Mark Connolly Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 8 hours ago, GAD said: Looking at some of the "England inquest" stuff today and a common theme seems to be they have good players mismanaged. I'm not so sure about that to be honest, I think they've got lots of pretty bang average players that are being mismanaged. I don't think many England players right now would get into the Scotland first XV and I don't think any would even get into a matchday squad for France or Ireland. They've got a lot of good players who are past their best, some decent young guys that are hyped the way young English guys always are, and a fuckload of dross. If that was Scotland, they'd be laughed at from all angles 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAD Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 14 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said: They've got a lot of good players who are past their best, some decent young guys that are hyped the way young English guys always are, and a fuckload of dross. If that was Scotland, they'd be laughed at from all angles Yeah, guys like Farrell, Vunipola, Daly, May and even Itoje were good players, they just aren't now. I think the problem with the premiership is it produces lots of players, but the actual standard across the board is nowhere near as high as some think it is, so guys like Marcus Smith, or someone like Sam Simmons look like absolute superstars at that level but the step up is too much for them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 9 hours ago, GAD said: Looking at some of the "England inquest" stuff today and a common theme seems to be they have good players Like their round ball counterparts English Rugby fans persist in believing they're watching "The best league in the world" The difference being that in football they might well be right 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 I basically have no knowledge (at all) on club rugby but is it not generally accepted that the French league is the best in the Northern Hemisphere? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 (edited) 34 minutes ago, ICTChris said: I basically have no knowledge (at all) on club rugby but is it not generally accepted that the French league is the best in the Northern Hemisphere? I was overgeneralising. The penny had in fact already dropped with some English Rugby fans and presumably many more after Fiji Edited August 29, 2023 by topcat(The most tip top) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aDONisSheep Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 (edited) England have some absolutely cracking players. Some are, as others have said, getting older. I rate both Joe Marler and Dan Cole, but they're not the future and they're not dynamic enough. They are scrummaging machines. Looking through that line up at the weekend, there isn't really a bad player there. I particularly like Ludlum, I think he's a fvkking menance and should get more game-time. Having watched the game back, I think England simply got their tactics wrong. 1) England don't have much invention. It's all very well picking Ford/Smith, but if you're going to play Tuilagi and Lawrence outside them, defences know what's coming. To mix it up, Ford/Smith should be taking some more risk, by playing the wider miss-pass (a la Russell) but they just didn't pull the trigger often enough (and their wingers didn't get involved enough either) . I also don't think either of them take the ball to the line and look for the off-load enough (in fact, I think my major critisisms of both Ford and Smith, is that they are powder-puff in both inviting the tackle and in delivering a tackle). 2) I know it rained and they (England) wanted to play in Fiji's half, but Ford kicked the ball pretty badly, and invited Fiji's runners back onto England. Now Fiji may have tempered their 'fling-it-about' tactics, but if you keep giving them broken field opportunities, they will punish you. All that having been said, I still expect them to make the semis, such is the disparity between the two halves of the draw! Yours aDONis Edited August 29, 2023 by aDONisSheep 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 I just realised that if every game is won by the higher ranked team, Fiji will make the semi finals. Fucking mental. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 Huge blow for Fiji as Caleb Muntz is ruled out with an injury picked up in training. He's arguably as important to them as Finn is for us 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Ferguson's Hat Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 I've commissioned a re-work of the Champions League theme song to go with the lyrics: The Rugby The Rugby World Cup For Champions I'm not able to release it just yet due to rights issues, but I'll post it on here as soon as it's been cleared. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAD Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Team for Sunday. Pretty much as expected, though probably quite a big decision to go 5-3 on the bench. Also thought Steyn would have been in the squad ahead of Smith. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Montalbano Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Just now, GAD said: Team for Sunday. Pretty much as expected, though probably quite a big decision to go 5-3 on the bench. Also thought Steyn would have been in the squad ahead of Smith. Imagine saying a year or two ago that we'd go into a World Cup opener without Hamish Watson in the squad. Some depth we have in the back row now compared to a few years back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAD Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 23 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said: Imagine saying a year or two ago that we'd go into a World Cup opener without Hamish Watson in the squad. Some depth we have in the back row now compared to a few years back. Yeah, no Watson, Harris, Hogg, Sutherland and that's just the Lions missing for whatever reason. Like you say, two years ago starting without any of them would be a disaster. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radford Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 (edited) Getting out of the group would certainly be the greatest Scottish rugby achievement this century? Fair? Edited September 8, 2023 by Radford 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honestly united Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 17 minutes ago, Radford said: Getting out of the group would certainly be the greatest Scottish rugby achievement this century? Fair? Probably as it means we've beaten one of the teams ranked 1st or 2nd in the world. Oh and if we do its either France or NZ in the quarters. Although we get passed them the semi will be a doddle as one of Wales / England / Argentina / Australia / Fiji / Georgia so free pass to the final against one of NZ / SA / Ireland / France. It just shows our luck, if we had any we could be 3rd seeds looking forward to either Wales / Australia or England / Argentina as the top seeded teams in our group and playing one of the other 2 in quarters - and us being favourites to make the semi as the highest ranked team across groups C&D 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 2 hours ago, Radford said: Getting out of the group would certainly be the greatest Scottish rugby achievement this century? Fair? True But it has been a pretty rough century so far 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 1 hour ago, honestly united said: Probably as it means we've beaten one of the teams ranked 1st or 2nd in the world. Oh and if we do its either France or NZ in the quarters. Although we get passed them the semi will be a doddle as one of Wales / England / Argentina / Australia / Fiji / Georgia so free pass to the final against one of NZ / SA / Ireland / France. It just shows our luck, if we had any we could be 3rd seeds looking forward to either Wales / Australia or England / Argentina as the top seeded teams in our group and playing one of the other 2 in quarters - and us being favourites to make the semi as the highest ranked team across groups C&D To win the World Cup, we're probably going to have to beat the defending champions, who we haven't beaten for 13 years anywhere, and only once away from Murrayfield, which was at Hampden in the early 1900s; arguably the best Irish team ever; France in France, which is something we've only done 3 times in the last 50 years; and NZ, which we've never done. These, of course, are also the top 4 ranked teams in the world. And even if we don't have to play France or NZ, we would probably have to play Ireland or South Africa again! To even get out of the group, we either have to beat both of the 1 and 2 ranked teams in the world, or beat one of them and hope the game between the two of them goes our way. And that's before you factor in the fact that Tonga are the strongest they've ever been at a RWC and will fancy pulling off at least one "shock" result. There can't really be a harder route than that, and we're the 5th best team in the world at the moment. If ever there was a chance to front up though... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Here we go lads... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Choir going with some fucking weird remix version of La Marseillaise 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajwffc Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 what a start 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
come on shire Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 That choir were horrific. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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