2014 June Internationals

I am pumped for the game. I never knew this series was going to be so competitive on our home soil. England probably good enough to sneak past Australia in Australia and probably split a two test series with SA.

They could easily have won this series with us with their best team in the right positions on the paddock.

I am sounding like a broken record but if I see any England fans Ghambiring about how hard their chances are of winning the world cup next year I will have something to say to them.

 

I certainly think that on our day at Twickenham we cam beat anyone. My biggest worry is we seem
to have so many injury prone players.

Speaking of which - Parling out, Launchbury in and Attwood on the bench

 

You bested us on your home ground last time we played you.

You are running us very close on our home soil where we are close to invincible.

We don't lift at world cup time. We play world cup tests like just another game. Every other country plays like their life depends upon victory*
(Especially France who we are terrified of in the knockout stages).

*Teams who this especially applies to:

France
Pacific Island Teams
South Africa
Australia

Teams who are like us and don't lift
Wales
Scotland
Ireland

I don't know where I see England - they got outmuscled by Frenchie in the last world cup and didn't play with desperation so maybe put them in the bracket of teams like us.

 

On the flipside though we got to the 07 final with a side that realistically had no right being there

 

Haha

I am a transparent poster. After reading more than 10 of my posts you know that I greatly believe in home field advantage. If the WC was on our home turf again I wouldn't give you better than 5 to 1 odds of beating us.

 

I also think you are under rating your side big time and not appreciating how well you are doing in this series. That is our very best team on the paddock. We don't want DC anymore or at least I don't. Read is off his game so he wouldn't have added anything.

The only thing we are weak at is scrummaging, the loss of hore has been huge. But it is not like we have made a selection gaffe or are missing someone injured.

The only reinforcement we will be getting will be SBW - who will provide much needed insurance for the back line in case of injuries.

 

.....

James is not the greatest pundit - but I am posting this so you know that NZers other than myself are thinking you are the favourite.

 

Whats happened to SBW? Is he just injured? Nonu's getting on a bit now

 

I'd say we're from a generation who expects England to fail across the board. Our media goes a bit crazy in hyping us at times. But in Rugby this is the first time we've been genuinely showing real promise in a decade, so it's natural we're hesitant to go overboard with the praise.

Personally I actually love where our England side is at right now. We've been playing this whole series with a 2nd/3rd string front row, played the first test with a very experimental lineup and apart from a 20 minute spell in the 2nd half last week have held up really well against the best team in the world. I still don't think we'll win the WC though - that's the pessimist in me

Fuck him then. Should refuse him a place on the principle. Unless you're truly fucked for other options at 12?

 

Some quotes from Thesilverfern.com

Agree with the disparaging comments about your 12 and 13 last week. And just liked the post from the Pom. He points out that May is out for the game. This is another broken record post but england's selectors mystify me a bit - May had no business being selected for test rugby and it was not his fault that he looked out of place.



Forward Thinking, on 19 Jun 2014 - 9:34 PM, said:
Annoying that SL appears to have woken up to the fact that Twelvetrees and Burrell are a pair of donkeys, wouldnt bench on any team past France or Wales, Ireland possibly but only because they dont have any centres of their own. Eastmond and MT could cause trouble, no doubt about that.


SimonAdd, on 19 Jun 2014 - 7:36 PM, said:
Near enough the strongest team we could put out.

Lancaster has said that Launchbury is fatigued and struggling to recover fully between games. He's played pretty much every game for club and country this season and certainly hasn't looked his best the past two games - hopefully the management has learnt the lesson of what happened with Cole. It does leave us with a rather light locking partnership though, so I don't think the scrums or mauls will be as strong this week.

The backline from the first Test gets another go (barring Ashton for May), due to injuries to Care and Farrell and some shocking midfield defence last week. Hopefully Ben Youngs can up his game, because frankly I would have picked Dickson based on form.

Otherwise though, I'm pretty happy. Hartley, Lawes and Vunipola all back in the pack and Manu back in the centre. Go England.

 

Francis Saili says hello :ninja:

in other words yes we are fucked - we would have to go with a journeyman like Crotty.

 

Burrell had a very good 6 Nations, and I will continue to defend him. He's not a flair player, and isn't in the team to do that role. I still don't rate 36 that highly though