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 [i]very good authority[/i] 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 - MemberI 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.
IdleJonThe 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
, but I believe that the majority of them are born and bred in England."most decent [s]e[/s][b]E[/b]nglish athletes come from"
There are a few rather pathetic characters, such as Shontayne Hape (What a ****tish 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 [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/brynpalmer/2010/11/cooper_oils_cogs_in_aussies_at.html ]Bryn Palmer's Blog on the BBC[/url]
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.
[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9164712.stm ]****socks. Gethin's out. Powell in at 6 as well...[/url]
*Goes to fridge. Opens bottle of Brains SA. Settles down....*
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?
molgrips - it will be worth watching - as will the first half indeed
They say it's a game of two halves. 🙁
Fair play - that was a match!
What a game! Fantastic performance by England!
Excellent stuff. I was saying last week Cueto should be dropped... That'll teach me!
TandemJeremy - MemberI did watch the game. England played as well as they can I thought and NZ looked lacklustre. However NZ never looked like losing. Have a look at the stats on scrum.com
Foden looked very good and Ashton OK - good speed of thought. Youngs might be the best england have had for a long time as well.
Croft a bit anonymous for me. I was expecting more.
Why oh why do they play Tindal. Is he really the best? Cueto?
Easter - a conundrem. Remains too slow but a couple of excellent offloads.
Sheridan - is he the worlds most overrated player?
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
Ashton Foden and Youngs were the standout players I thought along with Lawes and croft. That gave others confidence to try stuff.
A damn good win
Why does everyone roll over and let New Zealand always play in black?
Scotland are the home side, NZ should be in their change strip!
Englands performance today was one of grit and determination. The Aussies were dangerous but England definitely wanted it more today. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction and with better things to come.
iirc it should always be the home side. Ireland game last week was an exception as for the first game in their new stadium SA agreed for them to wear green
Hmmm, p'raps!
Also, the team is called New Zealand, not the All Black! Neath or Launceston are the real All Blacks.
Won't stop the Scots getting utterly trounced, mind you!
As seems to be happening currently.
Oh dear 🙁
Why does everyone roll over and let New Zealand always play in black?Scotland are the home side, NZ should be in their change strip!
In rugby the home side usually change to away strip as courtesy. Much more gentlemanly than football 😉
Scotland performance is embarrassing. Kiwis are playing well but Scotland are all over the shop. How does Southwell still get a game? My 6 week old puppy tackles better.
Because poor Scotland don't have a big enough pool of players to call upon.
When there are only two fully pro teams in the Country what are you gonna do?
When there are only two fully pro teams in the Country what are you gonna do?
Raid players from the Pacific Islands, maybe? 😉
7 Tries let in. The Scottish defense is/was non-existent.
I thought the Scots were supposed to be on an upward curve?
Oh dear.
some serious rethinking required. Forwards OK but the backs - only Blair and Evans looked like they should be on a international pitch.
southwell was particularly inept - I thought he had been looking good for his club.;
Laidlaw and Jackson getting a run will be good for the future but thats just an embarrassing stuffing.
Seen the England Aus highlights. Looked a bit sort of scrappy and disorganised to me. Both sides letting loads of breaks through. It looked exciting with loads of running but seems that they were only able to run through lack of defenders in the way.
it is so frustrating being a wales supporter, well played england.
Ashton's second try sounded ace via Radio Five - looked rather good on the highlights.
Reminded me of the days of the French when Saint-Andre, Blanco, Sella and co were playing.
got the highlights of the england game to watch. Looking forward to the Wales england game to open 6 nations already, shaping up to be a cracker if, and its a big if, wales can get the majority of their best players fit. Missed Shane badly when he went off and was replaced by the somewhat limited Checkeye
That long try though - where was the Aussie defence? England caught them unawares, fine, but that doesn't make it one of the best Twickers tries ever does it? He just ran a long way that's all.
It's almost as though the Aussies planned for a grinding forwards game.
molgrips - MemberThat long try though - where was the Aussie defence? England caught them unawares, fine, but that doesn't make it one of the best Twickers tries ever does it? He just ran a long way that's all.
There was no Aussie defence because THEY were attacking on England's line and suddenly got turned over. THe reason that it was a great try was because Youngs decided to counter attack from behind his own line instead of hoof the ball to safety. Besides, there were some defenders but Ashton burned them off and then also swerved around Drew Mitchell (no slouch himself) before leaving him for dead too.
Yeah not exactly hard when you're a winger and as such one of the fastest blokes on the pitch, and you've got about as much space as it's possible to have on a pitch. Good try, yes, absolutely. But a great? Not really. Just a lucky grab or defensive slip, and a fast pair of legs. Not that different to an interception or a charge down.
Great Ashton try. Have not really seen it in detail but buy turning the 11 (?) inside he had a headstart, but to be fair had already run from his own try line! Probelm is, several England wingers not playing would have scored from that position largely IF they had turned inside too. So a very good try but not anywhere near say Shane Williams top 5.
His first try was more pleasing - he has been doing that for Saints for the past 12 months.
Well played England.
You all realise it's a false dawn though, don't you?
molgrips - MemberYeah not exactly hard when you're a winger and as such one of the fastest blokes on the pitch, and you've got about as much space as it's possible to have on a pitch. Good try, yes, absolutely. But a great? Not really. Just a lucky grab or defensive slip, and a fast pair of legs. Not that different to an interception or a charge down.
You fail to understand that it was the intent to attack from their own goal line that made it such a good try. Not the greatest ever seen at Twickers, sure, but still pretty good.
He was one of the fastest blokes on the pitch but he had to beat Drew Mitchell (one of their fastest blokes) and shake off all the other fast blokes. These days, not just the wingers are fast. Tom Croft is quicker than many of the backs for example.
So a very good try but not anywhere near say Shane Williams top 5.
Shane is broken 😥 some big nasty south african broke him.
Aston is good but not in the same class as George ap Lomu North 😀
Hmm I feel I must correct the misconception that we steal players from small South Pacific nations. There are a lot of 2nd/3rd generation New Zealanders of pacific island descent From the side that played yesterday:
Ma'a Nonu - born in Wellington.
Mils Muliaina - moved to Invercargill from Samoa aged 2.
John Afoa - born in Auckland.
Isia Toeava - born in Samoa but played highschool rugby in Auckland so must have come over at a young age.
Sonny Bill Williams - born in Auckland.
These guys are New Zealanders. When Sean Fitzpatrick played nobody said we were stealing players from the Irish !! Andrew Merhtens anybody ??
hels - don't let it get to you mate, it's just a lame excuse. If you are eligible to play then thats all that counts.
We would have had a bigger win if the glory boys released the ball a bit more often, luckly it paid off, but a couple of opportunites were missed by players hanging on to the ball hoping to break tackles when they should have passed to the men waiting.
I know mr toys, thanks. It's not so much the stealing payers thing, more the idea that the brown skin guys aren't Kiwis, it's never directed at the white guys with european names.
You fail to understand that it was the intent to attack from their own goal line that made it such a good try.
It's one of those things that is derided as stupid if it fails (why the hell didn't he kick it?!) and lauded if it succeeds. Anyone can launch a death or glory run from their own line. If they beat 8 blokes to score incredibly then fine, if they only have to beat 3 in an otherwise empty pitch then it's a defensive problem more than genius attacking.
But enough of that.
But enough of that.
Fair points - let's just enjoy the performance and hope for more of the same against the Boks 😉
watched the highlights, fair play england were good, now trying to watch Scot NZ, my god scotland are shite!!
Fair points - let's just enjoy the performance and hope for more of the same against the Boks
Absoutely. It certainly makes good telly 🙂
I'm afraid I can't support England getting more than one victory though. The media coverage will be absolutely insufferable.
The media coverage will be absolutely insufferable.
It already is. Listening to Miles Harrison during the game you'd think England were: a)Suddenly the best team in the world, b)gonna win the grand slam and c)now favourites for the RWC.
That was before they'd even put the Aussies away too 😯
I don't have Sky so I watch lots of games via the web and I much prefer SH commentators when the feed I'm watching is not from Sky. THey're sometimes biased towards their own teams but they also tend to accurately assess the merits of each team and not get carried away like the English media.
At least Johnno is playing a straight bat and understands the need for consistency until such performances become the norm.
my god scotland are shite!!
That's what I was saying to all my Scottish mates in the pub during the match 😆
To be fair they have beaten Ireland and Argentina (twice) last time out but not having played for several months and then facing the best side in the world who've been playing (and winning) continually of late it was no surprise. NZ getting two early tries killed the game and it was men against boys after that.
I thought England were a step up on the performance against NZ last week. Oz were good, but they had not expected England to run the ball at them. However it is good to see England learning that against some teams you need to keep the ball. The Sky team (especially Will Greenwood) were bouncing all over the studio over the performance and almost criticised Johnson for being so downbeat. Johnson is right, England need to do this on a consistent basis. However at least they can do it once.
Scotland were so bad it was embarrassing. NZ could have put out the U21 team and still won with ease. Big problems for them for the forthcoming 6N and World Cup.
Disappointed with Wales. Had SA on the rack and then let them off. They depend a lot on the kicking of Jones and the ability of Williams to unlock defences. Good performance from George North, very impressive from a 18 year old in his first start at this level, but teams are now aware of him and as such he will find it harder.
Looking forward to 6N. Based on this set of performances, England vs Wales will be a cracker (and please can we have some scrums!) Scotland are going to come bottom and Ireland are going to struggle.
New Zealand could have put out the womens team.
put George North and Roberts in the same team with Shane willimas and defences are going to have a hard time, sadly it may never happen!