Rugby A Game For Gentlemen

Poor selection from Aussie Eddie.

Hill dropped as he’s been going backwards since a too early selection. Beaumont is still not 100% after a big injury.

WTF
Genge, just don’t rate him, never have and he’s second choice at his club. I first saw him as a 16 year old as an 8 and he was average.

Wood, safe choice, but surely a bench boy.

Care has been awful for a year, same with Slade.

Lozowski is a funny one, not sure why he’s there over Cipriani, as neither has a good kicking average.

Yarde is just crap, he used to be good when he was at London Irish, but he’s crap now. I remember seeing him at Twickenham when he was 18 and playing outside centre to Elliot Daly and he looked a work class prospect, he’s just not got any better. He’s got chunkier, but not better.

Christian Wade can now kiss his England career goodbye, as if he can’t get in when both first choice wingers are injured, he’s at least 5/6 choice.

I remember seeing Elliot Stooke at 17/18/19 and he was a monster second row who could totally dominate a match (more than Otoje), I still think he’ll make a great 4/5 sometime.

It’s all part of “the plan” <twirls moustache

Will it be 4 - 0 to England against the Crims in 2016 soon?

I wouldn’t be surprised :roll_eyes:

For those of us that have kids or friends kids or grandkids who want to get to the England rugby age groups, the below is a little guide.

  1. Premiership clubs pick the kids from certain schools (they generally don’t look at club matches, maybe club cup finals, but not a lot else). These schools tend to be private apart from a few good rugby state schools. If you are from a non-rugby or poor rugby school, you stand little chance.
  2. Selection starts at 12/13, where you will go on a wider pro-club list. It is essential that you get into the county side at 13/14. After U15 the County sides are an irrelevance.
  3. You need to be in a Premiership or certain few championship sides (Yorkshire / Bristol (soon) / LI) academy.
  4. The England boy’s hold a get togther and Academy matches in May each year at Broadstreet RFC at U15 level. You HAVE to be there to get into the England U16 training squads. The Academy’s are asked by England U18’s coaches (at U15 level) for their “England” players list.
  5. If you miss Broadstreet, England U16 is pretty much gone for you. You may (small may) get a chance at U17/18 level if you perform in the U18 Academy matches.
  6. At U16 level England choose 4 sides (North, East, West, Midlands) and this is the England U16 training sides. Each side has approx 30 names, this will be cut down to 32 across the group at U17 level. At U16 you will get a few games against each other and some other countries (Wales, Portugal, Ireland etc…).
  7. After U16’s, come the U17 (some training matches) and the important U18’s. To get into the U17/18’s, you either need to be very good at England U16 level (to survive the 1:4 cut) or play in the Academy U18 games and look bloody sharp.
  8. U18’s play the 5 nations sort of thing, so you need to be in these to get to U19/20.
  9. At U18 level there is a summer tour to the Southern Hemisphere, you need to be there to get to U20. You need to perform on this tour or you will be binned or put in the U19 reserve squad.
  10. U20’s and U18’s it is MUCH better if you are born on 1st Jan to 31st Aug, as you can get two years at U18 and U20. Those who were born before 1st Jan it is much more difficult to get into U18/20, as the coaches like two years go at you, rather than one.
  11. U20’s you need to be in a academy as a senior academy member and have first team experience, maybe LV cup or sub on a prem match. The U20’s will generally watch only at U18 academy matches and prem club A League (reserve side) matches.
  12. You need to stay mainly serious injury free from 16 to 20, which most don’t.
  13. At U20 level, a squad is chosen in Sept (about 35 players) and from this about 25 get to play in the five nations. the best players then go to the U20 World cup (about 25 players). One or two come into the squad from the prem club academies as they make a spurt in quality.
  14. England (not Wales or Ireland it must be said) choose player with a view to size. If you are slightly better than the bigger lad, they will pick the bigger lad, as they feel they can train him up, where as you can’t make people bigger. This policy is complete rubbish I feel, I have seen many a great potential player overlooked due to some lump. This is definitly a massive policy of the England U16/17/18 forwards coach, he looks for size and size first, then aggression.

So you see, you need luck, skill, size and to get in at 12/13 at a good rugby school and get noticed.

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Ireland 40 New Zealand 29.

Wow! That is astonishing.

Had to go to feckin’ Chicago to do it though. Winning in 'Murca at Rugby probably doesn’t count…

There were several NZ players rested, I guess some will be brought back for the next match. Well done Ireland though.

The Irish won’t care who was or wasn’t in the NZ team, it is still their first ever win against the Blacks.
when Munster beat them they wrote a play, this win will require at least a film and probably a new Bank Holiday.

Andy Farrell looked a bit smug!

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Some great pics from last weekends’ 7s in Singapore. Thanks to the photographer.

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Is that your lad in the England shirt Bob? If it is he gets his looks from his mum. Or the Postman…:wink:

That is my lad, with the face fuzz. He sort of looks like I did at 21… only much, much better.

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Looks like he’s got the skillz mate, you must be chuffed.

It’s been a long hard road, he’s really a 8 at 15s, but he loves 7s, so he’s a prop at 7s. Likely to go back to 15s at some point to play at inside centre, as that is where he started at the age of 8 and played until he was 16.

You talk in code :smiley:

I never saw the attraction of spending Saturday or Sunday afternoon with my head up some blokes arse :scream:

But well done to you both.

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That is 2nd Row. (4 or 5). Which was my position when I played (nowt special, just school and pub teams). Sunday games were the worst, as it was almost certain that the prop forward would have been out for a few beers and probably a curry on the Saturday, and all that bending over and pushing hard made it inevitable that gas would be released into close proximity to your ear…

He play’s as a back row forward (the bigger ones) at the back of the scrum in 15 a side rugby. He loves to play 7s rugby also, where there are only 3 forwards so he plays as a prop (front row forward). At some point he will go back to 15 a side rugby and play as inside centre (number 12) as a back (i.e. not a forward) as that is the position he played when a kid.

Rugby team 15 a side
FORWARDS
Losehead Prop (1) - Hooker (2) - Tighthead prop (3)
Lock (4) - Lock (5)
Blind side flanker (6) - No. 8 - Open side flanker (7)

BACKS

Scrum half (9), Flyhalf (10)
Inside Centre (12), Outside Centre (13)
Left wing (11), Fullback (15), right wing (14)

Numbers on their backs in the ().

I think we are now seeing how truely, monumentally rubbish Lancaster was with England, as Eddie Jones has the same players and it’s now 13 wins out of 13.

I bet the RFU wished they had sacked him a year before the world cup.

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