictions. Uh, at the beginning. I actually predicted I'll shade to get hit. How wrong I was with that. Hey, uh, like ridiculously wrong. Um, but Argentina well deserved the first Southern Hemisphere side to make it into the quarter finals. And that actually set a bit of a precedent for the rest of the weekend, with the next match being Ireland versus New Zealand, and wow, what a game this was. Unbelievable game. Um, it's hard to compare how this match was versus the... South Africa, France game on even the South Africa Island game. The South Africa Island game in the pool stages. I mentioned this at the time. It was so physically draining, but on defense there was no, it was, I think there was one or two tries one try each. I think it was for the whole game in the in the pool stages. Whereas this one we had like just an unbelievable game with some scores happening throughout because I mean, this is what happens when you play the All Blacks. I think when you play South Africa, it's a little bit different. Although, we'll get onto that. It might not be. Um, we had New Zealand. Oof. You know, they got out to a lead with their first three points. Ireland didn't. Ireland went to the corner. And they've been doing it. And I just think that this might be a mistake. Well, all of their mistakes. This is the reality for this Irish performance. They didn't make that many mistakes, but they made them against New Zealand and New Zealand made them pay. New Zealand made them pay in a big way. You saw, um, Richie Mwanga go through a, a, a gap that should not have been left. That there's no way, um, like a hole that big, off a first phase, just a 10, running it straight, should have that license to make through, to get through, basically untouched. That was a terrible, you know, A terrible read to be honest by um By dan sheehan And I don't remember who the other guy was in line. I think it was josh van der fleer. They both just let him go Completely untouched straight through there was stuff going on in the background I think it was just over thought over read and then all of a sudden he goes right through and from nothing From 50. I mean what acceleration? Puts in fine ganuku And they score What a game. I mean what a try that was All of New Zealand's try is not necessarily out of nothing, but you know how they can attack from nowhere. Ireland can do the same, but Ireland had a lot more sustained pressure. If you look at it on the balance of play, I think, I think Ireland are going to be real, really upset that they did not win this game. Um, New Zealand brought a lot more physicality than they have done. Um, in I think for this year, maybe in the rugby championship, a lot of people over read this massive loss that they had to South Africa in Twickenham and forgot about how dominant they were in the rugby championship. And they had both. I said, I said at the beginning of the weekend, uh, previewing these games that if, if New Zealand had Ethan DeGroote, uh, and Tyrell Lomax, they would have a shot. They needed those two. And those two performed really well. Look at this. They played 64 minutes. Cody Taylor played 75 minutes. Their, their front row performed. Andrew Porter played, uh, he gave way, way too many penalties. Like, he did not adjust to what Wayne Barnes did. And if you agree with Wayne Barnes or disagree, you have to, you have to play what he's, what he's reffing. And there is part of me that does not like the amount of time That we are giving to these referees talking about these referees as individuals like I don't know that many other sports where That has such a big factor like from referee to referee You know They even said in in the if we go back to the Wales Argentina game when you echo Piper went off this Oh, they've been preparing for Yakko Piper. Now. They've got Carl Dixon referee in it and Like why should that we need to figure out a lot more? Black and white within the rules of rugby so that we don't get such a big influence from referees Yeah Actually going back to that referee indecision or the referee and change when Carl Dixon came in in that Wales game Wales might feel a pity pretty aggrieved that the shoulder to the head Did not result in I didn't even result in a penalty like it was a shoulder to the face. I Absolutely 100 percent agree with the decision because it was a, he was going to clear him out. And at the very, very, very last second, he drops down, uh, because he releases the player and he just falls. And that is exactly when, I can't remember who it was from Argentina, but shoulder into the face. Like there's literally nothing this guy can do. There, it wasn't danger. I mean, he's then complained. Um, Um, all of Wales basically complained, but you saw Tomkins complain, uh, or let's say to the ref, that needs to be checked. They checked it, said, look, there's nothing he could do. And then he had to go off and get a HIA and he was like, rugby needs to figure this out, man, because he's complaining that like, I'm not holding it against Tomkin because I think we would all do the same thing because he's been hit in the head. It's an opportunity for the other team to go down a man and now you're only playing against 14. But at the same time, he's not hurt, and he has to go out for an HIA, and he's annoyed that he has to go out for an HIA, because he's like, it didn't really hurt. Well then, if it didn't really hurt, it's not worthy of a penalty, or at least it's definitely not worth a yellow card. Um, and I agree with that decision. It's just not consistent with what we've been seeing in this World Cup. So... Yeah, I don't know what to make of that. And I thought Wayne Barnes, I've not been a fan of Wayne Barnes at this World Cup so far. I thought he was very clear with how he ref this game. Um, I actually think he stepped up and he had one of his best games. As I just said, I don't like how much we have to talk about these referees, but he refereed this game very well. I thought he was very clear on what he wanted. Um, I actually think Ben O'Keefe, if we skip all the way to the France South Africa game, I think he I don't think he had a good game at all. I think he let people basically try and bully him. He let way too much go at the breakdown. And then he let people like the South Africans are screaming him all the time. And this is something we need to stamp out, man. So in England, Fiji game as well, where the Fijian players were screaming for the ref to check stuff on the TMO. And like, I don't like this man. It's not a good look for rugby rugby prides itself on being like the gentlemen, and they treat the referee of respect. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that. Anyway, reflecting on this Ireland New Zealand game, I'm not going to go too much more into details. I will say, right, I didn't call it. I called, I got caught up in Ireland, how well they played in the group stage. I did say, I did say that for how well Ireland have been playing, this is, it's crazy that New Zealand were still, like, clear underdogs in this match because that's not That's just not how you see New Zealand in World Rugby and they showed us why they stepped up. They played so well. Sam Kane played really well. Richie Mwanga was, um, outstanding at 10. Kicking off, uh, kicking for territory, kicking to compete. Um, and just general, uh, leadership of the game. I thought he did really well. Rico Uwani was another one I've been questioning. I've been questioning why New Zealand play... Um, I think Rico you want any, um, at 13 because I think he's if he just stays on the wing, he's probably the best winger in the world. They love to play him at 13, but I just don't think he gets the space he showed in this game. Why he's very good at 13, especially with a bigger fellow like Barrett and also another ballplayer like Barrett. Um at 12. It does work and also you want me. I was looking at him in this game, and he's much bigger than I than I think because I think he's just Because of he looks kind of like streaky, I guess, because of the way he runs and he's so rapid, but he's a big old boy and I mean, Geordie Barrett's huge. And then you've also got the fact that you've got Feingernuku, who's also a big fella, they switched out quite a bit. You saw Rico Ioane go on the wing a lot with Feingernuku crashing up a little bit, uh, in this, in midfield. And then they would swap on occasion. You also saw Will Jordan. Come in and step into the playmaking role. I love the way New Zealand interchanged their backline Kind of what England wish they could do, but New Zealand do it really on point. Same thing for Ireland with They kept ring loads out wide quite a lot and he looked lethal in space. I just like to see him In midfield more because he's got such a good pass and such an eye for a gap that he can put others into space They just missed something there Yeah, I don't know what that is. I mean, I don't know what island do better. I feel like they played really well. They made you're always gonna make mistakes in an 80 minute contest. It's just how much you let teams punish you for those mistakes. And I think you look at like the tiny mistakes that Island did that cost him. So they kicked for the corner and was it she and that got held up over the line from that. Because he broke away from the mall just Like two seconds too early or a second too early if he stays in that mall I think that he goes over and there's nothing New Zealand can do. He breaks away Jordie Barrett does an amazing job at holding up. How hard did Jordie Barrett play? Holds him up with a huge effort Then Caelan Dorris drops the ball Come to think of it a lot of these mistakes right and this is just Coincidence. I don't think this is, uh, causation. I think this is just correlation, but a lot of these guys that made a mistake are the ones that would have probably feeling that pressure. The Lensner guys, because, you know, I don't think I'm crystal clear with this. Okay. I don't think they choked here at all, but I do think that they felt there is some level of them that felt that pressure. And that's understandable, right? You've got this lens, the team that have been designed Like, Ireland Rugby have been really clear with the way they've done all of this. To win this World Cup, right? And, yes, they should have won the other things along the way, but they didn't. They, I mean, they won the, the Grand Slam. But then, Leinster dropped the ball for the, the Champions Cup. They dropped the ball for the, um, the URC. And now they've dropped the ball for this World Cup. I said this at the beginning of... The, the tournament, I said this in my very first predictions. I, I said, if island, I mean I predicted island to get knocked out in the quarter of finals. Here's my evidence. Boom. I predicted news just because I think it kind of worked for the storyline more than anything else. Like I, I didn't go off of anything other than that, to be honest. I don't think this is a desire, a disaster for island as as it should be. It's like Ireland is still. You know, much better place rugby wise than England, for example, right? England are in the semis. England could go on and win this bloody World Cup. Next year, I'd still rather be, uh, an Ireland fan. Because Ireland have got a pipeline of really good players. Yes, you've got Sexton retiring. I'm not even sure Sexton's the best fly half in Ireland right now anyway. I think what you've seen from Jack Crowley has been, like, magnificent. If it was anyone other than Johnny Sexton... And it was any other nation than Ireland where they've invested so much in keeping Johnny Sexton around for this long and they knew he was retiring. I think Kieran Kieran Crowley, that's the Italy, former Italy coach, Jack Crowley. I think he's um, I think he's playing. I think he's playing and being the starting 10 for all of these games. Who else have they got to retire? Maybe Bundy Aki. But they, I mean, they've still got so many lads coming through. Like, all of that back row. Like, maybe you're losing, uh, who would you lose? Like, so maybe you're losing, um, Sexton, but you've got Crowley coming in. Um, like, they're two best players. I would say, uh, no, maybe, aside from maybe Bundy Aki, you've got, um, the... Who have we got? Let's have a look here, really. Uh, Matt Hanson, still young. Hugo Keenan, probably the best fullback in world rugby. He had another stormer. Um, played really well. He's still sticking around. Like, all these lads are still going to be sticking around for quite a while. Kaelin Dorris, Josh van der Vliet, all still relatively young. Peter O'Malley, not so much. But, you're not going to miss him with who they've got coming in. Again, he might have just been a... He's been in there for his line up work more than anything else. But, Ireland might miss him. In the years to come. Um, so every time I go on to this Rugby World Cup website, it slows this stream down. Anyway, um, what else to say about this, this, this Ireland loss, man? Like, I, I, I feel bad for them, but this is, this is sport, man. Like, sport is not, uh, you know, it's not fair. And they put in all this work, they did everything right. I don't think Ireland could have done more right. I don't think you prepare more for... A couple games of rugby or five games of rugby as well as Ireland have done. Unfortunately, sometimes you drop a ball that you should catch. And unfortunately, you have a mini lapse in concentration 60 yards away from your try line and it results in Richie Moore going through and the All Blacks score. Like I don't know, I don't know what Ireland do different. I don't think they need to do anything different. I don't think they should, should mourn this as a tragic loss. I just think, like I say, they're in a better position than England, even though England have gone through. So, uh, kudos to Ireland for, like I say, it's not, this isn't like, this isn't a big disaster. It's just, it's just sport, man. It's just, it's just how it happens sometimes, man. Like, that's, that's all you can say. Onto the England game. I don't know, we'll give New Zealand credit, like, what a team man, what a country of rugby players to produce this game that they produced, in spite of, this is probably, like, as Kiwis would say, the worst New Zealand team, ish, like the last year or two years, the worst New Zealand team for the last 20 years, and they're still, they've still just gone and beaten the favourites, the, well, And unless you're thinking France, they've gone and beat the world number one and they've done it the hard way after, like, you would have thought Ireland had the mental edge going into this considering they won the series in New Zealand last year, they then beat them again, like, yeah, but how well all of their players stepped up was so impressive. Um, I like, you know, the New Zealand always have that in them. I think. Foster deserves a little bit of credit because I think what New Zealand do better than anyone is they have some areas that they go after but they're not overcoached the way that, uh, I mean not overcoached but they're not, they don't come in, they, they, they, they score tries because they, they have a game plan but they also take chances. They play heads up rugby better than anyone else in the world and, and you know the, the fine gunuka try and I keep going on about it but that, I mean, it's sticking in my head because it was such an, such a big, such a big moment and I mean, it won them the game. Um, so yeah, I think Ireland will rue their mischances for sure, but like, I don't think they choked. I just think that we, they came up against a New Zealand side that just did everything right and they won the match by a four. They now get Argentina, which you would heavily, heavily back. New Zealand to win in the semi final and then to make a final. Like, where do you go from here as Ireland? I don't know. Where do you go from here as New Zealand? Onwards and upwards, man. Like, well done New Zealand. We'll move on to the England game then. And we'll, we'll say about, yeah, uh, watch this. And I, again, same as the Wales result, except England ended up coming through. 85 percent of people thought England were going to win this one. Um. And that's fair enough. Like, I think it was, it was a game that England knew that if they did the right things early on, they could have put to bed. They did the right things early on, but man, they did not put this game to bed at all. Um, they scored early. They looked great. They looked great on the fence. This England team, um, finally started, like, maybe they learned from what they've seen from Ireland. I certainly learned from what you've seen from Ireland. They had their line speed without committing penalties for the offside line. This is early on. They started to creep giving away penalties a little bit later on as they panicked. But when they were in control, they looked sharp. Their line speed was up there, similar to like South Africa, getting right up in the face, chop tackles, and not letting the opposition have any space to even play out the back. So they got right up in their face. They got the chop tackle in to bring the jackals. heavily competitive at the breakdown. Curry. I think this is what you've got to do at this level. You saw it with New Zealand and I haven't even spoke about the breakdown in any of these games, but it was it was massive. Sort of New Zealand. You saw it in the with the with South Africa. Team seems to be willing to give away a certain amount of penalties. Just to slow down the majority of the other ball for the opposition, right? You saw this here Benno. I mean, some of them were just stupid. But they gave, but they gave her a lot of penalties, but they were so competitive. They slowed all of Fiji's ball down. The only time you saw Fiji make significant breaks was when they, um, like just shipped it wide and they just, you know, they gave it to, they gave it to 10 and he, he, he just shipped it, uh, he did like a miss five right out to the wide channels. And just as I text my mate to say, um, Um, Semiraj Raja is rubbish because he has been rubbish. He started carrying like a beast. And like Fiji got back into this game over the last 20 minutes. And I think they did the same thing with Wales. Except England this time rode it out. Um, what Farrell did, like, this again, I think this weekend a lot of this is taking your points. New Zealand did it. They took all of their threes that are available to them basically. Um, England did it here. I mean, Farrell... Like, as soon as they came under pressure, as soon as he was in front, he didn't even wait to get advantage or anything like that. He just took the three points. England got up 27 24. And even then, they got another penalty. That one, the penalty they took on 78 minutes, I thought they could have gone to the corner. If nothing else, just to eek out the clock. It's a lot easier to eek out the clock. If they get the score, they put the game to bed. If they don't get the score, they take another two, three minutes off the clock. They seem dominant at line out time. Conversely, compared to Ireland, who couldn't string a line out together, you know, you add that into the factor of when you're taking your threes like versus kicking for the corner. If your line out isn't functioning great, kicking to the corner is not wise. Even if it is again, you just England did it a few times where they took their three points. They then would receive the kickoff with Fiji getting overly getting more and more competitive with their kickoffs as the Game went on, but at the beginning, they were just kicking deep and England were just lapping it up. And then, eventually, they, they, they sorted that act out, but you saw at the beginning of the game, England would take their three points, they'd get the, they'd catch the kick off, they'd do an exit, and then they would kick it, kick into touch again, get their pressure on the, they either won the line out or turned them over and they'd kick it again, and all of a sudden, they're in, they're in territory. And then if they take another three, that's, that's, that's how rugby, smart, efficient rugby goes. Can very much be played, particularly at knockouts. Um, and I think that's what England have to do against the box. They're going to come under so much more pressure at line out time. I'll preview this game at the end of the week. Um, but I think, uh, yeah, I think England kept them just enough about arm's reach. And then in the last five minutes or so, I mean, that, that, uh, when, once the clock went into the red, that was kind of a bit crazy. I didn't like again how Fiji were just kind of screaming at right now. I think right now is probably the best Referee left and he will probably go on to referee the final He did a good job here and I think he even like he Could have been a bit harsh on Owen Farrell given that Penalty away, but then England, you know, England just stayed solid on defense Fiji for their for their Did a great job keeping the ball, but they never looked like they were overly going to threaten. Um, it was only when they got into deep into England territory did England look like, like that was when the pressure was mounting. But when it was, you know, when, when ball was in midfield, Fiji never really, really looked threatening, apart from that one or two breaks from, um, Raja Raja. Like, I felt England scrambled really well, or they didn't really need to scramble. They slowed it down at rug time. And I think they just about kept them at arm's length. It did get, again, my heart rate went pounding late at night watching this game. But England come away with it, and as a thank you, they get South Africa. And this game, ugh. How long are we into this video? Yeah, way too long, but we can't not touch on this South African game. We cannot go deep into how heartbreaking this must be for France. Having, again, done everything right, and they lose by one point. And again, potentially Ramos. You look at the cheap penalties that they gave away for South Africa to get back into this game. You look at the, like, just the miscommunication on these kicks or the miscalculation. South Africa, I think, have almost told England, Yeah, you, you, it was cute that you played Marcus Smith at fullback for this game. You're probably wise not to do that. Um, against us because they just kept kicking and kept putting Ramos, they put Pano, uh, they put all of, uh, the French under the pump with these kicks and like, yeah, they didn't bully him up front, but they bullied him with that, with the, with the kick chase, with the high kicks, I think, uh, again, we look at the bench here, you look at bringing on Pollard, you look at all the, all the changes that they made, they made these changes, I'm going to pull this up real quick. South Africa made all of their changes, like, 5 minutes into the second half they brought off, uh, Sia Khaleesi. You know, um, like they made a bunch of changes, can you see this room here? I'm sat in a, uh, a cool room at a co working space. And, pretty frustrating that the co working space does not have good enough wifi to bring up the, the stats on this game. But whatever, we'll go through them. Uh, analysis that I was going to go through. Anyway, they kept putting those kicks up and France could not deal with them. They scored. Did they score all three? Like, did they score three tries from it? You've got D'Alanda's try where they did a crossfield bomb and they had six guys chasing it. It was crazy. I had Peter Steph to toy there. They're D'Alanda there. That's another two at least fellas. They're chasing this kick and it bounced. The Ilanda crashes it up and then he takes a second crash to score. You had the bounce that led to, um, the first try from the winger from Aransa. Like, wow. What a, like, what a tactic that they had. I think they clearly did identify this as a way of playing and it worked really well. I admire South Africa from this World Cup. Wow. That's the one I got wrong. So I've got England v Fiji, right? Got this one wrong back in the. Um, back a few weeks back or back a couple months back before the World Cup started. But I got it right this time. I picked South Africa 5 1. What a, What a monumental effort. I will mention again Ben O'Keefe. I feel like he just let everything go at the breakdown. Which suited South Africa. South Africa, the amount of times that they would just slow that French ball down. Um, like, I feel like, I mean they played the referee really well again. Um, I feel like the French needed to have a little bit more, they, authority with their carriers, they carried hard enough, but they didn't, I feel like they underutilized, um, uh, the, the, the big 12, who, what's his, why have I just, they underutilized Jonathan Donte, who has been playing so well this World Cup when he's been playing, he's been playing so well this year, I feel like he could have had a few more crash ups, I feel like, Some of the French carries were a little bit light, but that could have been against South African pressure. What a game from, um, Eben Etzebeff. He played unreal. Uh, Manny Le Boc did really well. Um, I thought it was a huge call to pick Kobus Reinach, but he proved them correct. And Dwayne Vermeulen, um, he, he played so well. I was pretty shocked at the... Dwayne Vermaelen started and then they had Quagga Smith on the bench, but man, Junk Nienarber is I mean, Razzi gets a lot of the credit, but Junk Nienarber must be one of the best coaches in the world. This, this team plays so well They're so well coached, they're so well Brought into the system of playing and they do things different and they're innovating there and they're bringing rugby on to a new level Through physicality, but through a lot of other stuff like the kick into competing The, the, you know, the, the 6 2 split, the 5, the 7 1 split, the, um, different things that they seem to be doing, the tactical ploys. What about, uh, Damien Willemse taking a, a mark from a, you know, 60 meter kick and then opting to, to, to take a scrum? That was, I've never seen that before and then he was so right because they won the penalty from that scrum. I thought that was cool. Unreal. What a, I mean, yeah, this, this South African team, there's no way they've peaked. I think they're just going to smash England. England have to do everything right to have hope in this game. But, um, the French did not disappoint. They played really well. They just got a little bit exposed on from those kicks from those loose plays. And South Africa took full advantage. Um, and man, I'm heartbroken for the French because I thought they, just the French public, man, because they've, they've hosted this World Cup really well, they've created great atmospheres. I'm hoping that the rest of the home nations and the Northern Hemisphere will get behind England. I don't think they're going to. Um, but, uh, yeah, it's a shame to see the end of the French. I think, I actually said at the beginning, I said previewing this that, uh, I don't think Dupont, Being selected, whether he gets selected or not, matters as much. Old boy did it. He had a hell of a game. He, like, just everything he did, he did really well. All of his passing, his kicking, he never forced anything. But he always looked completely unflustered. Until that last, like, five minutes when they knew they had to get another score. Um, man, I feel for the French man. I, I do. I think that this South African team have done something with rugby that I think they're I was going to say they're going to reach a new level like what New Zealand did 10, 15 years ago. I'm not quite sure on that because this friend, this, uh, South African team are aging. But I also think that they've got so much quality to come in. I think they've done something that goes to show something with the coach and with Rassi and Jacques Nianaba. That they stick with the same guys because they know how to be coached in the way that they, that this team wants to play, right? Look at all this. This is pretty, this is so close to the, the 23 that won the World Cup four years ago and they were all dead. Uh, and it's not like introducing Dion Furi is bringing the youngsters in, the guy that made his debut at 36. Um, so, yeah, I don't know, like, or Vili Leroux coming off the, I mean, you got Fafter Club, Andre Leroux. What? I mean, going from a 7 1 split to, let's have these three backs to seal off the game, to control this game as, as we get into the nitty gritty. Genius, man. Like, they just, but for all of that, it was a couple bounces of the ball that got them it to be in the game with the French, with the way they're playing. And if we go back to Ireland against New Zealand, for New Zealand to, to compete as well as they did with how well the Irish have been doing, it just shows how dominant the Southern Hemisphere has been with all of rugby and will continue until the Northern Hemisphere does something different. And I thought the Northern Hemisphere were catching, catching them up with the last few autumn series is with. Rugby moving into more and more professionalism. How France and how Ireland have been doing things has been on a different level. But the talent that you have coming out of South Africa, the talent that you have coming out of New Zealand is is still and will continue to be up there and they're never they're never going to go away man, no matter even if you're Ireland or even if you're France and you're doing everything right to to go into these games as favorites. You still, you still don't have to do much wrong to lose and to go out in the quarterfinals as these two teams have done. Alright, I've spent way too long analyzing this. I hope you guys enjoyed hearing my reflections. If you did, let me know in the comments below what you thought of these games. Let me know what you thought of the refereeing decisions. Have I missed it? I know I've missed a bunch. I took loads of notes, but I knew this video would just drag on forever. I will preview the semi finals coming up and I'll give my predictions in a separate video. Uh, I feel, I feel bad for you Irish fans. Um, don't feel disheartened man. You're still in a better position than us English. I hope you do root for us to get more momentum for the Northern Hemisphere. Same with you French. Um, we will. We will predict the semifinals. It's not Australia. It's not France. England left as the only hope for the Northern Hemisphere. The only unbeaten team in this Rugby World Cup. Wow. What a weekend. Thank you so much for watching. We've run over 40 minutes. Can you believe it? Alright. Thanks for watching. Links for any Strength and Conditioning programs will be in the description below. Leave a comment. Have a chat. Let's, uh, let's look forward to this next week. And the Rugby World Cup will be over in two weeks. Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you in the next one.