Buggeration

This is a kindly rant about the England Rugby team:

Front Row: This is the worst England front row since William Webb Ellis pick up that stupid ball and ran with it. Far below England standard and barely International level, if at all.

Hooker: Is old fat Stevie really better than Hartley? Really?

Second Row: Lewis Deacon. Really? R-e-a-l-l-y? He is there because MJ says he knows the line out calls and Palmer does not. So Deacon is there because he has three brain cells. Useless.

Back Row: Lewis Moody. Great inspriational player. I want my boys growing up to be as dedicated and selfless as he is. Was the best player in the squad last summer against the Aussies. Sadly, too many injuries. Too many miles (and by the way, we be using miles, not those silly kilometres). How about Wood, the best player in the squad THIS year in the 6N? UFB. And let's not forget Haskell. Wait, maybe we should forget Haskell.

Backs: If two fly-halves can't get the England backs going, then England are truly doomed. They both played OK, yet something important is missing.

MJ: I don't know what to think. Shuck his coaches and try, try again. Remember Graham Henry lost in the QF to the same team last time out.

RFU: I am not sure if there is anyone left there. But if they are, they should go and get fired as well.

Twickenham: OK, England were 10,000 miles from HQ, but the stadium annoys me at times, like now. No good reason. It just does.

Rant over. What thinkest thou?

as I said on another thread-you saes guys think this is the end of the world-let me tell you that we've had countless "end of the worlds"
9/10/11 has /is always a problem for you,as is picking the right grunts up front at the moment-believe me it will get better-keep the faith

Doctor Grey, Did you expect England to actual;y win the Rugby World Cup?

I know i didnt, i thought it was to early for this team and thought that they would have a better chance at 2015 Rugby World Cup.

England should never have played Wilkinson and Flood together. Hape, ok he might not be a Conrad Smith, or Maa Nonu. but he is a centre unlike Flood.....

Did I expect England to win the RWC? No, of course not. But I expected better and smarter levels of play. Not just against France on Saturday. But throughot the RWC. Much of the recent improvements seem undone.

doctor_grey wrote:This is a kindly rant about the England Rugby team:

Front Row: This is the worst England front row since William Webb Ellis pick up that stupid ball and ran with it. Far below England standard and barely International level, if at all.

Matt Stevens has been very poor, clearly hasn't kicked his drug habit, whenever he sees a white line he goes down for a sniff...

In picking Flood + Wilko, Jonners was harking back to the 2003 RWC when Catt came on outside Jonny in the quarter and turned the game v Wales.
Simple as that. But what happened this time is that both played like 10s when what you needed was a big carrier at 12. Flood looked to distribute from even deeper and England ended up completely lateral. I expected you to kick kick and kick again but you kicked half the metres Feance did. Game over. What you needed was a Jamie Roberts perf at 12 and i would actually like to see Tuilagi in that role, running straight at the gap between 12 and 13 from deep. Both would be forced to close that gap and both would make the tackle. Guaranteed to break the gainline.

Gatts,
I agree. Didn't like the idea of Flood/Wilkinson. I don't think England needed someone as good as Roberts, even. Just a good straigh ahead runner who can distribute a bit. I think it would have been difficult for Tuilagi to come into that riole now since he hasn't really played there and he is still young. But this is a very good idea. Considering MJ's leicester connections, I wonder if Tuilagi will start to see time at 12 for Tigers?

Johnson selections were bad maybe he should stay for now but the other coaches have to go these are the same people Robinson had.

All six nations we stuck with Hape ok his nothing special but Flood isn't a centre and Hape would have done better, Wilko has played his last game for England IMO his lost it.

The front row was pathetic stevens isn't up to it anymore both hookers are poor, is there any more SA props and hookers with an English granny?

Foden was a waste of space OK he scored a try but he cost us 12+ points with his girly pathetic non-tackling, Armitage was missed yesterday (thanks IRB for that) I’ve seen several incidents in this morning games where by players should be cited for use of the shoulder but they won't be.

But the biggest thing England are lacking IMO is aggression both forwards and backs would strike no fear in me I've I was playing them.

Never mind lads I hope you had a good night out on the town as Pro rugby players you deserve it after a great RWC performance, oh wait a min!

Bath,
To me the problem with the front row has been there all RWC. And strangely, they have seemed to play increasingly worse as time has gone by. Last year they were fine. In the 6N they started OK but started to struggle as it went along. In the RWC they never got going. Not just a lack of push and go-forwards, but overall less than intelligent play. If this is the setting of the table for the rest of the team, no wonder they are going home now.

This idea of moving Tuilagi to IC is wrong and needs to be knocked on the head. His skill set best suits him to OC and that is where he must stay. There are a number of specialist ICs that are hard running, good distributers, that people have been calling out for to be selected for the last year or so. They must now be given their chance.

Of the group Johnson had taken it was crazy for him not to select Hape, not a great player, but he would have done the right sort of job. Barritt must now be selected and Twlevetrees' development made high priority.

Most of us sane fans have been saying for a few years that 2011 was going to come too soon given Johnson's stalled start and that 2015 was where our serious objectives should lay. The semis would have been nice, but I didn't realistically expect it. If the poor tournament performance finally causes the shake up in selection attitude that has been needed, then I'm happy.

We've exited the WC at the QF stage twice before and on both occasions we made the final next time around, entering those tournaments as favourites.

Ruthlessness form here on in, which thankfully previous failure often sharpens the mind to.

we couldnt have won this one. but we should have at least looked like a rugby team- we lkooked disjointed and looked like scared rabbits that couldnt catch let alone throw the ball against france- it was a dire performance, we should have taken france apart- and all it would have taken was a better coach- sorry MJ you have to go. we have wasted way to much time on you, if you make a team like england look that disjointed with the options and players available you are not doing your job