Whoop!

****. Rhys Webb’s World Cup over.
Bollocks.

I think that is just about Gatlands nightmare scenario. Squad strength has always been Wales Achilles heel and those 2 maybe the most irreplaceable.

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!

Great performance by England. They’re definitely favourites for the RWC now.

#carrythemhome

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 😀

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. 😉

Well he’s already as good as Brad Barritt then isn’t he? 😆

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?

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.

I thought he WAS the mascot!

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.

😉

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.

You must have missed the Wales Canada games at the Millennium 😀

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.

The phrase “strong as a bull and twice as bright” springs to mind 😀