Rugby

I admit to flinging the odd hospital pass more than often as a 9.. But Youngs is a professional. No fucking excuse in my book.

I may be the next candidate. But as a natural forward I deem any pass to someone not close enough to physically touch, a 'technical pass'.

Its gonna be a messy season.

I take it Rugby is a summer sport up your way?

My season is slowly winding down.. 7s here we come, I can't wait!

Played in meter deep snow over the winter for a laugh. Bloody good fun.

We started with a 7s tournament. In a indoor arena with astro turf. Still have fecked knees and elbows. Was also tackled several times in the back by big Fiji'ns. Which has never happen to me in 15's. Once when I was approaching the oppsition winger (prop), and was about to send our overlap the ball for a free try. I slowed slightly (cant run and pass. too technical), and suddenly my world went from excitement to pain. Sent a audible groan wave around the spectators. The teammates around me had never played 7's before, so did'nt think to warn me (WTF?!). Had to force my self to look at my first wee the next day, as I was convinced it would contain blood.

We've lost 2 of our ex-pats to shoulder injuries. So we're down to myself, a dutch 2nd row, and a fellow Englishman No10 that actually tackle properly in matches. Going to be a hard season.

i can't do full contact, my body will break on a solid tackle.. i'm sticking to touch rugby this summer.

i can't do full contact, my body will break on a solid tackle.. i'm sticking to touch rugby this summer.

Our coach/No8/best-player may never play rugby again, due to an injury that happened when playing touch some weeks ago.

Dangerous stuff.

When I worked in Tignes in the French Alps we (the english seasonairs) would play the french in deep snow.. At altitude.. good laugh.. Bloody stupid idea.

Played in Holland once. A mate was studying there and I went to visit.. "Bring your boots" he said.

I did.. The evening before the game seemed like a good idea to go on a massive magic mushroom adventure.. In hindsight wasn't too good an idea as I ended up on the wing for Arnhem Pigs in Holland's equivalent of the premiership..

WTF I thought. Been stitched right up.. But the standard wasn't that good actually..Me and my mate ended up running rings around them and scoring at will. In fact I was so confident that at half time I had some magic mushroom honey... Seemed a reasonable idea.

Can't remember the rest of the game apart from when it started to snow I thought I was tripping out hard..

We have two dutch players, and are defnitely looking to do a short tour down there. Right now we dont really have a team though. A few guys aside, all the locals we manage to lure into the game. Are either suited to being centers or flankers, leaving us ex-pats to fill-in the key positions (I'm 85Kg, yet spent a season as prop). None of them really love the game either. If you compare matches to training. We have around a 40% training attendance. So not only can we not train those that are absent. But we dont have the numbers to train those present.

Sorry for the rant BTW.

i can't do full contact, my body will break on a solid tackle.. i'm sticking to touch rugby this summer.

I'm not fast enough so contact is the only way for me to play realisically. But if you're out of the game for a while you'll get loads of crappy injuries trying to get back in it. I'm a little gutted I just don't have the time to play anymore

Just need Ireland to rack up a few more points and the Six Nations is on for Wales.

england are not playing well at all

/downfacingsmiley

24-8

All of my predictions for the final weekend came true. I was within spitting distance of the Aviva and had a whale of a time.

From my vantage point, Ireland imposed themselves on the game and England couldn't respond.

Agreed.

O'Gara's kicking in the final 20mins was pretty amazing to say the least. England had lost long before that though. It was a classic England loss, in that we lacked invention and penatration. But Ireland deserve prase for a game well played.

All I could think was that on the back of this, admittedly entertaining, 6 nations. The northen hemisphere is going to get their collective arses handed to them during the world cup.

O Gara's little dink off the outside of his boot was a thing of beauty.. England were just completely lost. no talisman or go to guy.. Just a bunch of players in a panic for most of the game.

Agree 100% with Smallfurry. Great game by Ireland. Northern Hem is going to be truely humbled by NZ. SA and Aus.. France may have a slim chance...... very, very slim..

O Gara's little dink off the outside of his boot was a thing of beauty.. England were just completely lost. no talisman or go to guy.. Just a bunch of players in a panic for most of the game.

Agree 100% with Smallfurry. Great game by Ireland. Northern Hem is going to be truely humbled by NZ. SA and Aus.. France may have a slim chance...... very, very slim..

Are you contractually obliged to say that?

lol.. Not at all... It's just of the whole of this years tournament France were the only team to display a modicum of creative attacking..

lol.. Not at all... It's just of the whole of this years tournament France were the only team to lose to Italy..

couldn't resist

She's actually more passionate about the England team.. Thinks the French are all of hot air

@Brave - Ireland scored a few tries in the end but agree in general that we'll all get a good spanking in NZ if there isn't dramatic improvement.

we'll all get a good spanking in NZ if there isn't dramatic improvement.

I'm not so sure, this far out from the tournament whose going to be showing their full hand? I think it'll be a pretty competitive comp and the N hemisphere powerhouses will come good. SA are past it and living on past glories (Matfield, Botha and Smit spring to mind), Aus Rugby is in dissarray at admin level and NZ just abit meh at the moment (not to mention the home town pressure).

Disclaimer: happy to be proven wrong.

Ahh it hurts everywhere.....

Just started full contact training down here (Aus) and I now realise that the last few years spent riding bikes and drinking beer in the UK have really softened me up in all the wrong ways. Should still be a fun season, throw in a lot of pub time watching Super 15 and then World Cup its giubg to be a full on 6 months of rugby.

I think you northern hemisphere guys are fooling yourselves if you expect any teams to make a realy impact, unless the Southern boys hammer themselves into the ground in Super 15 and Tri-Nations, which isn't so unlikely given the inensity of play, and rate of injuries so far.

Speaking of Super 15, anyone going to the Crusaders v Sharks match @ Twickenham? Should be a good match, both teams are in pretty good form, Crusaders ominously so.

Ahh it hurts everywhere.....

Just started full contact training down here (Aus) and I now realise that the last few years spent riding bikes and drinking beer in the UK have really softened me up in all the wrong ways.

Know that feeling, this seasons contact training started last Thursday.

Got home pretty battered, probably should had a check up at casualty*. But one of the nippa's was ill, and my family man rugby license is hanging by a thread, so I did'nt say anything. I got back into it 3 years ago after quite a few years distance running, and cycling. Ribbs and fingers snapped like twigglets. Did'nt take long for the old body to toughen up though.

(*train on astro turf, burst blood vessel in knee, which swelled with blood, and looked like a chimps arse)

Winter came back!?

Full contact training in a snow storm. All my joints ache like hell, and someone stood on my nose.

Pull your fecking finger out spring!

touch rugby after easter if anyone wants..
regents park tuesday night nr gloucester gate..
6.30pm start scratch teams only play til sundown :)
oh and its free :))