J
John Bull
Guest
The frogs <_< beating the ABs? I really hope they do, but in reality the ABs are a long way ahead of any northern hemisphere team. As they were in 1986 .....
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T
Tin
Guest
watched the match with about 60 odd rugby players from the local academy and personaly wouldnt have changed a thing about that game
so many ups and down,
was very close to hunting worsley down for giving that penalty away.
Tait seems to be improving with every game
looked confident in defence too,
Flood showed in the small amount of time he was on that he's better then old man catt,
Realisticly although we beat austrailia when few people thought england would, the all blacks may be one too far,
but unlucky to austrailia, just one question to anyone why doesnt giteau kick instead of mortlock? i always thought giteau was a goal kicker lol
so many ups and down,
was very close to hunting worsley down for giving that penalty away.
Tait seems to be improving with every game
looked confident in defence too,Flood showed in the small amount of time he was on that he's better then old man catt,
Realisticly although we beat austrailia when few people thought england would, the all blacks may be one too far,
but unlucky to austrailia, just one question to anyone why doesnt giteau kick instead of mortlock? i always thought giteau was a goal kicker lol
A
AllezWasps
Guest
Because Mortlock is captain, and maybe made the worst mistake of his career.
J
John Bull
Guest
In reality, the current English backs are generally feeble and a liability, keep it tight and trundle to victory, that's what I say ..... <_<
A
AllezWasps
Guest
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
H
Haj
Guest
Gits isnt a world class goal kicker either. At best he's a 2nd choice kicker in the current team.
R
rugby_roots
Guest
Australia needed Jone Tawake in this game
The aussie forwards arent strong enough to compete with the bigger and stronger english forwards.
Rocky Elsom, Greg Smith and Wycliff Palu are all finesse players meaning they are just mobile players.
They needed some aggresive POWER players in this game like Jone Tawake to compete at the break down.
Gregan chose the wrong passing gameplan, he was running the ball to far off the rucks and passing the ball.
Gregans passing just pressured the backs even more.
Australias loosies were crap...they couldnt keep up with the english forwards.
And Aussie baks need to learn how to ruck against forwards.
Jeremy Paul is probably laughing at the Aussies right now.
The aussie forwards arent strong enough to compete with the bigger and stronger english forwards.
Rocky Elsom, Greg Smith and Wycliff Palu are all finesse players meaning they are just mobile players.
They needed some aggresive POWER players in this game like Jone Tawake to compete at the break down.
Gregan chose the wrong passing gameplan, he was running the ball to far off the rucks and passing the ball.
Gregans passing just pressured the backs even more.
Australias loosies were crap...they couldnt keep up with the english forwards.
And Aussie baks need to learn how to ruck against forwards.
Jeremy Paul is probably laughing at the Aussies right now.
D
DavesOnDrums
Guest
Is anyone else curious as to whether or not John Bull is really English?
J
John Bull
Guest
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
[/b][/quote]
Double standards? Where? Today is better than 2003, underdogs etc.
Having read the comment you've made about my reputation, I hope my tax money didn't contribute to your clearly inferior education. Do you know what the word moron means?
H
HarryPeters
Guest
Congrats England, that was great!!!
D
DavesOnDrums
Guest
You're a convict and I claim my £5.
E
England hammer the Aussies again
Guest
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
[/b][/quote]
Double standards? Where? Today is better than 2003, underdogs etc.
Having read the comment you've made about my reputation, I hope my tax money didn't contribute to your clearly inferior education. Do you know what the word moron means?
[/b][/quote]
You should....because you have probably been called it throughout your life.
J
John Bull
Guest
You're a convict and I claim my £5.
[/b][/quote]
Your comment "talks shite" indicates that you are either:
i) a foreigner, in which you have no claim to be English
ii) working class, perhaps from up north somewhere, in which case my tax money has, no doubt, contributed to your evidently poor education. I suspect that you might be a fan of rugby league, so the word moron is applicable.
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
[/b][/quote]
Double standards? Where? Today is better than 2003, underdogs etc.
Having read the comment you've made about my reputation, I hope my tax money didn't contribute to your clearly inferior education. Do you know what the word moron means?
[/b][/quote]
You should....because you have probably been called it throughout your life.
[/b][/quote]
Is that supposed to be an insult? Please try harder next time. 156 BTW.
S
shakey18
Guest
THE simple fact is the Wallabies are a better rugby team than England.
There is now just the minor and somewhat inconvenient matter of having to go out tonight in Marseille and prove it.
If only World Cup semi-final berths were awarded on style and humour and good intent, the Wallabies already would be booked into their Parisian hotel, checking out the Impressionists at the Musee d'Orsay and working out, over a cafe creme, how to make a good impression at their next press conference while managing to innocently slip the word "choke" into proceedings.
The poor English, bumblers that they are, have fallen short throughout this tournament on all three criteria: style and humour and most definitely good intent.
They were dreadful against the US, beyond dreadful against the Springboks and so pathetically grateful to have seen off Samoa and Tonga that even Australians found themselves feeling embarrassed for them.
In the space of a few short weeks, England has gone from swaggering to staggering and now, with its last roll of the dice, the best it can come up with to defeat Australia is to pick a pack of bully boys and an endearingly earnest five-eighth who doesn't kick heads but goals instead.
Four years ago, the English wore the belt of world heavyweight champions and were floating on air. Now it forces them down like a lead weight and they can't wait to rid themselves of the damn thing.
The English are just not cut out to be world champions. They have so little experience of sporting success that when it happens, it leaves them drained and exhausted. Rugby World Cup 2003, Ashes 2005.
Even as Martin Johnson and Michael Vaughan were holding aloft their spoils of victory, their arms were getting tired. The load was too heavy, the weight of expectation too great. Best to lay down their burden and rest quietly for a while.
The Wallabies would gladly take the Webb Ellis Cup off their hands. In truth, it belongs to them, but, good sports that they are, they've been willing to share it over the years and didn't even demand first go.
That's how New Zealand happened to come by it in 1987, but then in 1991 it was returned to Australia, who allowed South Africa to hold it for a while, took it back again in 1999 before, charitably, giving England a feel. Now, as John Eales points out, it's Australia's turn again.
But they're a proud and stubborn lot, these English, and hanging on like grim death is what they do better than anything else. And as unseemly as it is going to be for the Wallabies to have to wrench the Cup from their grasp, that's precisely what they need to do at Stade Velodrome tonight.
The Stade, at it happens, already features prominently in England's World Cup history, though not in a way decent Englishmen would treasure.
It was there, in the wake of England's 2-0 victory over Tunisia in that other World Cup in 1998, that scuffles between rival supporters erupted into street warfare that left 35 people hospitalised, one with a serious knife wound, and 50 hooligans in jail. There will be none of that tonight. Whatever else they might be, Waltzing Matilda and Sweet Chariot aren't exactly blood-curdling battle anthems.
No, if there's a pitched battle to be fought, it will be done inside the white paint and marginally within the rules.
Australia and England know the etiquette. They have done this 34 times before, 20 times to Australia's satisfaction, and almost invariably in a way that has reinforced the necessary cliches about England being heavy, old, and lumbering and Australia sprightly, young and adventurous.
That's how it is shaping again tonight, although one senses a historic adjustment in the Wallabies' methods. Where in the past they were obliged to use hit-and-run tactics, tonight, boasting a scrum that even rival flanker Lewis Moody concedes may be the strongest Australia has assembled, they will engage England head-on.
That's not to say that's all they will do. There is considerably more to this Australian side than muscle. But the belief within the camp is that beyond the bully boys and Wilkinson, England doesn't have much at all.
Hence, the quickest and most effective way of defeating England is to confront its two great strengths and nullify them.
Sounds simple. And if the Wallabies are anywhere near to achieving their often-stated aim of having the best pack in world rugby, they could indeed do the business tonight with considerable audacity and some alacrity.
Of course, with Australia it's never that simple. They are like messy teenagers, these Wallabies. They never put anything away, least of all the opposition.
Where the All Blacks and Springboks go for the throat, the Wallabies go off for a cuppa, only coming back to play when the score gets interesting again. But that's a dangerous game against England. There might be only so much you can do with a nasty, big pack and a goalkicking genius, but one thing that's possible is winning a World Cup quarter-final.
Picture this: the early flow of penalties from Alain Rolland goes England's way.
Wilkinson gets the scoreboard ticking, always in multiples of three, building the lead to, say, 12-3. At this point, he switches from kicking to the posts to kicking to the corners and from an attacking lineout deep in Australian territory, the heavy, old, lumbering England forwards summon up enough energy to propel a driving maul over the tryline.
Now it is 19-3 and even though the Wallabies twice this season have won from 17-0 down, this time they are playing catch-up against a side raging against the dying of the light. England might only have one good fight left in it, but what if this is it?
Early tournament form counts for nothing. The Wallabies know that better than anyone because, like England this time, they wallowed through the early rounds of the 2003 World Cup. As it was, they only managed to win their pool four years ago by a single point, 17-16 over Ireland. But then, when it counted, they came good. As could England tonight.
That's what's keeping John Connolly lying awake at night. That, or plotting his next practical joke.
He was giggling like a schoolboy, the Wallabies coach, after leaving yesterday's press conference all abuzz with his parting shot about the need for Rolland to ensure England hooker Mark Regan didn't overstep the mark tonight.
Later, tracked down to where he was having his sixth coffee of the day, Connolly was asked whether Regan was overstepping the mark merely in a figurative sense or whether the Wallabies were following up on Springboks coach Jake White's complaint that Regan steps into the field of play illegally while feeding the lineout.
"Does he do that?" Connolly asked, snatching a sip and a quick breather between chuckles. "Well, in that case, both -- figurative and literal."
Later, when England coach Brian Ashton dithered over naming a replacement for late casualty Farrell, Connolly decided to help him out, announcing that Olly Barkley was the best man for the job. Barkley, who put in three happy, wacky seasons with Bath under Connolly's coaching, rolled his eyes when told the enemy coach had selected him. "Knuckles," he sighed.
Stirling Mortlock would have known exactly what Barkley meant. "He does like his little jokes, Knuckles," deadpanned the Wallabies captain.
Yet, as usual, there's method to Connolly's mayhem. He's making sure his players stay relaxed because he knows that as desperately as England will fight tonight, the Wallabies are the better side.
Now there's just that minor, inconvenient matter of proving it.
It's reporting like that which make so many people dislike then Aussie press.This pile of shite is from THE AUSTRALIAN.
There is now just the minor and somewhat inconvenient matter of having to go out tonight in Marseille and prove it.
If only World Cup semi-final berths were awarded on style and humour and good intent, the Wallabies already would be booked into their Parisian hotel, checking out the Impressionists at the Musee d'Orsay and working out, over a cafe creme, how to make a good impression at their next press conference while managing to innocently slip the word "choke" into proceedings.
The poor English, bumblers that they are, have fallen short throughout this tournament on all three criteria: style and humour and most definitely good intent.
They were dreadful against the US, beyond dreadful against the Springboks and so pathetically grateful to have seen off Samoa and Tonga that even Australians found themselves feeling embarrassed for them.
In the space of a few short weeks, England has gone from swaggering to staggering and now, with its last roll of the dice, the best it can come up with to defeat Australia is to pick a pack of bully boys and an endearingly earnest five-eighth who doesn't kick heads but goals instead.
Four years ago, the English wore the belt of world heavyweight champions and were floating on air. Now it forces them down like a lead weight and they can't wait to rid themselves of the damn thing.
The English are just not cut out to be world champions. They have so little experience of sporting success that when it happens, it leaves them drained and exhausted. Rugby World Cup 2003, Ashes 2005.
Even as Martin Johnson and Michael Vaughan were holding aloft their spoils of victory, their arms were getting tired. The load was too heavy, the weight of expectation too great. Best to lay down their burden and rest quietly for a while.
The Wallabies would gladly take the Webb Ellis Cup off their hands. In truth, it belongs to them, but, good sports that they are, they've been willing to share it over the years and didn't even demand first go.
That's how New Zealand happened to come by it in 1987, but then in 1991 it was returned to Australia, who allowed South Africa to hold it for a while, took it back again in 1999 before, charitably, giving England a feel. Now, as John Eales points out, it's Australia's turn again.
But they're a proud and stubborn lot, these English, and hanging on like grim death is what they do better than anything else. And as unseemly as it is going to be for the Wallabies to have to wrench the Cup from their grasp, that's precisely what they need to do at Stade Velodrome tonight.
The Stade, at it happens, already features prominently in England's World Cup history, though not in a way decent Englishmen would treasure.
It was there, in the wake of England's 2-0 victory over Tunisia in that other World Cup in 1998, that scuffles between rival supporters erupted into street warfare that left 35 people hospitalised, one with a serious knife wound, and 50 hooligans in jail. There will be none of that tonight. Whatever else they might be, Waltzing Matilda and Sweet Chariot aren't exactly blood-curdling battle anthems.
No, if there's a pitched battle to be fought, it will be done inside the white paint and marginally within the rules.
Australia and England know the etiquette. They have done this 34 times before, 20 times to Australia's satisfaction, and almost invariably in a way that has reinforced the necessary cliches about England being heavy, old, and lumbering and Australia sprightly, young and adventurous.
That's how it is shaping again tonight, although one senses a historic adjustment in the Wallabies' methods. Where in the past they were obliged to use hit-and-run tactics, tonight, boasting a scrum that even rival flanker Lewis Moody concedes may be the strongest Australia has assembled, they will engage England head-on.
That's not to say that's all they will do. There is considerably more to this Australian side than muscle. But the belief within the camp is that beyond the bully boys and Wilkinson, England doesn't have much at all.
Hence, the quickest and most effective way of defeating England is to confront its two great strengths and nullify them.
Sounds simple. And if the Wallabies are anywhere near to achieving their often-stated aim of having the best pack in world rugby, they could indeed do the business tonight with considerable audacity and some alacrity.
Of course, with Australia it's never that simple. They are like messy teenagers, these Wallabies. They never put anything away, least of all the opposition.
Where the All Blacks and Springboks go for the throat, the Wallabies go off for a cuppa, only coming back to play when the score gets interesting again. But that's a dangerous game against England. There might be only so much you can do with a nasty, big pack and a goalkicking genius, but one thing that's possible is winning a World Cup quarter-final.
Picture this: the early flow of penalties from Alain Rolland goes England's way.
Wilkinson gets the scoreboard ticking, always in multiples of three, building the lead to, say, 12-3. At this point, he switches from kicking to the posts to kicking to the corners and from an attacking lineout deep in Australian territory, the heavy, old, lumbering England forwards summon up enough energy to propel a driving maul over the tryline.
Now it is 19-3 and even though the Wallabies twice this season have won from 17-0 down, this time they are playing catch-up against a side raging against the dying of the light. England might only have one good fight left in it, but what if this is it?
Early tournament form counts for nothing. The Wallabies know that better than anyone because, like England this time, they wallowed through the early rounds of the 2003 World Cup. As it was, they only managed to win their pool four years ago by a single point, 17-16 over Ireland. But then, when it counted, they came good. As could England tonight.
That's what's keeping John Connolly lying awake at night. That, or plotting his next practical joke.
He was giggling like a schoolboy, the Wallabies coach, after leaving yesterday's press conference all abuzz with his parting shot about the need for Rolland to ensure England hooker Mark Regan didn't overstep the mark tonight.
Later, tracked down to where he was having his sixth coffee of the day, Connolly was asked whether Regan was overstepping the mark merely in a figurative sense or whether the Wallabies were following up on Springboks coach Jake White's complaint that Regan steps into the field of play illegally while feeding the lineout.
"Does he do that?" Connolly asked, snatching a sip and a quick breather between chuckles. "Well, in that case, both -- figurative and literal."
Later, when England coach Brian Ashton dithered over naming a replacement for late casualty Farrell, Connolly decided to help him out, announcing that Olly Barkley was the best man for the job. Barkley, who put in three happy, wacky seasons with Bath under Connolly's coaching, rolled his eyes when told the enemy coach had selected him. "Knuckles," he sighed.
Stirling Mortlock would have known exactly what Barkley meant. "He does like his little jokes, Knuckles," deadpanned the Wallabies captain.
Yet, as usual, there's method to Connolly's mayhem. He's making sure his players stay relaxed because he knows that as desperately as England will fight tonight, the Wallabies are the better side.
Now there's just that minor, inconvenient matter of proving it.
It's reporting like that which make so many people dislike then Aussie press.This pile of shite is from THE AUSTRALIAN.
H
HarryPeters
Guest
Stop whigning and lets celebrate a great win for NH rugby.
D
DavesOnDrums
Guest
You're a convict and I claim my £5.
[/b][/quote]
Your comment "talks shite" indicates that you are either:
i) a foreigner, in which you have no claim to be English
ii) working class, perhaps from up north somewhere, in which case my tax money has, no doubt, contributed to your evidently poor education. I suspect that you might be a fan of rugby league, so the word moron is applicable.
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
[/b][/quote]
Double standards? Where? Today is better than 2003, underdogs etc.
Having read the comment you've made about my reputation, I hope my tax money didn't contribute to your clearly inferior education. Do you know what the word moron means?
[/b][/quote]
You should....because you have probably been called it throughout your life.
[/b][/quote]
Is that supposed to be an insult? Please try harder next time. 156 BTW.
[/b][/quote]
Actually Mr Bull, I am a born and bred Londoner, you know, home of the UK's economy, and quite possibly the capital of the World.
I am also a session percussionist, who has to pay extortionate taxes due to my "bracket", I am also a proud Englishman, and funnily enough, I take exception to "fellow" Englishmen spoiling a great shift from our lads with comments like "girls" and "feeble" and "liability".
If indeed you are an Englishman, then you are an embarrassment to your flag, and every man, woman and child who has ever represented it.
If indeed you are an Englishman, it is my guess you are a spoon fed, achieve nothing, Daddy's boy who thinks you have a devine right to open your mouth because your Daddy had business that was successful.
In all honesty though, and in truth, I reckon you are nothing but a plum.
Good day.
S
shakey18
Guest
Whinging?!-You can stick your Hemesphere rubbish up your arse mate.We won, and won well, but theres always a reason to point out how deluded the Aussie press is.
J
John Bull
Guest
You're a convict and I claim my £5.
[/b][/quote]
Your comment "talks shite" indicates that you are either:
i) a foreigner, in which you have no claim to be English
ii) working class, perhaps from up north somewhere, in which case my tax money has, no doubt, contributed to your evidently poor education. I suspect that you might be a fan of rugby league, so the word moron is applicable.
Yet if Argentina put in that exact performance they get called brave, heroic and exciting. Double Standards.
I am in the best mood since a certain Saturday in 2003. :cheers:
[/b][/quote]
Double standards? Where? Today is better than 2003, underdogs etc.
Having read the comment you've made about my reputation, I hope my tax money didn't contribute to your clearly inferior education. Do you know what the word moron means?
[/b][/quote]
You should....because you have probably been called it throughout your life.
[/b][/quote]
Is that supposed to be an insult? Please try harder next time. 156 BTW.
[/b][/quote]
Actually Mr Bull, I am a born and bred Londoner, you know, home of the UK's economy, and quite possibly the capital of the World.
I am also a session percussionist, who has to pay extortionate taxes due to my "bracket", I am also a proud Englishman, and funnily enough, I take exception to "fellow" Englishmen spoiling a great shift from our lads with comments like "girls" and "feeble" and "liability".
If indeed you are an Englishman, then you are an embarrassment to your flag, and every man, woman and child who has ever represented it.
If indeed you are an Englishman, it is my guess you are a spoon fed, achieve nothing, Daddy's boy who thinks you have a devine right to open your mouth because your Daddy had business that was successful.
In all honesty though, and in truth, I reckon you are nothing but a plum.
Good day.
[/b][/quote]
A session percussionist? Really? It must be simply awful to be a permanent substitute. I understand that the world of music is rife with homosexualists, is that right? The English backs are generally either decrepit or feeble, so keep it tight and trundle. Otherwise it's 1991 all over again. Home Counties, in case you didn't guess.
B
BathTerrace
Guest
Just thought i'd remind all Australian members of the community, shouting your mouth off before games doesn't work does it?
Case of dey ja vu? I think so.
Case of dey ja vu? I think so.
A
aussie1st
Guest
Agreed his goal kicking was wonky as when Mortlock was out. Mortlock has shown he can win games with his boot sadly he couldn't do it today. Still wouldn't have felt like a win if he did get the penaly.
