Discussion
cherryowen said:
I'm half happy with the win against Italy, but - IMO - it really was a case of Italy losing the game rather than Wales winning it.
Crawley would take issue...https://www.rugbydump.com/news/italy-head-coach-ki...
t themselves when in the Welsh 22.greygoose said:
abzmike said:
DodgyGeezer said:
Grim reading for the English players as they hit the hay…'Amusingly' I was reading a typically English piece on how Smith was dreadful/should have been Ford on and we looked better after fazlet came on... totally ignoring the fact that we shipped just as many points with him on as before...
Edited by DodgyGeezer on Sunday 12th March 10:29
to be fair SB only had so much he could change thanks to the agreement with the clubs (from memory it was 5 players?). I'm not saying that there are a wealth of better players in the prem (I have no idea) but I do wonder if post RWC we'll see a lot of new faces rather than the current bunch of faeces.
It strikes me that at this point Dombrant seems to be not up to the required standard, though in fairness it's hard to tell who is and isn't at the moment as there is no structure. Would Mercer slot in or would he be found out at top level? Who's behind Smith/Fazlet/Ford? If Steward gets injured who's next up? Where are our centres? etc etc etc
It strikes me that at this point Dombrant seems to be not up to the required standard, though in fairness it's hard to tell who is and isn't at the moment as there is no structure. Would Mercer slot in or would he be found out at top level? Who's behind Smith/Fazlet/Ford? If Steward gets injured who's next up? Where are our centres? etc etc etc
Boom78 said:
Who have England got pushing for a centre jersey? Who is the young confident steady hands coming through at 10? Where are all the quick talented 9s? Why are we in the state we are? Probably because our clubs and regions are capped to less than £5m a year compared to Leinster (£11m) and French teams (£15m to £30m). We’re not at the races 
I seem to recall that I read somewhere that something like half of the 15 highest paid rugby players are English...abzmike said:
There is little point in England picking the same or close to same 15 for the Ireland game - they have consistently underperformed over the past 2 or more years - what’s to be learned? That for some reason it isn’t working, again? Freshen the team with 8 or 9 newish faces. If they get thumped then nothing lost in the long run, but may uncover a few diamonds. The English pool of players is huge, so time to use it.
sadly for us we're not allowed to do that - at the momentGweeds said:
Ireland by 10. At least.
possibly double that
DocJock said:
Perhaps we have different definitions of world class, imo they are few and far between. Current England players who are world class? IMO Steward and Itoje, perhaps Genge.
FS is class but is he better than the others in his position? I suspect that his biggest failing is (ironically) the same as Mike Brown, he's not blessed with speed. MI for some reason seems to have fallen off the pace recently (mind you it must be hard to maintain the form he had over the years). EG actually seems to have gotten a fair bit better, and is still improving - still others ahead of him though
I'll go with usOne thing that does worry is the amount of stick Smith seems to be coming in for. Just as when things go well it's not all him when things are a disaster he's not to blame either. We could have had Phil Bennett or Dan Carter at 10 and it'd have made no difference....
I can see fazlet/Ford on Saturday
I can see fazlet/Ford on Saturday
XCP said:
English rugby is club based, as is Welsh. Irish and Scottish is not.
I guess the Irish and Scots realised that their existing clubs were not very good and set about creating regions that were.
Hence we get small town clubs like Gloucester, Exeter, Northampton etc competing in Europe against teams like Leinster, which is virtually the Irish team. And doing so under a salary cap of course.
I thought that one the issues the Welsh had is that they're NOT club based, whilst being very tribal with the regions that replaced the clubs?I guess the Irish and Scots realised that their existing clubs were not very good and set about creating regions that were.
Hence we get small town clubs like Gloucester, Exeter, Northampton etc competing in Europe against teams like Leinster, which is virtually the Irish team. And doing so under a salary cap of course.
Gassing Station | Sports | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff