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 very good authority 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.
I 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….
