NZ’s very best athlete’s play rugby as it’s their number 1 sport, SA is pretty similar in that regard. There are lots of other distractions in England and Scotland. I would say Wales get’s a pretty good crack at the best sportsmen although clearly football is still a major draw.

I would not say any of the 6 Nations are at the same level as NZ or SA athletically.

As for the coaching debate, as I posted England looked very rusty and with a lot of new players in important positions and Farrell having a poor game. I think England have a very good chance of winning the upcoming 6N, you don’t do that with poor coaching.

Yer, even I think this a fantasy.

I am the biggest england fan, and as one eyed as you can get, but I have not seen an England performance recently that is sure to beat wales or ireland on a Rose wilting mission. Of course they need to be in the right mood, but there is nothing like England setting themselves up for a glorious win to motivate our so recently downtrodden neighbours..

Y’see, I’m not sure quite how this is meant…

Indeed, things have been looking shaky vs wales since at least 2011..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_union_matches_between_England_and_Wales

+100

Jambalaya – now we were sitting next to each other on Sat. Can we say the same thing about England? Remember how the back lines were (not) lined up, how many passes were made blind or dropped, how throwers and jumpers were not on the same planet. These are guys at the pinnacle of the game who are missing basic skills and the coaches have to take some responsibility, don’t they?

Remember Woodwards TCUP that was drilled into the 2003 team and look at our recent panic attacks!!

Why do the Irish, Welsh and French have the ability to run the lines we can only dream of? Are they better players, do they just all play together more often, are they coached better? A combination of these and other factors?

AA – 2010 and 2007 weren’t bad for the men in white – you boys dont have it all your own way!!!

Ah right I see now.

If I were an England player, I’d be plenty motivated playing against the green machine. They’ve only won three of the the last ten 6N games against them. And two of those were the last two. 😛

@teamhurtmore – I said we were rusty. When you win playing poorly that’s a good sign right 😕

@wrecker – Wales have won the last two, England the two before that (the two games in the middle where non-competitive RWC warm upas which were shared 1-1)

wales have won the last three, you can’t hide the statistics because its a different competition. Look I am not trying to defend wales, I want us to beat them every time, but lets not be lame about this.

Is Tui back then? I thought he was out?

wales dont do much other than run straight. Davies and Roberts dont pass well but at least they run straight. Englands backs dont run straight other than Tuilagi and so all ths spacd for the back three is lost. The all blacks run straight and pass before or afted contact. Its why I love Henson whdn he’s going wsll he draws defenders in by running straight and attacking the inside shoulder and then pass well.to playeds in space. Its simple things done well, and makes players around him shine.

In other news Ryan Jones fit and not in the Wales 23. End of an era?

Just got round to watching the weekend’s highlights.
Christian Wade just has to be in the Engalnd squad!

Wade’s tries well taken Dez, but one was a telegraphed switch move poorly defended and the other a sprint down the line past a few forwards. Not miffed at all, oh no 😕 😆

Did we not agree it was Steve Walsh who demolished England?

Any of you lot should worry about your teams,up here they are stressing how big a task beating Japan will be in the press,fricking Japan! 😡

I dont want to talk about Japan 😳

@duckman – I like that !

Interesting they’ve put Le Roux on the bench. I’ve always thought he was very over-rated (especially by himself).

With some cleverly applied rough stuff, you could get half of that pack sent off or binned 😀