A mates son is getting capped at U16 today for Wales, good luck Paris Thomas

Of course but I don’t hold out any great hopes.

England have great depth (especially up front) and enough quality that, coupled with home advantage, gives them an outside chance.

I just feel that the coaching staff have done little to impprove that chance over the last four years. SL said his aim was to have a settled team with several hundred caps going into the RWC but he hasn’t managed that. England have also failed to win the 6N and have a miserable record against the SH.

It’s an interesting question but surely a home RWC is there to be won, not as an experiment for 2019. People say England have a great crop of U-20s who’ll come through for 2019 but if that was the plan then the likes of Itoje and Slade would’ve been tried before now.

Cricfree is covered in ads and I can’t get under them to pay anything.

Any other suggestions?

England are being eaten alive at the breakdown. The flankers are absent mainly (I think) because they have Billy V man marking Bastardo.

And now we have ****ing Sanderson. This is why I hate rugby on sky. The man’s a complete turd who should never have won a single england cap.

Tell you what. The “Pool of Death” is looking pretty tough now.

Australia, Wales AND Fiji? All in the same group?

😉

Cips scores. Burrell stakes his claim a bit.

Kryton wonders he should have bought a Welsh supporters shirt instead.

Agreed. Really glad that he’s sorted out his demons from a few years ago. Exciting player to watch.

Sadly, for all concerned, I think that’s nailed on. Burgess is the Messiah, apparently. Feel sorry for him, because he clearly isn’t. But he will be picked. At hooker, probably, after tonight’s performance!

An English supporting friend of mine is on record as saying he’ll switch to Wales if Burgess is picked, claiming a Welsh great-grandmother. 🙂

Ooh, they’re coming back now!

Cue the papers praising the Golden Generation. 😉

Why not just admit that you’re having a clicky linky as it’s a rather rude, but funny, image

🙂

Based on what we’ve seen so far;
Marler
George
Vunipola
Launchbury
Atwood
Robshaw
Morgan
Haskell
Care
Farrell
Slade or Cipriani
JJ
Watson
Nowell
Brown

Careful pigface, careful. You have friendlies against Italy and Uruguay coming up…..

Mine?
It’s Burgess isn’t it?
**** you Sam Burgess!!!!!

You would be too CFH if you saw the shape of the entertainment staff down here.

Poor game. England can do better but if he game vs Ireland goes against is next week I feel doom. Now is not the time to be building, now is the time to be playing. Our lack of 7 / 7 type qualities Is there for all to see.

Drink rum and prosper I say…

Cipriani was the single most effective change. Leaving aside the very well taken try he transformed the team in the last few minutes, aided by a few other late changes (Easter, Attwood)
England slow and labouring, a poor pitch which made it impossible to referee the scrum as well as a couple of other strange decisions. It was only when Cipriani came on did England show any flair or attacking intent. From that point on France were on the backfoot.
No doubt Lancaster will leave him out.

Wrecker that was for the rude man rather than you decent Saes 😆

Disappointing match from a partisan England fan’s perspective. The failure of the pack, in particular the tight 5, to even compete for much of the match is a significant concern. England looked tired, drawn and thin with many players appearing to have lost bulk and consistently losing out in the tight contact one on one battles.

Difficult to judge the backs as they had no ball and were behind a pack going backwards at a rate of knots. I think on balance, after some initial wobbles, Ford didn’t do too badly; I suspect Farrell (who to be fair I’m not a fan of) would have got frustrated and done something daft or niggly and potentially got penalised or even carded.

Whilst I think the lack of a decent classic open side is a concern and will have a negative impact if we manage to progress in the WC it made little difference last night; even the best open sides (McCaw, Jones, Smith, Back, Rives, Calder) would have been unable to achieve much in a pack being so comprehensively outplayed.

Rugby has changed. All players are now expected to have a crack at a turnover and backs to participate in rucks rather than have one single nutter with a seven on his back who tries to get to the bottom of every ruck. I spent years doing this but I’d never have been a 7 in the game now.

And yet the great 7’s still seem tomhave more effect at the breakdowns than others. Look at Julian Salvi for Leicester (now Exeter) somehow they are always there, knowing when a turnover is possible and getting into the right position to achieve.
England were a shambles. How have, in the course of 5 weeks coaching, the Engl and pack been made to look so bloody woeful. Cole could scrummage for example, that hooker was doing storming runs all over the place ( and hit his line out jumpers some of the time). the power of the pack would snuff the life out of teams (including France)and somehow, they now look like a poor Australian pack with no threat behind the pack either.
In the backs, Cips looks good and I expect him to be dropped shortly along with Slade, and they can join the other wingers who look like game changers playing in a regional nothingness until the. World cups over.

It’s not going to be a pretty World Cup that’s a fact! Wales and Aus to qualify on recent performances