Ok, I’m not gonna lie, when I wrote that on friday, I really meant “sheer hope.” I didn’t think there was more than the slightest chance in hell England could beat France. I haven’t seen the match yet (fucking delay on Setanta broadband) but I can’t wait to. Thank god! All we need now is a good performance against Italy next weekend, and for Scotland to keep France at bay and Ireland can take it. I’ll wait til I’ve seen the matches from this weekend to make my predictions, but I expect a better than average St. Paddy’s day (not only final six nations matches and st. paddys, but my club team starts our spring season that day. Gonna be great!).
Agree that England played well and that the victory was deserved. I do think that the main factor was French ineptitude. The attacking line ran around in circles, giving England a chance to regroup before every French attack. Combined with an inefficient scrum, they were only saved from embarassment by superb penalty kicking.
Is it only me, or is Skrela the best #10 in the world, right now?
TQB
I saw the England-Ireland match (God which team for England was that?) and the England-France match and the play was night and day. France had quite a few knock ons and only the penalty kicks kept them in the game.
I don’t see where all the hype came from with France but I am glad they didn’t even cross the touch line! There were a lot of injuries though for England that could be bad for them next week. Does anyone know if Johnny Wilkerson will be back?
Gem, I agree with Mick, the only other women I can discuss rugby with in this much depth is my best friends sister - and she plays inside centre for Wales…
I didn’t see the England match - I thought France would cruise it and intended to set my Sky+.
I forgot and only remembered I’d forgotten whilst shopping in the ELC for my upcoming Daughter (Due June)
No comments please - I played against Richmond the day before and had enough bumps and bruises to not suffer loss of T through shopping associated atrophy…
No, Best Fly-halves are.
1 Daniel Carter
2 Francois Steyn
3 Toby Flood
4 Shane Geraty
5 Ronan O’Gara
6 Johnny Wilkinson
7 Curtly Beale (Waratahs)
8 David Skrela
9 Matt Gitaeu
10 Butch James
I may accept slight order changes.
[quote]bluebear wrote:
No, Best Fly-halves are.
1 Daniel Carter
2 Francois Steyn
3 Toby Flood
4 Shane Geraty
5 Ronan O’Gara
6 Johnny Wilkinson
7 Curtly Beale (Waratahs)
8 David Skrela
9 Matt Gitaeu
10 Butch James
I may accept slight order changes.
[/quote]
i hope your joking. O gara is higher up, Skrela is too. Much higher than any English counterpart. Cant comment on any SH guys as ive not been watching much super 14’s
[quote]bluebear wrote:
No, Best Fly-halves are.
1 Daniel Carter
2 Francois Steyn
3 Toby Flood
4 Shane Geraty
5 Ronan O’Gara
6 Johnny Wilkinson
7 Curtly Beale (Waratahs)
8 David Skrela
9 Matt Gitaeu
10 Butch James
I may accept slight order changes.
[/quote]
Which begs the question, why England has been so piss-poor with three of the top 10?
[quote]bluebear wrote:
No, Best Fly-halves are.
1 Daniel Carter
2 Francois Steyn
3 Toby Flood
4 Shane Geraty
5 Ronan O’Gara
6 Johnny Wilkinson
7 Curtly Beale (Waratahs)
8 David Skrela
9 Matt Gitaeu
10 Butch James
I may accept slight order changes.
[/quote]
aw bear now come ooon!! I know you’re a little biased but putting Flood and Geraghty before O’Gara?? Bless them, you can count their combined caps on two hands!
Don’t get me wrong, they show great promise (I’m actually more interested to see what Geraghty can do, he seems more decisive and controlled than Flood), but at both international level and club level they haven’t proven themselves to be better than ROG just yet.
Same can be said for Steyn. Ok, so O’Gara has been a little hit and miss lately, but credit where it’s due. After showing an incredible performance with Munster throughout the last HC he came into his own in the Autumn tests and proved his attacking kicking and ball play is just as strong as the defensive ones.
Agree with you on Carter though, that bugger is unstoppable.
we just cant seem to get a break dammit!
Vickery - out
Tindell - out
Farrell - Out.
wilkinson - doubt, but he’s made of sugar or something so he’s bound to go wrong.
To be fair, its the youngsters that held it together on saturday so im not overly concerned. I still want to see a big stocky guy at inside though. Were going to need someone who is physical as i expect a lot of traffic in those parts on saturday. Wales will be throwing everything at England in a bit to avoid the whitewash.
comments anyone?
RE: Fly-halves.
I was being somewhat facetious. Apart from Dan Carter ( and even he sometimes) all of them look world class operating behind a dominant pack.
In fact the only Saint Johnny was the banker before he became so delicate.
Shane and Toby hit top rank due to euphoria from Sunday…
ROG went to pieces earlier this year for Munster - he doesn’t have the temperament to finish the AB’s when the chips are down. Sorry - I don’t see Ireland anywhere near consistently ruthless enough yet.
Francois Steyn looked class but can’t hold the Sharks starting spot above Butch ‘suicidal tendancies’ James…
even Dan Carter looked less than godly when the Boks went head hunting last tri nations…
sooo, having just ruled out all the top ten as number one, um, I don’t know what else to say…
Anyone seen Jonah Lomu’s Adidas advert yet ? its worth a look.
concerning dominat fly half displays of recent years, you have to look at Wilkinson and Carter but my all time favourite displays came via spencer when he was on fire and had that magic season for the blues. Mind you, that team would probably have come close to lifting the web ellis trophy, let alone the All blacks!
[quote]bluebear wrote:
Anyone seen Jonah Lomu’s Adidas advert yet ? its worth a look.[/quote]
'tis indeed …
[quote]g’em wrote:
bluebear wrote:
Anyone seen Jonah Lomu’s Adidas advert yet ? its worth a look.
'tis indeed …
[/quote]
Saw him 2002 in Paris in one of his last matches before the hiatus. Clearly a shadow of his heyday, but when the power kicked in, wow…
[quote]TQB wrote:
g’em wrote:
bluebear wrote:
Anyone seen Jonah Lomu’s Adidas advert yet ? its worth a look.
'tis indeed …
Saw him 2002 in Paris in one of his last matches before the hiatus. Clearly a shadow of his heyday, but when the power kicked in, wow…[/quote]
I so wish I could have gotten to see him play 
Well we’ve lost O’Connell for the Italy match, after the big nonce fractured his thumb in Murrayfield. O’Driscoll landed badly on his dodgy shoulder - the one that was dislocated after that spiking incident in the Lions tour…
but he should be fine to play. Boss is still out too. Other than that it’s all good.
Mind you O’Sullivan is making all sorts of noise about the team being “physically and mentally tired”. If I was more sceptical I’d nearly think he was beginning to make excuses for a predicted piss poor performance… please prove me wrong Eddie.
Jonah Lomu was awesome - anyone who could run the 100m in a world class time at 19 Stones is just pure athlete.
I read his autobiography and they list his senior year schools sports day results.
J Lomu. 1st place,
100m
110m Hurdles
200m
400m
Javelin
Shot
Long Jump.
Most were school records too.
amazing
Well we’ve lost O’Connell for the Italy match, after the big nonce fractured his thumb in Murrayfield.
anyone see how it happened ? got his thumb ‘accidentally’ stuck in someones mouth/nose/eye socket/punching like a wet lettuce (delete as appropriate)?
http://images.t-nation.com/forum_images/6/3/63e65-o’gara.jpg
[quote]bluebear wrote:
anyone see how it happened ? got his thumb ‘accidentally’ stuck in someones mouth/nose/eye socket/punching like a wet lettuce (delete as appropriate)?[/quote]
ah feic off!! no idea how it happened, don’t remember seeing anything about it during the match? Mick O’Driscoll is lined up to replace him though. Lets hope he uses the opportunity to shine (I’m the eternal optimist…!)
And in yet more news, the O’Gara choking incident isn’t being followed up - being choked that is, not choking every second kick bless him. Don’t see how they would have been able to prove anything either way. Something did happen, ROG was visibly shook up and in a bad way afterwards and some of the photos show him literally blue in the face on the ground.
Now I really need to stop reading and start working…
Adding some more to the fly-half debate; watch out for Stephen Brett from Canterbury, he’s 1st choice this season (as Carter and the rest of the Blacks turn into machines on their 9 month training camp) and he could get called up at a later date; very elusive and has all the skills.
Also, Flood is a quality player. I played against him at school and watch him play for the Falcons at Kingston Park. He has Jonny as a mentor and has all the attributes required of a world class fly half.
I think long term he could play 12 with Geraghty at 10 (though its worth noting that in the age group ranks it was Flood 10 and Geraghty 12).
ok boys and girls, final bump for the final weekend. Predictions?
I’m going with Ireland in glorious fashion, Scotland in the last minute upset, and England in a close one over Wales.
[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
I’m going with Ireland in glorious fashion…[/quote]
hmmm, at half-time there’s shag all glorious about the Irish performance. O’Gara can’t manage to find the area beyond any of the white lines, the O’Connell-less line outs are akin to an under-13 schoolboys team. Giving away enough space for the Italians to score two drop goals in the first 30 minutes doesn’t bode well.
D’Arcy is a shining light though.
Still, I’m convinced they’ll pull it together in the next 40 minutes for a 20+ point win 
Meh, it’s Paddy’s Day, the luck of the Irish is in the air!!!