{"id":5691,"date":"2011-09-08T23:08:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T13:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=5691"},"modified":"2011-09-08T23:49:30","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T13:49:30","slug":"the-rugby-world-cup-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=5691","title":{"rendered":"The Rugby World Cup 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The RWC - Causing 4 million Kiwis to simultaneously cry every four years since 1987<\/p><\/div>\n

THE COMPETITION<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Rugby World Cup is the official IRB competition that crowns the best rugby nation in the world.\u00a0 Hosted every four years, it is the biggest sporting event to be held in 2011 and is kind of a big deal.\u00a0 This year’s competition will be hosted by New Zealand.\u00a0 This will be the sixth iteration of the tournament which has seen four different winners – New Zealand, England, Australia (2) and South Africa (2).\u00a0 The reigning champions are South Africa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

THE HOODOO<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In one of international sports most remarkable hoodoos, New Zealand are widely regarded as the greatest rugby playing nation but have only won the tournament once, beating France to be crowned the first ever Rugby World Cup champions in 1987.\u00a0 They have since entered virtually every tournament since as favourites (except maybe ’91) and have choked in spectacular fashion.\u00a0 They enter this tournament having not laid a hand on the Web Ellis trophy in 24 years.\u00a0 Perhaps the finest serving of hubris coming from the ’99 installment where they even shot a tv series<\/a> called Touchdown<\/em> about their road to the finals <\/em> which was hosted by Kiwi model Rachel Hunter.\u00a0 The All Blacks were knocked out that year in the semis by the French.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHO IS WILLIAM WEB ELLIS?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The trophy is named after a pupil who attend Rugby School and is said to have first invented the game by picking up a football during a game and running off with it.\u00a0 A dick move at the time but now years later he is celebrated and remembered as a visionary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE ALL BLACK PRAYER<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Our players who art in Black, Rugby be thy game. When full-time come, thy will be done, in 2011 as it was in ’87. Give us each game our daily victory, and forgive us our previous shortcomings…as we forgive those who coached in ’07. And lead us not to knock-out round failure, but deliver us from World Cup drought. In the name of McCaw, Carter and the Holy Webb Ellis. AMEN!”<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

THE FAT WEBSITE RUGBY WORLD CUP FANTASY LEAGUE<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Want to see if you can hold your own against FatWeb rugby gurus such as myself and Pat?\u00a0 Join the Official TFW Sportal Competition here:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/rwcdreamteam.sportal.com.au\/?p=register&league_code=878510&token=51c80ddd<\/p>\n

The code to join the TFW league is 878510<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

WHO IS BETTER – DAN CARTER OR QUADE COOPER?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The correct answer is Quade Cooper.\u00a0 Part of the fun of this competition will be seeing Quade outperform Carter consistently whilst teary eyed Kiwis complain that Carter has ‘better technique.’\u00a0 Kiwis really<\/em> hate Cooper.<\/p>\n

THE GROUP STAGE<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Like the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby World Cup begins with a round robin group stage – 20 nations divide into five groups – and the top two advance from each to a knockout stage.<\/p>\n

Here’s a breakdown of the groups.<\/p>\n

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GROUP A – All Blacks, Canada, Japan, Tonga and France<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to get absolutely wasted, play a drinking game where you take a shot for every point scored in the New Zealand vs Japan game.\u00a0 Their previous encounter in the 1995 World Cup long held the record for the biggest cumulative score of any profressional ruby game – the All Blacks won 145 – 17.<\/p>\n

France have long been the kryptonite for the All Blacks in World Cups having knocked them out twice so the Blacks will be stoked to be playing them in the group stage.\u00a0 France have not selected Chabal in their squad this year so he won’t be around to re-arrange Ali Williams’ face anymore.<\/p>\n

If we’re lucky, during the opening game of the tournament, we might get to see Tonga and New Zealand perform duelling hakas.\u00a0 It happened once before when the Tongans interjected during the AB’s haka by doing their own version and it was Lord of the Rings level of awesome.<\/p>\n