[Closed] 2015-16 rugby, world cup year

Fundamentally it's the sloppy and careless loss to Wales which cost Englandcombined with poor selection. You cannot be 10 points up in a vital game with 10 mins to go and lose it. Ford was by far the best 10 in the 18 months prior to RWC but Lancaster insisted on reverting to Farrell. I have no idea how Lancaster was given a 6 year contract to cover 2 world cups. We've questioned Farrells temperament on here before and it was certainly a yellow card. It will be fun to watch the next Saracens Toulon game as I have an incling Ownes going to take a battering.

England had the right squad, aside from Tuilagi who ruled himself out Imwouodnt have made any squad changes, to me it was selection. Launchbury was excellent. Armitage isn't dynamic enough for international rugby in my view. It was interesting that it's widely believed the Aussie coach got the eligibility rules changed so he could pick Giteau, having watched him many times alongside JW at Toulon he's a very creative player and a match winner.

Australia had a fabulous first half and really the game was done there.

@aa yes the seeding was strange I think it was done based on combination of last RWC and the rankings. Given England's dominance of Welsh scrum and Australia's performance last night that's going to be an interesting area. As above Wales will get RSA and Australia will get Scotland or Japan assuming Australia win the group.

An amusing anecdote to end with, the wife sent a message to a friend of hers saying good and bad news, bad news England lost,mood news Andynwint be watching as much rugby 😯 I quickly put her right on that one 😀 Will be supporting France at the Mikenium next week and then either Japan or Australia depending on who gets through and thereafter on a game by game basis with a bias for the Northern hemisphere sides

P-Jay I imagine some people had a long trip home. The 2007 final finished at about 10:30 and by the time we got out of the stadium (freezing in December) all the bars where shut as it was a Sunday. TV drives the schedules and Southern Hemisphere audiences want to watch too. The game was lost and I'm not sure England deserved clapping off the field. Certainly glad I hadn't paid £350 a seat for those two group games

Seeding was based on Dec 2012 rankings, when Wales were ninth after that uncharacteristic run of defeats.

Will be supporting France at the Mikenium next week and then either Japan or Australia depending on who gets through and thereafter on a game by game basis with a bias for the Northern hemisphere sides

I suppose I hadn't considered the practicalities of getting home, I know it's been a nightmare getting home from Cardiff - the train companies didn't seem to be able to cash-in on all that trade.

But personally I wouldn't have paid so much money to see one a game that was always going to be very important and likely a great game without any sort of a plan as to how I was going to get home if I watched it all.

Funnily enough the 'am I glad I didn't get a ticket now' thought went through my head as watching at home I never genuinely thought we were going to win. Too many turnovers and too little speed in receipt of the ball. Tough group but the team only has itself to blame after the Wales slip.
Disappointing for the competition.

Armitage has played international rugby. He was shit.

He was hardly given a fair go - 5 caps, some from the bench, 2 against Argentina when Moodos was injured; all back in 2009.

Since then he's moved to Toulon and been named European player of the year which surely merits another look at him particularly given that our back row has been a key weakness this RWC?

The problem is that the premiership doesn't develop decent open sides - it's much better value for money for a club to have a 6'4 battering ram who can play anywhere in the back 5 of the scrum rather than a specialist openside, particularly given the focus is on not losing rather than scoring tries.

Going back to the draw, I has kweshtun.

I realise one group was always going to get Wales as they were 9th at the time. How were the other teams sorted? Was it 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5; 1-4, 2-5, 3-6, 4-8 or just an open draw?

Drawn from pots I believe. 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 4 quals.

Fiji were in the last pot, Wales in the 3rd, Eng 2nd, Aus 1st seeds.

duckman - Member

Japan are in the SH,...
POSTED 50 MINUTES AGO #

?

You speak more sense on rugby than on geography

Tokyo, 35 degrees N? 😉

They play with and are lumped with the SH teams Loum.

Agreed with everything you said there wrecker apart from the above statement.

This Armitage thing gets right on my tits! He was shit for england (he got 5 attempts FFS! - certainly a fair go) He wasn't exactly pulling up trees for the not-nots either. Then he gets put into one of the most fearsome forward packs we have ever seen and all of a sudden he's superman!
He seems to want his cake and eat it; the money of france and playing for england. It doesn't (and can't) work like that.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to a new broom in the coaching set up; Mallinder, Greenwood and Baxter please!

I have no idea how Lancaster was given a 6 year contract to cover 2 world cups.

Fairly standard practice I think to stop the coach doing a bit of a "Scott Johnson" and lose interest in the team with a WC approaching as they are looking for work elsewhere and the coach also benefits from a nice payout if they get fired before the contract is up. So both sides have some benefits from this.

The problem for England will be that they will always be under immense pressure to win every single game. That makes the development a bit stagnant since they'll be reluctant to try new things, new players and play to win rather than play to not lose, even in a "friendly". They need a BC-esque development cycle where you can accept some defeats for a better team every 4 years

his Armitage thing gets right on my tits! He was shit for england (he got 5 attempts FFS! - certainly a fair go) He wasn't exactly pulling up trees for the not-nots either. Then he gets put into one of the most fearsome forward packs we have ever seen and all of a sudden he's superman!
He seems to want his cake and eat it; the money of france and playing for england. It doesn't (and can't) work like that.

He ate the whole cake and went back for more. He also tried to qualify for France! He plays in France where power is even more important than the aviva. In play time and aerobic fitness are low in France. If you thinkvthis will make your backrow more dynamic you are living in Lala land.[img] http://img0.thejournal.ie/inline/2308390/original/?width=630&version=2308390 [/img]

Who are the up and coming backrowers in England?

Wood may be solid but you wouldn't have known he was playing if it were not for the team sheet at the start of the match. Robshaw is either immense or absent. I thought Morgan was actually quite good, as is Billy although neither is possibly as well rounded (no pun intended) as England really need. The Hask actually looked alright in the 6N so it was odd he didn't get any game time (not that he is England's long term solution)

Should have given Man of the match to Brown for a laugh...Poor old Joe![img] [/img]

Lancaster must still be in shock listening to the rubbish he came out with post match so far

Lancaster must still be in shock listening to the rubbish he came out with post match so far

The interesting thing is that there is almost universal support for Lancaster amongst pundits and ex players alike.... and no mention of Farrel. Some even spell out that he should/ could be offered to continue on the so long as all the other coaching staff are swapped

How does Brown still manage to come across like a total jebend, even in an apology note? Two lines in.... "some of us".... great team spirit

[img] [/img]

That kind of grovelling from a professional sportsperson makes me feel quite nauseous, even more than I already am.

He was shit for england (he got 5 attempts FFS! - certainly a fair go) He wasn't exactly pulling up trees for the not-nots either. Then he gets put into one of the most fearsome forward packs we have ever seen and all of a sudden he's superman!

He wasn't a great player then. He is now - at club level. The interesting point is that, chosen in a team of "Galacticos" he is frequently MoM and a lot of his esteemed team mates were glad they wouldn't face him in the RWC. Being at Toulon has developed him into a far more effective player. Besides, Robshaw has 40 odd caps and he's still average.

He ate the whole cake and went back for more. He also tried to qualify for France! He plays in France where power is even more important than the aviva. In play time and aerobic fitness are low in France. If you thinkvthis will make your backrow more dynamic you are living in Lala land.

He didn't try to qualify for France. The French looked into it themselves. To his credit, he hasn't moaned about not playing for England. He seems happy training and playing in the sunshine and getting loadsa dosh and winning European Cups. He's definitely one of the best breakdown forwards in the NH and the training camps could have shed that spare tyre. I'm not saying he's the messiah but the RFU should have backed the loan deal with Bath and then we could have tried him for a season. Besides, he couldn't make the England back row LESS dynamic - could he?

Ultimately it would have made no difference - SL would probably have tried him at 12........

We might be out, but the legacy has started!

[img][URL= http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/dantsw13/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsgq1ewb0q.jp g" target="_blank">http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/dantsw13/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsgq1ewb0q.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL][/img]

Also the straightest feed I've seen this WC!!

there is almost universal support for Lancaster amongst pundits

The same pundits who, almost universally, predicted England to beat Australia.

In the DT and Grauniad they both ran pundit predictions and of around 20 contributors only one went for Australia - Campo.

A blind man could have seen that the Wallabies were going to win.

Armitage wouldnt cope with an international game. Look at him, then look at Pocock, Hooper, Mcaw, SOB, Warburton, Dusatoir, Nyanga are they fat tubs of lard? Playing in a dominant pack he's fine. I find it amazing. A bit like Henson 5 years ago the more he didnt play for Wales the better he seemed to be in everyones mind.

I don't really get all the Armitage dislike? He's demonstrably better than the current incumbents at club level why not give him another run? Obviously playing behind the Toulon pack helps but playing with better players improves your game and he's clearly in form. All that said, we could have had Richie M yesterday and I don't think it would have made much difference - we were beaten in the tight 5.

e's demonstrably better than the current incumbents at club level

Is he. How. Robshaw is a good player maybe below the very top level but given a platform and sensible tictacs he'd be fine. We should also remember that Pocock getting a turn over is down to the england team as a whole not clearing him out. Armitage may help you steal the odd ball from Aus but he wouldnt help stop Pocock. Its rarely 7 v 7.

I asked who are the up and coming back rowers, so far you lot have listed everyone I already know. Not a criticism of the responders, but dissappointed if thats all we have got. Isn't there an academy somewhere teaching hoocock skills?

The same pundits who, almost universally, predicted England to beat Australia.

I don't think these pundits are necessarily right to back Lancaster but it was more the subtext that there wasn't a lot of love for Farrel

Saw some English 7 playing for Ospreys on friday night. Only 19 or 20, looked very promising. Cant remember his name.

Key thing is though your backrow is fine. You just need to stop going wide early and play to your strengths.

Couldn't they find a picture of a wallaby?

One telling thing at the end was Farrell Snr standing in front of lolcaster so he had to sheapishly walk round him to be at the front. Too many Indians not enough chiefs.
4 years to mold a team with the playing stock we have is more than enough the only real upset to the plan was tuie getting into trouble with the police and a lump missing in the scrum.

Booing him was out of order at the press conference let the football fans do that.

I blame the BBC.

Armitage is an average player! A-a is right, he's not the answer to England ills.
There are some good back row players coming through; itoge, Wallace, ewers, another young lad at saints (I think) and or course, burgess....

As Nigel Owens would say, this isn't football

Indeed they dont loose to Australia at football but both codes perform as well at World cups

Speaking of Nige, I didn't catch what he said to the Scottish player who took a dive after hardly being touched. Was it something along the lines of "You can come back here (ie a football stadium) in two weeks and do that..."?

I was watching it with a bunch of shouting toddlers milling around...

I was just having a look at Tom Woods interview on Facebook, and there's Ron Pickering within the comments. I shit you not. 😀

Didn't the socceroos give the England soccer team a bloody good hiding in recent times?

Nigel Owens: "Dive like that again & come back here in two weeks and play, not today"

Nigel Owens: "Dive like that again & come back here in two weeks and play, not today"

That's out of the top drawer. 🙂

Saw some English 7 playing for Ospreys on friday night. Only 19 or 20, looked very promising. Cant remember his name.

Speaking of Nige, I didn't catch what he said to the Scottish player who took a dive after hardly being touched. Was it something along the lines of "You can come back here (ie a football stadium) in two weeks and do that..."?

"Dive like that again & come back here in two weeks and play, not today"

Ah, that's what it was. Nice. 😀

Isnt wales under 20 effectivly the b team so its representative?Wasnt there a row about some dude caught between wales and scotland over the same thing?

Keet!