England v Wales

[Fantasy King]

Simon Shaw has made a pretty quick recovery from that injury he picked up a couple of weeks ago! I didn't expect to see him on the starting line up at all!

As for Balshaw over Tait... :mellow: In my opinion Tait was the best back for England in the World Cup

 

[Stillknox]

Pretty conservative English side here... England have been **** for 4 years, one good World Cup and all is forgiven ? I'm not saying England needs to change the entire squad, but this team is too old.

I see an english win anyway, but not a large one.

 

[nam97]

im very confident after seeing england joke of a side!!

i think we can more than compete in every department. im going for wales by 20
[/b]

I would love to share your optimism and hope Wales do post a cricket score, but England will have failed miserably if they don't rack up a +25 point deficit.

 

[loratadine]

you joking yeah??

this england side is very very poor!!

grampa gommarsal
flood ( who in a few years will be great but not international quality yet)
tindall
balshaw


and the backrow is gunna get outfoxed, and out played by a vastly more experienced and cunning back row!!

we shall not only end our twickenham drought, but finnaly expose england for the **** they actually are.

 

[Col]

Tait must be injured to not be in the 22.

 

[Prestwick]

No, he just had a dodgy game against Leicester.

Mr Red Cullen, do not try to placate Laura while he is in full swing. He's like a patriotic sheep careering to the brick wall that is reality.

You should have seen him lose the signature bet against Ripper. That was genius.

EDIT: In any case I think the REAL question about this thrilling encounter will be:

Is Barry John going to Twickenham this weekend?!

 

[loratadine]

the only thing hurtling towards a brick wall is the so called english attack on saturday!!!

 

[stormmaster1]

tait may not be international full back yet, but i guess Ashton would see him in the centre as a backwards step. I think Tait is there partly due to a short term lack of decent full backs.

 

[Col]

I'd rather have Abendanon than Balshaw.

No complaints with Tindall, no great flair but as good defensively as anyone. More concerned about Narroway.

 

[Prestwick]

the only thing hurtling towards a brick wall is the so called english attack on saturday!!! [/b]

 

[stormmaster1]

<div class='quotemain'> the only thing hurtling towards a brick wall is the so called english attack on saturday!!! [/b]

[/b][/quote]



:bravo:

 

[getofmeland]

<div align="left">RFU Official Press Release from RBS Six Nations

ENGLAND V WALES

RBS 6 NATIONS 2008

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2

15 Iain Balshaw (Gloucester Rugby)

14 Paul Sackey (London Wasps)

13 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby)

12 Toby Flood (Newcastle Falcons)

11 David Strettle (Harlequins)

10 Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons)

9 Andy Gomarsall (Harlequins)

1 Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks)

2 Mark Regan (Bristol Rugby)

3 Phil Vickery (London Wasps Capt)

4 Simon Shaw (London Wasps)

5 Steve Borthwick (Bath Rugby)

6 James Haskell (London Wasps)

7 Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers)

8 Luke Narraway (Gloucester Rugby)

REPLACEMENTS

16 Lee Mears (Bath Rugby)

17 Matt Stevens (Bath Rugby)

18 Ben Kay (Leicester Tigers)

19 Tom Rees (London Wasps)

20 Richard Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks)

21 Daniel Cipriani (London Wasps)

22 Lesley Vainikolo (Gloucester Rugby)

Four players were not considered because of injury.

Paul Hodgson (left knee medial collateral ligament sprain), Louis Deacon (left abductor groin strain), Nick Easter (right knee collateral ligament sprain), Tom Croft (left shoulder).

Paul Sackey (London Wasps) has recovered from mumps and Simon Shaw (London Wasps) from his left ankle injury.

All the non 22 will be returning to their clubs except Nick Easter who will continue his rehabilitation with the England medical team.

 

[Bullitt]

Looking at that team, I'm starting to think Wales may just knick this one if their pack can turn up. A complete shambles of a selection...

- Balshaw has no business in the England side
- Gommersall can't even get a start for Quins presently
- Wilkinson is holding the rest of the side down, living off nothing more then his name alone
- Tindall... TINDALL????? Why not bring back Noon n'all.
- Borthwick... What do Deacon and Palmer have to do?
- Sackey displayed in the World Cup how he's simply not good enough for international rugby.
- What exactly has Moody done to earn selection ahead of Rees?
- Vickery ahead of Stevens?????

I dispair.

Simon Shaw has made a pretty quick recovery from that injury he picked up a couple of weeks ago! I didn't expect to see him on the starting line up at all!

As for Balshaw over Tait... :mellow: In my opinion Tait was the best back for England in the World Cup [/b]

I agree Tait is better then Balshaw, but that's like saying herpies is better then aids. Tait can't even go into contact withough knocking on, plus he'd **** himself if he saw Henson again.

Abandaman, where art thou?

 

[Sir Speedy]

Parker and Duncan are my only problems with this squad. Parker? What the hell?
If Wales win with this squad, I will gladly allow every person who has posted in this thread so far to take 5 rep points from me! I wish I could be more optimistic, and sorry for sounding like an arsehole, but I don't see the Ospreys beating England this weekend.

 

[getofmeland]

Oh what a wonderful joy, the Saxons will be!!!

This is an intriguing lineup for Ashton to pick, at a time when England should pushing through the change, he has gone back to the old guard, and picked players from certain teams, the inclusion of Balshaw would suggest Gloucester's performance over the last year has been enough to delude Ashton on the ability of England's Cripple... One would feel almost ashamed to be playing if I was in Balshaw's shoes especially when there are easily 3+ players who could step into that position... and play far better rugby.

However what has Phil Vickery done to deserve his place in the starting lineup holding a player who has been on form for most of the season, who had a far better world cup and also does more work in general than Vickery...

THIS IS MADNESS!!!

NO THIS IS SAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

 

[An Tarbh]

I was actually thinking the same thing today, it can't be good for a players confidence to know that there's someone better than him sitting in the stand, it'd only go to make his performance even worse than expected. Bizarre decisions going on today.

 

[Vambo]

Whenever I 've watched Blashaw he's been either very, very good or very, very, very, very poor... so could go either way against Wales. On the plus side - at least Cueto isn't playing at fullback for England :good:

 

[Prestwick]

Abandaman, where art thou?
[/b]

Oh f**k Abba-dabba-doo, Dan Scarborough is back in town! Possibly the only guy other than Nick Easter who had fun on the pitch in South Africa last year! A bit of northern steel at FB would do the trick!

Also, while this team is too conservative for my liking, going straight to year zero and having a totally brand spanking new XV with a dozen youngsters with no caps would be incredibly high risk and inviting a kicking. Especially when these same guys struggle to beat the likes of the New Zealand Maori when in the England Saxons.

Look at France. They've just tipped out all the older guys and are literally going into the unknown with their squad. It could either go really really well, horribly wrong or just about muddle through without proving anything.

Meanwhile in the Middle East:

 

[Col]

What exactly has Moody done to earn selection ahead of Rees?
[/b]

Rees is not exactly in a rich vien of form right now.

 

[TVH11]

Oh well, very vey interesting from gatlands POV. I would not like to like in Scarlet land today, it must be a riot zone!! I'm suprised that 13 ospreys have been picked, and i support the region! I thought it would have been Shanklin in centre and Lee Byrne was also a suprise, but hey Gatland must see somin that everyone else aint. Saturday is gonna be very interesting, very very gutted i'm missing the match!!! Stupid fookin work!