England V Scotland

[gingerjedi]

No. Scotland never tend to brag that they are going to win such tournaments. They then go out and back that up.
England on the other hand generally make outlandish claims about how well they will do in such tournaments, then go out and perform like Scotland.

HTH

Bollox, I think you'll find most English are as pessimistic as humanly possible.

And we still go on to win the odd cup despite our reservations.

[malvolio]

For that to happen England will have reached yet another world cup final, because unless a miracle happens they cannot meet southern hemisphere opposition until then. Make your mind up!

YEah, whiop di doo. You miss the point.

Getting to a final by grinding away and getting the odd lucky break agaisnt quantifiably inferior opposition doesn't mean you're any kind of good. And "Southern Hemisphere" is the style of the game, not the location: the one where people run, where the ball carrier always has a man on each shoulder, where all players can play anywhere on the park and where the game is not won by who concedes the fewer (detected) penalties at the breakdown. Ireland and Wales both play southern hemisphere rugby.

When England win, it's ugly, cynical and graceless, but if it makes you happy.

I prefer sport myself.

[shaunbhoy]

As much as it pains me to admit it (as I'm sure that it would you) but as you and I are more or less of the age where we can't forget (unfortunately) the bragging of Ally's tartan army and what a disaster that turned out to be! As someone else said, it should be gobs shut, heads down and get on with the job at hand...

Well we tried it once and it didn't work.

At least we had the sense to shelve the script after that.

[shaunbhoy]

Bollox, I think you'll find most English are as pessimistic as humanly possible.

And we still go on to win the very very odd cup despite our reservations.

ftfy

[Ruprect]

When England win, it's ugly, cynical and graceless, but if it makes you happy.

I prefer sport myself.

A bit harsh, they're not always like that.

Today was certainly no show of strength; performances like that won't win us the world cup. Would certainly like to see more flowing rugby - I don't think the conditions today helped in that respect - but the team in the second half looked completely different to the one that played the first, and to be fair we were the only team to score a try.

[shaunbhoy]

- but the team in the second half looked completely different to the one that played the first, and to be fair we were the only team to score a try.

Never watched it as I have little or no interest in it. However that is a good point.
Someone else mentioned that RU at the top level is fairly predictable, and with that I also tend to agree.
England won the tournament in 2003 by forcing other teams to play in a certain way, a way that suited England's style better. It was not pretty but it was bloody effective. Bog the game down in the scrum and endeavour to win penalties, often awarded for obscure rule breaches, then rely on the metronomic Wilkinson to convert a high percentage of the resulting penalties. Pragmatic but mind-numbingly dull to watch.
However, it was never going to take the top teams long to work out how to neutralise that, and thus it proved.
If England are going to come out on top playing free-flowing Rugby then they will have to lose the likes of Johnson as a coach and bring someone in that can freshen them up both in personnel and style. Changes like that are unlikely to happen overnight, if at all.
Anyway, I hope that whoever wins it is the team that plays the most exciting Rugby.

[d000hg]

Wrong result. Predictable but wrong

'Wrong' in what sense? The better side won, poor as they were.

I do like the way the Scots (and other non English) think they are entitled to gloat even though they failed to do any better.

You'd think they wouldn't want to draw attention to how bad the team were who beat them when they were themselves playing quite well by their standards.

[Ruprect]

Never watched it as I have little or no interest in it. However that is a good point.
Someone else mentioned that RU at the top level is fairly predictable, and with that I also tend to agree.
England won the tournament in 2003 by forcing other teams to play in a certain way, a way that suited England's style better. It was not pretty but it was bloody effective. Bog the game down in the scrum and endeavour to win penalties, often awarded for obscure rule breaches, then rely on the metronomic Wilkinson to convert a high percentage of the resulting penalties. Pragmatic but mind-numbingly dull to watch.
However, it was never going to take the top teams long to work out how to neutralise that, and thus it proved.
If England are going to come out on top playing free-flowing Rugby then they will have to lose the likes of Johnson as a coach and bring someone in that can freshen them up both in personnel and style. Changes like that are unlikely to happen overnight, if at all.
Anyway, I hope that whoever wins it is the team that plays the most exciting Rugby.

Don't let that stop you forming a lengthy and judgemental opinion on it though Shaun

[Mich the Tester]

It's a southern Hemisphere dominated game

It seems nobody told the Irish.

[Mich the Tester]

Can I just remind everybody that the object of the game is to score more points than the opposition. One point more will do.

If you want entertainment, put some porn on the telly. Rugby is about winning.