International Rugby

[PaulWinch again]

May, Joseph and Watson are decent players but there's no world class players in the England team.

I think that they're especially weak at scrum half.

Fit and on form Cole, Launchbury, Lawes, Wood, Joseph, Brown and potentially Ford are World class.

I agree on all except Brown, I don't think he's got the brains to be a world class full back.  Watson will be world class though, get him the ball in space and he'll destroy any winger in the world but unlike most wingers he's also got the awareness and hands to make things for other people, unfortunately he's probably still a little inexperienced right now, the 2019 world cup will be his tournament. 


EDITED because I missed putting 2019 so the last bit was all kinds of weird.

Yeah good point actually, I forgot about Watson.

[paul_e]

Thing is I'm really torn as to whether us being in the 'grpup of death' is a help or a hindrance. I actually think that if we came through the group, and even won it, we'd be full of confidence and battle hardened. I wouldn't give us much chance in another country, with the team at it's current stage of development, but at home you never know. I do think it's critical that Launchbury gets fully fit and thst Youngs finds his line out jumpers.

Youngs won't play past the opener with Fiji before he falls foul of a mystery injury and in comes Hartley.  At least that's what I'm hoping for. 

I don't want Youngs to get a mystery injury, I want that fate to fall on Rob Webber in training so Youngs can be our man off the bench whilst Hartley shows him how a proper hooker throws and scrummages.  Youngs is excellent in open play (as you'd expect for a converted centre) but his line out is terrible and in the scrum him (and Webber) have never learned how to hook so the only option is to try to push the opposition back and let the ball work it's way back naturally.  I'm not blaming them, the failure of referees to clamp down on feeding into the 2nd row has caused this one.

[PaulWinch again]

Thing is I'm really torn as to whether us being in the 'grpup of death' is a help or a hindrance. I actually think that if we came through the group, and even won it, we'd be full of confidence and battle hardened. I wouldn't give us much chance in another country, with the team at it's current stage of development, but at home you never know. I do think it's critical that Launchbury gets fully fit and thst Youngs finds his line out jumpers.

Youngs won't play past the opener with Fiji before he falls foul of a mystery injury and in comes Hartley.  At least that's what I'm hoping for. 

I don't want Youngs to get a mystery injury, I want that fate to fall on Rob Webber in training so Youngs can be our man off the bench whilst Hartley shows him how a proper hooker throws and scrummages.  Youngs is excellent in open play (as you'd expect for a converted centre) but his line out is terrible and in the scrum him (and Webber) have never learned how to hook so the only option is to try to push the opposition back and let the ball work it's way back naturally.  I'm not blaming them, the failure of referees to clamp down on feeding into the 2nd row has caused this one.

Yeah agreed, I think Youngs is a good impact player so would be good off the bench.

[Jon Crofts]

So, 2 days to go before England v Fiji.

Predictions?

I'll go England by 22.

[PaulWinch again]

I hope would England by a margin, because we need to get the confidence going.

[paul_e]

So, 2 days to go before England v Fiji.

Predictions?

I'll go England by 22.

I'll go with that, I've got a tenner on England with a 21point handicap.

[peter w]

22-15 England

[nordenvillain]

Thing is I'm really torn as to whether us being in the 'grpup of death' is a help or a hindrance. I actually think that if we came through the group, and even won it, we'd be full of confidence and battle hardened. I wouldn't give us much chance in another country, with the team at it's current stage of development, but at home you never know. I do think it's critical that Launchbury gets fully fit and thst Youngs finds his line out jumpers.

Youngs won't play past the opener with Fiji before he falls foul of a mystery injury and in comes Hartley.  At least that's what I'm hoping for. 

I don't want Youngs to get a mystery injury, I want that fate to fall on Rob Webber in training so Youngs can be our man off the bench whilst Hartley shows him how a proper hooker throws and scrummages.  Youngs is excellent in open play (as you'd expect for a converted centre) but his line out is terrible and in the scrum him (and Webber) have never learned how to hook so the only option is to try to push the opposition back and let the ball work it's way back naturally.  I'm not blaming them, the failure of referees to clamp down on feeding into the 2nd row has caused this one.

Yeah agreed, I think Youngs is a good impact player so would be good off the bench.

I think that it will be Jamie George that will suffer a worringly serious injury in training to see the return of that nice Dylan Hartley

[nordenvillain]

What games are people going to?

At the moment I'm just doing USA v Japan at Kingsholm

South Africa v Samoa at VP
New Zealand v Tonga at Sports Direct/St James' Park - A desire to see Dan Carter before he retires and to see Richie McCaw spend at least 78 minutes on the wrong side of the breakdown whilst charming the referee

[JD]

What games are people going to?

At the moment I'm just doing USA v Japan at Kingsholm

South Africa v Samoa at VP
New Zealand v Tonga at Sports Direct/St James' Park - A desire to see Dan Carter before he retires and to see Richie McCaw spend at least 78 minutes on the wrong side of the breakdown whilst charming the referee

You know you can get NZ Citizenship for expressing that kind of love for Dan Carter. Bagging Richie though is a hanging offence though, especially here in Cantab Country where both Dan & Richie ply their trade.   

[paul_e]

What games are people going to?

At the moment I'm just doing USA v Japan at Kingsholm

South Africa v Samoa at VP
New Zealand v Tonga at Sports Direct/St James' Park - A desire to see Dan Carter before he retires and to see Richie McCaw spend at least 78 minutes on the wrong side of the breakdown whilst charming the referee

You know you can get NZ Citizenship for expressing that kind of love for Dan Carter. Bagging Richie though is a hanging offence though, especially here in Cantab Country where both Dan & Richie ply their trade.   

I really don't get the McCaw thing, he's a clear cheat but has spent his entire career getting away with it, it's like there's a massive blindspot for all refs where he's concerned.  Paul O'Connell manages to get into that blindspot regularly as well.

[UK Redsox]

Maybe its some kind of Jedi mind-trick........"I am not the offside flanker that you are looking for"

[JD]

What games are people going to?

At the moment I'm just doing USA v Japan at Kingsholm

South Africa v Samoa at VP
New Zealand v Tonga at Sports Direct/St James' Park - A desire to see Dan Carter before he retires and to see Richie McCaw spend at least 78 minutes on the wrong side of the breakdown whilst charming the referee

You know you can get NZ Citizenship for expressing that kind of love for Dan Carter. Bagging Richie though is a hanging offence though, especially here in Cantab Country where both Dan & Richie ply their trade.   

I really don't get the McCaw thing, he's a clear cheat but has spent his entire career getting away with it, it's like there's a massive blindspot for all refs where he's concerned.  Paul O'Connell manages to get into that blindspot regularly as well.

I agree. Funny thing is when he plays for the AB's all of NZ get behind him, but when he plays for Canterbury the rest of NZ hate him and complain that he cheats. That tells you all you need to know.

[DaveD]

What games are people going to?

At the moment I'm just doing USA v Japan at Kingsholm

I'm going to England v Wales, which is nice, but that's all I got in the ballot.

[Lsvilla]

My brother in law works for the RFU as Referees Development Coach and is holed up in The Landmark for the next 8 weeks looking after the officials that are all staying there (he is an ex-premiership referee himself)...............I've not seen a sniff of a ticket for anything - not that bothered tbh, can take or leave the game, but a freeby to the final would have been nice.