posted Mar 16, 2008

italiantifoso:
Well, my Italian (or BRITalian?) friend, you obviously have NO idea or concept of the traditional rivalries surrounding "home" internationals in this country (i.e. the UK) whether it's football or rugby being played between Wales/England, England/Scotland etc etc.
Italy are the "new kids on the block" and I applaud the progress you've made in a relatively short time. However, you have no rugby tradition or pedigree whatsover. This kind of thing does not happen overnight. Maybe in 50 or a 100 years time..who knows?
To suggest that Italy are going to challenge the superiority of the world's established rugby nations is naive to say the least! You have no real player-base to draw upon. All of your "best" players (if indeed they ARE Italian) have to rely upon clubs in other European nations to give them employment. That's where they learn their skills...not in Italy! For the foreseeable future, Italy will have to content itself with the occassional "fluke" win, now and again. Consistency is currently beyond the team and resources available to you.

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posted Mar 16, 2008

Newsontrees: You hope France will actually turn up to play? Yeah right, as long as they play against Wales like they played against England then the Welsh will have the Grand slam!

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posted Mar 16, 2008

to be honest i agree, i like brian moore's comments, he makes a lot of sense. he speaks his mind about what he sees and is very critical of england when they deserve it. and let's not forget, Wales did win the grand slam. no point in saying that but i just e njoy it

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posted Mar 16, 2008

No question that Wales deserve the Grand Slam. Apart from the first half against England, they were far the best team this year. For England to come second after the terrible displays in the 2nd half against Wales and Italy, and the dreadful match against Scotland, shows how weak northern hemisphere rugby is. French rugby is so bad - no flair and little passion. They were never in the game against Wales and could not match a very poor England side. No disrespect to Wales - they could only beat what was put up against them - but this was the poorest 6-Nations in many years.

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posted Mar 16, 2008

Italy v. Scotland. On BBC 1 the commentator [don't know and don't want to know his name]must be getting paid by the word. He talks too much - far too much. [It's as if Liz McColgan has taken up rubgy commentary]. Please keep him quiet - or better still, pension him off. He just wouldn't shut up. We watch TV because we can see what's going on. So there is no need to tell us the obvious. e.g. The caption was against someone who has 48 caps & your man says "just 2 more and he'll have 50". !! Need I say anymore?

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posted Mar 16, 2008

Can we please have Rugby commentary on Five Live, and not football coverage. Quite honestly, I listen to the Six Nations commentary because I want to hear all the rugby and to imagine the game in motion, play by play. Not because I want to know the football scores!

Some of us don't have attention spans of a flea, and like to concentrate, and enjoy, one sport at a time.



Alan George
USA

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posted Mar 16, 2008

Firstly, I'd like point out that I'm an Englishmen and an Englishmen who has enjoyed watching Wales win the Grand Slam!
I must stress that this enjoying of Welsh success is strange, for I thoroughly enjoyed the decades of Welsh rugby ineptitude. Not for any hatred towards their country, simply sporting rivalry. However, I do believe this Grand Slam winning side to be no false dawn, as the case was in 2005. Which is why I found myself supporting......... yes, supporting this country not of my birthplace. I'll explain.

Whilst watching a spirited Irish side with a solid defense fail to hold back the Welsh, I realized that for the first time I was witnessing (in my opinion) a mentally tough, talented, professional, well drilled Welsh display by a side gaining in confidence and belief. Could they improve upon this display in their next game against a potentially tougher side in France?

Yes they could. A fantastic effort by the whole team. Mean in defense, showing cunning, talent and ambition in attack. Henson has come of age. M Williams, brilliant. Your team had bite in the tackle, showed high intensity and completely dominated the French in the second half. Well done Wales, at times I had to blink to remember this was indeed Wales playing. Let's hope that next season England can trample upon the Welsh so that this Englishman can forget the alien feeling of warming to a Wales side, before and after, winning the Grand Slam.

On a different tangent, I was very pleased with England's performance. Much better. Let's hope this improvement continues. Cipriani has shown what he can do. Very promising. Maybe a ray of hope of competing against the All Blacks.

Lastly, someone have a word to that Scottish reporter who interviewed Brian Ashton after the game, the lady can't hide her contempt for Brian Ashton (or is it just England in general). I bet Mr Ashton would enjoy a few choice words with her without the cameramen behind her. No need for it, keep your forked, sarcastic and mocking tongue in your mouth woman!

All 'n' all a very enjoyable 6N.

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posted Mar 18, 2008

When Marcati kicked that drop goal, it brough tears to my eyes. not that I am anti-scottish or anything, but the fight that Italy put up and the emotion they showed afterwards took my breath away =] Well done Italy

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posted Mar 18, 2008

Personally don't have an issue with the respective former players being slight bias to their own. What is annoying is that Inverdale was the anchor for the BBC and chose to talk about England all the time... that is not a chip on the should but merely stating a fact that it is quite annoying.

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