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I must say, Ireland's lineouts look very wonky. POC takes every one down his own line.
Whoop!
Martyn Williams looks like the mascot between those too. The grin when he was introduced as a 100 cap legend helped too!!
Good start wales. Surely Parisse held on in the tackle though?
****ing shitty shit
****. Rhys Webb's World Cup over.
Bollocks.
Could italy play the game slower if they tried?
Every timeca scrum is called the italians get injured and have a 5 min rest. Making a shit game even shitter!
****ing hell its just got much much worse!
I think that is just about Gatlands nightmare scenario. Squad strength has always been Wales Achilles heel and those 2 maybe the most irreplaceable.
This probably sounds like early excuses, but 1/2P out means Wales won't make it out of the group. The team has been built around having someone who can kick penalties from anywhere in the opponents half.
On the positive side, these injuries could have come in the group stages and it would be much the same situation. Wales now benefit from a better kicking 9 and I'm sure Biggar is more than capable of taking care of the place kicking. Cole, Haskell and co aren't selective about where they give away their penalties so they won't all be on halfway like McCaw would 😀 It will be key for Williams to be fit and in form but Wales always needed his spark back anyway. AWJ is the biggest loss so far IMO along with Samson. There is still hope though!
The team has been built around having someone who can kick penalties from anywhere in the opponents half.
Biggar is an great kicker lacks some of 1/2ps range from halfway and over but he'll be fine. The loss of 1/2p and with Williams already broken we are in real trouble. Liam will have to play against Uraguay to prove fitness but will he be recovered for England six days later?
Not sure how you think Davies is a better kicker than Webb?
On the plus side Warburton was a beast and pretty much a one man pack!
I haven't seen the match but I hope 1/2p makes the tournament, we want to see the worlds best players at a RWC. If he is out Wales are really in a bad place as Australia (who they always lose to) and England (home advantage) will be even stronger favourites to qualify from the group
Great performance by England. They're definitely favourites for the RWC now.
#carrythemhome
Only listened on radio in car and caught first 20 mins in TV highlights before going out last night. Good win, but favourites? Not in a month of Sundays. Home advantage may help but (like Tim Henmam and Eng footie) we are not the best in the competition. Very clear and obvious.
The best bit is that the NH/6N results look like they can go anyway (crikey Scotland are starting to get their act together finally) so always nice for all supporters. But cold shower should come from the SH teams who still seem to be playing a different game!
Please can we eradicate "carry me home". The worst part of any international series.
Great performance by England. They're definitely favourites for the RWC now.
Sarcasm doesn't come across on the internet so I'm not sure if you are serious 😆
England gave the commentators several opportunities to revisit their old favourite phrase.... "butchered chances" 😀 It wasn't a first team but they spent much of the game looking very disorganised. Funny to reunite Owens and Robshaw again and hear some of the tellings off 😀
Japan Georgia was entertaining, when leaving pitch as replaced every Japanese player did a little bow to the pitch which was a nice touch.
Obviously not the best teams but evenly matched, the Georgians butchered an opportunity to win the game and Japan scored in the 77th minute.
Ref was bewildering 😯
Good win, but favourites? Not in a month of Sundays
No. I thought we were world class.
That big hit by Slammin' Sam won the match for us in the end. Never mind that the bloke was only half his size and no longer actually had the ball - it proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he's already a union legend.
It was incidental that Owen Farrell totally botched a four man overlap by throwing a needless miss pass to nobody. We'll get plenty of chances to score against the top sides so no need to take them all.
It doesn't matter if the forwards aren't quite up to scratch because the backs will #carrythemhome. 😉
No. I thought we were world class.
😯
That big hit by Slammin' Sam won the match for us in the end.
Keith Earls also did a similar thing to Wales but I don't think he's the messiah of Irish rugby 😆
Sam also turned over possession several times, didn't make an decent runs and couldn't make a pass stick. Besides that he was great 😀
Sam didn't make any decent runs and couldn't make a pass stick. Besides that he was great
Well he's already as good as Brad Barritt then isn't he? 😆
On a serious note the English scrum didnt look that strong, its an area of weakness for Wales who got rinsed by Italy. I wonder how much of that was down to the lightweight lock pairing wales had as they did ok v ireland.
Wales v england at best looks like being:
Liam Williams (if fit)
North
S Williams
Roberts
Amos (please not calamity Cuthbert)
Biggar
Davies
Faletau
Warburton
Lydiate
Charteris
AW Jones
Fat Saes
Owens
Gethin
James
Baldwin
?Jarvis/Lee??
Bradley Davies
Tips
L Williams
Priestland
?
Do you think Philips will come back in and will he make any difference?
I don't know if he's playing at the moment?
Phillips will be called up. But Cement head wint have him on the bench v england I dont think. Hook may replace 1/2p too.
I thought the england pack looked better when Brooke and George come on. The line out started working too. I'm sure Lancaster missed it though and will continue with Cole and youngs.
It was funny watching it in the pub with the patrons upset about youngs' pass being called forward. It was so clearly and blantantly forward, they all hushed up when they saw the replay 😀
Sam was shit aside from a couple of tackles (nothing wrong with any of them mind you), and Lancaster should be embarrassed about sending Luther home.
Not as embarassed as Gatland having Morgan in the squad. If he had Hook he could have played him at 15 and not lossed 1/2p. Morgan is only fit to be the mascot.
Morgan is only fit to be the mascot.
I thought he WAS the mascot!
Most mascots would have made better attempts at a tackle for the italuan try at the end
No. I thought we were world class.That big hit by Slammin' Sam won the match for us in the end. Never mind that the bloke was only half his size and no longer actually had the ball - it proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he's already a union legend.
It was incidental that Owen Farrell totally botched a four man overlap by throwing a needless miss pass to nobody. We'll get plenty of chances to score against the top sides so no need to take them all.
It doesn't matter if the forwards aren't quite up to scratch because the backs will #carrythemhome.
And that's the end of the Daily Express rugby coverage for today.
😉
A typical welsh response to being written off so early by these injuries will be to wipe England out of the group. Not that it wasn't likely anyway, England look shite. I am massively doomed out by our current form. Arse.
Notes to English* players -
- celebrating a try scored after 4 minutes in a friendly, warm up game the same way as if you'd just won the world cup shows a lack of sense of proportion. If you do score the points to win the world cup will you simply faint and die on the spot?
- a basic tenet of rugby is that the ball has to go backwards. Waving your arms and mouthing off at the ref because you've just thrown the ball forward is stupid. Really dumb.
*not confined to English players but the try scoring leaping about was a little premature with 76minutes left to play.
@RhysWebb9Morphine and a scrub off the nurses. Good start to a glorious Sunday morning.
Super Gavin Henson ?@UnrealGavHenson
"Hi @warren_gatland, I hear you need a full-back for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Want flair, mad skills and good looks? Give Big Gav a call."
I was at the Welsh game yesterday. I have never, ever seen a crowd show so little interest to the event they had paid to see. Depressing.
I was at the Welsh game yesterday. I have never, ever seen a crowd show so little interest to the event they had paid to see. Depressing.
You must have missed the Wales Canada games at the Millennium 😀
Only a fool would write Wales off, but hp and Webb are big losses. For all that's said about England's strength in depth, a loss of ford, robshaw and/or brown would give me similar concerns.
I do admire robshaw for shutting his detractors up time and time again. You'd think they'd tire of looking stupid so often.
I like May even less after that celebration, calm down dear, FFS.
Ireland were below par, I was quite shocked at how bad they appeared in the first half, surely there must be a reason for that? I commented on the English players looking tired at the end of the first half, but the intensity didn't look overly high to cause both those symptoms? Have the NH coaches over stressed the training? And if so, hopefully a 13 day layoff now hopefully will help. JJ looked slow and less inspired to me also, anyone notice that?
Scrum - what has happened to Englands prior strength ? Wood returned to good form, Robshaw committed as ever, good to see your captain getting to and flattening the catchers. Morgan getting back into it, Launchbury looked overweight but played OK, Billy V less effective now he's a stone lighter.
Centre - Burgess, awful, Burrell should be there, JJ needs to front up a bit more, why was he holding back/lackadaisical?
9/10 - Youngs/Ford was good, F'real spent 10 minutes making wrong decisions and getting angry only to be told of by Nigel - second fiddle to Ford.
FB - Well, congratulations Mike Brown for claiming your place without a shadow of doubt.
I feel bad for 1/2p - forget the allegiances, he should be there an works class teams should be playing against him, I hope he recovers ok.
JJ looked slow and less inspired to me also, anyone notice that?
Perhaps any spark of individuality has been "coached" out of him during the incessant training camps?
This lack of form surely paves the way for SL's "dream" centre pairing of Burgess at 12 and Barritt at 13?
centre pairing of Burgess at 12 and Barritt at 13
The phrase "strong as a bull and twice as bright" springs to mind 😀
Anscombe still injured for a few more weeks so expecting to see Hook called up to replace 1/2p
At Gloucester on Saturday it was a full dress rehearsal for World Cup games, road outside closed and security before you went in, checking bags and a pat down body search. Was allowed to take water in but had to take the top off as it could be used as a weapon? Anyone enlighten me how
Was allowed to take water in but had to take the top off as it could be used as a weapon? Anyone enlighten me how
Seriously? I have to say, I've very little desire to go to any of the world cup games, and I'm dreading the football style soap opera that the media will create around the England team when the tournament starts.
Still, plenty of rugby on TV.....happy days 🙂
Any news on the two welsh injuries? (Everybody seems to be talking as if they're definitely out...is that the case?)
Ireland were below par, I was quite shocked at how bad they appeared in the first half, surely there must be a reason for that? I commented on the English players looking tired at the end of the first half, but the intensity didn't look overly high to cause both those symptoms? Have the NH coaches over stressed the training?
I'm putting it down to teams wanting to play at match intensity, to get game fit, but not to actually risk anything. They don't want to show the opposition any new moves, or how they might really play. Did you notice that not a single team did anything interesting? The only time ground was made was by individual breaks (rarely), by bash-bosh one man attacks, or by well established methods, eg rolling mauls. I can't imagine for a moment that any of the NH team are going to play the same way in two weeks.