Search results for query: *

Some bold selection calls here! I don't think you can drop Marchant after his performances to date and given he is a better defender than both Lawrence and Tuilagi. It would also be madness to go into a game like this with no scrum-half cover. At flank, which Underwood did you have in mind...

Frustrating team! Where is the wing cover? Why is Billy on the bench? Ludlam has looked good in all the games he has played and is surely a better option than a lumbering Billy. Come on STEVE...

As someone that was at the game and now plowing through the live feed on my favourite forum, I am massively surprised by the negativity from English fans here. We played 78 minutes with 14 men against a team that most fans and pundits thought would beat us. I’ve always been a Farrell over Ford...

I agree with most of this and I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say that an international rugby coach is picking his idea of the best team to win a match and making substitutions that he feels will drive the same outcome. What I find frustrating with Jones is that he is incredibly stubborn...

I can understand why questions are being asked about why a group of white players, all from a country that has had one of the most recent and highly-publicised regimes of racial discrimination, unanimously chose not to kneel as a show of support to the BLM movement. However, if their reasoning...

Haha, Spencer is unfortunately inconsistent with both his long passing and his box kicking. 18 months ago I would have predicted he would be clear 1st choice now, but his consistency hasn't improved. I would genuinely prefer Wiggy in a big game to Spencer, even now with the old lads legs not...

My main thoughts: - Every member of that pack hits like a freight train in defense. I think England have taken dominant tackling to a new standard in international rugby and this pack will be brutal for a young inexperienced french side to face. - I think Ewels is actually grossly underrated...

Sorry but I'd have to disagree with this statement. Locks as a rule are not dominant tight carriers in the modern game, they tend to have a centre of gravity that is too high to break gang tackles and are susceptible to having their legs chopped from under them. The only international quality...

Based more on statistics like appearances, tries, points, and therefore providing a slightly different lens: 1. Healy 2. Best 3. Cole 4. AW Jones 5. Lawes 6. Zanni 7. Warburton 8. Parisse 9. Murray 10. Sexton 11. Earls 12. Farrell 13. Davies 14. North 15. Hogg Close calls: Earls/Hogg >...

Absolutely agree. I suppose they thought, if we are going to get away with this, why not exploit it to the maximum. Particularly frustrating as a fan, because I think had they focused on simply retaining their core England players, either those that came through the Academy or those who became...

If you look at a summary of the offences, none of them are something-for-nothing payments and are therefore not directly comparable to salary in my opinion. e.g. a £100 interest free loan is not the same as £100 salary. The "payment" component is the saving on interest, which I'd generously...

I do think they genuinely believed they had found and exploited loopholes and would win any legal or regulatory challenge. They sought independent legal and accounting advice to confirm this. That being said, they absolutely knowingly paid players outside of the cap in order to keep them at the...

I think the reason this is somewhat defensible is because the initial valuation was recommended by an independent adviser (PWC). As part of the investigation, another accounting firm (Deloitte I believe) valued the image rights differently. Because it is not really as tangible an asset as...

Eh!? Is this a joke I am missing?

Nick tompkins - Granny Will Rowland - Granny Willgriff John - with a name like that it has to be residency...

Classic Wales, always poaching English-developed talent...Nick Tompkins, Will Rowlands, Louis Rees-Zammit, Jonah Holmes, that Bath lad Faletau, Dan Biggar is a Saint through and through, WillGriff John sounds about as "Welsh" as a cup of (daffodil) tea, in fact I once saw Alun Wyn having a...

Nakarawa played centre in 7s and easily has the skill-set and athleticism to do so in XVs.

I would take a slightly different approach and rank by scarcity of world class talent. In other words, which positions have the most significant gap between the very best and the rest. With that in mind: Tighthead Scrum-Half Fly-Half Hooker Loosehead Lock Full-Back (Would have been higher 10...

Just dip in and out when work & life permit, which is unfortunately not too often.

A combination of not usually getting involved in mud slinging back and forth as per the above and also being incredibly verbose when I do write something. My likes to dislikes wasn't awful until Rinakdink had his/her way with me tonight. Anyway, this feels enough off topic to call it there.