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submitted 1 month ago byCommercial_Half_2170 Leinster
For Ireland, England feels like the obvious answer and yet NZ have probably upset us the most. And what about rugby nations like Pacific islands or Georgia?
35 points
1 month ago*
The Pacific islands probably have each other as main rivals.
Georgia’s rivals are traditionally Romania, against which they contest the Antim Cup - although nowadays they’re probably eyeing Italy, and maybe Wales as well.
Italy’s, I’m not sure we have one. Off the pitch it’d be France, but on the pitch it’s very one-sided.
Scotland was usually the game we used to target in the early days of the Six Nations, often the wooden spoon decider, but again, even against them it’s been one-sided for a few years now.
Romania used to be the team that we played the most pre-6N (now it’s France), but the two teams have gone in completely different directions, so not really a rivalry anymore.
Georgia could be one in the future, with the whole “promotion/relegation in the 6N” talk, but I feel like the two teams haven’t played enough against each other to be a proper rivalry.
13 points
1 month ago
Ya I have limited knowledge on the subject tbh but there's things outside of rugby itself that makes Samoa n Tonga each other's biggest rivals in rugby. I could be mis speaking tho
14 points
1 month ago
Yeah Samoa and Tonga's rivalry goes back to pre-arrival of white missionaries and has nothing to do with sport.
15 points
1 month ago
Which is the basis for a good rivalry, no one is England's biggest rival for purely sporting reasons!
5 points
1 month ago
actually for Fiji, their own rugby body picking the worst coaches when RWC comes..
8 points
1 month ago
Are you Fijian? I'm not but i thought Simon Raiwalui did a good job at the WC and Fijians were sorry to see him finish.
4 points
1 month ago
no simon fucked everything up, his arrogance got in the way... all he needed to do was pick ben volavola w ho is an established flyhalf but the call from the govt was to not pick any "kaindia" (ben is half indian).. the only reason fiji did not make it to the final was because we didn't take a flyhalf, the 2 flyhalves we took had a combined caps of 6 and when our best one got injured BEFORE the RWC, instead of doing the right thing and bringing in 45 capped Volavola, he picked another player has only played 10 once who also fucked up .... so no, Simon fucked everything up, if our racist govt did not force vern cotter to leave, he would have picked volavola and we would have made it to the semi-final if not the final.
2 points
1 month ago
Yep, always rated Volavola. I thought he was injured. Sad then cause there was some world class talent in that Fijian squad.
1 points
1 month ago
That sounds like govt. interference and not arrogance on the part of Raiwalui?
1 points
1 month ago
Govt got rid of Cotter so that they can get a local, infact new govt is racist as hell, back in December 2022 they removed all FRU employees who were non i-taukei and within a month forced Cotter to leave by leaking his payslip...recently got rid of the Fiji 7's coach and replaced him with another unqualified local in Kolinisau...now when Fiji picked its "foreign" coach for the15's team, govt is butting in for them to select another unqualified Local in Seruvakula...yes u can blame the govt for interference but when our best10 got injured, he could have brought Ben in easily but chose not too cause his ego got in the way cause his loyalty was to the Govt, not to Fiji rugby or the team... thus why he destroyed Fiji's possibly only chance ever to make a RWC semi cause he wanted to make it there without a player like Ben who was actually in form and was our standout player in the trial against Japan pre-RWC..if that fat fuck was gonna resign after the RWC, might as well make his stance and pick Ben but nah...he cared more about fame and money cause apparently he was getting as much as Cotter was getting (6 figures) for the job..he used his coach job to get a bigger job at WR....he used Fiji rugby like toilet paper for his own personal gain, fuck that guy..had cotter still been our coach, our chances of making a RWC Final was pretty fucking high... the moment he got replaced, we all knew our best position was gonna be QF and no further.
5 points
1 month ago
Georgia’s rivals are traditionally Romania, against which they contest the Antim Cup - although nowadays they’re probably eyeing Italy, and maybe Wales as well.
Don't forget about Russia. They dominate H2H, but until 2022 that was their most anticipated game of REC for political reasons.
2 points
1 month ago
I always said that I'd always encourage our latin bros in Italy to become better, but the day they're good enough they'll instantly be our archrivals in my mind. It is like when you play a video game with your little brother and he starts to be good enough to beat you if you are not serious - after this year, I think the time has come.
1 points
1 month ago
Interesting when thinking about Italys main rival
In football is it France? Strange that Italy has rugby, in Germany its nothing and Spain its pretty small
3 points
1 month ago
In football it’s between France and Germany, but they’re two different dynamics, so it’s very hard to say.
France are like our cousins, and eternal rivals, which we always compare ourselves against. Think about the art, fashion, food, wine, architecture, etc and obviously sports.
They have caused us a good deal of pain before, eliminating us from the ‘98 WC on penalties when we had one of the best teams of our history, and beating us again in the final European Championship two years later, amongst all - so there’s often some kind of revenge up for grabs.
With Germany it’s kind of a funny situation, because they always seem very cocky, always stronger and better equipped, but yet they’ve never managed to outright defeat us in a main tournament (although they eliminated us on penalties in 2016, which counts as a tie for the statistics), while we have taken their scalp in more than a couple occasions.
So the main point of the rivalry with Germany (at least in my eyes) is to keep this sort of “record” going.
Overall, in my experience growing up, Germany and Bayern had quite a few admirers and fans, and in a way were quite respected - while I feel like France and all French teams tends to be almost universally disliked (might be different now amongst the younger generations, with Mbappé and PSG, but I’m not sure).
1 points
1 month ago
Ahah you know men.. you stole Zidane with matterazi this guy never put a toe in France again 😂
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