posted Sep 9, 2007

The sigh was probably at having to explain what was obvious to anyone who knows anything about rugby! Portugal played some really good flowing rugby, and, in a few years time, will be troubling the top flight european teams....If the IRB get off their ass and support them! as for Namibia.......absolutely fantastic play! No wonder they did a lap of the pitch!

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posted Sep 9, 2007

the sigh was pathetic and portugal have been playing rugby for some years now.they had their first international in 1935 for gods sake ... so get your facts right first before you say , anyone who knows anything about rugby ... you are all cretins.

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posted Sep 9, 2007

i remember when scotland used to play good flowing rugby and won nowt ... same as portugal .. same as england . who cares about fancy nonsense just the win the game ... look at argentina . amrchair critic idiots.

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posted Sep 9, 2007

I was really disappointed with all of the home nations and i am not just criticising because it is easy to but they all made really bad mistakes because they kept on knocking-on, floating bad passes out wide and worst of all the ammount of penatlties that they gave away were totally unacceptable. People say that Scotland should have murdered Portugal and they should have if it wasn't for Parks and Blair playing lovers out on the rugby pitch and when Paterson and Lawson came on..well they showed you how a relationship with half-backs should be as the communication was really good and the passes from Lawson were much faster and harder unlike the laboured passes of Mike Blair. head up to the Lammont brothers as they had a very good start to what should be a good RWC for both of them. Very impressed with the Scottish forwards again as they played with power, grit and determination.

When is Frank Hadden going to put out Scotland's strongest XI as that definetly wasn't it today because the replacements had more of an impact on that game than anything.

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posted Sep 9, 2007

a bad weekend for the six nations teams. i think most of the six nations team are worse than they were in 2003. the tri nations teams just play at a different speed and really play with quick quality ball.

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posted Sep 9, 2007

Honiss kept both halves open way beyond time. Samoa should view this as 45-14 ... as for Ireland ... they will lose to a vengeful France and an Argentina looking at their first world cup semi if they win. Wales v Fiji will be interesting. Anyone fancy the Abs to be the first side to score more than 400 points in a pool?

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posted Sep 10, 2007

Simply there are no excuses and trying to take some comfort with these sort of statements hide the basic fact --- we have a team in the top five or six of the world rankings so why do they deliver worse than you would see below AIB league 3 level at home? The most obvious reason is that most players know there is no alternative, i.e. if fit will play, and a coach who ploughs on regardless --- he has done zero about trying to improve the scrum which is easily our weakest part when we are playing well. These players and the management want for nothing --- if this is what they produce then simply the money would be better spent developing the game at home. Our oppoents are reproted as being on 2000 pound for the competition and most have had to take time off work. Our players should give theri world cup money to charity as they certainly have not earned it so far and I doubt they will --- all is now in place for `glorous defeat' against France and Argentina and then we we have `fair play to they played well', `we are very disappointed', `we will go aay and learn from this' Basically, if this is the case the we need a complete new coaching team and not someone from Ireland but rather someone who will drop players if needed and refuse to accept excuses or `tales of a glourous past of near misses'.

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posted Sep 10, 2007

Having watched all of the six nation teams in the first games of the world cup. I believe they all can take a leaf out of the so called minows of the tournoment. For example Portugal,Canada, America, Namibia all tried to play exciting flowing rugby, with the little ammount of posession they obtained they all played above themselves. There is a lesson for our home union teams to go back to basics and stop over complicating the game. Rugby is a simple game and should be played in that way

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posted Sep 10, 2007

It is already evident that the SH teams are in a totally different league to the NH. SA,Aus and NZ play the game to its limits in terms of hard out forward play, solid defence, and fast breakouts, this coupled with overall team fitness and they use their brains.

As a Kiwi, I hope the AB's win, but failing that, it should be the Wallabies or Boks. Down here the game is played as it should be in the 21st century, not the NH style.

But I doubt it will change, after the RWC, another raft of SH players will head north, lured by the money not that I begrudge them, the harm will not be to the SH, it will provide opportunities for the next crop of young players to come through, and they are getting younger, check out the average age of the AB's vs England.

The harm will be to block the NH young players coming through.

Perhaps England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland should combine and field a Lions team in future RWC's or they could take control of their sport instead of leaving it in the corporates hands for the money.

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posted Sep 10, 2007

i agree about a british rugby team , swallow the pride for the sake of victory .

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