Comments on: The Rugby World Cup Team-by-Team Guide: Pool A

By: Don P

Don P — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 17:03:45 +0000

Stats & damn lies. Looking backwards can be a distraction rather than meaningful, esp in a WC comp. Hist shows that it defies logic @ times & when the pressure’s on, as it will surely be for Pool A’s ‘big 3′, it will all depend on the day.

Pressure will be on England as much as any team in their pool. Will THEY deal with it? Home advantage ought to count, but it can also be a double edged sword.

Judging by a couple of school boy errors England made v Ireland recently – I’m thinking of Youngs’ fwd pass to May which butchered a gold plated cert TRY(!) & also Robshaw’s fwd hand off to Wood (? I think) thereby, ditto, ought not these are BASIC errors, caused by lack of skills (in passing a ball!) & not thinking (when, er, passing/fwding a ball!) – shouldn’t these be of some concern?

Surely this ought to be somewhat worrying & shouldn’t these mistakes have been ironed, @ least in Denver, if not over the past 4 yrs? Stuart Lancaster stated recently in the S. Times that he’d found 159(?) things wrong with England when Johnno was in charge! Wonder how many Johhno’s found with Lanc’s team?

The media/pundit mood seemed to echo 1 of Lancaster’s fav mantras in that ‘England are back on track’… after that last win over Ireland.

Time alone will tell of course, but as I’ve mentioned a few before, 1 swallow & all that!

Its’ all even from Fri night & the past is just that. The past.

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:21:54 +0000

Privilege of being the hosts
Always happens

By: Stesco

Stesco — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 12:11:52 +0000

Lets be honest, the timetable for Group A has been designed to maximise the chances of England getting through to the QF’s. No 5 or 6 day turnarounds for them, unlike every other team in the group ! they play Wales after an 8 day rest whilst Wales have 6 ? England also play the very last match vs the whipping boys of the group ….. knowing by then exactly what they would need to do to qualify, that of course is the only game not at ‘Fortress Twickenham’ !.

Fiji have 2 five day turnarounds whilst England have an 8 and three 7’s ! tell me that’s a level playing field !. How can it be that they play the first and last games of the group ? isn’t it obvious they would have had longer between games ? it’s plain maths !.

Not only do they have a huge home advantage but the schedule is so blatantly biased it’s embarrassing …… not that the RFU care of course.

By: dingdongdenny

dingdongdenny — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 11:18:21 +0000

FLOATING TURD! – Should say

By: dingdongdenny

dingdongdenny — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 11:15:57 +0000

Climbing the world rankings doesn’t only rely on your results – SA rose to 3rd picking their arses!! FFS

“Any one of Wales, England, South Africa or Ireland could pip the incumbents Oz to the title of NZ’s biggest threat come the knock out stages.”

Would remove Wales from that – never been 2nd in the world and aren’t going anywhere in this WC thanks to the floating Log!

DDD

By: Benjit

Benjit — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 00:28:56 +0000

Well if we take the last 5 years, competitive fixtures (6n) it’s 3 -2 the other way to England, your 60% win ratio conveniently included the wc warm up match win in Cardiff, and excluded the previous week’s loss to England at Twickenham and the 6n loss to England in Cardiff.

England have an 8 day rest before playing Wales. Longer than we usually have in the AIs after facing physical teams. Plenty enough time to recover and our depth is such that our forwards can be rotated or brought off early without weakening the team (though God help us if Brown gets injured and Goode starts against Wales!).

For Wales to beat England you will have to throw the kitchen sink at us and that will have an impact with such a short turnaround before Fiji. Fiji likewise have a good 8 day rest after Aus. Given the choice I prefer England’s fixture schedule to Wales.

By: Benjit

Benjit — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 00:18:04 +0000

The 08 result was a bit of a freak result tbh, the number of on field injuries saw a lock playing in the back row and a debutant fly half playing at outside centre.

In 2012, Wales took a vastly experienced side and barely beat a very inexperienced England side, rebuilding after the world cup.

Whilst both results were fully earned, it’s a bit of stretch to imply that Wales have a good record at Twickenham.

Wales can win there, but they should take nothing for granted (not saying you were but others certainly seem to be)

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 20:13:57 +0000

But France are the only team in your group that you can take points from. Uruguay are the only team in Pool A that the other four teams can’t take points from. Any one of Wales, England, South Africa or Ireland could pip the incumbents Oz to the title of NZ’s biggest threat come the knock out stages.

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 23:27:13 +0000

Your looking at history for over 25years hell some of the squad weren’t even born back then. most of the squad was around since the last world cups so that is the record you need to consider. No point considering the record of people who wont step on the field.

Coming back to beat Fiji, same applies to England, can they beat Wales a week after the attrition games themselves?

By: Banastre

Banastre — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 23:06:47 +0000

another way of looking at it, wales have won twice at twickenham since 1988. with the injuries wales have and the way the fixtures unfold, it will be surprising to see them leave the group, is their squad good enough to come back and beat fiji five days after England game?

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 22:41:39 +0000

Last 5 games at Twickenham, we won 2 of them, So 40%. Last 5 games v England, we won 3 of them so 60%. No matter how you shake it, the Wales v England record is pretty much square so theirs no clear winner. Both supporters are going into it with there heart, cos the head has to tell you either team could walk out the winner

By: Banastre

Banastre — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 21:59:33 +0000

I think a Welshman would have to be thinking with his heart over his head to think that they will qualify from this group. Poor record at twickenham and abysmal record against Australia. Thought war burton was clutching at straws when he said Wales stand a better chance beating Wales at twickenham than the millennium.