posted Mar 9, 2008

Cips at fullback against ireland. Drop vainikolo- he knocked on loads against scotland it was unreal!

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posted Mar 9, 2008

The whole discipline issue raises a valid point for England moving forward.
Clearly Gatland's new regime with Wales (and Shaun Edwards) has instilled a new drive, focus and belief in the Welsh boys.
This, by all acounts, is down to the coaching team laying down firm boundaries for the players, establishing a structured and understandable chain of command with roles and rules clearly defined.
And that is what young players, especially, need. They need guidance, direction, boundaries in order to grow and develop, no matter how self-assured and confident they appear.
The problem with the England set up, it seems to me, is that they are all being treated as mature veterans who run the show, rather than newcomers needing a structured secure training environment in which to move forward.
In the two camps - Wales and England, Gatland and Andrew - you have a classic case of the one where the manager has the interests of the squad in mind, and the other where the squad seem to have to have the interests of their manager in mind.
Either that, of the England players were just saving themselves for next Saturday.
Either way, they have performed poorly and lost out in another Six Nations tournament.
England have not won anything in a major tournament now since 2003.
If that isn't reason for change then I don't know what is.

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posted Mar 9, 2008

Ashton did the right thing, Danny Boy was naive.
England would still have lost with him, because Wilko was absolutley dire.
Ireland will be praying that Wilko is selected agaisnt them.

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posted Mar 10, 2008

Over re-active or not rules were broken. We have not heard anything from BA on the matter as it is the players themselves that agree and set the rules on their conduct in these matters.

If the players are feeling bad it is probably down to one of their own stepping outside of their collective standards.

Hopefully Cips has learnt that even a good deed (dropping tickets off to his mates) can lead to letting yourself and your team-mates down.

As for England lets hope they can discover or develop a game plan or some kind of structure for the final fling this weekend.
As a member of the rain-soaked crown on saturday I was disappointed most by the complete lack of direction shown by the English side. Agreed some of the senior players (ie Wilko Vickery) should have been more decisive during the game, but like all season there seems to be a total randomness to the whole approach.
This is only backing up LD and MC's words in their respective books, and I for one am now starting to agree with them.

Come on England lets stop the rot and start playing some quality rugby in all departments you know you can!!!

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posted Mar 10, 2008

Brian Ashton - you sure got it wrong! Jonny (and I'm a Wilkinson fan!) had the worst game I've ever seen him play. Balshaw really didn't contribute anything much although he was more reliable in defence than he has been of late. Both wingers were totally ineffective. Forwards giving away silly penalties. Time for you to go, and someone who actually knows what they are doing and knows how to create a motivating environment for players to come in and make some major changes.

Right now, it is painful to watch England play and that's really sad!

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posted Mar 11, 2008

Ashton is inconsistent. One minute he is saying he wants players on the pitch that can make decisions for themselves and the next he is trying to lay the law down with Cipriani. I actually think he did the right thing with the lad, but the environment BEFORE the punishment was not clear enough.
Interestingly, Henson's comments about having Gatland in as the boss - "You know who is in charge. You know the rules and the strategy. You take the direction, and you do the job on the field"
I don't think England know who is boss, what the rules or the strategy is, they dont have direction and therefore can't do the job on the pitch.
Clarity and communication all the way from Andrew to the newest squad member. INCLUDING Vickery and Wilko.
PS As a prop I really can't figure out how a prop can captain a side - how can you read a game? How many great front row captains have there been in recent times? (Post Fitzpatrick?)

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posted Mar 11, 2008

Regardless of fault here I love the irony of the situation.....

The freind that cips met at the club to give tickets to got to go to murrayfield and cipriani couldnt!
Then England turn in a terrible performance!

Nobody really covered themselves in glory here did they?

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posted Mar 11, 2008

Personally I don't like or rate Brian Ashton but in this instance I think he was right. Can you imagine Rio Ferdinand or Wayne Rooney coming out of a bar or club 2 days before an international. How strict has Capello been so far and what do you think the outcome would be ?
Cipriani shouldn't be anywhere near a club at that time of night running up to an international. What I can't stand is the likes of Dallaglio (who hates Ashton anyway) and now Woodward sticking their oar in. None of them have anything to do with the England set-up now and all they are doing is undermining the current coach, they should know better. Cipriani was stupid/naive whatever, but get off Ashton's back. Judge him on his coaching ability on the park, not an off the field disciplining decision.

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posted Mar 11, 2008

Ashton did the right think a disciplining Cipriani. Iam Mcgeochan and Suan Edwards should have done the same but instead waded in with comments. Worst of all was Woodward, the failed Lions coach, who shouyld have refused to comment. I can comment but well known personalities should keep their own consel.

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posted Mar 11, 2008

Dear Prop
Re Props reading the game.
Presumably you do not spend the whole game in set scrums; and following up play from the set piece you get the opportunity to see the bigger picture, because props are usually a little bit further away than the back-row.
Vickery was a very successful and popular captain at Gloucester.

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