17 November 2003
Some things make winning all the sweeter. Like your country’s rugby team being continually attacked by someone in the run-up to the match. (Punctuation and spelling in quotations have been fixed.)
I’ve tried to avoid commenting for risk of going overboard; most of them provide amusement on multiple levels anyway.
The way they’ve been playing, I can’t see England reaching the final. The lessons from the Samoa game haven’t been learned. any good coach would have taken the bull by the horns and rooted out those problems the day after the match. Woodward instead hid behind the ‘winning is everything’ line. By his reckoning, the performances against Samoa and Wales were okay because England won. They weren’t. But that’s not the message his players got. The bad habits are there, they are growing and they will strike again before this tournament is out. The French or the All Blacks will not be so lenient.
Wilkinson is starting to look shaky. He’s tanking it like he did the Lions tour. And before you disagree, would he have missed those kicks in the Six Nations? Exactly.
Johnson is an over-rated thug. To hear the ITV team call him the best captain ever is a sham, he isn’t a patch on Keith Wood. [ed: guess this commenter’s nationality.]
Hill will be crucial to England. The French back row is simply awesome. If the english can match them, they’re in with a great shout. I don’t think they will.
England’s problems will come from the back row, Galthié, Rougerie, Dominici and Poitrenaud. In fact, there isnt one single area of the field where England have a clear advantage. And given the impact of Shane Williams last Sunday, think of the potential damage Rougerie and Dominici could inflict.
- Johnson is a thug, and his ‘mind games’ are petty and childish. But that’s OK, cause the whole English system is built on those principles.
- Fair enough, I forgot about Hill in the pack, but you can’t deny that Wilkinson and Johnson are the faces of English at the moment. Leonard’s publicity stems from his caps, and Dallaglio should not be playing rugby after the drugs scandal. Certainly not at international level. But of course, the RFU gave him a slap on the wrists and allowed him to play on, WITHOUT SUSPENSION. Rio Ferdinand, conversely, missed a drug test and is facing a substantial ban.
- Would Wilkinson miss his kicks in the Six Nations? 99% no. That’s certainly not his record in the WC. And as for the team delivering under pressure? Six Nations in ’02, ’01, ’00 and ’99. Coming up with the goods once in five attempts is not an admirable record.
- I said from the start that I thought the French were the dark horses for this tournament. And their form has only served to move them to outright favourites in my mind. They may have only beaten a second string team in Marseilles, but they are peaking now at the right time. England, meanwhile, look like they peaked for the Six Nations and are currently having weaknesses exposed all over the park, and there is no team more adept at playing the style of rugby that caused England so many problems against Samoa and Wales than France.