Sticky Plates in NZ

[Roger A]

You're a chauvinist in the true sense!
Any poms in the Lions this year then, Jamie? (prod, prod)If it's any consolation, the allblacks is an anagram of "lack the balls"And, hey, they still make nice cars!(the poms, not the allblacks)

[dejoux]

jamieheasman said:

God save our noble

Thats the most important part

[Esprit]

jamieheasman said:

There are plenty of excuses - blooding new players (or to be more precise practically replacing the entire squad with the 'A' team), lots of injuries, reduction in training days (which is one reason Woodward resigned), serious lack of leadership etc etc One of the main problems is they lack confidence in themselves and have nobody in the team strong enough to help them past this crisis. Johnstone would never have allowed that loss against Wales and certainly not the slipping away of a large lead against France. We lost the game to France, they didn't take it from us. I also think the management need to be braver and drop a few old-school players and keep some of the newer ones in (Tait's a perfect example). It seems a lot harder to win an England cap than it is to win a cap for the ABs for example. A couple of other things. We lost to Wales by two points and deserved to lose (they should have thrashed us). The Kiwis beat them by one point but Wales deserved to win. Wales were always going to beat a big team and I honestly think they are back and could pose a major threat by the next World Cup. They've had a lot of patience and have put in a lot of ground work to get that team where it is. Expect to see another couple of big scalps taken by the Taffs in the near future. If I was an ABs fan I would be worried about their (NZ's) Grand-slam aspirations! At present I'm just hoping that England can get it together enough to beat Scotland and Italy, both of which are much improved over recent years (Italy's pack for instance is truly international standard now). Forget the Ireland game as that would be a difficult fixture for the World Cup winning squad let alone a battered and dejected young team like we have at the moment. I'm not saying we can't win it though....... Everyone wrote-off the Aussies before the last world cup but they damn-near won it. Don't make the same mistake with England. We'll be back stronger than ever, we just need a bit of luck with injuries etc and perhaps a shift in the RFU's thinking. I don't go in for the Kiwi/British-tabloid attitude of fair-weather supporting. I'll still drag myself out of bed at ridiculous hours of the morning to see my boys play and I'll always be proud of them. Oooer, I'm filling-up! "God save our gracious Queen, God save our noble Queen.........."

Well said that man! ..... and I'm the same... I've been a die-hard england supporter since '91 (before that I didn't care, I was only 11) and have been with them through thick and thin (more thin than thick though)... but the world cup made it worth it.... if it takes another 14 years for them to regain it, then so be it, I'll still be there watching excitedly each time they take the field I'll just be shouting different things if they win or lose