posted Dec 2, 2008

it realy does my head in ppl plames the ref. ime sorry the ref was right ime english n live in wales. the thing i will say is mj will not lead england very far what coachn experiance does he have? sweet fa. and that is a problem the plays are much to blame and all coaches, i feel a few players should not be playing ad there is alot of players dropped to saxons squad that are better than first team. tom varn i feel is now better than paul sacky. i prefer flood to danny. and a few others. vainakolo should of stayed in the squad he is fast big and will do alot if gets the ball. ppl are saying why should they axe mj. well ppl called for bryan ashton's exit after first loss in world cp yet he took us to the final after a very bad first game or to. england should of beat the bocks after there last game in world cup. but we dint why??? anwser mj came in and change the squad most of players this does not help the coaches have now past there prime time for new ones. why do i say this. 6nations 2007 wales were crap. world cup they were crap. then came along mr gatland next thing is they won the grand slam after a few months so this does prove a good manager and coaches count and we dont have this. tell me if ime wrong and why

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posted Dec 2, 2008

"All the people picking England teams have forgotten the reason a lot of this players are no longer in the side.

Tait, Flood Strettle although talented players are lightweight at international level."

No, Strettle and Tait are injured, not dropped.


"At the moment Barkley is probably the best inside centre and althouigh he has been off the boil for a couple of years Tindall adn Hipkiss offer more than Noon."

Then he's not the best inside centre on form is he?

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posted Dec 2, 2008

"14 STRETTLE - for me Sackey was a disappointment, poor in defence and not interested in much work"
*Sigh!* he's one of the hardest working wingers in the the GP, look at his ball carry stats for Wasps, he does far more around the pithc then strettle ever will.

"13 TAIT - our best centre at RWC2007, the only centre who puts fear into the opposition. If he hasn't the hands for centre, then he hasn't the hands for the back 3. He didn't cough up the ball much in France"

He doesn't have the hand to release players outside him, yes he makes ground and lots fo breaks but how many times has he:
A: passed the ball to a runner hitting the line from 13
B: made one of those breaks of his and then actually seen ti come to fruition.
He's a back 3 player, nice running lines, great pace, good tackler.

"12 FLOOD - Flutey was poor against the TriNations making bad decisions and is too small. Flood has played well at Leicester in the 12 position. Lets pick players on form"
Floods played 12 once for leicester so how do you figure he's the form 12, and that he's been playign well for the tigers in that position. He's lined up at 10 since the start of the season.
Fluety is the form 12 in the GP, Barkley and Allen behind him, Geraghty if he can get a run together.

"11 BANAHAN - second highest Premiership scorer, an average of 2 tries per game for the Saxons - at least he gets over the line. Monye looks lost unless in the open, JSD will be injured picking up the phone from Jonno and is a poor defender. Varndell seems to be just lazy."
An average of two tries per game against who? lol

"10 LAMB - Cipriani will always be an egotist, Geraghty is a fly half unless the Saxons and London Irish are wrong"
Lamb has no defensive game, and his game control is worse then Ciprianis. He's no where near the cutting edge of Cipriani either, Lamb probably has more of a future if he moves back to 9.

"9 ELLIS - I think Care needs to mature whilst it is too early for both Dave Lewis and Joe Simpson"

Actually agree on this one.

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posted Dec 2, 2008

jplooseforward - You are right in so far as to the slow ball. It is sometimes so pedestrian watching the ball being channelled back.....you go in, now you go in...line up... ready....scrum half run 3 paces towards receiver..... pass - by which time the defence has re-aligned and trashes the receiver behind the gain line. I do beleive we should get rid of John Wells, since he has been there, pack play seems so slow especially at the breakdown. My choice would be to bring back John Mitchell. I do think though, that the backs would gain much more ground if they were given quick ball like the ab's backs receive. Heres a curve ball, what about Banahan as first centre, a bit of size speed and bulk to cross the gain line.

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posted Dec 2, 2008

I feel that English rugby hasnt noticed global changes in the game - particulalry refereeing.

I attend GP games most weeks and notice that the Woodward and Leicester mentality of having 5 or 6 players continually "advising" the referee on what decisions to reach continues throughout most english teams.

What was noticeable to me in these autumn internationals and last seasons HC was that the non-english referees will not allow this practice. Most GP referees still seem to accept this and very rarely use any of their powers to march a team back 10 metres. With a strong ex-Leicester presence in the backroom, we dont seem to have picked up on this.

Who was it that said the great strength of the 2003 team was Back's ability to transgress the rules in the ruck coupled with Hill's ability to ensure that the officials view was obscured?

I think the practice employed then of pushing the rules and the referees to the absolute limit is now coming home to roost.

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posted Dec 2, 2008

Watched the game on DVR on Sunday evening and am finally getting around to a response to it. It seems to me that there was some misfortune in the refereeing, but there was equal blame to be shared by underacheiving rugby players. There's no go-forward ball and no immediacy. England are, as others have also indicated, making it harder to cheer for them. I'd give Alain roland two particular lows: yellow card for Flood (maybe it was a fould, but certainly no harm came from it) and failure to even penalize Thorn (?) for the punch play well after the play had stopped. Regardless, a winning team creates its own good luck and does not spend all its time whinging about the bad.

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posted Dec 2, 2008

Someone made a comment that made sense: a team being outplayed is always going to infringe more.

The points made that for the bulk of the game England were playing a man or two down, imply that, 15 against 15, England would have won it.

While some England fans (and the press) believe that had England played with a full team they would have beaten the ABs, I maintain that, had England not infringed as much as they did, then the winning margin would have been larger.

As to the difference between a SH ref and a NH ref, my understanding is that Rollings is from the NH.

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posted Dec 3, 2008

Glad to see that the lipman citing was thrown out on its ear. the citing commisioner should be sacked for even bringing it up!

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posted Dec 3, 2008

Hardly thrown out on it's ear:

He was found guilty of foul play, but they decided that he had suffered enough and did not punish him further.

Several of the ABs copped a shoe-ing in the game and I can tell you that, had the boot been on an AB foot, you would probably have heard the English whinging in Aukland.

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posted Dec 5, 2008

Tindall is a one trick pony, rumbled many moons ago. Picking him again, means going into reverse gear. Not too many Cipriani fans on here: the optimistic and rather brainless punditry that reckoned dropping Danny would suddenly turn around a 42-6 defeat was shown to be what it was: plain tosh. Had Dan Carter had his kicking boots on: it would have been an even larger defeat. So much for that theory then.

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