[Closed] Rugby world cup

the wlelsh scrum in theory will be killed but i dont care, keep our big guns for the world cup.

gav getting game time is good, if he has a shit game thats the end of him i reckon and rightly so, rumours are that he's going to join the dragons down the road... but i cant see it.

I'll tell you what, in the unlikely event that wales get any decent ball and Henson and Roberts click its a pretty bloody tasty centre pairing, the front five choices and the bench make me want to cry though.

I reckon Henson will only join the Dregs if he doesnt make the world cup, if he does the worlds his lobster again.

I'll tell you what, in the unlikely event that wales get any decent ball and Henson and Roberts click its a pretty bloody tasty centre pairing, the front five choices and the bench make me want to cry though.

Very much so.

TandemJeremy - Member
What is it with England and centres? Scotland as well for that matter. Just no quality at all.

I thought about posting something like that earlier when I posted the teams.

Hape, Tindall, Flutey, Tuilagi. It says a lot for the quality of English midfield play when the most talked about player is a 20yr old whose main claim to fame is punching his forthcoming teammate.

(I know, I know, he scored against Wales last weekend......)

It seems strange to me that they would put Flood, a more attacking o/h with those centres. I'd have thought Wilkinson would be a better choice?

so flood fails and Johnson can then play wilkinson?

Roberts looks a bit ginger there, are you sure he is not one of ours?

I think one of the problems for the English midfield was that you had Greenwood/Gusset/Catt there for 10/12 years.Any of those three would spoil supporters. Greenwood esp, I see a lot of him in Conrad Smith, somebody NZ seem desperate to replace with A-A's new favourite centre.Flutey has the most potential out of the new lot, IF he can get back to 2007/8 form. Anyway the madness starts tmw...Why is my first assignment of the season always a bloody 7's tournament? At least the ground will be soft.

Flutey has the most potential out of the new lot

How old is he? He seems a bit old to be regarded as being a potential? Tuilagi has great potential but will need the right partner, someone who can pass which rules out Hape and Tindal. The chances of Flutey getting back to his best seem about as slim as Hensons IMO.

Flutey is 31, so fair point long term, what I meant was in the next couple of months. I think the best pairing is Flutey/Tindall for england, tindal is not as explosive as Tuilangi, but has much better D. I think that England will try to bypass 12/13 anyway. I really hope Gav does well tomorrow,on the little ball they see,he could have been one of the greats of the modern game. I would hate to see him remembered for one 6N six years ago.

Henson more likely to be remembered for being a primadonna with a too high opinion of himself

Henson more likely to be remembered for being a primadonna with a too high opinion of himself

Yeah but yawn, because we are talking about playing rugby on sat and in the upcoming word cup. It will be a foolish England that underestimate him because of his personal proclivities. In my limited experience (mostly any international that England play and a few of the Ireland ones) with Rugby you never know.

Sadly Henson will always remembered for being Orange. He probably will have one more great game in him.

But his personality is affecting his rugby - he plays like a prima donna. In the Baa Baas game he was backing off contact, then someone had the temerity to give him a hard tackle and he looked to the ref. He's not a team player any more (if he ever was).
Plus he's a ****.

OK fair enough, I guess I prefer to talk about the Rugby rather than strickly, if you really think he is washed up then that is a shame(as in a shame for Henson being washed up). He did have some brilliance and I assume that Gatland feels he still has something otherwise he wouldn't be giving him this chance no?

I don't think Henson ever was a team player - i seem to remember stuff coming from O's fans to that effect a few yrs ago. It's such a pity because the lad is definitely uber-talented but just can't seem to gel with others for some reason.
Anyway, although i like Tuilagi in the long term i suspect this WC may be too soon for him. Not a great fan of Hape but i think he might be the best we have available - which is a really depressing thing to say. England have some good, powerful and most of all thinking players in the back line but the centres always seem to stifle them. We have a pack that looks decent, a very good FH in Flood and several decent SH's but it still comes back to centres that bollox the flow up.

I think Wales will do well, but still lose narrowly like last week. How that will set either team up for the WC is anyones guess.

I'd never deny Hensons talent or his ability to produce skills that only the best can but unfortunately for Wales that no longer makes you ant international or even a european cup level player

I suspect that Wales will follow their usual game plan -
Start out well
Concede a few points
Go into a spiral of unforced errors whilst defending heroically
Come back in the last 20 minutes and play fantastically with speed, vision and committment
Lose narrowly (again)

But his personality is affecting his rugby - he plays like a prima donna. In the Baa Baas game he was backing off contact, then someone had the temerity to give him a hard tackle and he looked to the ref. He's not a team player any more (if he ever was).

In the baa baas game he did look shy of contact and kept doing stupid chips and grubbers, but please whilst I'm happy for him to be slagged off for things he does you really need to open your other eye. He got hit a cracker by , christ name escapes me big Fijian centre, as he went back clearing up someone elses **** up (becausse he's a team player) he then jumped up after it and ran forward to take a quick tap (as Wales had been trying to play advantage) as he did so most of the baa baa's team were congratulating each other for smashing Henson so some cheating littler ****er (most likely Martyn Williams but I dont remember who) knocked the ball out of his hand. It was that that he mentioned to the ref.

Actually watch him play and then explain how he plays like a prima donna. He works tirelessly in defence getting back into the line, he runs endless and very effective dummy lines and he always passes to people in space. If you want to see a prima donna play watch Hook always running sideways, fails to pass and try's to go for the break all the time.

I would hate to see him remembered for one 6N six years ago.

that'll be two grand slams....

clearly off the pitch he's a massive **** but I couldnt care less about that if he regains some form

care less about that if he regains some form

Exactly, whilst I as an englander don't want to see him regain form, this is what it is all about.

anyway we all know how bias can alter perception, if you wanted to you could make a case against any player with careful selection of their on pitch actions.

This is all getting away from the fact that we are gonna stomp your leek eating asses so have the tissues ready.

[b]PEDANT ALERT![/b] two 6N years ago....proves my point though!

two 6N

No two grand Slams, there's a big difference between winning the Championship and achieving a grand slam, ask Sir Clive.

Any of you chaps know if this is going to be on non sky tv?

Try www.vipbox.tv

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 I really enjoyed that

Good to see not everything sporting-wise going England's way today, well done Wales! 🙂

Now to see how Australia do down in Durban...

😀
And we were singing.....

Poor performance by England B

England B 🙄

Poor performace from wales too but bloody hell that was funny. Steve Thompson really needs to go on a diet because his gut was out further than his strutting chin!!

Ok, C then

Wondering if it was Wales' game plan to suck it up for 60 mins then turn it on.. if they really believe they have the fitness advantage...

happy times a win is a win 😀

Now to see how Australia do down in Durban...

Huzzah, a win, but looked to be a bit boring and ugly to me? only 'watching' via typed online commentary, which kind of sucks 🙁

Arf, I bet Johnson is fuming 😆

Wondering if it was Wales' game plan to suck it up for 60 mins then turn it on

Its part of the plan, not sure being incompetant in the lineouts and thrashed in the scrums was also part of the game plan though. They wont to keep it tight and play contolled rugby for 60 and then exploit space later on with Williams and Hooks etc, but they dont want to just tackle for 60 mins. Its all part of the game plan designed to beat Fiji and Samoa. Last world cup they tried to out play Fiji with all out attack which was a very daft thing to do.

PS Mind you hapy days for England if Cole, Lawes, Easter, Flood, Hape, Tindall, Cueto and Foden are in their C team 😉

Huzzah, a win, but looked to be a bit boring and ugly to me?

Saw the last 20 mins half-watched, looked very scrappy and unproductive to me but the weather was terrible. Low score reflected that.

Henson has a suspected broken wrist which is a really shame had done nowt wrong up to that point.

...the weather was terrible.....?they had the bloody roof shut 😀
If england had turned posession into points in the first they'd have been untouchable.
Second half was closer, england were, in the end, let down by a lack of effort in defence. Try scorer(i forget who) practically walked it over.

If england had [s]turned posession into points in the first[/s] been good enough, they'd have [s]been untouchable[/s] won the match.

Hook is a pretty dangerous runner and he only had to beat Cole I think. England were let down by having two inept centres who couldnt pass water or run a decent line and one inept lump on the wing.

Poor performance by England B

Rotten luck for Henson if this rules him out... thought he was looking good.

Two toothless games from England so far in the warm ups. Better teams will mash them.

Wales? Better today, but still not good enough for a semi final spot. (Which is as far as I could optimistically dream of!)

Better today, but still not good enough for a semi final spot.

hopless optimist!! Mind you if we get Gethin and Adam back and dont play Lloyd Burns again and put Ryan Jones in at 8 .... happy days.

Busted arm 😯 thought he was due a bit of good fortune. Unlucky Gav

To me, England just seem to worry too much and are afraid to have a proper go. Standing off at rucks, running at the line from a standing start, won't chuck a long pass. If they would only hit stuff hard, run at people with some conviction, and chuck the ball out, they'd do well. They just seem to have no confidence in themselves.

To me, England just seem to worry too much

Nope the problem is that Tindall and HApe are ****in useless.

South Africans turned over by the Australians yesterday. Another team who cant score tries at the moment.

Hape's one of the worst players ever to have pulled on an international rugby shirt.

The fact he played rugby (of a sort) at a full international level for another country..........

Ex run and wiggler isnt he? Bloody useless, Tindall was quite about 7 years ago and maybe could still do a job if partnered with someone who can pass.

Henson has had surgery for dislocated bone in wrist, poor sod
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/14517441.stm

Not a great Henson fan, but he does have some appalling luck. Thought he was looking pretty sharp as well. Shame.

Glad England were prevented from grinding out another soulless win.

Just watched it, Really enjoyed it, not for any flowing rugby mind, but just for the actual game. The times makes a really good case (Barnes)for Wilkinson being the starter, as he can get the best out of the current midfield. Shame for Gav, still he is young enough....If the desire is back,he is still young enough for 4 years time (not like he has played too much rugby is it?) Welsh are fit a ****, Hook/Warburton are brilliant, and jones(s) to come back. Don't think the Saffers can take ANYTHING for granted.
Mrs Duck is Welsh, does that mean I can claim citizenship?

Mrs Duck is Welsh, does that mean I can claim citizenship?

Only if you can say "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" without hesitation or drawing breath. 😀

anagallis_arvensis - Member
Ex New Zealand full, senior level run and wiggler isn't he

FTFY. Should never have been allowed to play for England, even if he was anywhere near vaguely good enough to.

Some other musings;

Shane's tackle on Banadonkey. Awesome. Further proof that being a big lump and spending all day in the gym are no substitute for brain, guile and experience. In fact, that sums up the Welsh attitude v the English attitude. Wales were cleverer, and had variation. England had one way, drudgery. Didn't work, couldn't change it.

Hook - Must play at ten. For most of the game! 😉 I rather like the idea of starting with him at 15, with Priestland at ten. Then, after 50 or so, put Hook up to ten and bring Byrne on at 15.

Great to have a choice in the back row. Faletau (spl?) is still young, but he's going to be a real star soon. Warburton? Awesome. Lydiate? Same.

Can we all take a moment to applaud Danny Care for this moment of great sportsmanship from last week?

Flash, can I open that without seeing the break?

Yes, RugbyDump deliberately chose to post a vid without the nastiness. Good on 'em.

nope you can clealry see his leg break on that if you look.

Mighty England

Pffftpt 🙂

AA, I meant is wasn't a "ooh, look at this nasty injury" sort of video.

CaptainFlashheart - Member

Two toothless games from England so far in the warm ups. Better teams will mash them.

Nowt there for Scotland to fear anyway 🙂

http://gwladrugby.com/

Orcball slips-up comically on banana skin made of super-fit hobbits
Aug 15th, 2011 by Davster

[img] [/img]
[i]Orcmaster General: Felt there should have been a penalty try in the first half but admits to coaching blinkered trundle-muppets[/i]

The dawn of the age of the Orc has been postponed indefinitely as it emerged that if you just stand in front of them and pull them to the floor all day then they don’t really have that much more to offer. Orc forces arrived in Cardiff on Saturday including scrum-mammoths, line-out trolls, siege-ram mutants and wide-out nazgul wing-beasts. The strategy was to find hobbits and run at them really hard on the strict understanding from the Generals that the hobbits would grow weary of this and eventually step aside, enabling crushing victory and celebratory drinking from captive skulls. Curiously, when Orctactic met with determined heroic hobbit defence, the thinking from the Orcmaster General seemed to conclude that the running head-down at the enemy was only failing because there wasn’t enough of it. And so it went on. And a bit more, increasingly coupled with dropping the ball and allowing it to be stolen.

The Orcmaster General seemed to suggest that Orctactic didn’t work for unspecified reasons but would work on all other days for another set of unspecified reasons, giving hope to many people around the world that despite the retirement of George Bush Jnr, the chances of future moments of blundering unintentional comedy were looking strong. He also seemed to suggest that the sado-masochistic torture bridles worn by two of his scrum-mammoths that forced them to veer off sideways instead of forwards somehow warranted penalty tries and yellow cards because the good-guys didn’t have anywhere to put their heads. Everyone invited him to stand in a dark corner and think about it.

Meanwhile, hobbits were clearly delighted despite not being entirely sure how the hell that happened exactly. What was certain though was that they are in the kind of shape that mountains are made of, if said mountains could also run a marathon backwards whilst carrying another mountain, they also care to the extent that all the ale and cowgirls in Cardiff couldn’t tempt them out on the lash, and that committed traffic calming measures are sufficient to persuade Orcball to erupt at high velocity from its own rectum.

🙂

things looking bleak for Wales though injury wise Adam Jones, Byrne and 1/2p back for this weekend but Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Ryan Jones still crocked, Steven Jones still injured, Peel hasnt been released by his club and is apparently injured anyway as is Priestland now so our squad has 1 full time fullback, 1 scrum half over the age of 8 and no fulltime outside half and the bloke who can play outside half is the second choice fullback and maybe the first choice 12.
team for this weekend v Argentina likely to be something like:

Byrne
1/2p
Davies
Scott Williams
Brew
Hook
Knoyle
Delve/Powell
M Williams
Turnbull
4&5 Charteris AN Other maybe Jon Thomas
Adam Jones
Anyone other than Burns
? Paul James deserves a rest but who as loosehead? Maybe Bevington

been confirmed that Rees is to miss the world cup 😥

Just heard that on the radio. That's a pity 🙁

[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/14546077.stm ]Gethin's looking shaky for the start of the tournament as well[/url]

Shame, as he's one of the best front row forwards of a generation.

G'day. I'm gunna be an Ozzie for the World Cup. You know that feeling of watching the England football team, you support them but they're ALWAYS crap? Well, that's what the RWC is going to be like for England supporters.
So, with the approval of my NZer chum that I work with, I'm supporting Australia. For entertainment value, they are going to be the best team in the tournament, so that's who I have chosen.
Fancy another shrimp, bruce?

You don't really get the concept of 'supporting' a team do you Dez? 🙂

You don't really get the concept of 'supporting' a team do you Dez?

The positive for Wales is that the young guys in the team seem really eager and passionate when they play which was lacking from some of the older guys.

I think Gatland's idea to bring back some of the more experienced guys for the game with Argentina will see a very different style of play from Wales.

The flip side to this is that some of the young guys lack experience, especially against the very top teams so I can see Wales getting turned over pretty easily in the RWC more by guile than anything else.

It is also worrying to see so much of the Wales team made up of Scarlets and Dragons as the Blues and Ospreys didn't really meet their potential last season. The Scarlets and Dragons were hugely passionate and pretty much always exciting to watch but results didn't always go their way, especially in the tighter games.

The best thing for Wales would be to scrape through the pool to lower expectations then take it from there. High expectations and pressure is the curse of Welsh rugby!

Long comment over 😀

If anyone is in the vicinity and wants tickets I have tickets for some of the pool games in Wellington that I can't get to now - they are pretty cheap as well these ones. I'll dig out the details.

I think that you'll find that choosing a nation that is not your birth nation is perfectly acceptable in these parts Molly.

Heh. 🙂

We have a plastic Welshman and Scotsman...any other plastics around?

[i]You don't really get the concept of 'supporting' a team do you Dez?[/i]

I've tried so hard to support England, but last week's game just broke me. (I think it was the moment a player with the initials C.H. was brought on. FFS! I shouted so much that my dog got frightened).

I know some people who live in Australia, so that's enough for me 🙂

I know how you feel Dez. I was watching it in a pub in Worcester and remarked that CH is almost as bad as Andy Goode. I didn't realise he plays for Worcester! Went down like a fart in a spacesuit.

The best thing for Wales would be to scrape through the pool to lower expectations then take it from there.

Do any welsh supporters think anything other than scraping through the pool which contains Samoa (not Western Samoa, the WHOLE of bloody Samoa), Fiji (it went well last time we played them in a world cup) and South Africa (who we havent beaten for 10 years) is likely?

DanW the rest of your post about young guys and old guys doesnt make sense to me

Fiji (it went well last time we played them in a world cup) and South Africa

I was at the Fiji/South Africa game in Marseille 1/4 finals, there must have been 16 Fiji supporters and 20k welsh supporters who had bought expectant tickets. The Welsh were very funny supporting fiji with

Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, Fiji now and ever more, fiji now and ever more

They were defo the boost Fiji needed, shame they didn't beat the Saffers..

DezB - Member
You don't really get the concept of 'supporting' a team do you Dez?

I've tried so hard to support England, but last week's game just broke me. (I think it was the moment a player with the initials C.H. was brought on. FFS! I shouted so much that my dog got frightened).

I know some people who live in Australia, so that's enough for me

MTFU - if you keep changing sides every time there's a winner you'll start spinning.

[i]keep changing sides[/i]

I haven't. I've just dumped England. What rule says you have to support the team from the country you live in? Why not just support the most entertaining team? That way I won't have to endure the site of Hape, Tindall, Hodgson and Cueto playing like forwards in the backs.

I haven't. I've just dumped England. What rule says you have to support the team from the country you live in? Why not just support the most entertaining team? That way I won't have to endure the site of Hape, Tindall, Hodgson and Cueto playing like forwards in the backs.

Calm down, only ribbing, it's just sport after all. Support who you like! 😀

I have the issue of Irish parents, but I was born and raised here, I have tried to support Ireland, which I can do unless they play England.. My heart and soul are English and I have Jingoistic pride in my country. Personally I cannot feel anything for another country so I am genuinely surprised that you can change allegiance, but perhaps my idea of supporting my country is not he same as yours (or anyone else's). It is not about rules its about where you feel you belong..

I've tried so hard to support England, but last week's game just broke me.

But DezB you're fickle = not a true supporter but one of them wishy washy only when they're winning types 😆