WORLD CUP 2013

[shamus]

Yea Vossy has been great. And the Poms love him. They want to steal him for Super League. It's a shame that Nine screwed him over. The best thing is that he is actually a real deal fan of international footy.

Sounds like he is having the time of his life covering the World Cup.

Not sure who screwed him over...9 or Warren...

In the end I guess it was 9 but with Warren imput.

Bugger, after 10:00pm...I keep telling myself...

[DIEHARD]

Ray Warren. The "Ricky Stuart" of commentary!

[DIEHARD]

[DIEHARD]

Rugby League World Cup over for Australian Kangaroos Billy Slater after knee injury in 62-0 win over USA Tomahawks

The same knee injury that kept Billy Slater sidelined for six weeks is expected to end his World Cup campaign after he limped from the field during Australia's 62-0 win against the USA.

Slater missed last year's Origin III and six club games after straining his posterior cruciate ligament. The left knee was too swollen for results to be conclusive when the fullback was taken for scans following Australia's win.

However, Slater feared the worse when he was taken from the field early in the second half.

''It's a bit sore,'' Slater said. ''There's not much I can do about it. I'll get scans and we'll know more from there. It's the leg that I did in the second State of Origin last year. It seems like the same injury. I suppose that's a good thing because the PCL isn't functional anyways.

''I suppose the only concern is the cartilage now and we'll know more from the scans. It's a classic PCL injury. There's a lot of swelling in the knee. Hopefully we can get some swelling out.''

It was a grade three PCL that sidelined Slater for an extended period last year. Slater's PCL is non-functioning and players can play on without it but he remained in discomfort post-match.

''I knew straight away what it felt like,'' Slater said. ''Hopefully the scans came up good and I'm a chance of playing again in the tournament. That remains to be seen.

''I actually have [a PCL] but it's torn and the knee was loose anyway. It's hard for me to put a timeframe on it. I'm pretty sure if the scans come back bad it'll be the tournament over for me. Hopefully I'm a chance of playing again.''

The injury capped a turbulent week for Slater, who was involved in a nightclub scuffle in Manchester. Slater said he has ''tried to put all that behind me''.

His likely replacement Greg Inglis scored two tries in his best performance of the tournament. Inglis roamed around the field with the ball more against the Tomahawks as he looked to get more involvement.

Inglis played his first game for Australia at fullback in the Kangaroos' 34-2 win over Fiji in the pool stages.

''I would love to wear that No.1 but I am not the coach,'' Inglis said. ''The first game I was a bit quiet so I put it into my head that I had to touch the ball a bit more.

''Hopefully the scans come back all clear. In the end [Slater] is a valuable member to this team. To see him go down like that was disappointing but like I said hopefully we see the scans come back all clear.

''I just want to get my hands on the ball and run a bit more.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/r...#ixzz2kyN9GA1E

[C-Whiz]

Yea Vossy has been great. And the Poms love him. They want to steal him for Super League.

It's what he was born to do!

It's a shame that Nine screwed him over.

Not sure who screwed him over...9 or Warren...

In the end I guess it was 9 but with Warren imput.

Don't really want to get to off topic, but wasn't it Hadley because Vossy said something about the Ray Warren statue???

[C-Whiz]

Was anyone picking Fiji for the semi's?

Even better, was anyone tipping USA for the quarter finals?

[Nick]

Sounds like Slater just aggravated his PCL again. Been giving him troubles for a while now, can see he cant extend his knee completely at times, preventing him from hitting full speed and stepping off the leg.

With the run they had and the team they have I could definitely see the Bati getting this far. USA was the ultimate surprise and it was fantastic to see them make the quarters. I would love to see more international events to broaden the game further. The rugby 7s its well and truly doing this well and I believe the NRL 9s may be a good pathway into an international game.

[DIEHARD]

I thought Fiji would, USA, no way. I thought they'd get annihilated.

[TITAN PETE]

I expected to see Samoa & or Fiji, never USA

[DIEHARD]

2.83 million peak in UK for the Semi Final!

[DIEHARD]

With Australia's victory so ends another success World Cup, one that really lifted the bar higher. It was so well organised and planned, which is bloody rare in RL.

The people of England and France and Wales really got behind the World Cup. So many new people to Rugby League got involved.

The games were fantastic and I was excited to see Scotland and Italy excite, the pacific nations of course and France stringing together a decent campaign with some exciting players.

Crowds were absolutely first class including that world record for the Final.

Now we have to wait 4 years for the next. I hope we truly see some efforts made to improve the quality and amount of development worldwide. I was disappointed with the 2008-2013 effort and I cant tell you where the money really went.

Next time it is in our backyard, so let us all start planning how we can help make it a stunning success. I wanna see sold out games at Skilled Park and Lang Park.