Worst Players to Have Played for Scotland or Anyone TBH

Marcus di Rollo
Rob Dewey
Dan Parks 68 caps FFS

will do for starters for us. Any other takers ?

for wales it would have to be tom james. (At least in recent years), better not get the english posters involved, they would have a lot of writing to do

Don't agree about Tom James actually.

Brendan Laney

The Chainsaw eh Mckay ? Thought about him but he could be kind of ok at times. I suppose Parks could be i.e. 2010 6Ns but your right they are all baws.

Cipriani, Henry Paul, Jamie Noon, Ayoola Erinle.... clearly the list could go on and on.

Gordon Ross? I seem to remember him being the 'exotic' alternative to Parks!

Things have improved since then. They have, haven't they?

Aye Ian but at least he could take and make a tackle or 2 ?

Cant remember his name but there was a Munster winger who was famously caught in open play by a Rumanian lock !

Will James for Wales. Decent for Gloucester but, unfortunately for him, he got dropped into a second string team to take on England pre-2007 worldcup and the result was a 60 point whopping. Don't think he won a cap after that.

geoff998rugby wrote:Cant remember his name but there was a Munster winger who was famously caught in open play by a Rumanian lock !

geoff, you sure that wasn't S Lamont being outpaced by the Romanian/Georgian* hooker at the RWC?!

* Delete as appropriate, can't remember for the life of me which game it was

For Wales:

Will James
Jason Jones Hughes
Hemi Taylor
Arthur Emyr
Derwyn Jones

And thats just for starters

Other than some rather strange selections of centre, England haven't been that bad on selection in recent years - all the poor picks (Tim Payne) have been caused by a multitude of injuries.

If you want to see poor selections, you have to go back to the England teams of the 80s and 90s:
Phil de Glanville
Marcus Rose
Hwyel Davies

Shayne Philpott
Mark Carter
Xavier Rush (granted, selected too young, then ignored until he was too old)

Hal Luscombe anyone?
Nathan Budgett...

Kiwi
Nice to know that even the ABs man sausage up at times,,,

Phil Lewis and Mark Perego for Wales stand out for me, although Will James has to be the worst ever selection.

dummy_half wrote:Kiwi
Nice to know that even the ABs man sausage up at times,,,

6 months ago I'd have included Stephen Donald in that list too

Mark Perego? he was okay.

For Wales, there've been a fair few back in the 90s.

Shayne Philpott tried to sell his AB cap on eBay because he was tired of the abuse he got. He could play any position in the backline and all of them to the same poor standard. He wasn´t a utility back, more of a futility back. Any thoughts of him scoring anywhere were futile. I´d add Caleb Ralph to your list there Kiwi.

Balshaw for England springs to mind. Noon, and that league convert Andy Farrell or Will Ferrell as I liked to call him.

Matt Dunning or Mochaccino as I liked to call him (big but soft and marshmallowy inside)

kia
You say Andy farrell dont you mean Colin Farrell?

I mean the Wigan player not the actor mate. He was the league crossover experiment that didn't work. Colin Farrell has about as much pace as he did though.

Sorry, was talking about Colin Farrell the All Black...

He wasn´t on my weetbix pack growing up. I´ll take your word on him being gash.

Simon Danielli
Graeme Morrison

He only played one test,not invited back.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Shayne Philpott tried to sell his AB cap on eBay because he was tired of the abuse he got. He could play any position in the backline and all of them to the same poor standard. He wasn´t a utility back, more of a futility back. Any thoughts of him scoring anywhere were futile. I´d add Caleb Ralph to your list there Kiwi.

Balshaw for England springs to mind. Noon, and that league convert Andy Farrell or Will Ferrell as I liked to call him.

Matt Dunning or Mochaccino as I liked to call him (big but soft and marshmallowy inside)

Balshaw in the early days had his good points!

Perego was a monster but never quite managed to transfer it onto the National stage.

Budgett again got picked on top class performances for Ebbw Vale at the time.

I think its hard to judge some of the better Welsh players in the 90 because they were dragged down by the dross around them and we were dross.

Ciaran Scally
John McWeeny
Kevin Nolan
Dominic Crotty

Dont remember them being to hot for Ireland.

Andy Nicol...

Jonathan Thomas.

And Desperate Dan Parks, who played 67 times for Scotland. Christ I am a better rugby player than him FFS.

I must say that Banana guy for Bath is total merde too !

mckay1402 wrote:Don't agree about Tom James actually.

Brendan Laney

are you a Cardiff Blues fan by any chance?

geoff998rugby wrote:Cant remember his name but there was a Munster winger who was famously caught in open play by a Rumanian lock !

Are you thinking of Anthony Horgan? I can't remember the exact incident but he did make some howler of a mistake playing for Ireland. Eddie O'Suillivan mentioned it in his book because he was going to drop him after the incident and Horgan just replied 'Ya, that's fair enough.'

Also i would say Bernard Jackman. Was shocking any time I remember him playing at international level.

Jonathan Thomas was immense in 2003, he just didnt develop a lot like Huw Bennett, a promising kid but not fulfilling his potential.

Hemi Taylor is another I dont agree with either, he was a hard sod who gave his all, scored tries and added a bit of agression to the Welsh pack.

Arthur Emyr is a bit undeserved too, he got a lot of stick because of that try in the 1991 world cup, but to be fair he was marking his winger when the Australian scrum half scored from the scrum... why didnt the welsh scrum half mark his man, or even the blidside flanker try? Even if Arthur did come in the scrum half would of passed and Campese would of scored anyway...

Nigel Walker could be one. though, he did score that try against France in 1994 which won us the game, but the basic mistakes I saw him do every week, not to mention not being able just to catch the bloody ball were shocking to see.

Justin Thomas the full back in 1996 may be another mention. He was picked for Wales when playing in division 3 for UWIC, he went to Llanelli then Cardiff (I think), before ending up up Caerphilly! Even Bath sent him back from a loan from what I remember.

Garan Evans might be another, his defense in the 96-13 loss to South Africa was shocking.

Brendan Laney or Bananananaman

I think Erinle is definitely up there

Looseheaded wrote:Jonathan Thomas.

Many would disagree. Played well in both Grand Slams, particularly in 2008 when he was first choice and outstanding at times. Just because he's gone downhill since doesn't make him one of the worst ever capped by Wales.

Dan Parks has helped Scotland win some big games so I'm not convinced you could include him in this bracket. Someone who could be dire but also good at what he did I think would be the fairest evaluation.

For Wales I'd say Will James, Ceri Jones and Robin Sowden-Taylor, despite all three being decent at club level sometimes.

Perego had to pack down behind a poorer front five for Wales than he did for Llanelli. He was an amazing player and certainly international class. Capped once by Waldron and then cast into the wilderness. Got a few caps later on in an awful team where he actually did well.

15 Justin Thomas
14 Garan Evans
13 Jason Jones Hughes
12 Andy Marinos
11 Wayne Procter
10 Adrian Davies
9 Rupert Moon

1 Spencer John
2 Jonathan Humphries
3 Chris Anthony
4 Paul Anthony
5 Voyle
6 Glen George
8 Hemi Taylor
7 Alun Carter

Glas a du wrote:Perego had to pack down behind a poorer front five for Wales than he did for Llanelli. He was an amazing player and certainly international class. Capped once by Waldron and then cast into the wilderness. Got a few caps later on in an awful team where he actually did well.

15 Justin Thomas
14 Garan Evans
13 Jason Jones Hughes
12 Andy Marinos
11 Wayne Procter
10 Adrian Davies
9 Rupert Moon

1 Spencer John
2 Jonathan Humphries
3 Chris Anthony
4 Paul Anthony
5 Voyle
6 Glen George
8 Hemi Taylor
7 Alun Carter

A bench could include the likes of Gareth Cooper, Iestyn Harris, Andrew Sullivan (was it Andrew the ex-league lad that played for Cardiff on the wing/fullback) in the backs. Sadly there have been too many pants forwards for me to even bother trying to work out who was the worst.

Eddie Butler, ok not the worst but I want him in the team.

Gareth Cooper,yep, he was fairly rubbish,
however i do remember that length of the field try by stephen jones? with a sublime shane pass and a nice break from Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgulsZuWSfQ

Shane_Williams wrote:Gareth Cooper,yep, he was fairly rubbish,
however i do remember that length of the field try by stephen jones? with a sublime shane pass and a nice break from Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgulsZuWSfQ

Granted that was good team work. Change it to Gareth Cooper 07 onwards then

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:

Matt Dunning or Mochaccino as I liked to call him (big but soft and marshmallowy inside)

You leave our pie man dunno alone!! Bloke's a legend.... even with his own supporters page on Facebook!!

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Glas a du wrote:Perego had to pack down behind a poorer front five for Wales than he did for Llanelli. He was an amazing player and certainly international class. Capped once by Waldron and then cast into the wilderness. Got a few caps later on in an awful team where he actually did well.

15 Justin Thomas
14 Garan Evans
13 Jason Jones Hughes
12 Andy Marinos
11 Wayne Procter
10 Adrian Davies
9 Rupert Moon

1 Spencer John
2 Jonathan Humphries
3 Chris Anthony
4 Paul Anthony
5 Voyle
6 Glen George
8 Hemi Taylor
7 Alun Carter

A bench could include the likes of Gareth Cooper, Iestyn Harris, Andrew Sullivan (was it Andrew the ex-league lad that played for Cardiff on the wing/fullback) in the backs. Sadly there have been too many pants forwards for me to even bother trying to work out who was the worst.

SS,

Yeah it was Sullivan and also agree about Perego. That said we were so bad in the 90s there is a host we have all missed - Colin Stephens, Chris Bridges, Copsey, Luscombe,

OzT wrote:

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:

Matt Dunning or Mochaccino as I liked to call him (big but soft and marshmallowy inside)

You leave our pie man dunno alone!! Bloke's a legend.... even with his own supporters page on Facebook!!

Dunno or Dunny? Just be thankful I didn´t put Quade Cooper!

Well, after the quality of the poorest Welsh team of living memory, how about some attempt at the poorest England side of my recollection:

1 - Tim Payne
2 - Lee Mears
3 -
4 - Steve Borthwick
5 - Martin Bayfield
6 - ?
7 - Andy Robinson. (How he even got a handful of caps ahead of Peter Winterbottom is beyond me)
8 -

9 - Shaun Perry
10 - Stuart Barnes
11 -
12 - Erinle
13 - Phil de Glanville
14
15 - Marcus Rose

Anyone want to suggest candidates for the missing spots?

true, but Quade can actually play and is quite good as a number 10, whereas Matt, except for a couple of games, usually ended being beaten up in the scrums!!

Lee Mears? Would have to be considered astounding that he made a Lions tour let alone the England squad.

I´ll take your word on him being gash..

Kia on his good days that would be a fair comment, not that he had many of those though. He converted from league to late in his career on had a big knee injury. Supposedly the cream of the league crop in his youth he only got picked for England because Ashton the then England coach had a thing for cross code players. On the up side his son has already eclipsed his dad's contributions to the sport.

I will never forgive Robinson for selecting Noon and Tindall over Abbott and Smith. Boring bosh but solid in defence over creative and explosive but a little inexperienced in defence but by no means poor (neither were far off the 2003 RWC squad). All of which left Hodgson whipping flat passes onto the lumbering frames of Tindall and Noon with Abbott benched and Smith only utilised out on the wing.