"We took Wales apart" said Tom Croft! lol

England forward Tom Croft claimed today that his team took Wales apart at Twickenham – despite losing 12-19.

The flanker, billed as the world’s fastest forward said in the Daily Mirror today: “It was very frustrating.”

“We’d taken apart a side which was billed as potential champions.

“They’d been talked about massively and we took them apart for most of the 80 minutes, but let it slip.

Croft missed a tackle as centre Scott Williams flew home to win the match for Wales and keep the Grand Slam dream alive.

Of the try, the Leicester star said: “I’ve stewed on that try of theirs for days, I genuinely believed I’d get Scott.

“It annoys me that a player got away from me, it really does.

“I’ve been doing extra sessions to make sure I’ve got that extra yard next time.
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Oh dear oh dear Thomas this type of backward thinking will get you no where, be a man and shake the hand of your opponent and take it on the chin and don't go making up excuses.

Wales had more territory.
Wales made more clean breaks.
Wales beat more defenders.
Wales had better ruck completion rate.
Wales missed less tackles.
Wales conceded less penalties.
Wales destroyed the mighty English scrum.
Wales scored a try England didn't muster up a single try.
Wales WON.

All on your cabbage patch.

Tom Croft should be thankful that he is in the presence of modern legends and shut up.

Courtney Lawes needs to take more of that maximuscle he promotes, getting stripped of the ball by one of the smallest Welsh players is embarrassing for a second row

At International level should a back rower really be expected to catch a centre anyway.

If he had caught Williams then it wouldn't have said a lot about Scott

viewtothegym wrote:Tom Croft should be thankful that he is in the presence of modern legends and shut up.

Courtney Lawes needs to take more of that maximuscle he promotes, getting stripped of the ball by one of the smallest Welsh players is embarrassing for a second row

Another overated Saint. One of 15 to be exact.

I think Croft is losing his mind!

I read this the other, day. I had a lot of respect for Croft after his contribution on the Lions tour. He was one of the few England players that came across as a genuine guy, and not self-centred and arrogant (Ashton, Foden, Hartley) and then you hear stuff like this and you think Lancaster's bringing them back down to earth hasn't worked.

England played well against Wales, there's no question about that and they looked allot more threatening going forward and defended admirably. But to suggest they took us apart..maybe Lancaster hasn't quite got rid of the arrogance that cost England at the WC.

Hey hes just taking the positives from it.
Cant say hes anywhere near the mark on what happened in the game but this is exactly the sort of cr@p coaches like Lancaster want to hear from their players. Positive Mental Attitude. If you say it enough its true. Get the media mantra on your side.
That sort of thing sounded even more ridiculous from Borthwick, but still nothing like the famed Welsh saying " on our day...." after every defeat.

Over confidence seems to be paying off though. Sure youll all be weighing in with some praise for crofts play today....

Why don't you call Croft and tell him View?

Not much to see here. England didn't take Wales apart, but were in a position to win it with 10 to go and I doubt he meant much more than that.

He played very well today but the delusion is quite disrespectful!
but you never beat the english---just score more points than them

Tom Croft is the greatest player around. I've heard so many people say it today. It must be true.

"Wales had more territory.
Wales made more clean breaks.
Wales beat more defenders.
Wales had better ruck completion rate.
Wales missed less tackles.
Wales conceded less penalties.
Wales destroyed the mighty English scrum.
Wales scored a try England didn't muster up a single try.
Wales WON."

what a load of tripe. England really did have wales on a plate until Lawes allowed himself to be stripped of the ball. England finished much the stronger side and Strettles effort was definitely a try. Wales were very lucky to win. England had them on toast for most of the game.

80 min game and whoever has the most points after 80 min is then declared the winner.

Personally, if I was a Welsh supporter I'd be worried that a side that had been together for 3 weeks only lost 7 points to a side which has been together for 2 years! Anyway, the IRB rankings - which show consistency over time - will reveal England are 4th and the best NH side there is.

viewtothegym wrote:He played very well today but the delusion is quite disrespectful!
but you never beat the english---just score more points than them

That's just welsh trash and only applies to the welsh losers. England let that game slip it certainly wasn't anything the welsh did. An error by Lawes let them in.

Chunky Norwich wrote:Tom Croft is the greatest player around. I've heard so many people say it today. It must be true.

yeah and your irrational hatred of him doesnt make you look like a fool does it....

Duty281 there is no glory in losing even if it is by a narrow margin but some would argue that 7 points is a decent margin because the opposition would need to score twice.

They won what else did you want them to do?
All that matters is now and Wales have won two grandslams since England last won one
Maybe one more to add to that

Croft's comments were silly but as stated a case of PMA, hell an interview in the mirror will always be crap. Wales scored more points and thus deserved to win. England had a winning position and stupidity gave away teh two penalties that evened the scores up.

BUT

Welsh posters complaining about these comments after the crap Gatland has come out with over the years before and after defeats is amusing.

Wales won and no sour grapes from me, and to be honest England could have won it, but didn't, and on the day thats all that counts. wales won the Game, end of !


Nevertheless for Wales, it does help to have all the officials conspiring against England and not giving them a try at the end that could have left the match drawn Just kidding, I think!!

Cymroglan wrote:Duty281 there is no glory in losing even if it is by a narrow margin but some would argue that 7 points is a decent margin because the opposition would need to score twice.

youre forgetting the cueto 11 point try rule

You don't give games away, you lose them because the oppose team took advantage of your inept ability to finish them off!

But hang on to that moral victory English fans.

viewtothegym wrote:You don't give games away, you lose them because the oppose team took advantage of your inept ability to finish them off!

But hang on to that moral victory English fans.

so the semi final wasnt Rollands fault then?

Remind me not to buy The Mirror for insightful Rugby journalism.Actually,you dont need to!
Would not be surprised that those silly words were "ghost" written and Croft just picks up the cheque.He does not come across a a dimwit.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Chunky Norwich wrote:Tom Croft is the greatest player around. I've heard so many people say it today. It must be true.

yeah and your irrational hatred of him doesnt make you look like a fool does it....

Nothing irrational about it!

It's not hatred. I don't hate any rugby player. You're being melodramatic. Croft is just overrated like Heaslip and Mike Blair

Just frustration - they know they should have beaten Wales.

Wales came so close to losing against Ireland and against England. They could have had 2 wins out of 4.

But being able to win tight games is probably why Wales deserve the championship.

WALES WERE VERY LUCKY.END OF.

Taffineastbourne wrote:He does not come across a a dimwit.

No He isnt. He just knows thats the kind of rubbish hes expected to say and its a safe assumption that most mirror readers would lap that kind of cr@p up

Nope it was Wales because we had chances but failed end of.

You snooze you lose

It would be pretty dim to allow the mirror to invent quotes on your behalf. I doubt he did that.

Chunky Norwich wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Chunky Norwich wrote:Tom Croft is the greatest player around. I've heard so many people say it today. It must be true.

yeah and your irrational hatred of him doesnt make you look like a fool does it....

Nothing irrational about it!

It's not hatred. I don't hate any rugby player. You're being melodramatic. Croft is just overrated like Heaslip and Mike Blair

Really? So why invest so much time and effort into inventing reasons to rubbish him and be so one eyed about it.
Why not just say " he showed his worth to the England side today, although I still have reservations about his overall contribution and game"
Instead you come back with the usual vitriolic tripe you spout week after week with no substance to back it up. Its a classic case of someone deciding they dont like a player then finding every reason to justify the stance.
We all have our favourites, but some of us can still assess them with some level of rationality and fairness.

Don't forget, these close games wales were "lucky" to win we're away from home against two top teams. At home they've won by 20 points.

expecting Wales to win by cricket scores every match just shows a lack of respect to the opposition.

thomh wrote:It would be pretty dim to allow the mirror to invent quotes on your behalf. I doubt he did that.

I suppose that would depend on the size of the cheque!

Chunky does that about a few players, especially Cian Healy. He is like a cockroach, keeps coming back with more crap.

Funny when England bored the rugby world to death by getting to the 2007 world cup final all we heard was "it was England grit and hard edge that ground out the wins" even thou we could have pointed out how Australia had a very bad day kicking at goal and France had a typical head fart of a game.

Wales win ugly and they are "lucky"

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Really? So why invest so much time and effort into inventing reasons to rubbish him and be so one eyed about it.

What an odd comment.

This is a rugby forum. I come here to discuss rugby, not to agree with "Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler". The fact you think I am one eyed is perhaps you being defensive about one of your darlings.

Why not just say " he showed his worth to the England side today, although I still have reservations about his overall contribution and game"
Instead you come back with the usual vitriolic tripe you spout week after week with no substance to back it up. Its a classic case of someone deciding they dont like a player then finding every reason to justify the stance.
We all have our favourites, but some of us can still assess them with some level of rationality and fairness.

A fair point. The reason I post on here is to dilute the hype to be honest. Of course I could have said what a great try Croft scored. But there's many doing that. There isn't (in my opinion) many telling the things that should be told.

Croft had his best game for a while for England and is a tidy player.Some daft words in a rag will not turn me against him,whoever put them to print.

viewtothegym wrote:
Wales win ugly and they are "lucky"

Well every result within seven points is lucky to an extent, in that it wouldn't have taken very much at all going differently for the result to change, and there are so many turning points in each game. Wales could easily have lost to England. Similarly, England could easily have lost to Wales in the equivalent fixture in Cardiff last year. The general point I would make (that was also true for England's Six Nations run last year, or our world cup run in 2007) is that a few games is not enough to draw overly significant conclusions from. A significant number of close wins over a long period of time may be evidence of a mental toughness and intelligence that helps the team close out games. One or two is not enough.

Was it not Croft who had quotes attributed to him before the game saying England were looking dangerous? So he's probably just trying to save face. Don't know why people are getting so wound up by it?

thomh wrote:

viewtothegym wrote:
Wales win ugly and they are "lucky"

Well every result within seven points is lucky to an extent, in that it wouldn't have taken very much at all going differently for the result to change, and there are so many turning points in each game. Wales could easily have lost to England. Similarly, England could easily have lost to Wales in the equivalent fixture in Cardiff last year. The general point I would make (that was also true for England's Six Nations run last year, or our world cup run in 2007) is that a few games is not enough to draw overly significant conclusions from. A significant number of close wins over a long period of time may be evidence of a mental toughness and intelligence that helps the team close out games. One or two is not enough.

So England were lucky to beat France today?

slartibartfast wrote:

thomh wrote:

viewtothegym wrote:
Wales win ugly and they are "lucky"

Well every result within seven points is lucky to an extent, in that it wouldn't have taken very much at all going differently for the result to change, and there are so many turning points in each game. Wales could easily have lost to England. Similarly, England could easily have lost to Wales in the equivalent fixture in Cardiff last year. The general point I would make (that was also true for England's Six Nations run last year, or our world cup run in 2007) is that a few games is not enough to draw overly significant conclusions from. A significant number of close wins over a long period of time may be evidence of a mental toughness and intelligence that helps the team close out games. One or two is not enough.

So England were lucky to beat France today?

With that ref, yes

slartibartfast wrote:

thomh wrote:

viewtothegym wrote:
Wales win ugly and they are "lucky"

Well every result within seven points is lucky to an extent, in that it wouldn't have taken very much at all going differently for the result to change, and there are so many turning points in each game. Wales could easily have lost to England. Similarly, England could easily have lost to Wales in the equivalent fixture in Cardiff last year. The general point I would make (that was also true for England's Six Nations run last year, or our world cup run in 2007) is that a few games is not enough to draw overly significant conclusions from. A significant number of close wins over a long period of time may be evidence of a mental toughness and intelligence that helps the team close out games. One or two is not enough.

So England were lucky to beat France today?

In the sense that we could have lost it at the end if France had got the drop goal, yes. That doesn't mean England weren't the better team, and I'm not suggesting that Wales haven't been the better team in their games this year. I'm just making the point that if a team could have lost a game had only one or two small things gone differently, then in a sense they are lucky that they didn't, and that applies to all teams.

Hmmm.....Wales are probably the strongest team in this year's competition. just. Next is the onlyside younger, less experienced and with just as much potential....england. Luckily for england, wales, as a nation is made up of chaps like view......loud mouthed and short lived. This time next year he'll be calling for gatland's head.

I think England's squad is slightly older than Wales'

marginally, but a hell of a lot less experienced. loads less in fact. and the starting 15 of england is younger, the squad slightly older....like i said, wales are setting the benchmark at the minute i don't mind admitting it

I wonder what referee decision is going to go Wales way next weekend against France for them to win the grandslam....at this stage they have had at least four in two games.

meh. Tom Croft alludes to the clinical way England nullified Wales' attack for large parts of the game and you get so huffy? The point was (and is) that Wales won the game. You found a way. The best side won, but by gosh, the best side damn near didn't...

englandglory4ever wrote:"Wales had more territory.
Wales made more clean breaks.
Wales beat more defenders.
Wales had better ruck completion rate.
Wales missed less tackles.
Wales conceded less penalties.
Wales destroyed the mighty English scrum.
Wales scored a try England didn't muster up a single try.
Wales WON."

what a load of tripe. England really did have wales on a plate until Lawes allowed himself to be stripped of the ball. England finished much the stronger side and Strettles effort was definitely a try. Wales were very lucky to win. England had them on toast for most of the game.

How is this tripe? In the real world it's called facts . No use trying to point this out to you though, I can see you are as delusional as Croft (or more).

Sounds like Austin Heeley is his press agent.

Who cares really to be honest. How many times have the welsh been told in narrow yet admirable defeat, it's the result that counts...

DOD wrote:I wonder what referee decision is going to go Wales way next weekend against France for them to win the grandslam....at this stage they have had at least four in two games.

You guys crack me up. Never let facts get in the way of a good wum.