backhander – Member
You would be welcome, but I didn’t give you any tips. I recycled a story which made the national newspapers.

You said that you had it on very good authority which implies that you ‘know’ people in a position to give that information, not just that you read gossip in the Sun like any other Charlie.

namastebuzz – Member

I wouldn’t say the scrum is irrelevant because if two sides are otherwise evenly matched then it’s still advantageous. It doesn’t win you the game alone though as England’s 1st test defeat to the Aussies proved when they destroyed their scrum, getting two penalty tries but still lost due to general ineptituide in all other facets of that game.

Sorry namastebuzz, I didn’t mean that the scrum itself was irrelevant, just that focussing on it alone is irrelevant. Pretty much what you wrote.

Interestingly I watched the highlights of the Dragon – Glos LV game after posting above. Glos had what seemed to be a huge advantage in the scrum and went on to lose the game by quite a margin.

Unfortunately as we seem to refuse to pick any genuine opensides I don’t know whether any are good enough or not.

To pick a genuine openside would be a start but then they would need players to back that 7 up – players quick enough to get across the field. Would England sacrifice their ‘power’ forwards? That would need quite a shift in the way they play.

Tha game seems to going that way though – the successful sides at the moment are the more athletic ones with good skills, quicker around the field and relying on beating the opposition with wits rather than power.

Of course that may all change when/if NZ lose the WC next year….

my god they picked Tindall again!!!
Looking forward to seeing how AWJ and Bradley Davis do against the best second row pairing in the world this w/e. Bakkies is going to try and bully young Bradley which could be fun to watch.

Ref LV match above – if I recall, Glos had a scrum on the Dragon’s line to actually win the match and still messed it up. A good collection of front rowers down at Kingsholm at the moment.

Tindall seems to be getting a fair amount of stick, considering prior to last weekend he was far form one of england’s worst performers recently.

my god they picked Tindall again!!!

Stop gloating.

IdleJon

The game seems to going that way though – the successful sides at the moment are the more athletic ones with good skills, quicker around the field and relying on beating the opposition with wits rather than power.

Oh well, that rules out England then….. 😥

TBH I’d like to see NZ win the RWC next year. They consistently play the best rugby/cheat better than anyone else (depending on your point of view) and it’s like Brazil at the football World Cup. Once your own team has fallen by the wayside you often root for them coz they tend to play the best football.

I think Tindal is indicative of the whole England team for years. Waht he does he is good at. However there is a part of the game that he does not have the skills or pace to do.

Too slow and not good enough with the ball ion his hands

I’d like to see NZ win the RWC next year. They consistently play the best rugby/cheat better than anyone else (depending on your point of view)

Oh, I don’t know about that – Ireland v SA last weekend was a masterclass in professional cheating.

And Munster and Leinster are a level above ANY international team in terms of cheating. While the All Blacks are having Haka lessons, Munster have coaching on throwing the ball into the crowd to stop quick lineout throws. 😉

Waht he does he is good at

he wasnt good at anything last weekend

I have tickets to a game! Sadly it’s England v Samoa. 🙁

Am just going to go online and buy a blue shirt…! 😉

I can’t picture you with tattoos, doing a haka. CFH!

The Samoans do a Sa?a, not a Haka. Oh, and they’re all allowed to do it as they’re all Samoan, unlike the New Zealanders poaching all the other Islanders…!

Not too long ago, half the NZ team would have seen the Maori Haka as a precursor to being put in the pot! 😉

Oh, the Sa’a? Thanks, CFH, something new learnt!

IdleJon…Leinster and Munster? Where TF are you getting this from? 😯

(ps, yes, I’m biting 🙂 )

I love hearing poms comments like captain flashheart,poaching the islanders, most move to nz for family reasons and a better life.
Where do most decent english athletes come from?!!! Nz is a melting pot just like here, get over it! Heckling I love it!

I’m not a Pom, you narrow minded little colonial. 😉

I also don’t really care where

“most decent e[b]E[/b]nglish athletes come from”

, but I believe that the majority of them are born and bred in England.

There are a few rather pathetic characters, such as Shontayne Hape (What a **** name!) in the current squad who are Kiwis who, like many of the greatest NZ players of the age (Kelleher, anyone?) who have chosen to escape the small minded, insular mentality of living in a cultural backwater and play elsewhere. 🙂

Kinda like you then flish-flash…just another plastic Welshman really 🙄

😆

Welsh eh!! Says it all!!! 😉

deadlydarcy – Member
IdleJon…Leinster and Munster? Where TF are you getting this from?

(ps, yes, I’m biting )

ha, you haven’t noticed?

(ps yes, I AM trolling…..)

welsh team for SA

15 Lee Byrne; 14 George North, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 James Hook, 11 Shane Williams; 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Mike Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees (C), Adam Jones, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Martyn Williams, Jonathan Thomas
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Paul James, 18 Ryan Jones, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Richie Rees, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Chris Czekaj

big ask for george North to mark Habana, suprised one or even both of Jones and Powell not in the backrow. Huw Bennett is shite and I hope to god doesnt have to come on early as wales would never win another lineout. Dont see them winning but it looks a decent team.

Hopefully the Lions front row will give them a pasting.

cant see that but hopefully they will more than hold their own, the battle between the two sets of locks could be good, best pair in the world against two youngsters.

Just read Bryn Palmer’s Blog on the BBC

Hadn’t quite grasped the age/experience levels of the Aussie backs:

Beale (21, 11 caps), O’Connor (20, 25 caps), Cooper (22, 21 caps), Genia (22, 20 caps), Giteau (28, 89 caps), Mitchell (26, 52 caps) and Ashley-Cooper (26, 48 caps)

Plus the likes of Berrick Barnes (24, 21 caps)on the bench who’d be 1st choice fly half for most other teams.

What would England give for that blend of youth, experience and ability?

Add to that Pocock who’s only 22 with 27 caps and is emerging as a serious competitor to Richie McCaw and by next year’s world cup they’ll be a formidable side.

england could have had it! By conservative selection policies they have not.

Always have to blame the conservatives, don’t you, TJ? 😉

Ooh, is there going to be a riot at HQ then?

(Probably not on the pitch.. 😉 )

I’ll be suprised if Australia beat England TBH. Wales would have beaten them if they had any experience of how to grind out a forwards dominated win, but they dont and so they lost. English player have that experience in spades.

re australia and their youngsters: Englands trouble is they dont back youth and talent enough they only want the finished article in the team. Wales identified Adam Jones for example years ago and now he’s in his prime he is a very good international tighthead prop who has already been to two worldcups, this despite the fact he was a figure of fun outside Wales (and inside by many) for a long time. More recently 1/2p was identified as talented and when he starts to reach his prime he will be a top class winger, the same is hoped of Prydie and North, Hook although young still has been around for ever, Bradley Davis and AW Jones are both youngsters really, Gethin Jenkins, IMO wales’ best player, has grown into that position slowly. England almost have too wide a pool of talent and thus only select the cream, but then find they get stuck with players like Tindall becasue no one else has had the experience of international rugby at a young enough age.

Englands trouble is they dont back youth and talent enough they only want the finished article in the team.

Yeah exactly. Foden and Ashton are being hailed as bright young things at 25 and 23 respectively with 11 caps between them.

If you look at James O’Connor by the time he’s 25 he’s gonna have 70 odd caps so if he needs to step up and play fly-half at any point (which he can) he’ll have plenty of international experience.

I remember seeing Jason Little and Tim Horan playing centre for the Wallabies in the the mid 90s and thinking they’d been around forever then realising that they were both only 25/26 but that they’d both been capped at 19.

Fcksocks. Gethin’s out. Powell in at 6 as well…

*Goes to fridge. Opens bottle of Brains SA. Settles down….*

live streams if anyone needs

http://vipstand.net/sports/rugby.html

Watching Italy argies ATM

Go Georgie boy! 🙂

ta 🙂

Miss!

😆

Wtf is up with SA today then?

Was thinking the same, molgrips! Very much off form. That said, Wales are playing some lively stuff!

Indeed. It’s what they often threaten to do lately, it just tends to collapse in the face of concerted pressure from more polished sides.

Ouch though – not sure that should’ve been shown before the watershed.

Punch from the SA 15 at the end there. Not seen by ref, but certainly seen by the crowd!

A grand half from Wales, here’s hoping for more! Also, a pleasing first half at the Cabbage Patch!

I’m not recording the England game, on the basis that I probably couldn’t avoid seeing the result.. perhaps I should set it to pick up the second half?