Comments on: Ross Moriarty called into Wales World Cup squad

By: James W

James W — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:07:09 +0000

My history teacher at school was a Welsh bloke called Barry Carless. He was captain of Exeter Chiefs back in the 70s and doubled up as our PE teacher. Rugby was number 1 sport for us, we were truly dreadful at football. All the private schools played rugby all the state schools played football simple as that!

By: Staggy

Staggy — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 06:20:27 +0000

Thank you Brighty. Wasn’t sure if Walker had been carrying a knock when called in. Note what you say about Hooky, and sort of agree at FH but thought he was good and consistent at FB last season when played there. Looked to be his best position imo. Guess strength in depth is probably your Achilles heal.

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 20:01:18 +0000

I would put a lot of money that they wont lose 3 in the group, hell I’m putting a lot of money that we won’t lose 2. I do fear we may lose 1 but I think its about time we broke our SH issues lol

I’ve tried to be a good sport n all cos I want a NH-only final but if I keep seeing so many “wales doom” comments coming from England I may end up being an ABE fan like my Scottish wife is :p Generally speaking I back Home nations over anyone else obviously Wales in any home nation games.

However, as I have said many times I don’t want excuses come the end of the games, we field a team regardless of injuries and the best team at the end of the day will come away with it.

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 19:53:32 +0000

Whilst I think consistency has proven NZ are the best in the world cos that’s how the rankings work, their are a number of teams who could win this, Wales, England, Ireland, Australia, South Africa would be top contenders outside of NZ. However, I don’t foresee the others (France, Argentina etc) pulling it into context.

The thing is it takes 1 loss to knock you our as goes a tournament, we all need a little luck to see our team through, I’m just hoping the injuries were wales bad luck and no we’ll be in for some good fortune lol

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 19:40:26 +0000

Whilst I like Scott & Liam Williams together and North as well, I wouldn’t want Hook on the pitch and I’m not too fussed about Morgan either. I want to see a Tipuric Warburton fulltime partnership cos the few occasions they’ve been at it together they make for a solid defence.

By: dingdongdenny

dingdongdenny — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 18:20:19 +0000

DNDD

By: brighty

brighty — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:36:02 +0000

Tipuric at centre was recently one of the weirder media cries in the world cup build up – http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-should-consider-playing-justin-9900493

It wasn’t laughed out as a joke – the guy was serious and an online poll showed widespread support for it. Just goes to show why we pay coaches money – the average Welsh rugby fans favourite backline would be something like:

James Hook
Scott Williams
Tipuric
Matthew Morgan
George North
Liam Williams

(yes, you read that right, JD and The Doc are not that well loved and Halfpenny is criticised for being nothing more than a kicker). There is this romantic notion that all we need to do is get “naturally talented ball players” onto the pitch and then “the Welsh way” will come through and we’ll go all Barry John on everyone. Seems to kind of forget that most of rugby is, like it or not, about stopping the oppo scoring.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:24:15 +0000

Tipuric at centre. Now there’s a thought.

He could switch with Jamie Roberts during the match. That would confuse the opposition…

By: brighty

brighty — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:04:00 +0000

Agree with you about the timing of the article Blub and just think it’s a bit of the sneering from the average BBC sports journalist. Their main rugby guy on 5 live is a 100% league man and he can barely conceal his contempt when discussing union. The BBC give masses of coverage to league in my experience when it can’t help but feel like a completely niche sport to those of us outside it’s heartlands. I’m not dissing league, I’m just amazed that it gets so much national coverage when it’s a regional phenomenon.

By: twelvestocks

twelvestocks — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:03:39 +0000

Virtually everybody in the world English or otherwise assume the All Blacks are the best team in the world. It doesn’t mean that with luck, home advantage and a following wind England couldn’t win it though. Wales could also, but with the injuries the following wind they need is getting stronger and stronger!

By: Blub

Blub — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:50:22 +0000

To be fair every sport is a minority sport in England, compared to Football.

I suspect that Rugby (both types) is one of the least minority sports. the problem is that Football is SO dominant, and for some reason Rugby-playing PE teachers are far fewer on the ground than others.

To my mind, having a high proportion of Internationals spending time at Private Schools is a good thing, as their rugby provides them with an opportunity for a better education.

Make no mistake, here in the home counties, some private schools are very keen to hoover up the better teenagers being groomed at the county and prem academy age groups.

By: brighty

brighty — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:45:58 +0000

Ah, the arrogance of a man who assumes a dig at him is a dig at his entire country…