Rugby World Cup 2003 - The Rugby Widows Weep!

[ravagon]

Originally posted by finbar

copyright Tamerlin 2003

I did fix it though.

[Edit: And I have a friend who may not be so forgiving if I fail to support Canada, erm, a second time. ]

[finbar]

Canadians, to my knowledge, don't insert horses' heads into the beds of those who cross them.

[finbar]

I can only put Havak's ongoing absence from this thread down to Leicester's loss to Leeds on the weekend - relegating them to the premiership ladder cellar - on top of the fraught England performance -v- the Springboks causing him to require a brief sojourn at the nearest Spa to take the restorative waters.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by finbar
Canadians, to my knowledge, don't insert horses' heads into the beds of those who cross them.

You haven't met many Canadians have you?
This one is an ice-hockey fan.


In truth though, I am a great admirer of Italy and its minor provinces. Why just the other day I conquered Naples, Siena, Tuscanny, Modena, the Papal States, Mantua and Genoa.
Now all proudly fly the banner of the Lion of Venice and send men to serve in my armies.
Austria and France beware. The bell will soon toll for thee.

... Erm, this isn't the Paradox forum is it?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
What is really funny is that I found this record many many years ago among the vinyls owned by my parents who have never listened at rock music nor understood anything about it... I guess they bought it because there was an orange sticker (it is still on the sleeve) saying number one in the world.

Hopefully you and your parents remain, like I am, devotees of the Little Sparrow.

[Havak]

Havak's continuing absence should indeed have been down to that dismal performance at Leeds - how the mighty have fallen. And I'm angry with a very promising young lock for getting himself red carded for stamping during it.

But the real culprit is the common cold.

The bad thing about working for someone else is that the work piles up just as you need to catch up with important rugby talk. Looks like it will be tomorrow before I can catch up properly!

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by finbar
Hopefully you and your parents remain, like I am,
devotees of the Little Sparrow.

This time the Petit Ophrys can't help me, is it the nickname of a singer or something like that?

[Havak]

Gentlemen - seek out Zinzan's latest comments on the BBC Sport website - well worth reading.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Havak
Gentlemen - seek out Zinzan's latest comments on the BBC Sport website - well worth reading.

This is exactly what I am thinking about this game and England, to the exception of his appreciation of Kyran Bracken but I suppose (hopefully for him) that he knows better than me.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin


This time the Petit Ophrys can't help me, is it the nickname of a singer or something like that?

Edith Piaf!

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
Gentlemen - seek out Zinzan's latest comments on the BBC Sport website - well worth reading.

Interestingly enough, and Zinzan obviously deliberately overlooked this because it didn't suit the tenor of his article, but Eddie Jones disagreed quite strongly with George Gregan re England's performance, wondering whether they'd been watching the same game. In fact, Zinzan could well have lifted a lot of what Eddie said to write his article.

That aside, it's a perfectly reasonable piece by Zinzan, save for his praise for Bracken's performance. I've seen a bit of Bracken and never been terribly impressed. I don't think Dawson's world class, but he's a lot better than Bracken. As I said, Bracken's major skill seems to be harassing opposing players. Fine, but when it comes to directing play, et al, which is his job, he's usually found severely wanting.

[finbar]

Italy 19 -d- Canada 15!

Sono molto imbarazzato!

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin




This is exactly what I am thinking about this game and England, to the exception of his appreciation of Kyran Bracken but I suppose (hopefully for him) that he knows better than me.

No he doesn't!

[Havak]

I actually agree with you on Bracken. He has received positive appraisal from several pundits that I found a bit OTT - including Zinzan. For me he doesn't marshall play as well as Dawson - nor does he snipe around the fringes the way Matt can.

Dawsons pretty good in that he is solid (doesn;t get pushed off the ball easily the way Bracken tends to be) and has quick hands - but his best is not Gregan's best for example - and (blatantly sucking up to the French lads here) nor is he as good as Galthie when the petit maestro is on song.

[Andydog]

Finally some time to post. I haven’t had a chance to read back, but the reason for my onslaught of ‘buggers’ after the NZ Canada game was this:

Yes, our style of playing an expansive game and scoring tries is working, but it’s overshadowed by the number of times we’ve conceded possession. 20 odd times against both Italy and Canada. Not acceptable lads!

Rustiness was the excuse, rustiness of our first choice players against Italy, and of our second choice players against Canada. But even so, we made far too many errors and threw away the ball at critical times, and we won’t get away with that in the quarters and semis! One thing’s for certain, after SA’s performance against England, we’ll have to make big adjustments if we want to beat SA in the (potential) quarterfinal.

And I thought it was a great performance by the Boks - they restored some pride to their rugby, but more importantly, they exposed the soft white underbelly of the English for all the world to see! Hit their forwards hard and fast with ferocious exchanges and maintain this intensity and you’ll achieve such things as rupturing their scrums, forcing errors, disrupting their patterns, and rattling their precious Jonny Wilkinson!

It was also apparent that England has not improved its back play to a level where they could match the All Blacks for attacking confidence and ability, particularly out wide.

However. If we are to beat them, our tight five will have to match the brutal effort of the Boks, and we are going to have to stop stupidly conceding possession. I pray Mitch takes the opportunity to address and put this into practice against Tonga and Wales. Do this and not only will we win plenty of ball, but we’ll keep it long enough for our backs to score tries.