Off Topic Rugby Union World Cup 2015 Thread

I wouldn't say NZ or the Aussies are unbeatable by a long way, The next month will be very exciting as the Best of the rest are left play in the quarter finals. cant wait..

 

Ha ha!

Bloody Wales! But - why base the seeding on 3 years out from the tournament?

 

Looking forward to hearing from Jose and the pundits

 

Is he Chris Ramsey's managerial mentor?

 

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Still not gloating?
Can't help yourselves eh?

 

Not gloating but smirking at some of the posts on the Swansea board!

 

I haven't said a word.

 

Yes another failure for the UK
Looking forward to coming home to witness how the hype is affecting those in the office who suddenly jumped on the rugby bandwagon
... Merchandise and clueless

 

Perhaps they will have learned something about commitment, effort and teamwork and decide to stay on the bandwagon. It ain't perfect but it's a better vehicle than many of the alternatives.

The UK still has Scotland, Wales and a small share of Ireland in with a shout. This was a specifically English failure.

 

Surprised DT hasn't been eulogising about the Frogs...

 

Give it time, give it time.

 

Big match for us today against Italy.
Parisse back for Italy is massive as he's their leader and the only world class player they have.
I expect a tight match with Ireland to wear them down over 80mins and win by 10pts
Please God no injuries.

 

Last nights defeat was only what we deserved. Had we managed to qualify we would have been ripped to shreds by whomever we faced in the QFs. Last night saved us further embarrassment. I actually feel sorry for some of the players, but the management and their decision making has been awful.

 

Morning shefford
I'm not English so I hope you don't mind me commentating mate.
I know you're hurting at the moment but from an outsiders point of view I think Lancaster has made some very positives changes to the whole England setup. When he took over, England were not seen as a threat to anyone. You're play was still very much based around a dominant forward back. England were one dimensional. Lancaster has given youth a chance. Yes, last night the team malfunctioned but it wasn't nearly all Lancasters fault. The players were obviously nervous as hell as I've never seen a top team with so many basic handling errors. That's not the managers fault. The weight of expectation got to them.
Experience comes with time. Ireland and Wales have squads full of players with multiple six nations winners medals, Heineken cup medals etc etc. that took years to achieve. The new champions cup format suits the English and French sides and will in the coming years produce better more experienced players for you.
England have a very impressive young back line. They will only get better and better. The scrum is at an all time low but that remarkably easy to fix as the Aussies themselves showed, simply by bringing in an outside forwards coach.
No need for panic. Give Lancaster another two years and I think you'll be pleasently surprised at the progress he'll make.

 

Nuts, of course you are welcome to comment, you have as much right to voice you opinions as anyone. Yes, I'm hurting and maybe I should look at the set up as a whole rather than just Lancaster and his team. IMO we were bloody awful last night, from the lineouts to the scrums, our handling was dreadful. I honesty thought we would be better in the second half but alas, we were worse. What happened?

 

A lot of very good points there, but I'm not convinced that Lancaster is the man to remain in charge.
He's made too many bad decisions imo, the main one continuing with Robshaw as an open side flanker when he is a blind side flanker. Armitage is a World class flanker and should have been there (The ban on overseas based players playing for England is also to blame).
Robshaw is also a poor leader, continually making the wrong calls.

A new coach is essential now imo and I'd go for Eddie Jones.

 

The problem with Lancaster is he has had ample time to put together a capable squad. The policy not to select players playing abroad was short-sighted, those players who went to France were playing in a quality competition and were becoming better players as a result.

He had the last year to hone a squad capable of being competitive at this level yet was still flapping about in the lead-up to the Welsh match. There was no-one with that X-factor who can produce something out of nothing as compared to the Aussies last night, Giteau and Foley were that much more inventive and explosive in the key 10 & 12 positions and the Aussie backs were really flowing compared to ours who looked weighed down by the enormity of the occasion.

The bottom line is coaching is an art and a good coach will get that extra 10% in performance and tactics that separates winners from losers, no need to say which category Lancaster falls into...

 

Doctors differ and patients die.
Agree totally about Robshaw. He's solid but far from world class.
I would suggest that players moving to France doesn't necessarily make them better players. Take sexton for example. We couldn't get him back to Ireland fast enough as the French game was actually slowing him down. Sexton was always an incredibly fast player but because the top 14 is generally played at a slower pace his passing had noticeably slowed down. I had heard that Schmidt had a specific coach working with sexton to speed up his game again.
Armitage is too slow for international rugby.
I think people also need to remember how different rugby is to football. A football manager can dramatically change a teams setup at the nod of his head but rugby is different. Once the players cross the line it is they themselves who make the calls. Onfield leadership is everything.
That's probably the single biggest problem England have at the moment, a lack of leaders.

 

That about sums it up more eloquently than I ever could. I might just add that what really let us down and disappointed me most was our handling. The satnd out player for me has been Brown, he looked eager to get involved and was the shining light in an otherwise dim performance.