Yeah, I know, but at the StagNHennium, massive support, Gatling galvanising the team in adversity telling the media that he’s never had such an injury ridden squad and how Fiji are the team that his players most like to beat… 🙂

It’ll be a hammering.

A team like Fiji is normally the one Gatland lets Hook start against in order to get a battering and not damage the players he actually likes 😆 Probably a big part of the reason these games are often close too

Wales are equally capable of winning by 60 or losing 😕

An even funnier video along the lines of Brown picking on Warbs from the archives (although Goliath started this one)…

Quite. I remember being at the Arms Park for the 15-9 loss to Romania in 1988.

Dark, dark days.

Tonga Vs Namibia is proving to be quite good fun.

Ha, this is true. I think everything I used to do is now outlawed. Including hooking the ball apparently.

Rumours that The Chosen One has been dropped for the Australia game.

There we have it.

SL’s selection process:

Barritt at 12.
Plays shit.
Put him at 13.
Plays shit.
Put him back to 12.
Repeat.

Is Henry Slade actually a person or is he just a made up name (King of England + 70s Rock Band) that’s been added to the squad to satisfy the RWC requirement of 31?

Woah woah woah…. too many changes in the centres is a defensive gamble. It’s not like England have used many different combinations there over the past few years 😀

I am kind of thinking that the way to beat Australia is to try and play the traditional England strategy but execute better than they did against Wales. What I can see happening is that they go for a more free running backline and keep Lawes and try and beat Australia by playing like Australia-Lite.

Launchbury has to be in for me and I wouldn’t be upset to see Haskell start. Sure he’s an annoying penalty magnet but so are the other forwards lately. At least he bring a bit of strong running that will be missing with Billy V injured. Is Morgan fit again? I hate to say it but Slade – Burgess or Slade – JJ sounds good. Untested though so it won’t happen. Ben Youngs needs to stay on for 80. Robshaw needs a massive game as a captain first and foremost

Sounds ideal to me Wrecker, bar Care (not in the squad is he???) and Youngs has been playing pretty well and seems to be one of the few to visibly give a sh1t on the pitch

Tweet from Jonathan Kaplan

Good luck outwitting Cheiks.

That is a good write up from D’Arcy

Steffon Armitage couldn’t handle the pace of international rugby. I’ve seen him play quite a bit over the last few seasons and Inwouodnt out him in the England squad

England where a coupe of decisions / break of the ball from winning the game last Saturady quite comfortably, 10 or 20 points even. A further high pressure game to come but still favourites for it and then all the pressure is back on Wales to beat a side the e proven incapable of beating.

to be fair, not his words but Cheika’s.

To be fair, if you look at the whole picture England should be favourites – home advantage, player resources, bookies odds, the fact that England are so confident that they can play with 14 men and A N Other from a completely different sport*. However they seem to have forgotten about actually winning the game.

*rumour is that they’ve found a world class badminton player who can slot in at 9. Or maybe prop. Money may have changed hands.

😆

(probable)

Speculation.

Well the DT seem to have an inside track on England selections….

The Dt seem to always know the “probable” team waaay before selection. It’s not for me to suggest that Cleary is a mouthpiece for the england to justify their selections……

I like Morgan. Because he’s so short 6 Fijians will be sent off for high tackles before half time. 😀

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-RUGBY/story-27882740-detail/story.html

Harsh words from Darcy, but probably correct. If we lose the only way out of this for Robshaw and Lancaster is:

a) Lancaster coughs up that Burgess was paid by the RFU to play, whereas he wanted Burrell but the decision was out of his hands.

b) England win with a bonus point, and go on the at least be in the Final, if not win it, if England are winning vs Aus, Slade comes on and scores, JJ can’t continue in the RWC so Burrell is called up to pair with Slade. Barriet falls down the stairs in a training accident and Hartley is called up.

I note Mike Catt has been quoted of saying that the best way to beat Australia is to keep hold of the ball. Shit the bed Mike, you remembered that from all those years ago…?

I was expecting him to go on the wing…