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PorterRockwell

Listed below are comments made by PorterRockwell between Tuesday, 10th November 2009 and Monday, 30th November 2009.

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Southern teams hold autumn supremacy 09:52am on 30 Nov 2009 Oh, and 0darroch, the tiredness in the last 20 mins is nothing to do with conditioning. A quick look at the tackle count on these games will tell you that these teams have been working extremely hard to keep the scoreboard down for an hour, and this effort leaves them vulnerable in the last quarter of the game.
Southern teams hold autumn supremacy 09:48am on 30 Nov 2009 If we are all completely honest, the Autumn internationals were of extremely poor quality. The only team that has come out at the end happier than before they started is Ireland. For me they're odds-on for the Grand Slam, and I can't argue with Tom's predicted final table, though the Calcutta Cup match is at Murrayfield, so Scotland may sneak 4th.

Australia were awful, South Africa were tired, but generally looked like a team that has run out of momentum, and the All Blacks looked terribly vulnerable. On the Northern side, France and Wales are flaky, England the same as last season. Scotland got a memorable win, but they're not going to reach the WC semis, are they?

The team that wins the World Cup will be far, far better than any of the teams that played this Autumn. For me, even though I'm English, this is a source of great optimism. If 2 or 3 teams are going to seriously raise their game, why shouldn't we be one of them?!
What's wrong with football? Blame women! 10:58am on 27 Nov 2009 Oh, and regarding the word 'anachronistic', to quote Inigo Montoya, "I don't think it means what you think it means."
What's wrong with football? Blame women! 10:53am on 27 Nov 2009 You're not single, by any chance, are you Paul?

"It's a truly staggering observation, but one that I think tells us more about how society, rather than specifically football, has changed over the intervening 47 years."

Yes, indeed, society is now nannied by the thought police masquerading as journalists who would rather deny reality than accept even a kernel of truth in an un-PC observation. The sentiment was perfectly accurate, though it was obviously only a tiny aspect of complex gender relations. It is still true today to a degree, though its truth has been diluted somewhat by the increased leisure time of both genders.

It never ceases to amaze me how happily the rich will condemn the morals of the poor, even if the poor in question are their own forebears.

I also wonder if you've ever been to a football match? I only ask because you seem to be unaware that most fans are still men...

I wholeheartedly concur with those laughing at your ignorance of research methods. Your own BBC will happily broadcast the minutiae of the conclusions of surveys with only a small fraction of the participants in this survey.

You even seem to mock the report for not having been produced on a computer! Did it ever occur to you that the computations could be performed equally well, though more slowly, by hand? Or indeed that computers merely modelled the perfectly sound statistical methods that already existed before their invention?
Where now for Everton? 12:45pm on 26 Nov 2009 @philman132, I had a good chuckle at your post. Never let the facts stand in the way of a good theory, that's what I say!
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 1:12pm on 20 Nov 2009 Oh dear, this seems to have touched a Kiwi raw nerve! Of course, I'd rather England were as good as the All Blacks.

However, let's not re-write history and pretend that England's World Cup win in 2003 was some kind of flash in the pan. They went into that tournament ranked 1st in the world, having beaten every single major team in the world on their own soil in the preceding two years, except South Africa, whom they did not play away, but pasted them at Twickenham by a record margin.

I'm not happy with the current England team, and would settle for a respectable defeat on Saturday, but the team that won in 2003 was amazing, and I seriously question the judgement, sanity or memory of all those suggesting otherwise.
What we can learn from Rooney, Dan Rooney 11:47am on 11 Nov 2009 Oh dear, Matt, you've really stirred a hornet's nest here. The comments are filled with people tripping over themselves to make racist points while not appearing to be racist. e.g. #28 "The fact that there is even an argument about how many black or white managers there are is racist in itself."

You are dealing here with people who are prepared to accuse you of racism while at the same time making a racist remark themselves! This is just one of dozens of examples in the comments.

So if you're going to broach the topic and stir up that crowd, you're going to have to be more honest with your statistics. For example, what proportion of former players under retirement age and living in this country are black? Nowhere near your beloved 23% of the active playing population, I suspect. And how many of that 23% are English? Making a sweeping, dramatic point by comparing apples with oranges is just asking for trouble. You also ignore the fact that only 49 of the managers of professional clubs are from this country. That makes the black population over 6%. Comparing this more honest figure with ex-professional populations rather than active players wouldn't support your case as well, but honesty is essential to dialogue on this topic.

My own view is that the current small crop of managers are the pioneers, but that is only to be expected given the history. Once one or two achieve decent success and a few more filter into the ranks behind them, this will rapidly become a non-issue.
Computing for older users: Patronising or practical? 11:40am on 11 Nov 2009 This isn't in the least patronising. So many services are now delivered on the Internet, and so many new opportunities are available on it, yet a very large minority of the population has never been introduced to computing. In my early thirties, I do not know many people older than I who have had formal IT education.

A system like this does not have to be purely an initiation into computing. Many people won't want to learn any more, and why should they? Something like this can reduce digital exclusion for such individuals.
Nutt row deepens as more scientists quit 10:03am on 11 Nov 2009 @ 33. Sadly, the chocolate teapot to replace Alan Johnson will be Chris Grayling, heaven help us. They may not have too much in common personally, but you couldn't fit a cigarette paper between them politically.
The real debate has scarcely begun 2:13pm on 10 Nov 2009 ReardenSteel, I agree that we need a new PM. Did you have anyone in mind?

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