French written off.... Heard that one before in a WC.

First topic message reminder :

I'm not sure how the average England fan feels about tomorrow mornings quarter final against the French, but the English media are already eyeing up the winner of the Wales, Ireland game.
Out of all the teams to be written off, France are surely the team you can never take for granted. Ask new Zealand. Brian Moore and the rest of the awful talksport WC team are soooooo confident, as are several former players.
Ok. France look in disarray. They lost to tonga. They have a scrum half playing 10. They also have a fantastic back row and class out wide. This game is a one-off and if englands confidence is just coming from how poor France look, they are in for a big fall. I mean England don't even know wholl be taking their place kicks. They give away penalties for fun and only just got past Argentina and Scotland.
The most predictable team in world rugby against the least predictable.
This is going to be a cracker and I fancy France to get off to a flyer and SHOCK the not so mighty English.

Oh dd dear dear!!!

GeordieFalcon wrote:"Not because England have offered anything in this tournament so far."

Similar to 2007....and we made the final. Maybe we're just a boring side thats very good at knock out competitions - a less successful copy of South Africa.

ouch!

Yeah, I recall pulling up that post at the time. I think Geordie was still trying to argue they had some special magical ability in knock out competitions. I have always maintained it is just a quirk of statistics in an immature competition that will even out to match the long term rankings over time.

If this competition has done nothing but put that tired myth to bed, then all the better.

No disrespect to anyone.