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There are 52 questions, one for every week of the year. So get ready to be a Christmas expert !
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It’s the big one on Saturday 26 October 2019 – the semi finals of the Rugby World Cup with a mouth watering clash between England and New Zealand.
England and New Zealand go head to head for a place in the 2019 World Cup Final this weekend.
Saturday’s mammoth clash in Yokohama is the first between these two teams at rugby’s global showpiece since 1999, when the All Blacks won in a pool-stage encounter.
In fact, it is just the sixth time they have met since 2014, with that awesome, Manu Tuilagi-inspired 38-21 victory for England at Twickenham in 2012 now a fading memory.
Seeking a third successive world title, New Zealand topped Pool B and produced a typically devastating performance to beat Ireland 46-14 in the quarter-finals.
2003 champions England – embarrassed on home soil four years ago – also finished at the summit of their group, but were barely tested due to a combination of overmatched opposition, Typhoon Hagibis and Tomas Lavanini’s red card before an emphatic 40-16 defeat of old rivals Australia in Oita.
It was their first knockout victory at the World Cup since 2007.
Score prediction: England 17-30 New Zealand from The Telegraph
England v New Zealand Rugby Quiz
Saturday 26 October 2019 sees what has been called 'The final before the
final' where England meet New Zealand in the semi finals of the 2019 Rugby
World Cup - sure to be a huge game and a delight for neutrals.
The nationalrugby
unionteams
ofEnglandandNew
Zealandhave
been playing each other inTest matchrugby
since 1905, and have contested a total of 38 Test matches since. The first
meeting between the two nations was on 2 December 1905, when the All Blacks
were in England as part of theirEuropean and North America
tour.
The All Blacks won 15–0.
Their next meeting was on the All Blacks'Invinciblestour
of 1924–25. The match was most notable for the sending off of All
BlacklockCyril
Brownlie,
who became the first player to ever be sent off in a Test match.
See how much you know about rugby trivia between these two teams.
The expression, “Bucket list” comes from kick the bucket(“to die”) + list, hence a “list of things to do before you die”.
The term was coined by American and British screenwriter Justin Zackham in his screenplay for the 2007 film The Bucket List. Zackham had created his own list called “Justin’s List of Things to Do Before I Kick the Bucket” which he then shortened to “Justin’s Bucket List”.
The first item on his list was to have a screenplay produced at a major Hollywood studio.
After a time, it occurred to him that the notion of a “bucket list” could itself be fodder for a film, so he wrote a screenplay about two dying men racing to complete their own bucket lists with the time they had left.
Articles about the movie are the earliest known uses of the expression “Bucket List”.
Sometimes a new calendar year serves as the ultimate reminder that life is never as long as we’d like it to be.
We tend to harbour thoughts of how our lives are lived and carefully consider the things we have yet to do.
For some time after it was first coined, only people who feared their imminent death compiled a bucket list. More recently, since the expression has become more widely used, it just means ‘a list of things that I would like to do someday’. Such a list typically includes:
See the Northern/Southern Lights.
Visit, The Grand Canyon, The Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China…
Swim with dolphins.
It is quite possible that the expression existed as slang before the film “The Bucket List” screenplay was written.
If it did it can’t have been coined long before 2006 as we were then in the Google era and any use of it online would now be easy to find, and there aren’t any search results that point to unambiguous uses of the expression before that date.
If the origin is 99% established then the meaning must rate as 100%.
The ‘things to do before you kick the bucket’ source for ‘bucket list’ is obviously correct.
There are references to a different meaning of ‘bucket list’ online and in print that pre-date 2006.
These relate to a sorting algorithm called a Bucket Sort.
This is typically implemented on a computer to sort items into alphabetical or numerical order.
The resulting list is called a bucket list – clearly not the ‘bucket list’ that Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson had in mind.
England will be looking to right the wrongs of four years ago when they meet Australia for a place in the Rugby World Cup semi-final on Saturday 19 October.
At the last World Cup, in 2015, England lost a must-win pool stage game against the Aussies that saw them dumped out on home soil.
Ben Youngs, the England scrum half believes England have learned a few tricks from Australia ahead of their Rugby World Cup quarter-final showdown, saying that they have something special up their sleeve for the Australians.
Four years ago Youngs was part of the side that was dumped out of the World Cup by a strong Australian side that was inspired by fly-half Bernard Foley to a convincing victory at Twickenham, condemning the tournament hosts to their worst ever tournament finish in their own World Cup.
Whatever happens, both teams will be stepping up to the plate and performing to the best of their abilities, but how much do you know about rugby trivia, especially where England and Australia are concerned?
Find out in this England v Australia rugby quiz
England v Australia rugby quiz
The postponement of the England and France game could be a blow to the former's
chances as they head into the quarter-finals potentially undercooked. England
have not really been challenged so far in this World cup, with the greatest
respect to the teams that they have already played.
That said, the Australians looked poor for most of the pool stage and with six
losses in a row against England, they face an uphill task to
progress.
England will certainly fancy their chances in this one but must get off to a
strong start which will knock the confidence of the Aussies and allow them to
prevail.
All will be seen in the quarter final match on Saturday 19 October.
For now, let's see how much you know about this N°1 of sporting rivalry
matches.
