Rugby A Game For Gentlemen

A reminder of the standard England need to get to in the next year, I just don’t see it with EJ in charge.

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I think they need to be better. I reckon the current NZ side is better than the 2003 side.

Different game now, the players are bigger and slower with worse handling and less chances taken, as there is so much set piece and contact.

NZ were a building side with a lot of their U21 side called up and they went on to be stars of the game.

Yes that is not the best ever NZ side, but still a damn good one who beat everybody else apart from England.

My point is that we have wasted so many talents like Wade, Simpson-Daniel etc… or just played players out of position. We have zero chance of winning the world cup, as currently we are probably behind Ireland, ZA, NZ and Austrialia, and about par with Wales and Scotchland. France are in a mess and Argentina don’t have the depth.

EJ is wedded to certain style and players who go into contact rather then play around the opposition. Our forward selection has been on the whole terrible. It is a real shame that we don’t play Dan Robson (injured currently) and Cips together for England.

Jones is old school thinking, he saw what can be done with a dominant pack and tried it with England, the trouble is his selection is shit. England don’t have a world class front row any more and so you have to adjust your tactics, which he has clearly failed to do.

Marler was the only world class scrummager front row we had, and EJ pissed him off for fatboy Vinopola, who can’t scrummage for toffee. Cole is long past it, his replacement is at Tigers, but injured.

Playing Brown on the wing is just muddled thinking.

The famous ‘White Orcs on steroids’ game.

What a dreadful highlight edit.
The defining moment of the game when England held their lines with Back and Dallaglio off the field wasn’t even shown.

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Fixt. I reckon the present NZ squad, especially among the forwards, are better ball handlers than their 2003 counterparts.

Agree with you on the rest of it.

NZ maybe, England are definitely worse at defending, retaining the ball and building quick openings.

This made me smile, I wish the same could be said of the current team.
This was written after the NZ v Eng game mentioned above.

" Reaction in New Zealand to England’s victory bordered on sheer disbelief. In the Sunday Star Times newspaper, under the headline “Gargoyles spit on our pin-up boys”, Michael Law wrote: "The English pack are the stuff of nightmares. They’re battle-hardened Vikings - all scars, snarls and, in Lawrence Dallaglio’s case, snorts. And their captain Martin Johnson has that perpetual sneer on his face - as if he’s just found out that every Kiwi has married their sister…

“The rest of the pack were simply giant gargoyles - raw-boned, cauliflower-eared monoliths that intimidated and unsettled. When they ran on to the field, it was like watching a tribe of white orcs on steroids. Forget their hardness - has there ever been an uglier forward pack? Small children who stayed up late to watch this test will be wetting their beds for weeks. But, boy, I’d love to have them playing for us.”

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whatever his faults would you fancy being a 9 or 10 with that bugger hunting you down? not me

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Christian Wade, if only England took a fucking chance with him.

Things you never see, somebody catching him up.

How come Wales are playing Scotland on Saturday?
I thought the Autumn Internationals were against Southern hemisphere teams not practice matches for the 6N.

Wales is in the Southern hemisphere, if you live in Scotland.

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To raise awareness of Motor Neurone Disease, which the former Scotland and Lions lock Doddie Weir was diagnosed with a while back.

I am taking the girls to see it. My daughter (9) will be getting her first taste of the stadium.

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Tuilagi injured (who didn’t see that coming) and splashboi in.

I am just waiting for Te’o to get injured in the first 20 minutes and then EJs plans are completely fucked.

Well, my score prediction, ZA by 15 points with the England forwards dominated. A lack of cohesion in the 10/12/13 pairings means lots of missed opportunities with any ball that England get.

England had a chance, Care 9 and Cips 10 with Daly at 13 and Goode at 15. Shields should not be anywhere near an England team, Ewers should be 6 with Armand at 8. Our LHP has talent, but he is lightweight and inexperienced at this level, this will be a fatal flaw, especially as he’s second choice with Exeter.

The second rows will be eaten alive, we needed Itoje and Attwood to take the fight to the Boks.

It’s a sub par Boks team.

That’s the most positive thing I can say.

If Faf and Willie Le Roux were starting, it would be 25 points to ZA.

Here we go

9 - 0 :smirk:

Nice if we could have some ball.

Their 12 is shredding us.

Someone needs to tell Daly that the box kick isn’t mandatory every fucking time he receives the ball from the ruck.