The world of Rugby accrding to GARP 2.

The traditional five Nations

France.
Due to a language barrier France has always been a bit of a mystery to me, however it seems a popular place for South Africans to play rugby, and not necessarily only the stars, but many youngsters leave at an early age before even making it big in domestic rugby in South Africa.

Whether it is due to the limited opportunities of having really only a handful of teams who hand out professional contracts or other personal reasons these players are found by the dozens all over France.

One thing is certain though, in spite of being probably the wealthiest rugby nation on the planet, the proverbial tail (the Clubs) are wagging the dog (French Rugby union) over there.

Money talks and synergy to them is as foreign as Braaivleis and pap. It is the Achilles heel of the French, apart from the French of course being highly emotive people.

I don’t know their supporters, so cannot comment on them one bit, however from second hand experience I am told the French are quite insular.

England.
I like to think of England as the one that got away. Money, pool of players, infra structure et all. There should be no excuse for them to dominate rugby union. None whatsoever.

But when you think of the one that got away, whether it was the fact that you underestimated the fish, perhaps you used the wrong line, your snap was to quick, or maybe you were just not into it. Any one or all of these reason meant it got away.

That is how you can look at English rugby, as much potential as South Africa has (minus the money) that is how much potential there lies dormant in England. What a waste, sad really.

If the RFU one day wake up and find solutions to these challenges where the tail once again wags more than it should, and the focus turns on how to make England the power it should be, we will all be in for a hard time, yet like SA and France, the other nations laugh at us, they sit back and revel in every victory over us as deep down inside they know what could have been, but sadly (for us) never will be.

The supporters of England are usually a very loyal group of people, love their sport and likely in my view anyway the one nation who’s supporters will move heaven and earth to follow their team around the globe.

Ireland
Introspective, over analytical and critical of themselves is how I often see the Irish, not a nation who really believes much in passing blame, but rather chew on the same issue endless times, and perhaps the reason why they don’t ever get to the answers they are looking for.

Point of note, any discussion should have an end goal. Set a time limit and then take the best of what has been discussed. That should provide the answers more clearly. The more ideas you have the harder it is to sift through.
Ireland in my mind is a very consistent performer, when you look at the past decade or so, they have shown the least volatility in performance, always there or there abouts, but just dropping the one game they shouldn’t.

You only have to look at their Provinces and how well they perform to realise the underlying threat that lies there unleashed. It is like a Bulldog being held in shackles, you know what can be unleashed but for some reason is afraid to do so.

Wales.
Behind France Wales are likely the most inconsistent performers on the international stage. When you look at their Six Nations record you will find they have an inordinate number of titles, but in the same breath as many bottom ranked finishes.

Once again how much potential is there and what are the reasons for it not being developed to full potential? How does a team win one year and then end 4th or 5th the next?

It is a conundrum luckily I don’t need to solve.

The supporters of Wales for me are a mixed bag, I often see them in the same light as my South African brethren, embarrassing behaviour by some, but then luckily there is the positive to every negative. One thing is a certainty though, a more passionate bunch of blokes is hard to find.

Scotland.
I wish I had 20 billion pounds sterling to put into Rugby in Scotland, as I have always wondered how good they could really be. The most frustrating opponent for any Bok supporter, the times we have to go to the Cold Murray field and watch gut wrenching, mud wrestling rugby in an environment foreign to our sun baked players makes this one of the toughest fixtures to play.

How good could Scotland be if some bloke just put money and infrastructure into their rugby?

Their supporters in my view are respectful, diplomatic and pleasant most of the times, now and then they can make some comments that really grind the daylights out of me, but I suppose rugby does that to even the most fair minded people.

At the end of the day, the potential in Europe is vast, but money has become a handicap for most of these countries, you have the big spenders which is mostly privately owned and there for do not concern themselves with the big picture, and then there are the smaller nations who stay in contact and often beat these big nations because of their non collective mind sets.

To beat the Southern Hemisphere big three, will take more than money, it will take a collective effort which I believe quite frankly is impossible to obtain.

Do You mean a collective effort like the Lions?

No, the mindset of doing what is best for rugby in your nation, such as New Zealand does.

Got you biltong, its so strange for me to read a thread that isnt Lions based I was all disorientated.

The third French test had players who had hardly played for their clubs all season for the imports...yet they did ok considering.

The problem in France is that the Union is completely unwilling to work with the clubs. Every other country has the union investing money generated by internationals heavily in the domestic game, be though union ownership (Ireland, New Zealand, etc) or contractual obligations (England, Wales, etc). The FFR give nothing to the clubs and people act surprised when the clubs give them nothing in return. What they really need is an EPS type agreement akin to the one in England or Wales.

Over all a pretty good read (although I don't think Wales have been bottom of 6 nations since 2003, a few bottom half places though).

Regarding England I feel (and I'm not sure how everyone else feels) that things are moving in a positive direction. I'm not talking about the full side as such, more the structure behind them. The academies are in full force and producing lots of very good players, that have to work hard to get a starting position (and many do). The current RFU/PRL relationship seems to be positive with the clubs being flexible regarding players released for extra time. It will be interesting to see what changes (if any) come about when the agreement is renegotiated for 2016.

Regarding the full side, well a big part comes down to coaching. I feel Lancaster started out with the defensive game plan to start with. We'll see if he can expand on it as the players become more familiar with each other.

Good read and welcome back (it's been crazy here)

Good first post. Welcome to the boards.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Good first post. Welcome to the boards.

Me? Everyone posting so fr has 4000+ posts. Or has someone been deleted?

I meant this strange Biltong poster who appeared from nowhere. Your ugly mug I see all the time.  

I said something about Ireland on GARP 1.
To sumarise...
We have no arse in our trousers and our young folk have gone to UK, US, Canada and Aus to buy some new ones.

p.s 4000+ posts? Is there some way of becoming a professional internet forum poster that I am unaware of. I am considering a career change.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:I meant this strange Biltong poster who appeared from nowhere. Your ugly mug I see all the time.  

How did you know I have an ugly mug? Are you stalking me or talking to my wife?

BTW I have no idea what GARP is

It's a big fish that lives in ponds and kills all other wildlife in it.  

Hammer sounds like a nickname for a forward so I thought it a safe assumption.  

World according to GARP.

HammerofThunor wrote:

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:I meant this strange Biltong poster who appeared from nowhere. Your ugly mug I see all the time.  

How did you know I have an ugly mug? Are you stalking me or talking to my wife?

BTW I have no idea what GARP is

Brilliant if slightly mental book by John Irving and not a bad movie adaptation. r***, transgenderism, wrestling, one eared dogs, child death, accidental orral penile removal. I highly recomend it.

No, my original name was Mjolnir. Asked to explain it a couple of times so just changed it. I was reading Anglo-Saxon mythology at the time.

Submachine, just keep posting loads of nonsense and you'll get there (NB I mean like me not that you've already started...although "no arse in our trousers"?)  

I can relate to that!

Good to have you back BB. You couldn't have picked a better time for a sabbatical! I'm jealous.

Submachine wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:I meant this strange Biltong poster who appeared from nowhere. Your ugly mug I see all the time.  

How did you know I have an ugly mug? Are you stalking me or talking to my wife?

BTW I have no idea what GARP is

Brilliant if slightly mental book by John Irving and not a bad movie adaptation. r***, transgenderism, wrestling, one eared dogs, child death, accidental orral penile removal. I highly recomend it.

Doesn't sound like my bag. I'm more interested in fantastical/unrealistic stuff. Real life stuff you can get from the news

HammerofThunor wrote:No, my original name was Mjolnir. Asked to explain it a couple of times so just changed it. I was reading Anglo-Saxon mythology at the time.

Submachine, just keep posting loads of nonsense and you'll get there (NB I mean like me not that you've already started...although "no arse in our trousers"?)  

You never heard of that one? Must be a Dublin thing. But I think it portrays our current poverty very well.

I heard an excellent old saying on the radio yesterday
"The fart was so acrid, it could take the brand off a sack"

HammerofThunor wrote:

Submachine wrote:

HammerofThunor wrote:

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:I meant this strange Biltong poster who appeared from nowhere. Your ugly mug I see all the time.  

How did you know I have an ugly mug? Are you stalking me or talking to my wife?

BTW I have no idea what GARP is

Brilliant if slightly mental book by John Irving and not a bad movie adaptation. r***, transgenderism, wrestling, one eared dogs, child death, accidental orral penile removal. I highly recomend it.

Doesn't sound like my bag. I'm more interested in fantastical/unrealistic stuff. Real life stuff you can get from the news

I'm fond of magigian battle myself but one Irving book a year is great. His stuff deals with reality but in a very twisted way. Frak hillarious as well.

The Irish...over analytical?  From Biltong?  Who has just done a treatise special on the Scottish/SA game a few weeks back?

We're honoured

"Point of note, any discussion should have an end goal. Set a time limit and then take the best of what has been discussed. That should provide the answers more clearly. The more ideas you have the harder it is to sift through."

Why keep to deadlines and formal roll calls and timelines?  That is simply not Irish.  We find that kind of recommendation ridiculous, stuffy, stiff arsed, much too-Germanic and ....funny.

Talk/chat/craic/rubbish muttering is a gift.  You don't get it over with quickly by having a chairman and list of discussion points.  That's dour and boring to us Irish.  You drink chat, you eat it, you indulge, you waffle, you go off topic.  That's life and enjoyment to us.  

We look at other cultures with their morbid faces and scowling aloofness (often affected simply because of an inability to relax) and we laugh................ and then chat about it

Come on Biltong where number 3. I like this stuff.

Us irish aren't fond of praise. If someone does well we secretly dislike him.

In all sports i can think of we irish rarely run up big scores against weak teams because we dont have the killer instinic. Against the bigger teams it codts us.

Or mental strenght comes from being the underdog and if we are not we panic ie France 2007

We like to think of ourselves as thd plucky little fighter. Munster for years were one of the top teams in europe but each year it was about our great fight against the giant English and french teams.