Rugby

Terribly sad re Doddie but at least he's no longer suffering, it truly is an awful disease.

Re the Boks v England game I really enjoyed it, SA demonstrated their depth and once again exposed a weak England pack and KLA showed how bizzare it was to go for 26 mins of Henry Arundel over him on the World breakthrough shortlist.

Take aways for England though:

• Jonny Hill should be dropped indefinitely, he's got to be the most brainless international player.
  -The obsession with Manu should stop, if he's no longer big what is the point?
  
• It's time England admit that Farrell has never been their best 10 or 12 in his 100 caps and he's not the answer, he might be the most competitive player on the planet but he's so limited.
  
• If they can't move on from Farrell then they can't play him with Smith. Really they should have backed Ford this last decade with an actual 12 outside him but that ship has sailed.
  
• There's a serious lack of talent in the tight 5 and Curry and Itoje have been playing on reputation not form since the WC.
  
• Despite all that I still think they'll get to a WC semi at worst next year.
  

Gatland back to take Wales to World Cup glory...

Jamie Roberts immediately un-retires...

(I might have made one of those two up)

Lol.

Wonder if England's performance review is as decisive.

We'll find out after the old farts finish the stilton and case of claret...

(fecking RFU blazer brigade)

(also waiting for the back end of that to end up in the Golf Club)

https://www.englandrugby.com/news/article/rfu-statement-on-eddie-jones

Bye bye eddie. Not sure borthers is the right man to take over, though perhaps a shoring up of the set-piece will allow the more attacking-minded backs to finally string a few plays together. Would love to see Kev Sinfield come in as defence coach

As a Tigers fan this is all bad news.

Said it before and I'll say it again. The contract issue with Jones before the last World Cup was a complete amateur job by the RFU and it's come back to bite them. Hopefully, they'll cut the entertaining budget this time, rather than the community coaching programme... Fuckers.

Very disappointed in this news - was greatly enjoying Jones's contribution to English rugby.

Oh I think there's still legs in this one yet. Watch him take a consultant role with the Chile rugby union and mastermind the win to knock England out at the group stage in 2023...

Yep, Squidge on YT suggested that Eddie Jones had only 'tried' his '23 WC routines for a couple of periods this 6N & Autumn Internationals, saw they worked and out them away for future use.

Thoughts on Borthwick taking the helm England fans?

Possibly right bloke wrong time. Much as I was infuriated by Jones. I think binning him now was/is a mistake. Happy to be proved wrong, of course...

This is fucking outrageous.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64058150

The club disowning it is predictable, but pretty fucking shit also. There are officials, etc who are bound to have been aware.

There is a problem (I mean not just in Italy, obviously). The powers that be will play it down or plain not talk about it. But that doesn't mean it can be swept under the rug. First step towards fixing something is to acknowledge the problem.

And for the club to follow it up by asking the player to front the apology. I haven't seen much reporting of players across the board condemning this although I might be wrong. I think there has been way too much complacency in the game for too long. Luther Burrell spoke out about it recently and he's still having to expend his time and energy to speak out rather than the authorities or white players taking the lead.

rather than the authorities … taking the lead

This is the RFU all over though.

But I completely agree with you. The more you read about how this has been handled, the worse it seems.

RIP Dai Duckham, so good he was almost Welsh (apparently)

Get your money on Aus winning RWC now...

Relates to this?😁

1 Attachment

Yes. It would be about right for the RFU at the moment...

I won’t be heading to the bookies any time soon 😂😂

In other news, apart from Farrell as captain (restricts the options in midfield too much for me), the England 6N squad is pretty good. Mako out for Rapava-Ruskin would probably be my only change otherwise.

Lots of could-have/should-have debate to be had as always. Lawrence, Pearson, Ribbans, (maybe Mitchell too - but I wouldn't have picked him) unlucky...

Join me in the league now no.9770 : Betty Stoggs' Pasty Munchers
Password : IKRBD
By clicking on the following link : https://fantasy.sixnationsrugby.com/#welcome/register/?parrain=ct8r9sb&ligue=9770&mdp=IKRBD

In, thanks for the reminder