Alas Tallshort, I think Teh Mite is after a bit of Celtic 'Rough'!
Yet you're the one who talks about shoving Lions up your arse.
And the name 'largejanner' - A name for compensating for something if i ever saw one. Poor little fellah
Alas Tallshort, I think Teh Mite is after a bit of Celtic 'Rough'!
The trophy itself has little value in France and England (they've won "too many" if that's possible), and now that Wales and Ireland have caught up, a championship win with no Grand Slam is of little value for them as well. Also, the trophy has only existed since 1993, hardly a tradition.
I say let's have a proper trophy for the Grand Slam winner, keep the secondary ones like the Triple Crown and the Calcutta Cup (that have more history than the 6N itself), and the minnor ones (like the Garibaldi trophy and others), and let's give the 6N trophy to... I don't know, charity.
But doesn't the captain make those decisions and isn't that based on a game plan given by the coach? It's not that their 10 missed loads of kicks, he didn't get to take them. First ball into the corner was after 2 minutes, wasn't it? First ball between the sticks for England not so long ago, about 2 minutes. Different approach. Ireland tried to land a killer punch at the start, England would have notched up the points. Boring? Yes. But it can make the difference between winning or being on the end of the most one sided game I've seen in a while where the side on top lost. Even the Scottish coach said they shouldn't have won.
Consider how **** Thompson was as a club lineout thrower with Saints but he never missed for England - Once he joined Brive, Leeds and Wasps he also was immaculate.
The problem is with the lineout general.
Can't agree with this, I know I still value the trophy, I know a great many who don't care about the Triple Crown.
The captain's decisions were influenced by a very palpable distrust of his goalkicker and should not be taken as a normal representation of the tactics of Ireland.
And the name 'largejanner' - A name for compensating for something if i ever saw one. Poor little fellah
I'm surprised nobody has picked up on the name before. The accusations of being a glory hunter seem pretty well founded, what on earth is a Janner doing with an Exeter crest beside his name? Where's the Albion / Devonport badge?
I played at Devonport one, was a bit of hole tbh
I think the lineout was just having an off-day against France to be honest. Hartley is a very good thrower as others have said but Tom Youngs isn't. We need to stick with Dylan I feel, I wouldn't attribute any blame his way either on the scrum. France have a good scrum and I felt Marler (mainly) and Cole were the guys having a hard time of it. Still it wasn't a disaster. I would love to see Lawes and Launchbury given a shot at lock, at least in the Italy game.
We need a natural number eight too. We should have been playing Vunipola or Easter imo after Morgan was injured. The Lawes at flanker experiment didn't work out. Backs are my main issue though. Youngs I think has had an excellent 6N, especially in Ireland. Farrell played his best game for England against Scotland but since then has been average. I would love to see Burns given a start, although I also think Flood is preferable to Farrell. At IC, I can appreciate Barritt is a rock in defence, but I value attacking ability much higher than that. I suspect if Fofana was English he would struggle to earn a place under SL. 36 and Tuilagi would result in many more tries being scored and a generally more expansive running game, but these guys are also very capable in defence too. The back three are our biggest weakness now I think, Brown is better at so much more things vital to a fullback, he needs to play while Foden is recovering form. This 6N could have been great for him but he is stuck out on a wing not achieving very much. As for wingers, I would stick with Ashton, his lines are brilliant in attack and if we gave him more good ball he would be scoring a shitload of tries. As for the other wing, May, Sharples, Strettle would all be deserving of a shot. I left out Wade because despite his great running skills, his size would make him a target. Players of that ilk need to be exceptional to be capable at international level i.e Robinson or Williams.
Edit: Tuilagi would be a waste on the wing as Fofana was for France.